The Friends of Chamber by Sunflower Publishing

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The Frien d s of C h a m ber Mu sic

The elements of a season 2009|10 concert series Table of Contents 7 2009|10 Concert Schedule 8 Welcome from Cynthia Siebert 9 A Letter from the Board Chairman 11 Ticket Information 21 The Live Concert Experience 22 Soirée 2009

Cover Art

Marci Aylward

24 Forte Film Series 94 Special Thanks

Artist’s Statement

96 Contributors 102 Glossary 114 Advertising Index

Concert Programs and Notes 26 Nareh Arghamanyan 30 Anonymous 4 34 St. Lawrence String Quartet 38 Rob Kapilow & “What Makes It Great?” 40 Tallis Scholars 46 Takács String Quartet 52 Rob Kapilow & “What Makes It Great?” 54 Tafelmusik 60 Stephen Prutsman 66 Behzod Abduraimov & Stanislav Ioudenitch 74 Artemis String Quartet 78 Kevin Kenner 84 trio mediæval 88 Venice Baroque Orchestra

Program Book Credits Publisher: Sunflower Publishing Editor-in-Chief: Cynthia Siebert Editors: Eileen Terril & Kate Beebe Associate Editors: Jeremy Lillig & Mikaela Garrett Program Annotator: Laurie Shulman Contributing Writers: Jeremy Lillig Advertising Sales: Sunflower Publishing Design & Layout: Mikaela Garrett

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I really connected with the artwork of Delacroix in graduate school at Parsons. I read Delacroix’s journals and found the way he wrote about his ideas on art and life inspirational. The way he used color and chose his compositions hit a chord in the way I look at art. When The Friends of Chamber Music asked me for a piece of artwork depicting a portrait of Chopin inspired by Delacroix’s art, I was brought back to my initial introduction to Eugene Delacroix’s work. His work inspired me enough that in 2001, during a trip to France, I made a special visit to the Delacroix Museum. This museum was a small apartment and studio where he last lived and worked. It contains his personal art collection left after his death. I really felt his presence in this space. The Romantic Period in the first half of the 1800’s was a special period of growth in innovation, science and technology. Chopin’s music echoes the times in which these two lived. I worked on this piece while listening to Chopin, and revisited my past experiences with both artists. I found both had many similarities in use of color, composition and rhythms that reflect the age in which they worked. The universal connection between visual art and sound come together in the compositions of both artists. Kansas City native Marcia Eileen Aylward received a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and an MFA in painting from New York’s Parsons School of Design. Her works are frequently enjoyed in the Kansas City area, and she has exhibited works across the United States.

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international chamber music series Saturday, Nov. 7

St. Lawrence String Quartet

Saturday, Jan. 9

Takács String Quartet

Sunday, Jan. 31

Tafelmusik The Galileo Project: Music of the Spheres

Friday, Mar. 12

Artemis String Quartet

Friday, Apr. 23

Venice Baroque Orchestra

master pianists series Nareh Arghamanyan

Friday, Oct. 2

Stephen Prutsman

Friday, Feb. 12

Kevin Kenner

Friday, Apr. 9 ** Special presentation!

Friday, Mar. 5

Behzod Abduraimov & Stanislav Ioudenitch

early music series Anonymous 4

Saturday, Oct. 24

The Tallis Scholars

Thursday, Dec. 10

trio mediæval

Sunday, Apr. 18

“What Makes It Great?” with Rob Kapilow Zemlinsky String Quartet

Saturday, Nov. 14 Sunday, Nov. 15

Gilles Vonsattel, piano

Saturday, Jan. 16 Sunday, Jan. 17

Many thanks to the Neighborhood Tourist Development Fund, the ArtsKC Fund, the Missouri Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts for providing critical local, state, and national funding to The Friends of Chamber Music.

The Elements of a Season 2009|10

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A Note from our Founder Dear Friends, The various elements that comprise any Friends of Chamber Music season astonish me, but this year our creative staff has planned activities that are the most extraordinary to date. As one of the most discriminating audiences in Kansas City, you have asked for more lectures, podcasts and panel discussions and we are responding. Plan for more of all of these elements, including our first-ever film series to address two major themes of this season: the late quartets of Beethoven and the 200th anniversary of Chopin. Also, we are bringing to Kansas City Tim Westergren, co-founder of the Music Genome Project and Pandora, to explain how music lovers can create their own personal Internet radio station. We continue to reach out to our community through our popular education program “What Makes It Great?”, designed to make the most subtle mysteries of classical music accessible and enjoyable to all. This is a fun-loving, joyous and fast-paced program to help you discover and understand music in a way you never believed possible. One of the highlights of the season is a presentation created by Tafelmusik, The Galileo Project: Music of the Spheres, that incorporates many elements: theatrical components of set and lighting design with musicians moving on the stage, dramatic high-definition images from the Hubble Telescope, narration by actor Shaun Smyth, and, of course, music. Tafelmusik honors Galileo and his deep love and involvement with music in this program. You will be the first audience in the U.S. to hear this program. Not to be outdone, from Venice, Italy comes the Venice Baroque Orchestra, featuring one of the world’s finest Baroque violinists, Giuliano Carmignola. Their playing evokes startlingly vivid imagery from the works of Vivaldi and other Baroque masters in a way rarely heard. And the elements of strong women and their artistic contribution to music will be most dramatically brought home by the two superstar groups of the Medieval world – Anonymous 4 and trio mediaeval. The genius of Chopin will also be explored in several pre-concert talks to help illuminate the compelling spirit and forces behind this creative voice that continues to move audiences after 200 years. Other Romantic giants and contemporaries of Chopin – Schumann and Mendelssohn – will also be featured in the programs before we move to the latter parts of the 19th century and into the early 20th century with the last of the great Romantics – Rachmaninoff. We lack the space to give you the full range of this season’s offerings, and simply invite you to stay tuned and join us to enjoy all of the wonderful elements that will make this season unforgettable. Warmest regards, The Friends of Chamber Music staff Cynthia Siebert President & Founder

Cynthia Siebert Founder and President Kate Beebe Director of Development Jeremy Lillig Director of Marketing & Public Relations

Eileen Terril Artist Services & Community Relations Manager Mikaela Garrett Marketing & Box Office Manager

Pictured (L-R) Back: Jeremy, Mikaela Front: Kate, Cynthia, Eileen

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Chairman of the Board Dear Friends, Welcome to The Friends of Chamber Music’s 2009-10 season, our 34th season of bringing world-class chamber music to Kansas City. This season’s theme is “the elements of a season,” heralding the multi-dimensional programming that you will receive. Not only will you hear unique first-rate music, as always, but our additional visual, intellectual and informational programs will enrich your appreciation of this great music. For instance, we will be presenting a free FORTE Film Series at the Tivoli Cinemas where you can see two films concerning Beethoven, Copying Beethoven starring Ed Harris and Immortal Beloved starring Gary Oldman, and Impromptu, a film about Chopin starring Hugh Grant. The Tafelmusik concert on January 31 will be a multi-disciplinary event using images, words, and music to explore the time period in which Galileo lived and worked, marking the 400th anniversary of his discovery and use of the telescope. We still remain true to our historic values—witness another outstanding piano series from pianists you know or will want to know. A unique treat awaits you at the performance by Behzod Abduraimov and Stanislav Ioudenitch. Many of you know that Mr. Ioudenitch runs an outstanding piano program at Park University. He has helped develop Mr. Abduraimov, who won a famed piano competition in London at the age of 18. These international talents residing in our locale will present an inspiring concert for you on March 5. In these tough economic times, The Friends not only continues to provide the best international chamber music, but also creative innovation to produce panel discussions, and visual and educational programs such as “What Makes It Great?”. The Friends gives you increased value at a very reasonable cost, and priceless musical enjoyment in the bargain. I look forward to sharing these wonderful experiences with you. Very truly yours,

Jerome T. Wolf Chairman of the Board of Directors

Cynthia Siebert

finance committee David M. Eisenberg Harold J. Nicholson Jennifer R. Plackemeier Dale W. Young

J. Scott Francis

Endowment Oversight Committee

Board of Directors Jerome T. Wolf Chairman

David. M. Eisenberg

Vice Chairman and Treasurer President Secretary

Mary Biber Nancy Lee Kemper Patricia Miller

William Coughlin Janice Newberry

advisory board George C. Dillon David W. Kemper Cynthia H. Schwab Patricia Y. Rivette

Gary Smith Joshua Sosland

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BOX OFFICE SCHEDULE You may purchase your tickets online until 12:00 midnight the night before a performance or by phone during office hours. Ticket orders that do not meet these criteria cannot be confirmed or guaranteed. You may also purchase tickets the night of the performance at the Box Office beginning 90 minutes before each performance. Student and senior rush tickets (see explanation of discounts below) are sold 30 minutes before each performance. DISCOUNTS Subscriptions are available at significant savings to you! You may: Enjoy the entire season with a Combo Series subscription; purchase a sub-series with selected concerts, such as the International Chamber Music Series, International Chamber Music Series + Master Pianists Series, Master Pianists Series, or Early Music Series; create your own mini-series with myFRIENDS sampler packages (Trio, Quartet, and Sextet sampler packages available). Please request a season brochure for a complete list of concerts. Free Student Tickets: We offer FREE tickets to students 18 and younger to concerts on the International Chamber Music and Early Music Series! (Master Pianists Series concert tickets for students 18 and under are $15 each). This is a fantastic way to encourage the next generation of chamber music lovers to attend live performances. Don’t miss this opportunity to introduce a young person to classical music. To take advantage of these tickets: Please reserve in advance by calling 816-561-9999. Free tickets are based on availability. Each person must be 18 years old or younger. Youth Subscriptions!: The Friends offers a very special opportunity for budding music lovers to subscribe to the entire season or the Master Pianists Series for just $36! (International Chamber Music Series and Early Music Series tickets are free for students 18 and under.) Subscribing gives a young person* priority seating and discounted season tickets. Parents, grandparents, and friends: Want to instill the joy of discovering great music, stimulate imagination, make better listeners, and create active arts conversations? Buy your aspiring musician or concert-goer a season subscription! *We ask that children under the age of 12 years be accompanied by an adult. Infants and children under six years old are not allowed at concerts. Senior/Student/Educator Discount: $3 off advanced single ticket purchases. You must call for tickets and mention the discounts at time of ticket purchase in order to receive them. Group Discount: Groups of 10 or more attending the same concert may purchase single tickets for $15 each. Rush Tickets: $12 tickets may be purchased 30 minutes before each performance for students with a valid I.D. and seniors 60 and older (one rush ticket per person). At the Folly Theater, seating may be limited to specific sections, depending on availability. Employee Share Discounts: If your employer participates in our Employee Share Program, you may pay as little as 50-60% of the total single ticket price (your employer pays the balance). Call The Friends of Chamber Music or check our website for a current list of participating companies. Ask for information on how your company can become part of our Employee Share Program! EXCHANGES/REFUNDS Tickets are non-refundable. If you are unable to attend a concert and would like to release your tickets for resale, we will mail you an acknowledgement of a taxdeductible contribution for the amount you paid for your tickets. To release your seats, please call The Friends of Chamber Music at least 48 hours before the performance. Exchange privileges: If you are a subscriber and are unable to attend a performance on your subscription series, you may exchange your tickets for a different performance. All exchanges must be within the same season and you must call The Friends of Chamber Music at least 48 hours before the performance. Lost tickets: If you have lost your tickets, please contact us at least 48 hours before the performance. We will hold re-printed tickets for you in Will Call. If you forget your tickets on a performance night, please see the Box Office Manager, Mikaela Garrett, in the box office to reprint your ticket.

TICKET INFORMATION The Friends of Chamber Music Administrative Office/Box Office 4635 Wyandotte, Suite 201 Kansas City, MO 64112 Ph: 816-561-9999 Fax: 816-561-8810 www.chambermusic.org Season Hours: Monday—Friday, 9 am–5 pm Summer Hours: Monday—Thursday, 9 am–5 pm

Three Easy Ways to Order! Cash, checks and all major credit cards acccepted!

Buy Online at www.chambermusic.org Click on the “Buy Tickets” link. You may purchase either single or series tickets.

Call us at 816-561-9999 Callers from outside the KC metropolitan area may call toll-free at 877-MY SEATS (877-697-3287).

Mail Your Order to the address above.

The Folly Theater Photo by Aaron Dougherty

For information on performance venues, please visit www.chambermusic.org and click on Performances/Tickets/Venues.

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Giving to The Friends of Chamber Music The Friends’ supporters help bring world-class chamber music to Kansas City!

“

The Friends brings to Kansas City excellent recitalists and small ensembles that we would never otherwise have the chance to hear, and at prices that sure beat those in New York or San Francisco.

” “ ” “ ” “ ” “ ” - Don Dagenais

I support The Friends because of the variety of the classical programming, excellence of the artists and the sheer pleasure of listening to the music. - Cynthia Schwab

The Biava Quartet (Stu Nowlin Imaging)

There is no substitute for live performance and The Friends of Chamber Music brings the best artists in the world to our doorstep.

As our 35th anniversary season approaches in 2010-11, your support is needed now more than ever. We invite you to join our family of donors by contributing in one of the following ways:

- Ellen and Rick Goheen

Give an Annual Fund gift and help

support artist fees, low ticket prices, and administrative expenses.

Give an Endowment Fund gift and help ensure The Friends’ future.

Give a planned gift through your will and leave a legacy for future generations of music lovers.

Give the gift of volunteering

by helping at our concerts and other events.

Why do I support The Friends? The fantastic, beautiful music, performed by dynamic and extremely talented musicians. - Sherrill Mulhern

What a wonderful return on my investment The Friends of Chamber Music has been! It is educational, entertaining, and enlivening - time and money well spent among great people and great music. - Hugo Becker

To make a gift to The Friends, please see the donation envelope in the back of this program book. For more information on giving opportunities, please call Kate Beebe, Director of Development, at 816-561-9999. 20

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”

” ”

The Live Concert Experience Your Guide to Concert Enjoyment “It takes great audiences to make great artists.” - Walt Whitman

Welcome to today’s live performance. No matter the quality of a compact disc, and regardless of opportunities to hear “virtual” concerts on the Internet, nothing can replace the exhilaration of experiencing a live performance. Chamber music concerts, especially, provide audiences the opportunity to participate in a unique musical event, where the energy is unpredictable and largely affected by those in attendance. We hope the following notes, reminders and rules of etiquette help make today’s concert one you’ll remember for a lifetime. Enjoy! What if I arrive late? Latecomers are asked to remain in the lobby and not enter the hall until the first work is completely finished and the audience is clapping. There are no exceptions to this rule. The ushers will prompt you when it is safe to enter, and you may then quietly enter the hall and take your seat. What if I need to leave during the performance? When possible, please wait for the end of a piece to leave the concert hall. Of course, if you need to leave the hall at once due to an emergency or an incessant cough, do so as quietly as possible.

Takács String Quartet

Other Notes and Reminders If you wish to receive future mailings from The Friends of Chamber Music, please leave your name and address at the box office, call our offices during business hours (9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday) or visit our website at www. chambermusic.org and request to be put on our mailing list. Patrons needing wheelchair seating or other assistance are asked to notify the box office when ordering tickets. Smoking is prohibited at all concert venues. Food and drink, including bottled water, are not permitted in the concert hall. Lost articles may be claimed at the box office, or at the offices of The Friends of Chamber Music. Programs and artists are subject to change.

Is it okay to cough? Extraneous noise does affect the musicians on stage and those around you. The Friends of Chamber Music provides free cough drops in an effort to keep distractions to a minimum. These are available in the lobby by the doors; please take only what you expect to use during the concert. It is advisable to unwrap the cough drop before the work begins. No matter how quietly you attempt to remove the wrapper, it will cause some annoying rustlings that are sure to distract those seated around you. When should I clap? Most musical works consist of a series of movements, and it is at the end of the last movement that audiences applaud the musicians. Still unsure? Follow along in your program, watch for the musicians to completely lower their instruments, or wait until others around you begin clapping. Are children welcome at concerts? If you are using this concert to introduce a young person to fine music, Bravo! We welcome young people to our concerts and have many students in our audience. However, as a general rule, we ask that children 12 years and younger be accompanied by an adult. It is a good idea to talk about concert etiquette before the performance begins, ensuring the best experience for all. Please note that infants and children less that six years old are not allowed at concerts. What if there is an emergency? Should a medical emergency arise, please contact an usher or a Friends of Chamber Music staff person. May I photograph the performance? No. Cameras (including cell phone cameras), recording equipment and flashlights all are prohibited in the concert hall. What about cell phones, watches and other electronic devices? For the enjoyment of all, please ensure that all electronic devices are turned off. I’m on call and must keep my pager with me at all times. If your pager or mobile phone can be placed on vibrator mode, please do so before the concert begins. However, if you have an audio pager and are on call, please check your pager with the box office. Your pager will be monitored during the performance, and you’ll be notified immediately of any pages. Please note that your seating assignment may be changed to accommodate such an emergency. The Elements of a Season 2009|10

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The Friends of chamber music Benefit & Wine Auction

Soirée 2009 Soirée, The Friends of Chamber Music’s annual benefit and wine auction, was held on May 9, 2009, in the rooftop bar and ballroom of the InterContinental Hotel on the Plaza. A distinctive group of arts patrons and wine lovers enjoyed an elegant evening of fine wines, a four-course dinner, and an outstanding performance by the Daedalus Quartet, one of today’s most exciting young American quartets. Chair Barbara Spilker joined guests in a toast to Honorary Chair Scott Francis, thanking him for his many contributions to Kansas City’s arts community. Master of Wine and Master Sommelier Doug Frost and wine consultants Lucille Windsor and Hillary McCoy were on hand during the silent auction. Frost and Windsor conducted the live auction with panache. Thank you to the event’s attendees who helped make Soirée 2009 The Friends’ most successful benefit to date. Proceeds from Soirée go to support The Friends’ concert series and its educational music program, “What Makes It Great?” with Rob Kapilow.

Soirée Top: Soirée 2009 Honorary Chair Scott Francis and Chair Barbara Spilker Middle: Friends President Cynthia Siebert, Larry Hicks, and Addie Ward Bottom: Jonathan Kemper and Cynthia Schwab Photography: Stu Nowlin Imaging

2009

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More scenes from Soirée 2009 (photos by Stu Nowlin Imaging)

Marshall Miller, Barbara Marshall, and Janet Miller

Regina and Bill Kort

Amos and Barbara Roberts

Pam Gradinger and Nancy Lee Kemper

Elinor and Gus Eisemann and Vera Isenberg

Save the date! Soirée 2010 will take place on Saturday, May 8 at the InterContinental Hotel on the Plaza. Dr. Michael and Mrs. Ginger Frost, Honorary Chairs Visit www.chambermusic.org for more information.

Sheila and Randy Sisk and Patty and Phil Love

Soirée Wine. Music. Dinner.

2010

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F i l m

S e r i e s

The great composers of the classical era sometimes seem larger than life to us, with their days shrouded in mystery. The genius exhibited in their work is so heightened, so ethereal, that a life as we know it seems beyond grasp. Perhaps it’s the modern concept of celebrity, or perhaps it’s that we have very little way to personally know them—no televised interviews and no recordings of their playing—that has inspired countless interpretations of the lives of these musical giants through fictional accounts in print and film. The Friends of Chamber Music’s 2009-10 FORTE Film Series presents three films that explore two of the world’s most revered classical composers: Ludwig Van Beethoven and Frédéric Chopin. This season The Friends will showcase works of these two greats in concert. Each of the string quartets on the International Chamber Music Series will present one of Beethoven’s late quartets—some of the most astonishing work to fall from the pen of the composer. In celebration of the 200th birthday of Chopin, each of the pianists on the Master Pianists Series will perform works by the well-loved Polish composer. The cinematic contributions chosen by The Friends aim to represent these two composing giants as more than their clothes, music or passing relationships. These films interpret lives two centuries ago that continue to inform our world today. In spite of inaccuracies of fictional accounts, these movies substantially exhibit very fine filmmaking alongside captivating performances, underscored by the very music that made these men, for lack of a better word, beloved. The FORTE 24

Film Series presents three contributions which cast different nets when attempting to seize the lives of these composers. First in the series, Copying Beethoven (2006) is a rousing tale focusing on the final three years of Beethoven’s life. Academy Award Nominee Ed Harris gives a stirring performance as a Beethoven grounded in strong faith, albeit with a short temper and set on bending the norms of musical beauty. Centered around Beethoven’s fictitious relationship with a young female copyist played by Diane Kruger, the film chronicles the “birth” of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Much to this film’s credit is its direction under Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland whose career has provided films of intense substance. The scenes in which the symphony is debuted are spectacular, exhibiting unique perspectives in cinematography married with the awe-striking music of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam under the direction of Bernard Haitink. Also featured is the Takács String Quartet, appearing on The Friends’ International Chamber Music Series in January, and pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy. Second in the series is Immortal Beloved (1994), starring Gary Oldman as Beethoven. In contrast to Ed Harris in Copying Beethoven, Oldman portrays a much more intense and unlikeable Beethoven, but still astounding in his complexity. Writer/ director Bernard Rose employs a Citizen Kane-esque study of Beethoven which centers around a letter found after his death addressed only to his “Immortal Beloved.” Focusing on the passion of the genius, this film also presents fine performances from Jeroen Krabbé and Isabella Rossellini. Music for the film

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Copying Beethoven Thursday, Nov. 5 | 7:30 p.m. | Tivoli Cinemas

was provided by the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Sir Georg Solti, and some of the piano work was performed by Stephen Prutsman who will appear on The Friends’ Master Pianists Series, in February. Last, the FORTE Film Series presents Impromptu (1991), starring a young, and at the time relatively-unknown, Hugh Grant as Frédéric Chopin. Joining Grant is a star-packed cast including Judy Davis as George Sand, Mandy Patinkin, Bernadette Peters, and Emma Thompson. Directed by Broadway director James Lepine, this film centers on the romantic connection between the gentle, sickly Chopin and the determined, individualistic Sand who inspired some of the composer’s finest work. The entertaining relationships of George and Frédéric with other creative celebrities of the Romantic movement—including Delacroix, Musset, and Liszt—are put through their paces in the salons, ballrooms and country houses of 1830s France against the backdrop of Chopin’s beautiful music.

Immortal Beloved Thursday, March 11| 7:30 p.m. | Tivoli Cinemas

These three films provide a fictionalized history of these men’s lives as they composed some of the greatest works in all of musical literature. Join The Friends as we explore the geniuses who brought such music to the world. FORTE Film Notes by Jeremy Lillig All shows presented 7:30 pm, Tivoli Cinemas. All tickets are FREE and can be reserved by phoning 816-561-9999.

Impromptu Thursday, April 8| 7:30 p.m. | Tivoli Cinemas The Elements of a Season 2009|10

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Nareh Arghamanyan Friday, October 2 | 8 pm | The Folly Theater

MENDELSSOHN

Variations sérieuses in D Minor, Op. 54 Theme: Andante sostenuto Variation 1 Variation 2: Un poco più animato Variation 3: Più animato Variation 4: Sempre staccato e leggiero Variation 5: Agitato Variation 6: A tempo Variation 7: Con fuoco Variation 8: Allegro vivace Variation 9 Variation 10: Moderato Variation 11: Cantabile Variation 12: Tempo del Tema Variation 13: Sempre assai leggiero Variation 14: Adagio Variation 15: Poco a poco più agitato Variation 16: Allegro vivace Variation 17 Presto

BEETHOVEN

Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-flat Major, Op. 110 Moderato cantabile molto espressivo Allegro molto Adagio ma non troppo; Recitativo; Andante; Adagio; Arioso dolente; Fuga: Allegro, ma non troppo; L’istesso tempo di Arioso; L’istesso tempo della Fuga poi a poi di nuovo vivente; Tempo primo

CHOPIN

Polonaise-fantaisie in A-flat Major, Op. 61

SCHUMANN

Humoreske in B-flat Major, Op. 20 Einfach: Sehr rasch und leicht; Noch rascher; Wie im Anfang Hastig: Nach und nach immer lebhafter und stärker Einfach und zart: Intermezzo Innig: Schneller Sehr lebhaft: Immer lebhafter; Stretto; Mit einigem Pomp Zum Beschluss (Finale): Adagio; Allegro

This concert is supported, in part, by the ArtsKC Fund 26

Financial assistance for this project has been provided, in part, by The Missouri Arts Council, a state agency.

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Program Notes Variations sérieuses, Op. 54 Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) In spring 1841, a Viennese publisher named Pietro Mechetti contacted ten prominent composers, inviting each to submit a solo piano work for publication in a Beethoven album. The catalyst was the Beethoven Memorial Committee, an organization based in Bonn that had long planned to erect a monument honoring Beethoven in 1845, the 75th anniversary of his birth. The committee’s fundraising efforts had faltered in the late 1830s, but were jump-started when Franz Liszt, then in seclusion with Marie d’Agoult in Italy, agreed to return to the concert stage to help finance the project. Sales of the Mechetti Beethoven album would provide an additional monetary boost. Liszt, of course, was the headline contributor to the publication. The others—all pianist-composers—were Frédéric Chopin, Theodor Döhler, Carl Czerny, Adolf Henselt, Friedrich Kalkbrenner, Felix Mendelssohn, Ignaz Moscheles, Wilhelm Taubert, and Sigismond Thalberg. The musical contents are largely forgotten today with two exceptions: Chopin’s Prelude in C-sharp Minor, Op. 45, and Mendelssohn’s Variations sérieuses, Op. 54. Mendelssohn’s was not only the most significant contribution to the project, but also his greatest work for solo piano. His concept is bold: a theme plus 17 variations, fusing the final variation with a dramatic coda. The theme is simple, sober, direct—and pregnant with possibility. Mendelssohn’s approach to harmony is adventuresome, sometimes altering the underlying progressions while maintaining the architecture of the melody. The variations are continuous, apart from a brief pause before a switch to major mode in the elegiac No. 14. The piano writing is imaginative and idiomatic, with a variety of textures that include staccato technique, syncopation, melodies in inner voices, broken octaves, and dramatic chords. Mendelssohn’s affinity for counterpoint surfaces in No. 4, a canon, and No. 10, a fugue. The poetic eleventh variation is often likened to Schumann’s pianistic style, while Nos. 12 and 13 move the theme to the middle voice. In No. 15, Mendelssohn splinters the theme among different registers. Following a reprieve by the sole D-major variation, the piece grows progressively more agitated, culminating in a Presto coda that explodes with Beethovenian fury, pounding into the nether regions of the keyboard. At the end, the energy is spent. Variations sérieuses concludes quietly and soberly in D minor.

Beethoven Memorial in Bonn

Mendelssohn and Variations Although Mendelssohn had composed variations movements within larger works, he had only focused on variations as an independent genre once before: the Variations concertantes for cello and piano, Op. 17 (1829). Upon receiving the request from Pietro Mechetti for the Beethoven album project, he immersed himself in the genre. After completing the score of the Variations sérieuses on 4 June, 1841, he immediately began work on another set. Six weeks later, he wrote to his childhood friend, Karl Klingemann: Can you guess what I’ve just been composing – and passionately? Variations for piano! Eighteen of them on a theme in D minor, and I had such enormous fun with them that I immediately went on to some on a theme in E-flat, and now I’m on my third set in B-flat. It’s just as though I had to make up for lost time in never having written any before. Mendelssohn subsequently recognized that the second and third sets were not of the same quality as the Variations sérieuses, and he declined to publish them. Both were issued posthumously in 1850. His first inspiration, however, resulted not only in his finest solo piano composition, but also in one of the greatest sets of variations from the Romantic era. The Variations sérieuses were profoundly influential on Johannes Brahms and César Franck, each of whom later wrote wonderful variations for solo piano. – L.S. ©2009 The Elements of a Season 2009|10

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Sonata No. 31 in A-flat Major, Op. 110 Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) Beethoven’s final three piano sonatas are a Mount Everest for pianists, the ne plus ultra of nobility, technique, craft, depth, and emotion fused into three great compositions. He wrote them, however, for the most mundane of reasons: the Berlin publisher Adolph Martin Schlesinger offered him the commission, and Beethoven was able to make some money. He worked on the sonatas—Opp. 109 in E, 110 in A-flat, and 111 in C minor—concurrently with the Ninth Symphony and the Missa Solemnis. The autographed score of Op. 110 is dated 25 December 1821. Beethoven sent it to Schlesinger in February 1822 with the manuscript to Op. 111. Although he would return to solo piano for the Diabelli Variations and the late Bagatelles, these works were his farewell to the solo sonata. While sonata form is certainly recognizable in Op. 110, the A-flat Major Sonata shows how freely Beethoven was now interpreting the conventional multi-movement structure. Indeed, pianists and music scholars argue whether this work has three or four movements. The debate reflects the sonata’s unusual structure. Gentleness of spirit pervades the opening Moderato cantabile. Delicate, arpeggiated passage work alternates with chords to fill out the harmonies of Beethoven’s limpid themes. Beethoven instructs the pianist to play con amabilità—with lovableness, with amiability. His directive characterizes almost the entire sonata. The exception to the prevailing serenity is the second movement, a fiery scherzo, as terse and abrupt as the first movement is leisurely. Beethoven uses antiphonal dynamics, answering a pithy piano statement at the start with a forte bark in response. He punctuates the march-like music with unexpected accents, which creates rhythmic displacement that adds to the precipitous sense of instability. The trio section has wide leaps across the breadth of the keyboard, rapid eighth notes, and crossed hands, compounding its difficulty. Music scholars have identified two popular Austrian songs that Beethoven paraphrases in the scherzo: “Unsa Kätz häd Katzln ghabt” [Our cat has had kittens] and “Ich bin lüderlich, du bist lüderlich” [I’m a slob, you’re a slob]. (If you speak the German titles aloud, you’ll recognize the initial rhythmic figure and another motive in the scherzo.) Beethoven’s incorporation of these common street tunes is quite remarkable in a work that dwells at an opposite aesthetic extreme. The remainder of the sonata, the last movement, has a singular structure, pieced together in sections that alternate from 28

chordal introduction to recitative, to a spectral arioso dolente [a doleful arioso]. They constitute an intensely expressive prelude to the mighty fugue that concludes the sonata—but midway through the fugue, the Arioso music returns, leading to the discussion as to whether this finale comprises one or two movements. The form could be summarized as recitative— arioso dolente—fugue—second arioso—second fugue. Fused and commingled thus, they become codependent and inseparable. Collectively, they give enormous weight to the finale, which comprises more than half the complete sonata. Beethoven composed fugues his entire life. In the late works, they surface in the Opus 102, No. 2, cello sonata, the Hammerklavier Sonata, and the Grosse Fuge for string quartet; there is also the substantial fugato in the finale to the Ninth Symphony. The Op. 110 Sonata fugue is unusual in that its subject derives from the opening measures of the sonata’s first movement, lending a subtle tonal and intervallic unity. After the interruption of the second Arioso (and its conclusion in an astounding crescendo of repeated G-major chords), the second fugue inverts the subject. Beethoven proceeds with even more dense counterpoint. His compositional technique is impeccable, but what we hear is not augmentation or diminution or a reintroduction of the fugue subject in the high register, though all those are present. Rather, we travel with the pianist on the swirl of Beethoven’s notes as he propels us toward what is now inevitable: the satisfaction and fulfillment of arrival. Our destination is preordained and celestial. Polonaise-fantaisie in A-flat Major, Op. 61 Frédéric-François Chopin (1810-1849) The late Polonaise-fantaisie is an exploratory work that may well have heralded a new phase in Chopin’s evolution as a composer. Alas, that phase was never to flower. Chopin’s health was declining in 1845 and 1846 when he composed his Opus 61. The consumption that would claim his life in 1849 seriously compromised his productivity during his final years. This work’s ambiguous title is the key to its structure. Chopin refused to cubbyhole himself. The distinctive polonaise rhythm is sometimes present, elsewhere conspicuous by its absence, almost as if we focus in and out of an awareness of the dance. The concept is quite original, with an extended introduction that traverses a remarkable span of harmony. Cadenzas and improvisatory passages give vent to Chopin’s lyric impulses, supporting the idea of a fantasy. The triumphant conclusion bursts through the earlier moodiness and melancholy. The Polonaise-fantaisie was misunderstood by Chopin’s contemporaries. One reviewer observed that its “pathological contents” caused it to “stand outside the realm of art.” Even Liszt

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felt that it was “overshadowed by a feverish apprehension.” He wrote: “An elegiac sadness reigns here, broken by startled movements, melancholy smiles, and sudden gasps.” The piece was slow to achieve popularity and acceptance; yet it has a peculiar unity and persuasiveness that has won over connoisseurs. Today the Polonaise-fantaisie is regarded as one of Chopin’s late masterpieces. Humoreske, Op. 20 Robert Schumann (1810-1856) In September 1838, Robert Schumann visited Vienna, hoping to establish an Austrian foothold and market for his music journal, and a possible future home for himself and Clara Wieck. Her father, Friedrich Wieck, was strongly opposed to their engagement, making it clear that if they married, they could not remain in Leipzig. Robert’s Viennese sojourn did not yield the professional results he hoped for, but his six months there proved richly productive. This was the trip during which he met Franz Schubert’s brother Ferdinand, and discovered the manuscript of the ‘Great’ C Major Symphony. He also composed a raft of piano pieces, including the Arabeske, Op. 17; Blumenstück, Op. 18; Humoreske, Op. 20; Nachtstücke, Op. 23; Drei Romanzen, Op. 28; and the beginning of the Faschingsschwank aus Wien. Shortly before his return to Leipzig in March 1839, he wrote to Clara with pride after completing 12 sheets of music in a week: I have been all the week at the piano, composing, writing, laughing and crying, all at once. You will find this state of affairs nicely described in my Op. 20, the Große Humoreske. His comments reflect the diversity of moods in the piece. If the Humoreske had any underlying humor, it was more in the style of the novelist Jean-Paul Richter—combining wry realism with sentiment. Schumann seems to have recognized that the Humoreske was the finest of his completed new piano pieces. At nearly 25

minutes, it is certainly the most ambitious. The form is sectional and sequential, rather than developmental. Five principal sections (plus an epilogue) comprise the whole. Several are self-contained tripartite forms, yet they are intended to be played without pause. The challenge for the pianist is to switch gears smoothly and rapidly, with the ease of a skilled cinematographer. The faster sections are sometimes jovial, elsewhere frenetic. Poetry and wistfulness color the slower sections. Throughout, a sense of melancholy tips the balance away from the humorous, ultimately making the Humoreske a more personal and complicated work than either the Arabeske or the Blumenstück. Program Notes by Laurie Shulman ©2009

Nareh Arghamanyan Born in 1989 in Armenia, Nareh Arghamanyan began her piano studies at the age of five. Three years later, she entered the Tchaikovsky Music School for Talented Children in Yerevan, and in 2004, she was the youngest student to be admitted to the University for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. Although no stranger to international prizes at a young age, in 2008, Ms. Arghamanyan grabbed the attention of the piano world by winning the prestigious Montreal International Music Competition, where she also received the Audience Choice Award and a special award for the best interpretation of Canadian music. Subsequently, she won First Prize in the 2009 International Kärntner Sparkasse Wörthersee Competition in Velden, Austria. Ms. Arghamanyan has performed in concerts and festivals around the world, including appearances as a soloist with such ensembles as the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, Mont-Blanc Symphony Orchestra (France/Switzerland), Wroclaw Philharmonic Orchestra (Poland), Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montreal, Orchestre Nationale de Cergy-Pontoise (France), Orchestre Symphonique du Conservatoire National de Région de Marseille, Boston Pops Symphony Orchestra, and the National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia. For more information visit www.Arghamanyan.com Nareh Arghamanyan appears by arrangement of Arts Management Group, Inc. The Elements of a Season 2009|10

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The Friends of Chamber Music Endowment

Anonymous 4

Saturday, October 24 | 8 pm | Visitation Catholic Church Ruth Cunningham Marsha Genensky Susan Hellauer Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek

Secret Voices: The Sisters of Las Huelgas Music of Thirteenth-Century Spain Dawn Song: Virgines egregie Conductus: O gloriosa dei genitrix Benedicamus domino: Castrum pudicicie/Virgo viget/[FLOS FILIUS] Morning Solfege: Fa fa mi/Ut re mi Conductus-Motet: O Maria virgo/O Maria maris/[IN VERITATE] Conductus: Ave maris stella Benedicamus domino: Cum cantico Mass Introit-Motet: Salve sancta/Salve porta/[SALVE SANCTA] Kyrie: Rex virginum Gloria: Spiritus et alme Alleluia: Que es ista Sequence: Verbum bonum et suave Motet: Salve virgo regia/Ave gloriosa/[DOMINO] Sanctus: Ave verum corpus Motet: Gaude virgo nobilis/Verbum caro/[ET VERITATE] Agnus dei: Gloriosa spes reorum Lament: O monialis concio Motet: Iam nubes/Iam novum/[SOLEM] Benedicamus domino: Belial vocatur Evening Motet: Ave lux luminum/Salve virgo rubens/[NEUMA] Duo: Salve regina glorie Motet: Ave regina/Alma redemptoris/[ALMA] Benedicamus domino Night Song: Si vocatus ad nupcias Conductus: Mater patris et filia Benedicamus domino Song: Omnium in te The Early Music Series is underwritten, in part, by donors to The Friends of Chamber Music Endowment Funds. 30

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Program Notes Secret Voices: The Sisters of Las Huelgas Music of Thirteenth-Century Spain Music from the Las Huelgas Codex, c. 1300 Secret Voices represents the return of Anonymous 4 to the heart of their favorite century, and to a repertoire that proved to one and all that medieval women could, and did, sing the most complex polyphony written in the Gothic era.

The Codex Las Huelgas, copied in the closing years of the 13th century, is an anthology of polyphony and monophonic Latin song that spans the entire 13th century. Most of the works appear to be French in origin, many of them from the mainstream of the Parisian Nôtre Dame school of composition. Secular works have been retrofitted with sacred Latin texts to make them appropriate for liturgical or devotional use.

There are elegant French love-motets here like Castrum pudicicie/Virgo viget/[FLOS FILIUS]; the original text This varied repertoire of 13th-century of these spoke of pastoral love in the polyphony and sacred Latin song was springtime. There are conductus (medicollected for a convent of noble and eval songs with serious, usually sacred aristocratic women who were clearly text in Latin verse) like O gloriosa dei used to having their own way. In spite Sant’Iago de Compostela genitrix and Ave maris stella, with unof a monastic rule forbidding the singing predictable rhythms and lively hockets (a technique in which of polyphony by the women of their order, these sophisticated voice parts are given notes or short phrases in rapid alternaladies sang the most beautiful, advanced, and demanding music tion, producing an erratic, hiccuping effect). A playful Benefrom all over Europe. dicamus domino à 3 is written in rondellus fashion (an interchange of parts or voice according to a defined pattern typical Their convent, Las Huelgas at Burgos in north-central Spain, of 13th-century British polyphony). There are also heartfelt was on the road to the well-known shrine of Sant’Iago de laments, like the solo song O monialis concio, written on the Compostela. Did these ladies send out emissaries to collect death of a beloved member of the sisterhood. sacred music from England, France and Germany, or did pilgrims who stopped at their convent for rest and refreshment, The manuscript contains many polyphonic works intended as a token of their thanks, leave copies of songs they may have for the Mass—for everyday use or for specific feasts or devobeen carrying along? It will never be fully known, but there’s tions, especially for the Virgin Mary, Christmas, and female no mistaking the international nature of this music. saints. Most of these are “troped”—that is, they are enlarged with prose or poetry in addition to the normal liturgical texts. Anonymous 4 has created a composite Mass, interspersed with motets in honor of Mary, using some of these items: the troped Kyrie, Rex virginum; Gloria, Spiritus et alme; Sanctus, Ave verum; and Agnus dei, Gloriosa spes reorum. The musical dedication of the convent is glimpsed in a unique “solfeggio” exercise, Fa Fa Mi/Ut Re Mi, written for the sisters’ music lessons where they practiced singing their hexachords under the watchful ear of the music mistress. Two of the great virtuoso works in the manuscript follow: the 4-voice conductus-motet O Maria virgo/O Maria maris/[IN VERITATE] and the intricate 3-voice conductus Ave maris stella. Santa Maria la Real de Huelgas

Those who know Anonymous 4’s program La bele marie may recognize the great masterpiece conductus Mater patris et filia. The Elements of a Season 2009|10

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This work was the initial inspiration to create a Las Huelgas program. It is a consummate example of the Nôtre Dame style, hence its inclusion in that collection of French devotional music to Mary. But it led the group back to re-examine the Las Huelgas Codex and so it is included here as the cornerstone of Secret Voices. The Las Huelgas manuscript also contains numerous settings of the Benedicamus domino/Deo gracias versicle and response, used to close each hour of the eight daily devotions of the Divine Office. It could substitute for the closing formula of the Mass (Ite missa est/Deo gracias) as well. Anonymous 4 has used some of these to close each section of this program,

Sant’Iago de Compostela

giving just a hint at the tremendous musical variety found within this genre alone. And, finally, the repertoire of the Las Huelgas manuscript provides the proof that Anonymous 4, far from singing “men’s music,” have been following in the footsteps of sisters who had come long before them, who had little difficulty (except from their male monastic superiors) in finding and performing the most virtuosic, avant-garde polyphonic music of their time. Anonymous 4 finds it a pleasure and an honor to bring it to life again. Program Notes by Anonymous 4

Burgos

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Anonymous 4 Ruth Cunningham Marsha Genesky 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. The ensemble has performed on major concert series and at festivals throughout North America, Europe, and Asia, including appearances at Tanglewood, Wolftrap, BBC Proms, Edinburgh Festival and the Brisbane Biennial. Enchanted both by their live performances and by their eighteen recordings of Medieval, contemporary, and American music, Anonymous 4’s listeners have bought nearly two million copies of the group’s albums on the harmonia mundi label. Anonymous 4’s debut recording for harmonia mundi USA, An English Ladymass, was named 1992 Classical Disc of the Year by CD Review. On Yoolis Night received France’s prestigious Diapason d’Or, and The Lily and the Lamb was Classic CD’s Disc of the Year for 1996. Legends of St. Nicholas was Classic FM’s 1999 Early Music Recording of the Year, and 1000: A Mass for the End of Time was a Gramophone Editor’s Choice for 2000. The Second Circle (love songs of the 14th-century Florentine, Francesco Landini) received Italy’s Antonio Vivaldi Award for 2001. Darkness into Light received an Editor’s Choice Award from Gramophone in 2001; La bele marie was a Gramophone Editor’s Choice for 2002 and received Le Monde de la Musique’s Choc award. Wolcum Yule garnered ClassicsToday.com’s highest rating (10/10) and was in Billboard’s Classical Top Ten. The group’s 2004 release, American Angels (18th-20th century folk psalmody, hymnody, and gospel songs), spent 76 weeks on Billboard’s Top Classical Chart and received a perfect 10/10 from ClassicsToday.com. Their 2005 release, The Origin of Fire (sequel to their 1997 best-seller, 11,000 Virgins, music of Hildegard of Bingen) was named in Amazon.com’s Top 25 Classical CDs for 2005. For two consecutive years (2004 and 2005), Anonymous 4 was voted one of Billboard’s Top Classical Artists of the Year. Gloryland (the 2006 sequel to American

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Angels), featuring Darol Anger on fiddles and mandolins and Mike Marshall on mandolins and guitar, was a Gramophone Editor’s Choice for 2006. An anthology of the group’s favorite chants from 11th-14th century Europe is scheduled for a Fall 2009 release. In the realm of contemporary music, Anonymous 4 tours as the voice of Joan of Arc in Voices of Light, an oratorio with silent film, composed by Richard Einhorn. Anonymous 4 has performed the work under Marin Alsop, with the Vienna Symphony and with Concordia Orchestra at Lincoln Center, as well as with the Hong Kong Philharmonic under Lucinda Carver. In 2000-01, Anonymous 4 and the Chilingirian String Quartet premiered John Tavener’s newly commissioned work, The Bridegroom, included in their 2002 release, Darkness into Light. The ensemble commissioned Sir Peter Maxwell Davies to write A Carnival of Kings, premiered and recorded on their 2003 release, Wolcum Yule, which also included works by Geoffrey Burgon and Richard Rodney Bennett. Other new works include Steve Reich’s Know What is Above You, and Richard Einhorn’s A Carnival of Miracles, both commissioned by WNYC Radio. Anonymous 4 has appeared on a wide range of radio and television programs, including NPR’s All Things Considered, Performance Today and Weekend Edition, MPR’s St. Paul Sunday, WETA’s Millennium of Music, Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion, and ZDF’s Ersteklassich! (Germany). The ensemble has been featured on A&E’s Breakfast with the Arts, CBS Sunday Morning and Australian ABC’s Access All Areas, as well as on Discovery Health Channel and Fox News Channel. For more information visit www.Anonymous4.com Anonymous 4 appears by arrangement of Alliance Artist Management.

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St. Lawrence String Quartet Saturday, November 7 | 8 pm | The Folly Theater Geoff Nuttall, violin Scott St. John, violin Lesley Robertson, viola Christopher Costanza, cello

HAYDN

String Quartet No. 14 in E-flat Major, Op. 9, No. 2, Hob. III:20 Moderato Menuet Adagio: Cantabile Finale: Allegro di molto

MENDELSSOHN

String Quartet No. 6 in F Minor, Op. 80 Allegro vivace assai Allegro assai Adagio Finale: Allegro molto

BEETHOVEN

String Quartet in C-sharp Minor, Op. 131 Adagio ma non troppo e molto espressivo Allegro molto vivace Allegro moderato Andante ma non troppo e molto cantabile; Pi첫 mosso; Andante moderato e lusinghiero; Adagio; Allegretto; Adagio ma non troppo e semplice; Allegretto Presto Adagio quasi un poco andante Allegro

This concert is underwritten, in part, by the Sosland Foundation. This concert is supported, in part, by the ArtsKC Fund 34

Financial assistance for this project has been provided, in part, by The Missouri Arts Council, a state agency.

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String Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 9, No.2 (Hob. III:20) Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) Haydn is widely regarded as the father of the string quartet. His Opus 9 quartets are the first ones that resemble the genre as we recognize it. They are early: probably from 1769—but with Haydn, everything is relative. By that time, he was well into his 30s and had already composed some three dozen symphonies. Prince Paul Anton Esterházy initially hired him as Vice-Kapellmeister (Assistant Music Director) in 1761. Upon Paul Anton’s death in March 1762, the Prince’s brother Nikolaus inherited the title and family estates. Haydn was promoted to Music Director in 1766 when his predecessor, Gregor Joseph Werner, died. He remained very busy overseeing all musical activity in the court chapel and opera house as well as weekly orchestral performances. Haydn also composed dozens of chamber works for Prince Nikolaus’s preferred instrument, the baryton (a string instrument similar to the bass viol, but with sympathetic as well as bowed strings). This high level of productivity left Haydn little time to explore the instrumental divertimento à quattro, the term his contemporaries used for the combination of two violins, viola, and violoncello. Between 1769 and 1772, however, Haydn had some respite in his court duties, allowing him more leisure to compose what we call string quartets. The Opus 9 group was the first of three such sets he wrote in those years. Collectively they established his mastery of the genre. They also established his pattern of writing six works of identical instrumentation, each in a different key, but intended as a set. Earlier divertimenti à quattro had five movements; the “extra” was another minuet inserted before the finale. Musical weight was concentrated in a brisk first movement. Beginning with Op. 9, Haydn dispensed with the second minuet and standardized the pattern of four movements. He cast most of his opening movements in a spacious 4/4 time, rather than the lively allegro favored by his contemporaries and present in his own early divertimenti à quattro. All the Opus 9 quartets place the minuet second, in contrast to the emerging symphonic pattern of placing it third. The finales are fast and energetic, balancing the substance of the opening movements. Listeners unfamiliar with early Haydn will be delighted by the clean elegance of his writing. In the early 1760s, most basic principles of harmony, form, and texture Esterházy court

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Program Notes

that we associate with late 18th-century music were already in common use; however, the decorative, playful elements of the rococo remained popular. This transitional style bridged the periods we know as Baroque and Classical. It is characterized by pleasantness, beauty, and an abundance of ornamentation. Melodies are simple in structure but often decorated with elaborate variants.

The relaxed tempo of the opening Moderato allows the first violin to dominate. The other three players open with chordal accompaniment beneath the first violin’s arpeggiated theme, and there is an occasional outburst of virtuosity that gives the first violinist a chance to elaborate. The cello part is fairly basic in the first two movements. Haydn does give the viola a turn at the triplets in the lovely trio section to the minuet. (He later based a set of keyboard variations on the minuet’s theme.) The Adagio: Cantabile is the most singular movement in this quartet. It seems to have been lifted from the stage of an opera seria. The first violin opens with a recitative-like passage above chromatic, layered chords in the lower parts. That passage is a slow introduction to the Cantabile, an expressive aria with wide operatic leaps for the soloist and a pulsating accompaniment from the other three players. Haydn writes out one brief cadenza for the violinist and leaves an opportunity for another brief improvised cadenza. He clearly had in mind Luigi Tomasini, his gifted concertmaster in the Esterháza court orchestra [see sidebar, p. 36]. The quartet closes with a lively Allegro di molto. An energetic pulsing at the start serves again as a platform for the first violinist, but the writing is now more challenging for the other three players. Still, the figure that rockets upward in the first violin part is a reminder of the stratospheric reaches and wide leaps so prominent in the first movement.

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Crackerjack First Fiddler: Haydn’s Concertmaster Haydn’s early Divertimenti à quattro—his customary label for what we call string quartets—were composed for the principal players of the resident orchestra at the Esterházy court. Prince Nikolaus could boast of many very fine players on his music staff. The concertmaster, Luigi Tomasini (1741-1808), was Joseph Haydn’s personal favorite. The two men were lifelong friends. A native of Pesaro (coincidentally the birthplace of Rossini), Tomasini was initially engaged as a page to Prince Paul Anton Esterházy, possibly as early as 1752 but no later than 1756. The Prince had been the Austrian ambassador to Naples, but relinquished that post to return to Vienna. Tomasini began playing in the court orchestra in 1756, and apparently studied violin with Leopold Mozart in 1760. Shortly after Haydn’s arrival in 1761, the new Vice-Kapellmeister arranged for Tomasini to be relieved of his duties as manservant so that he could play full time in the orchestra. Haydn composed all his violin concertos for Tomasini. Many of his symphonies include violin solos that showcased Tomasini’s talent. There is some evidence that Tomasini was Haydn’s composition student as well. Through his travels, Tomasini had more opportunities than Haydn to absorb musical developments elsewhere in Europe. For example, he accompanied Prince Nikolaus Esterházy to Paris in 1767, where he was exposed to a broad range of styles. (Luigi Boccherini was all the rage in France at the time.) Haydn did not make that journey. Like Haydn, Tomasini remained in service to the Esterházy family until the Esterháza Hofkapelle was dissolved in 1790. He was granted a pension, but he resumed work for Prince Nikolaus II in 1794, eventually becoming Director of Instrumental Music. We know that he made appearances in Vienna both as a soloist and as the leader of a string quartet in the 1770s and 1780s. He appears to have toured as a violin soloist in the 1790s as well. His legacy endures in many of Haydn’s compositions. The Opus 9 quartets bear his most enduring influence in terms of chamber music. – L.S. ©2009 Quartet in F Minor, Op. 80 Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) Felix Mendelssohn was the second of four children born to Abraham and Lea Mendelssohn. Theirs was a remarkable and respected family of bankers, philosophers, and musicians. While Felix remained close to his family throughout his life, he enjoyed an especially intimate and loving relationship with his older sister Fanny, who was herself an excellent pianist and composer. Even after Fanny’s marriage to the painter Wil36

helm Hensel in 1829 and Felix’s own marriage to the beautiful Cécile Jeanrenaud in 1837, the siblings stayed in close touch with each other’s daily lives, feelings, compositions, triumphs, and tragedies. Thus it came as a profound shock to Felix when he learned of Fanny’s sudden collapse and death, apparently from a massive stroke, on 17 May 1847. Initially, he sought refuge from his grief in Baden-Baden, then traveled to Switzerland with Cécile and other family members, eventually settling in Interlaken for the summer months. There he attempted to find some peace and emotional stability while creating one of the most heart-breaking works ever written, the F Minor String Quartet. Mendelssohn’s biographer, Heinrich Eduard Jacob, has called the Opus 80 quartet a work of “wild anguish.” Now and then there comes a brief ray of light, like the A-flat major theme in the first movement. The second movement goes into hammering syncopations until, in an anticipation of Brahms, the violins take up their lament above the basso ostinato. The Adagio in 2/4 has the characteristic Mendelssohnian melancholy. But then comes the harshly pounding Finale, which seems to declare with certainty: there is no comfort. The quartet is clearly a requiem for Fanny, a compendium of fury and emotional agony that challenges many of the stereotyped thoughts we have about Mendelssohn’s music. It is harmonically daring, often dissonant and agitated, even belligerent—and always rhythmically vital. While Mendelssohn’s characteristic songfulness surfaces in the slow movement, this is no smooth acquiescence to parlor taste. Rather, we hear the heartfelt outpouring of a tortured soul—not at all what one customarily associates with the wealthy, successful, happilymarried Mendelssohn. It is no accident that several writers draw parallels between Opus 80 and some Beethoven quartets. Mendelssohn’s first movement has been compared to Beethoven’s terse and stormy Op. 95 (“Serioso”), with which it shares the dark tonality of F minor. Similarly, the Adagio has been likened to the slow movement of Beethoven’s Op. 59, No. 1. Although Opus 80 is rarely performed, it is an undisputed masterpiece and a glimpse of the direction he might have taken had he lived. He completed the quartet in September 1847. Less than two months later, Felix suffered two strokes and died on 4 November. He survived his beloved sister by less than six months. Program Notes by Laurie Shulman ©2009

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Beethoven: The Late Quartets In Beethoven: The Last Decade, Martin Cooper describes Beethoven’s late works as written in a style . . . in which nothing is conceded to the listener, no attempt is made to capture his attention or hold his interest. Instead the composer communes with himself or contemplates his vision of reality, thinking (as it were) aloud and concerned only with the pure essence of his own thoughts and with the musical processes from which that thought itself is often indistinguishable. Such descriptions are potentially off-putting to those who approach the late quartets with an awe bordering on apprehension. George Marek has noted that “each of the five [late] quartets is an experience which makes one break out in perspiring superlatives.” Is such music beyond the grasp of the average listener? Hardly. The late quartets are actually chock full of fascinating listening. This season we will hear three of them as part of The Friends of Chamber Music concerts. We will have the opportunity, as well, to hear one of the early Opus 18 quartets and one from the glorious middle period set of Op. 59. The late quartets dominated Beethoven’s final years, from the summer of 1824 to November of 1826; Beethoven would die in March 1827. A 14-year hiatus followed his Quartet No. 11 in F Minor, composed in 1810-11 and published in 1816 as Op. 95. Then he received a letter from the Russian Prince Nikolai Galitzin requesting “one, two, or three quartets” in 1822, prompting him to return to the genre. Beethoven took his time in fulfilling the commission, eventually producing Op. 127 in E-flat, completed in February of 1825; Op. 132 in A Minor, completed in July of 1825; and Op. 130 in B-flat, completed in November of 1825, the last including the Grosse Fuge. As with so many projects in his life, he had hardly exhausted his supply of musical ideas. Although he was very ill and his health forced him to suspend work on the quartets several times, the late sketchbooks show that he had resumed intense creativity after a lengthy gap during which he produced relatively little music. Each of the late quartets inhabits its own sound world. It is clear that Beethoven found a spiritual outlet in these pieces. Writing music was both a necessity and a form of therapy for him. The quartets were a way to transcend earth, to achieve redemption, to regain spiritual fulfillment and perhaps even to regain a measure of physical health. They are at once intensely personal and all-inclusive in their appeal and breadth. Collectively, these five late quartets and the Grosse Fuge are the crown jewels of the string quartet literature and take their place proudly among Beethoven’s supreme artistic achievements.

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More than 180 years after they were written, Beethoven’s late-harvest chamber works continue to confound, mystify, and enrapture us. The five final quartets are both concentrated and expansive—the ultimate absolute music, pregnant with a philosophy words cannot express. – L.S. ©2009

St. Lawrence String Quartet

Having walked on stage together over 2,000 times in the past twenty years, the St. Lawrence String Quartet (SLSQ) has established itself among the world-class chamber ensembles of its generation. The SLSQ has been involved in numerous inventive collaborations, including projects with the renowned Pilobolus Dance Theatre, and the Emerson Quartet. In 2007 they joined with soprano Heidi Grant Murphy and pianist Kevin Murphy to premiere Roberto Sierra’s “Songs from the Diaspora” – a commission through the Music Accord consortium. Having been privileged to study with the Emerson, Tokyo and Juilliard String Quartets, the St. Lawrence are themselves passionate educators. Since 1998 they have held the position of Ensemble in Residence at Stanford University. This residency includes working with students of music as well as extensive collaborations with other faculty and departments using music to explore a myriad of topics. The foursome’s passion for opening up musical arenas to players and listeners alike is evident in their annual summer chamber music seminar at Stanford and their many forays into the depths of musical meaning with preeminent music educator Rob Kapilow. The SLSQ is deeply committed to bringing music to less traditional venues outside the classroom or concert hall. Whether at Lincoln Center or an elementary school classroom, the St. Lawrence players maintain a strong desire to share the wonders of chamber music with their listeners, a characteristic of the foursome that has led them to a more informal performance style than one might expect from chamber musicians. Alex Ross of The New Yorker writes, “the St. Lawrence are remarkable not simply for the quality of their music making, exalted as it is, but for the joy they take in the act of connection.” For more information visit www.slsq.com The St. Lawrence String Quartet appears by arrangement of David Rowe Artists The Elements of a Season 2009|10

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“What Makes It Great?” with Rob Kapilow & The Zemlinsky String Quartet

Antonín Dvořák (1841 - 1904)

String Quartet No. 12 in F Major, Op. 96, “The American”

Saturday, November 14 | 11 am Sunday, November 15 | 2 pm The “What Makes It Great?” series is underwritten, in part, by The Muriel McBrien Kauffman Foundation The William T. Kemper Foundation The Oppenstein Brothers Foundation DST Systems, Inc. The RLS Illumination Fund The George W. & Ada Heath Ultch Memorial Fund 38

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and is a recipient of an Exxon “Meet-the-Composer” grant and numerous ASCAP awards. He was the first composer ever to be granted the rights to set Dr. Seuss’s words to music. His music is published exclusively by G. Schirmer. Kapilow lives in River Vale, NJ, with his wife and three children. For more information visit www.RobKapilow.com Rob Kapilow appears by arrangement of IMG Artists.

Rob Kapilow

For more than 15 years, Rob Kapilow has brought the joy and wonder of classical music to audiences of all ages and backgrounds. Kapilow’s What Makes It Great? made its auspicious debut on NPR’s Performance Today over 15 years ago. What Makes It Great? now sells out regular subscription series in Kansas City; Cerritos, CA; New York’s Lincoln Center; Boston’s Celebrity Series; and the Washington Performing Arts Society. Kapilow, affectionately nicknamed America’s “pied piper of classical music,” has found many new young fans through his family compositions and presentations. He has also conducted many new works of musical theater, ranging from the Tony Award-winning Nine on Broadway to the premiere of Frida for the opening of the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s “Next Wave Festival,” and premieres of works for the American Repertory Theater. He is the conductor/creative director of FamilyMusik for the Boston Celebrity Series and at New York’s Lincoln Center, and has been conductor/director of FamilyMusik for New York’s 92nd Street Y, co-director of the Rutgers SummerFest Festival, assistant conductor of the Opera Company of Boston, music director of the touring company Opera New England, and conductor of the Kansas City Symphony’s summer FamilyFare program. He was also music director of the Yale Symphony Orchestra for five seasons. At the age of 19, Kapilow interrupted his academic work at Yale University to study with the legendary Nadia Boulanger. Two years later, after graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Yale, he continued his studies at the Eastman School of Music. After graduating from Eastman, he returned to Yale, where he was assistant professor for six years at the university. Kapilow’s career has been marked by numerous major awards and grants. He won first place in the Fontainebleau Casadesus Piano Competition and was the second-place winner of the Antal Dorati Conductor’s Competition with the Detroit Symphony. Kapilow was a featured composer on Chicago Public Radio’s prestigious “Composers In America” series

Zemlinsky Quartet František Souček, violin Petr Střížek, violin Petr Holman, viola Vladimír Fortin, cello

Since its beginning in 1994, the Zemlinsky Quartet has continued the deep Czech tradition of the string quartet. It performs regularly in the Czech Republic and across Europe, North and South America. The repertoire of the ensemble is quite wide, containing works by many leading Czech and foreign composers, and contemporary compositions. The members of the ensemble also perform as soloists; they are prize holders of several individual competitions. The group partners with Czech TV and it has also recorded many string quartets for Czech Radio. The Zemlinsky Quartet serves as assistant quartet-in-residence at the Music Academy in Basel, Switzerland. The ensemble has received top prizes in international competitions including the Banff International String Quartet Competition (2007), Prague Spring International Music Competition (2005), and London International String Quartet Competition (2006), where it was also awarded the Audience Prize. It has also won several competitions in the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic, including the 2005 Prize of the Czech Chamber Music Society. For more information visit www.ZemlinskyQuartet.cz The Zemlinsky Quartet appears by arrangement of Stanton Management. The Elements of a Season 2009|10

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The Friends of Chamber Music Endowment

The Tallis Scholars

Thursday, December 10 | 7:30 pm | Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception

Janet Coxwell, Amy Haworth, sopranos Patrick Craig, Caroline Trevor, altos Mark Dobell, George Pooley, Simon Wall, Christopher Watson, tenors Donald Greig, Robert Macdonald, bass Peter Phillips, Director

JOSQUIN

Missa De beata virgine

NESBETT

Magnificat

TALLIS

Tunes for Archbishop Parkerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Psalter

BYRD

Ye sacred muses

BYRD

Tribulationes civitatum

BYRD

Vigilate

This concert is underwritten, in part, by the Courtney S. Turner Charitable Trust, Daniel C. Weary and Bank of America, Trustees. This concert is underwritten, in part, by the Neighborhood Tourist Development Fund of Kansas City, Missouri. The Early Music Series is underwritten, in part, by donors to The Friends of Chamber Music Endowment Funds. This concert is supported, in part, by the ArtsKC Fund 40

Financial assistance for this project has been provided, in part, by The Missouri Arts Council, a state agency.

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Texts and Translations Josquin: Missa de Beata Virgine Kyrie eleison. Christe eleison. Kyrie eleison.

Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

Gloria in excelsis Deo, et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis. Laudamus te; benedicimus te; adoramus te; glorificamus te. Gratias agimus tibi propter magnam gloriam tuam, Domine Deus, Rex caelestis, Deus Pater omnipotens.

Glory be to God on high, and in earth peace, goodwill towards men. We praise thee; we bless thee; we worship thee; we glorify thee. We give thanks to thee for thy great glory, O Lord God, heavenly king, God the Father almighty.

Domine Fili unigenite, Jesu Christe; Domine Deus, Agnus Dei, Filius Patris, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis; qui tollis peccata mundi, suscipe deprecationem nostram; qui sedes ad dexteram Patris, miserere nobis.

O Lord the only-begotten Son, Jesu Christ; O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us; thou that takest away the sins of the world, receive our prayer; thou that sittest at the right hand of God the Father, have mercy upon us.

Quoniam tu solus Sanctus; tu solus Dominus; tu solus altissimus, Jesu Christe, cum Sancto Spiritu, in gloria Dei Patris. Amen.

For thou only art Holy; thou only art the Lord; thou only, O Christ, with the Holy Ghost, art Most High in the glory of God the Father. Amen.

Credo in unum Deum, Patrem omnipotentem, factorem caeli et terrae, visibilium omnium et invisibilium. Et in unum Dominum Jesum Christum, Filium Dei unigenitum, et ex Patre natum ante omnia saecula. Deum de Deo; Lumen de Lumine; Deum verum de Deo vero; genitum, non factum; consubstantialem Patri; per quem omnia facta sunt.

I believe in one God, the Father almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father before all worlds. God of God; Light of Light; very God of very God; begotten, not made: being of one substance with the Father; by whom all things were made.

Qui propter nos homines, et propter nostram salutem descendit de caelis, et incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto, ex Maria Virgine, et homo factus est. Crucifixus etiam pro nobis sub Pontio Pilato; passus et sepultus est. Et resurrexit tertia die secundum Scripturas; et ascendit in caelum, sedet ad dexteram Patris; et iterum venturus est cum gloria judicare vivos et mortuos; cuius regni non erit finis.

Who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man. And was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried.

Et in Spiritum Sanctum, Dominum et vivificantem, qui ex Patre Filioque procedit; qui cum Patre et Filio simul adoratur et conglorificatur; qui locutus est per prophetas; Et unam sanctam catholicam et apostolicam Ecclesiam. Confiteor unum baptisma in remissionem peccatorum. Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum, et vitam venturi saeculi. Amen.

And the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father; and he shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end. And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord, and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets. And I believe in one holy, catholic and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins. And I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

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Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth. Pleni sunt caeli et terra gloria tua. Hosanna in excelsis.

Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of hosts. Heaven and earth are full of thy glory. Glory be to thee, O Lord most high.

Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini. Hosanna in excelsis.

Blessed is he that cometh in name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis. Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona nobis pacem.

O Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. O Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. O Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world, grant us thy peace.

Nesbett: Magnificat Magnificat anima mea Dominum Et exultavit spiritus meus in Deo salutari meo. Quia respexit humilitatem ancillæ suæ: ecce enim ex hoc beatam me dicent omnes generationes. Quia fecit mihi magna qui potens est, et sanctum nomen eius. Et misericordia eius a progenie in progenies timentibus eum. Fecit potentiam in bracchio suo, dispersit superbos mente cordis sui. Deposuit potentes de sede et exaltavit humiles. Esurientes implevit bonis et divites dimisit inanes, Suscepit Israel puerum suum recordatus misericordiæ suæ, Sicut locutus est ad patres nostros, Abraham et semini eius in sæcula.

My soul doth magnify the Lord: and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. For he hath regarded: the lowliness of his handmaiden. For behold, from henceforth: all generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath magnified me: and holy is his Name. And his mercy is on them that fear him: throughout all generations. He hath showed strength with his arm: he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seat: and hath exalted the humble and meek. He hath filled the hungry with good things: and the rich he hath sent empty away. He remembering his mercy hath holpen his servant Israel: as he promised to our forefathers, Abraham and his seed, for ever.

Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto: Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in sæcula sæculorum. Amen.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Tallis: Tunes for Archbishop Parker’s Psalter Man blest no doubt who walk’th not out In wicked men’s affairs, And stand’th no day in sinner’s way Nor sit’th in scorner’s chairs: But hath his will in God’s law still, This law to love aright, And will him use, on it to muse, To keep it day and night. Let God arise in majesty And scattered be his foes. Yea, flee they all his sight in face, To him which hateful goes. As smoke is driv’n and com’th to naught, Repulse their tyranny. At face of fire, as wax doth melt, God’s face the bad must fly. 42

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Why fum’th in fight the Gentiles spite, In fury raging stout? Why tak’th in hand the people fond, Vain things to bring about? The Kings arise, the Lords devise, In counsels met thereto, Against the Lord with false accord, Against His Christ they go. O come in one to praise the Lord And him recount our stay and health. All hearty joys let us record To this strong rock, our Lord of health. His face with praise let us prevent; His facts in sight let us denounce, Join we, I say, in glad assent. Our psalms and hymns let us pronounce. Even like the hunted hind The waterbrooks desire, E’en thus my soul, that fainting is, To thee would fain aspire. My soul did thirst to God, To God of life and Grace. It said e’en thus: when shall I come To see God’s lively face? Expend, O Lord, my plaint of word In grief that I do make. My musing mind recount most kind; Give ear for thine own sake. O hark my groan, my crying moan; My King, my God thou art, Let me not stray from thee away, To thee I pray in heart. Why brag’st in malice high, O thou in mischief stout? God’s goodness yet is nigh All day to me no doubt. My tongue to muse all evil It doth itself inure. As razor sharp to spill, All guile it doth procure. God grant we grace, he us embrace. In gentle part bless he our heart. With loving face shine he in place. His mercies all on us to fall. That we thy way may know all day, While we do sail this world so frail. Thy health’s reward is night declared, As plain as eye all Gentiles spy.

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Come Holy Ghost, eternal God, Which dost from God proceed; The Father first and eke the Son, On God as we do read. Byrd: Ye sacred muses Ye sacred Muses, race of Jove, whom Musicâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lore delighteth, Come down from crystal heavâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ns above to earth where sorrow dwelleth, In mourning weeds, with tears in eyes: Tallis is dead, and Music dies. Byrd: Tribulationes civitatum Tribulationes civitatum audivimus quas passae sunt, et defecimus. Domine ad te sunt oculi nostri, ne pereamus.

We have heard of the trials which the cities have suffered, and have lost heart. Our eyes are fixed on thee O Lord, and do not wander.

Timor et hebetudo mentis cecedir super nos, et super liberos nostros: ipsi montes nolunt recipere fugam nostram. Domine, miserere.

Fear and confusion have fallen upon us, and upon our children: even the mountains offer us no refuge. Lord, have mercy.

Nos enim pro peccatis nostris haec patimur. Aperi oculos tuos Domine, et vidi afflictionem nostram.

For it is because of our sins that we are suffering these things. Open thine eyes O Lord, and behold our affliction.

Byrd: Vigilate Vigilate, nescitis enim quando Dominus domus veniat, sera an media nocte an gallicantu, an mane. Vigilate ergo, necum venerit repente, inveniat vos dormientes. Quod autem dico vobis omnibus dico: Vigilate.

Watch ye alway, for that ye know not at what hour the Lord will come again: eventide, or haply at midnight, or at the cockcrow, or morning. Watch ye therefore alway, lest if suddenly he cometh he findeth you then sleeping. What then I say unto you, I say unto all: Watch ye alway.

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was also nominated for a Grammy. Their most recent disc, featuring the music of Josquin, received exceptional reviews and was awarded a further Diapason d’Or. These accolades are continuing evidence of the exceptionally high standard maintained by the Tallis Scholars, and of their dedication to one of the great repertoires in Western classical music.

The Tallis Scholars Directed by Peter Phillips

The Tallis Scholars were founded in 1973 by their director, Peter Phillips. Through their recordings and concert performances, they have established themselves as the leading exponents of Renaissance sacred music throughout the world. The Tallis Scholars perform in both sacred and secular venues, performing around 70 concerts each year across the globe. The Tallis Scholars’ career highlights have included a tour of China in 1999, including two concerts in Beijing; and the privilege of performing in the Sistine Chapel in April 1994 to mark the final stage of the complete restoration of the Michelangelo frescoes, broadcast simultaneously on Italian and Japanese television. The ensemble has commissioned many contemporary composers during their history: in 1998 they celebrated their 25th anniversary with a special concert in London’s National Gallery, premiering a Sir John Tavener work written for the group and narrated by Sting. A further performance was given with Sir Paul McCartney in New York in 2000. The Tallis Scholars are broadcast regularly on radio (including performances from the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in both 2007 and 2008) and have also been featured on the acclaimed ITV program The Southbank Show. Recordings by the Tallis Scholars have attracted many awards throughout the world. In 1987 their recording of Josquin’s Missa La sol fa re mi and Missa Pange lingua received Gramophone magazine’s Record of the Year award, still the only recording of early music ever to win this coveted award. In 1989 the French magazine Diapason gave two of its coveted Diapason d’Or de l’Année awards for recordings of a mass and motets by Lassus and of Josquin’s two masses based on the chanson L’Homme armé. Their recordings were awarded Gramophone’s Early Music Awards in 1991 and 1994, and in 2005 for their performance of music by John Browne which

Peter Phillips Peter Phillips has made an impressive if unusual reputation for himself in dedicating his life’s work to the research and performance of Renaissance polyphony. He founded the Tallis Scholars in 1973, with whom he has now appeared in over 1,600 concerts and made over 50 recordings, encouraging interest in polyphony all over the world. In addition to the Tallis Scholars, Phillips works with many other specialist ensembles, gives master-classes and choral workshops, is Artistic Director of the Tallis Scholars Summer Schools, and was recently appointed Director of Music at Merton College, Oxford. He appears frequently on television and radio in Britain and Europe. In 2006, his song-cycle for contralto “Four Rondeaux by Charles d’Orleans” was premiered in the Guggenheim, New York, to critical acclaim. Mr. Phillips is also well-known as a writer. He contributes a regular music column to The Spectator, and is the owner and publisher of The Musical Times, the oldest continuously-published music journal in the world. He has written two books: English Sacred Music, 1549–1649 and What We Really Do. For more information visit www.TheTallisScholars.co.uk and www.tallisman.wordpress.com The Tallis Scholars and Peter Phillips appear by arrangement of Aaron Concert Artists and Hazard Chase Limited. The Elements of a Season 2009|10

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Takács String Quartet Saturday, January 9 | 8 pm | The Folly Theater Edward Dusinberre, violin Károly Schranz, violin Geraldine Walther, viola András Fejér, cello

BEETHOVEN

String Quartet in C Minor, Op. 18, No. 4 Allegro ma non tanto Andante scherzoso quasi Allegretto Menuetto: Allegretto Allegro

HAYDN

String Quartet No. 54 in B-flat Major, Op. 71, No. 1, Hob. III:69 Allegro Adagio Menuetto: Allegretto Finale: Vivace

BEETHOVEN

String Quartet No. 15 in A Minor, Op. 132 Assai sostenuto; Allegro Allegro ma non tanto Molto adagio; Andante Alla Marcia; Assai vivace Allegro appassionato; Presto

This concert is underwritten, in part, by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. This concert is supported, in part, by the ArtsKC Fund 46

Financial assistance for this project has been provided, in part, by The Missouri Arts Council, a state agency.

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Throughout this season, all the visiting string quartets are exploring Beethoven, with an emphasis on his final works [see Sidebar, page 37]. This evening, the Takács Quartet places late Beethoven in perspective with a performance of his early C minor quartet, published in 1800 as part of his Op. 18. More than a quarter-century separates the two works that open and close the program. During that time, Beethoven composed all nine symphonies. The difference in size, scope, and emotional content in those symphonies is mirrored in the quartets. Between the two Beethoven quartets, we hear a late masterpiece by Joseph Haydn, one of Beethoven’s teachers—and a man to whom he owed more than he readily acknowledged. Haydn began composing quartets in the 1760s and is widely regarded as the father of the string quartet. The example we hear, Op. 71, No. 1 in B-flat, shows him at the top of his game. Quartet in C Minor, Op. 18, No. 4 Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) Beethoven moved from his native Bonn to Vienna in 1792, the year following Mozart’s death. Joseph Haydn was the most famous living composer, and Beethoven went dutifully to Haydn for musical instruction. While honing his compositional skills, Beethoven supported himself with his enormous talent as a performing pianist, and his early works show a preponderance of solo piano compositions and chamber works including piano. Not until 1798 did he attempt a string quartet, the chamber genre which Haydn had brought to such splendid heights, and in which Mozart had written some of his finest works. The six quartets of Opus 18 were commissioned by the Russian Prince Joseph Lobkowitz (1772-1816), one of the young composer’s early champions in the 1790s. Published in 1801, the quartets were composed primarily during the years 1799 and 1800. Some of the surviving sketches indicate that the germs of Beethoven’s musical material may extend as far back as his Bonn days in the very early 1790s. The fourth quartet of Opus 18 is the only one of the six in a minor key. The significance of its tonality is apparent to listeners who know Beethoven’s powerful and stormy compositions in the same key, for example the Fifth Symphony, the Third Piano Concerto, and the Pathétique Sonata. Less well known but perhaps more noteworthy in the context of this quartet are the Piano Trio, Opus 1, No. 3, and the splendid Sonata, Opus 10, No. 1, both also in C minor. In all these works, Beethoven displays the powerful drama which is his musical hallmark. He reserved C

Program Notes

minor for explosive, emotionally-charged music throughout his career. This quartet is consistent with that pattern.

The work distinguishes itself by its curious absence of a slow movement. Instead, Beethoven has written both a scherzo and a minuet. Apparently he recognized that some dramatic relief was necessary to alleviate the high tension in the weighty outer movements. Beethoven has entitled the second movement Andante scherzoso quasi Allegretto. It is as if he were denying any traditional scherzo-like character, and yet this is certainly the lightest music within this quartet. Perhaps that is Beethoven’s joke on us. Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 71, No. 1, Hob. III:69 Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) Haydn is justly celebrated for his symphonies, whose crowning glory are the dozen works known collectively as the “London Symphonies.” They fall into two groups of six, each associated with one of Haydn’s trips to England in the 1790s. Their premiere performances in London’s Hanover Square Rooms were major social events as well as cultural milestones.

Franz Joseph Haydn

Many music lovers do not realize how prolifically Haydn composed during these two English sojourns. He composed a considerable number of sonatas and other works for solo piano, and quite a bit of chamber music. The latter category included six quartets dedicated to Count Anton Georg Apponyi, a Hungarian nobleman who was an enthusiastic music lover. The Count served as Hungarian Chamberlain to the Imperial Viennese Court. His principal residence was in Pressburg (now Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia), but he probably met Haydn in Vienna about 1784. They remained friendly and the Count, a relative of Haydn’s employer Prince Esterházy, became one of Haydn’s patrons. The Elements of a Season 2009|10

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Haydn composed the six quartets late in 1793 in anticipation of his second trip to London. Because of his dedication, they have become known as the Apponyi Quartets. The London publishing house of Corri & Dussek issued the first three in 1795 as Op. 71 and the second three as Op. 74 the following year. After Haydn’s return to Vienna, the firm of Artaria published all six in Austria.

Haydn’s Adagio, a slow siciliana in F major, relies on chromatic sighing figures reminiscent of late Mozart. Indeed, biographer Rosemary Hughes calls this movement:

Haydn actually wrote the series to be played by the quartet of Johann Peter Salomon, the German violinist and impresario who had brought him to London in the first place. Salomon was also a champion of quartets by Ignace Pleyel and Adalbert Gyrowetz. To some extent, Haydn embraced those composers’ newer style. For example, from Pleyel—who had been Haydn’s student— the older composer learned about textural variety, argument, and eventual agreement among four players. In some places, the texture of this B-flat quartet is spare and linear, recalling Haydn’s octave writing from some earlier quartets. Elsewhere, he experiments with fuller, dramatic sections and bold passages in concertante style. Salomon was a virtuoso, but in the Apponyi Quartets, the first violin does less showing off. Indeed, Haydn’s writing is more for four quasi-soloists, a reflection of the instrumental strength Salomon had in his quartet.

Some virtuosic flights of fancy in the first violin part remind us that Salomon was the quartet’s leader, but by and large, the writing is thoroughly integrated. Strong dynamic contrasts and appoggiatura chords add a romantic, yearning quality.

This is the kind of compositional approach that was to be embraced by most future quartet composers. This last feature, as much as any, was to earn Haydn the sobriquet, “Father of the String Quartet.” Though other instrumental combinations for four string players had existed before Haydn’s string quartets, none had excelled as did Haydn’s in musical substance and imagination, and none had given such equality of importance to each of the four instruments. The B-flat quartet is noteworthy for its brief, quaint introduction. Its purpose is twofold: it quiets the audience—Salomon’s quartet would have been playing for an exclusive group of wealthy, titled patrons in an elegant salon—and it unifies the four players as an ensemble. This opening gesture, in double- and triple-stops, establishes an orchestral richness to the sound. Throughout the quartet, we hear other orchestral effects, such as all four instruments playing tremolo, or trilling on a chord. In this quartet, Haydn was addressing the form as a more public kind of music. As noted above, the distribution of music material among the players is far more equitable than in earlier quartets such as the example from Opus 9 we heard on this series in November. While the first violin still has its occasional cameo role, it does not dominate to the same degree. Haydn pays more attention to the inner voices, allotting second violin and viola far more interesting material rather than just “filler.” Even the cello has its occasional turn at rapid sixteenth-note figuration. 48

. . . an exquisite instance of Haydn speaking Mozart’s musical language in his own completely personal way, using remote, almost abrupt modulations with the tenderest expressiveness.

The minuet casts a spotlight on the rich lower register of the violin, using the upper register for echo figures. Haydn also plays games with timbre, occasionally having the viola echo a second violin comment in the same octave. The trio section begins as if it were a variation featuring solo violin, but soon the other three players join in the discussion. The rustic finale demonstrates Haydn’s roots in a popular folk style. The themes, and there are plenty of them, are dance-like, complete with a bagpipe drone. The writing is demanding, requiring precision, keen ensemble work, and a light touch. A Tale of Three Patrons Two Russian noblemen and a Slavic prince played crucial roles in Beethoven’s monumental contribution to the string quartet literature. The first was the Bohemian Prince Joseph Franz Maximilian Lobkowitz. In the late 1790s, he encouraged Beethoven to produce the six quartets that comprise Opus 18, including the C-minor masterpiece that opens this evening’s program.

Joseph Franz Maximilian Lobkowitz

The Lobkowitz family had a long history of interest in music. Beethoven’s Prince Lobkowitz maintained a private orchestra in Vienna and at his family residences. Involved with several musical societies, he tossed his hat more actively into the ring when two Viennese operatic theatres required management bailout in 1807. He first sponsored Beethoven in 1795 with a concert featuring the young Bonn virtuoso. Beethoven and

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Lobkowitz were particularly close in the first decade of the 19th century, glorious years for Beethoven the composer. He gave his patron a measure of immortality with further dedications to the Eroica Symphony, the Triple Concerto, and the String Quartet Op. 74. The Fifth and Sixth Symphonies were jointly dedicated to Prince Lobkowitz and Count Rasumovsky. The three Opus 59 quartets (1805-1806) are generally referred to by the name of their dedicatee, Count Andrey Kyrilovich Rasumovsky. Sometimes they are called the Russian Quartets, although they are not the only ones with a Russian connection. The Count was a career diplomat who served first in Naples, then in Copenhagen and Stockholm, before he was appointed Russian ambassador to the Imperial Austrian court. Aided by considerable family wealth, Rasumovsky established a lavish residence in Vienna, spending freely in the areas of art, music, and literature. He took a strong interest in Beethoven as early as 1795, when he subscribed to Beethoven’s Piano Trios, Op. 1, thereby donating money to the work. His household orchestra included the members of the Schuppanzigh Quartet, which premiered many of Beethoven’s string quartets. Rasumovsky was a creditable violinist who occasionally took the second violin part with his resident ensemble. He was joint dedicatee, with Prince Lobkowitz, of the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies. The nobleman responsible for Beethoven’s late string quartets was Prince Nikolai Borisovich Golitzin who, like Rasumovsky, was attached to the Austrian court in a diplomatic and administrative capacity. Golitzin was a competent cellist who admired Beethoven’s music. He arranged a handful of Beethoven’s piano sonatas for strings, subscribed to major works such as the Missa Solemnis, and was instrumental in enlisting the Russian Czar Alexander I to subscribe as well. Golitzin helped to spread Beethoven’s reputation in Russia. Golitzin initially asked for “one, two, or three quartets.” Beethoven was notoriously delinquent in delivering the music. The two men sparred about compensation, and their financial haggling was unresolved when Beethoven died in March 1827. Though a number of letters exchanged between patron and composer survive—primarily in French, the language of educated Russians—the two men never met. Although Beethoven took several years to fulfill Golitzin’s initial request, the resulting works were well worth the delay. Ultimately he composed not three but five quartets, plus the Grosse Fuge. These works are universally regarded as the summit of his chamber music. – L.S. ©2009

Vienna skyline

Quartet in A Minor, Op. 132 Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) This quartet, which was completed in the summer of 1825, is one of three commissioned by the Russian Prince Nikolai Golitzin. As in so many of the late works, Beethoven sought in this quartet new approaches to musical form. The work is in five movements. Its second and fourth movements are noticeably shorter and less emotionally weighty; they serve to alleviate the considerable musical tension of the flanking movements. Beethoven concentrates his musical intensity in the outer movements and in the central Adagio. This middle movement of Opus 132 is the centerpiece of the work on several levels. It is approximately 15 minutes long—a disproportionate one-third of the entire quartet. Beethoven’s emphasis on the slow movement as the psychological crux of the work is achieved in more conceptual ways. Entitled Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit, in der lydischen Tonart, which translates roughly to “Holy Song of Thanksgiving from a convalescent to the divinity, in the Lydian mode,” it is usually referred to simply as the Canzona. The form of the movement is ABABA. Beethoven employs lyrical B-sections (marked Neue Kraft fühlend, “feeling new strength”) in A major to contrast with the modal, chorale-like A-sections. The peculiar The Elements of a Season 2009|10

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lack of harmonic tension in the Lydian mode (a major scale with a raised fourth) teases the tonally-oriented ear, which is drawn to both C major and F major, despite the fact that the pure Lydian scale belongs to neither key. Musical scholars have viewed the quartet as a symmetrical work, with the Adagio as its pivot. The passionate recitativo leading from the fourth movement march to the closing Allegro appassionato disrupts any such symmetry, and arrests the listener’s attention with its unmistakably operatic anguish. This recitative prefaces not an aria, but an agitated finale once again in A minor, underscoring the tragedy that permeated the first movement of the quartet.

Beethoven startles us with harsh dissonances in this work, contrasting with passages of uncharacteristic lyricism. As Beethoven scholar Joseph Kerman has observed, contrast is what this quartet is essentially about: The contrasts within its movements and sections are on the face of it so wild that some effect of disparity might surely be anticipated. But in point of fact...the work has scarcely ever failed to impress listeners or critics as a convincing unity. Beethoven’s unique achievement here was the creation of a psychological progress perhaps more arresting than in any other work...which is nonetheless put together out of contrasts that can fairly be called dizzying. Program Notes by Laurie Shulman ©2009

Takács String Quartet Recognized as one of the world’s great ensembles, the Takács Quartet plays with a unique blend of drama, warmth and humor, combining four distinct musical personalities to bring fresh insights to the string quartet repertoire. Based in Boulder at the University of Colorado, the Takács Quartet performs ninety concerts a year worldwide, throughout Europe as well as in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea. The 2009-2010 season includes cycles of the complete Beethoven Quartets in London, where the members of the quartet are Associate Artists at the South Bank Centre, and 50

in Madrid. The quartet will play a series of two Beethoven concerts in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and give their first concert in St.Petersburg. At Carnegie’s Zankel Hall a series of three concerts will feature the Schumann Quartets and works that were composed last year for the Takács by Wolfgang Rihm, James Macmillan and John Psathas. The quartet will perform over 40 concerts in North America and open the season of the San Diego Symphony with performances of Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro and Handel-Schoenberg’s Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra.

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The Quartet’s award-winning recordings include the complete Beethoven Cycle on the Decca label. In 2005 the late Beethoven quartets won Disc of the Year and Chamber Award from BBC Music Magazine, a Gramophone Award and a Japanese Record Academy Award. Their recordings of the early and middle Beethoven quartets collected a Grammy, another Gramophone Award, a Chamber Music of America Award, and two further awards from the Japanese Recording Academy. In 2006 the Takács Quartet made their first recording for Hyperion Records, of Schubert’s D804 and D810. A disc featuring Brahms’ Piano Quintet with Stephen Hough was released to great acclaim in November 2007 and was subsequently nominated for a Grammy. Brahms’ Quartets Op. 51 and Op. 67 was released in the Fall of 2008 and a disc featuring the Schumann Piano Quintet with Marc-Andre Hamelin will be released in late 2009. The complete Haydn “Apponyi” Quartets, Op. 71 and 74, will be released in early 2011. The Quartet has also made sixteen recordings for the Decca label since 1988 of works by Beethoven, Bartók, Borodin, Brahms, Chausson, Dvořák, Haydn, Mozart, Schubert and Smetana. The ensemble’s recording of the six Bartók String Quartets received the 1998 Gramophone Award for chamber music and, in 1999, was nominated for a Grammy. In addition to the Beethoven String Quartet cycle recording, the ensemble’s other Decca recordings include Dvořák’s String Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 51 and Piano Quintet in A Major, Op. 81 with pianist Andreas Haefliger; Schubert’s Trout Quintet with Mr. Haefliger, which was nominated in 2000 for a Grammy Award; string quartets by Smetana and Borodin; Schubert’s Quartet in G Major and Notturno Piano Trio with Mr. Haefliger; the three Brahms string quartets and Piano Quintet in F Minor with pianist András Schiff; Chausson’s Concerto for violin, piano and string quartet with violinist Joshua Bell and pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet; and Mozart’s String Quintets, K515 and 516 with Gyorgy Pauk, viola.

Santa Barbara. The Takács is a Visiting Quartet at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London. The Takács Quartet was formed in 1975 at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest by Gabor Takács-Nagy, Károly Schranz, Gabor Ormai and András Fejér, while all four were students. It first received international attention in 1977, winning First Prize and the Critics’ Prize at the International String Quartet Competition in Evian, France. The quartet also won the Gold Medal at the 1978 Portsmouth and Bordeaux Competitions and First Prizes at the Budapest International String Quartet Competition in 1978 and the Bratislava Competition in 1981. The quartet made its North American debut tour in 1982. Violinist Edward Dusinberre joined the quartet in 1993 and violist Roger Tapping in 1995. Violist Geraldine Walther replaced Mr. Tapping in 2005. Of the original ensemble, Károly Schranz and András Fejér remain. In 2001 the Takács Quartet was awarded the Order of Merit of the Knight’s Cross of the Republic of Hungary. For more information visit www.TakacsQuartet.com The Takács String Quartet appears by arrangement of Seldy Cramer Artists, Inc.

The quartet is known for innovative programming. In 2007 it performed, with Academy Award–winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, “Everyman” in Carnegie Hall, inspired by the Philip Roth novel. The group collaborates regularly with the Hungarian folk ensemble Muzsikas, performing a program that explores the folk sources of Bartók’s music. The Takács performed a music and poetry program on a fourteen-city US tour with the poet Robert Pinsky. At the University of Colorado, the Takács Quartet has helped to develop a string program with a special emphasis on chamber music, where students work in a nurturing environment designed to help them develop their artistry. The quartet’s commitment to teaching is enhanced by summer residencies at the Aspen Festival and at the Music Academy of the West, The Elements of a Season 2009|10

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“What Makes It Great?” with Rob Kapilow & Gilles Vonsattel, piano

Frédéric-François Chopin (1810 - 1849) Ballade No. 3 in A-flat Major, Op. 47 Ballade No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 52

Saturday, January 16 | 11 am Sunday, January 17 | 2 pm Rob Kapilow’s biography is located on page 39.

The “What Makes It Great?” series is underwritten, in part, by The Muriel McBrien Kauffman Foundation The William T. Kemper Foundation The Oppenstein Brothers Foundation DST Systems, Inc. The RLS Illumination Fund The George W. & Ada Heath Ultch Memorial Fund 52

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Gilles Vonsattel

Swiss-born pianist Gilles Vonsattel is an artist of uncommon breadth, equally at home in solo and chamber music performances with repertoire that ranges from Bach’s Art of the Fugue to the contemporary Greek composer Iannis Xenakis. Winner of the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation’s 2002 International Piano Competition, Mr. Vonsattel made his Lincoln Center debut that year at Alice Tully Hall. Mr. Vonsattel has performed in major venues across Europe, North America and Asia. The top prize winner at the 2006 Geneva International Music Competition, Mr. Vonsattel is also a laureate of the Cleveland and Dublin Piano Competitions. In 2008, he was a recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant. He has been heard frequently on National Public Radio’s Performance Today, Radio France Musique, and the BBC. He gave the world premiere of Ned Rorem’s Sound Points at his second recital at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. Deeply committed to the chamber music repertoire, he is a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s prestigious Chamber Music Society Two residency for young artists, and has collaborated with artists such as Kim Kashkashian, Ida

Kavafian, Cho-Liang Lin, Paul Neubauer, David Shifrin, Gary Hoffman, Carter Brey, and Yo-Yo Ma. Mr. Vonsattel has shown a significant interest in expanding the conventional classical concert experience, regularly participating in New York’s Wordless Music series. He was featured in the Spring 2008 issue of Esquire magazine as one of several ground-breaking classical musicians. He continues to be deeply involved in classical music outreach in the United States, giving masterclasses at universities and schools. Mr. Vonsattel’s recording of Liszt solo works and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with L’Orchestre de Chambre de Genève was released in October of 2007 on the PanClassics label to critical acclaim. His recording of Bartók’s Contrasts (Deutsche Gramophon) with members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center is available for download on iTunes. For more information visit www.GillesVonsattel.com Gilles Vonsattel appears by arrangement of John Gingrich Management, Inc. The Elements of a Season 2009|10

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Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra Jeanne Lamon, Music Director

The Galileo Project: Music of the Spheres Sunday, January 31 | 4 pm | The Folly Theater Programmed and scripted by Alison Mackay Jeanne Lamon, Patricia Ahern, Thomas Georgi, Genevieve Gilardeau, Aisslinn Nosky, Chris Verrette, Julie Wedman, Cristina Zacharias, violin Pat Jordan, Elly Winer, viola Christina Mahler, Allen Whear, cello Alison Mackay, bass Olivier Fortin, harpsichord Lucas Harris, lute/guitar John Abberger, Marco Cera, oboe Dominic Teresi, bassoon Shaun Smyth, narrator John Percy, Astronomical Consultant Glenn Davidson, Set & Lighting Designer Marshall Pynkoski, Stage Direction Ben Chaisson, Projection Coordinator

The Harmony of the Spheres VIVALDI

LULLY

Concerto for 2 violins in A Major, Op. 3, No. 5 Allegro; Largo

Music from Phaeton

Ouverture Suite des quatre saisons (Dances for the Four Seasons) EntrĂŠe des furies (Entrance of the furies) Chaconne

Music from the Time of Galileo

MONTEVERDI

Ritornello, from Orfeo

MONTEVERDI

Ciaccona, after Zefiro torna

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MERULA

Ciaccona

GALILEI

Toccata for solo lute, from Il primo libro d’intavolatura di liuto

MARINI

Passacaglia

MONTEVERDI

Moresca, from Orfeo

PURCELL

Song tune “See, even night herself is here,” from Fairy Queen

PURCELL

Rondeau, from Abdelazer

The Dresden Festival of the Planets RAMEAU

Entrée de Jupiter (Entrance of Jupiter), from Hippolyte et Aricie

HANDEL

Allegro, from Concerto grosso in D Major, Op. 3, No. 6

RAMEAU

Entrée de Venus (Entrace of Venus,) from Les surprises de l’Amour

TELEMANN

Allegro, from Concerto for 4 violins in D Major

ZELENKA

Adagio ma non troppo, from Sonata in F Major, ZWV 181/1

RAMEAU

Entrée de Mercure (Entrance of Mercury), from Platée

LULLY

Air Pour les Suivants de Saturne (Air for the followers of Saturn) from Phaeton

WEISS

Allegro, from Concerto for lute in C Major

ANONYMOUS

The Astronomical Drinking Song

The Harmony of the Spheres BACH

Chorale: “Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern” (How brightly shines the morning star), after BWV 1

BACH

Sinfonia, after BWV 29

The Galileo Project received its premiere at The Banff Centre where it was co-produced in a residency in January 2009.

This concert is underwritten, in part, by Dr. Douglas McNair and Cecelia Stadler McNair. This concert is supported, in part, by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

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Program Notes

Music and science are both celebrated in a tribute to Galileo

Music from Phaeton

In late 16th-century Florence, the house of the lutenist and composer Vincenzo Galilei was a fertile breeding ground for important innovations in the realms of music and science. Vincenzo’s experiments with the expressive power of accompanied solo song influenced the creation of opera as a musical form, and the style of music that we now describe as “Baroque.”

Ancient civilizations depended on an awareness of the natural world for their livelihood and survival, and enjoyed an intimate relationship with the daily, monthly and yearly patterns of the night sky. The Greeks and Romans identified characters in their mythological stories with planets and stars, and gave them names that we still use today. In Ovid’s story of Phaeton, the impetuous son of the sun god Apollo, the minutes, hours, days and seasons are personified as denizens of the palace of the sun.

He also conducted repeated scientific experiments with lute strings to explore the mathematical formulas that measure the relationship between the length and tension of a string and its musical pitch. He is thought to have been assisted in those experiments by his oldest son, Galileo Galilei, the brilliant young teacher of mathematics who was to make world-changing discoveries about the universe. Tafelmusik’s musical tribute—The Galileo Project: Music of the Spheres—honors this great astronomer whose intellectual and artistic vitality were rooted in a place where music and science intersect. Today’s program celebrates the International Year of Astronomy, recognizing 2009 as the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s development and use of the astronomical telescope. Harmony of the Spheres

At Versailles, the French “Sun King,” Louis XIV, created his own palace of the sun, a building that strongly reflected the cosmology of the ancient world in its statuary and decoration. Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687), the resident composer at Versailles and one of the most important composers of the 17th-century along with his rival, Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764), wrote some of his most magnificent music for his opera Phaeton. Excerpts from the opera are included in the concert as an example of the cultural inheritance that the world of Baroque music received from the observations of ancient stargazers. Music from the Time of Galileo

In 1607, Claudio Monteverdi (15671643) wrote what many historians believe Today’s program begins and ends with Portrait of Galileo, by Justus Sustermans to be the first important opera in history, reflections on the ancient concept of Orfeo. It was published in 1609, the same year Galileo travelled the “Music of the Spheres,” thought to have been created from Padua to Venice to offer his newly-created telescope as a by a heavenly ensemble of planets and stars making music gift to the Venetian Doge. There are three works on this protogether as they move through space. The concert’s opengram by Monteverdi: two excerpts from his opera Orfeo and an ing speech from The Merchant of Venice contains Lorenzo’s beautiful expression of this idea: “There’s not the smallest orb instrumental work based on Monteverdi’s Zephiro torna. which thou behold’st but in his motion like an angel sings, Monteverdi and Galileo were contemporaries. Near the end still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins.” of their lives, Galileo arranged for Monteverdi to procure a beautiful Cremonese violin (probably built by Nicolo Amati) This subject was treated extensively in Harmonices Mundi (The for Galileo’s nephew Alberto Galilei, the son of Galileo’s Harmony of the Worlds, 1619) by Johannes Kepler, who used brother Michelangelo who composed the lute solo in the formulas from his laws of planetary motion to derive musifirst half of our program. Monteverdi, Tarquinio Merula, and cal intervals and short melodies associated with each planet. Biagio Marini were the most important composers in Galileo’s We perform these short tunes on their own, and then weave world, and some of their most beautiful works are presented as them into the Bach chorale tune performed at the end of the a backdrop to his own account of his discovery of the moons program “Wie Schön Leuchtet die Morgenstern” (How Brightly of Jupiter and the events that followed. Shines the Morning Star). 56

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The Dresden Fesitival of the Planets In spite of the efforts of the Inquisition to suppress Galileo’s discoveries and writings, his influence was soon felt throughout Europe, and the telescope was adopted as an important tool for astronomical research. In 1667, Louis XIV commissioned a Royal Observatory to be built in Paris. The early activities of this observatory were recorded by Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle, the “perpetual secretary” of the French Academy of Sciences who died in 1757, a month short of his 100th birthday. Fontenelle, who attributed his longevity to the regular eating of strawberries, was one of France’s most celebrated personalities. His most famous work was Entretiens sur la pluralité des mondes (Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds), a book intended to popularize astronomy. It was written in 1686 in the form of a dialogue between himself and a clever and beautiful noblewoman during evening walks to view the stars. At one point in the book, Fontenelle charmingly refers to Lully’s opera Phaeton when he is explaining the workings of the solar system to the “Marquise de M.” Fontenelle’s work became a bestseller in England when it was translated by the Restoration playwright, Mrs. Aphra Behn. (An English newspaper from 1713 describes a mother and her daughters making jam while they read to each other from the book.) Aphra Behn was also the author of Abdelazer, or The Moor’s Revenge, for which Henry Purcell (1659-1695) composed the Rondeau played on tonight’s program. (This piece became famous after Benjamin Britten used it as the theme for The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.) A second work of Purcell is also in the program, an excerpt from his most famous opera, The Fairy Queen.

nebulae, and discovered infrared radiation with the help of his musician sister Caroline, the discoverer of several comets.) There are detailed archives of the musical events at the 1719 Festival of the Planets, and we know that not only Handel but also Georg Philipp Telemann, who was living in Frankfurt at the time, joined the renowned musicians employed by Augustus the Strong in Dresden. These included double-bass player Jan Dismas Zelenka and Silvius Leopold Weiss, Europe’s most famous lutenist. In this section of the program Tafelmusik presents excerpts from works by these four composers. Jean-Philippe Rameau, one of the greatest music theorists and composers of 17th-century Fance, is represented by three works in ths program: the “Entrance of Jupiter” from his opera (known in France of that time as a tragedie lyriques) Hippolyte et Aricie, the “Entrance of Venus” from his tragedie lyriques Les surprise de’Amour and the “Entrance of Mercury” from his comédie-lyrique, a divertissement Platée. Program Notes by Alison Mackay Tafelmusik is grateful to Lucas Harris for his reconstruction of the Allegro from Weiss’s Lute Concerto in C Major. All that survives of the original of the Weiss is the solo lute part, but the title page confirms that the lute was accompanied by two violins, viola and violoncello. Lucas has composed the missing parts.

England’s most important astronomer was Sir Isaac Newton. He was born within a year of Galileo’s death in 1642 and was buried in 1727 in Westminster Abbey near the tombs of Aphra Behn and Henry Purcell. This period saw the establishment of a Royal Observatory in Greenwich, Newton’s creation of the reflecting telescope, his discoveries about the properties of refracted light, and his development of the principles of universal gravitation. George Frideric Handel created a sensation when he travelled from his adopted country of England to his homeland of Germany in order to play at a glittering royal wedding celebration in Dresden in September 1719. It was a month-long “Festival of the Planets” with numerous operas, balls, outdoor events, and special concerts in honor of each of the known planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. (Uranus would not be discovered until 1781 by oboist, organist, composer and amateur astronomer Sir William Herschel who, like Handel, had moved to England from Hanover. Herschel also built the largest and finest telescopes of his day, catalogued The Elements of a Season 2009|10

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Behind the Creative Process: Reflections on the Origins of The Galileo Project: Music of the Spheres In the spring of 2007, Tafelmusik received an e-mail from John Percy, Professor of Astronomy at the University of Toronto and an expert on variable stars and stellar evolution. On behalf of the advisory board of the Canadian division of the International Year of Astronomy, he proposed a concert in celebration of the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s development and use of the astronomical telescope. John suggested that the subject might inspire Alison Mackay to create another of her imaginative concert programs. They forwarded the e-mail to Alison and she immediately saw that the fusion of Baroque music and astronomy could realize a longstanding dream of creating a concert with the theatrical components of set and lighting design, dramatic image projection and stage movement. She formulated a program outline, which was enthusiastically embraced by Music Director Jeanne Lamon and Managing Director Tricia Baldwin. They approached The Banff Centre to see if the orchestra could develop its project at this cradle of creativity, which has inspired Canadian and international artists for the past 75 years. They received a welcoming invitation from Sarah Iley and Barry Shiffman of The Banff Centre, and thanks to the generosity of Margaret & Jim Fleck, Great-West Life, London Life and Canada Life, the Canada Council for the Arts, and The Banff Centre itself, The Galileo Project: Music of the Spheres received its premiere performance in Banff on January 9, 2009, after a seven-day residency.

hours reconstructing a lute concerto movement by Sylvius Weiss for which the orchestra parts have been lost. Because of the unusual theatrical aspects of this concert, the orchestra took on the monumental task of learning the music for the most part by memory – something orchestras never do. They worked hard in their own practice studios and got together many times to make informal archival recordings for private practice and to have “memorization parties.” E-mails flew to share memorizing tips and to report progress. After Glenn Davidson had designed his set, featuring a 12foot-high round screen, he and Alison met to choose the images that were to be projected on the screen during the concert. They were generously granted permission to use a collection of photos by Alan Dyer, Canada’s renowned astronomy writer and astronomical photographer. He and his colleagues at the Calgary Planetarium also offered the use of animated films about Galileo’s writings that they had made as part of a special programme about Galileo for the International Year of Astronomy. Drawing on these resources and the image and video bank of the Hubble Space Telescope, Alison, Glenn and Glenn’s assistant Raha Javanfar worked at matching images to the meaning of the script and the emotions of the music. Projection Coordinator Ben Chaisson then programmed the images for the unusual round-screen format. Ultimately Alison Mackay was the creative force behind The Galileo Project. She has played violone and double bass with Tafelmusik since 1979 and her creative and innovative programming has greatly enriched the Tafelmusik concert experience. For more information on the creative process behind The Galileo Project: Music of the Spheres, please visit www.tafelmusik.org/concerts/galileo_creative.htm.

Researching and writing the script went hand-in-hand with choosing the music and took Alison Mackay about a year, with many meetings along the way with Jeanne Lamon. Over the summer, librarian Charlotte Nediger prepared the music, transcribing some pieces from original sources, and making an integrated set of scores and scripts as well as individual parts for each orchestra member. Lucas Harris spent many 58

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Klang und Raum Festival in Irsee, Germany since 1993. An integral part of Tafelmusik’s success worldwide has been its recordings, with a discography of more than 75 Baroque and classical discs on the Analekta, CBC Records, Sony Classical, Collegium, Hyperion and BMG Classics labels. In 2006, Tafelmusik was honoured with the orchestra’s 8th and 9th JUNO Awards for their recordings of Beethoven Symphonies Nos. 5 and 6 (Analekta/Sony BMG in Europe) and Baroque Adventure: The Quest for Arundo Donax (Analekta).

Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra Tafelmusik, Canada’s award-winning orchestra on period instruments, has become an internationally-recognized ensemble lauded by Gramophone magazine as “one of the world’s top Baroque orchestras.” Founded in 1979 by Kenneth Solway and Susan Graves, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra has been under the inspired leadership of Music Director Jeanne Lamon since 1981. With its artist-focused mandate and commitment to excellence and innovation, Tafelmusik is actively creating new contexts for the performance of Baroque and classical music. The Tafelmusik Chamber Choir, specializing in Baroque and classical performance practice and vocal technique, was formed in 1981 to complement the orchestra. Under the direction of Ivars Taurins, the choir has been praised for its clarity and brilliance and has been described as “the best period-performance choir anywhere in the world…”(The Globe and Mail). Tafelmusik has become a major force on the international scene, with a rigorous touring schedule that sees the orchestra on the road for seven to twelve weeks each year. In February 2009, the orchestra’s tour of the United States culminated with its debut at the legendary Carnegie Hall. Regular tours in Canada, the United States and Europe are complemented with ambitious tours to destinations in Asia. The only Canadian orchestra to hold an annual international residency, Tafelmusik has been orchestra-in-residence at the

At home in Toronto Tafelmusik performs over 50 concerts each season at Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre, a historic church in the Annex neighbourhood of Toronto, as well as a series of performances at George Weston Recital Hall in the Toronto Centre for the Arts.

Tafelmusik’s two decades-long collaboration with Opera Atelier has helped establish Toronto as an important North American centre for Baroque and classical opera performance. The two organizations collaborate on two productions per season, including last season’s North American stage premiere on period instruments of Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio in November 2008 and Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea in April / May 2009. Working towards its vision of becoming an international centre of musical excellence, Tafelmusik has invested much energy and many resources into ongoing music education and outreach programs for music-lovers of all ages. In 2000, the orchestra and choir founded the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute (TBSI), held at the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto where Tafelmusik is the baroque orchestra-in-residence. TBSI offers advanced students, preprofessional and professional musicians an in-depth course of study of Baroque repertoire and performance practice through masterclasses, lectures, orchestral and choral training, and chamber ensembles. For more information visit www.Tafelmusik.org and www.myspace.com/mytafelmusik Tafelmusik appears by arrangement of Colbert Artists Management, Inc. The Elements of a Season 2009|10

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Stephen Prutsman

Friday, February 12 | 8 pm | The Folly Theater HAYDN

Sonata in E-flat Major, Hob. XVI:52 Allegro Adagio Finale: Presto

CHOPIN

Ballade No. 2 in F Major, Op. 38

RAVEL

from Miroirs Une barque sur l’océan Alborada del gracioso La vallée des cloches

BACH

English Suite No. 6 in D Minor, BWV 811 Prélude Allemande Courante Sarabande Double Gavotte I Gavotte II Gigue

STRAVINSKY

Three Movements from Pétrouchka Danse russe Chez Pétrouchka La semaine grasse

This concert is underwritten, in part, by Irvine O. and Ellen Hockaday.

This concert is supported, in part, by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. This concert is supported, in part, by the ArtsKC Fund 60

Financial assistance for this project has been provided, in part, by The Missouri Arts Council, a state agency.

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Program Notes Sonata in E-flat Major, Hob. XVI:52 Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) If you think of Haydn’s keyboard works as well-mannered, thin-textured galant pieces suitable for student pianists, you might want to regroup. This late E-flat major sonata is big, brash, and aggressive. Its dramatic chordal opening demands attention. Only the most gifted student pianists could master this sonata’s technical challenges. Two principal factors affected this metamorphosis in Haydn’s keyboard writing: English fortepianos and the German-born pianist Therese Jansen. Although Haydn’s principal instrument was violin, he could make his way around keyboard instruments and was a competent pianist. When he arrived in London in the 1790s, his acquaintance with keyboards centered on Viennese harpsichords and fortepianos. London was a center of innovative piano manufacturing. Haydn was delighted with the new English instruments, particularly those made by the firms of Longman & Broderip and Broadwood. Their fuller sonority and capacity for rapid repeated notes influenced his keyboard writing throughout the 1790s. Eventually he ordered a Broadwood piano for his use in Vienna. Haydn met Therese Jansen during his first trip to London and admired her playing. He composed at least two (and probably all three) of his last solo sonatas for her, and later dedicated three piano trios to her as well. They apparently became good friends, for he served as a witness at her wedding to Gaetano Bartolozzi in London in May 1795. If the E-flat major sonata is any indicator, Miss Jansen (as she is identified in Haydn’s correspondence) must have had a formidable technique. The sonata bristles with big chords, extended phrases in parallel thirds, rapid repeated notes, octave passages, crossed hands, and brisk passage work demanding evenness of touch. Dynamics change rapidly. One needs both pianistic control and a responsive instrument. The heroic opening to the first movement is an outgrowth of the French overture. That, and the theatrical gestures that follow, make a statement that this is very public music. The sonata’s three movements are startlingly different in character, warranting wholesale gear-shifting to accommodate the music’s personalities. The Adagio, in the astonishing key of E major—astonishing for its tonal and emotional distance from E-flat major—requires an interpreter who can meld rhythmic precision with intense expressivity. The rhythms are complex and detailed, sometimes with florid ornamentation

that foreshadows Chopinesque flights of fancy. Haydn also uses unisons to dramatic effect, their unexpected spare sound adding to the eloquence. The finale is Haydn at his wittiest, teasing us even as to what key we are in at the beginning. Repeated notes, sudden stops, and broken chords that dart between the two hands add to the sparkle. Power, delicacy, and moments of lingering expressivity all manifest themselves in this sonata. The boldness of its harmonic relationships and the blazing celebration of high classic technique mark it as perhaps Haydn’s greatest keyboard composition. Ballade No. 2 in F Major, Op. 38 Frédéric-François Chopin (1810-1849) The ballade is an ancient form in both music and poetry, with origins extending back to the late Middle Ages. In German romantic literature, a ballade was a narrative poem or song. Instrumental works with the title generally had some association with a literary model. Chopin’s Ballades are thought to be responses to the poetry of his older countryman Adam Mickiewicz (1798-1855). Mickiewicz published Poezja I, his first volume of verse, in 1822. It contained ballades and romances, with a preface outlining his reasons for embracing these Western European literary forms and arguing to make them part of Polish literary currency. His collection resonated strongly in Polish cultural and intellectual circles, for Mickiewicz was an outspoken advocate of Polish freedom. His nationalist activities led to his arrest and imprisonment by Russian authorities in 1823. He spent the next six years in Russia, where his circle of friends included Pushkin. Even absent from Warsaw, however, Mickiewicz remained a potent political force in Poland.

Adam Mickiewicz, Polish poet The Elements of a Season 2009|10

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We do not know exactly which of Mickiewicz’s ballades inspired Chopin, though he purportedly acknowledged beginning the Second Ballade after reading Mickiewicz’s Le Lac de Willis. (The poem, Mickiewicz’s version of the Undine legend, is also known as “The Enchanted Lake.”) As an educated Pole with a broad knowledge of literature, Chopin would have been well acquainted with Mickiewicz’s verse as well as ballades by other Polish contemporary poets. Eventually he met Mickiewicz and they became friends.

Chopin began work on the Second Ballade in 1836, completing it in Mallorca in early 1839. It bears a dedication to Robert Schumann, who had famously heralded Chopin as a genius when he first became acquainted with the young Pole’s music. Chopin was presumably expressing his appreciation to an important mentor.

All of Chopin’s Ballades are assumed to have a nationalist subtext. It is difficult to pinpoint a specific narrative message in the Ballades, however, because Chopin eschewed overtly programmatic music. Dramatic effect, rather than a specific story line, is the force behind the F Major Ballade. As James Parakilas has written: “He unfold[s] his story as a ballad unfolds it: through a complex of voices, the voice of a narrator and the voices of the characters.” The opening harks back to the land of make-believe, a naïve, rocking idea with almost static harmony that verges on modality. After some tentative, repeated notes, the melody enters discreetly, as if to avoid disturbing others already present. The mood is dreamy, removed, private.

Ravel’s Miroirs launched an intensely creative period for him that lasted from 1905 to 1908. He acknowledged the work’s importance in his brief biographical sketch, describing it as “a collection of piano pieces that mark a change in my harmonic development that is so profound that they have put many musicians out of countenance who up to that point have been the most familiar with my style.”

Chopin shatters this reverie with an explosion that surges toward the center of the keyboard from its extremes. There is no preparation; the outburst, marked Presto con fuoco, comes from nowhere. Maurice Ravel This agitated episode combines a powerful melodic line in octaves with demanding passage work in both hands. The extreme contrast between this and the opening music forms the basis for the Ballade. Chopin alternates the two ideas, ultimately integrating them, each impinging on the other’s turf. Thus, his initial return to the folk-like siciliana subtly increases the tension, since we suspect that another outburst is lurking in the wings. Indeed, it breaks upon us with great force, this time achieved by reversing the surge away from the center of the keyboard. This restatement is longer and more dramatic the second time around. Consequently, the dramatic momentum increases steadily throughout the Ballade, rather than being reserved for the conclusion. Chopin fulfills the prophecy of that momentum with a stunning and virtuosic coda—but his final measures revert to the opening idea, now somber and subdued in A minor. It is the only one of the four Ballades that ends quietly. 62

Three movements from Miroirs Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

Each of the five movements was dedicated to a different member of Les Apaches—the name translates roughly to “the hooligans”—a group of artists and writers with whom Ravel was closely associated from about 1901 until the First World War. The work’s overall title, however, suggests a more personal view—reflections, as it were, of the composer’s own moods, impressions, and psychological states. Mr. Prutsman opens with Une barque sur l’océan (“A Boat on the Ocean”): classic impressionist water music, here a seascape. Water played a significant role in the subconscious dream world of the French Symbolist poets, who were influential on Ravel and the other members of Les Apaches. At its most basic level, Une barque sur l’océan is a barcarolle, but its rhythms shift after Ravel establishes the gentle undulation of the waves. His writing is a textural miracle, making a veritable orchestra of the keyboard. The left hand is like a harp, the right hand like a woodwind section. Embedded between them is a third layer, a mid-range melody—French horn, perhaps?—that resurfaces periodically. We sense the waves via Ravel’s swirling arpeggios, and the gusting wind as the ship navigates rougher waters. The harmonic journey is as unstable as Ravel’s supple rhythms, rooted in A major but sailing through multiple other key centers and some whole tone currents along the way. Ravel dedicated this movement to the painter Paul Sordes.

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The dedicatee of Alborada del Gracioso was Dmitri-Michel Calvocoressi, a musicologist. Alborada’s title, which has been translated both as “Morning Song of the Jester” and “The Fool’s Aubade,” refers to a facetious stock character in Spanish comedy. Pianistically, it is the most virtuosic movement in Miroirs. Calvocoressi called it “a big, independent scherzo in the manner of Chopin and Balakirev,” and the great pianist Walter Gieseking considered it and Scarbo, from Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit, to be two of the most difficult piano works in the literature. The movement’s structure is essentially A-B-A. The first section emulates the strumming of guitars. The central section is a plaintive love lament. Rapid repeated notes enhance the rhythmic impetus and unmistakable Spanish flavor; double glissandi add to the atmosphere—and the Alborada’s dazzling character. Vallée des cloches (“Valley of the Bells”) closes Miroirs and this evening’s first half. Debussy’s Cloches à travers les feuilles (“Bells through the Leaves”) from Images Book I preceded this movement by one year; his prelude La cathédrale engloûtie (“The Sunken Cathedral”) followed Miroirs by four years. In fact there is also an earlier piece by Ravel that is precedent for this bell-inspired movement: his unfinished La cloche engloûtie (“The Sunken Clock”) for voice and piano, which may have been a sketch for an opera. While the title implies a rural setting, Ravel told the great French pianist Robert Casadesus that he was inspired by urban church bells, specifically those that rang in Paris at noontime. Like the other movements of Miroirs, it is a tone poem for piano. We hear bells tolling in the distance, creating a poetic, reverent atmosphere. The static repetition of the chimes yields to a melting Ravelian melody in the central F-minor section. Vallée des cloches was dedicated to French composer and pianist Maurice Delage—a student of Ravel. English Suite No. 6 in D Minor, BWV 811 Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Bach composed three great sets of solo harpsichord music: the French suites, the so-called English suites, and the Partitas (which, for the sake of geographical diversity of nomenclature, we may think of as Italian suites). Only the Partitas were published during his lifetime, but then again, very little of Bach’s music was published in his day. The French and English suites are earlier than the Partitas. In fact, all three groups are French in style. The very nature of an instrumental suite— the preferred vehicle for solo instrumental music in the early eighteenth century—was French. Each component movement was a familiar dance that would have been readily recognizable to Bach’s contemporaries. What makes Bach’s suites so extraordinary is his adaptation of his own academic and pedagogical German style with

the French dances, even occasionally incorporating graceful melodies and textures he had learned from his older Italian contemporaries. Bach may not have traveled extensively, but he studied others’ music voraciously, and was eager to experiment with their ideas and techniques in his own music. The keyboard suites demonstrate how well he succeeded. The six “English Suites” acquired their rather unsuitable nickname because of a single page in a manuscript copy—not an autographed copy—that is labeled fait pour les anglais (done for the English). Were they a commission from an English nobleman in Germany? Was the copyist planning to send the music to some British musicians? Or did Bach’s youngest son, Johann Christian, simply mark them that way when he went to live in London? We will likely never know, and the issue is moot since the designation is not Bach’s. Even the chronology of these works is somewhat uncertain. They probably date from about 1715, when Bach was still working in Weimar, and before he was engaged by Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen, the prince in whose service he wrote so much of his instrumental music. Each English Suite begins with an extended Prelude whose structure resembles that of a concerto grosso movement. It is followed by a series of dances in the same key, including courante, sarabande, allemande, plus a “wild card” dance that changes with each suite (in the D minor suite that Mr. Prutsman plays, it is a gavotte/musette), and a concluding gigue. With the exception of the Prelude, all the movements are in clear binary (twopart) form, with each part repeated. In the case of the gavotte/ musette—both of which are also in binary form, with each part repeated—the gavotte is repeated after the musette is played, like a minuet/trio in a symphony or sonata. The suites were all intended for the harpsichord. Although the fortepiano was invented in Bach’s lifetime, if he knew early versions of the new instrument, he certainly had no acquaintance with the large concert grands of today. Nevertheless, pianists enjoy playing his keyboard music as much as harpsichordists, because the literature is so fine and because the technical mastery Bach demands is very satisfying. The D-minor suite is noteworthy for its extraordinary Prelude, the most extensive in the six English Suites. Bach composed an arpeggiated slow introduction preceding the main Allegro. This enormous, compound movement feels like a prelude and fugue played without pause. Both the Courante and the Gavotte feature walking bass lines, an Italianate trait that Bach merges with French-style melodies. His Sarabande includes a double, a type of variation adding ornamentation to the texture of the original. This double includes an unusual instance of hemiola (a cross-rhythm that temporarily imposes duple meter in a triple meter movement). The concluding Gigue combines intricate three-part The Elements of a Season 2009|10

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counterpoint, a high degree of chromaticism, and challenging ornaments for the keyboard interpreter. Three movements from Pétrouchka Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) Pétrouchka (1911) is the second of the three ballets written for Sergei Diaghilev’s troupe that collectively established Stravinsky’s reputation as the most gifted Russian composer of his generation. It was preceded by The Firebird (1910) and followed by The Rite of Spring (1913). Following the premiere of Firebird, Stravinsky’s initial thought was to write a concert piece for piano and orchestra. In his 1936 autobiography, Chroniques de ma vie (“Chronicles of My Life”), he wrote: I had in my mind a distinct picture of a puppet, suddenly endowed with life, exasperating the patience of the orchestra with diabolical cascades of arpeggios. The orchestra in turn retaliates. . . . The outcome is a terrific noise which reaches its climax and ends in the sorrowful and querulous collapse of the poor puppet. Shortly afterward, when Diaghilev heard him play through the new concert piece, he suggested that Stravinsky expand the tale of the suffering puppet into another ballet. He was particularly intrigued by the interplay between piano and orchestra, with the piano symbolizing the puppet. Stravinsky did preserve the prominent role of the piano, and one aspect of Pétrouchka’s impact was an increased importance and acceptance of the piano as a member of the orchestra. The story of Pétrouchka takes place at the Shrovetide Fair, an annual Easter festival in St. Petersburg’s Admiralty Square. The tale unfolds on two levels: one is personal melodrama and deals with a private tragedy; the other is a public carnival and a more kaleidoscopic view of the Russian people. The relationship between these two levels, both musically and psychologically, makes Pétrouchka a comment on the isolation and insignificance of the individual. Stravinsky arranged these three solo piano paraphrases in summer 1921 for Artur Rubinstein. The Polish-born pianist first saw Pétrouchka in 1914 when the Ballets Russes toured in London and was enchanted. In his autobiography, My Young Years, he recalled “. . . the orchestra produced an orgy of the most authentic Russian sound since Moussorgsky.” He met Stravinsky shortly afterward and the two became fast friends. In 1919, Stravinsky composed his Piano Rag Music for Rubinstein. The fifteen-minute Pétrouchka suite became a signature bravura work for Rubinstein, who introduced the Three Move64

ments in 1924 and kept them in his repertoire until 1961. He famously quipped that proposing to a beautiful young woman required only slightly more courage than playing Pétrouchka at the piano. The pieces are heroic in their physical demands, requiring stamina and endurance as well as Herculean technique. For example, Danse Russe opens shotgun with rapid chords— four notes in one hand, five in the other—followed by the generous peppering of glissandi, fleet octave passages, wide leaps, and dense cascades of notes. The music comes from the ballet’s first scene, a dance for the three principal characters. Chez Pétrouchka takes place in Pétrouchka’s cell. It features the so-called “Pétrouchka motive.” Both hands play an arpeggio, but one is in C major, the other in F-sharp, tonalities diametrically opposed on the circle of fifths. The sound is queerly acidic: each line sweet and innocuous if perceived independently, but intensely pungent in simultaneous polytonal execution. Stravinsky’s bitonal arpeggios and agitated cadenzas communicate the character’s misery and distress; the folk-like quieter passages remind us that even hapless puppets have feelings. La semaine grasse plunges us into the chaos of the Shrovetide Fair during carnival week. Stravinsky brings the hubbub and opulence of the fair to life: the rides, the shows, the trinket and snack sellers hawking their wares. Its sequential dances draw liberally on Russian folk songs. The transcription omits Petrouchka’s death and spectral reappearance; nevertheless, this is the most extended and ambitious of the Three Movements. As in the first two, Stravinsky frequently resorts to three staves for the printed music, another indication of the score’s density and complexity. Program Notes by Laurie Shulman ©2009

Pétrouchka by Michael Parkes

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prestigious music centers in New York City, Chicago, Boston, Brussels, Berlin, Geneva, Moscow, Mexico City, Santiago, Johannesburg, and Tokyo, to name but a few. Mr. Prutsman first won international recognition as a medalist at the 1990 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition, where he received special awards for his performance of Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, and Prokofiev. The following year he was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant and received a medal in the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition of Belgium. Active as a composer and arranger, Mr. Prutsman has seen several of his arrangements performed and recorded by leading musicians throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia, including the Kronos Quartet, Dawn Upshaw, Leon Fleisher, and Yo-Yo Ma. His arrangements are featured on the Kronos Quartet’s 2003 Grammy-nominated CD, Nuevo. Yo-Yo Ma performed and recorded Prutsman’s arrangements for The Silk Road Project, Sony Records and Japanese television. Future projects include works for Kronos’ upcoming Visual Music concerts and vocal/piano arrangements for Dawn Upshaw of popular music from the 1960s.

Stephen Prutsman Hailed as “one of the finest American pianists of his generation,” Stephen Prutsman is one of the most versatile and brilliant pianists of today. Active as an orchestra soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, composer and conductor, Mr. Prutsman’s artistry has been acclaimed by critics and audiences worldwide. In January 2004, he was appointed by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra as one of their new Artistic Partners for the next three concert seasons, beginning in 2004-05. In this role, Prutsman’s duties included concert programming, performing and leading the SPCO from the keyboard, performing chamber music, and writing two commissions performed by the orchestra during the 2004-05 season. Mr. Prutsman’s solo engagements have included appearances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Minnesota Orchestra, and the Colorado, Baltimore, Detroit, Dallas, Houston, Omaha, and Seattle Symphonies. Overseas, he has made numerous appearances with such orchestras as the Belgian National Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Flanders Philharmonic, the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra, the Bremen Chamber Orchestra, and the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra. As a recitalist, he has performed in

Mr. Prutsman’s award-winning compositions include Dramatis Personae for clarinet and string quartet, which won first prize at the 2001 ICA International Composition Competition. Other works have been premiered by the Sinfonia of Colorado, Todd Palmer and the St. Lawrence String Quartet, and the Opus Chamber Orchestra, among others. Mr. Prutsman has received exceptional acclaim as a recording artist. His latest release of Barber’s Piano Concerto with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra was called “breathtaking” by Time Out New York. He is also heard frequently on National Public Radio’s Performance Today, and on numerous syndicated and local radio programs across the United States and abroad, including performances on the CBC, Berlin Radio, Radio France, and BBC London. A former student of Aube Tzerko and Leon Fleisher, Stephen Prutsman studied at the University of California at Los Angeles and the Peabody Conservatory of Music. He has served the American Pianists Association as Fellow, Adjudicator, and as Artistic Consultant. For more information visit www.StephenPrutsman.com Stephen Prutsman appears by arrangement of California Artists Management.

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special presentation

Behzod Abduraimov & Stanislav Ioudenitch Friday, March 5 | 8 pm | The Folly Theater

CHOPIN

SAINT-SAËNS/ LISZT/HOROWITZ

LISZT

CHOPIN

LISZT/BUSONI

24 Préludes, Op. 28 C Major: Agitato A Minor: Lento G Major: Vivace E Minor: Largo D Major: Allegro molto B Minor: Lento assai A Major: Andantino F-sharp Minor: Molto agitato E Major: Largo C-sharp Minor: Allegro molto B Major: Vivace G-sharp Minor: Presto F-sharp Major: Lento E-flat Minor: Allegro D-flat Major: Sostenuto (“Raindrop Prélude”) B-flat Minor: Presto con fuoco A-flat Major: Allegretto F Minor: Molto allegro E-flat Major: Vivace C Minor: Largo B-flat Major: Cantabile G Minor: Molto agitato F Major: Moderato D Minor: Allegro appassionato Danse macabre

Behzod Abduraimov

Transcendental Etude No. 8 in C Minor, “Wilde Jagd”

Waltz in A Minor, Op. 34, No. 2 Waltz in D-flat Major, Op. 64, No. 1, “Minute” Waltz in C-sharp Minor, Op. 64, No. 2 Waltz in A-flat Major, Op. 42 Fantasia on Two Themes from Mozart’s opera Le nozze di Figaro

Stanislav Ioudenitch

RACHMANINOFF

Suite No. 2 for Two Pianos, Op. 17 Introduction: Alla marcia Valse: Presto Romance: Andantino Tarantelle: Presto

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This concert is supported, in part, by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

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24 Préludes, Op. 28 Frédéric-François Chopin (1810-1849) Twenty-four preludes; no fugues. In his 1948 monograph on Chopin, the French writer André Gide famously asked, “Preludes to what?” about Chopin’s Opus 28. Indeed, these preludes confounded Chopin’s contemporaries as well, including Schumann and Liszt, who were baffled by their brevity. Liszt seems to have better grasped their inherent poetry and the fact that they were, as a cycle, far greater than the sum of 24 individual parts. Historically, keyboard preludes were either paired with fugues, or combined with several succeeding movements in the same key as in a suite. As the term implies, a prelude was a precursor, an introduction to something additional that followed— generally something more important than the prelude itself. In grouping these 24 together, Chopin was breaking from pianistic tradition by making them the main event. In effect, he was elevating the miniature piano piece to loftier status. Yet he did not completely divorce himself from tradition. As in the case of Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier, he included one prelude in every major and minor key of the chromatic scale. The difference is not only that there are no fugues (Bach’s magnum opus consists of a prelude and fugue in each tonality), but also in the tonal arrangement of the 24 preludes. Rather than proceeding in ascending chromatic order, as Bach does—C major, C minor, C-sharp major, C-sharp minor, D major, and so forth—Chopin moves through the circle of fifths, coupling each major prelude with its relative minor instead of its parallel minor. Thus, the order is C major, A minor, G major, E minor, D major, and so on.

Program Notes

those that are technically less demanding retain their poetic perfection, and all the preludes are exceptionally idiomatic for the piano.

Another aspect that varies widely is length. Eight of the preludes are musical aphorisms, under a minute in length; another seven clock in right at, or just under, two minutes (no. 15, “Raindrop,” is the longest of the set). Brevity does not mean lack of substance or intensity, however. Chopin packs fire and passion into some of his preludes, heartbreak and tragedy into others. The cumulative impact is greater than any sampling could be. In their entirety, the Préludes must be considered among Chopin’s greatest works. Danse macabre, d’après Camille Saint-Saëns Franz Liszt (1811-1886) Arranged by Vladimir Horowitz (1903-1989) As if it weren’t confusing enough having three composers listed for this work, it is essential to add a fourth contributor into the mix: the poet Henri Cazalis (1840-1909), whose verse was the original source of inspiration for Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921). Generally grouped with the so-called Parnassian poets, Cazalis is best remembered as having been a close friend of Stéphane Mallarmé; however, his own poetry was highly regarded in France in the latter part of the 19th century. In 1872, Saint-Saëns set two of Cazalis’s poems: “Dans ton coeur” and “Égalité, fraternité.”

If this sounds puzzling to those not conversant with music theory, there is a broader logic perceptible even to the nonspecialist. Subtle tonal links connect the preludes so that, when played in succession as Mr. Abduraimov does this evening, they flow from one to the next. Chopin achieves contrast through changes of tempo, meter, dynamic, texture, chromaticism within each home tonality and, above all, mood. Indeed, the variety within these 24 preludes is quite astonishing. Collectively, they span a range from intimate drawing room pieces to the most daunting concert finale. Audience members will recognize several of the slow preludes, for example no. 4 in E minor, no. 6 in B minor, no. 15 in D-flat (the so-called “Raindrop” Prélude), and no. 20 in C minor, from the repertoire of intermediate student pianists. Yet a generous handful of others are as difficult as Chopin’s Etudes. Even

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The title of Cazalis’s “Égalité, fraternité” was a conscious reference to the French motto [Liberté, égalité, fraternité], coined during the Revolution. Cazalis’s poem depicts Death as a sinister fiddler, waking the dead in a graveyard and prompting cavorting and couplings that cross boundaries of social class. Driven by the music of the grim fiddler, the wealthy and powerful dance with the dregs of society. Death renders all humans equal. Saint-Saëns gravitated to Cazalis’s topic. At the time, he was also quite taken by the music of the Hungarian-born Franz Liszt, particularly Liszt’s music with Mephistophelian elements such as the Mephisto Waltzes and the Totentanz (Dance of Death). Saint-Saëns gave Cazalis’s poem a new title, Danse macabre, which he originally wrote for voice and orchestra. Within a year, he had rearranged it for obbligato violin and orchestra, adding tritones, the highly dissonant interval of an augmented fourth. Tritones were known in Medieval theory as the diabolus in musica, or the “devil in music,” and were prohibited by Medieval theorists. Saint-Saëns required that the violin be tuned scordatura (a tuning of the instrument other than the established norm) to enhance the supernatural element. The orchestra included xylophone for the first time in a serious symphonic composition. Saint-Saëns, of course, wanted to imitate the rattling of bones. At the premiere of the orchestral version in 1875, Danse macabre caused a ruckus. Both the orchestra and the audience were nonplussed by the weird sounds and the underlying, faintly dangerous message of the poem. The ensuing controversy was enough to guarantee its composer a Vladimir Horowitz degree of notoriety. By 1876 Danse macabre was a hit; Saint-Saëns soon wrote two additional arrangements of the work: one for violin and piano, and another for two pianos. Shortly after the work’s premiere, Franz Liszt, then aged 65 and dividing his time between Budapest and Germany, recognized a sure-fire audience pleaser and made his own arrangement of Danse macabre for solo piano. It was published in Paris in 1877 with a dedication to Sophie Menter, one of Liszt’s best female students. Grateful for the endorsement by the older master, Saint-Saëns played the Liszt arrangement in his own solo recitals. He also continued to conduct the orchestral version. 68

The young Russian pianist Vladimir Horowitz learned the Liszt/Saint-Saëns Danse macabre as a teenager. It was in his recital repertoire from the early 1920s and frequently closed his solo concerts. Occasionally he played it as an encore. His transcription, which adds more pyrotechnics such as interlocked octaves to the Liszt, dates from 1941. It was Horowitz’s first such transcription since the famous Carmen fantasy, which was written in 1923 and revised several times. Horowitz recorded his Danse macabre in Hollywood’s Republic Studios in 1942. Pianists rarely attempt his version. Transcendental Etude VIII in C Minor, “Wilde Jagd” Franz Liszt In all of Liszt’s voluminous output for piano—there are literally hundreds of original compositions and transcriptions—no piece is more focused on technical brilliance than the Douze Études d’éxécution transcendantes: twelve etudes of transcendental difficulty. Liszt’s goal was, in part, to match at the piano the technical wizardry of Paganini’s 24 Caprices for violin. He also sought to elevate the artistic level of his older contemporaries’ piano studies. As a youth, he had worked on collections of Études written by Muzio Clementi, Johann Baptist Cramer, and his teacher Carl Czerny. (Chopin was not to write his 24 études until the 1830s.) In the mid-1820s, Liszt wrote a series of his own; they were published in 1827. Over the next quarter century, Liszt returned to these études repeatedly, publishing an expanded version in 1839, then a third version with additional revisions in 1852. These refinements to the original pieces reflect both his increased sophistication as a composer and, equally important, advances in the engineering of pianos during those years. Not only did the standard keyboard expand to seven octaves by 1850, but the new instruments also had a richer tone, a broader dynamic range, better pedal mechanisms, and improved ease of repetition. With each set of revisions to what ultimately became his Transcendental Etudes, Liszt achieved a more symphonic approach to the piano. Wilde Jagd means “wild hunt.” The title occurs in the Brothers Grimm and is central to German Romantic legend. The hunt in question is always nocturnal and includes dangerous elements of the supernatural; the devil lurks in nighttime shadows. Wilde Jagd’s literary theme gripped composers for much of the 19th century, notably in the Wolf ’s Glen scene of

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Weber’s opera Der Freischütz (1821) and César Franck’s symphonic tone poem Le chasseur maudit (1882). Liszt assigned the subtitle “Wilde Jagd” to No. 8 in his third and final version of the Transcendental Etudes. Marked Presto furioso, Liszt’s “Wilde Jagd” is formidable: five minutes of concentrated tumult. The music is peppered with rapid octaves, massive chords, lightning fast leaps, and jagged syncopations that create a sense of menace. The quieter passages foreshadow the sensuous chromaticism of Wagner and Franck, but the lasting impression this piece leaves is one of brute strength, endurance, and merciless precision. Waltz in A Minor, Op. 34, No. 2 Waltz in D-flat Major, Op. 64, No. 1, “Minute” Waltz in C-sharp Minor, Op. 64, No. 2 Waltz in A-flat Major, Op. 42 Frédéric-François Chopin Aspiring young pianists usually obtain their first acquaintance with Chopin’s piano music through the waltzes. As a group, these waltzes are not destined for the ballroom, but are rather dances of the spirit. Most of them are intimate pieces, perhaps best appreciated in the privacy of one’s living room or for a small group of treasured friends. A few of the waltzes, however, are concert works requiring the same virtuosity and polish as Chopin’s larger compositions.

Opus 42 in A-flat falls somewhere in between a salon piece and a concert waltz. From its opening trill, we have a sense of momentousness. The play of two-against-three in its principal idea is étude-like, and some of the passage work is very flashy, yet the feeling of intimacy in this waltz persists. Robert Schumann called Opus 42 “a salon piece of the noblest kind; if he played it for dancers, Florestan [one of Schumann’s pen names] thinks half of the ladies should be countesses at least. And he is right, for Chopin’s waltz is aristocratic through and through.” [See the guide to Schumann’s Carnaval on page 82.] Fantasia on Two Themes from Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro Franz Liszt Completed by Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924) During the 19th century, composers took popular songs and arias from operas and arranged them for instruments: solo piano, one piano-four hands, and any number of chamber ensembles. This was an important way for popular music to reach a broader public in an era before radio broadcast or recordings. Franz Liszt made hundreds of transcriptions, often transforming the music into a virtuoso vehicle while making other composers’ music more widely known.

Mr. Ioudenitch has chosen representatives from both types. He opens with the intimate A Minor Waltz. Its simplicity is deceptive, with the melancholy melody allocated to an inner voice played by the left hand. Chopin’s uncluttered texture leaves the player perilously exposed. In the hands of a sensitive pianist, this waltz becomes a study in nuance and tone color. An interlude in C major toward the end—again with a left hand melody—provides an unexpected digression without compromising the waltz’s elegant proportions. According to the composer Stephen Heller, this was Chopin’s personal favorite among his waltzes. With its spinning perpetual motion, Op. 64, No.1 is surely the most celebrated of all Chopin’s waltzes. It derives its sparkle not exclusively from speed of execution, but from the reflected glitter of the salons for which such music was written. This is a waltz composed for sheer entertainment: fleet, pianistic, easy to love. Its companion piece, Op. 64, No. 2 in C-sharp Minor, uses a recurring refrain that serves as a unifying link between sections. In this case, the refrain is a slightly faster passage marked tempo giusto, with characteristic right hand passage work in fleet eighth notes. It makes for striking contrast to the nostalgic opening idea, with its lingering trill.

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His transcriptions divide into two principal types: literal transcriptions that are faithful to the original work; and free paraphrases that effectively recompose the original melodies, often adding new material. He transcribed opera themes by more than a dozen of his contemporaries—but only by one 18thcentury composer: Mozart. His Don Juan Fantaisie of 1841 is one of his finest compositions. The second, a Fantasia on Two Themes from The Marriage of Figaro, was begun in 1843. Although we know Liszt performed it in Berlin that year, he left the manuscript unfinished. The pianist and composer Ferruccio Busoni completed Liszt’s Fantasia in 1912. An extraordinarily imaginative thinker, Busoni was one of the most fascinating figures in early 20th-century music. The son of an Italian clarinet virtuoso and an Austrian pianist, he spent most of his youth in Austria, and was ultimately more Germanic than Italianate in his music and philosophy, although he remained fond of Italian culture. He showed enormous talent early and began to perform and compose when he was just a boy. He took his first composition lessons at age 13. Between 1881 and 1884, Busoni studied at the Accademia Filarmonica in Bologna, then lived in Vienna, Leipzig, Helsinki, Moscow, Boston, and New York. By the time he established a permanent home in Berlin in 1894, he was an internationally famous pianist. As a composer, Busoni’s evolution was somewhat rockier. He was heavily influenced by Bach, Schumann and Mendelssohn as a young man. Then at the turn of the century, he underwent an abrupt change of heart and became keenly interested in such innovators as Arnold Schoenberg and Béla Bartók. Liszt was a constant throughout his career, and Liszt’s music taught Busoni a great deal about how to write for the keyboard. He often observed, “Bach is the foundation of piano playing; Beethoven is the summit. The two make Liszt possible.” Liszt based his Fantasia on Figaro’s “Non più andrai” (“Now Your Days of Philandering Are Over”) and Cherubino’s “Voi che sapete” (“Tell Me What Love Is”), both from Act I of Mozart’s opera. The tunes are familiar; even the non-opera buff is likely to recognize them. The transition between the

two is ingenious, with teasing hints of Cherubino’s melody drawing us into the fantasy. Busoni fleshed out Liszt’s sketches, viewing each theme through the lens of a late 19th-century virtuoso and adding important interpretive suggestions. He also composed a bravura conclusion, which is missing in the original. He brings both grandeur and delicacy to the writing, returning to “Non più andrai” at the end for a climactic finale. Suite No. 2 for Two Pianos, Op. 17 Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) These days, if you were to ask a music lover what his or her favorite work by Rachmaninoff might be, the answer is most likely to be the Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 43. Specifically, people adore the 17th variation, which inverts Paganini’s celebrated theme, transforming it into a memorable love song—and making it Rachmaninoff ’s own. That same quality permeates his Second Piano Concerto, whose sweeping, lush themes seem to epitomize late romanticism in Russia. If that is the Rachmaninoff that moves you, you will love the Suite No. 2 for Two Pianos. It is almost exactly contemporary with the Second Piano Concerto, Op. 18, and the Sonata for Cello and Piano, Op. 19. The three works were published simultaneously and breathe the same spirit. Collectively, they constitute a major breakthrough for Rachmaninoff following an extended period of creative paralysis. The circumstances of this period are well known. When his First Symphony failed dismally in 1897, Rachmaninoff sank into a deep depression, doubting his ability to compose. Nearly three years elapsed during which he composed nothing. In the spring of 1900, his relatives, the Satins, sent him to Yalta, in the southern Crimea, for treatment by the renowned physician Dr. Nikolai Dahl, who specialized in hypnotism. Rachmaninoff stayed with his good friend, the operatic bass Fyodor Chaliapin, who invited the composer to accompany him to a country house outside Genoa for the summer months. Dr.

Rachmaninoff and the Two-Piano Literature Throughout Rachmaninoff ’s Second Suite, the interaction between the two keyboards is remarkable: intimate, playful, and flawlessly balanced. Rachmaninoff enjoyed playing two-piano literature throughout his life and composed two earlier works for the duo: the Russian Rhapsody of 1891 and the FantaisieTableaux, Op. 5 of 1893 (also known as the Suite No. 1). He took special care in this later work in the distribution and sharing of material. The Second Suite assumes a high level of skill from both players, but Rachmaninoff also ensured that, once mastered, the Suite is exceedingly enjoyable to perform. 70

The composer kept Op. 17 in his personal repertoire. He performed it with the conductor and pianist Alexander Siloti several times in 1910 and 1911. Late in life, after he had emigrated to the United States and settled in California, he played it on several occasions for pleasure in the private homes of friends. On those occasions, his partner at the second piano was Vladimir Horowitz. – L.S. ©2009

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Dahl’s treatment seems to have broken this crisis, for by the end of the summer, Rachmaninoff had drafted the second and third movements of his new piano concerto. Upon his return to Russia in August, Rachmaninoff rapidly completed the orchestration of the two movements, and was able to arrange a performance of them at a benefit concert in December. An enthusiastic reception from both audience and critics encouraged him to add a first movement for the concerto—and to begin work on a suite for two pianos. In February 1901, he showed three movements of the suite to his friend Alexander Borisovich Goldenveyser, also a pianist and the eventual dedicatee. By April the Second Piano Concerto and the suite were complete, and he was at work on a cello sonata. Rachmaninoff was impassioned. The floodgates had opened. Not surprisingly, these three works share a lot in common: extravagant romanticism, a profligate abundance of melodies, and that nostalgic sadness that is quintessentially Russian. The Introduction to the Op. 17 Suite is a bold march, stately and confident. A Waltz in perpetual motion follows. Swirling figuration is the underpinning for this study in syncopation and cross rhythms. Writers often remark on the Waltz’s rhythmic and stylistic indebtedness to the Op. 42 Waltz by Chopin that Mr. Ioudenitch played earlier in the concert. The principal theme of Rachmaninoff ’s Romance resembles one of his best known songs, “Lilacs,” Op. 21, No. 5—but the two-piano movement came first. The theme is elegantly decorated. At its climax, the resemblance to portions of the Second Piano Concerto are unmistakable. The Suite concludes with an athletic and furious Tarantella (Southern Italian folk dance in 6/8 time), whose principal theme Rachmaninoff is said to have found in an anthology of Italian songs. Here, the Neapolitan dance has a distinctly Russian accent and quicksilver moods. We shift from thunderous chords in one passage to delicate triplets in the next. Rachmaninoff ’s sure sense of dramatic pacing propels the finale, and the Suite, to a thrilling close. Program Notes by Laurie Shulman ©2009

George Sand

Chopin, George Sand, and the Prèludes Chopin fancied himself in love with a number of women during his brief life, notably Konstancja Gładkowska in Warsaw and, later, Maria Wodziska. In Paris, he became good friends with the singer Countess Delfina Potocka. The defining relationship of his adult years, however, was with the writer Aurore Dudevant (1804-1876), better known by her pseudonym, George Sand. The two were linked from autumn 1837 through 1847. After an unsuccessful early marriage at age 19, Sand embarked on a series of affairs. Her lovers in the 1830s included the novelist Prosper Mérimée and the poet Alfred de Musset. In 1837 she was involved in a liaison with the playwright Félicien Mallefille. When her interest in Chopin increased, she sent Mallefille to her country estate as a tutor to her children. She remained in Paris, ostensibly to write. There, she and Chopin were seeing more of each other. By April 1838, Chopin was the featured performer—and the big draw—at her Paris salon, and tongues were beginning to wag. The relationship appears The Elements of a Season 2009|10

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to have become intimate sometime during the summer of 1838. Returning to Paris in September, a mortified and angry Mallefille learned of the affair. His discovery forced the issue. Chopin had an aversion to scandal and was in any case physically frail. The consumption that would eventually take his life had already been diagnosed. He and Sand left Paris separately in October, meeting two weeks later in Perpignan after she had collected her children. Their destination was the Spanish Mediterranean island of Majorca, which they had been told had a favorable climate during the winter months. They arranged for a piano to be shipped to them by the Parisian firm of Pleyel. The 27-year-old composer traveled lightly. He brought with him a few volumes of Bach, blank music paper, and some unfinished manuscripts, including the Préludes; the Scherzo No. 3 in C-sharp Minor, Op. 39; and the Ballade No. 2 in F Major, Op. 38. Despite good weather upon their arrival, Chopin soon fell ill. Creature comforts were lacking. The abandoned monastery at Valldemosa that they had rented turned out to be drafty and damp. Local doctors summoned from Palma to treat the ailing composer gave gloomy prognoses. Locals were fearful of consumption and disapproved of the unconventional living arrangements. Sand reported in letters that she and Chopin were treated like outcasts. The piano that Pleyel had promised was delayed in port, and the weather turned nasty. By now, Chopin was gravely ill; he was racked by bouts of coughing and spitting blood, and was very weak. In February, the party decamped for the Spanish mainland with plans to return to France. Somehow, even in these taxing conditions, Chopin managed to complete the Préludes. In early January, he sent the finished manuscript to Paris to his friend Julian Fontana for copying and delivery to the publisher. He promised that a Ballade, a Polonaise, and a Scherzo would follow in a few weeks. Sand reported to her friend Countess Carlotta Marliani, “I have the feeling that his whole being is too delicate, too exquisite, and too perfect to exist long in our coarse and heavy earthly life. In Majorca, when sick unto death, he composed music full of the scent of Paradise. . . . He doesn’t really know on what planet he is living.” Few of the Préludes waft “the scent of Paradise,” and we know that Chopin had composed many of these 24 pieces before he and Sand slipped out of Paris. Nevertheless, he did finish them in Majorca, and they are forever associated with that ill-fated winter sojourn.

Behzod Abduraimov

The Grand Prize winner of the London International Piano Competition 2009, Behzod Abduraimov was born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, in 1990 and began to play the piano at the age of five. He was a pupil of Tamara Popovich at the Uspensky State Central Lyceum in Tashkent, and since 2007 is pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree at the International Center for Music at Park University, Kansas City studying with Prof. Stanislav Ioudenitch. In April 2009, Behzod achieved a sensational victory in the London International Piano Competition. He gave an electrifying performance of Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 at the Royal Festival Hall with the London Philharmonic Orchestra bringing the audience to their feet for a standing ovation— and was unanimously awarded the Grand Prize. Since 2004, Behzod has been invited to perform every year at the Spivakov International Charity Foundation in Moscow and from 2005 at the International Keyboard Institute & Festival in New York City and the International Summer Piano Academy in Como, Italy. As a result of his success in the London International Piano Competition, Behzod Abduraimov has received great critical acclaim and subsequently been invited to perform with the Royal Philharmonic and the English Chamber Orchestras this season. He will give his London Philharmonic Orchestra and Wigmore Hall debuts in 2010 and has been invited to record a solo CD on the Naxos label.

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Stanislav Ioudenitch Pianist Stanislav Ioudenitch is widely regarded for his strong individuality and musical conviction. His artistry won him the Gold Medal at the 11th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition (2001), where he also took home the Steven De Groote Memorial Award for Best Performance of Chamber Music. Born in 1971 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Ioudenitch has netted prizes at the Busoni, Kapell, Maria Callas, and New Orleans competitions, among others. A former student of Dmitri Bashkirov, he also studied with Leon Fleisher, Murray Perahia, Karl Ulrich Schnabel, William Grant Naboré and Rosalyn Tureck at the International Piano Foundation in Como, Italy (the current International Piano Academy Lake Como). He subsequently became the youngest teacher ever invited to give master classes at the Academy. Ioudenitch has collaborated with James Conlon, James DePreist, Günther Herbig, Asher Fisch, Stefan Sanderling, Michael Stern, Carl St. Clair and Justus Franz, with such orchestras as the Munich Philhamonic, the National Symphony in Washington, D.C., the Rochester Philharmonic, the Honolulu Symphony and the National Philharmonic of Russia. He has also performed with the Takács, Pražák, Borromeo and Accorda Quartets and is a founding member of the Park Piano Trio. He has performed at Carnegie Hall in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the Gasteig in Munich, the Conservatorio Verdi in Milan, the International Performing Arts Center in Moscow, Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing, the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Bass Hall in Fort Worth, Jordan Hall at the New England Conservatory, Orange County Performing Arts Center in California and the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado. Ioudenitch’s recordings include Stanislav Ioudenitch, Gold Medalist, 11th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition for Harmonia Mundi and Trois Mouvements de Pétrouchka produced by Thomas Frost. He also appeared in Playing on the Edge, Peter Rosen’s Peabody Award-winning documentary for PBS about the 2001 Van Cliburn competition and in the PBS Concerto series. In addition to Lake Como, he has led master classes at the Cliburn-TCU Piano Institute in Fort Worth, Stanford University, Cornell University, the National University in Seoul and Miami’s International Institute for Young Musicians. Recently his passion to teach has found expression in the forming of the International Center for Music and the Youth Conservatory of Music at Park University near Kansas City, where he is Artistic Director and Associate Professor of Music and Piano. Ioudenitch was educated at the Uspensky School of Music in Tashkent, the Tashkent State Conservatory “M. Ashrafi” (the current Uzbek State Conservatory), the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofia in Madrid, the International Piano Foundation in Como, the Cleveland Institute of Music and the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He lives in Overland Park, Kansas with his wife, pianist Tatiana Ioudenitch and their daughter, Maria.

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Artemis String Quartet Friday, March 12 | 8 pm | The Folly Theater Natalia Prischepenko, violin Gregor Sigl, violin Friedemann Weigle, viola Eckart Runge, cello

BEETHOVEN

String Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 127, No. 12 Maestoso: Allegro Adagio, ma non troppo e molto cantabile Scherzando vivace Allegro

BEETHOVEN

String Quartet in C Major, Op. 59, No. 3, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Razumovskyâ&#x20AC;? Andante con moto: Allegro vivace Andante con moto quasi Allegretto Menuetto: Grazioso Allegro molto

This concert is supported, in part, by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. This concert is supported, in part, by the ArtsKC Fund 74

Financial assistance for this project has been provided, in part, by The Missouri Arts Council, a state agency.

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This evening’s all-Beethoven program concludes this season’s sampler of the German master’s quartets. The Artemis String Quartet has chosen to pair late Beethoven with middle-period Beethoven. The opening work, Quartet No. 12 in E-flat, is surely the most endearing of the last quartets, by turns melodious, witty, quirky, tender and noble. By contrast, the marvelous C Major Quartet, Op. 59, No. 3 is extroverted and confident, fusing elements of Beethoven’s trademark “heroic” style to jovial spirits and the occasional flash of outrageous humor. Variations and counterpoint interested Beethoven throughout his life. Superb examples exist ranging from his early compositions to the very last works. This program also showcases two examples. The E-flat quartet boasts a sublime set of variations. The dizzying fugue that concludes the C major quartet, with its extravagant writing for all four players, is one of the most exhilarating rides in all chamber music.

Program Notes

Clearly a quartet was taking shape in his mind’s ear. By the time Galitzin’s letter arrived, the crafty composer had feelers out elsewhere in Germany and in London as to possible sales outlets for the still-unwritten quartet.

Such commercial details shed no light on the music, but they do remind us that Beethoven had a living to earn, even at this late stage of his remarkable career. Galitzin ultimately had to wait two years for Beethoven to fulfill his agreement; both the Diabelli Variations and the Ninth Symphony intervened. Beethoven finally completed the E-flat Quartet, Op. 127, in February 1825. Schott published it in June 1826. Op. 127 would be the only one of the late quartets to be published in Beethoven’s lifetime. Marion Scott pointed out, in her landmark 1934 biography of the composer, that Beethoven had spent years working with the Catholic Mass before he began work on these quartets. Life in its metaphysical reality had become clear to him. Beethoven’s last five string quartets emanate from this metaphysical world. They are not to be understood lightly. To approach them chronologically through his ninth symphony is to come to them blindfolded.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

String Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 127, No. 12 Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) Late in 1822, the Russian Prince Nikolai Galitzin, an amateur cellist who admired Beethoven’s music, wrote to the composer from St. Petersburg offering a commission for one, two or three quartets. “I will accept the dedication with gratitude,” he stated. Two months elapsed before Beethoven responded. Certainly he was interested in the Prince’s proposal, but he was immersed in work finalizing the Missa Solemnis, and did not turn his attention to string quartets for a while. Historically, Galitzin has been credited with catalyzing the late quartets by encouraging the crusty composer’s return to chamber music after a considerable hiatus. It’s a great story, but the truth is more mundane. The Leipzig publisher Carl Friedrich Peters had corresponded with Beethoven six months before Galitzin’s letter, requesting chamber music. To entice Peters and other publishing suitors, Beethoven was negotiating using his forthcoming Mass as a carrot. As it turned out, Peters was more interested in a piano quartet than a string quartet. Beethoven drove a shrewd bargain, holding out for more money for the string work.

They are best entered direct[ly] through the two masses. They have become the testament of modern music. From them derive the methods which Wagner expanded to such glorious purpose in his Ring, Tristan, and Parsifal; in them may be found the principles of César Franck’s thematic metamorphosis and cyclical development; in the bare, sparing technique of Beethoven’s last F-major quartet is the presage of Bartók, Stravinsky, and all the schools of economists. . . . Her observations hold true today, more than a half century after she first published them. It is a daunting legacy she describes, but not a fearsome one. The E-flat Quartet, Op. 127, is in many ways the most ingratiating and accessible of all Beethoven’s late quartets. Throughout Beethoven’s career, he employed the keys of E-flat major and its relative minor, C minor, for music of nobility and heroism. Such character is particularly evident in major middle period works: the Eroica (E-flat major) and Fifth (C minor) Symphonies, the Coriolan Overture (C minor), the Third and Fifth (“Emperor”) Piano Concerti (C minor and Eflat major respectively). One could certainly argue for nobility in the broad opening measures of the late E-flat major quartet, sonorously intoning the chords that establish the key. The Elements of a Season 2009|10

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On balance, however, Opus 127 is more melodious than magisterial, more intimate than self-important. Largely absent are the sweeping gestures and abrupt surprises of the middle-period compositions. The first movement alternates leisurely between the Maestoso opening and a gentle Allegro in triple time marked teneramente [“tenderly”]. In a curious way, Beethoven blurs the lines that would ordinarily distinguish these two sections. The introduction recurs in two different keys, becoming a seamless part of the first movement. By its pianissimo conclusion, the two sections in different tempi have melded into a common, spiritual message. Beethoven thus sets the stage for a splendid and moving variations set. By definition, variations offer unlimited possibilities. They intrigued Beethoven his entire life. Late in his career, his fascination with the form increased. In addition to the Diabelli set, variations surface with regularity: in the last piano sonatas, these string quartets, the Ninth Symphony. Part of what makes their occurrence so remarkable is the prevalence of slow movement variations. Even more noteworthy is their depth of expression. Somehow in the restatement of a basic harmonic rhythm and the decoration of a theme, Beethoven found the next world. His subtle and probing exploration of ideas takes on greater weight perhaps because he gives us a little more time to process it, through the comparatively relaxed pace of a slow movement. Tenderness and lyricism, which predominated in the first movement, continue, with an unexpected foray into the world of dance (a bumptious variation in 4/4 time) and distant key centers (a sublime Adagio molto espressivo in E major!). Beethoven’s texture is rich with exquisite detail, eloquently decorated by trills and a marvelous interplay of duets within the larger context of the quartet. At 15 minutes, this slow movement is the emotional heart of Opus 127. A Scherzando vivace transports the listener from the heavenly back to the worldly. Four quiet pizzicato chords whirl us onto the dance floor; a motive in dotted rhythm keeps us there. Lest we become too comfortable, Beethoven interjects periodically brief segments in 2/4 time. By jarring the regularity of the brisk 3/4 meter, he keeps us on our toes, so to speak; it is a reminder that startling contrast is still in his repertoire. Still, the overriding message of this quartet is lyricism, which dominates the gentle sway of the finale. Beethoven’s themes are straightforward and danceable. So jovial is the music as to remind us of a rustic village band. No country band would be so sophisticated in its modulations, but sly Beethoven cloaks his tonal games in effortless simplicity. This is wonderful music indeed.

String Quartet in C Major, Op. 59, No. 3, “Razumovsky” Ludwig van Beethoven When the three quartets of Op. 59 were first performed by the Schuppanzigh Quartet in Vienna in 1806, both the performers and the audience were mystified, and the overall reaction to the new works was negative. The third quartet fared somewhat better than the others, probably because of its reflective nature. More than either of the other two, this quartet harks back to the revered traditions of quartet writing in the late 18th century. Though unmistakably imprinted with Beethoven’s dramatic hand and heroic style, its reference—and its deference—to Haydn and Mozart are readily discernible, and clearly were to Beethoven’s contemporaries as well. A mysterious introduction opens the work, marked Andante con moto perhaps as a joke by the composer, for there is little motion of any sort in its 29 measures. There is, however, a marked parallel to be drawn to the Mozart Quartet K. 365, also in C, called the “Dissonant.” Like Mozart in the earlier work, Beethoven passes briefly through many keys, prior to settling in with a sunny, sprightly main theme firmly planted in C major, and an unusually untroubled Allegro vivace. Musicians and scholars alike have always been fascinated with the A-minor slow movement to this quartet. Initially its lilting 6/8 meter hints at a Venetian boat song, or perhaps a siciliana. But the mournfulness which permeates this movement, so effectively established by the cello’s pizzicato, is Slavic in nature. Beethoven chose to use actual Russian folk tunes only in the first two quartets. This movement was possibly his attempt at endowing the music with a Russian “feel.” Is it the most effective use of “Russian” music because it embodies Beethoven’s perception of the Russian spirit? Regardless of what Count Razumovsky may have thought, the movement is mesmerizing. It holds our attention with its graceful insistence on rhythmic continuity. Beethoven chooses not to deviate from the 6/8 pattern. His decision is unusual; rather than relying upon rhythmic variety, he makes his creative statement, instead, through harmonic explorations. Having switched gears altogether for the fascinating intermezzo, Beethoven turns reflective again in the third movement, which is cast as an 18th-century minuet. Stylistically, this movement is in marked contrast with the scherzo third movement that had become something of a hallmark for Beethoven. One needs the breathing time during this elegant, restrained music, for Beethoven holds in abeyance a headlong race at top speed. Whether the last movement is a fugue has been cause for great debate. Technically it is developed not as a fugue, but rather as a sonata form; however, it certainly has strong fugal elements and a number of true contrapuntal entrances. Its magic lies partly in its moto perpetuo cascade of eighth notes, and partly

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in its exuberant, unbridled vitality. The American composer Rebecca Clarke wrote more than a half-century ago: This fugue, one of the greatest movements in the whole of quartet literature, is a most intoxicating thing to play from beginning to end. In the passage where each instrument in turn runs up the whole length of a string there is a glorious feeling of license at being allowed to make a crescendo in which the other players may not join. (Some quartets refer to this as the “anything you can do, I can do better” passage.)

Always the consummate dramatist with an unfailing instinct for maximum effect, Beethoven saves the best (or at least the movement with the highest energy level) for last, writing into his recapitulation and coda a buildup that gathers momentum and dynamism much like a Rossini overture, to an exhilarating climax. Beethoven knows, of course, that music this exultant cannot be fully grasped on only one hearing – so he has his quartet repeat it! And the effect is even more exultant the second time around, both for the players and for the audience. Program Notes by Laurie Shulman ©2009

Artemis String Quartet The Berlin-based Artemis Quartet was founded at the Lübeck Musikhochschule school of music in 1989. The Artemis quickly gained a reputation as one of the leading international ensembles of their generation by winning first prizes at the prestigious ARD International Music Competition and the international string quartet competition, “Premio Paolo Borciani.” Rather than dive headfirst into the tempting fast track of career success, however, the members of the Artemis Quartet instead immersed themselves in further study. Their June 1999 debut at the Berlin Philharmonie marked the formal start of their career. A new phase of the chamber group’s life began in July 2007 when Gregor Sigl and Friedemann Weigle joined the quartet. The quartet has concertized at all the most renowned concert venues in Europe, the US, Japan, South America, and Australia; has appeared at numerous international festivals; and often teaches across the European continent. The Artemis Quartet places a high value on the importance of collaboration. Recently they toured with European sensations Juliane Banse, Truls Mørk and Leif Ove Andsnes. Additionally, contemporary composers such as Mauricio Sotelo (2004), Jörg Widmann (2006), and Thomas Larcher (2008) have composed works for the ensemble.

The Artemis Quartet has appeared in two productions by renowned director Bruno Monsaingeon: a feature-length documentary named after Schubert’s quartet of the same name— Death and the Maiden—and a documentary on Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge, Op.133—Strings Attached—which is at the same time an impressive portrait of the Artemis Quartet itself. In recognition of the ensemble’s outstanding contribution to the interpretation of Beethoven’s music, the famed Beethoven museum and archive, Verein des Beethoven-Hauses Bonn, conferred honorary membership on the Artemis Quartet in 2003. In 2004, the quartet was awarded the prestigious “Premio Internazionale Accademia Musicale Chigiana” in Siena, Italy. Recordings by the Artemis Quartet have been awarded the German Record Critics’ Award (Deutscher Schallplattenpreis) and Diapason d’Or. In October 2006, the Artemis Quartet’s recording of Beethoven’s Opus 95 and Opus 59, No. 1, was awarded Germany’s definitive Echo Klassik award for “Chamber Music Recording of the Year.” For more information visit www.MelKap.com The Artemis String Quartet appears by arrangement of Melvin Kaplan, Inc. The Elements of a Season 2009|10

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Kevin Kenner

Friday, April 9 | 8 pm | The Folly Theater SCHUMANN

Arabeske in C Major, Op. 18 Carnaval, Op. 9: Scènes mignonnes sur quatre notes 1. Préambule 2. Pierrot 3. Arlequin 4. Valse noble 5. Eusebius 6. Florestan 7. Coquette 8. Réplique 9. Papillons (B-flat: Prestissimo) 10. A.S.C.H. - S.C.H.A: Lettres Dansantes 11. Chiarina 12. Chopin 13. Estrella 14. Reconnaissance 15. Pantalon et Colombine 16. Valse Allemande; Paganini 17. Aveu 18. Promenade 19. Pause 20. Marche des “Davidsbündler” contre les Philistins

CHOPIN

Scherzo No. 4 in E Major, Op. 54 Scherzo No. 1 in B Minor, Op. 20 Scherzo No. 3 in C-sharp Minor, Op. 39 Scherzo No. 2 in B-flat Minor, Op. 31

This concert is supported, in part, by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. This concert is supported, in part, by the ArtsKC Fund 78

Financial assistance for this project has been provided, in part, by The Missouri Arts Council, a state agency.

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Program Notes Arabeske, Op. 18 Robert Schumann (1810-1856) The term Arabesque refers to Arabian art and architecture. In music, it became popular in the 19th century as a title for salon pieces, generally with elaborate or decorative textural elements. Schumann’s Arabeske—he used the German spelling— is one of four single-movement shorter works he composed in 1839. The others are Blumenstück (“Flower Piece”), Op. 19; Humoreske, Op. 20; and Nachtstücke (“Night Piece” or Nocturne), Op. 23. The catalyst for these brief pieces was his fiancée, the brilliant young pianist Clara Wieck. She wrote to him in April 1839, urging him to compose more accessible and understandable pieces, rather than large, complex works such as his earlier Études symphoniques or Kreisleriana. Her advice was both practical and commercial. If his aim was to sell music, he would do well to produce lighter, shorter pieces that would appeal to a broader public. Schumann was not overly proud of the results. He wrote to another friend, Henriette Voigt, that the Blumenstück and Arabeske were “not very significant; the titles say as much,” and described the short pieces to Ernst Becker as “feeble and intended for ladies.” His dismissal of the Arabeske has done nothing to dim the enduring popularity of this lovely rondo. Graceful, pianistic figuration has made the Arabeske a favorite of players, while audiences like its cantabile melodies and flowing textures. Two contrasting episodes in minor mode contribute tonal and rhythmic variety. The poetic coda recalls the wistful closing movement of Kinderszenen. With the Arabeske, Schumann elevated the genre of salon music to a higher artistic level. Carnaval, Op. 9 Robert Schumann Long before Robert Schumann’s friendship with young Clara Wieck blossomed into love, he became enamored of another Friedrich Wieck student and boarder: Ernestine von Fricken. She was a gifted pianist and impressed Schumann as “delicate and thoughtful.” In July 1834, he wrote to his mother, intimating that Ernestine was the woman he would marry. In fact the pair became secretly engaged later that year, and in November her father, a wealthy Bohemian baron, consented to the match. The romance faltered in 1835, in part because Schumann learned that she was the baron’s illegitimate adopted daughter.

The following January, they agreed to break the engagement. The primary fruit of this short-lived affair was Carnaval, one of the crowning masterpieces of romantic piano literature and one of Schumann’s finest works. It evolved out of Schumann’s discovery that Ernestine’s home town, Asch, contained the same four letters of the German musical alphabet as his own name. (In German orthography, Es (or “S”) is E-flat and H is B-natural.) Carnaval’s subtitle is Scènes mignonnes sur quatre notes (“Dainty scenes on four notes”). Those four notes, arranged in two principal figurations, constitute the dominant musical material for all but two of Carnaval’s movements. The work takes its impetus from the masked balls popular during carnival season (think Mardi Gras). The opening Préambule establishes an air of celebration and festivity. A series of character portraits ensues, as Schumann “introduces” us to various attendees at the ball [see sidebar, p. 82]. Some are stock characters from commedia dell’arte: Pierrot, Arlequin, Pantalon and Columbine. Others are composers and performers Schumann admired: Chopin and Paganini (pithy tributes and affectionate sendups of their respective styles). “Chiarina” is his portrait of young Clara Wieck, already his good friend even though she was only a teenager. “Estrella” is Ernestine von Fricken, and “Eusebius” and “Florestan” are self-portraits, representing the melancholic and passionate sides, respectively, of Schumann’s complex personality. Coursing through these vivid portraits are dance movements, primarily waltzes, to remind us that we are at a masked ball. “Reconnaissance” is the moment of recognition when the two disguised lovers (Schumann and Ernestine) identify each other; “Aveu” is their declaration of love. The concluding “March of the Davidsbündler against the Philistines” is not a march at all, but another brisk waltz. The Davidsbund was a group Schumann had founded to oppose philistinism in music. The fusty old guard is represented by the traditional Grossvatertanz (which he had also used in Papillons, Op. 1); the sturdy “march” theme is his political statement supporting forward-thinking, progressive composers of substance. Carnaval is brilliant and virtuosic, but never flashy for its own sake. Only four of the twenty-one movements exceed two minutes, yet there is an astounding feeling of continuity and organic growth from one dance to the next. Schumann’s recapitulation of some music from the opening Préambule in the concluding march neatly unifies the cycle. His expansion of this material for the final peroration gives Carnaval a marvelous sense of closure and inevitability. The Elements of a Season 2009|10

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The Four Scherzos Frédéric-François Chopin (1810-1849) One mark of a great composer is a musical language so distinct and individual that it is immediately recognizable, virtually impossible to confuse with another’s writing. Even though that style evolves over the course of a career, the music is always stamped with that composer’s identity. In Chopin’s case, the transformation and evolution took place almost exclusively at the piano; yet his unique style abandoned the pianistic clichés of the early romantic era. He exploited the far reaches of the keyboard, daringly placing thumb on black keys (sometimes with terrifying frequency) and honing right hand filigree like arched sprays of water from a Renaissance fountain. The four works Chopin labeled Scherzo constitute the second half of this program. They span about a dozen years, from approximately 1830 or 1831 to 1843. (The origins of the Scherzo No. 1 are murky; the first version may be from his Warsaw period, but he definitely revised the piece after he arrived in Paris.) What astonishes the listener and the pianist in Chopin’s Scherzos is not so much a sense of growth, for the pianistic approach and overall structure are remarkably consistent. Rather, we are struck by the vivid imagination and drama in these one-movement essays. Each one alternates passages of passion and intensity with sections of melting lyricism. The switch can be jarring—but in places the transition between these two states is so subtle that we do not quite realize how Chopin is manipulating us, psychologically and emotionally. As for the term Scherzo: Chopin’s four examples share little with the Beethovenian sonata scherzo other than they are both written in triple meter, both employ a three-part structure, and both rely upon the essential element of sharp contrast. Much larger in scale than their prototype, Chopin’s Scherzos are intended to stand on their own as complete statements unto themselves, as opposed to the classical scherzo which is usually the slightest movement in a larger work and usually intended to offer a gentle or witty refreshment between weightier movements. Each of Chopin’s Scherzos is also a work that maximizes the expressive range of which the piano is capable. Scherzo No. 4 in E Major, Op. 54 The fourth Scherzo emphasizes joy and poetry rather than histrionics. It is good-humored, spacious, and even-tempered. These qualities make it the exception among Chopin’s four. Given his capacity for passion and turbulence in his large works, this one comes as a surprise, serving up less contrast than we encounter in the other Scherzi. In the E Major Scherzo we hear the composer in a more benign mode, giving way to flights of fancy. The pianist John Ogdon has observed: 80

The E Major is the most feathery [of the scherzos], the most scherzando: its ethereal chords and rivulets of arpeggios have a Mendelssohnian delicacy. To that assessment one could add that the E Major is also more expansive, clocking in at between 11 and 12 minutes, which makes it the lengthiest of the four. A graceful waltz character predominates throughout. The overall structure is ternary, with a brief coda. The slower central section in C-sharp minor harks to the ruminative world of the Nocturnes. Chopin embellishes his long-breathed melodies with compelling inner voices: an English horn obbligato to an opera aria. In the fleet outer sections, he demands a light touch and superb command in sustaining a melodic line that is sometimes passed rapidly from one hand to the other. Some of the most dazzling passages are in unison, including the final triumphant scalar ascent in the coda. Though this Scherzo has plenty of big moments, the most telling virtuosity comes from the successful delivery of its quieter segments. Scherzo No. 1 in B Minor, Op. 20 A cry of anguish opens the First Scherzo, frozen in midair, answered by another tense exclamation in a lower register. They announce a tumultuous journey. Chopin’s restless opening, marked Presto con fuoco, foreshadows the nervous agitation of his B-flat Minor Piano Sonata, and is equally ambiguous. The music is all about texture and gesture as a means of harmonic progression. Melodies are fragmented, often embedded in the thumbs. Chopin turns harmony on its ear by his resolution of expected cadences in unexpected ways, subtly echoing the clangor of the opening chords. The central slower section, marked Molto più lento: sotto voce e ben legato (very slow in a soft hidden voice, and very legato or smooth), seems to hail from a different planet. Hushed beauty is the mode now. The lovely melody is a Polish Noel, “Lulazse Jezeniu,” a cradle song for the infant Jesus. Chopin loved Christmas and its traditions in Poland. His incorporation of this tune is a rare appearance of a folk element in his music. He situates the melody in an inner voice, with principal responsibility allotted to the right-hand thumb. A high pedal point on F sharp has been likened to the tinkle of rural cowbells and evokes a nostalgic memory that haunts the ear. A reiteration of the strangled opening chord heralds the transition back to the histrionics and unrelieved tragedy of the opening section. Although the ensuing recapitulation is fairly straightforward, it seems more emotionally intense after the temporary tranquility of the B major lullaby. The coda introduces new material, a ploy Chopin would use again in the Third Scherzo, two of the Ballades, and his late Barca-

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rolle. Here the prominent gestures are an accelerated tempo, hammered discordant chords, and a thrilling chromatic scale that skyrockets five octaves before the final cadence. Scherzo No. 3 in C-sharp Minor, Op. 39 The Third Scherzo, composed and published in 1837, is the most dramatic of the four. Dark, passionate, and poetic, the C-sharp Minor Scherzo represents Chopin in full command as a composer. Physically, however, he was failing, increasingly compromised by the toll that consumption (tuberculosis) was taking on his frail constitution. He began composing this Scherzo on the Spanish Mediterranean island of Mallorca, on the heels of the splendid Préludes [see sidebar, pages 71-72], and completed it at George Sand’s country estate of Nohant. Sand was nonplussed by this new work, writing of its “obstinate battle with the language of communicability.” Indeed, the Third Scherzo is elusive and enigmatic, despite its stormy nature. James Huneker has written: There is virile clangor in the firmly struck octaves of the opening pages. No hesitating, morbid view of life, but rank, harsh assertiveness, not untinged with splenetic anger. Chopin’s writing invites such prose, rich with adjectives. The introduction Huneker describes includes all twelve tones, which leaves the ear searching for a key center. We are further confounded by its rhythmic ambiguity: two measures of four beats within a triple-meter time signature. Chopin seesaws between intensity and lyric narrative, with loose connections to sonata form. After a while, we do not care that these structural underpinnings are there. Still, the anchor of their musical architecture gives us our aural roots. Perhaps the most magical moment occurs during the central trio. Chopin decorates a chorale worthy of Luther with a cascade of delicate filigree that seems to sum up romantic

Shores of Mallorca, Spain

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pianism in one splendid, inimitable gesture. He surprises us again in the coda, which concludes in C-sharp major. All of the uncertainty of the opening and the ensuing sections of loss and despair are resolved abruptly in a bold gesture of triumph. Chopin dedicated the Third Scherzo to Adolf Gutmann, a German pianist who began studying with him in 1834 at age 15. When Ignaz Moscheles visited Chopin, the composer summoned Gutmann to play the C-sharp Minor Scherzo. “I am unfortunately too weak to play my things for him, so you must play,” he told the youth. Heinrich Lenz described Gutmann as “strong enough to punch a hole through a table,” one possible indication of the stamina this Scherzo demands. Scherzo No. 2 in B-flat Minor, Op. 31 The Second Scherzo, composed and published in 1837, is the best known of the four. Chopin cast it in a free sonata form, with a contrasting intermezzo preceding the development of the ideas set forth at the beginning. The first eight measures encapsulate the entire ten-minute work: a mysterious, sinister rumble, answered by an explosive outburst. Balancing this dark thesis and antithesis is a glorious cantilena melody in D flat that is one of Chopin’s loveliest. Silences of a single bar and even two bars are important to the stark drama of this Scherzo’s outer sections. Swooping figures leap and swirl, exploiting the entire keyboard. The central trio section in A major provides temporary respite and some lovely inner voice writing. The development of this section and its gradual transition back to the tension of B-flat minor and the thesis/antithesis eruption is masterful. Ultimately, D-flat major prevails in a brilliant coda that is one of Chopin’s flashiest conclusions. Chopin dedicated his Opus 31 Scherzo to his student, the Comtesse Adèle de Fürstenstein. Program Notes by Laurie Shulman ©2009

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Dramatis personae: a guide to some of the characters and references in Carnaval Schumann’s Carnaval is a series of miniatures, some which are portraits of actual people, others which allude to fictional characters. Still others are straightforward dances or interludes. This glossary provides a quick explanation for some of the movement names on the program page and other terms relevant to Carnaval. Arlequin (Harlequin) - a stock character in the Italian commedia dell’arte. He is an acrobat and a clown. Traditionally he wears a colorful, patched costume that betrays his common origins, but he is celebrated for his wit and cleverness. Chiarina - diminutive for Clara and pen name for Clara Wieck, Schumann’s future wife. At the time he composed Carnaval they were good friends, but their romance had not yet developed. Chopin - the incomparable Polish-born pianist and composer whom Schumann admired. This poetic movement is Schumann’s salute to Chopin’s pianistic style. Davidsbündler - literally, “the League of David,” referring to the Biblical David. Schumann perceived his role as one of leading true musicians and music-lovers against the Philistines of popular musical taste. He sought to battle against ignorance and arrogance in contemporary music. Estrella - refers to Ernestine von Fricken, the young woman with whom Schumann was in love when he composed Carnaval. Eusebius [pronounced oy-ZAY-bee-us] - a pseudonym Schumann used in his music criticism to represent the dreamy, imaginative aspect of one’s thoughts, impressions, and emotions. Eusebius’s foil was Florestan. Florestan - another of Schumann’s pseudonyms in his music criticism, representing the passionate, impulsive, excitable, and impetuous voice within all of us; the opposite of Eusebius. Grossvatertanz - literally, “Grandfather Dance.” A traditional German dance in polonaise rhythm, performed at weddings and other family occasions. Tchaikovsky used the tune in The Nutcracker’s Act I; Schumann used it both in Papillons, Op. 2 and in Carnaval where it symbolizes the old guard, the Philistines against whom he battled. Paganini - Niccolò Paganini, the famous Italian virtuoso violinist and a contemporary of Schumann’s. This movement is one of the most technically demanding in Carnaval. Pantalon et Colombine - stock characters in the Italian commedia dell’arte; Pantalon traditionally is a wealthy merchant, not terribly bright, but fond of women and food; Colombine was the clever, pretty maidservant. Papillons [pronounced pop-ee-YOHN] - French for butterflies, and a reference to Schumann’s early piano cycle Papillons, Op. 2. Pierrot - a stock character in the commedia dell’arte: honest, earnest, and loyal—but unlucky in love. Traditionally he is in love with Columbine, who rejects him in favor of Arlequin. – L.S. © 2009

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Kevin Kenner

At the age of 17, American pianist Kevin Kenner participated in the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw and was awarded the 10th prize and a special prize from the jury for his promising talent. Ten years later, in 1990 he returned to Warsaw to win the top prize, the People’s Prize and the Polonaise Prize. Earlier that year he won the bronze medal at the International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow, together with a special prize for his interpretation of Russian music. Other awards include the International Terence Judd Award (London, 1990), the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition (Fort Worth, 1989) and the Gina Bachauer International Competition (Salt Lake City, 1988).

Kevin Kenner has since performed as soloist with world-class orchestras including the BBC and Berlin Symphony Orchestras, the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Czech Philharmonic, the Belgian Radio and Television Philharmonic, the NHK Symphony of Japan and in the U.S. with the principal orchestras of San Francisco, San Diego, Salt Lake City, Kansas City, New Jersey, Rochester, Baltimore, St. Paul and others. He has been invited to work with many renowned conductors including Sir Charles Groves, Andrew Davis, Hans Vonk, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Kazimierz Kord, Jiri Belohlavek and Antoni Wit. His achievements have won him critical acclaim around the world. He has been praised as “one of the finest American pianists to come along in years” (Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune), “...fulfilling a criterion which one only knows from great Chopinists such as Rubinstein, Benedetti-Michelangeli and Dinu Lipatti” (Winfried Wild, Schwaebische Zeitung, Germany). Adrian Jack of London’s Independent describes one of Ken-

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ner’s recitals as “...the best performance I have ever heard in the concert hall of all four of Chopin’s Ballades”. The Financial Times in London described Kenner as a “player of grace, subtle variety and strength, with a mature grasp of dramatic structure and proportion: in short, a grown-up musician nearing his peak.” And The Washington Post recently proclaimed him “a major talent…an artist whose intellect, imagination and pianism speak powerfully and eloquently.” The conductor Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, who recorded with pianists such as Artur Rubinstein, claimed Kenner’s Chopin interpretations to be the most sensitive and beautiful he remembered. Kenner has performed chamber music with the Tokyo, Endellion,Vogler, Fine Arts and Panocha String Quartets. Along with his concert appearances, he has been giving masterclasses for many years at the International Piano Festival in Krynica in Poland as well as in major centers in Japan and America. Recently he has been giving classes at the International Summer Music Academy in Krakow, Poland. He is a professor at the Royal College of Music in London, and his students have won prizes in various international competitions. Kevin Kenner has recorded the Chopin Scherzos, Chopin Préludes (highly recommended by BBC Music Magazine), CDs of piano works by Maurice Ravel and Robert Schumann and the Chopin Piano Concertos with the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Poland under the direction of Antoni Wit. For more information visit www.KevinKenner.com Kevin Kenner appears by arrangement of Sempre Musica. The Elements of a Season 2009|10

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The Friends of Chamber Music Endowment

trio mediĂŚval

Sunday, April 18 | 2 pm | Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception Anna Maria Friman Linn Andrea Fuglseth Torunn Ă&#x2DC;strem Ossum

Fragments: A Worcester Ladymass Salve sancta parens Kyrie Gloria Munda Maria Quem Trina Polluit Benedicta / Virgo dei genitrix Credo (Bryars, 2008) Felix namque Inviolata integra mater De supernis sedibus Dulciflua tua memoria Sanctus Agnus Dei Beata viscera Alma Dei genitrix Beata viscera Benedicamus domino (Bryars, 2008) Ave Regina Gloriosa (Bryars, 2003) This concert is underwritten, in part, by the Miller-Mellor Association. This concert is supported, in part, by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. The Early Music Series is underwritten, in part, by donors to The Friends of Chamber Music Endowment Funds. 84

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Program Notes Fragments: A Worcester Ladymass When the Normans arrived in Britain some time before 1066, they did not find much uniformity in the organization of the British cathedrals. Some were served by monks who lived under the rule of St. Benedict, some by monks who served different orders. Used to organizing cathedral life through a chapter—where church servants were priests, not monks, and lived in the world, not as cloistered beings—the Normans set about reorganizing most of the religious institutions of the newly-conquered land. Nine escaped this reorganization process; one of those was the ancient foundation of Worcester. Here, life for the 50-odd monks continued under Benedictine philosophy much as it always had, one imagines: up at dawn for Matins, the first part of the Daily Office where the entire Book of Psalms was sung each week; manual tasks accomplished with prayerful attention; and contemplation of God all day through song, study, prayer and work.

to survive Henry VIII’s systematic destruction in the 1530s. Luckily, at Worcester an unusual number of single leaves and binding fragments have survived, having been reused in other codices to provide flyleaves or spine stiffenings. Because of this, we have been left more than 100 songs in many different musical styles: polyphony to adorn the movements of the mass; the freely-composed, intricately-interweaving voices of motets; the stricter, declamatory tones of the conductus. All in all, it testifies to a thriving musical community. The songs range from the simplest settings of the early 13th century to those current a century later. We can reconstruct the remains of three large anthologies of polyphony, still leaving a host of other free-standing fragments.

We have called this concert a “Ladymass”—a votive mass to the Virgin Mary. Such masses were frequent. Much of the music in this program, however, is associated with one particular feast of the church year: the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin celebrated on August 15th. England as a whole was so devoted to the Virgin that it was called the “Garden of Mary” in St. Peter’s Church the Middle Ages. At Worcester, (Norman Medieval church in Wiltshire, England) that devotion was particularly Music, of course, was feaintense because the cathedral tured regularly throughout was dedicated to “Our Lady.” Thus, a disproportionate amount the day, as it was in all the religious communities of both men of the music found at Worcester was associated with Marian and women in the Middle Ages. At Worcester, as elsewhere, feasts and of these, the Assumption was the most lavish. It is the liturgy was articulated through sacred Latin monody—a sheer luck that in addition to the polyphony, a 13th-century single line of music that was sometimes melismatic, with many Gradual from Worcester also survives—the book that contains notes sung to a single syllable and designed to be sung by more virtuosic musicians, and at other times syllabic, with each the plainchants for the masses of the entire church year. This syllable matched to a note and sung by all present. But the evi- is what has enabled the reconstruction of a mass for the Assumption for tonight’s program with some accuracy. You will dence of the surviving manuscripts shows that more complex also hear some items that had no association with any parpolyphonic music was also important to these secluded inditicular feasts. These are sung here in place of the readings that viduals, giving life to the otherwise “plain” song of the liturgy, would have been featured in a real mass of the time. which varied little from year to year at the cathedral. We can’t say whether music was more important at Worcester than at other cathedrals because such a minute amount of English music from that period survives. Ironically, only the books that had been set aside to be dismembered and used as scrap parchment now come down to us: the polyphonic books that were still in daily use would have been too Catholic

Medieval masses were a mixture of the components that varied according to the particular day (“Proper” elements), and those that didn’t (the “Ordinary” of the mass such as the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei). Composers in England liked to set both in polyphony. This program includes examples from the entire chronological range of the Worcester The Elements of a Season 2009|10

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Fragments, plus some pieces from other locations that are in the peculiarly English style that marked its insular repertoire from that of the Continent: a preponderance of major thirds, sections of rounds inside the pieces, and parallel triads. Writers spoke of this English style in terms of “sweetness.” The cleric and author Gerald of Wales (1146-1223) noted English singers “coming together with the enchanting sweetness of B flat,” and in the later Middle Ages, Johannes Tinctoris wrote that English songs exhaled “such sweetness that they are to be considered most suitable even for the immortal gods.” The style was particularly associated with the “westcuntre” (west country) by a 13th-century monk of Bury St. Edmunds—the provenance of the Worcester Fragments. Would three women have sung this type of music in the 13th century? Yes, though perhaps not specifically the pieces performed here. Many musical manuscripts survive from nunneries, testifying to the fact that St. Paul’s injunction for women to keep silent in church was disobeyed. Women seem to have primarily sung plainchant since they usually didn’t have access to the same level of musical training as men; but there are also a few documents which show that in some places, women sang complex polyphony (in Las Huelgas in Spain, for example - see Anonymous 4 Program Notes, pages 31-32). And although we may think we know something about how music was sung in the Middle Ages, we will never know what it really sounded like. All modern performances create a modern sound world, after all. Program notes by Nicky Losseff A Performer’s Note The presentation of Medieval music today differs dramatically from its original context. We re-contextualize the music since none of it was composed to be a part of a concert program or presented to the kind of audience for which trio mediaeval performs. One of the crucial matters for contemporary female singers wishing to perform Medieval music is that we cannot be fully authentic historically, partly because of past marginalization of women by the church. The music presented in this particular program would most likely have been sung by male voices in the Middle Ages. We know, however, that nuns used the same liturgies as their male counterparts, and that they sang monophonic pieces in their convents. We might never know to what extent women sang polyphonic music, or how much polyphonic music was available to women, but we do know that there are manuscripts from sixteen convents in Europe which contain two- and three-part pieces, which suggests that women probably sang polyphony since it was available to them. [See Anonymous 4 program notes on 31-32]. Today we assume that the Mediaeval women and men who sang and listened to sacred vocal music in its original context were connected to religious establishments and convinced of their Christian religious lifestyle. Unlike our forebears, modern Medieval 86

music performers and their audiences are not necessarily Christian or religious. Today anyone can enjoy this beautiful music as a part of our collective human heritage. It is difficult to know what this music would have sounded like in the Middle Ages. There are no recordings or precise descriptions regarding sound or singing techniques left to us, and of the small amount of written instructions for singers that do exist, most complain about the singing rather than offer constructive advice. There is, of course, a vast amount of Medieval iconography, but deriving a sound from a picture can be even harder than from a text. Because there is a lot of guesswork about Medieval music practices, we feel that performing this music today gives us the freedom to let our imagination and ideas flow, as though we were creating contemporary music. As a result, the trio performs contemporary music alongside Medieval music. When we learned that there was no Credo to be found in the Worcester manuscripts, we saw the possibility of including a contemporary one and asked Gavin Bryars (b. 1943) to compose the Credo. Bryars also wrote the Benedicamus Domino specifically for this program. The Ave Regina Gloriosa, also called Lauda 7, was composed for the trio in 2003. Bryars has used 13th-century Italian Lauda texts (to date there are 37 of them), extrapolating from anonymous monophonic originals, sometimes adding lines and textures, but always retaining the ancient outlines of the Lauda. We live in a world that has gradually become more or less dependent on constant information. For this particular program, in this venue, we have chosen to provide our audience with a minimum of textual information, and instead to present a sonic (and visual) experience where the music is free to speak for itself. There are several reasons for this decision. First, the literal translation might do little justice to the original text. The Medieval listeners’ appreciation of the Latin texts was very different from that of the present audience. We inevitably incorporate and invite modern reflections into the Medieval texts. Also, we fear there is a danger that the texts and translations channel the listening and restrict the listeners’ own creativity. Recent musicology suggests that much Medieval sacred music was probably sung from memory in the Middle Ages. The trio has always presented programs, or parts of programs, from memory. We feel that it increases the communication between the three of us, as well as between us and our audience. Now we realize that this practice of performing from memory has historical authenticity as well. This afternoon, every listener will appreciate the music and its context differently, bringing their own individual expectations to the occasion. Performer’s Note by Anna Maria Friman

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trio mediæval

The mesmerizing voices of Oslo’s trio mediaeval have captivated the concert world with their breathtaking performances and recordings of a diverse polyphonic repertoire that features Medieval music from England and France, contemporary works written for the ensemble, and traditional Norwegian ballads and songs. Founded in 1997, the Grammy-nominated trio mediaeval developed its unique repertory during intense periods of work at the Hilliard Summer Festivals in England and Germany between 1998 and 2000, and subsequently with Linda Hirst and John Potter. “Singing doesn’t get more unnervingly beautiful,” wrote Joshua Kosman of the San Francisco Chronicle, who declared their San Francisco debut “among the musical highlights of the year.” He added, “To hear the group’s note-perfect counterpoint – as pristine and inviting as clean, white linens – is to be astonished at what the human voice is capable of.” trio mediaeval made its U.S. debut in 2003, performing two sold-out concerts at New Haven’s International Festival of Arts and Ideas. Since that first appearance, the trio has embarked on multiple North American tours performing in cities across the continent. Highlights include concerts in New York’s Carnegie (Weill) Hall, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., the Kennedy Center, engagements at San Francisco Performances and Spivey Hall, and broadcasts on American Public Media’s Saint Paul Sunday and Performance Today. The trio delights in performing new music and collaborates with a multitude of contemporary composers, including Gavin Bryars, Piers Hellawell, Roger Marsh, Ivan Moody, Paul Robinson, Thoma Simaku, Oleh Harkavyy, Bjørn Kruse and An-

drew Smith. In 2005, the trio premiered Shelter in Cologne Germany. This joint production of Bang on a Can composers Michael Gordon, Julia Wolf and David Lang, German new music ensemble musikFabrik, and Ridge Theater, received its U.S. premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). trio mediaeval performs throughout Europe, giving concerts and radio broadcasts in Austria, Belgium, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands and the U.K. in such venues as the Oslo Concert House, the Vienna Konzerthaus, Wigmore Hall and numerous festivals. Their four albums on ECM Records feature pristine performances of a diverse repertoire, and have met with near unanimous praise. Their first release, Words of the Angel, immediately charted on Billboard’s Top 10 Bestsellers list and was the April 2002 Stereophile “Recording of the Month.” Soir, dit-elle (2004), features Leonel Power’s Missa Alma Redemptoris Mater alongside works by Gavin Bryars, Andrew Smith and Ivan Moody, and met with similar critical and commercial success. The trio’s third recording, Stella Maris (2005), features 12th and 13th-century music from England and France as well as the world premiere recording of Missa Lumen de Lumine by Korean composer Sungji Hong. trio mediaeval found themselves back on the Billboard charts and with a 2008 Grammy nomination for “Best Chamber Music Performance” with their most recent release, Folk Songs – an intimate collection of Norwegian folk songs featuring traditional percussion. For more information visit www.triomediaeval.no trio mediæval appears by arrangement of Alliance Artist Management. The Elements of a Season 2009|10

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Venice Baroque Orchestra Andrea Marcon, director Giuliano Carmignola, violin

Friday, April 23 | 8 pm | The Folly Theater

ALBINONI

Concerto in G Major for strings and continuo, Op. 7, No. 4 Allegro Adagio Allegro

VIVALDI

Concerto in G Minor for strings and continuo, RV 152 Allegro molto Andante molto Allegro molto

GEMINIANI

Concerto Grosso in D Minor, â&#x20AC;&#x153;La Folliaâ&#x20AC;?

VIVALDI

Concerto in E Minor for violin, strings and continuo, RV 273 Allegro non molto Largo Allegro

VIVALDI

Concerto in D Major for violin, strings and continuo, RV 222 Allegro Andante Allegro

TARTINI

Concerto in D Minor for violin, strings and continuo, D 45 Allegro assai Grave Presto

VIVALDI

Concerto in C Major for violin, strings and continuo, RV 191 Allegro ma poco Largo Allegro ma poco

This concert is supported, in part, by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. 88

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Vivaldi and the Concerto In his day, Antonio Vivaldi was known as “il prete rosso”—the red priest—because of his red hair, a physical attribute he apparently inherited from his father, who was also a violinist. Although he traveled widely, he was based for much of his career in Venice, where he served as music master at the Ospedale della Pietà, a girls’ orphanage and music school. No name is more closely linked to the Baroque concerto than Vivaldi’s. Vivaldi composed every type of concerto: for solo instrument; for two, three, or even four instruments; concerti grossi featuring the full ensemble; and a handful of concerti for two orchestras. The vast majority of his 500+ concerti— approximately 330—are solo concerti, that is, for solo instrument, strings and continuo. Of those, about 220 feature solo violin. That disproportionate majority reflects Vivaldi’s own mastery of the instrument and the large number of girls studying violin at the Pietà. Vivaldi’s principal importance as a composer of concertos lay in breaking from the established norm of Arcangelo Corelli’s works, which adhered to the older church style of four or even five movements, usually with more than one slow segment. Vivaldi crystallized the more concise three-movement concerto arrangement of fast-slow-fast, a pattern that prevailed in instrumental concertos for the balance of the 18th century and well into the 19th. Although he favored a limited number of basic melodic types, he varied them with virtually unlimited imagination. His upper lines are endlessly entertaining in their rhythmic profile and ornamental detail.

Antonio Vivaldi

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Another Vivaldi innovation was incorporating elements of the vibrant Venetian opera. Though he is best known today for his instrumental music, Vivaldi was one of the most celebrated opera composers of his era. He wrote more than fifty operas and dozens of secular cantatas. He was also active in church music, writing motets, psalms, masses, and other works for voices. Inevitably, his extensive experience composing for the human voice influenced his instrumental style. His slow concerto movements often evoke the world of the opera aria, with their florid figuration and richly ornamented lines. Concerto in G Minor for strings and continuo, RV 152 Concerto in E Minor for violin, strings, and continuo, RV 273 Concerto in D Major for violin, strings, and continuo, RV 222 Concerto in C Major for violin, strings, and continuo, RV 191 Three of the four Vivaldi concerti on this evening’s program are for solo violin, strings, and continuo. The first one we hear, RV 152 in G Minor, is a concerto ripieno for the full ensemble. Like most of Vivaldi’s concerti, it consists of three movements arranged in a fast-slow-fast order. The slow movement bears the unusual directive Andante molto e sempre pianissimo, and demonstrates that a movement that is very soft throughout (sempre pianissimo) can be potent with drama. At nearly fifteen minutes, the Violin Concerto in E Minor, RV 273, is one of Vivaldi’s most substantial. It doesn’t sound like a solo concerto at the start; that aspect sort of creeps up on you. Listeners acquainted with The Four Seasons will recognize Vivaldi’s sound world: repeated chords, unisons, expressive sighs as harmonies change, echo effects—and all before the initial solo violin entrance. The Largo is astounding for its opening, which contrasts an understated continuo introduction with bold string unison gestures. Once the soloist joins the ensemble, his elegant line emanates directly from the opera house. A walking bass propels us to the exhilarating finale, with the violin part abounding in rapid scales, arpeggios, and triplets. A virtuosic extended sequence of cascading triads, followed by double stops, is particularly dazzling. The two solo concerti following intermission look forward to the style galant and a rococo style of writing, with more emphasis on melody with accompaniment and less imitative writing. Still, old habits die hard, and both outer movements of the Concerto in D Major, RV 222 are in clear ritornello form. The ritornello of the opening Allegro combines assertive descending arpeggios in the violins with a descending scale in the continuo. The initial violin entrance boasts double stops, wide leaps, and trills; its second episode emphasizes passage work. The The Elements of a Season 2009|10

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slow movement is unusual in that Vivaldi remains in D major. This Andante is essentially a set of nine elaborate variations on a simple ground played by the full ensemble in the opening eight bars. Variations 6 and 7 are in D minor, providing tonal variety. The concerto ends with another brisk Allegro, rich with syncopations. A solo episode in whirlwind 16th-note triplets reminds us that this is virtuoso music. Concluding this evening’s program is Vivaldi’s Concerto in C Major, RV 191, surely one of his most extroverted and flashy works. Even the ritornelli are breathtaking for the violins, requiring superb technical control and razor-sharp ensemble work from every player. In the first movement, Vivaldi plays games with rests and stops, using silence for the element of surprise. His Largo, in F major, opens with dotted rhythms that call to mind the Baroque French overture, but the bulk of the movement is an extended aria for solo violin that dwells in the same realm as the “Winter” Concerto’s slow movement from The Four Seasons. The dotted rhythm returns for a single bar at the end. Vivaldi closes the concerto with a witty Allegro, brimful of bravura passages, including for the ripieno. The soloist has plenty of 32nd and 64th notes—even a few runs in dizzying 128th notes—and plenty of double stops that add to the “wow” factor.

The first violins dominate the melodic material in the outer movements, which are brisk and energetic. Biographer Michael Talbot has pointed out the similarity to the contemporary opera overture, or sinfonia, which, as its name suggests, is a forerunner to the 18th-century symphony. Albinoni does not employ the ritornello form preferred by his contemporaries, though he does use repetitive sequences and echo effects. Motor rhythms provide forward momentum, with contrast occurring primarily in terraced dynamics. The slow movement has a well-mannered dialogue between two concertante violins, supported by the full ensemble in blocked chords. The finale is a cheerful 3/8 Allegro in binary form, with each half repeated.

Concerto in G Major for strings and continuo, Op. 7, No. 4 Tommaso Albinoni (1671-1751) Albinoni has been largely overshadowed by his contemporary and fellow Venetian Antonio Vivaldi. With the exception of a handful of oboe concertos and the ever-present Adagio in G Minor for organ and strings, little of his music is widely known today. That is a pity, for Albinoni was a marvelous and gifted writer who, in his day, was valued on a par with Arcangelo Corelli (composer of the famous “Christmas Concerto”) and Vivaldi. A gifted and prolific amateur, he composed some sixty operas between 1694 and 1741, sometimes producing three or four in a single year. His instrumental music was well known and widely distributed, a tremendous compliment during the early decades of the 18th century. Albinoni’s compositions were published in London as early as 1705 and in Paris as late as 1740. The Op. 7 concerti, a set of twelve, contain eight concertos featuring one or two solo oboes. They are believed to be the first concertos for oboe by an Italian composer, and were certainly the first Italian oboe concerti to be published. The other four in the set are for strings, including the G major work that opens this program. (Albinoni would repeat the pattern of Giuseppe Tartini, alternating concerto types in his Op. 9, published in 1722.) 90

Alessandro Scarlatti

Geminiani, Corelli, and La Follia Concerto Grosso in D Minor, “La Follia” (after Corelli) Follia (or La Follia) is one of those tunes that has inspired many composers writing in different eras and vastly different musical styles. Its roots extend back to the 15th century. The term folia, which is of Portuguese origin, is related to the Latin word for “fool” or “madness,” and refers to a dance that was likely a court “fool’s dance.” The follia music that has inspired composers from the Baroque era to the modern day is a harmonic pattern related to two additional dances: the passamezzo antico and the romanesca. The tune was already well known by the end of the 17th century. Alessandro Scarlatti, Marin Marais, Vivaldi and Bach were among the many Baroque composers who took this harmonic pattern as the basis for sets of variations. The most

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famous of them all was by Arcangelo Corelli. His La Follia, a sonata for violin and continuo, was published with eleven other trio sonatas as Op. 5. The collection appeared in Rome in 1700. Corelli used a 16-bar series of chords supporting the simple melodic line. La follia remained popular in the pre-classical and classical eras, when Grétry and Cherubini adapted it. Franz Liszt followed in the romantic era with his Rhapsodie espagnole. Twentieth-century iterations include Carl Nielsen’s opera Maskarade and Rachmaninoff ’s Variations on a Theme by Corelli, Op. 42. In the 21st century, Puerto Rican-born Roberto Sierra has taken his bow to Folias as well. The Follia concerto on this evening’s program is listed as being by Francesco Geminiani (16871762); however, it is really an arrangement and embellishment of Corelli’s sonata, Op. 5, No. 12. Geminiani was a violinist, composer, and theorist from Lucca who spent most of his career in the British Isles. (He died in Dublin.) His Concerto Grosso in D Minor, La Follia, is one of a dozen such arrangements of Corelli’s Op. 5 for orchestra. He published them in two groups of six, in 1726 and 1729, with a dedication to King George I.

part of Slovenia. The boy’s parents intended that he become a priest. Although Tartini did take minor orders, he soon rebelled, enrolling at age 16 at the University in Padua to study law. He distinguished himself as an expert fencer, and contemporary reports indicate he spent considerably more time fencing than in other activities. At eighteen, Tartini eloped with a woman two years his senior. Circumstances forced him to flee Padua and take refuge in Assisi, where he studied composition and worked on his mastery of the violin. He experienced an epiphany in 1716, when he heard Francesco Maria Veracini play in Venice and resolved to make the violin his life. By 1721, he had become resident soloist at the Basilica of San Antonio, the most important church in Padua, just outside Venice. He founded a violin school in Padua in 1728 that drew gifted players from all over Europe. Tartini and Vivaldi were the most virtuosic of the Italian concerto composers. Most of Tartini’s concertos adopt Vivaldi’s fast-slow-fast movement pattern, with the slow movement in a contrasting key. His later works show less emphasis on technique and more on expressivity, reflecting the mid-18th-century trend toward the galant style.

Several collections of Tartini’s sonatas and concertos were published Statue of Giuseppe Tartini in Piran, Slovenia in the 1730s by the Amsterdam house of Le Cène. The chronology Just as Albinoni is associated almost exclusively in the popular of Tartini’s works is difficult to pinpoint, however, because so much of his music circulated in manuscript, he revised freimagination with the Adagio for Organ and Strings, Tartini quently, and his surviving autographs lack dates. The D Minor is celebrated for the so-called “Devil’s Trill” sonata for violin Concerto, D 45, is probably a later work. It has a dark characand continuo. He actually composed about 135 violin concerter, and all three movements are in minor mode. The Hungartos, as well as more than 100 other violin sonatas. Although a ian violinist Joseph Szigeti played and recorded this concerto, handful of sacred choral works and other instrumental pieces and edited it for publication. survive, Tartini’s compositions focus almost exclusively on works for violin. He also found time to write several treatises on various aspects of music theory, including harmony, ornaProgram Notes by Laurie Shulman ©2009 mentation, the art of playing the violin, and even acoustics. Concerto in D Minor for violin, strings, and continuo, D. 45 Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770)

Like the other composers on this evening’s program, Tartini was celebrated as a virtuoso violinist. His path toward string celebrity took several unlikely turns, however. Tartini’s father managed salt mills in an area northeast of Venice that is now The Elements of a Season 2009|10

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Cataloging Vivaldi: Alphabet Soup Several scholars have catalogued Vivaldi’s works, which can make identification of specific compositions confusing. The earliest modern attempt to assess Vivaldi’s oeuvre was Mario Rinaldi’s 1943 biography. His volume attempting a list of Vivaldi’s works followed in 1945, but Rinaldi’s catalogue is rife with errors and has many gaps. The French musicologist Marc Pincherle published a more thorough, pioneering study of Vivaldi’s music in 1948. Volume II of that study classifies the instrumental works by key, and assigns a P. number to each of Vivaldi’s works. About the same time that Pincherle was completing his book, the Italian scholar Antonio Fanna founded the Istituto Italiano Antonio Vivaldi in 1947 for the purpose of publishing and disseminating Vivaldi’s music. Between 1947 and 1972, Fanna and the Italian composer Gian Francesco Malipiero oversaw the publisher Ricordi’s issuance of a complete Vivaldi edition, which uses Fanna’s catalogue numbers (F.). Fanna published a catalogue of the instrumental music in 1968 (it was updated in1986) that is a helpful guide to the hundreds of volumes of Vivaldi’s works, but it still has flaws. The Danish scholar Peter Ryom published an authoritative catalogue of Vivaldi’s works in 1974 and 1979, whose lengthy German title is generally abbreviated as Ryom Verzeichnis (Ryom Catalogue). That is the source of the RV numbers; the initials can also stand for Répertoire Vivaldi. Ryom is regarded as the most reliable and thorough cataloguer of Vivaldi’s music, and RV numbers are gradually superseding all others in common parlance. – L.S. ©2009

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Venice Baroque Orchestra Founded in 1997 by Baroque scholar and harpsichordist Andrea Marcon, the Venice Baroque Orchestra is recognized as one of Europe’s premier ensembles devoted to period instrument performance. The orchestra has received wide critical acclaim for its concert and opera performances throughout North America, Europe, South America, and Japan. In the 2009–2010 season, the orchestra will continue its collaboration with mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kozená in a tour featuring Vivaldi arias that will take them to Vienna, Prague, Barcelona, Madrid, Amsterdam, Paris and Munich. With violinist Giuliano Carmignola they will perform in Switzerland, France and the United States. And they will be presenting the modern-day premiere of Boccherini’s opera La Clementina fully staged in Bilbao, Cordoba and Madrid. Recent highlights have included Andromeda liberata at the Ambronay Festival, Orlando furioso in Rome, Vivaldi concertos for two violins with Viktoria Mullova and Giuliano Carmignola in Paris, and tours to Korea, China, Japan, France, Germany, and the United States. The orchestra presented Vivaldi’s oratorio, Juditha triumphans, in the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Festspielhaus (Baden-Baden) and Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. During the 2007-08 season, the orchestra toured South America with Giuliano Carmignola, Spain and Italy with mezzo-soprano Romina Basso, and performed Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with Anna Netrebko and Andreas Scholl in Vienna’s Musikverein. Committed to the rediscovery of first-rate Baroque opera, Marcon has led the orchestra in modern-day premieres of

Francesco Cavalli’s L’Orione, Vivaldi’s Atenaide, and Benedetto Marcello’s La Morte D’Adone and Il trionfo della poesia e della musica. With Teatro La Fenice in Venice, the orchestra staged Handel’s Siroe in 2000, followed by an equally successful staging of Cimarosa’s L’Olimpiade in 2001. In April 2004, the Orchestra revived Siroe in its first full staging in the United States at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York. Their world-premiere recording of Andromeda liberata for Deutsche Grammophon was followed by two recordings of violin concertos with Giuliano Carmignola, an album of Vivaldi sinfonias and concertos for strings, Vivaldi motets and arias with soprano Simone Kermes, Handel arias with Magdalena Kozená, and Vivaldi concertos for two violins with Viktoria Mullova and Giuliano Carmignola. The orchestra’s earlier discography on Sony Classical includes The Four Seasons, two albums of previously unrecorded Vivaldi concertos, Locatelli violin concertos, and a collection of Bach arias featuring Angelika Kirchschlager. For its recordings, the orchestra has been honored with the Diaspason D’Or, Choc du Monde de la Musique, Echo Award and the Edison Award. Their concerts have been filmed by the BBC and NHK, and broadcast by RadioFrance, France Musiques, ORF, RaiDue, BBC3, National Public Radio, RadioTre and Arte. The Venice Baroque Orchestra is supported by Fondazione Cassamarca in Treviso. For more information visit www.AllianceArtistManagement.com The Venice Baroque Orchestra appears by arrangement of Alliance Artist Management. The Elements of a Season 2009|10

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Special Thanks Folly Theater Staff and Volunteers Sincere appreciation goes to Doug Tatum, Gale Tallis, Greg Hulme, Kathy Stipek, Joan Hubbard, Bryant Stoll, David Tebow, Doc Watson, and Donna Miller of the Folly Theater, and to all the friendly and helpful Folly volunteers that help to make The Friends’ Folly concert experiences enjoyable. Church Venue Staff and Volunteers Special thanks to the staff and volunteers at the churches who allow us to present our concerts and “What Makes It Great?” programs in their beautiful buildings: The Very Reverend Terry White, John and Leona Schaefer, and Mary Ann Mansfield at Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral; Reverend Monsignor Robert Gregory, Mario Pearson, and Gail Monaco at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception; and Rev. Tom Are, Jr., Mark Ball, and Sally Porter of The Village Presbyterian Church. Thanks also to John Kimball who tirelessly and professionally provides the staging, lighting, and technical assistance for our programs at these churches. The Friends Volunteers Our heart-felt thanks to the “friends of The Friends” – our invaluable volunteers! Last season this hard-working, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable group of chamber music aficionados performed innumerable tasks for our concerts from selling CDs to transporting artists. We literally couldn’t have done it without them! Thanks goes to Neil Andes; Bebe Bartholomew; Hugo Becker; Nancy, Mike, Laura, and Vickie Bruno; Marcia Cooper; Nancy Corwin; Liz Craig; Pamela Eshelman; Anya Fluegge; Sabrina Henderson; Carmen and Alex Hostiuc; Jim and Lyn Jandt; Richard Keith; Christy and David Kirby; Margaret Lange; Virginia Long; Jack and Deb McLaren; Janiese Middlebrooks; George Moss; Larry Probst; Carol Quigg; Patty Seligson; Rick Stephenson; Jami Swam; Jim Terril; Mary Ann and Perry Toll; Damian Torres-Botello; and Patrick Werick. Thanks also to Carmen Hostiuc and Virginia Long for their valuable help in the office, and our interns Tim Zook and Zachary Loes. Kansas City Hospitality Kansas City’s spirit of hospitality is epitomized by the families who open up their hearts and homes to some of our visiting artists during their stay in Kansas City. Many thanks to Neil and Lona Harris, Leslie Lerner, and Barney and Cheryl White for graciously hosting artists last season.

Volunteers Rick Stephenson and Marcia Cooper with FCM patrons

Bon Appetit Heartfelt thanks go to those who so generously hosted preand post-concert dinners and receptions for our artists and patrons last season: Anonymous Donor; Bob and Mary Biber; Cambridge Alumni Association; Jean Dunlap; Rick and Ellen Goheen; Irv and Ellen Hockaday; Vera Isenberg; Jonathan and Nancy Lee Kemper; Phil and Patty Love; Bill and Peggy Lyons; James and Patricia Miller; A. Rae Price; Cynthia Schwab; Cynthia Siebert and Larry Hicks; and UMKC Alumni Association. Beyond the Concert Experience We have many people to thank for their help with our special events: André’s Confiserie Suisse; Kathleen Aylward; Gerard Eisterhold; Anya Fluegge; Doug Frost; Joe’s Pizza in Westport; Debera Nichols of the InterContinental Hotel on the Plaza; Julita Latimer of Julita Catering; Clint Young of Major Brands, Inc.; Stu Nowlin of Stu Nowlin Imaging; John and Gina Reardon of Catering by Design; and Studio Dan Meiners. Firm Financial and Legal Footing A special thank you goes to our fantastic accountant, Jennifer Plackemeier, CPA, and Harold J. Nicholson, CPA for donating time and resources in performing our annual audit and preparing our tax returns. Special thanks to the law firm of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal for legal advice. Page Turner A special thanks to John Schaefer who has been an avid, longtime supporter of The Friends, including artfully turning pages (yes – there is an art to it!) when needed.

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Harpsichords With extreme generosity, Oliver Finney makes his harpsichords – a French Dowd and a Flemish Wolf – available for The Friends’ artists to play, including the transportation and tuning of these beautiful instruments. We appreciate his liberal kindness. Medical On-Call Dr. Michael Weaver, Director of Medical Services at St. Luke’s Hospital, continues to stand by as The Friends’ official doctor for our artists. We also thank Dr. Joseph Guastello, Ear, Nose and Throat specialist with St. Luke’s Hospital.

Charlie Shields; Rep. Shalonn “KiKi” Curls; Rep. Doug Funderburk, Vice-Chair, House Appropriations – Transportation and Econ. Dev. Committee; Rep. Jason Grill; Rep. Jason Holsman; Rep. Allen Icet, Chair, House Budget Committee; Rep. Jason Kander; Rep. Beth Low; Rep. Rebecca Payne McClanahan; Rep. Kate Meiners; Rep. Charles Schlottach, Chair, House Appropriations - Transportation and Econ. Dev. Committee; Rep. Ryan Silvey; Rep. Trent Skaggs; Rep. Rick Stream, Vice-Chair, House Budget Committee; Rep. Mike Talboy. Soirée 2009 Benefit and Wine Auction Our utmost thanks to our Soirée 2009 Honorary Chair, Scott Francis, and Chair, Barbara Spilker. Further Thanks Our expert piano-tuner, Greg Hulme; Wingert-Jones Music, Inc. and Luyben Music; Carol Pecoraro and Penny Van Bebber at Kansas City Marriott Downtown; Sheraton Suites Country Club Plaza; Rene’ York of Leader Chauffeured Services; Dee Dee Adams and The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art; and Jon Ellis, Geoff Hill, and David Shook of Paradise Park. Subscriber Benefits Card With great appreciation, we would like to thank the following Kansas City Originals members that offer special discounts to our patrons during the concert season: Aixois, The American Restaurant, Bluestem, Californos, The Drum Room, Extra Virgin, Lidia’s, Lilly’s Restaurant, Michael Smith, and Zest.

Simone Dinnerstein autographs a program book for a young Master Pianists Series patron.

Music Teachers Many area school and private music teachers wisely provide their students a deeper foundation for their studies by encouraging them and their families to attend the Friends’ concerts. Experiencing some of the world’s most renowned musicians playing the world’s finest music not only gives young people a vision of what their own music can become, but can encourage a life-long pattern of attendance at excellent cultural activities. We applaud you for your leadership. To encourage these young artists,The Friends provides youth 18 and under free tickets to International Chamber Music and Early Music Series concerts, and $15 tickets for Master Pianists Series concerts. Our Friends in the Legislature We are grateful to the following legislators who have offered their steadfast support of the arts: Missouri Governor Jay Nixon; Sen. Joan Bray; Sen. Rob Mayer, Vice-Chair, Senate Appropriations Committee; Sen. Gary Nodler, Chair, Senate Appropriations Committee; Sen. Luann Ridgeway; Sen.

“What Makes It Great?” patrons The Elements of a Season 2009|10

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Contributors Why Give?

The Friends of Chamber Music is loyal to its mission of presenting world-class artists for affordable ticket prices (our tickets are usually a fraction of what other major cities would charge for the same artists). As ticket sales cover only one-third of our expenses, we rely on the generosity of individuals, foundations, corporations, and government funders for the remaining two-thirds of our budget. Your generous financial support of our concerts and our “What Makes It Great?” series allows you to share in the joy of bringing outstanding music to our community. If you have not yet made a donation to The Friends, we invite you to join our donor family. Please call Kate Beebe, Director of Development, at 816-561-9999 to learn more about making a contribution. (Also, please see the donation envelope at the back of this program book.)

Contributors

We gratefully acknowledge the kindness of our many contributors who have given their financial support on behalf of our concerts and our “What Makes It Great?” series with Rob Kapilow. This list of contributors represents donations and pledges received between July 1, 2008 and August 1, 2009. The Friends of Chamber Music’s fiscal year is July 1 – June 30. VISIONARIES ($50,000 and above) Muriel McBrien Kauffman Foundation William T. Kemper Foundation Richard J. Stern Foundation for the Arts GUARDIANS ($25,000 - $49,999) The Friends of Chamber Music Endowment Funds Missouri Arts Council Neighborhood Tourist Development Fund Sanders & Blanche Sosland Music Fund

Miller-Mellor Association Missouri Arts Council Cultural Trust Fund National Endowment for the Arts National Endowment for the Arts - American Masterpieces: Chamber Music Initiative Oppenstein Brothers Foundation Sosland Foundation Michael Waterford

BENEFACTORS ($5,000 - $9,999) Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City Dick & Jane Bruening Chamber Music America Commerce Bank of Kansas City Mr. & Mrs. Irvine O. Hockaday, Jr. Master Craftsmen Foundation Dr. & Mrs. Douglas McNair J. B. Reynolds Foundation RLS Illumination Fund Cynthia H. Schwab

SUSTAINERS ($15,000 - $24,999) H & R Block Foundation Francis Family Foundation Hall Family Foundation Hallmark Corporate Foundation Courtney S. Turner Charitable Trust, Daniel C. Weary and Bank of America, Trustees MAJOR BENEFACTORS ($10,000 - $14,999) Anonymous ArtsKC Fund of the Arts Council of Metropolitan Kansas City Charles & Virginia Clark Stanley H. Durwood Foundation David Woods Kemper Memorial Foundation 96

FCM patrons Bob Lyons, Rick Goheen, Nancy Cavanaugh, Ginny and Charles Clark, and Patricia Miller.

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FCM patrons Lennie and Jerry Berkowitz and Cecelia and Doug McNair.

Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet St. Louis Province Edward A. and Beth K. Smith Philanthropic Fund

George W. and Ada Heath Ultch Memorial Fund Ellen & Jerome Wolf

PATRONS ($1,000 - $4,999) Mr. & Mrs. Charles L. Bacon, Jr. George K. Baum Foundation Hugo & Sharon Becker Leonard & Irene Bettinger Philanthropic Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Kansas City Dr. & Mrs. Robert Biber Mr. Jack Coakley & Ms. Jane Ratcliffe Copaken Family Foundation Jay & Kit Culver J.E. Dunn Construction David M. & Sandy Eisenberg Scott Francis John R. & Ellen R. Goheen B.A. Karbank & Co. LLP Dave & Demi Kiersznowski Mr. & Mrs. William M. Lyons Robert P. Lyons Marshall & Janet Miller Mr. & Mrs. Mark Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Connell A. Rae Price Dr. Edward & Merry Prostic Philanthropic Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Kansas City Cynthia Siebert & Lawrence Hicks Morton & Estelle Sosland Martha Lee Cain Tranby Music Enrichment Fund

DONORS ($500 - $999) Anonymous Mary Adams Peter & Diana Baumann Lennie & Jerry Berkowitz Jon & Juli Ellis Anne Fraser Alan Grimes Mr. & Mrs. Donald J. Hall, Jr. Drs. James & Linda Hamilton Shirley & Barnett Helzberg Foundation Pamela A. Hoelzel Honeywell Hometown Solutions Dave Hughes Tom & Ann Isenberg Donor Advisory Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Kansas City Ian Kennedy David Lindberg Donald B. Marquis Nan Muchnic Miller Nichols Charitable Foundation Julia Scherer Dr. & Mrs. David M. Steinhaus Tension Envelope Foundation SUPPORTERS ($250 - $499) Anonymous Barbara & Ernest Adelman Dwight & Naomi Arn Mr. & Mrs. Richard O. Ballentine

Barnes & Noble Booksellers Don & Patricia Dagenais Ruth Evans* Duane J. Flaherty, in memory of Gertrude S. Flaherty Norman E. & Marilyn A.W. Gaar Clint & Mikaela Garrett Roni & Tony Genova Sherrill Gerschefske Neil & Lona Harris John Peter Hazangeles & Monica Jeffries Hazangeles Mr. & Mrs. James B. Hebenstreit Betsey R. Hughes Father Ambrose Karels Mr. & Mrs. Robert A. Kipp Thomas Lucero Lindsay & Lee Major P. Alan McDermott Ken & Elizabeth Meisinger Donald J. Mrozek Diane & Ernest Neighbor June & Cal Padgett Stanley S. & Ardyce H. Pearson Beverley Byers-Pevitts & Robert Pevitts Jana E. Pinker Memorial Foundation Sally & Lewis Popper George & Wendy Powell Naoma & Webster Schott Jean & John Scurlock Joshua & Jane Sosland Philanthropic Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Kansas City Mr. & Mrs. Glenn Spillman Gerald & Marilyn Uppman Dr. & Mrs. David D. Zoller SPONSORS ($100 - $249) Mr. & Mrs. Sam G. Adler, Jr. Mr. & Mrs. Russell W. Baker, Jr. Thomas & Susan Bamford Mrs. Wayne Barnes William F. Barstow & Laurie Schulman Marie Rubis Bauer & Michael Bauer Jane Anne Beachner Marcia & Eliot Berkley Dan Bernstein Dr. & Mrs. Lance G. Beshore James & Betty Jean Bingham E. Bollier Marcel & Connie Bollier Elaine D. Boyer Marilyn T. Bradt The Elements of a Season 2009|10

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A. Rae Price with members of the Penderecki Quartet.

Dorothy Burggraaff & Tim Scott Sally Chapple Karen L. Christiansen Joan F. Curran Dr. & Mrs. Ivan Damjanov Dorinda Derow Mr. John E. Dieter III Marles S. Dudley, NCTM Dr. & Mrs. Robert H. Easterday Dr. Gustave & Elinor Eisemann Philanthropic Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Kansas City Fred D. Fowler, M.D. Jerry Fry Karen & William Halverhout Nancy Hawley Caroline & George Helmkamp John F. Herbst Charles & Leslie Herman Maxine L. Hetherington, M.D. Emily M. Hodges Ann & Jim Hotchkiss Joseph T. Jensen Jerry & Joy Kaplan Duane & Cosette Kelly Drs. John & Ann Kenney Pamela D. Kingsbury Donna & Parker LaBach Mr. & Mrs. Art Lafex Mr. & Mrs. Robert Lesley Dr. N. J. Lindsey, in memory of Dr. Elizabeth Wilson Wayne Lippman Sally Verburg Livengood John & Kathy MacDonald Robert & Heather Maynard 98

Dr. & Mrs. H. Richard McFarland Jerry McManus, M.D. & Meghan McManus Metzler Bros. Insurance C. Stephen Metzler Stu & Nancy Nowlin Ben & Lyndal Nyberg Richard & Louise Parizek James W. Reed Dr. Lewis & Cheryl Roht Ed Scherer & Helen Aspebakken Scherer Edmund & Eleanor Scherer Uri & Marlene Seiden Shalon Fund Sigma Alpha Iota Kansas City Coordinating Council Shirley Spiegel, in memory of Marshall Spiegel Alice Statland Strauss-Goodman Family Foundation Gary Tegtmeier Benjamin & Marilyn Tilghman Virginia & Edwin Trainor Rebecca Vogt Heinz K. Wehner Paul & Meta Ann White Bruce J. Williams Paula Winchester/ Twelve Winds Tea Company E. David & Judith Frame Wiseman Joyce Zibro FRIENDS (Up to $99) Anonymous Susan Akin, NCTM Tandy & Janet Allen Arthur A. Anderson Gary N. Anderson Donald & Jeanne Andrade Edna Atkisson Kate & Reed Beebe Mr. & Mrs. Mark Berger Joseph & Francoise Bien Curtis & Sharon Bock Lawrence & Rose Marie Boehm, in memory of Robert B. Steinacker Phil Chambers Nancy Cramer Robert Delisle & Eileen Roach Dan Devine & Michelle Chollet Mrs. Ray W. Dunn Rob & Melissa Falkner

Gary & Marilyn George Baila Goldstein C. Vance Gosney Walter & Jean Hiersteiner Kim & Ted Higgins Lynnis Jameson & Lawrence Hamel, in memory of Robert B. Steinacker Sonja & Louis Joline Ann & Ed Kander David & Christy Kirby Jennifer Lacy Mark Lowry & Tammie Kresse-Lowry Evan Luskin & Andrea Kempf, in memory of Robert B. Steinacker Beth Markley Mrs. Betty B. McDermott Millie B. Mehnert, NCTM Jay & Symie Menitove Michael Milens Mu Phi Epsilon Henry Mudge-Lisk Dr. & Mrs. Jorge C. Paradelo Dick & Audre Patel David & Beth Pener Steven Perlmutter, in memory of Robert B. Steinacker Richard I. Preis Ann T. Reed, in memory of Robert B. Steinacker Jim Sapenaro Walter & Sally Sedelow Jack & Norma Jean Sigler Richard & Karin Smith Tom & Vicki Smith Shirley Spann John Stavropoulos Clyde D. Stoltenberg Anthony & Diane Stolz Melody D. Stroth, NCTM Swiss Re Matching Grant Program TWA Old Timers, Carol Wade, Treasurer, in memory of Robert B. Steinacker Velma J. Tyson Ann & Martin Unger Mr. & Mrs. Roger Wingert Dewey K. Ziegler Fritz & Nancy Zschietzschmann *deceased Every effort has been made to ensure an accurate list of contributors. If we have made an inadvertent mistake, please bring it to the attention of Kate Beebe, Director of Development, by calling 816-561-9999. The lists printed here represent donations and pledges received between July 1, 2008 and August 1, 2009.

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Endowment Donors

In addition to their annual gifts, endowment donors have given to The Friends of Chamber Music’s future. The Friends’ endowments are permanent funds from which earnings may be used at the Board’s discretion for special initiatives, concerts, or operations. We thank the following donors for recognizing the need to strengthen The Friends’ endowments for the sake of future audiences. Amounts shown are cumulative, reflecting multiple gifts over the years. $100,000 and above William T. Kemper Foundation National Endowment for the Arts Challenge Grant Sanders & Blanche Sosland Music Fund $10,000 – $99,999 Anonymous Commerce Bank of Kansas City Mr. & Mrs. George C. Dillon David M. & Sandy Eisenberg Steven & Jeanette Karbank David Woods Kemper Memorial Foundation Mr. & Mrs. William G. Levi Mr. & Mrs. Robert P. Lyons Vera Patton William Quirk Mr. & Mrs. Lamson Rheinfrank, Jr. Cynthia H. Schwab Cynthia Siebert & Lawrence Hicks Sosland Foundation Lester T. Sunderland Foundation Sutherland Lumber

Courtney S. Turner Charitable Trust, Daniel C. Weary and Bank of America, Trustees Mark & Nancy Viets $5,000 – $9,999 Nancy Martin Barnes Vera Isenberg Isaac ( Jack) & Rena Jonathan Douglas McNair & Cecelia Stadler McNair Patricia Y. & Gerald B. Rivette $2,500 – $4,999 Mr. & Mrs. Richard O. Ballentine Charles & Virginia Clark Robert Loyd Whitney F. & Ann Miller Jane E. Ratcliffe Beth K. Smith $1,000 – $2,499 Leonard & Irene Bettinger Jack Coakley Tom & Ann Gill Dr. & Mrs. John R. Goheen

Mr. & Mrs. William Greiner Mr. & Mrs. Irvine O. Hockaday Mrs. G.M. Mulhern Janice Newberry Julia Scherer Claudia Scognamiglio-Pasini Mr. & Mrs. Barney White Marc & Elizabeth Wilson $500 – $999 Sally Chapple, in memory of Charles Culloden Ruth Evans $250 – $499 Joan Gallos & Lee Bolman Jon & Janet Henderson Kathleen A. Markham Mr. & Mrs. Arthur Parks Mr. & Mrs. Glenn R. Spillman Special thanks to those who remember The Friends of Chamber Music or The Friends of Chamber Music Endowment Funds in their wills or estate plans: Anonymous (3) Nancy Martin Barnes Mr. & Mrs. Charles Abbott Carter, Jr. Sally Chapple Victor (Vic) Contoski Dorothy Dreher Marsha L. Enterline Adele Levi Sally Verburg Livengood Jane E. Ratcliffe Julia Scherer Cynthia H. Schwab Cynthia Siebert & Lawrence Hicks Joshua & Jane Sosland Dr. Harry & Alice Statland, in memory of Suzanne Statland Kaleen Tiber Michael Waterford

Composer Chen Yi with singer from Chanticleer. The Elements of a Season 2009|10

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Soirée 2009 Donors

Special thanks to the following organizations and individuals for making Soirée 2009 a resounding success! (For more information on Soirée, The Friends of Chamber Music’s annual benefit and wine auction, please see pages 22 and 23.) HONORARY CHAIR J. Scott Francis CHAIR Barbara Spilker WINE AUCTION CONSULTANT AND AUCTIONEER Doug Frost CO-AUCTIONEER AND AUCTION CONSULTANT Lucille Windsor AUCTION CONSULTANT Hillary McCoy MAJOR SPONSORS Doug Frost & Clint Young, Major Brands Marquee Artisan Wines Stu Nowlin Imaging CONTRIBUTORS $15,000 and Above J. Scott Francis/ Francis Family Foundation

$100 – $999 Ann Dickinson David & Amy Embry Richard & Sue Ann Fagerberg Rick & Ellen Goheen Lee & Amy Greif John & Ann Kenney Dennis & Susan Marker Metzler Bros. Insurance Charles & Lisa Schellhorn Michael & Sunday Siragusa James & Margaret Stadler TABLE HOSTS Baker Sterchi Cowden & Rice LLC Bob & Mary Biber Bruce & Cynthia Campbell Commerce Bank DST Systems, Inc. David & Sandy Eisenberg Scott Francis Vera Isenberg Jonathan & Nancy Lee Kemper Benny & Edith Lee Doug & Cecelia McNair James & Patricia Miller

Sherrill Mulhern Cynthia Schwab Cynthia Siebert & Larry Hicks Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP Jack & Barbara Spilker Jerry & Ellen Wolf AUCTION ITEM DONORS Aixois Ambience Furs American Heartland Theater American Jazz Museum André’s Confiserie Suisse Arrow Rock Lyceum Theatre Kathleen Aylward Beco Flowers Classic Cup Coterie Theatre Bertrand & Anne de Montille David & Sandy Eisenberg Jerry Eisterhold Fogo de Chão Folly Theater Jazz Scott Francis A Friend of The Friends The Friends of Chamber Music

$10,000 – $14,999 DST Systems, Inc. Adelaide C. Ward $5,000 – $9,999 Commerce Bank of Kansas City Muriel McBrien Kauffman Foundation Doug & Cecelia McNair $1,000 – $4,999 Mike & Karen Herman Marshall & Janet Miller Sherrill Mulhern Landon & Sarah Rowland Jack & Barbara Spilker Stinson Morrison Hecker Foundation Fund Barney & Cheryl White 100 The Friends of Chamber Music | The Intimate Voice of Classical Music

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Doug Frost Gomer’s Midtown Halls Rita & Lamar Hunt, Jr. J. Huston Tavern Hyatt Regency Crown Center InterContinental Hotel Performing Arts Series at Johnson County Community College Kansas City Ballet Kansas City Repertory Theater Kansas City Symphony Steve Karbank Julia Irene Kauffman Whitney & Day Kerr Shelley King Theis, King Estate Winery Lon Lane’s Inspired Occasions Linda Lighton Lyric Opera M&S Grill Major Brands Steve Metzler & Brian Williams Musical Theater Heritage

Steve Nuss Ltd. Mark & Lynne O’Connell Scott & Kim Penning Quality Hill Playhouse Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay Room 39 Scandia Down by Terrasi Home Restaurant Michael Smith Josh & Jane Sosland Morton & Estelle Sosland Neil & Blanche Sosland Steeple Inn & Spa Strauss Peyton Portraits Swirk Jewelry Tivoli Cinemas UMKC Conservatory Unicorn Theatre Webster House Paula Winchester, Twelve Winds Tea Company/Herb Gathering, Inc. Lucille Windsor Wine.

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Glossary

accompaniment the musical background for a principal part or parts. adagio very slow tempo. adagio ma non tanto a slow tempo, but not too much. affettuoso affectionate, tender. air a tune, vocal or instrumental. aleatory [adj. aleatoric] music which leaves certain creative decisions to the performer, perhaps concerning the ordering of composed fragments, or specific pitches or durations used. allegro fast tempo; merry or lively. allegro non troppo merry and lively, but not overly so. allegretto moderately fast tempo; often lighter in texture or character than allegro. allemande a German dance of the mid-16th century in a moderate 2/4 or 4/4 time which eventually became incorporated into instrumental suites in the 18th century alta capella term referring to the town wind bands found throughout Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries, usually consisting of shawms, slide trumpets and sackbuts. andante moderately slow; a walking tempo. andantino slightly faster than andante. animé [animando or animato, It.] Animated. In common use since the 19th century to indicate either a quickening of the tempo or a more excited expression. antiphony [adj. antiphonal] the use of two or more performers or ensembles that are spatially separated, and that alternate or oppose one another in a musical piece. aperto [It.] “open”. The first of two endings for a section of a piece. appassionato impassioned. appoggiatura meaning a “leaning,” this term describes a dissonant pitch that is in a strong metrical position as if “leaning” against a note or notes, that is resolved or ceases to “lean” by moving to a consonant pitch in a relatively weaker position by ascending or descending a step. archlute a small six-or seven course* lute with an extended pegbox that holds unfretted bass courses. Archlutes were commonly used as part of the basso continuo* in Italian music of the 17th and 18th centuries. arco bow; often seen in music following pizzicato sections (where the strings are plucked with the fingers); “arco” indicates the performer is to play with the bow. aria elaborate solo song found primarily in operas, oratorios and cantatas. arietta a small aria or song, usually sung by a secondary character in an opera. articulation the characteristics of attack and decay of tones and the means by which these characteristics are produced. Staccato and legato are types of articulation. arpeggio a chord whose pitches are sounded successively, usually from the lowest note to the highest rather than simultaneously.

assai [It.] much, very much. atonal the absence or opposite of tonality, or the absence of a key center. attacca attack immediately. When placed at the end of a movement, it serves as an instruction to begin the next movement without pause. barcarolle [Fr.] music modeled on the song of the Venetian gondoliers, usually in 6/8 or 12/8 time with accompaniment suggesting the rocking of a boat. ballade In the 19th century, a long, dramatic type of piano piece; musical equivalent of a poetic ballad, such as the Chopin Ballades. bar line in musical notation, a line drawn vertically through one or more staves to mark off a measure. Baroque period period or style in Western music extending from roughly 1600-1750, during which J. S. Bach and Handel composed. bassa capella term referring to music groups found throughout Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries, usually consisting of soft instruments such as strings. basso continuo [It.] “thoroughbass.” Also called simply “continuo.” Independent, continuous bass line throughout a piece; that serves as an accompaniment to instruments or voices performing the melody. At a minimum, it consisted of a keyboard instrument (harpsichord, organ, clavichord) and a bass instrument (viola da gamba, violoncello, bassoon). In earlier Baroque works, a lute, guitar, or theorbo participates as part of the continuo. In late Baroque concertos the continuo most often comprises harpsichord and cello; however, period instrument ensembles frequently call on the other continuo instruments. bel canto bel canto singing characteristically focuses on evenness throughout the voice, skillful legato, a light upper register, flexibility, and a lyric, “sweet” timbre. It also refers to the art and science of that vocal technique which originated in Italy during the late seventeenth century and reached its pinnacle in the early part of the nineteenth century. binary form describes a piece comprised of two sections, each usually repeated. The first section generally modulates to a related key, and the second generally progresses back to the original key. Symbolized AA’. breve [Lat.] short, brief. brio [It.] vivacity; spirit. buffo [It.] comic. cadence harmonic formula that concludes a musical phrase, section or piece. cadenza elaborate passage for the soloist in a concerto, during which all other instruments are silent; usually near the end of a movement and often not written out by the composer but left to the performer to improvise. canon [adj. canonic] piece, or moment in a piece, in which a subject or musical idea is imitated by one or more voices

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playing the same musical idea, but beginning after the first voice states the subject and overlapping with it. A well-known example is “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.” The voices which follow the first statement of the subject may or may not begin on the same note or pitch as the first voice. This was a technique commonly employed in the Renaissance and Baroque periods. cantabile to be performed in a melodious, singing manner. cantata vocal composition developed in the Baroque period for chorus and/or solo voice(s), based on secular or religious texts, generally with several movements and accompanied by an instrumental ensemble. canticle song from a book of the Bible other than the Psalms. cantilena [Lat.] 1) In the Middle Ages, melody or song, including liturgical chant as well as secular songs; 2) In the 13th – 15th centuries, polyphonic song, especially the French chanson; 3) In the 19th century to present, a lyrical vocal or instrumental melody. cantiones sacred songs. canzona [It., song] instrumental arrangement of French chansons popular in the 16th and 17th centuries. canzonetta [It.] a light vocal piece popular in Italy from the 1560’s, in England in the late 16th century, and in Germany in the early 17th century. capella [Ger.] “Chapel”; usually refers to a church or court musical ensemble. However, in Germany in the 15th and 16th centuries, the term came to be used to describe any musical group. capriccio [It.: whim, fancy; Fr. caprice] it does not signify a specific musical technique or structure, but rather a general disposition toward the exceptional, the whimsical, the fantastic and the arbitrary, “wherein the force of imagination has better success than the observation of the rules of art.” (Furetière, 1690) cassation an informal instrumental genre of the Classical period, usually intended for performance outdoors as a kind of street serenade. cauda a textless passage that often appears at the end of lines in medieval sacred songs. cavatina in 18th- and 19th- century opera, a short solo song, simple in style and without a da capo or repeat. Usually consists of a short instrumental introduction followed by a single statement set to music. chaconne a form of variations based on a basic chord progression of a dance in triple meter and major mode which originated in Latin America and spread across Europe in the 17th century. chamber concerto works for chamber orchestra in which all instrumentalists participate in both the orchestral tutti as well as sharing the solo sections. chamber music music written for small ensembles or soloists, for either private or domestic performance, or before an

Glossary

audience in a relatively small hall. chanson [Fr.] song. chant see plainsong. chiavette in 16th-century vocal polyphony, a coordination of clefs that locates the staves of individual parts, or the ten-line staff used by composers and theorists. chitarrone [It.] 1) In 16th-century Italy, a large bass lute whose strings were tuned similarly to the descant (soprano) lute, but with the first two courses an octave lower. 2) In the 17th century, the theorbo. chorale the congregational song or hymn of the German Protestant Church. chord (adj. chordal) three or more tones played simultaneously. The most commonly used chord is built on intervals of thirds, such as a C major chord comprised of the notes C, E and G. chromatic scale scale which includes all 12 tones of the octave; moving in half steps. chromaticism the addition of at least some pitches of the chromatic scale, which is the scale that includes all 12 pitches (half steps or semitones) contained in an octave. This may result simply from the filling in of whole steps with half steps. Classical 1) in Western music, the period or style extending from the early 18th century through the early 19th century; 2) art music, as opposed to folk or popular music forms. claveciniste referring to an era of 18th-century French harpsichord compositions. clef sign placed at the beginning of a staff to indicate the position of pitches. coda concluding section of a composition or movement, usually reinforcing the final cadence. compound meter a meter that includes a triple subdivision within the beat; i.e., 6/8 time. con brio [It.] with vivacity, spirited. concertante in the 18th century, works for two or more performers (including orchestral works) in which one or more performers is called upon for soloistic display. Mozart’s Concertante for violin and viola soloists plus orchestra is an example. concertino (1) the soloists in a concerto grosso, (2) in the 18th century, a multi-movement work for orchestra or chamber music ensemble. concerto a work for one or more solo instruments accompanied by orchestra, often in three movements. concerto grosso a concerto for a small group of soloists (the concertino), and larger orchestra (the tutti or ripieno). con moto literally “with motion”; to be played more rapidly. consort an instrumental ensemble, usually made up of two to eight players, where the instruments come from different families (i.e., strings mixed with winds).

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Glossary

continuo see basso continuo. contrapuntal [adj.] having to do with counterpoint. cornetto [It.] a wooden or ivory instrument of the brass family, with a wide conical bore and side holes for a thumb and six fingers. It was used in church and chamber music from about 1550 to 1700. corrente [It. courante, Fr.: running, flowing] a dance and instrumental form which flourished in Europe from the late 16th century to the mid 18th century, often as a movement of a suite in 3/8 or 3/4 time. countermelody an accompanying part with distinct, though subordinate, melodic interest, in a piece with a clear melody and accompaniment. counterpoint [N.] contrapuntal texture in which two or more melodic voices proceed simultaneously and relatively independently. Renaissance and Baroque works are particularly rich in contrapuntal writing. courses in a string instrument, the term refers to a pair of strings tuned to the same note and sounded as one, producing a stronger, more ringing sound. An example is the four-course mandolin, strong in four double courses. crescendo [It.] gradually increasing in loudness. cross rhythm a rhythm in which the regular pattern of accents of the prevailing meter is contradicted or challenged. couplet two successive lines of poetry forming a pair, often within a larger form. csárdás a Hungarian dance in duple time. Slow (lassu) sections alternate with fast (friss) ones. da capo to repeat a composition by returning to the beginning and playing until the word “fine” (“the end”) appears in the music. decrescendo [It.] gradually becoming softer. descant [discant] (from medieval Latin, discantus, ‘sounding part’), term first used in the 12th century , a technique of composition where one voice is added to a plainchant (or single-voiced song), usually note against note and usually in contrary motion. descant lute a high-pitched member of the lute family, played in the soprano clef. development growth of a musical idea or ideas through variations or transformation; middle section in a sonata form. diatonic a scale with seven different pitches, made-up of five whole and two half steps such as a major or minor scale. diminished seventh chord a chord composed of four tones, each a minor third above the next. It is often used to modulate to another key. dissonance musical sounds that create a feeling of tension, as opposed to consonance. All music consists of the play between dissonance and consonance. divertimento in the second half of the 18th century, especially in Austria, typically, a light, secular instrumental work for a chamber music ensemble or soloist.

dodecaphony twelve-tone technique for musical composition that ensures that all 12 notes of the chromatic scale are of equal importance, thus creating music with no key center. The technique was tremendously influential on composers of the mid-twentieth century. dominant the fifth scale degree (note) of a major or minor scale. double canon a piece in which two melodic subjects, or ideas, are employed in canonical style (see canon). double fugue fugue in which two subjects are first given full and independent treatment, and then are combined contrapuntally with one another. drone an instrument that plays only a constant pitch or pitches; sustained tone in a piece of music. dumky (pl. dumka) literally “to ponder.” (1) A Slavonic folk ballad from the Ukraine, alternating between moods of elation or despair. (2) Instrumental music involving sudden changes of mood between melancholy and despair. duple meter any meter in which there are two basic beats in a measure, such as 2/2 or 2/4. dynamics the aspect of music relating to degrees of loudness; dynamic markings. etude literally “study”; instrumental piece designed to improve a player’s technique. equal temperament a musical temperament or system of tuning in which the octave is divided into 12 semitones of equal size and every pair of adjacent notes has an identical frequency ratio. exposition first section in a fugue, sonata, symphony or concerto movement, where a subject or musical ideas/themes are first heard or exposed. fantasy, fantasia composition in no fixed form wherein a composer may follow freely his or her imagination; may consist of multiple styles, moods, keys, meters, tempi or forms. fermata a performance indication sign used in a composition directing the performer to stop or hold for an unspecified time, to be determined by the performer. figured bass a bass part in which numbers provide the harmonic guidelines within which the performer is expected to improvise. finale the final movement of a sonata, symphony, concerto or string quartet; usually in a fast tempo. fine the end. fioriture ornamental passages that are improvised or written out. flautino [It.] a small flute which is played vertically; similar to a recorder rather than a piccolo. forte loud. fortissimo very loud. fragmentation a compositional technique using only a part or fragment of a musical idea/motif. fret a piece of material placed across the fingerboard or neck of some string instruments, limiting the strings to be played at a specific pitch.

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fughetta [It.] a short fugue. fugue (adj. fugal) literally “flight”; in music, a composition in which three or more voices enter imitatively one after another, each giving chase to the previous voice which “flies” before it. fugato a fugue-like passage occurring in a larger work or movement that is not in itself a fugue. fuoco [It.] fire. furiant a quick, exhilarating Bohemian dance in ¾ time with shifting accents. galante term used in 18th-century French music to describe free or homophonic style, as opposed to the strict, learned, contrapuntal style. gigue a fast and usually final dance movement of a suite of English origin and using some rhythmic multiple of triplets. giusto [It.] just, precise; an appropriate or usual tempo for the type of piece at hand, or return to regular tempo after passage of a flexible tempo. glissando a continuous movement from one pitch to another. This may be produced by a sliding movement on string or wind instruments, with all of the micro-intervals (smaller than half or whole steps) contained in between the beginning and ending

notes of the slide. On the piano, it is produced by a rapid succession of half and/or whole steps. grave slow or solemn. grazioso graceful. Gregorian Chant named for Pope Gregory I, unaccompanied, monophonic music cells, codified in the 8th and 9th centuries and used as the basis for compositions for the Catholic Church for several centuries. ground bass a pattern of notes, most often a melodic phrase with a consistent harmonic progression set in the bass, repeated over and over again with changing upper parts. Grounds are basically a series of continuous variations. In Italy, grounds were called basso ostinato, or “obstinate bass.” half steps the smallest interval in use in western music tradition. There are twelve such intervals contained in the octave. harmonics a tone produced on a stringed instrument by lightly touching a vibrating string at a given fraction of its length so that both segments vibrate. harmonic minor scale a type of minor scale in which the third and sixth degrees of the scale are each lowered a half step from the major scale. harmony the relationship of tones when they sound simultaneously; also, any number of pitches sounded simultaneously, or a chord. harpsichord stringed keyboard instrument in prominent use from the 16th to 18th centuries, and revived since the 1880’s. Similar in shape to a grand piano, but in the harpsichord, strings are plucked by a plectrum as opposed to being struck by feltcovered hammers.

Glossary

homophony (adj. homophonic) music in which one voice, carrying the melody, is supported by an accompaniment which is far less important than the melody; as opposed to monophony and polyphony. hymn a song in praise of god(s) or heroes. hymnodist composer of hymns. Impressionism an artistic movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries represented in music chiefly by Debussy and Ravel. impromptu a title of a single-movement composition, characterized by an off-hand style, as if the result of sudden inspiration, but not necessarily of an improvisatory nature. The most famous of these were composed by Schubert and Chopin. intermezzo (1) a 19th-century character piece; the term suggests the casual origin of the composition; (2) same as “interlude” or “entr’acte.” A movement that comes in between two movements, and is usually meant to serve as a lighter refreshment to those movements. interval distance between two pitches. invertible counterpoint a technique of contrapuntal writing that allows the voices to change places (the higher becoming the lower and vice versa). invention the name given by J.S. Bach to 15 short keyboard pieces, each in two parts and each developing from a single idea. The 15 companion three-part pieces are now known also as “inventions.” The term also appears in earlier music, implying creativity but with no particular musical charateristics. Kapellmeister the leader of a musical chapel, or court ensemble,

which might provide both sacred and secular music. (Bach held this position at the court at Cöthen from 1717-1723.) key in tonal music, the pitch relationships that establish a single pitch as a tonal center or tonic. ländler an 18th-century folk dance from Austria and southern Germany in slow ¾ time. larghetto slightly less slow than largo. largo very slow tempo; considered the slowest tempo by some theorists. laude nonliturgical religious song, of greatest importance in the 13th through 16th centuries, but in continual use through the 19th century. Usually composed in Italian or Latin, these songs were anonymous, monophonic, and simple in style. Legato (It., from legare,‘to bind’) a directive indicating that notes should be played smoothly, without noticeable breaks between them. The opposite of legato is staccato. lento [It.] slow tempo. libretto the text of an opera or oratorio, originally and more specifically the small book containing the text. Lied [Ger., pl. Lieder] (1) a poem, usually lyrical and often strophic (2) a song having such a poem for its text, usually written for solo voice and piano accompaniment during the Classical and Romantic periods. Commonly known as “art song.”

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Glossary

lirone [It.] a bass bowed string instrument developed in the 16th century. Held between the legs and usually fretted, with 9-14 melody strings and 2 drone strings. lute a European plucked-string instrument with an oblong, rounded body, a flat soundboard featuring a rosette, and a short, fretted neck with an angled pegbox, sometimes even perpendicular to the neck. Six-course lutes were standard after about 1600, but later Italian instruments had as many as fourteen courses. madrigal popular in the 16th and early 17th centuries, a secular vocal work written for four to five voices, usually unaccompanied, set to verses, most commonly by Petrarch. Magnificat the canticle of the Virgin, Luke 1:46-55, which begins “My soul doth magnify the Lord.” The Magnificat is part of the Office of the Vespers. Marian having to do with the Virgin Mary. Mass the central service of the Roman Catholic rites, deriving from a ritual commemoration of the sacrifice of Christ, usually made up of several sections that fall into two categories: the Proper and the Ordinary. measure a way of dividing music into specific units of time set off by bar lines; most often, with the same number of “beats.” mediant the third degree of the scale, so called because it is midway between the first degree of the scale (the tonic) and the fifth degree of the scale (the dominant). Medieval music from the period of the Middle Ages, from about 500 until about 1430. melody succession of musical tones forming a line of individual significance and expressive value, as opposed to harmony (tones sounded simultaneously); thus, melody and harmony represent the horizontal and vertical elements of music. menuetto minuet mesto [It.] sad, mournful. meter in a given composition or section, the basic pattern of regular pulses and accents found in each measure and indicated by a time signature. Middle Ages period of history from about 500-1430 A.D. Musical notation began in Western Europe during this time (9th century). Some forms of music from this period include plainsong, the Mass, motets, and liturgical dramas. minimalism school or mode of contemporary music marked by extreme simplification of rhythms, patterns, and harmonies; prolonged chordal or melodic repetitions; often creating a trance-like effect. minor key a key which has a minor interval between its first and third degree. minuet [Fr. menuet, It. menuetto] a stately French dance of the 17th and 18th centuries, in triple meter and moderate tempo; often paired with a another section of music called a trio, and is most often the third movement of a Classical symphony, sonata or quartet.

mode (adj. modal) scale; usually used to denote scales used by churches in the Medieval and Renaissance periods. Each mode is based on a series of pitches, with different patterns of intervals. moderato [Fr. modéré] moderate tempo. modulate to change from one key to another. molto much or very; used with such musical terms as “allegro molto” (very fast). monophony (adj. monophonic) music consisting of a single voice or line, for either one performer or an ensemble performing in unison, such as in chant. mosso moving, animated. motet (1) prominent type of composition of the 13th century, usually for three voices, often combining religious and secular texts; (2) an unaccompanied choral composition of the 15th and 16th centuries, contrapuntal, usually for four or five voices, generally with a religious text. motive [Fr. motif; Gr. Motiv] a brief melodic figure, too short to be called a theme, and often a fragment of a theme, which may become the basis for an entire composition. moto ‘motion;’ con moto, ‘with motion,’ i.e. quickly movement a complete and relatively independent part of a larger composition such as a sonata, quartet, concerto or symphony. mute, or sordino a device for reducing the volume and/or altering the tone color of an instrument. nocturne [Fr. “of the night”; It. notturno]. Title used for certain instrumental works of the 19th and 20th centuries, suggesting night and usually quiet and meditative in quality. non not. obbligato an accompanying part that is of integral importance. It is not as important as the subject or melody, but has more independent character than the accompanying part. octave the interval made up of the first and eighth tones of a minor or major scale. Office distinct from the Mass, these are the daily services of the Western Christian rites. opera a drama set to music, which consists of singing with arias and recitatives with orchestral accompaniment, and usually also comprising an orchestral overture and intermezzo. opera buffa [It.] comic opera. opera seria [It.] serious opera. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the chief operatic genre. opus (abbr. op.) literally “work”; numbers used to indicate the order in which a composer’s works were published; not necessarily an indication of the order in which they were written. oratorio an extended musical drama with a text based on religious subject matter. Usually performed without scenery, costume, or action; instead, it emphasizes narration, and uses a chorus.

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orchestra see symphony. Ordinary refers to the five Mass texts, which remain the same for every liturgical service (Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei). ostinato a melodic and/or rhythmic motive or phrase that is repeated persistently, often in the bass. overtone in acoustics, a faint higher tone contained within every musical tone. A body producing a musical pitch such as a taut string or a column of air within the tubular body of a wind instrument-vibrates not only as a unit but simultaneously also in sections, resulting in the presence of a series of overtones within the fundamental tone (i.e., the one identified as the actual pitch). overture a composition intended as an introduction to a suite, opera or other dramatic work. Sometimes designated as a “sinfonia” or an “introduzione” (“introduction”). pantonic (pantonality) synonym for atonality, Schoenberg preferred this term as indicating the combination of all keys rather than the absence of any key, but it is rarely used. partita (1) in the late 16th and 17th centuries, a variation, usually on a traditional melody, (2) in the late Baroque period, and early Classical period, a type of multi-movement instrumental suite, whose movements are based on dances that have become stylized and suitable only for listening. The most common movements in a partita are prelude, allemande, bourrée, sarabande, minuet, and gigue, though other lighter movements may be included. passacaglia a continuous variation form, mostly from the Baroque, whose basso ostinato formulas originally derived from ritornellos. passepied [Fr.] a French dance of the 17th and 18th centuries resembling a fast minuet. It was usually in binary form and in 3/8 or 6/8 time with continuous running movement. It became part of the 18th-century suite as one of the optional dances. passion music form that began in the Medieval period which depicts the Passion of the Christ (his crucifixion and resurrection). pastorale a work of music or literature that represents or evokes life in the countryside. pathétique with great emotion. pedal point a sustained tone in the lower register, occurring under changing harmonies in the upper parts. pegbox a boxlike construction at the far end of the neck of a stringed instrument which houses ‘pegs’ or screws to which the strings are attached and which can be turned to tune the strings, wither by tightening or lessening them. perpetuum mobile a composition in which rhythmic motion, often in a single note-value in a rapid tempo, is continuous from beginning to end. pianissimo very soft.

Glossary

piano (1) the instrument; (2) a directive found within a score to indicate playing quietly. (The first were called ‘fortepianos’ meaning ‘loudsoft’ because a performer could affect the volume of the note by altering the way the keys are struck. Neither the harpsichord nor the organ had this capability.) piano trio (1) a trio consisting of piano, violin, and cello, (2) a work for such a trio. più more. pizzicato in music for bowed and stringed instruments, a directive to pluck, with the fingers or thumb, the strings for certain notes or passages of notes. plainsong (plainchant or chant) unaccompanied, monophonic (all voices in unison) music of the Middle Ages which was influenced by the chants of Jewish synagogue music and the early Eastern Church. poco little. poco adagio a little slower tempo. polka a moderately fast Bohemian dance that originated in Europe around 1830, and was popular throughout the 19th century. polonaise a festive aristocratic Polish dance in triple meter, in a moderate tempo with a strong emphasis on the first beat, usually performed as a processional with couples. polyphony music that simultaneously combines several lines of equal or almost equal importance; as opposed to monophony and homophony. polytonality simultaneous use of two or more tonalities or keys. praembulum [Lat.] prelude. prelude a piece or movement that precedes other movements of a larger work, such as in a partita or suite. prestissimo a tempo marking indicating a piece or section of a piece is to be played as fast as possible. presto a tempo marking indicating a piece or section of a piece is to be played very fast. programmatic music intended to express or depict specific images or stories, as opposed to representing abstract ideas. Proper the sections of the Mass whose texts change according to occasions in the Church calendar. quartet (1) an ensemble comprised of four instruments or vocalists, or some combination of the two. The most common combination consists of two violins, a viola and a cello, which is known as a string quartet, a form founded by Haydn (2) a composition written for such instrumental/vocal combinations. quodlibet [Lat.] “What you please.” A composition in which well-known melodies or texts are presented simultaneously or successively, the result being humorous and displaying technical virtuosity. rallentando [It., abbr., rall.] gradually slowing down; same as ritardando. recapitulation section of thematic restatement; usually the third and final section in a movement of a sonata form work.

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Glossary

recitative a vocal style designed for the speech-like declamation of narrative episodes in operas, oratorios or cantatas. relative key has to do with the number of pitches two keys or scales share in common, e.g., relative major/minor keys. Renaissance period in Western music, the period extending from approximately 1425 to 1600. ricercar a type of late Renaissance and early Baroque instrumental composition. It usually refers to an early kind of fugue, particularly one of a serious character in which the subject uses long note values. In the 16th century, the word ricercar could refer to several types of compositions, which mostly fell into two general types: a predominantly homophonic piece, with occasional runs and passagework; and a sectional work in which each section begins imitatively, usually in a variation form. ripieno term used in Baroque music to denote the tutti (or concerto grosso) sections, as opposed to the solo (or concertino) group. ritardando [It., abbr. rit.] Gradual slowing of tempo; same as rallentando. ritornello prelude material for full orchestra, stated at outset and recurring at periodic intervals throughout the movement. Ritornello are always present in first movements of Baroque concertos and frequently play a part in last movements. The term comes from Italian for ‘return.” rococo a term from art used to describe the graceful and ornamented music of the 18th century. Romanticism a period in European music history, usually considered to have spanned from the early to late 19th century. The period came to represent the freedom of the individual creative imagination. rondeau one of the three standard poetic forms used for chansons in the 14th and 15th centuries. rondo form prominent in the Classical period in which a main theme alternates with contrasting episodes; one of the most common rondo patterns is ABACABA.

sarabande a slow, highly ornamented Baroque dance whose historical origin is Spanish, usually in triple meter and part of an instrumental suite consisting of several movements. scale a schematic arrangement of notes in ascending and descending order of pitch which are regularly used in the music of a particular period or culture. scherzo literally “joke”; movement of a sonata, symphony or quartet that replaced the minuet in the 19th century; usually written in a light, rapid style often with a contrasting trio section. semitones see half steps. semplice [It.] simple, without ornament. serenade a vocal or instrumental work intended for performance in the evening, and usually addressed to a lover, friend, or person of rank, and composed for a specific occasion. serialism compositional technique in which the 12 notes of the chromatic scale are arranged in a fixed order; the “series,” can be manipulated in a variety of ways to generate melodies and harmonies, and which normally remains binding for an entire work. sforzando [pl. sforzandi ] literally, “forcing”; an indication for a strong accent on a note or chord. siciliano, siciliana a dance of Sicilian origin, usually in a minor key, in compound duple or quadruple time with a swaying rhythm. sonata composition for one or more instruments, usually in several movements; takes on different forms in different periods of history. Most sonatas written in the 18th and 19th centuries contained at least one movement in sonata-allegro form. sonata-allegro a large-form movement in three parts: exposition, development and recapitulation. symbolized ABA’ (see diagram below). Most commonly employed in sonatas, quartets, concertos and symphonies. sonatina [Fr. sonatine] a work with the formal characteristics of a sonata (see Sonata-Allegro diagram below), but on a smaller scale and often less technically demanding for the performer. sordino [It.] see mute. sostenuto [It.] sustained, sometimes with the implication of a slowing tempo.

Sonata-Allegro Form Theme 2

Closing Theme

Theme 1

Leaving home Home

Exposition

Let’s go back

Thoughts of home while traveling

Thoughts of a new place

Theme 2

¿?

Away from home

Home!

Development

Should we leave?

Closing Theme

No, let’s remember where we went but stay home.

Recapitulation

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sotto voce [It.] under the breath, in lowered tones, softly, as an aside. spiccato [It.] a fast, detached stroke in which the bow is dropped on the string and lifted again after each note. staccato literally “detached”; a manner of performance in which each note is shortened and separated from the notes that follow. The opposite of legato. staff, stave (pl. staves) a group of horizontal lines, on which notes are placed to indicate pitch. The number of lines in a staff varied throughout many centuries, until a five-line staff was adopted to create a standard common to all composers and countries in the west. stop (pl. stops) refers to a string technique wherein a performer “stops” a string by pressing his finger on it at different places to produce a specific pitch. A string player may “stop” several strings at a time to produce a chord or cluster of sounds simultaneously. stretto in a fugue, the imitative treatment in which the subjects follow so closely in succession that each overlaps with the next creating greater stress or tension. string quartet (1) an ensemble comprised of two violins, a viola, and a cello, (2) a composition written for this combination of instruments. strophe (adj., strophic) units of text set to music and characterized by repetition of the same music for all strophes. Sturm und Drang [Ger., “storm and stress”] A movement in late 18th century German music that aimed to produce a powerful, even violent expression of emotion. style gallant refers to an 18th-century style that was written in a more free, homophonic style as opposed to the older, more strict style of employing counterpoint. subdominant the fourth scale degree of a major or minor scale. subject a melody or melodic fragment on which a composition or a major portion of one is based. submediant the sixth scale degree. suite a series of different instrumental movements with some element of unity, often performed as a single work. The piece’s unity may be from a common key, from its origins in a larger work, or from some thematic connections and overall form. A partita is a particular kind of suite. sul ponticello [It.] marking which indicates to play at the bridge of a stringed instrument. suspension a dissonance which is created by holding a note from a previous chord, while the other notes of the chord change to create a new chord in which the held note no longer belongs. The suspended note creates tension or dissonance, until it is resolved by moving to a harmonic pitch or note that is part of the new chord. symphony 1) a large-scale, public composition usually based on sonata form, usually in multiple movements written for orchestra; 2) a largescale instrumental ensemble intended for public performance.

Glossary

syncopation displacement of the normal accent by transferring it from a strong to a weak beat. Used throughout all classical music periods, it has been employed more aggressively in the 20th century by musicians in the “classical” and jazz fields. tanto [It.] so much, too much. tardamente [It.] slow, slowly; slowing down. tempo (pl. tempi) speed at which a composition is performed; common tempo markings include (listed from slow to fast): largo, lento, adagio, andante, allegretto, allegro, vivace, presto. ternary form describes a movement with three sections. The first and third sections are identical or closely related, and the second is contrasting. ABA form. terrace dynamics a technique applied when performing a sequence wherein the dynamic or volume level is louder for each statement of a sequence that usually rises in volume when the pitch rises and decreases in volume if the sequence is going down. theme principal melody in a composition. theorbo a large bass lute, which was developed in the late 16th century especially for playing basso continuo. It will have six courses and seven or eight contrabass courses in a second pegbox attached to the first. timbre tone color. time signature the sign placed at the beginning of a composition or during the course of it to indicate its meter. It normally consists of two numbers: the top number indicates how many beats are in each measure, and the bottom number indicates what type of note value is worth one beat. tiorba [It.] see theorbo. toccata [It., “touch”] An instrumental composition, often featuring several virtuosic sections, designed to show off the player’s technical capabilities. tonal in Western music, the organized relationship of tones with reference to a definite key center or tonic, and generally, a work written in a specific scale or key. tonic first degree, or pitch, of a major or minor diatonic scale. tranquillo tranquil. transposition the rewriting or performance of music at a pitch other than the one in which it was originally written. transverse flute [It. traverso, Fr. traversière, Ger. Traversflöte] a term used until the middle of the 18th century to distinguish a side-blown flute from the end-blown recorder. tremolando or tremolo the fast, unmeasured repetition of a single note or alternation of two notes. triad a chord consisting of three pitches, each pitch usually separated by the interval of a third or fourth (see chord). trill (1) a fluttering or tremulous sound; warble; (2) in music, the rapid alternation of two tones either a whole or half step apart. trio (1) composition for three performers; (2) The B section of an ABA form of a minuet or scherzo, usually in two parts, each of which is repeated.

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Glossary

trio-sonata a sonata written for three instruments, usually two upper voices and one basso continuo. triple meter any meter in which there are three basic beats in a measure, such as 3/4 or 3/8. triplet three notes of the same rhythmic value to be played/ sung in the time normally occupied by one or two note(s) of the same value, thus making them faster. tromba [It.] trumpet. troppo too much (as in non troppo, “not too much”). tutti literally, “all”; in orchestral works, particularly concertos, a passage where the entire orchestral force resumes playing after a passage in which only a soloist or small group of soloists (concertante) are playing (see also concerto grosso and ripieno). twelve tone music music in which all twelve notes of the scale have equal importance; i.e., music which is not in any key or mode, and which is often described as atonal. unison 1) the interval formed by two statements of the same pitch; 2) simultaneous performance at the same pitch, or sometimes at one or more octaves. valse [Ger.] see waltz. variation compositional technique in which musical ideas or themes are manipulated and repeated many times with various changes. Vespers [Lat., evening] a devotional service, part of the Divine Office, usually performed in monasteries and convents in the early evening. viola da braccia a 16th- and 17th-century bowed, string instrument played on the arm as distinct from one played on or between the legs (da gamba) viola da gamba a 16th and 17th century bowed stringed instrument played on or between the legs. virtuosic a term used to describe music that requires great technical capability on the part of the performer. vivace lively; indicates a tempo equivalent to or faster than allegro. voice (1) the human voice; (2) a single part or line in an instrumental composition. walking bass a bass accompaniment that moves steadily in a rhythm contrasting to that of the parts played in the upper registers. It consists of unsyncopated notes of equal value, using a mixture of scale tones, arpeggios, and passing tones to outline the chord progression, often with a melodic shape that alternately rises and falls in pitch over several bars. waltz a ballroom dance, always in triple meter, but the tempo may range from slow to moderately fast; one of the best known of the 19th century Austrian/German dances. whole step an interval consisting of two half steps or semitones.

Abbreviations: AV. abbreviation for Asow Verzeichnis, the thematic catalog of Richard Strauss’s works by E.H. Mueller von Asow BWV. abbreviation for Bach Werke Verzeichnis, the catalog of the works of J.S. Bach, developed by Wolfgang Schmieder. D. abbreviation for Otto Erich Deutsch’s thematic catalog of the works of Schubert. Hob. abbreviation for catalogue of Haydn’s works compiled by Anthony van Hoboken. The number after Hob. indicates the musical form, and the number after the colon indicates the numbering within that type of work. K. or KV. abbreviation for Köchel-Verzeichnis, the thematic catalog for the works of Mozart first prepared by Ludwig von Köchel. K. abbreviation for Ralph Kirkpatrick’s chronological system of cataloging the works of Domenico Scarlatti. RV. abbreviation for Peter Ryom’s Verzeichnis, the definitive catalog for the works of Antonio Vivaldi. TWV. abbreviation for Telemann Werke Verzeichnis (Telemann Work Catalogue). The first number after TWV indicates the general type of medium, the letter after the colon is the key of the particular work, and the following number is the numbering within that type of work. WoO abbreviation for Werk ohne Opuszahl (work without opus number), in the thematic category of Beethoven’s works. Note: These definitions are taken from The New Harvard Dictionary of Music, edited by Don Randel; The New Oxford Companion to Music, edited by Denis Arnold; and The New Groves Dictionary of Music, edited by Stanley Sadie; with additional edits by Laurie Shulman and The Friends of Chamber Music staff.

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Celebrate The Auditorium Organâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 50th Birthday! Aeolian-Skinner Opus 1309 (1959) nine divisions, 113 ranks and 6,334 pipes

John Obetz - Community of Christ Organist Emeritus

Chamber

Music on the

Radio!

October 4, 2009 | 3:00 p.m.

Jan Kraybill - Community of Christ Principal Organist

Reenactment of Inaugural Recital November 6, 2009 | 8:00 p.m.

Ken Cowan & Lisa Shihoten - Organ/Violin Duo January 10, 2010 | 3:00 p.m.

Fred Swann - Past President of American Guild of Organists March 14, 2010 | 3:00 p.m.

International Hymn Festival -

Re-dedication of The Auditorium Organ April 16, 2010 | 7:30 p.m.

KKFI 90.1 FM

presents the Chamber Music program hosted by Mike Pettengell Hear some of the greatest literature in all of music!

No tickets are required. A free-will offering will be taken.

Community of Christ (formerly RLDS) Auditorium 1001 W. Walnut St., Independence, MO 64050 Visit www.CofChrist.org/dome_spire or call 816-833-1000 for further details

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Wednesdays 8 p.m. - 10 p.m. on KKFI 90.1 FM www.KKFI.org

9/1/09 10:05:42 AM

Ad Index

Alter’s Violin Shop..................................................................4

Kansas City University of Medicine & Biosciences................3

American Restaurant.............................................................15

Karbank Real Estate Company.............................................12

Andre’s Confiserie Suisse......................................................16

kcmetropolis.org..................................................................113

Bach Aria Soloists...............................................................112

KCUR & NPR News............................................................17

Baker University....................................................................15

KKFI 90.1 FM....................................................................113

BlueCross BlueShield...................................Inside Back Cover

KPR.......................................................................................18

Commerce Bank..........................................Inside Front Cover

Knotty Rug Company.............................................................6

Community of Christ Auditorium......................................113

newEar................................................................................111

Covington Printing...............................................................18

Park University International Center for Music....................10

Fine Arts Chorale....................................................................4

Quality Hill Playhouse..........................................................13

Folly Theater........................................................................111

Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal..........................................17

Hilton President Hotel............................................................4

Sunflower Publishing............................................................19

Johnson County Community College...................................13

UMKC Conservatory of Music & Dance...........................111

Kansas City Chamber Orchestra.........................................112

University of Kansas Hospital................................ Back Cover

Kansas City Repertory Theatre..............................................13

Western Roofing Co..............................................................15

Kansas City Star....................................................................14

Youth Symphony of Kansas City.............................................6

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