The Friends of Chamber Music Kansas City, 50th Season, 2025-2026 by TheIndependentMagazinePA

The Fiftieth Anniversary Season 2025/2026

PARK UNIVERSITY

INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR MUSIC

2025-26 CONCERT SEASON

September 5, 2025, 1900 Building

Molly Carr, Viola and Anna Petrova, Piano

October 3, 2025, Graham Tyler

Memorial Chapel

Park ICM Orchestra Fall Concert

Guest Conductor Timothy Hankewich

October 23, 2025, 1900 Building

Shmuel Ashkenasi, Violin, with ICM Faculty

November 13, 2025, 1900 Building

Stanislav Ioudenitch Piano Studio

December 5, 2025, Graham Tyler

Memorial Chapel

An Intimate Christmas with the ICM Orchestra

Conductor Steven McDonald

January 23, 2026, 1900 Building

Ben Sayevich, Violin and Lolita Lisovskaya-Sayevich, Piano

February 6, 2026, Graham Tyler

Memorial Chapel

Park ICM Orchestra Valentine Concert

Guest Conductor Filippo Ciabatti

March 13, 2026, 1900 Building

ICM String Studios

March 21, 2026, Kauffman Center

Stanislav & Friends Gala

April 17, 2026, Graham Tyler

Memorial Chapel

Park ICM Orchestra Season Finale

Guest Conductor Jason Seber

May 1, 2026, 1900 Building

Behzod Abduraimov, Piano

1900 BUILDING

Mission Woods, KS

KAUFFMAN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS Kansas City, MO

GRAHAM TYLER

MEMORIAL CHAPEL

Parkville, MO

All concerts begin at 7:30 p.m. except for Stanislav & Friends which begins at 7 p.m.

THE FRIENDS OF CHAMBER MUSIC KANSAS CITY

Dmitri

Artistic

Brett

Edward

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Dwight

Albert

Jennifer

Alietia

Nancy

Cindy

Patricia

PAST

Steven

Nancy

William

David

Jerome

FOUNDER

Cynthia

Dear Friends,

This year marks a singular milestone: the Friends of Chamber Music Kansas City turns fifty years young! Remarkably — and thanks entirely to you, our devoted audience — we have spent half a century nurturing one of America’s most vital and cherished concert traditions: Chamber Music. Across the nation, only a small handful of presenters can match our longevity, consistency, and artistic ambition, and we are proud that Kansas City stands firmly on the world map of great chamber music destinations.

Since our founding in 1975, we have welcomed to our city the world’s most distinguished ensembles and artists — names that have defined their generations. We have fostered a legacy of excellence recognized not only by our loyal audiences, but also by colleagues and music-lovers across the country. In an art form prized for its intimacy, intellectual depth, and emotional truth, the Friends of Chamber Music Kansas City has long been a beacon — presenting performances of the highest caliber, connecting our community directly to the global conversation of chamber music, and celebrating the most revered repertoire by the masters of the past while keeping it vibrant through the voices of today’s composers.

The vision behind our 50th Anniversary Season is threefold: to honor our legacy, to celebrate our stature as one of the nation’s foremost chamber music presenters, and to look boldly toward the future. To achieve this, we have curated twelve remarkable concerts spanning the full breadth of the chamber music tradition. We launch in grand style with a double-feature: first, a marathon performance of Beethoven’s five sonatas for piano and cello — one for each decade of our history — followed by a Golden Jubilee celebration at the Kauffman Center of the Performing Arts, featuring Mendelssohn’s glorious Octet, a work that captures so much of what makes chamber music truly enchanting, engaging, and enthralling.

Throughout the year, the International Chamber Music Series will highlight our core genres — the duo sonata, piano trio, string quartet, chamber music with winds, and larger conductorless gatherings. We rejoice in the Art of the Piano with two virtuosic recitals, while the Early Music Series honors the vocal roots of chamber music and its fiery soloistic possibilities.

At the heart of the season stands our festive centerpiece: Bach’s complete Brandenburg Concertos, performed by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. With twenty world-class artists on the Folly Theater stage, Bach’s genius will be a fitting emblem of exuberance, invention, and timeless joy. We close at the Kauffman Center with a whimsical and poetic finale featuring Saint-Saëns’s beloved Carnival of the Animals alongside other fantastical surprises.

Beyond the concert hall, our mission endures: to inspire and nurture the next generation through free events, masterclasses, school visits, and performances by students of our Young Artist Project

This season is more than a celebration. It is a monument to the enduring power of chamber music in Kansas City’s cultural life, a reaffirmation of our place in the national and international musical landscape, and an invitation to join us in shaping its vibrant future — together.

Yours,

Dmitri Atapine & Hyeyeon Park Artistic Directors

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the Friends of Chamber Music Kansas City’s Fiftieth Anniversary Season, 50 Years of Friendship! This extraordinary milestone invites us to celebrate the remarkable legacy of bringing the world’s finest chamber music to our community while embracing an inspiring future shaped by our mission and vision. This year’s concerts promise not only world-class artistry, but also moments of connection, reflection, and joy that remind us why we gather to share music together.

From our founding in 1975 by Cynthia Siebert, the Friends of Chamber Music has grown into one of the nation’s most respected and vibrant chamber music presenters. For five decades, our stages have been graced by legendary ensembles and transformative performances. We are deeply proud to be a vital and enduring part of Kansas City’s thriving arts and culture community, a role we hold with gratitude, humility, and great excitement for the future. We honor the dedication of our Board of Directors, the passion of our staff, and the loyalty of generations of patrons whose belief in our work has made this achievement possible.

While this season is a tribute to the past, it is also a promise for the future. Under the inspired leadership of our co-artistic directors, Dmitri Atapine and Hyeyeon Park, we are charting an exciting course forward, one that expands access to chamber music through dynamic education programs and innovative community engagement. By deepening partnerships with local schools and arts organizations, and by creating welcoming spaces for new audiences, we are committed to ensuring that the transformative power of live music is accessible to all.

Our artistic directors have created a Golden Anniversary season that will bring you an unforgettable series of performances, each one a testament to the artistry, passion, and connection that have defined the Friends for half a century. More than that, this season reflects the friendships formed in our concert halls, the joy of discovery, and the enduring belief that music can inspire, unite, and transform. This Fiftieth Anniversary Season is masterfully crafted to honor our past by welcoming legendary chamber ensembles such as the Tallis Scholars, while also charting an exciting future with rising stars like pianist Alexandre Kantorow. This season truly has something for everyone, whether you are a chamber music aficionado or experiencing this incredible art form for the first time.

Thank you for being part of this journey. Whether you are a long-standing supporter or experiencing your first Friends concert, you are the reason we can celebrate fifty years of excellence and look forward with confidence and excitement to the decades ahead. Together, we will continue to build on this extraordinary legacy, sharing the gift of chamber music with our community for generations to come.

With gratitude and friendship,

Brett Robison, DMA, MBA Executive Director

xperience a Season of Musical Magic with Kansas City’s professional Chamber Orchestra!

Season

Autumn Romance for Strings

Season Opener – an homage to great musical predecessors –Friday, September 26, 2025

Glorious Holiday Magic

A Baroque by Candlelight Concert Tuesday, December 2, 2025

For the Love of Music Dinner and Concert Event Saturday, February 14, 2026

The Enchantment of Spring

Vivaldi Mozart Britten

Featuring Mozart Symphony No. 39! Thursday, April 30, 2026

Music Director Bruce Sorrell

Nothing fills my heart like Chamber Music — the composer's full imagination in one breath, shared with all who listen.

Season Preamble

September 14, 2025 • The Folly Theater

Beethoven: Complete Sonatas for Piano and Cello

Hyeyeon Park, piano • Dmitri Atapine, cello

Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)

Sonata for Piano and Cello in F major, Op. 5 no. 1 (1796)

Adagio sostenuto - Allegro

Rondo: Allegro vivace

Sonata for Piano and Cello in G minor, Op. 5 no. 2 (1796)

Adagio sostenuto e espressivo - Allegro molto più tosto presto

Rondo: Allegro

Sonata for Piano and Cello in A major, Op. 69 (1808)

Allegro, ma non tanto

Scherzo: Allegro molto

Adagio cantabile - Allegro vivace

Sonata for Piano and Cello in C major, Op. 102 no. 1 (1815)

Andante - Allegro vivace

Adagio - Tempo d’andante - Allegro vivace

Sonata for Piano and Cello in D major, Op. 102 no. 2 (1815)

Allegro con brio

Adagio con molto sentimento d’affetto

Allegro - Allegro fugato - intermission- short intermissionThe Friends of Chamber Music is grateful for the generous support of our Presenting Sponsors Dwight and Naomi Arn.

The International Chamber Music Series is made possible by the generous support of the William T. Kemper Foundation.

Ludwig van BEETHOVEN:

Complete Sonatas for Piano and Cello

Introduction

The cello was largely a supporting instrument up to Beethoven’s time. There were a few exceptions, works that highlighted the cello as a leading voice, primary among them being the six Suites for Solo Cello by Johann Sebastian Bach. There were also sonatas and concertos from around the same time period by Antonio Vivaldi, not as substantial as the Bach Suites but still very attractive in their own right. A little later, there were also concertos for cello by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and Franz Joseph Haydn. Another composer that should be mentioned in this regard is Luigi Boccherini, an excellent cellist himself, who composed around a dozen cello concertos and some twenty sonatas for cello and keyboard.

Sonatas for cello with keyboard prior to Beethoven’s tended to be one of two types. One featured the cello as the leader, with the accompaniment written in the form of a “basso continuo,” which included only bass notes and symbols for the harmonic structure that were filled out in improvised fashion by a keyboard player. The other was really more of a keyboard sonata, with the cello largely limited to playing along with the left hand of the keyboard. In both of these cases, one instrument took the lead, the other providing accompaniment, and not even fullycomposed accompaniment. Beethoven’s early Sonatas, Op. 5 changed that. While the cello remained somewhat secondary to the keyboard, both parts were fully written-out and realized, and the cello was well on its way to becoming an independent voice. By the time of the Op. 69 and 102 Sonatas, the cello and piano were on a fully equal footing.

Composed between 1796 and 1815 and spanning his three compositional periods, Beethoven’s five sonatas for piano and cello highlight Beethoven’s ever-evolving style. They also mark Beethoven’s desire to elevate the role of the cello in chamber music. For more details, the 2017 book by Marc D. Moskovitz and R. Larry Todd, Beethoven’s Cello: Five Revolutionary Sonatas and Their World is highly recommended.

Sonata in F major, Op. 5 no. 1

Composed: 1796 Duration: 24 minutes

In 1796, Beethoven played a concert tour that took him to Prague, Dresden and Leipzig on the way to Berlin. While at Potsdam, Beethoven played an official court concert for King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia, nephew of Frederick the Great and an enthusiastic amateur cellist for whom both Mozart and Haydn had written string quartets. Beethoven’s collaborator for those concerts was the King’s cello teacher and principal cellist in his orchestra, Jean-Pierre Duport (or possibly Duport’s brother Jean-Louis). It is likely that they played both of the Op. 5 Sonatas, which were later dedicated to the King and for which Beethoven was rewarded with a gold snuffbox filled with Louis d’or.

After the slow, stately, tentative introduction to the first movement of the F major Sonata, the tempo picks up and the texture turns polyphonic as the piano introduces the first main theme. A second theme is more wide-ranging in its harmonies. Playful exchanges between the cello and piano and a thoughtful passage that recalls the slow introduction lead into a stormy development of the main themes, one that travels through a variety of keys. After a semi-cadenza for the cello, the movement ends cheerfully. Beethoven allows both instruments to display their virtuosity in the Rondo second movement. The cello opens the proceedings, with the piano following imitatively. Calm descends only briefly, with sustained notes from the cello and arpeggios from the piano. After more fiery display, the music seems to grind to a halt before a final outburst from both instruments.

Sonata in G minor, Op. 5 no. 2

Composed: 1796 Duration: 25 minutes

Despite the fact that they were composed at about the same time, the two Sonatas of Op. 5 are quite different in character. The F major Sonata is very much of a piece with the other works that Beethoven was writing in the late 1790s. But he takes a bit of a step forward in this G minor Sonata, where some of the formal devices and techniques anticipate, to some degree, the Beethoven of much later years.

As with the first movement of Op. 5 No. 1, the opening movement of the G minor Sonata begins with a slow introduction, in this case a particularly lengthy, mysterious and dramatic one –marked Adagio sostenuto e espressivo, that extends to nearly five minutes. When the music speeds, it is with a brief theme that begins in a restrained manner but soon builds, leading to a more graceful second theme shaped in the opposite way from the first. The developmental section uses the same dotted rhythm from the first measure, as it passes through a number of different keys: E-flat major, C minor, E-flat minor, and B-flat minor. Beethoven makes dramatic use of silence in the movement’s closing moments.

In a playful G major, the second movement is in rondo form, and is a virtuoso vehicle for both instruments. The piano starts the proceedings, with the cello soon joining in with a countermelody. They toss arpeggios and scales back and forth. A new theme is then introduced by the piano over fast notes from the cello. After another statement of the opening theme, initially sounding in the “wrong” key, the coda changes the rhythm of the main theme. The cello and piano exchange simple phrases, briefly slowing the momentum, before the charge to movement’s end.

As an aside, Beethoven once had the opportunity to play this sonata with the famous double bassist Domenico Dragonetti performing the cello part. Beethoven was stunned by Dragonetti’s virtuosity, and came to realize what the double bass could be capable of. The notoriously difficult double bass parts that characterize Beethoven’s symphonies are in part due to this interaction with Dragonetti.

Sonata in A major, Op. 69

Composed: 1808 Duration: 27 minutes

The A major Sonata, probably the most beloved and oftenperformed of Beethoven’s complete set of five, was composed when Beethoven was at one of his peaks of creativity (the Symphonies Nos. 5 and 6 and the Violin Concerto were also products of this time). The sonata is dedicated to Baron Ignaz von Gleichenstein, a good friend and amateur cellist who also handled Beethoven’s business matters. The dedication copy of the score carries a curious motto, “Inter Lacrimas et Luctum” (Amid Tears and Sorrow). These words don’t particularly apply to the contents of the Sonata, which is a lyrical but not especially melancholy work. Perhaps we are getting a glimpse into Beethoven’s own state of mind at the time – Beethoven’s manuscript for this work is full of revisions – or perhaps there is some hidden meaning to the motto known only to the composer and the Baron.

In any case, by the time of Op. 69, the cello and piano had become not only equals, but also able to act independently. Beethoven announces this fact from the very beginning of the first movement, which opens with a thoughtful cello melody that moves quickly into more assertive music. The second theme is structured like the first, a lyrical opening that turns energetic. These ideas, broken into their constituent parts, are developed further by both instruments as the music proceeds.

At the start of the second movement, in the key of A minor, cello and piano trade parts of a syncopated melody in which the metrical pattern feels ambiguous. The music relaxes as it proceeds, with a more song-like central section featuring a drone in the bass and some of Beethoven’s typically dramatic dynamic contrasts. What passes for the Sonata’s slow movement is the gentle Adagio cantabile introduction to the third movement, which continues for but eighteen bars before the music picks up steam. The remainder of the movement is outgoing and energetic, a workout for both instrumentalists, closing the work on what one commentator calls “a note of noble jubilation.”

Sonata in C major, Op. 102 no. 1

Composed: 1815 Duration: 16 minutes

In considering the Op. 102 Sonatas, one must remember what Beethoven’s life was like at that time. In 1814, the year before these sonatas were produced, Beethoven had played his last public performance as a pianist, due to the near-complete loss of his hearing. 1815, the year of these sonatas, was also the year that Beethoven’s brother Kaspar passed away due to tuberculosis. Over the last months of Kaspar’s illness, Beethoven had been, for reasons still unclear, trying very hard to end his relationship with Kaspar's wife Johanna. On Kaspar’s death, Beethoven entered into a years-long legal process to take custody of his nephew Karl from Johanna. That year of 1815 marked the beginning of the most unproductive period, from a musical standpoint, of Beethoven’s maturity. He wrote almost no music between 1815 and 1819, perhaps the only major works of that period being the Op. 102 sonatas.

Both of the Op. 102 Sonatas were dedicated to Countess Marie von Erdödy. She and her husband Count Peter Erdödy, longtime friends of Beethoven, spent the summer of 1815 with him at Jedlersee, a village near Vienna. Also residing there was Joseph Linke, resident cellist for Beethoven’s patron Count Razumovsky and the cellist of the legendary Schuppanzigh Quartet that premiered many of Beethoven’s string quartets. It seems to have been Linke’s artistry that provided the impetus for Beethoven to return to writing for the combination of cello and piano after nearly eight years.

Although the title isn’t often used, in his autograph score for the C major Sonata Beethoven referred to it as the “Freie Sonate” (Free Sonata), giving a hint as to its unusual structure and sometimes improvisatory character. The sonata is in two movements, each with a slow introduction that leads into faster music. The stately opening of the first movement sounds complete in itself, but leads abruptly into the more intensely dramatic music, in the key of A minor, to follow. As happens in the “Waldstein” Piano Sonata, Op. 53, the sublime introduction – which makes reference back to the beginning of the work – to the playful, high-spirited Finale acts more or less as the work’s slow movement.

Sonata in D major, Op. 102 no. 2

Composed: 1815 Duration: 21 minutes

While Op. 102 No. 1 is still taking glances back to the musical style of Beethoven’s “middle” period, with Op. 102 No. 2 Beethoven seems to be taking a jump into the future, giving hints of the “late” period style to come. The first movement of the D major Sonata features Beethoven’s characteristically abrupt changes of tone, with stormy phrases followed immediately by mellow or mysterious passages. The thematic material, too, is unusual, largely based on simple scales. Funereal, moving almost in slow motion, the second movement is mostly characterized by spare chords from the piano and brief phrases from the cello. In the consoling central section, the music becomes more melodically expansive. But the halting motion of the opening returns for the movement’s haunting final minutes.

A little upward phrase from the cello, then the piano, leads immediately into the third movement. a fugue that centers on a deceptively simple subject. This music is melodically craggy, maintaining an energetic scurry almost throughout its brief duration. While they’re by no means on the same scale, one should keep this movement in mind when, in the October 29 concert in this series, the Jerusalem String Quartet plays a slightly later work by Beethoven that also ends with a powerful fugue, the String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat major, Op. 130, with its Große Fuge finale.

Program notes by Chris Morrison

Biographies

Pianist Hyeyeon Park has been described as “a pianist with power, precision, and tremendous glee” (Gramophone), praised for her expressive nuance and interpretive depth by outlets including The Washington Post and Lucid Culture. She has performed as a soloist and chamber musician at venues such as Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Merkin Hall, Seoul Arts Center, and the Phillips Collection, and has been featured on broadcasts by WQXR, WFMT, KBS, and RAI3.

Park has appeared as soloist with the Seoul Philharmonic, Incheon Philharmonic, Seoul Arts Center Festival Orchestra, and Gangnam Symphony, among others. A committed advocate of new music, she has commissioned and premiered works by Lowell Liebermann, Libby Larsen, Patrick Castillo, Ezra Laderman, and others. Her recordings on Blue Griffin, MSR, Urtext Digital, and Naxos include the complete works for cello and piano by Liebermann, as well as a solo CD Klavier 1853 and a recent collection of premiere recordings of works for clarinet trio.

Originally from South Korea, Park studied with Daejin Kim, Peter Frankl, and Yong Hi Moon. She holds degrees from Korea National University of Arts, Yale University, and a doctorate from Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University. She is Professor of Piano at the University of Nevada, Reno where she founded Apex Concerts. She serves as Artistic co-Director of the Friends of Chamber Music Kansas City, and in 2027 she will assume the role of Artistic Co-Director of Music@Menlo, one of the nation’s leading chamber music festivals, where she currently leads the Young Performers Program.

Praised for his “brilliant technical chops” (Gramophone), “prodigious technique” (American Record Guide), and “highly impressive” performances (The Strad), cellist Dmitri Atapine has appeared at many of the world’s foremost concert venues, including Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the National Auditorium of Spain, and Beijing’s Forbidden City Concert Hall. A regular performer with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Atapine is an alum of the Bowers Program and he is a frequent guest at leading festivals including Music@Menlo, Chamber Music Northwest, Nevada, etc.

Atapine’s wide-ranging discography includes recordings on Naxos, Bridge, Blue Griffin, Albany, MSR, and Urtext Digital. His acclaimed albums feature numerous world-premiere recordings, including the complete works for cello and piano by Lowell Liebermann, recorded in collaboration with pianist Hyeyeon Park. He is a top prizewinner at the Carlos Prieto, Vittorio Gui, and Plowman competitions.

Atapine studied with Alexander Fedortchenko and Suren Bagratuni before earning his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Yale School of Music under Aldo Parisot. He is Professor of Cello and former Department of Music Chair at the University of Nevada, Reno, and is the co-Director of the Young Performers Program at Music@Menlo.

A passionate chamber musician, he is founder of Apex Concerts in Reno and serves as Artistic co-Director of the Friends of Chamber Music Kansas City, and in 2027 he will assume the role of Artistic Co-Director of Music@Menlo, one of the nation’s leading chamber music festivals.

Portrait of Beethoven of 1804-05

by Joseph Willibrord Mähler (1804)

Beethoven with the Manuscript of the Missa Solemnis by Joseph Karl Stieler (1820)

Portrait of Ludwig van Beethoven in 1823 by Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller (1823)

Golden Jubilee

Fiftieth Season Grand Opening

September 27, 2025 • Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts

Benjamin Beilman, violin

Maria Ioudenitch, violin

Lawrence Dutton, viola

Dmitri Atapine, cello

Hyeyeon Park, piano

VIANO STRING QUARTET

Lucy Wang, violin

Hao Zhou, violin

Aiden Kane, viola

Tate Zawadiuk, cello

Joseph HAYDN (1732-1809)

String Quartet in D major, Op. 50 no. 6, Hob.III:49, “The Frog” (1787)

Allegro

Poco adagio

Menuetto: Allegretto

Finale: Allegro con spirito

Viano String Quartet

Robert SCHUMANN (1810-1856)

Quintet for Piano and Strings in E-flat major, Op. 44 (1842)

Allegro brillante

In modo d’una marcia: Un poco largamente

Scherzo: Molto vivace

Allegro ma non troppo

Park, Ioudenitch, Beilman, Dutton, Atapine

Felix MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847)

Octet for Strings in E-flat major, Op. 20 (1825)

Beilman, Wang, Ioudenitch, Zhou, Dutton, Kane, Zawadiuk, Atapine - intermission -

The International Chamber Music Series is made possible by the generous support of the William T. Kemper Foundation.

The Friends of Chamber Music is grateful for the generous support of our Golden Jubilee Sponsors Jonathan and Nancy Lee Kemper, Kathleen and Marshall Miller, and Corporate Presenting Sponsor Mdivani Corporate Immigration Law.

Joseph HAYDN:

String Quartet in D major, Op. 50 no. 6, Composed: 1787 Duration: 25 minutes

Haydn’s publisher Artaria had first proposed the idea of a new set of quartets as early as 1784, but Haydn only started composing them in earnest in 1787, after completing his six “Paris” Symphonies, Nos. 82-87. The resulting Op. 50 Quartets – Haydn’s first set of quartets since the very successful Op. 33 of six years earlier – were dedicated to King Frederick William II of Prussia, a music lover and amateur cellist (and nephew of Frederick the Great, from whom he had inherited the throne), hence the collection’s nickname of “Prussian” Quartets. Haydn had sent the King the scores of his “Paris” Symphonies, and, pleased with the works, the King had sent back a letter of congratulations as well as a gold ring “as a sign of our royal satisfaction.” Haydn responded in turn by dedicating his new quartets to him.

It’s worth noting that, in a practice commonplace for the time yet still not entirely ethical, Haydn offered the Op. 50 quartets for publication not only to Artaria, but also separately to the English publisher William Forster, who actually printed and sold the works before Artaria. Neither publisher knew about the work of the other, and Haydn happily took the fees from both.

At least in part because of its nickname, the present D major Quartet is probably the best known of the Op. 50 set. Its first movement is basically monothematic, based on a single idea heard at the beginning. The first violin starts on an E, and continues to play a four-measure phrase ending with a D major chord. This idea also incorporates a rhythmic motive of six notes – one long, four short, one fast – that is encountered throughout this movement and in the Quartet’s Finale. That opening phrase, which one might expect to encounter more often at the end of a piece than at the beginning, is one of many instances of Haydn making something grand and unpredictable, but also with a feeling of instability, out of something rather simple. Another is the movement’s close, a hesitant, mysterious phrase that is as much an ending as it is an introduction to the following movement.

For the poignant Poco adagio second movement, Haydn moves to the key of D minor, in music that has something of the feeling of a siciliano, a slow and flowing dance in 6/8 rhythm. Formally, the movement has been described as in sonata-allegro form, as a three-part, ABA song form, and as a theme-and-variations. Perhaps it’s all three at the same time, or some kind of hybrid. In any event, the music is moving, full of invention and harmonic surprises, and ends peacefully back in D major. The third movement Minuet and Trio is also full of surprises, with its “Scotch Snap,” long-short rhythmic idea, dynamic contrasts, and large pauses in the central Trio section, which oddly is much longer than the surrounding Minuet sections.

The nickname “The Frog” is connected to the opening figure of the Allegro con spirito finale: a series of quickly-repeated notes alternating between two strings, a technique known as bariolage. Although the resulting notes are the same pitch, the

difference in sound between them calls to mind the sound of a croaking frog, especially when done by all four members of the quartet. That “frog” effect turns up throughout the movement, which is otherwise in sonata-allegro form. The second of the main themes clearly calls to mind the opening idea of the first movement, now incorporated into a longer phrase that resolves the ambiguity it initially had. The bariolage of the four instruments is heard once again right before the work’s whispered ending.

Incidentally, this series happily has featured quite a number of Haydn’s great string quartets recently. In just this year, along with tonight’s performance, the Leonkoro Quartet presented the “Dream” Quartet from this same Op. 50 collection in March, and next month, on October 29, the Jerusalem Quartet will perform the “Sunrise” Quartet, Op. 76 No. 4.

Robert SCHUMANN: Piano Quintet in E-flat major, Op. 44 Composed: 1842 Duration: 28 minutes

Robert Schumann tended to spend extended amounts of time on particular genres. He spent most of 1840, for instance, writing songs. 1841 was an orchestral year, and 1842 was his year for chamber music – after composing the three string quartets, Op. 41, Schumann moved on to the Piano Quintet, sketching the work in just five days in September 1842. Completing the first draft of the work on October 12, Schumann further revised it before a private performance at the home of some friends on December 6, 1842. Composer Felix Mendelssohn was the pianist on that occasion, and he suggested a few further revisions to the work’s central movements.

Schumann dedicated the Piano Quintet to his wife Clara, who served as the pianist at the work’s first public performance, on January 8, 1843 at the Leipzig Gewandhaus. Clara Schumann went on to play the Quintet, which she described as “splendid, full of vigor and freshness,” many times throughout her life. This work more or less established the combination of piano and string quartet as a popular vehicle for composers – when one thinks of subsequent works for piano quintet by the likes of Johannes Brahms, César Franck, Antonín Dvořák, Gabriel Fauré, Sir Edward Elgar, Dmitri Shostakovich and so many others, it is worth remembering that Schumann’s Quintet, nowadays regarded as one of his greatest works, was first in line.

A striding, energetic theme opens the first movement, leading into a melancholy dialogue between viola and cello that produces a second theme, marked dolce (sweet). These ideas, especially the first, are developed and move rather far harmonically, with considerable, almost concerto-like opportunities for display for the pianist, before the main themes return in their original form.

Described by Schumann as being in the mode of a funeral march, the second movement opens and closes with that march, in the key of C minor. In between there are two contrasting episodes, one of them a song for the first violin and cello, the second a furious variant of the march theme led by the piano and with flurries of sixteenth-notes from the strings (this passage was apparently suggested by Felix Mendelssohn after the initial

private performance mentioned above). Film fans will recognize this movement as having played an important role in Ingmar Bergman’s 1983 epic Fanny and Alexander

Similar in mood to the first movement, the third movement Scherzo is based largely on scale-like ideas, both ascending and descending. The main scherzo theme is interrupted twice, the first time for a lyrical imitative canon featuring violin and viola, and the second for a more extroverted, heavily-accented dance theme. Exciting polyphonic writing highlights the final movement, which is built on multiple melodic ideas dominated by a rugged dance. The music eventually builds to a powerful double fugue based on the opening melodies of the first and fourth movements.

Felix MENDELSSOHN: Octet in E-flat major, Op. 20

Composed: 1825 Duration: 30 minutes

Mendelssohn already had quite a catalog of music behind him when he began work on the Octet. He only started saving his compositions at age eleven, but had already amassed dozens of large-scale works, including symphonies (twelve for strings and one for full orchestra), concertos, chamber music, operas, and more. Most of them were first performed at the Mendelssohn home during their regular musicales.

There is probably general agreement that Mendelssohn’s Octet is the greatest work ever written by a teenager, and that includes the many works of the young Mozart. Mendelssohn composed the work during the autumn of 1825, completing it on October 15. Two days later he presented the score as a birthday gift to his violin teacher and friend Eduard Ritz, to whom the work is also dedicated. Ritz showed his appreciation by personally copying out the eight instrumental parts that were used in the work’s first public performance, on January 30, 1836 at the Leipzig Gewandhaus. Ritz himself probably played the masterful, virtuoso first violin part.

The string quartet – two violins, viola, and cello – had for years been established as the most popular chamber music instrumentation. But double string quartets were a brand new innovation when Louis Spohr wrote his Double Quartet in D minor, Op. 65 in 1823. Spohr described his work as being for “two choirs,” in which the two quartets played off of one another. By comparison, Spohr saw Mendelssohn’s work as “belong[ing] to quite another kind of art, in which the two quartets do not concert and interchange in double choir with each other, but all eight instruments work together.” It’s not clear whether Mendelssohn was aware of Spohr’s work in composing his Octet.

Mendelssohn indicated his symphonic aims in a note in the score: “This Octet must be played by all the instruments in symphonic orchestral style. Pianos and fortes must be strictly observed and more strongly emphasized than is usual in pieces of this character.” In fact, Mendelssohn later arranged the Octet’s third movement for full orchestra, as a possible replacement for the minuet movement of his Symphony No. 1.

Encompassing nearly half of the work’s total duration, the first movement opens with a soaring theme, moving through nearly

three octaves before gently returning to ground. Behind it is what has been described as a “vibrant background,” including tremolos, syncopated chords, and some mild dissonances. The contrasting, flowing second theme barely moves through the range of a fourth. These two themes provide the basis of a complex development, leading to an impressive climax that starts with whole notes, moves through syncopated quarternotes, and ends in a swirl of sixteenth-notes.

We enter a more tranquil world with the second movement, an Andante in the 6/8 rhythm of a siciliano, with rich harmonies that once again includes some colorful passing dissonances. A more energetic central section leads to a return of the song-like opening music. Donald Francis Tovey described this movement as “rather vague in structure and theme but extraordinarily beautiful in scoring and colour.”

One of Mendelssohn’s fascinations at this time of his life was the enchanted spirit world that is evoked in, for instance, Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream – think of the remarkable Overture to that work that the seventeen-yearold Mendelssohn composed the year after the Octet. A similar sort of passage from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust, the “Walpurgis Night’s Dream,” may have inspired the Octet’s third movement:

Wisps of cloud and mist Are lit from above Breeze in the foliage and wind in the reeds And all is scattered.

The composer’s sister Fanny once shared her brother’s vision of this movement: “the whole piece is to be played staccato and pianissimo ... the trills passing away with the quickness of lightning ... one feels so near to the world of spirits, carried away in the air, half inclined to snatch up a broomstick and follow the aerial procession ... and at the end, all has vanished.” Transparently scored yet very complex, the music is welldescribed in Mendelssohn’s own tempo designation, Allegro leggierissimo – fast, as light as possible.

In the bravura fourth movement, a combination of fugue, rondo, and moto perpetuo, Mendelssohn’s compositional skills are very much on display. Opening with a fast-paced fugue that betrays his extensive study of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, Mendelssohn halts the forward motion of the music briefly with a broad contrasting theme. He later reintroduces phrases from both the second and third movements, and also seems to quote a part of the famous “Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s Messiah. Andrew Porter has remarked on the “boyish glee” Mendelssohn exhibits here in “playing about with themes and combining them in unexpected ways.”

Even in later years, Mendelssohn described the Octet as “my favorite of all my compositions,” adding, “I had a most wonderful time in the writing of it!”

Program notes by Chris Morrison

Biographies

Benjamin Beilman is recognized as one of today’s leading violinists, celebrated for his passionate performances and rich tone. Hailed by The Washington Post as “mightily impressive” and The New York Times for his “muscular” playing and “burnished sound,” Beilman is a sought-after soloist and chamber musician worldwide.

Highlights of his 2023–24 season include debuts with the St. Louis Symphony and BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and returns to orchestras in Minnesota, Oregon, Montpellier, and Stuttgart. He also performs with the Tonkünstler Orchester at Vienna’s Musikverein and play-directs both the Pacific and London Chamber Orchestras.

A champion of new music, Beilman has premiered works by Frederic Rzewski, Gabriella Smith, Chris Rogerson, and Jennifer Higdon, and recorded Thomas Larcher’s concerto with the Tonkünstler Orchester under Hannu Lintu.

Beilman has appeared as soloist with major orchestras worldwide, including the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, London Philharmonic, Zurich Tonhalle, and Sydney Symphony, collaborating with conductors such as Nézet-Séguin, Măcelaru, Shani, and Vänskä. He has toured Australia under Musica Viva and is a frequent guest at leading festivals and venues such as Carnegie Hall, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Wigmore Hall, and the Berlin Philharmonie.

A faculty member at the Curtis Institute of Music since 2022, he studied with Ida Kavafian, Pamela Frank, and Christian Tetzlaff. His honors include a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship, Avery Fisher Career Grant, and London Music Masters Award. He performs on the 1740 “Ysaÿe” Guarneri del Gesù violin, on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation.

Maria Ioudenitch is a Russian-born American violinist who immigrated to the U.S. at age two and grew up in Kansas City.

A rising star in the classical world, she won first prizes in the 2021 Ysaÿe, Tibor Varga, and Joseph Joachim International Violin Competitions, also earning multiple special prizes including Joachim’s Chamber Music Award, the Henle Urtext Prize, and a Warner Classics recording contract. Celebrated for her thoughtful and wideranging programs, Maria’s debut album Songbird (Warner Classics, 2023), with pianist Kenny Broberg, features works by Schubert, Clara Schumann, Medtner, and Nadia Boulanger. This season, she performs concertos by Tchaikovsky, Glazunov, Barber, Haydn, and Mozart, and gives recitals blending standard repertoire with works by Gershwin, William Grant Still, Dolores White, and Fazil Say. Recent debuts include appearances with the Deutsches SymphonieOrchester Berlin, MDR-Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, Münchner Symphoniker, and the Kansas City Symphony. She has also performed with NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, the Lithuania Chamber Orchestra, and Utah Symphony, working with conductors such as Andrey Boreyko, Alpesh Chauhan, Ruth Reinhardt, and Hugh Wolff. A passionate chamber musician, Maria has toured with the Ravinia Steans Music Institute and Marlboro Music Festival, with a return tour in November 2023. She studied with Gregory Sandomirsky, Ben Sayevich, Pamela Frank, Shmuel Ashkenasi, and Miriam Fried, earning degrees from the Curtis Institute and New England Conservatory. Maria is currently in the Professional Studies program at Kronberg Academy under Christian Tetzlaff, and is mentored by Sonia Simmenauer through the zukunfts.music initiative.

Lawrence Dutton, violist of the ninetime Grammy-winning Emerson String Quartet, is internationally recognized for his artistry and collaborative versatility. He has performed with many of the world’s greatest musicians, including Isaac Stern, Mstislav Rostropovich, Renee Fleming, Lynn Harrell, Emanuel Ax, Evgeny Kissin, Joshua Bell, and Sir Paul McCartney. As a guest artist, he has appeared with leading ensembles such as the Juilliard, Guarneri, Pacifica, Escher, and Quartetto di Cremona Quartets, as well as the Beaux Arts and Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trios.

A devoted chamber musician and curator, Dutton has served as Artistic Director of the Hoch Chamber Music Series at Concordia College since 2001. His discography includes Grammy-nominated and award-winning recordings, including collaborations with jazz bassist John Patitucci, the Beaux Arts Trio (Philips), and Jan DeGaetani (Bridge Records). He has also performed as soloist with orchestras across the U.S. and Europe. Dutton has been featured at major festivals such as Aspen, Santa Fe, Ravinia, La Jolla, Chamber Music Northwest, and the Great Mountains Festival in Korea. His long-standing work with Isaac Stern included chamber music encounters at Carnegie Hall and in Jerusalem. Currently, he is Distinguished Professor of Viola and Chamber Music at Stony Brook University and the Robert McDuffie School for Strings at Mercer University. A Juilliard graduate, he studied with Lillian Fuchs, Margaret Pardee, and Francis Tursi. He holds honorary doctorates from four institutions and has received prestigious honors with the Emerson Quartet, including the Avery Fisher Prize, the Richard J. Bogomolny Award, and induction into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame.

Libby Larsen, Patrick Castillo, Ezra Laderman, and others. Her recordings on Blue Griffin, MSR, Urtext Digital, and Naxos include the complete works for cello and piano by Liebermann, as well as a solo CD Klavier 1853 and a recent collection of premiere recordings of works for clarinet trio.

Praised for their “virtuosity, visceral expression, and rare unity of intention” (Boston Globe), the Viano Quartet are one of the most soughtafter performing young ensembles today and recipients of the prestigious 2025 Avery Fisher Career Grant. Since soaring to international acclaim as the First Prize winner at the 13th Banff International String Quartet Competition, they have traveled to nearly every major city across the globe, captivating audiences in New York, London, Berlin, Hong Kong, Vancouver, Paris, Beijing, Toronto, Lucerne, and Los Angeles. They are currently in-residence at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Bowers Program from 2024-2027.

During the 24/25 season, the quartet will debut in New York’s Alice Tully Hall in the season opening concert of CMS Lincoln Center, followed by appearances at series including Wolf Trap, Tuesday Evening Concert Series, Northwestern University, Four Arts in FL, MoCA Westport in CT, Chamber Music Yellow Springs in OH, and the chamber music societies of Dallas, Salt Lake City, and Carmel. In November, the quartet will also make their debut in David Geffen Hall with Sir Stephen Hough for the world premiere of his new piano quintet. The quartet can be heard in Canada this season with debuts at the Cecilian Chamber Series as well as the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and Isabel Bader PAC in Kingston in a program with famed guitarist Miloš Karadaglić. As the inaugural June Goldsmith Quartet-in-Residence for the Music in the Morning series through the 24/25 season, the quartet will return to Vancouver this March for concerts and extensive community engagement initiatives.

In addition to their busy touring schedule, the quartet members are also dedicated advocates of music education, and have worked with students at Music@Menlo, SUNY Buffalo, the Colburn Academy, Northwestern University, Duke University, University of British Columbia, Northern Michigan University,

Utah State University, University of Denver, and Virginia Commonwealth University. This season, they will be returning to University of Victoria for several weeks of residency which will include performances, masterclasses and lectures. The quartet has previously held graduate quartet residencies at Curtis and Colburn and were also the Peak Fellowship Quartet-in-Residence at Meadows School of the Arts at SMU.

The Viano Quartet has collaborated with world-class musicians including Emanuel Ax, Inon Barnatan, Fleur Barron, James Ehnes, Mahan Esfahani, Marc-André Hamelin, Bridget Kibbey, Miloš Karadaglić, Paul Neubauer, David Shifrin, and Elisso Virsaladze. 2023 marked the release of the quartet’s first album Portraits on the Curtis Label, featuring pieces by Schubert, Florence Price, Tchaikovsky, and Ginastera.

In their formative years the quartet sustained unwavering enthusiasm from every international jury, never entering a major competition without capturing a top prize. Before their career-defining achievement at the Banff International String Quartet Competition, they also received major prizes at the Wigmore Hall, Osaka, Fischoff, ENKOR, and Yellow Springs Chamber Music Competitions. Each member of the quartet is grateful to the interminable support from their distinguished mentors at the Curtis Institute and Colburn Conservatory, including members of the Dover, Guarneri, and Tokyo string quartets.

The name “Viano” was created to describe the four individual instruments in a string quartet interacting as one. Each of the four instruments begins with the letter “v”, and like a piano, all four string instruments together play both harmony and melody, creating a unified instrument called the “Viano”.

Art of the Piano

October 18, 2025 • The Folly Theater

Angela Hewitt

Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750)

from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I (1722)

Prelude and Fugue in C major, BWV 846

Prelude and Fugue in C minor, BWV 847

Prelude and Fugue in D major, BWV 850

Prelude and Fugue in D minor, BWV 851

Prelude and Fugue in C-sharp major, BWV 848

Prelude and Fugue in C-sharp minor, BWV 849

Felix MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847)

from Six Preludes and Fugues, Op. 35 (1836-37)

Prelude and Fugue in F minor, Op. 35 no. 5

Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH (1906-1975)

from Twenty-Four Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87 (1950-51)

Prelude and Fugue No. 18 in F minor

Samuel BARBER (1910-1981)

from Piano Sonata in E-flat minor, Op. 26 (1947-49)

iv. Fuga: Allegro con spirito - intermission -

Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897)

Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24 (1861)

Theme: Aria Variations 1-25

Fugue

The Art of the Piano Series is made possible by the generous support of the Muriel McBrien Kauffman Family Foundation.

The Friends of Chamber Music is grateful for the generous support of our Golden Jubilee Sponsors Charles and Virginia Clark, and Supporting Sponsors Thomas and Kathy Nanney.

Johann Sebastian BACH:

from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I (1722)

Prelude and Fugue in C major, BWV 846 (4 minutes)

Prelude and Fugue in C minor, BWV 847 (4 minutes)

Prelude and Fugue in D major, BWV 850 (4 minutes)

Prelude and Fugue in D minor, BWV 851 (5 minutes)

Prelude and Fugue in C-sharp major, BWV 848 (4 minutes)

Prelude and Fugue in C-sharp minor, BWV 849 (8 minutes)

The two books of The Well-Tempered Clavier, or Das wohltemperierte Klavier in the original German, have been called “the largest-scale and most-influential undertaking for solo keyboard of the Baroque era.”

Tuning was a much more flexible concept hundreds of years ago than it is today. Frequently, instruments were tuned to the harmonic series, the mathematical relationships between notes. But this made playing in distant keys difficult, introducing unwanted dissonances. Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier was the first collection of fully-worked-out keyboard pieces in all twenty-four major and minor keys. Bach was well-acquainted with the tuning systems of his day, and it’s possible that he had equal temperament in mind – in which the octave is divided into twelve semitones of equal intervals – in writing these pieces, although there were alternatives available as well.

Book I of The Well-Tempered Clavier was compiled in 1722 during Bach’s time in Köthen, while the second book dates from twenty years later and Bach’s years in Leipzig. Bach created them, as he wrote on the work’s title page, “for the profit and use of musical youth desirous of learning, and especially for the pastime of those already skilled in this study.” As he commonly did, Bach drew some of the contents from earlier sources, including the Klavierbüchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach of 1720.

Many famed composers have made a close study of The WellTempered Clavier. Mozart even arranged some of the fugues for strings. But a proper printed edition didn’t come about until 1801. In general, the preludes of The Well-Tempered Clavier tend to be free in form, and concentrate on a particular melodic motif, rhythmic idea, and/or texture. The fugues are, of course, contrapuntal in texture, employing a melodic subject and counter-subject in textures of multiple separate melodic strands.

Book I’s Prelude in C major, one of the most famous pieces of the collection, is a lovely, peaceful progression of arpeggiated chords. Bach scholar Philipp Spitta fancifully called this prelude “a piece of indescribable fascination, in which a grand and beatific melody seems to float past like the song of an angel heard in the silence of night through the murmur of trees, groves and waters.” The Fugue that follows, with its easy skipping rhythm, is based on a theme with a distinctive ascending fournote motif. The stretto technique common to fugues, in which the tails of the melodic lines seem to step on one another, is on display here. While bearing some resemblance to the Prelude in C major, the Prelude in C minor raises the level of drama and tension. The following Fugue moves tentatively, focusing on a single rather memorable tune, and ends with a major chord.

Nimble and fleet of foot, with some intricate passages for the right hand in particular, the Prelude in D major is followed by a Fugue in a more grand and ceremonial manner. The Prelude in D minor has a sort of crepuscular movement, steadily ascending and descending the keyboard, with a step-wise motion in the left hand. Likewise, the Fugue has a stealthy quality, yet is also graceful and transparent.

The playful, flowing Prelude in C-sharp major is followed by an equally easy-moving Fugue, based on a somewhat angular theme but still joyful and suffused with the rhythm of the dance. Darker territory is explored in the Prelude and Fugue in C-sharp minor. The Prelude is tense and searching, more extended than most of the preludes in the set. While most fugues are in three or four voices, this Fugue in C-sharp minor is one of the few in five voices. The tempo is slow, the occasional dissonances painful, the tension level high, and the overall tone serious-minded

Felix MENDELSSOHN: Prelude and Fugue no. 5 in F minor, from Preludes and Fugues, Op. 35

Composed: 1836-37 Duration: 8 minutes

Mendelssohn is looked on by history as the main reason for the revival of interest in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach in the early nineteenth century. In 1829, at the age of twenty, he directed a performance of the St Matthew Passion, a work that hadn’t been played for a hundred years, that marks the beginning of this process. Mendelssohn also knew well and often performed (as did the rest of his family) The Well-Tempered Clavier. While he never wrote a series of twenty-four preludes and fugues in all the major and minor keys as Bach did, Mendelssohn did compose quite a few individual works in that vein, including the six Preludes and Fugues, Op. 35. Here Mendelssohn joins Baroque-style writing and counterpoint with a more Romantic sound rooted in the nineteenth century.

The latter dominates the Prelude of Op. 35 No. 5, which features an accompaniment of chords in the left hand and a melancholy theme, also harmonized, in the right hand. The yearning quality of this music, in the manner of Mendelssohn’s many Songs Without Words, builds, and then ebbs, in intensity. The tempo speeds for the quicksilver Fugue, which shares some of the Prelude’s intensity but lightens the textures.

Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH: Prelude and Fugue no. 18 in F minor, from Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87

Composed: 1950-51 Duration: 5 minutes

After World War II, Dmitri Shostakovich was Russia’s most famous composer. Although he moved in and out of favor with the Communist Party in his country, he was sometimes given the chance to travel outside the Soviet Union. One of those trips was to a festival in Leipzig in 1950 in acknowledgment of the two-hundredth anniversary of the death of Johann Sebastian Bach. Part of that festival was the inaugural International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition, at which Shostakovich served as one of the judges.

One of the entrants was the 26-year-old Tatiana Nikolayeva, later a famous Russian pianist, composer, and educator. Twentysix years old at the time of the Festival, she was prepared to play any of the forty-eight Preludes and Fugues of the two volumes of The Well-Tempered Clavier. Nikolayeva eventually won the gold medal, and, impressed by her playing, Shostakovich returned to Moscow and started composing his own set of Preludes and Fugues. Over the period of October 1950 to February 1951, Shostakovich composed the Op. 87. The set was dedicated to Nikolayeva, who played its premiere on December 23, 1952 in Leningrad.

Unlike Bach’s sets of Preludes and Fugues, which move sequentially through the chromatic scale, pairing major and minor keys (C major, C minor, C-sharp major, C-sharp minor, D major, D minor, etc.), Shostakovich’s cycle travels through the circle of fifths, pairing major and relative minor pairs (C major, A minor, G major, E minor, D major, B minor, etc.) Shostakovich makes many references, both obvious and more covert, to Bach’s works in Op. 87

A long, elaborate melody opens the Prelude No. 18 in F minor. The tone soon darkens, and the tempo slows to adagio for an intense interlude before the opening melody returns. Based on a simple subject, the Fugue that goes with it begins straightforwardly enough, but soon becomes more dissonant and complex as major and minor modes do battle until a serene F major conclusion.

Samuel BARBER: Fuga: Allegro con spirito, from Piano Sonata in E-flat minor, Op. 26 Composed: 1947-49 Duration: 5 minutes

Generally regarded as one of Samuel Barber’s greatest works, the Piano Sonata is also one of the first great American solo piano works. The Sonata was commissioned by Irving Berlin and Richard Rodgers, the famous American composers and songwriters, for the twenty-fifth anniversary of the League of Composers Barber started composing the Piano Sonata in September 1947. Having completed just the first movement, Barber traveled to the American Academy in Rome hoping for some quiet work time, but found himself distracted by visitors and concerts.

Barber returned to the United States in 1948 and completed the work, then in three movements. But pianist Vladimir Horowitz suggested that the Sonata would benefit from a fourth movement, a “very flashy last movement, but with content.” That led Barber to create the Fugue that closes the work. The Sonata was first performed by Horowitz on December 9, 1949 in Havana, Cuba, followed by performances in Washington, D.C. and New York City in January 1950.

“Bursting with energy, this finale knocks you out in five minutes!” This is how composer Francis Poulenc described the sonata’s fourth movement. Incorporating syncopated rhythms, the “blue notes” of jazz and blues, and more than a hint of aggression, the Fuga is based on a main theme with three distinct motives. There is also a second theme, a counter-subject in the terms of fugue,

that is closely related to the first, and several development episodes before the movement’s powerful, fierce conclusion.

Johannes BRAHMS: Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24

Composed: 1861 Duration: 27 minutes

In 1861, the twenty-eight-year-old Brahms decided to leave his post as director of the women’s choir in his hometown of Hamburg. He moved out of the family home, and found an apartment in the suburbs, where he embarked on a series of great compositions while continuing his career as a performing pianist. The Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel was completed in mere weeks, in September 1861. Brahms dedicated the work to his dear friend Clara Schumann, the widow of composer Robert Schumann, and presented the score to her on her birthday, September 13. She gave the work its public premiere in Hamburg on December 7 of that same year, one of the first great triumphs of Brahms’s career to that point.

The work’s theme is drawn from the third movement of Handel’s Harpsichord Suite No. 1 in B-flat major, HWV 434. Brahms called it “an admirably neutral starting-place” for an elaborate set of variations. Nicholas Cook provides a handy guide to this largescale work: “The Handel Variations consist of a theme and twenty-five variations, each of equal length, plus a much longer fugue at the end which provides the climax of the movement in terms of duration, dynamics, and contrapuntal complexity. The individual variations are grouped in such a way as to create a series of waves, both in terms of tempo and dynamics, leading to the final fugue, and superimposed on this overall organization are a number of subordinate patterns. Variations in tonic major and minor more or less alternate with each other; only once is there a variation in another key (the twenty-first, which is in the relative minor). Legato variations are usually succeeded by staccato ones; variations whose texture is fragmentary are in general followed by more homophonic ones.”

The elegant, rather humble theme moves at a stately pace, with slight ornamentation. Its character changes quickly in the playful, staccato first variation, with its runs and a skipping line from the left hand. Suddenly the mood darkens in the minor key second variation. After a leisurely third variation comes the more dramatic fourth, with a high-powered syncopated rhythm. The lyrical fifth variation takes us back to an expressive minor key, remaining there for the impressive, portentous sixth. The high spirits of the playful, exciting seventh variation lead directly into the even livelier eighth.

Variation 9 turns slow and dramatic again, with a series of eruptions that calm, then arise again. By contrast, the tenth variation is playful and witty, with echoes of the main theme in the piano’s low range. Variations 11 and 12 are lovely and uncomplicated, in Brahms’s best lyric manner. Donald Francis Tovey described the stern thirteenth variation as a “kind of Hungarian funeral march.” From that funereal tone, Variation 14, marked sciolto (loose), charges forward energetically, as do Variations 15 and 16.

The seventeenth features a skipping right hand line, which has been likened to the fall of raindrops, over playful left hand accents. The eighteenth winds decorative filigree around an outline of the main theme. Variation 19 employs the lilting siciliana rhythm so often used by Baroque era composers. Clouds descend in Variation 20, with some unexpected chromatic harmonies – what Malcolm MacDonald called “organ-loft progressions” – adding to the ominous mood. Variation 21 moves sweetly, but the tone is agitated. The twenty-second, which has been called the “music box” variation, is dreamy, innocent, and childlike.

From here, the ominous mood returns in Variations 23 and 24, stormy music that, returning to the words of Donald Francis Tovey, comes “swarming up energetically out of darkness.” Some release is achieved in the virtuoso Variation 25. That leads into the Fugue, which takes parts of Handel’s theme where it has not previously been in terms of textural and harmonic complexity. Julian Littlewood remarks on the fugue’s “dense contrapuntal argument which recalls Bach more than Handel.” It’s a virtuoso workout that gets more and more complex, leading to the dramatic close.

Biography

Angela Hewitt is a renowned pianist who is celebrated for her wideranging repertoire and acclaimed Bach performances. A frequent performer in Europe, the Americas, and Asia, she has built a reputation as one of Bach’s foremost interpreters, earning accolades for her award-winning recordings.

In March 2024, Hewitt began her latest major project, The Mozart Odyssey, performing all of Mozart’s piano concertos, first appearing with Pierre Bleuse and the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra. The project follows her acclaimed Bach “Odyssey” cycle (2016–2024), where she performed the composer’s complete keyboard works across 12 recitals. The Mozart project continues in 2024–2025 with performances in nine countries. Her conductorled performances include the Brussels Philharmonic, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Toronto and Vancouver Symphony orchestras, and the Ulster Orchestra, among others.

Hewitt maintains a busy recital schedule throughout 2024–2025, including concerts in New York City, Seoul, Toronto, Vienna, Rome, Milan, Utrecht, Bern, and Oxford, as well as her regular appearances at London’s Wigmore Hall. The season includes two return recital tours to Australia and Japan, including performances in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Tokyo, and Kyoto.

Hewitt’s award-winning cycle for Hyperion Records of Bach’s major

keyboard works has been called “one of the record glories of our age” (The Sunday Times). Her discography also includes albums of Couperin, Rameau, Scarlatti, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, Fauré, Debussy, Chabrier, Ravel, Messiaen, and Granados. Her most recent recordings include the first two volumes of Mozart’s complete piano sonatas, with the final set due for release in 2025. In 2015, Gramophone magazine inducted her into its Hall of Fame.

Born in Ottawa to a musical family, Hewitt started playing piano at age three and first performed publicly at age four. She studied at the University of Ottawa with Jean-Paul Sévilla and won the 1985 International Bach Piano Competition in Toronto, launching her career. In 2006, Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II made her an Officer of the British Empire. In 2015, she became a Companion of the Order of Canada, her native country’s highest civilian honour. Hewitt has seven honorary doctorates, is a member of the Royal Society of Canada, and was awarded the Wigmore Hall Medal in 2020 for her service to classical music and longstanding relationship with the venue.

Hewitt lives in London but also has homes in Ottawa and Umbria, Italy, where, 20 years ago, she founded the Trasimeno Music Festival—a week-long annual event drawing an audience from all over the world.

Program notes by Chris Morrison

String Quartet Jubilee

October 29, 2025 • Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral

Jerusalem String Quartet

Alexander Pavlovsky, violin Sergei Bresler, violin

Ori Kam, viola Kyril Zlotnikov, cello

Joseph HAYDN (1732-1809)

String Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 76 no. 4 “Sunrise” (1797-98)

Allegro

Adagio

Menuetto: Allegro

Finale: Allegro, ma non troppo

Leoš JANÁČEK (1854-1928)

String Quartet No. 1 “The Kreutzer Sonata” (1923)

Adagio - Con moto

Con moto

Con moto - Vivace - Andante - Tempo I

Con moto

Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)

String Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 130 (1826)

Adagio ma non troppo — Allegro

Presto

Andante con moto ma non troppo

Alla danza tedesca: Allegro assai

Cavatina: Adagio molto espressivo

Große Fuge, Op. 133:

Ouverture: Allegro – Meno mosso e moderato – Allegretto –Fuga. [Allegro] – Meno Mosso e moderato – Allegro molto e con brio – Allegro - intermission -

The International Chamber Music Series is made possible by the generous support of the William T. Kemper Foundation.

Friends of Chamber Music is grateful for the generous support of our Golden Jubilee Sponsors Jennifer and Bud Bacon, Presenting Sponsors J. Scott Francis, the Francis Family Foundation and Steven M. Karbank

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Franz Joseph HAYDN: String Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 76 no. 4, Hob.III:78 “Sunrise” Composed: 1797 Duration: 23 minutes

At the time that Haydn composed the six string quartets of Op. 76, he was nearing the end of his long employment at the court of the Esterházy family. When the music-loving Prince Nikolaus Esterházy died in 1790, the Esterházy establishment was taken over by Nikolaus’s son Anton, who didn’t much care for music. Haydn remained nominally employed by them, but was now free to travel. His two trips to London in 1791-2 and 1794-5 established him as perhaps the most popular composer of his day. By the time of Haydn’s return from his second trip, Anton had been succeeded by Prince Nikolaus Esterházy II, and Haydn went back to work at the court, albeit with lighter duties than before. It was during this time that Haydn composed the Op. 76 quartets. They were completed by 1797, but owing to a dispute between Vienna and London publishers over publishing rights, they didn’t appear in print until 1799. By this time, Haydn was composing not simply for the Esterházy court, but for all music lovers and for public and home performance.

Dedicated to Hungarian count Joseph Georg von Erdődy, the Hungarian Court Chancellor, the Op. 76 was the last complete set of string quartets that Haydn composed. They are generally regarded as among Haydn’s best, most ambitious quartets. As the famous English music historian Charles Burney wrote to Haydn about them, “they are full of invention, fire, good taste, and new effects, and seem the production, not of a sublime genius who has written so much and so well already, but of one of highly-cultivated talents, who had expended none of his fire before.”

The title “Sunrise” refers to the quiet opening of the first movement, with its warm chords and ascending phrase from the first violin, what has been called the “sunrise motif.” After a sudden burst of activity at a very fast tempo, the opening recurs, but in shorter form this time, with the cello playing the “sunrise” idea upside down. A brief but dramatic passage in the minor serves as a transition back into the faster music. For the brief development, Haydn provides a short minor key remembrance of the sunrise music before a stormy passage. The opening music then returns, some portions slightly expanded on, for the recapitulation.

The opening of the slow movement is hymn-like and somber. Gentle pulsations accompany a decorative, upward-striving line from the first violin. Each instrument adds its decorations to the gentle musical flow. The third movement Minuet is unclouded and charming. Hints of a drone in the central section suggest rustic bagpipes. A graceful, lilting theme opens the fourth movement and recurs several times. The urgency level rises slightly with the next section, punctuated with small dissonances. The lilting theme returns one further time, but this time breathlessly, with much greater energy and virtuoso decorations from the first violin.

Leoš JANÁCEK: String Quartet no. 1, after Leo Tolstoy’s “The Kreutzer Sonata” Composed: 1923 Duration: 18 minutes

Janáček’s String Quartet No. 1 was another of the products of his late flowering as a composer. Written in an intense two-week span in late October and early November 1923, the Quartet was premiered by the Bohemian Quartet on October 17, 1924 at the Prague Mozarteum. The work was inspired by Leo Tolstoy’s 1889 novella “The Kreutzer Sonata,” in which a central role is played by Ludwig van Beethoven’s Violin Sonata in A major, Op. 47 –nicknamed the “Kreutzer” after violinist Rudolph Kreutzer, to whom the work is dedicated. Janáček had a lifelong interest in Tolstoy’s novella, which also inspired two earlier, uncompleted, and now lost compositions, a string quartet from 1880 and a piano trio from 1908 (some material from the latter made its way into the Quartet No. 1).

In the novella, the protagonist, the cynical Pozdnyshev, encounters a stranger on a train and tells him of the events that led to his murdering his wife. Their once passionate love had evolved into resentment and cruel arguments, and in her despair his wife, a pianist, had taken up with a violinist. Their performance of Beethoven’s “Kreutzer” Sonata at a party has a “terrible effect” on Pozdnyshev – “It was as if quite new feelings, new possibilities of which I had till then been unaware, had been revealed to me.” Later, returning from a business trip, he finds the two together, and stabs his wife to death in a fit of anger and jealousy. As she dies, she rejects Pozdnyshev’s request for forgiveness and hopes that he is denied custody of their children. Ultimately Pozdnyshev is acquitted of the murder by a jury that finds that he was simply defending his honor.

Of his Quartet, Janáček wrote to Kamila Stösslová, “I was imagining a poor woman, tormented and run down, just like the one the Russian writer Tolstoy describes.” The agitated mood and yearning, upward-rising three-note main theme of the first movement seems to depict the wife’s unhappy situation. The dark-hued second movement, in part a strange sort of polka, might represent the seducing violinist. A hint of an idea from Beethoven’s “Kreutzer” Sonata appears here along with a tremolo section to be played sul ponticello, or close to the bridge of the instrument. Opening with imitative passages for violin and cello, the third movement evokes the second, slow theme from the first movement of Beethoven’s sonata, interrupted by more violent music. The almost funereal opening of the fourth movement leads to a reminiscence of the third movement as well as an echo of the rising theme from the first movement. Building to a turbulent climax and a desolate coda, this music includes in its score such markings from the composer as “desperately,” “fiercely,” “shyly,” and “as in tears.”

Ludwig van BEETHOVEN:

String Quartet no. 13 in B-flat major, Op. 130

Composed: 1825 Duration: 49 minutes with Große Fuge, 42 minutes with alternative finale

Beethoven's last string quartets, Nos. 12-16, were composed between 1824 and 1826. The project actually started in 1822 with a commission from Russian Prince Nicholas Galitzin, an amateur cellist who requested of Beethoven “one, two or three” string quartets. The total wound up being five, the works we now know as Beethoven's “late quartets.” In these works, Beethoven explored structures, sounds, and textures that seemed quite foreign, even strange, to audiences of his day. Some felt that Beethoven, entirely deaf by this time, had entirely lost his musical way. Others, however, embraced the newness of this music. By the twentieth century, the late quartets were recognized as some of Beethoven's most profound music.

The B-flat major Quartet, Op. 130 was begun in August 1825, completed in its first form in November of that year, and premiered by the Schuppanzigh Quartet in March 1826. But there was quite a negative response to the huge Große Fuge movement that ended the work – one review called it “a confusion of Babel.” So Beethoven created an alternative finale, shorter and lighter in tone, in the late autumn of 1826. It proved to be the last piece of music Beethoven completed. The Quartet No. 13, now with the new finale, was first played on April 22, 1827, almost a month after Beethoven's death.

While he may have removed the Große Fuge from the quartet, Beethoven was never in doubt as to the movement's quality, and it was published as a separate work, Op. 133, in May 1827. The fugue was apparently not played again publicly until 1853, and only in the 1920s did quartets start to include the fugue as part of the larger quartet. Modern performances of Op. 130, including tonight's, tend to use the Große Fuge as the finale rather than Beethoven's alternative.

The slow introduction to the first movement alternates spare octaves and rich chords as the music explores some chromatic dissonances. The cello introduces a new idea, taken up by the other three instruments, as the harmonies continue to darken. A flurry of sixteenth notes from the first violin heralds the move to a faster Allegro tempo, as does a small fanfare figure from the second violin. All the instruments take up those sixteenth notes, but soon the tempo briefly slows again. The Allegro bursts out again. This introductory music is repeated before the development section, which continues the contrast of fast and slow tempos as the earlier fanfare figure moves to the foreground. A recap of the main themes ends this expansive opening movement.

The galloping Presto second movement serves as a small Scherzo, barely two minutes long, with rhythmic playfulness and unpredictability, including a somewhat bombastic central section very unlike the music that surrounds it.

In the third movement, the first violin begins with a rising theme, with the second violin and viola sliding in underneath it with a

falling accompaniment. This idea moves into different keys. But the mood soon changes with a charming tune from the viola, accompanied in a jaunty way by the cello. This short movement, which Michael Steinberg calls “a marvel of gentle humor,” ends with a burst of energy.

There's a drastic key change, from the D-flat major of the third movement to G major, as the Alla danza tedesca (in the manner of a German dance) fourth movement, in a rustic triple meter, bursts forth. Beethoven introduces more humor, with the imitation of a wheezing hurdy-gurdy passages of deliberate awkwardness, and rapid dynamic changes.

The Cavatina fifth movement is one of this quartet's highlights. The three lower instruments begin, all softly playing distinctive melodic figures. Then the first violin takes the melodic lead, with the other instruments always cleaving closely to its song. Each time the violin takes a breath, the other instruments move in to continue the flow of the melody. Suddenly the music quiets and the mood becomes subtly agitated. Over triplets from the other three instruments, the first violin plays a hesitant line that Beethoven describes in the score as beklemmt – anxious, weighed down, oppressed. This interlude is but short, though, as the Cavatina soon sounds again, somewhat shorter this time, with an additional measure of farewell at the end.

Michael Steinberg informs us that, in Alexander Thayer's nineteenth century biography of Beethoven, Karl Holz, the second violinist in Schuppanzigh’s Quartet and a good friend of Beethoven's, recalled that the Cavatina “cost the composer tears in the writing and brought out the confession that nothing that he had written had so moved him; in fact, that merely to revive it afterwards in his thoughts and feelings brought forth renewed tributes of tears.”

The Cavatina ends with an E-flat major chord. Its top note of G is then sounded as a unison at the beginning of the quartet's sixth and final movement, the Große Fuge. To give a sense of this movement's scale, it is a mammoth 741 measures long, as compared to the combined 643 measures of the other five movements. The Overtura, as Beethoven called it, of the Große Fuge changes tempo twice and mood even more frequently. Someone new to the music might find it almost incoherent, as Beethoven seemingly assembles fragments of barely-related material. This section is repeated four times, moving from forceful to barely audible. Then, after five separate openings, each of which is abruptly cut off, the fugue proper begins.

The fugue features two main melodies – the theme of the Overture, played by the viola, and a leaping idea from the first violin. These two ideas are explored at length, in some of the most adventuresome and densely contrapuntal music Beethoven ever wrote. Another bit of music from the Overtura then emerges in the viola and is quietly expanded on. A slow trill takes the music from the minor key to the major. At this point the tempo increases dramatically, and the musical line leaps about unpredictably, with interruptions and the recalling of previous ideas. The slower music from earlier returns, but this time more assertively. Another abrupt transition leads into

a series of silences, alternating with unsettled chords. This odd passage, one of so many here, ultimately leads back to the home key of B-flat major and a recollection of a passage from earlier, this time more graceful and approachable. The music dies, then stops on a dissonance. After another silence and a couple of tentative gestures, the four instruments sound strong octaves, leading to the somewhat abrupt conclusion.

Analyses of the Große Fuge, and evaluations of its meaning and emotional impact, are impossibly diverse. Perhaps a poetic

response to the work is the most appropriate one, like this one from Mark Doty in his 1995 poem “Große Fuge”:

What does it mean, chaos gathered into a sudden bronze sweetness, an October flourish, and then that moment denied, turned acid, disassembling, questioned, rephrased?

Program notes by Chris Morrison

Biography

Such was the Times’ (London) impression of the Jerusalem Quartet Since the ensemble’s founding in 1993 and subsequent 1996 debut, the four Israeli musicians have embarked on a journey of growth and maturation. This experience has resulted in a wide repertoire and stunning depth of expression, which carries on the string quartet tradition in a unique manner. The ensemble has found its core in a warm, full, human sound and an egalitarian balance between high and low voices. This approach allows the Quartet to maintain a healthy relationship between individual expression and a transparent and respectful presentation of the composer’s work. It is also the drive and motivation for the continuing refinement of its interpretations of the classical repertoire as well as exploration of new epochs.

The Jerusalem Quartet is a regular and beloved guest on the world’s great concert stages. Recent appearances include a Beethoven quartet cycle at Wigmore Hall in London; a Bartok cycle at the Salzburg Festival; their annual String Quartet seminar in Crans Montana Switzerland, and a residency at the Jerusalem Academy of Music.

Highlights of the upcoming 2023/2024 season include tours of Sweden, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland; and appearances in the quartet Biennales in Paris, Lisbon, and Amsterdam. Alongside the quartet’s

regular programs, they will bring back the “Yiddish Cabaret”, and will perform a BartÓk Cycle in the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. Their upcoming North American tours include concerts in Montreal, Pittsburgh, Providence, Portland (Maine), Houston, Tucson, Palm Beach, Miami, New Orleans, Denver, Los Angeles, Carmel, New York, and other locations. In Ann Arbor, they will be joined by pianist Inon Barnaton.

The Jerusalem Quartet’s recordings have been honored with numerous awards, including the Diapason d’Or and the BBC Music Magazine Award for chamber music. They have recorded the string quartets of Haydn; Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden”; an album of Dvořák’s String Quintet Op.97 and Sextet Op.48, and the quartets by Ravel and Debussy.

In 2019, the Quartet released a unique album exploring Jewish music in Central Europe between the wars and its far-reaching influence, featuring a collection of Yiddish Cabaret songs from 1920s Warsaw, as well as works by Schulhoff and Korngold. The second installment of their BartÓk quartet recording was released in 2020. Starting in 2025, the quartet will record exclusively for the BIS records. The first release in February 2025 will include quartets by Dmitry Shostakovich.

The Golden Renaissance

November

16, 2025 •

Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception

Stile Antico

Helen Ashby, Kate Ashby, Rebecca Hickey, sopranos

Emma Ashby, Cara Curran, Rosie Parker, altos

Andrew Griffiths, Benedict Hymas, Jonathan Hanley, tenors

James Arthur, Nathan Harrison, Gareth Thomas, basses

William BYRD (1540-1623)

John TAVERNER (1944-2013)

Francisco GUERRERO (1528-1599)

Michael PRAETORIUS (1571-1621)

Thomas TALLIS (c.1505-1585)

Thomas TOMKINS (1572-1656)

Orlando GIBBONS (1583-1625)

John SHEPPARD (c.1515-1558)

Tomás Luís de VICTORIA (c.1548-1611)

Gregorio ALLEGRI (1582-1652)

Exsurge Domine

Audivi vocem de caelo

A un niño llorando

Ein Kind geborn

In manus tuas - intermission -

Cristóbal de MORALES (c.1500-1553)

Orlando GIBBONS (1583-1625)

William BYRD (c.1540-1623)

Giaches de WERT (1535-1596)

Jacobus CLEMENS (c.1510-c.1555)

Josquin des Prez (c.1450-1521)

Huw WATKINS (b.1976)

O Praise the Lord

Hosanna to the Son of David

I give you a new commandment

Recessit pastor noster

Miserere (concert version)

Jubilate Deo

O clap your hands

Retire my soul

Gaudete in Domino

Ego flos campi

Salve Regina (for 5 voices)

The Phoenix and the Turtle

Friends of Chamber Music is grateful for the generous support of our Supporting Sponsor Michael and Marlys Haverty Family Foundation Fund.

Tonight’s concert brings together many of our favourite works, and provides a fascinating window onto the different styles of sacred choral music which flourished around Renaissance Europe.

We begin with music by William Byrd, who was perhaps England’s greatest Renaissance composer. Byrd chose a dangerous course amid the religious turmoil of the Reformation: even as he served in Queen Elizabeth I’s Protestant Chapel Royal, he became the musical mouthpiece of the underground Catholic community, publishing a series of bitter Latin motets whose texts unmistakably respond to the plight of his fellow Catholics. One such work is Exsurge, Domine: here the frustrated Psalmist demands that God rouse himself to help his persecuted people. Byrd’s music positively bristles with righteous indignation.

The next three works are all appropriate to the Christmas season. The first is by the pre-Reformation English composer, John Taverner; it alternates passages of plainsong and choral polyphony, and was almost certainly intended for performance by upper voices – perhaps in response to the ‘wise virgins’ mentioned in the text. We follow it with a villancico (a Spanishlanguage, folk-like carol) by Francisco Guerrero, describing the visit of the Magi to the stable in an irrepressible dance metre. A similar spirit is found in Michael Praetorius’ vivacious Ein kind geborn, whose texture builds progressively from the two voices heard at the opening to six parts in the climactic verses.

Thomas Tallis was William Byrd’s close friend and colleague, even standing as godfather to Byrd’s son, also named Thomas. The two collaborated on the first ever book of music to be printed in England, the Cantiones Sacrae of 1575. Tallis’ In manus tuas appears in that volume; a setting of words appropriate for the late-night service of Compline, it is a perfect example of the older composer’s exquisitely balanced style. A particular highlight is the piquant dissonance at cadence points – once condemned by a horrified Victorian editor as “an intolerably harsh effect”. By contrast, O Praise the Lord by Thomas Tomkins, written for twelve solo voices, is a riot of chaotic energy.

The remaining pieces in the first half of our programme are appropriate to Holy Week. Orlando Gibbons’ lively Hosanna to the Son of David captures the exuberance of the crowd which welcomed Christ into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. John Sheppard’s I give you a new commandment for lower voices sets words from the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday; written in the early stages of the Reformation, its austerity reflects the wishes of Thomas Cranmer that music should not be “full of notes, but, as near as may be, for every syllable a note; so that it may be sung distinctly and devoutly”. The climax of the Holy Week liturgy is the set of Tenebrae services for which the Spanish composer Tomás Luis da Victoria wrote his famous Tenebrae Responsories in 1585. Recessit pastor noster is a key moment in the sequence, simultaneously lamenting the death of Christ and anticipating his eventual triumph.

Allegri’s famous Miserere mei, written in or around 1638, was also intended for use at Tenebrae. Few works have been the subject of so much myth-making; tradition relates that it was so jealously

guarded that unauthorized copyists risked excommunication, that its famous ornaments were never notated, but solemnly passed from singer to singer, and that it was finally smuggled out of the Sistine Chapel in the head of the young Mozart. Though most of this is demonstrably untrue, it is clear that the work we have now is far from what Allegri wrote – and in particular, that the famous passage containing the soprano high Cs is a bizarre conflation of different editions and transpositions. The work, then, is inauthentic, but it is precisely its inauthenticity which has become its most enduring feature: this odd hybrid has a hypnotic beauty all of its own. A setting of the penitential Psalm 51, it is based on the plainchant tonus peregrinus. Two separate choirs, one of five voices and one of four, harmonise and elaborate the chant, alternating with verses of unadorned plainchant. When at last the two choirs sing simultaneously in the final verse of the psalm, the effect is truly monumental, even in the slightly abbreviated version of the work that we perform today.

Our second half begins with a festive motet by Cristóbal de Morales. Unlike many pieces of Renaissance music, we can be sure of the occasion for which Jubilate Deo was written: the celebration of a (short-lived) peace treaty between Charles V of Spain and Francis I of France in 1538. The motet was commissioned by Morales’ employer, Pope Paul III, and it is he who is credited in the text with brokering the peace. Morales includes a ‘cantus firmus’ in the tenor line, consisting of repetitions of the word ‘Gaudeamus’ – ‘rejoice’ – firstly in slow notes, and then, towards the end of the piece, at double tempo.

Orlando Gibbons’ irrepressible setting of Psalm 47, O clap your hands together, has a strange history: two accounts relate that it was written for his friend William Heyther to present in order to supplicate for his DMus at Oxford in 1622. It seems unlikely that this was intended as genuine subterfuge; rather, Gibbons’s anthem probably served to fulfil a formality, since Heyther’s was an honorary degree. We pair it with a beautiful late work by William Byrd, Retire my Soul, whose autumnal text seems highly appropriate for a composer by then in his seventies.

Flemish musicians were some of the most renowned and sought-after composers of the Renaissance, and often found employment abroad. Giaches de Wert and Josquin Desprez both spent much of their careers working in Italy; de Wert was in charge of music at the court in Ferrara, where a young Claudio Monteverdi was among his employees. His brief Gaudete in Domino unfolds as a single burst of energy. Josquin was the first international superstar composer, working chiefly in Milan and Rome. His five-part Salve Regina was particularly admired by his contemporaries for its technical accomplishment: one of the inner parts is entirely pre-composed, consisting exclusively of ostinato repetitions of the word ‘Salve’ at pre-determined intervals, whilst the highest part is a close paraphrase of a plainsong. Despite these twin constraints – akin to composing with one hand tied behind his back – Josquin manages to create a motet full of variety and colour, by turns muscularly rhythmic and tenderly reflective.

Between these two works we sing a particular group favourite: Ego flos campi by Clemens non Papa. It was probably written for a community of nuns at 's-Hertogenbosch; their motto ‘sicut lilium inter spinas’ is heard clearly, twice over, at the centre of the motet. The music is characterised by crystalline, slowmoving harmony, never straying far from the warmth of the tonic chord; the effect is akin to admiring a jewel from every possible angle.

We finish with something completely different: a work commissioned for Stile Antico in 2014 by Huw Watkins. The Phoenix and the Turtle sets words by Shakespeare, and

Biography

describes the funeral rites of a phoenix and turtle dove, symbols of perfection and devoted love. The poem is clearly intended as an allegory of some sort, and it has been suggested that the two birds might represent two Catholic martyrs, Anne and Roger Line. If that is correct, then the ‘bird of loudest lay’ mentioned in the first stanza might well represent William Byrd. Watkins cloaks Shakespeare’s dense words in music of propulsive drive and lyrical beauty.

Antico is firmly established as one of the world’s most accomplished and innovative vocal ensembles. Working without a conductor, its twelve members have thrilled audiences on four continents with their fresh, vibrant and moving performances of Renaissance polyphony. Its bestselling recordings have earned accolades including the Gramophone Award for Early Music, Diapason d’or de l’année, Edison Klassiek Award, and Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik. The group has received three Grammy® nominations, and performed live at the 60th Grammy® Awards at Madison Square Garden.

Based in London, Stile Antico has appeared at many of the world’s most prestigious venues and festivals. The group enjoys a particularly close association with Wigmore Hall, and has performed at the BBC Proms, Buckingham Palace, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Cité de la Musique, Luxembourg Philharmonie, Leipzig Gewandhaus, and Madrid’s Auditorio Nacional. Stile Antico is frequently invited to appear at Europe’s leading festivals: highlights include the Antwerp, Bruges, Utrecht and York Early Music Festivals, the Lucerne Easter Festival, and the SchleswigHolstein Music Festival.

Since its 2009 North American debut at the Boston Early Music Festival, Stile Antico has enjoyed frequent tours to the US and Canada. The group performs regularly in Boston and New York, and has appeared at the Ravinia Festival, Washington’s National Cathedral and Library of Congress, Vancouver’s Chan Centre, and in concert series spanning twenty-five US states. Stile Antico has also appeared in Mexico, Colombia, South Korea, Macau, and Hong Kong.

Stile Antico’s performances are often praised for their immediacy,

expressive commitment, and their sensitive and imaginative response to text. These qualities arise from the group’s collaborative working style: members rehearse and perform as chamber musicians, each contributing artistically to the musical results. The group is also noted for its compelling programming, which draws out thematic connections between works to shine new light on Renaissance music. In addition to its core repertoire, Stile Antico has premiered works by Kerry Andrew, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Joanna Marsh, John McCabe, Nico Muhly, Giles Swayne, and Huw Watkins. The group’s diverse range of collaborators includes Fretwork, the Folger Consort, Marino Formenti, Lemn Sissay, B’Rock, Rihab Azar, and Sting.

Alongside its concert and recording work, Stile Antico is passionate about sharing its repertoire and working style with the widest possible audience. After many years in residence at Dartington International Summer School, the group now leads courses at the Music Summer School at Gresham’s, and holds regular Come and Sing days open to all. Stile Antico also works extensively with younger singers in university and school settings and with the Rodolfus Foundation, and the support of the charitable Stile Antico Foundation has enabled the group to offer bursaries to talented young ensembles, and to run an annual Youth Consort course. Stile Antico is proud to be a member of the European early music network REMA.

During 2025 Stile Antico celebrates twenty years as a professional ensemble with gala performances at Wigmore Hall, the Boston Early Music Festival, and for AMUZ Antwerpen. The group also marks the five hundredth birthday of Palestrina, the quintessential master of the stile antico, with a series of concerts and the release of a new album for Decca Classics.

Program notes by Andrew Griffiths

Stile

J. S. Bach: The Brandenburg Concertos

December 9, 2025 • The Folly Theater

The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center on Tour

Mika Sasaki, harpsichord

Francisco Fullana, violin

Bella Hristova, violin

Daniel Phillips, violin/violin piccolo

Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu, viola

Matthew Lipman, viola

Paul Neubauer, viola

Dmitri Atapine, cello

Nicholas Canellakis, cello

Sterling Elliott, cello

Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750)

Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major, BWV 1048 (1720)

Nina Bernat, bass

Sooyun Kim, flute

Tara Helen O’Connor, flute

Randall Ellis, oboe

James Austin Smith, oboe

Concerto 3zo à tre Violini, tre Viole, è tre Violoncelli col Basso per il Cembalo [...] — Adagio — Allegro

Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in F major, BWV 1046 (1720)

Stephen Taylor, oboe

Marc Goldberg, bassoon

Stewart Rose, horn

Tanner West, horn

David Washburn, trumpet

Concerto 1mo à 2 Corni di Caccia, 3 Hautbois, è Bassono, Violino Piccolo concertato, 2 Violini, una Viola è Violoncello, col Basso Continuo [...] — Adagio — Allegro — Menuet – Trio I – Menuet da capo – Polacca – Menuet da capo Trio II – Menuet da capo

Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F major, BWV 1047 (1720)

Concerto 2do à 1 Tromba, 1 Flauto, 1 Hautbois, 1 Violino, concertati, è 2 Violini, 1 Viola è Violone in Ripieno col Violoncello è Basso per il Cembalo [...] — Andante Allegro assai

Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major, BWV 1050 (1720)

Concerto 5to à une Traversiere, une Violino principale, une Violino è una Viola in ripieno, Violoncello, Violone è Cembalo concertato Allegro — Affettuoso Allegro

Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 in B-flat major, BWV 1051 (1720)

Concerto 6to à due Viole da Braccio, due Viole da Gamba, Violoncello, Violone e Cembalo [...] Adagio ma non tanto — Allegro

Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G major, BWV 1049 (1720)

Concerto 4to à Violino Principale, due Fiauti d'Echo, due Violini, una Viola è Violone in Ripieno, Violoncello è Continuo Allegro — Andante — Presto - intermission -

Friends of Chamber Music is grateful for the generous support of our Golden Jubilee Sponsor Stanley H. Durwood Foundation.

The Brandenburg Concertos Johann Sebastian BACH Composed: 1720 Duration: 2 hours and 15 minutes

Though Bach practically defines Baroque music as we know it today, he met with a surprising number of setbacks in his own lifetime. The Brandenburg Concertos were one such unsuccessful attempt for recognition. They were named after Christian Ludwig, the Margrave of Brandenburg, whom Bach only met once—in 1719 during a trip to Berlin. The Margrave asked for some of Bach’s music but it took two years for the composer to deliver, at which time his employer, Prince Leopold of Cöthen, was having financial difficulties and Bach was probably looking for leads on a new job. Bach gathered six concertos with vastly different instrumentations, made revisions, and sent them to the Margrave in March 1721. Not only did Bach not get a job, there is no record the Margrave ever listened to them or even acknowledged Bach’s gift. The Brandenburgs remained virtually unknown until they were rediscovered and published in 1850.

In the Third Brandenburg, there’s no differentiation between soloists and accompanying strings. The nine string players take turns playing solo and ensemble parts. With three violins, three violas, and three cellos playing over the continuo line, it has the most homogenous sound of all the Brandenburgs, a stark contrast with the first concerto. The tightly knit strings work together and play off each other to generate exuberant momentum that sweeps inexorably forward. This is also the shortest of the Brandenburgs, partly because it doesn’t have a slow movement—just two brief chords. The first violinist often plays a short cadenza to ornament what would otherwise be a simple half cadence.

The First Brandenburg Concerto may be the oldest of the six, as there is an early version (without the third movement) believed to have been composed in 1713. It is unclear why Bach added the third movement as this is the only Brandenburg Concerto with four movements. This concerto calls for the largest ensemble of the six, including a wind section with three oboes, bassoon, and two horns. The winds are featured throughout but especially

in the full-textured first movement and in the last movement, a compilation of dances. The piece also includes the piccolo violin, a small, higher pitched violin that essentially disappeared by the 19th century and is best remembered today for its role in this piece and Bach’s 1731 cantata Wachet auf.

The solo instruments in the Second Brandenburg are flute, oboe, violin, and piccolo trumpet, a very diverse group. And though Bach gives each instrument time in the spotlight, the trumpet’s clear, high-pitched playing soars over the first and third movements. Its calls are echoed and reinforced by the other soloists, creating a sonic palette of string, woodwind, and brass that shines in the brilliant treble register. The second movement stands in stark contrast to the outer movements—the trumpet and ensemble strings drop out and the remaining soloists and continuo play something akin to an intimate sonata, an introspective interlude sandwiched between the high energy and bright tones of the outer movements.

The Fifth Brandenburg is special, even in this set of highly contrasted concertos. Not only is Bach’s instrument, the harpsichord, included in the group of solo instruments (with flute and violin) but it is the first keyboard concerto of all time. Before this concerto, the harpsichord typically played accompaniment— its solo opportunities only came when it played completely alone. The reason for the unusual choice of instrumentation was probably to feature a new harpsichord, one that Bach brought home from a 1719 trip to Berlin (the same trip where he met the Margrave of Brandenburg). In the first movement, Bach gradually sneaks in the harpsichord solo, giving it successively longer individual passages until finally the other instruments drop out and the harpsichord shines in intricate waves of notes.

Bach wrote the Sixth Brandenburg for another unusual ensemble. It features a pair of solo violas—which in the Baroque era typically played harmony parts within the string ensemble— accompanied by parts for two violas da gamba (here performed on cellos) and continuo. The viola da gamba was the instrument played by Bach’s employer at Cöthen, Prince Leopold, and was usually a solo instrument. “Bach reversed these roles, such that the violas perform virtuosic solo lines while the viols amble along in repeated eighth notes,” wrote Bach scholar Michael Marissen. “Pursuing these two radical instrumental treatments within the same work was unprecedented (and wouldn’t be imitated)… These kinds of inversions play a significant part in Christian scripture, which frequently proclaims that with God the first shall be last while the last shall be first.”

The Fourth Brandenburg Concerto features a violin and two flutes accompanied by strings (two violins and viola) and continuo (cello, bass, and harpsichord). In the first movement, the flutes take the lead playing the ritornello melody while the violin has virtuosic passages in the episodes. The second movement is a feature for the flutes while the violin alternately accompanies them and joins the string section. The last movement is a series of lively fugal sections separated by episodes of graceful flute collaboration and fiery violin virtuosity.

Portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach; by Elias Gottlob Haussmann (1748)

The Margrave of Brandenburg died in 1734 with Bach’s scores still in his library. Bach, who kept his own copies of the concertos, died in 1750. The manuscript copies of the score and parts passed through many different hands, including Bach’s sons C.P.E. and J.C.F. Bach, the Margrave’s niece Princess Anna Amalia of Prussia, Bach’s student Johann Philipp Kirnberger, as well as various private libraries before they ended up in the Berlin State Library by 1914.

By the time Bach died, his music had fallen out of favor. His unparalleled counterpoint remained an example of high Baroque style for students and connoisseurs, but it went largely unperformed. It wasn’t until 1829, when Mendelssohn conducted the St Matthew Passion, that a wider audience took

a renewed interested in his music. An enthusiastic period of Bach performances and research ensued: a full-scale Bach Revival. The rediscovery of the Brandenburgs took 20 more years, but they were eventually published in 1850 as part of the first complete edition of Bach’s works. Around 1880, Bach biographer Philipp Spitta coined the nickname ‘Brandenburg Concertos’ to replace what Bach had called ‘Six Concerts avec plusieurs instruments’ (Six Concertos for various instruments). With those many developments, our modern understanding of the Brandenburgs was created. The concertos now stand as prime examples of Baroque technique and style, combining intricate part-writing with spirited melodies in a dazzling variety of textures.

Notes by Laura Keller, CMS Editorial Manager © Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center

Biographies

Pianist Mika Sasaki is an imaginative and versatile soloist, chamber musician, and educator whose performances have taken her around the world. Her debut album, Obsidian: Mika Sasaki plays Clara Schumann, released on Yarlung Records in 2016, was highly acclaimed by the Online Merker as “illuminat[ing] the artistic inspiration and creative exchange between three Romantic souls,” Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann, and Johannes Brahms. Her performances have been broadcasted on WQXR, WFMT, KQAC, and Radio Sweden. She has appeared as concerto soloist with the Sinfonia of Cambridge, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, 92Y Orchestra, and, more recently, with the InterSchool Symphony Orchestra of New York, performing Amy Beach’s Piano Concerto. She is the pianist of Ensemble Mélange and appears regularly with the Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston, Manhattan Chamber Players, Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect, and with her duo partners. Her festival appearances include Music@Menlo, Tanglewood, Chigiana, Taos, Yellow Barn, Aspen, Focus!, Icicle Creek, Mannes Beethoven Institute, Caramoor, Shandelee, Weekend of Chamber Music, Central Vermont Chamber Music Festival, and many others. An advocate of both old and new repertoire, she can be heard championing works from the Baroque to the present, and has commissioned chamber music and solo works by Max Grafe, Emily Cooley, Andrew Hsu, and Jonathan Dawe. An alumna of the Peabody Conservatory, Ensemble Connect, and the Juilliard School, Sasaki is now a faculty member at Juilliard. Her teachers have included Benjamin Pasternack, Gilbert Kalish, and Joseph Kalichstein.

Spanish-born violinist Francisco Fullana, winner of the 2018 Avery Fisher Career Grant and the 2023 Khaledi Prize, has been hailed as “frighteningly awesome” (Buffalo News). His latest album on Orchid Classics, Bach’s Long Shadow, was named BBC Music Magazine’s Instrumental Choice of the Month. Its fivestar review stated: “Fullana manages to combine Itzhak Perlman’s warmth with the aristocratic poise of Henryk Szeryng.” His thoughtful virtuosity has led to collaborations with conducting greats like Sir Colin Davis, Hans Graf, and Gustavo Dudamel. Besides his career as a soloist, which includes recent debuts with the Philadelphia and St. Paul Chamber Orchestras and a season-long artist residency with the Grammy-winning orchestra Apollo’s Fire, he is making an impact as an innovative educator. He created the Fortissimo Youth Initiative, a series of seminars and performances in partnership with youth and university orchestras, and co-founded San Antonio’s Classical Music Institute, an outreach-focused chamber music festival that serves hundreds of Title I underrepresented minority students every summer. He was a first-prize winner of the Johannes Brahms and Angel Munetsugu International Violin Competitions and is an alum of CMS’s Bowers Program. A graduate of the Juilliard School and the University of Southern California, Fullana performs on the 1735 Mary Portman ex-Kreisler Guarneri del Gesù violin, on loan from Clement and Karen Arrison through the Stradivari Society of Chicago.

Acclaimed for her passionate, powerful performances, beautiful sound, and compelling command of her instrument, violinist Bella Hristova has appeared as a soloist with orchestras across the US, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and New Zealand. She was the featured soloist for an eight-orchestra concerto commission, written for her by her husband, composer David Serkin Ludwig, and recently recorded it with the Buffalo Philharmonic and JoAnn Falletta. Her discography also includes the complete Beethoven and Brahms sonatas with pianist Michael Houstoun. A champion of new music, she has commissioned works by Joan Tower, Nokuthula Ngwenyama, and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich for her project Lineage. She is a recipient of a 2013 Avery Fisher Career Grant and first-prize winner of the Michael Hill and Young Concert Artists competitions. Hristova studied with Ida Kavafian and Jaime Laredo, is an alum of CMS’s Bowers Program, and plays a 1655 Nicolò Amati violin.

American violist Matthew Lipman has been praised by the New York Times for his “rich tone and elegant phrasing” and by the Chicago Tribune for a “splendid technique and musical sensitivity.” Recent seasons have included appearances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, American Symphony Orchestra, Munich Symphony Orchestra, and Minnesota Orchestra. He has performed recitals at Carnegie Hall, Aspen Music Festival, and the Zürich Tonhalle; was invited by Michael Tilson Thomas to be a soloist at the New World Symphony Viola Visions Festival; and has appeared in chamber music with Anne-Sophie Mutter at the Berlin Philharmonie, Vienna Musikverein, and on Deutsche Grammophon Stage+. An alum of the Bowers Program, he performs regularly on tour and at Alice Tully Hall with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, where he occupies the Wallach Chair. In 2022, he made his Sony Classical debut on The Dvořák Album, and his 2019 solo debut recording, Ascent, was released by Cedille Records, marking world premieres of the Shostakovich Impromptu and Clarice Assad Metamorfose. Additionally, he recorded the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante with violinist Rachel Barton Pine and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, conducted by the late Sir Neville Marriner. An Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient and major prize winner at the Primrose and Tertis International Viola Competitions, he studied with Heidi Castleman at Juilliard and Tabea Zimmermann at the Kronberg Academy. Lipman is on faculty at Stony Brook University and performs on a 2021 Samuel Zygmuntowicz viola, made for him in New York.

Violinist Daniel Phillips enjoys a versatile career as a chamber musician, solo artist, and teacher. A graduate of Juilliard, his major teachers were his father Eugene Phillips, Ivan Galamian, Sally Thomas, Nathan Milstein, Sandor Végh, and George Neikrug. Since winning the 1976 Young Concert Artists Competition, he has performed as a soloist with many orchestras, including the Pittsburgh, Houston, New Jersey, Phoenix, San Antonio, and Yakima symphonies. He appears regularly at the Spoleto USA Festival, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest, Chesapeake Music Festival, the International Musicians Seminar in England, Marlboro Music Festival, and Music from Angel Fire, where he is co-artistic director. He has served on the faculty of the Heifetz Institute and the St. Lawrence String Quartet Seminar at Stanford. He was a member of the renowned Bach Aria Group and has toured and recorded in a string quartet for Sony with Gidon Kremer, Kim Kashkashian, and Yo-Yo Ma. A judge in the 2022 Leipzig Bach Competition and 2018 Seoul International Violin Competition, Phillips is a professor at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College and on the faculties of the Mannes College of Music, Bard College Conservatory, and the Juilliard School. He lives with his wife, flutist Tara Helen O’Connor, and their two dachshunds on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

Praised by the Seattle Times as “Simply marvelous” and Taiwan’s Liberty Times for “astonishingly capturing the spirit of the music,” violinist Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu enjoys a versatile career as a soloist, chamber musician, and educator throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Ms. Wu has collaborated in concerts with renowned artists such as Yefim Bronfman, Lynn Harrell, Leila Josefowicz, Cho-Liang Lin, Midori, Thomas Quasthoff, Yuja Wang, and members of the Alban Berg, Emerson, Guarneri, Miró, and Tokyo string quartets at prominent venues such as the Kennedy Center, Library of Congress, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and festivals such as Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, La Jolla Summerfest, Marlboro Music Festival, and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. She has also collaborated as a guest violist with the Dover, Orion, and Shanghai quartets. Ms. Wu is a recipient of many awards including the Milka Violin Artist Prize from the Curtis Institute of Music, and third prize at the International Violin Competition of David Oistrakh. She has taught at the Thornton School of Music of the University of Southern California, and is currently the Artistic Partner of the Da Camera Society in Los Angeles. Cindy plays on a 2015 Stanley Kiernoziak viola.

Violist Paul Neubauer has been called a “master musician” by the New York Times. He recently made his Chicago Symphony subscription debut with conductor Riccardo Muti. He also gave the US premiere of the newly discovered Impromptu for viola and piano by Shostakovich with pianist Wu Han. In addition, his recording of the Aaron Kernis Viola Concerto with the Royal Northern Sinfonia was released on Signum Records, and his recording of the complete viola/piano music by Ernest Bloch with pianist Margo Garrett was released on Delos. Appointed principal violist of the New York Philharmonic at age 21, he has appeared as soloist with over 100 orchestras including the New York, Los Angeles, and Helsinki philharmonics; National, St. Louis, Detroit, Dallas, San Francisco, and Bournemouth symphonies; and Santa Cecilia, English Chamber, and Beethovenhalle orchestras. He has premiered viola concertos by Bartók (revised version of the Viola Concerto), Friedman, Glière, Jacob, Kernis, Lazarof, Müller-Siemens, Ott, Penderecki, Picker, Suter, and Tower, and has been featured on CBS’s Sunday Morning and A Prairie Home Companion as well as in Strad, Strings, and People magazines. A two-time Grammy nominee, he has recorded on numerous labels including Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, RCA Red Seal, and Sony Classical, and is a member of SPA, a trio with soprano Susanna Phillips and pianist Anne-Marie McDermott. Neubauer is the artistic director of the Mostly Music series in New Jersey and is on the faculty of the Juilliard School and Mannes College.

Dmitri Atapine has been described as a cellist with “brilliant technical chops” (Gramophone), whose playing is “highly impressive throughout” (The Strad). He has appeared on some of the world’s foremost stages. An avid chamber musician, he frequently performs with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and is an alum of The Bowers Program. He is a frequent guest at leading festivals, including Music@Menlo, La Musica Sarasota, Pacific, Aldeburgh, Aix-en-Provence, and Nevada. His performances have been broadcast nationally in the US, Europe, and Asia. His many awards include first prize at the Carlos Prieto Cello Competition, as well as top honors at the Premio Vittorio Gui and Plowman chamber competitions. He has collaborated with such distinguished musicians as Cho-Liang Lin, Paul Neubauer, Ani and Ida Kavafian, Wu Han, Bruno Giuranna, David Finckel, David Shifrin, and the Emerson Quartet. His many recordings include a critically acclaimed world premiere of Lowell Liebermann’s complete works for cello and piano. He holds a doctorate from the Yale School of Music, where he was a student of Aldo Parisot. Atapine is Professor of Cello at the University of Nevada, Reno, and is Artistic Co-Director of the Friends of Chamber Music Kansas City, Apex Concerts (Reno, Nevada), and the Ribadesella Chamber Music Festival (Spain), as well as the Co-Director of the Young Performers Program at Music@Menlo Chamber Music Institute (California).

Nicholas Canellakis has become one of the most sought-after and innovative cellists of his generation, praised as a “superb young soloist” (New Yorker) and for being “impassioned . . . the audience seduced by Mr. Canellakis’s rich, alluring tone” (New York Times). A multifaceted artist, Canellakis has forged a unique voice combining his talents as soloist, chamber musician, curator, filmmaker, and composer/ arranger. His recent highlights include solo debuts with the Virginia, Albany, Bangor, Stamford, and Delaware symphony orchestras; concerto appearances with the Erie Philharmonic, the New Haven Symphony as artist-in-residence, and the American Symphony Orchestra in Carnegie Hall; Europe and Asia tours with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center; and recitals throughout the United States with his longtime duo collaborator, pianist-composer Michael Stephen Brown. An alum of CMS’s Bowers Program, Canellakis is a regular guest artist at many of the world’s leading music festivals, including Santa Fe, Ravinia, Music@Menlo, Bard, Bridgehampton, La Jolla, Hong Kong, Moab, Music in the Vineyards, and Saratoga Springs. He is the Artistic Director of Chamber Music Sedona in Arizona and is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and New England Conservatory. Filmmaking and acting are special interests of his; he has produced, directed, and starred in several short films and music videos. Canellakis plays on an outstanding Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume cello, circa 1840.

Cellist Sterling Elliott is a 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient and winner of the Senior Division 2019 National Sphinx Competition. He has appeared with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Dallas and Detroit symphonies. The 2022–23 season saw debuts with the Colorado Symphony and the Cincinnati Symphony, among others, with return appearances including the Buffalo Philharmonic. He was presented in recital by the San Francisco Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, Shriver Hall, and Tippet Rise. This summer, Sterling returns to the Hollywood Bowl to perform with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He also serves on faculty at the Sphinx Performance Academy at Juilliard, and he performs chamber music at festivals including La Jolla SummerFest, Edinburgh Festival, Chamberfest Cleveland, and Festival Mozaic. Elliott is pursuing an Artist Diploma at the Juilliard School, studying with Joel Krosnick and Clara Kim. He performs on a 1741 Gennaro Gagliano cello on loan through the Robert F. Smith Fine String Patron Program, in partnership with the Sphinx Organization.

Double bassist Nina Bernat, acclaimed for her interpretive maturity, expressive depth, and technical clarity, emerges onto the world stage as a recipient of a 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant. Recent first prizes include the Barbash J.S. Bach String Competition, the Minnesota Orchestra Young Artist Competition, the Juilliard Double Bass Competition, and the 2019 International Society of Bassists Solo Competition. She was invited in 2019 to perform as guest principal bassist with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, serving under the batons of András Schiff and Osmo Vänskä. Among her chamber performances are appearances with the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, Bridgehampton Chamber Music Series, and Mostly Music. This summer, she heads to Vermont for her second season at both the 2023 Marlboro Music Festival and the Lake Champlain Music Festival. She also returns to the 2023 Grace Note Farm Summer Music Festival in Rhode Island for her third season, as both performer and coorganizer. Her 2023–24 season includes a concerto debut with the Minnesota Orchestra and performances as guest principal of the Oslo Philharmonic. In 2024, she begins her tenure as a member of CMS’s Bowers Program. Bernat performs on a beautiful and sonorous early-18th-century bass, attributed to Guadagnini and handed down to her from her father.

Praised as “a rare virtuoso of the flute” by Libération, Sooyun Kim has established herself as one of the rare flute soloists on the classical music scene. Since her concerto debut with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, she has enjoyed a flourishing career performing with orchestras, including the Bavarian Radio Symphony, Munich Philharmonic, Munich Chamber Orchestra, and Boston Pops. She has been presented in recital in Budapest’s Liszt Hall, Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center, Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, and Kobe’s Bunka Hall. Her European debut recital at the Louvre was streamed live on medici. tv. A winner of the Georg Solti Foundation Career Grant, she has received numerous international awards and prizes including the third prize at the ARD International Flute Competition. Her summer appearances include the Music@Menlo, Spoleto USA, Yellow Barn, Rockport, Olympic, Charlottesville, Ravinia, and Tanglewood festivals. Her special interest in interdisciplinary art has led her to collaborate with many artists, dancers, and museums around the world such as Sol Lewitt, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and Glassmuseet Ebeltoft in Denmark. She choreographed and performed in dance works for Chamber Music Northwest and the Tivoli Dance Troupe in Denmark. An alum of CMS’s Bowers Program, she studied at the New England Conservatory under the tutelage of Paula Robison. She is currently on the faculty of the Longy School of Music of Bard College and teaches summer courses at Orford Musique. Kim plays a rare 18-karat gold flute specially made for her by Verne Q. Powell Flutes.

Tara Helen O’Connor, who Artmag has said “so embodies perfection on the flute that you’ll forget she is human,” is an Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, a two-time Grammy Award nominee, and, as a member of the New Millennium Ensemble, a recipient of the Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Award. A Wm.S. Haynes artist, she was the first flutist selected to participate in the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Bowers Program and is currently a season artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and a member of the Windscape woodwind quintet. O’Connor serves as Visiting Associate Professor, Adjunct, of Flute at the Yale School of Music, and is Artistic Director of the Music from Angel Fire Festival. A champion of contemporary music, Ms. O’Connor has premiered hundreds of works and has appeared on numerous recordings and film and television soundtracks including Barbie, Respect, The Joker, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Only Murders in the Building, and Schmigadoon! to name only a few.

Randall Ellis served as principal oboist of Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra from 1988 until 2016. He is principal oboist of the Little Orchestra Society and the Mozart Orchestra of New York and is solo English horn in the New York Pops Orchestra. He is a member of the Emmy award-winning All-Star Orchestra and also the Windscape Woodwind Quintet, artists-in-residence at the Manhattan School of Music. Principal oboist and faculty member of the Eastern Music Festival, he was principal oboist of the New York Chamber Symphony and received two Grammy nominations, including one for his recording of Howard Hanson’s Pastorale. He has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Florida Orchestra, and the American Symphony Orchestra. He has been a soloist with the New England Bach Festival, the International Bach Festival of Madeira, the Philharmonia Virtuosi of New York, and Chamber Music at the 92nd Street Y. In addition to many appearances on PBS’s Live From Lincoln Center, he has recorded for EMI/Angel, Columbia, Sony, RCA, Vox, Nonesuch, CRI, Pro Arte, Delos, and Deutsche Grammophon. Ellis attended the North Carolina School of the Arts and Stony Brook University where he studied with Ronald Roseman. He teaches oboe and chamber music at Skidmore College and coaches in the graduate orchestral performance program at the Manhattan School of Music.

Performer, curator, and on-stage host James Austin Smith “proves that an oboist can have an adventurous solo career.” (The New Yorker). Smith appears at leading national and international chamber music festivals, as Co-Principal Oboe of the conductor-less Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and as an artist of the International Contemporary Ensemble. As Artistic and Executive Director of Tertulia Chamber Music, Smith creates intimate evenings of music, food, and drink in New York and San Francisco, as well as an annual festival in a variety of global destinations. He serves as Artistic Advisor to Coast Live Music in the San Francisco Bay Area and mentors graduate-level musicians as a professor of oboe and chamber music at Stony Brook University and as a regular guest at London’s Guildhall School. A Fulbright scholar and alum of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect and CMS’s Bowers Program, he holds degrees in music and political science from Northwestern and Yale University.

Stephen Taylor, one of the most soughtafter oboists in the country, holds the Mrs. John D. Rockefeller III solo oboe chair at the Chamber Music Society. He is a solo oboist with the New York Woodwind Quintet, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, the St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble (for which he has served as co-director of chamber music), the American Composers Orchestra, the New England Bach Festival Orchestra, and Speculum Musicae, and is co-principal oboist of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. His regular festival appearances include Spoleto, Aldeburgh, Caramoor, Bravo! Vail Valley, Music from Angel Fire, Norfolk, Santa Fe, Aspen, and Chamber Music Northwest. Among his more than 200 recordings is Elliott Carter's Oboe Quartet for which Mr. Taylor received a Grammy nomination. He has performed many of Carter's works, giving the world premieres of Carter’s A Mirror on Which to Dwell, Syringa, and Tempo e Tempi; and the US premieres of Trilogy for Oboe and Harp, Oboe Quartet, and A 6 Letter Letter. He is entered in Who's Who in American Colleges and Universities and has been awarded a performer's grant from the Fromm Foundation at Harvard University. Trained at The Juilliard School, he is a member of its faculty as well as of the Yale and Manhattan schools of music. Mr. Taylor plays rare Caldwell model Lorée oboes.

A member of the New York Woodwind Quintet and St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, Marc Goldberg is principal bassoonist of Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, American Ballet Theater, NYC Opera, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and a member of the American Symphony Orchestra. Previously the associate principal bassoonist of the New York Philharmonic, he has also been a frequent guest of the Metropolitan Opera, Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, touring with these ensembles across four continents and joining them on numerous recordings. Solo appearances include performances throughout the US, in South America, and across the Pacific Rim with the Brandenburg Ensemble, Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, Saito Kinen Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Riverside Symphony, Jupiter Symphony, New York Chamber Soloists, and the New York Symphonic Ensemble. A longtime season artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, he has been a guest of the Da Camera Society of Houston, Musicians from Marlboro, Music@Menlo, the Brentano Quartet, Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Band, and the Boston Chamber Music Society. Summer festival appearances include Spoleto, Ravinia, Chautauqua, Tanglewood, Caramoor, Saito Kinen/Ozawa Music Festival, Bard Music Festival, and Marlboro. Goldberg is on the faculty of the Juilliard School Pre-College Division, Mannes College, New England Conservatory, the Hartt School, and the Bard College Conservatory of Music.

Praised by The New Yorker for his “forceful yet elegant virtuosity,” French hornist Stewart Rose is one of the preeminent horn players of his generation. This season he is performing as a member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra horn section and in recent seasons was acting principal with New York City Ballet Orchestra and prior to that, acting associate principal with the New York Philharmonic for two years. He has been guest principal with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and Saito Kinen Orchestra. He has appeared at the Marlboro, Tanglewood, Mostly Mozart, Spoleto, Edinburgh, Chesapeake Music, and Bridgehampton festivals and is a frequent guest with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. A native New Yorker, he began playing with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in the 1980s and has been principal horn with Orchestra of St. Luke’s since its inception. He also served as principal horn with New York City Opera at Lincoln Center for 25 years. Rose’s first solo recording, From the Forest, a collection of early classical works for horn and orchestra by Haydn, Telemann, Leopold Mozart, and Christoph Forster with St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, was released on St. Luke’s Collection to great critical acclaim. The New York Times noted his “remarkable virtuosity, agility and fluency, and his ability to retain the horn’s cheery rusticity.”

Tanner West joined the New York Philharmonic in May 2023, after spending two seasons as Acting Fourth Horn of the North Carolina Symphony. He has performed with a number of major orchestras, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony, Houston Symphony, and Charlotte Symphony. West has appeared as soloist with the Durham Symphony Orchestra in a collaboration with the American Dance Festival. He has participated in the Colorado College and Music from Angel Fire music festivals, and spent three summers at the Aspen Music Festival and School, where he was the third horn fellow of the Festival Orchestra. West received his Performance Studies Certificate from the Colburn Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Andrew Bain, and received his bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where he studied with Abigail Pack.

David Washburn is the principal trumpet of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and associate principal trumpet of the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra. Previously, he served as principal trumpet and soloist with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and Redlands Symphony. He has been a featured soloist with such orchestras as the Los Angeles, St. Louis, Hong Kong, and California philharmonics; the Los Angeles, San Diego, St. Matthew’s, and South Bay chamber orchestras; and the Berkeley, Burbank, and Glendale symphonies. He has performed at the Taipei Music and Academy Festival Santa Fe, La Jolla, and Music@Menlo chamber music festivals as well as with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Active in the recording studio, he has played principal trumpet for the soundtracks of Spiderman: Far From Home, Incredibles 2, Rogue One, Coco, A Quiet Place, Spiderman Homecoming, War for the Planet of the Apes, Fast and Furious 7, 10 Cloverfield Lane, Independence Day Resurgence, Godzilla, The Amazing Spiderman, White House Down, Karate Kid, Avatar, The Legend of Zorro, A Beautiful Mind, Troy, Titanic, and Deep Impact. He has also been a member of John Williams’s trumpet section for over 20 years, recently recording Star Wars Episodes VII, VIII, and IX. He is currently a faculty member at Azusa Pacific University and Biola University. He received his master’s degree with distinction from the New England Conservatory and his bachelor’s degree from the Thornton Music School at the University of Southern California.

New Horizons

January 27, 2026 • 1900 Building

McGill/McHale Trio

Chris ROGERSON (b.1988)

A Fish Will Rise for Flute, Clarinet and Piano (2014/2017)

Francis POULENC (1899-1963)

Sonata for Flute and Piano (1957)

Allegro malinconico

Cantilena: Assez lent

Presto giocoso

Guillaume CONNESSON (b.1970)

Techno-Parade for Flute, Clarinet and Piano (2002)

Augusta HOLMÈS (1847-1903)

Evocation d’Amour (arr. McHale for solo piano)

Samuel BARBER (1910-1981)

Excursions, Op. 20 (1944)

iii. Allegretto

iv. Allegro molto

Francis POULENC (1899-1963)

Sonata for Clarinet and Piano (1962)

Allegro tristamente

Romanza: Très calme

Allegro con fuoco

Valerie COLEMAN (b.1970)

Portraits of Langston for Flute, Clarinet and Piano (2007)

Prelude: Helen Keller

Danse Africaine

Le Grand Duc Mambo

Jazz Band in a Parisian Cabaret Harlem’s Summer Night - intermission -

Silver Rain

Friends of Chamber Music is grateful for the generous support of our Presenting Sponsors JoZach Miller and Peter Bali, and Supporting Sponsors Grayson Murphy and Kate Brubacher Murphy.

Anthony McGill, clarinet • Demarre McGill, flute • Michael McHale, piano

Chris ROGERSON: A Fish Will Rise

Composed: 2014/2017 Duration: 9 minutes

Chris Rogerson has composed works for cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Benjamin Beilman, pianist Anne-Marie McDermott, clarinetist Anthony McGill, and many other acclaimed musicians. An avid traveler who has visited over 100 countries around the world, Rogerson's work is frequently evocative of a sense of place, from his childhood home in Buffalo to more distant regions like Yemen and Afghanistan. Born in 1988, Rogerson studied at the Curtis Institute of Music, Yale School of Music, and Princeton University. In 2012, he co-founded Kettle Corn New Music, a new music presenting organization in New York City, and currently serves as its co-artistic director. In 2016, Mr. Rogerson joined the Musical Studies Faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

A Fish Will Rise originated as the first movement of Rogerson's River Songs for piano trio. Anthony McGill, who premiered Rogerson’s 2016 clarinet concerto Four Autumn Landscapes, asked him to re-arrange the movement for flute, clarinet, and piano for the McGill/McHale Trio. The title A Fish Will Rise comes from Norman Maclean’s now-famous memoir A River Runs Through It. A repeating figure from the piano opens the work, evoking the play of light on water. As the clarinet and then the flute join in, the energy of the music increases. The three instrumentalists take turns with the repeating ostinato figure, the main melody, and the rhythmic accompaniment, as peaceful and more energetic passages alternate. The work concludes with a return of the meditative opening music.

Francis POULENC: Sonata for Flute and Piano Composed: 1957 Duration: 12 minutes

In 1956, while hard at work on his opera Dialogues des Carmélites, Poulenc received a commission from the Library of Congress for a chamber work. Poulenc couldn't immediately accept, but after completing the opera, he wrote the Flute Sonata in Cannes over the winter of 1956 and 1957. Poulenc actually preferred the sound of wind instruments to that of strings, and late in life decided to write sonatas for each of the four standard woodwind instrument – flute, clarinet, oboe, and bassoon. He finished the first three, but a fatal heart attack in 1963 prevented him from completing the fourth.

Flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal and Poulenc premiered the Flute Sonata in June 1957 at the Strasbourg Music Festival. The work was an immediate hit, and quickly became part of the flute's standard repertoire. Musicologist Malcolm MacDonald has written that “The work is infused with Poulenc’s trademark bittersweet grace, wit, irony and sentiment.” The Sonata is dedicated to the memory of Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, a famous American patron of chamber music who was responsible for the creation of many important works, having commissioned, among others, Aaron Copland's ballet Appalachian Spring, the String Quartet No. 5 by Béla Bartók, the Third and Fourth Quartets by Arnold Schoenberg, and the Trittico Botticelliano by Ottorino Respighi.

Marked Allegro malinconico, the first movement features a poignant descending theme and a largely elegiac tone, despite

the quick tempo. A central section adds a bit of sunlight and humor to the mix. The flute part is demanding here, with trills and fast tonguing.

The second movement is an extended, lyrical Cantilena that might call to mind Poulenc's writing for the voice in works like Dialogues des Carmélites. Poulenc said that it was relatively free in form, also remarking that “I could have called it an interlude (intermède) or a romance.”

Malcolm MacDonald wrote that “the skittish and vivacious” Presto giocoso third movement, march-like music that also includes a brief recollection of a theme from the first movement, “brings the work to a close in cheerful and sardonic style.”

Guillaume CONNESSON: Techno-parade

Composed: 2002 Duration: 5 minutes

Guillaume Connesson studied piano, history of music, choir analysis, and direction at the Conservatoire National de Région de Boulogne-Billancourt, as well as orchestration at the Conservatoire National de Paris. He is presently professor of orchestration at the Conservatoire National de Région d'Aubervilliers. He writes of his Techno-parade: “Two incisive motifs swirl and clink together giving the piece a festive, but also disturbing character. The wails of the clarinet and the obsessive patterns of the piano try to replicate the raw energy of techno music. In the middle of the piece, the pianist and his pageturner chase after the piano rhythms with a brush and sheets of paper (placed on the strings inside the piano), accompanied by the distorted sounds of the flute (rather like the tone of a side drum) and the glissandi of the clarinet. After this percussive 'pause,' the three instruments are pulled into a rhythmic trance and the piece ends in a frenzied tempo.”

Augusta HOLMÈS: Evocation d’Amour (arr. McHale for solo piano)

Composed: 1892 Duration: 4 minutes

Augusta Holmès is another of the once-famous, now sadlyneglected woman composers of the nineteenth century. Born in Paris to Irish parents, she was forced to take private lessons when she was not allowed admission to the Paris Conservatoire due to her gender. Around 1876, she became a pupil of César Franck, who became something of a mentor for her. Initially, Holmès published her music under a pseudonym, Hermann Zenta. But she soon became known under her own name as, unusually for a woman of her time, she focused on larger works, including four operas (much influenced by one of her favorite composers, Richard Wagner), cantatas, and symphonic poems.

She also composed over 100 songs, most of them to texts of her own (she likewise wrote the librettos for her operas). That includes Evocation d’amour (Evocation of love), the twelfth song of her collection Vingt Mélodies. It opens in a lilting manner, but turns passionate as the singer laments of her “dream of love where the soul is rocked day and night,” and wonders “where this intoxication comes which despite myself burns and oppresses me.”

Samuel BARBER: Excursions, Op. 20 (third and fourth movements) Composed: 1944 Duration: 6 minutes

Samuel Barber was asked by his pianist friend Jeanne Behrend to write something for her programs of American music. He responded with the first of the four Excursions in 1942. Two years later, Vladimir Horowitz also took an interest in American music, and asked Barber if he could premiere the full set of Excursions. The third movement hadn't yet been completed, but Horowitz played the other three in several recitals in 1944 and 1945. Eventually, it was left to Behrend to premiere the full fourmovement work in December of 1948.

Excursions was one of the rare occasions that Barber turned to American folk and popular music for inspiration. He had traveled the States widely, exposing himself to a variety of musical genres that emerge in this musical travelogue. Excursions was Barber's first published piece for solo piano, predating by just a few years the very different-sounding Piano Sonata, the last movement of which was played in this series by Angela Hewitt just a couple of months ago.

Calling his Excursions “nothing but bagatelles,” Barber continued, “These are ‘Excursions’ in small classical forms into regional American idioms. Their rhythmic characteristics, as well as their source in folk material and their scoring, reminiscent of local instruments are easily recognized.” A rural setting is evoked in the third movement, marked Allegretto, in which the familiar folk song “Streets of Laredo,” or something very much like it, is subjected to seven variations, some lyrical, some more jazz-like. The final movement is an exuberant dance, something like a hoedown or barn dance as it calls to mind a fiddle backed by a harmonica or accordion.

Francis POULENC: Sonata for Clarinet and Piano Composed: 1962 Duration: 14 minutes

As mentioned above, in his last years Poulenc decided to write a cycle of sonatas for the four major woodwind instruments. First came the Flute Sonata in 1956-57. After that, in 1962, came the present Clarinet Sonata as well as the Oboe Sonata. They were the last works that Poulenc completed before his death in January of the following year.

Poulenc dedicated the Clarinet Sonata to the memory of Arthur Honegger, one of his fellow composers years earlier in Les Six, the group of French composers that rejected the Impressionism in favor at that time, embracing instead insouciance, irreverence, and a touch of sentimentality. As the Oboe and Clarinet Sonatas were published posthumously, though, there has been speculation that the dedications of the two works may have been reversed. The Oboe Sonata was dedicated to the memory of composer Sergei Prokofiev. But Prokofiev's influence seems more evident in the Clarinet Sonata. Benny Goodman, who commissioned the Clarinet Sonata, and Leonard Bernstein gave the work its premiere performance at Carnegie Hall on April 10, 1963.

Unusually, the first movement of this sonata is split into three sections, fast ones framing a slow, melancholic central interlude marked Très calme. The movement opens with an Allegro tristamente – as with the Flute Sonata's Allegro malinconico first movement, this music combines fast tempos, jaunty passages, and a sense of sadness, even drama.

Also marked Très calme, the second movement Romanza is a gentle, wistful song – writing of the work's premiere, New York Times critic Harold C. Schonberg described it as “one of those melting, long-phrased and unabashed sentimental affairs that nobody but Poulenc could carry off.” Described by one clarinetist as “a spirited sprint,” the third movement Allegro con fuoco is playful and rambunctious, with plenty of display from the clarinetist.

Valerie COLEMAN: Portraits of Langston

Composed: 2007 Duration: 16 minutes without narration, 22 minutes with narration

Valerie Coleman played the flute and composed from an early age, earning a double bachelor's in theory/composition and flute performance from Boston University, and a Masters in flute performance from Mannes College of Music. While a student, Coleman founded the well-known quintet Imani Winds. Their twenty year legacy was documented in an exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. In 2020, Coleman was named Performance Today's Classical Woman of the Year, and was listed as “one of the Top 35 Women Composers” in the Washington Post. Along with composer-harpist Hannah Lash and composerviolist Nokuthula Ngwenyama, she co-founded and performs as flutist of the performer-composer trio Umama Womama. She also teaches in the Composition Department at The Juilliard School.

Portraits of Langston is a six-movement suite based on the poems of Langston Hughes, with an optional narrator reading Hughes's poetry. As Coleman has written, “The imagery that Hughes provides gives me quite a historical palette … Stylistically, this work incorporates many different elements that are translated into [music]: the stride piano technique, big band swing, cabaret music, Mambo, African drumming, and even traditional spirituals.”

“Prelude: Helen Keller” begins with the clarinet's gradual emergence, echoed by the flute. The two instruments continue to work in tandem as the music gains momentum – as Helen Keller herself does in Hughes's poem, as she “Found light / Brighter than many ever see.”

Rhythmic power is at the heart of the second movement, “Danse Africaine.” One practically hears Hughes's “night-veiled girl” who “Whirls softly into a / Circle of light.” Layers of complex rhythms build in the three instruments, calling to mind the polyrhythms of African drumming. Ultimately the energy calms with final sustained notes from the instruments.

Coleman describes the setting of the third movement, “Le Grand Duc Mambo,” as “a jazz cabaret club in the red-light district of Montmartre where Langston Hughes worked as a busboy for 25 cents a night.” The flute and clarinet take turns between accompaniment and melody, one playing a repeating ostinato, the other rhapsodizing freely, almost in the manner of an improvisation.

The poem by Langston Hughes that inspired the fourth movement, “In Time of Silver Rain,” was written to inspire his friend Lorraine Hansberry as she struggled with cancer. The music begins calmly, hymn-like, with the piano's stately chords accompanying melodic flights from the flute and clarinet. The confidence of the closing moments echo the “time of silver rain,” that the poem invokes, “When spring / And life / Are new.”

Biography

The jazzy sounds of Paris nightclubs come to the fore in the fifth movement, “Parisian Cabaret.” Playing, as Coleman describes it “with a brisk stride piano feel,” the syncopated piano line is joined by the clarinet and, surprisingly, piccolo. Their playful exchanges move briefly into a more song-like interlude before the raucous riffs of the closing moments – as Hughes's poem says, “Play that thing, jazz band!”

The final movement, “Harlem’s Summer Night,” describes the “aching emptiness” of Hughes's poem “Summer Night,” with a poignant flute line over quiet piano chords. Soon the textures become more full, as each of the instruments sings out. Restlessness moves to a tentative, hopeful calm, as Hughes puts it, “Until the new dawn, / Wan and pale, / Descends like a white mist / Into the court-yard.”

The McGill/McHale Trio was founded in September 2014 when clarinetist Anthony McGill and his brother, flutist Demarre McGill, were featured artists in a residency at Bowling Green University in Ohio. While there, pianist Michael McHale joined them in concert for the first time, and it was immediately clear that the Trio would have a great future making music together.

Considered one of the classical music world’s finest solo, chamber, and orchestra musicians, Anthony McGill was named Principal Clarinet of the New York Philharmonic in September 2014, having previously been Principal Clarinet of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Associate Principal with the Cincinnati Symphony. A graduate of Curtis, the Chicago native gained international recognition in January of 2009 when he performed with Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, and Gabriela Montero at the inauguration of President Barack Obama. He has received an Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Sphinx Medal of Excellence, and the John Jay Justice Award and serves on the faculties of Curtis, Juilliard, Peabody, Manhattan School of Music, and Bard. Demarre McGill has served as principal flute of the Seattle, Dallas, and San

Diego symphony orchestras, as well as acting principal of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. A graduate of Curtis and Juilliard, he is a winner of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. In addition to numerous education activities, he is co-founder and Artistic Director of the Art of Elan and a founding member of the Myriad Trio. The many chamber music festivals in which he has participated include Marlboro, Santa Fe, Seattle, and South Africa’s Stellenbosch Chamber Music Festival.

Pianist Michael McHale was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and now resides in London, England. Following studies at the University of Cambridge and Royal Academy of Music, Michael has gone on to become one of Ireland’s leading concert pianists. He has performed with many major ensembles including the Minnesota and Hallé Orchestras; the City of London Sinfonia; and the Moscow, Bournemouth, and Jacksonville Symphonies. In addition to solo recitals and festival appearances, he collaborates with Sir James Galway, Michael Collins, Barry Douglas, Dame Felicity Lott, and Camerata Pacifica, among others.

Program notes by Chris Morrison

Duello d’Archi a Venezia

February 6, 2026 • Unity Temple

Venice Baroque Orchestra

Andrea Marcon, conductor • Chouchane Siranossian, violin

Antonio VIVALDI (1678-1741)

Concerto for Violin, Strings and Basso Continuo in E minor, RV 277 “Il Favorito” Allegro — Andante — Allegro

Francesco Maria VERACINI (1690-1768)

Sonata in G minor for Violin and Basso Continuo, Op. 1 no. 1 Overtura. Largo — Allegro — Adagio Aria. Affettuoso — Paesana. Allegro Minuet. Allegro — Giga. Allegro

Giuseppe TARTINI (1692-1770)

Concerto for Violin, Strings and Basso Continuo in A major, D 96 Allegro — Largo andante — Presto

Pietro Antonio LOCATELLI (1695-1764)

Concerto for Violin, Strings and Basso Continuo in C minor, Op. 3 no. 2 Andante — Largo — Andante

Antonio VIVALDI (1678-1741)

Concerto for Strings in G minor, RV 157 Allegro — Largo — Allegro

Concerto for Violin, Strings and Basso Continuo in D major, RV 207 “Il Grosso Mogul” Allegro — Recitative: Grave — Allegro - intermission -

Friends of Chamber Music is grateful for the generous support of our Supporting Sponsor Alietia Caughron,

In this program we have created an imaginary ‘battle of the bows’ between Vivaldi, Veracini, Tartini and Locatelli, the ‘four musketeers’ of the violin in Venice during the first half of the 18th century.

Arcangelo Corelli passed the torch on to his heirs and died in Rome in 1713. Venice then became the setting for merciless rivalries that developed into sarcastic exchanges and bitter criticism. The violin became an instrument of confrontation, an ideal weapon for demonstrating virtuosity and technical prowess. The player’s ultimate goal was to astonish and shock the listener and to demonstrate his own bravura, to the point that certain narcissistic tendencies of the player were often exaggerated. Cadenzas and caprices were the ideal way to fully express a flamboyant style.

Vivaldi became the first to compose dizzying solos for the instrument and was closely followed in this by Locatelli, who included extremely virtuosic caprices in all his concertos. These in turn served as the inspiration for Paganini’s own renowned caprices.

Tartini, who was respected by his contemporaries and admired above all for his expressive and emotional style, wrote few caprices for his concertos. Veracini was also a great rival of Tartini; he left plenty of room for the violinist’s imaginative powers in his concerto with the annotation « A Capriccio del primo Violino ».

Vivaldi, Locatelli, Tartini and Veracini left us an enduring legacy, their conflicts notwithstanding. The great cadenzas that later appeared in Classical and Romantic violin concertos undoubtedly have their roots in this tradition of rivalry and intense competition between virtuosi.

Chouchane Siranossian and Andrea Marcon

"A RITE OF VIRTUOSITY" BY OLIVIER FOURES

Virtuosity has always been an essential element of art: in a field where we seek to awaken what cannot be expressed in words, technical challenges — with all the exploration, creativity and risk they imply — force us to be on the lookout, to trust our instincts, and to reconnect with our original sensory natures.

We may also say, musically speaking, that Venice and the violin created the archetype of the “modern” virtuoso. We know how much the violin, from its appearance at the end of the 16th century, provoked much movement, blazing glances, frenzy, and other impassioned attitudes in its players; the virtuoso and his virtuosity developed such strong identities thanks to Vivaldi’s Venetian violin concertos at the beginning of the 18th century that they changed the course of Western music. “But the most popular composer for the violin, as well as player on that instrument, during these times, was Don Antonio Vivaldi [...]. If acute and rapid tones are evils, Vivaldi has much of the sin to answer for” (Burney).

His concertos certainly owe a large part of their success to the relationship between an individual and a group. The soloist needed to justify his position and therefore developed a completely new instrumental technique and manner of interpretation. We find all the ingredients of violin technique in Vivaldi’s works, from non-arpeggiated tenths, fingers to within a hair’s breadth from the bridge, to left hand pizzicato, and not forgetting the wealth of articulations, ornaments and sound effects — these last including the stamping of a foot on the floor.

Some of his concertos take the emancipation of the soloist to great heights; the virtuoso assumes a heroic aspect, as in the famous Grosso Mogul RV 208 (c.1710), with its improvisatory passages for solo violin, the power of its sound, its contrasts, spatial effects and its fevered recitative. Vivaldi replaced these particular passages when he published this concerto, as he knew that their musical effect depended on the performer above all else. “Vivaldi played an admirable solo accompagnement, towards the end of which he added a Fantasia that quite startled me, for it is scarcely possible that someone could ever have played or would play like that [...] he astonished everyone with it, but I cannot say that it charmed me as it was more artfully done than it was pleasing to hear” (Uffenbach).

We should remember that this type of bravura concerto was intended to gain “il Viva da tutti” and was originally composed to be performed during major religious festivals in church. It was only later that Vivaldi would give a theatrical and secular twist to this ‘sacred’ genre.

The concertos of Veracini, Locatelli and Tartini, the other three iconic Italian violinists of the early 18th century, were derived from the Vivaldian model, incorporating fantasias (also called caprices or cadenzas) for solo violin that would form the basis of what remain some of the most spectacular technical challenges to this day. This is a form in which the virtuoso simply seeks to make the listener forget all other virtuosos, either living or dead.

Tartini was, with some one hundred and thirty concertos for violin, the most prolific composer of the genre after Vivaldi. Enthralled by Veracini in Venice, he also appreciated Vivaldi’s playing but reproached him for having given himself over to the theatre, “as he knew full well that a throat is not the neck of a violin”. This distinction characterises his own concertos perfectly: here the solo begins with a caccia in F major, although the musical discourse quickly moves away from such descriptive writing with long and richly ornamented lines. Vivaldi’s virtuosity is primarily theatrical in effect: “il prete rosso” evokes a difficulty more than he confronts it, being a conjuror who knows that imagination goes further than anything else; he gives the impression that limits can disappear and takes interpretative risks because he knows that can always find a way out. Tartini, however, identifies technical difficulties and seeks to resolve them by considering every facet. Virtuosity always has a quality of intimacy, given that the performer faces perilous situations alone; Tartini uses this interiorisation as the basis of his expression, as can be heard in the highly individual lyricism of his slow movements.

Locatelli’s Arte del violino op.3 was composed in Venice and published in Amsterdam in 1733: it contains twelve concertos for violin in which he systematised the introduction of caprices into the allegros. It is a monument not only to ultimate violin technique, but also, through the finesse of its ritornelli and accompaniments, to the form of the solo concerto itself. Whilst his writing is generally Vivaldian in style, he focuses, as did Tartini, on the mechanical limits of playing, although with an ample gesture and impetus that projects a completely different theatricality. His concerto in C minor, with its cantabile lines in the instrument's upper register, wonderfully highlights the lyrical potential contained within its virtuoso writing.

Virtuosity is the fruit of long labour and can have an almost sacrificial quality. Whether provocative, intimate, theatrical or masterful, it appears in a multitude of ways: every performer lives with their own limitations and sets their own challenges. The virtuoso effect to which virtuosity aspires and which opens up the sacred realm of the incomprehensible is, however, unique. It appears when action is no longer controlled by reason, when trust in one’s instincts is established, and when an individual and a group, as in a concerto, become as one.

Notes by Andrea Marcon and Olivier Fourés.

Biographies

Andrea Marcon is an acclaimed conductor, organist, and harpsichordist, internationally recognized for his interpretations of Baroque, Classical, and early Romantic music. Born in Treviso, he studied at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis with Jean-Claude Zehnder and Hans Martin Linde, earning top prizes in organ (Innsbruck, 1986) and harpsichord (Bologna, 1991). He also studied with Ton Koopman, Harald Vogel, and others.

In 1997, Marcon founded the Venice Baroque Orchestra, now a world-renowned ensemble. Since 2009, he has also directed La Cetra Barockorchester Basel and was appointed artistic director of the Orquesta Ciudad de Granada in 2013. He has led productions at major venues including Frankfurt Opera, Aix-enProvence Festival, Berlin Philharmonic, Mozarteum Salzburg, and Concertgebouw Amsterdam. Highlights include appearances with the Munich Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, and a celebrated return to the Bolshoi Theatre for Alcina, awarded Best Russian Baroque Opera Production. His operatic and concert repertoire spans Vivaldi, Monteverdi, Cavalli, Handel, Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler, and early Rossini. Marcon has recorded over 50 albums for labels including Sony Classical, Deutsche Grammophon, and Erato/Warner, earning numerous accolades: Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik, Diapason d’Or, Echo Klassik, and two Grammy nominations.

Marcon collaborates regularly with artists such as Magdalena Kožená, Philippe Jaroussky, Patricia Petibon, and Giuliano Carmignola. He is Professor of Harpsichord and Organ at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and resides in Basel and Treviso.

Chouchane Siranossian is one of today’s leading Baroque violinists, celebrated for her artistry, deep musical insight, and bold individuality. Equally at home on Baroque and modern violin, she appears regularly as a soloist and chamber musician with top international orchestras and conductors. In the 2024/25 season, she returns to the Chopin and His Europe Festival in Warsaw, tours the U.S. and South America with the Venice Baroque Orchestra, and debuts with the BR Symphony Orchestra under Andrea Marcon. She also performs with the Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa, Dortmunder Philharmoniker, and Orquestra de Valencia, alongside chamber appearances in Geneva, Santander, and Lithuania. Siranossian’s previous highlights include residencies at the Leipzig Bach Festival and the Bodenseefestival, with performances alongside the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and Bruckner Orchester Linz. She has played in major venues like Wigmore Hall, KKL Luzern, Philharmonie Köln, and Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, and at renowned festivals including Dresdner Musikfestspiele, Rheingau Musik Festival, and Heidelberger Frühling. After initial studies with Tibor Varga and Pavel Vernikov, she trained with Zakhar Bron in Zurich and later with Reinhard Goebel in Salzburg, igniting her passion for early music. She collaborates with composers such as Daniel Schnyder and Éric Tanguy, and with artists including Leonardo García Alarcón, Christophe Rousset, and Jos van Immerseel. An exclusive Alpha Classics artist, Siranossian’s award-winning discography includes Duello d’archi a Venezia, Bach before Bach, and Tartini Concertos. She plays on a Baroque Gagliano violin and a Guadagnini violin, courtesy of luthier Fabrice Girardin.

Founded in 1997 by acclaimed Baroque scholar and harpsichordist Andrea Marcon, the Venice Baroque Orchestra (VBO) is recognized as one of the premier ensembles devoted to period instrument performance. Celebrated for its vibrant sound and stylistic authenticity, the ensemble has earned international acclaim through performances across North America, Europe, South America and Asia.

Under Marcon’s direction, the Orchestra is deeply committed to the rediscovery of 17th- and 18th-century masterpieces. Among its landmark achievements are the modern-day premieres of Francesco Cavalli’s L’Orione, Vivaldi’s Atenaide and Andromeda liberata, Benedetto Marcello’s La morte d’Adone and Il trionfo della poesia e della musica, and Luigi Boccherini’s La Clementina. In collaboration with Teatro La Fenice in Venice, the VBO has staged acclaimed productions of Cimarosa’s L’Olimpiade, Handel’s Siroe, and Galuppi’s L’Olimpiade. Siroe later received its first full U.S. staging at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

The Orchestra has appeared at major international festivals and venues, including the Dresden Music Festival, the Istanbul Festival, and the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. In 2010, in a bold departure from traditional repertoire, the VBO premiered Philip Glass’s violin concerto The American Four Seasons with violinist Robert McDuffie during a 28-city North American tour—an extraordinary project for a Baroque ensemble.

The VBO has toured extensively with world-renowned artists such as countertenor Philippe Jaroussky, contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux, mezzosoprano Magdalena Kožená, soprano Karina Gauvin and mandolinist Avi Avital.

Its long-standing collaboration with Avital includes tours across Europe, North America, Asia, and Mexico, as well as the acclaimed 2015 Deutsche Grammophon recording Vivaldi, featuring concertos transcribed for mandolin and orchestra. The Orchestra also performs regularly with soprano Núria Rial, with whom it explores sacred and secular Baroque repertoire by composers such as Vivaldi, Handel, and Porpora. Their performances have been widely praised for expressive refinement and stylistic clarity.

The ensemble has been featured in numerous international television broadcasts and documentaries, including productions by the BBC, ARTE, NHK Japan, NTR Netherlands, and Swiss TV’s film Vivaldi in Venice by Richard Dindo. It is also the subject of several recent video recordings.

The Orchestra’s rich discography includes recordings for Sony and Deutsche Grammophon. Highlights include Andromeda liberata in its world premiere recording; Vivaldi violin concertos with Giuliano Carmignola; Vivaldi arias and motets with Simone Kermes; Handel and Vivaldi arias with Magdalena Kožená; Italian arias with Patricia Petibon; The Four Seasons and previously unrecorded Vivaldi concertos with Carmignola; and Bach arias with Angelika Kirchschlager. The 2012 release L’Olimpiade on Naïve, a pasticcio based on Metastasio’s libretto, includes world premiere recordings of many 18thcentury opera arias and was awarded Choc du Monde de la Musique. In the same period, the album Porpora Arias with Philippe Jaroussky on Erato received a Grammy nomination.

In 2020, the Orchestra recorded Tartini: Violin Concertos featuring Chouchane Siranossian as soloist, under the baton of Andrea Marcon. The album received outstanding reviews and multiple international awards, including the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, Choc Classica 2020, ICMA 2021 (Baroque Instrumental category), and the Premio della Critica Discografica Franco Abbiati – III Edizione – 2021

Most recently, in 2023, the VBO released Duello d’archi a Venezia, again with Chouchane Siranossian as the sole violin soloist, conducted by Andrea Marcon. This vibrant recording features works by Vivaldi, Tartini, and Locatelli, and captures the electrifying virtuosity and expressive contrasts that characterize the golden age of the Venetian Baroque. The album was praised for its brilliant execution, historical insight, and Siranossian’s commanding performance.

In the same year, the Orchestra’s global profile was further underscored by their invitation to perform at the 51st Festival Internacional Cervantino, the most important cultural festival in Mexico and South America. Additionally, in autumn 2024, VBO completed a highly successful tour across several major cities in the United States, further solidifying its place as one of the most prestigious Baroque ensembles worldwide.

The Venice Baroque Orchestra has performed in more cities across the United States than any other Baroque ensemble in history and maintains one of the most active touring schedules in Asia. VBO’s work has been honored with numerous awards, including the Diapason d’Or, the German Echo, and the Edison Award, confirming its position at the forefront of historically informed performance worldwide.

Piano Trio Jubilee

March 6, 2026 • The Folly Theater

Wu Han, piano • Daniel Hope, violin • David Finckel, cello

Joseph HAYDN (1732-1809)

Piano Trio in A major, Hob. XV:18 (1793)

Allegro moderato

Andante

Allegro

Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)

Piano Trio in E-flat major, Op. 1 no. 1 (1793-94)

Allegro

Adagio cantabile

Scherzo: Allegro assai

Finale: Presto

Antonín DVOŘÁK (1841-1904)

Piano Trio in E minor, Op. 90 “Dumky” (1890-91)

Lento maestoso — Allegro quasi doppio movimento

Poco adagio — Vivace non troppo — Vivace

Andante — Vivace non troppo — Allegretto

Andante moderato — Allegretto scherzando — Quasi tempo di marcia

Allegro

Lento maestoso - intermission -

The International Chamber Music Series is made possible by the generous support of the William T. Kemper Foundation.

Friends of Chamber Music is grateful for the generous support of our Supporting Sponsors Benny and Edith Lee and Cindy and Jay Longbottom.

This “Piano Trio Jubilee” celebrates the piano trio, the combination of piano, violin, and cello that has attracted composers for over 250 years. Evolving out of the chamber music of the Baroque era, the piano trio initially came to form in the works of Franz Joseph Haydn. With the emergence of Ludwig van Beethoven, the piano trio became even more of a vehicle for personal expression. And by the time of the Romantic era and the later nineteenth century, composers like Antonin Dvořák found an even more diverse expressive world available in this combination of just three instruments.

Franz Joseph HAYDN:

Piano Trio no. 32 in A major, Hob. XV:18 Composed: 1793 Duration: 15 minutes

Franz Joseph Haydn is today thought of as the father of both the symphony and the string quartet. But he also can be regarded as the father of the piano trio, producing some forty-five such works mostly in the 1760s and 1780s. The earlier trios are for the most part relatively minor works. They're dominated by the piano, with the violin occasionally taking the melody line, and the cello relegated largely to an accompaniment role. But by the 1780s, Haydn has reached his maturity as a composer, and the trios of those years are much more substantial, with the violin and cello raised in prominence (although the three instruments don't truly become equal partners until the works of Beethoven, including the trio heard in this program). Even with that relative imbalance in the instrumental roles, Haydn's trios, particularly the later ones, are appreciated as being among his greatest works. In his famous book The Classical Style, pianist and author Charles Rosen referred to them as “along with the Mozart concertos the most brilliant piano works before Beethoven.”

Along with the twelve so-called “London” Symphonies that Haydn wrote for his trips to London in 1791-2 and 1794-5, he composed quite a number of other works during that period, including over a dozen piano trios. Many of the earlier trios were comparatively unambitious, designed for the many amateur musicians who enjoyed making music at home. The later trios from London, however, are both longer and more sophisticated, and while amateur musicians still bought them avidly, the many professional musicians in London also took delight in them.

The present Trio in A major was one of a set of trios published in London in 1794, although perhaps composed the previous year. The set was dedicated to Princess Marie Therese Esterházy, the widow of Prince Anton Esterházy. Ironically, it was Prince Anton who had disbanded the musical establishment of the Esterházy court, for which Haydn had worked for some thirty years, in 1790. This newfound freedom allowed Haydn the time and opportunity to travel to London and solidify his fame.

The Allegro moderato that opens the Trio in A major begins with three strong introductory chords. The movement as a whole, though is relaxed and genial, including the “cantabile” first melody. Noteworthy too is how effortlessly Haydn moves through a number of different keys in the central development section.

Haydn moves into the minor, A minor specifically, in the outer

sections of the second movement Andante, which is in ABA form and features a steady 6/8 meter. For the lyrical central interlude, Haydn moves back into A major. The third movement Allegro follows the second movement without pause. Syncopated rhythms abound, along with lively grace notes and the sort of Hungarian folk feeling that emerges in many Haydn works.

Ludwig van BEETHOVEN:

Piano Trio in E-flat major, Op. 1 no. 1

Composed: 1793-94 Duration: 30 minutes

Although he had already written quite a lot of music and made a formidable reputation for himself as a pianist, for his first official published works – the three Trios, Op. 1, dedicated to his friend and supporter Prince Karl von Lichnowsky – Beethoven wanted to make an especially strong impression. While compositions for piano trio before Beethoven’s, including those by Franz Joseph Haydn (see above), had tended to emphasize the piano over the other two instruments, in the Op. 1 Trios the three instruments are starting to become equals. Beethoven also adds to the stature of his works by increasing the number of movements to four, from Haydn's three. Beethoven may well have started on these trios while still living in Bonn. But they were completed and revised after he had moved to Vienna at the end of 1792.

Prince Lichnowsky arranged for the first performances of the three trios at his home. Franz Joseph Haydn was apparently one of the distinguished guests on that occasion. Years later, Beethoven's student Ferdinand Ries reported that “Most of the artists and music-lovers were invited, especially Haydn, for whose opinion all were eager. The trios were played and at once commanded extraordinary attention.” Ries also suggested that some bad blood developed between Beethoven and Haydn because the latter had criticized one of the works in the set, Op. 1 No. 3. But in fact, Haydn expressed his admiration for all three works, simply suggesting that Op. 1 No. 3 might prove too complex for Vienna’s music-loving public.

Prince Lichnowsky also organized and largely financed the 1795 publication of the works. Some even say that he was responsible for their designation as Op. 1 – he might have wanted the prestige of having his name associated with works with such a symbolic number. Beethoven himself also put up some of the funds for the publication. When the trios proved to be a considerable success with the Viennese audience, the publication wound up earning him over 700 guilders, apparently enough to secure his living for an entire year.

Beethoven's ambitions for these works is evident in the lively first movement of Op. 1 No. 1, which, after a triad rising as an arpeggio over two octaves, is largely based on elements of the theme heard right at the beginning. The violin takes over for the more song-like second theme. But the first theme becomes the focus of the movement's central development section.

In the lovely second movement, the lyrical opening theme is introduced by the piano, then taken up by the violin. Then comes a duet for the violin and cello. The main melodies here are heard in their simplest forms, briefly developed in

contrasting episodes, then embellished and decorated in their restatement. In something of a fusion of sonata-allegro and rondo forms, this movement also provides a good example of how Beethoven raised the cello to a role of increased prominence.

Already here, Beethoven has transformed the third movement from the traditional stately Minuet into a more rambunctious Scherzo, with a strong dance rhythm and hints of bagpipe drones. The first theme of the final movement is divided between violin and piano. It and the second theme, with its falling runs, become the basis of a development section that moves through various keys before a return to the themes’ original forms. Spirits are high in this closing movement, and one minor key interlude hints at the Hungarian music that turns up so often in the works of Haydn (including this concert's Trio in A major), Brahms, and Beethoven himself.

Antonin DVOŘÁK:

Piano Trio no. 4 in E minor, Op. 90 “Dumky”

Composed: 1890-91 Duration: 32 minutes

Written over the course of four months, from November 1890 to February 1891, Dvořák's “Dumky” Trio – the last of his four piano trios – was given its premiere in Prague on April 11, 1891 with violinist Ferdinand Lachner, cellist Hanus Wihan (one of Dvořák's favorite musicians, for whom he later wrote the Cello Concerto), and Dvořák at the piano. The work proved so popular that Dvořák took it on a forty-concert tour throughout Bohemia, right before his 1892 departure for America to take up the directorship of the National Conservatory of Music in New York City.

By this time, traditional folk music had taken on a much greater role in the composing of new classical works, evolving from an occasionally used color (in the works of Haydn, for instance) to a prominent element, and source of cultural pride, in music by Frédéric Chopin, Franz Liszt, Edvard Grieg, and so many others. In what was then called Bohemia but is today known as the Czech Republic, Bedřich Smetana was probably the first composer to try to write music based on Czech themes, dance forms, and rhythms. But Dvořák was not far behind, becoming one of the composers who embraced this concept most enthusiastically in operas, symphonic works, piano pieces, songs, and chamber works like the present Trio. In fact, once Dvořák's music had started to make its way out into the world through the support of people like composer Johannes Brahms and critic Eduard Hanslick, it was folklore-based works like the

vocal Moravian Duets, the three Slavonic Rhapsodies, and the first set of Slavonic Dances, Op. 46 that won Dvořák his first fame.

The word dumky is the plural of dumka, which in turn is the diminutive form of duma. All these terms entered the Slavic languages from Ukrainian. Literally meaning a fleeting thought or daydream, they came to refer to a Ukrainian epic poem or ballad, typically a lament. Composers like Dvořák used these terms to designate pieces that contrast slow, introspective music with livelier Slavonic dance sections. Dvořák employed the dumka form in other compositions, notably the String Sextet, Op. 48 and the Piano Quintet, Op. 81.

Five of the six movements of the “Dumky” Trio follow this form (most make the alternation between slow and fast music twice). The first three Dumky are linked and related by key, and could almost be thought of as a single entity, the first movement of a traditional four movement work. Then the fourth Dumka could be considered the slow movement, the fifth (which has no slow section) as a scherzo, and the sixth as the energetic finale. Notably, though, in this work Dvořák abandons a central key signature (each of the six Dumka is in a different key) as well as traditional formal structures like sonata-allegro, rondo, or theme-and-variations.

The first movement begins with a sad song from the cello, which is then taken up by the violin; this music returns after the movement turns to its cheerful dance music based on a variant of the cello song. The cello again takes the lead in the slower, meditative music of the second movement, which eventually gives way to an increasingly energetic dance. For the third movement, the key switches to the major for the slow introduction, then moving to the minor when the tempo speeds. The cello is heard in a solo cadenza here.

The elegiac music of the fourth movement – described in the score as “at a moderate walking pace, sort of like a march” – is based on another variation on the cello song from the first movement. The fifth movement is a rhythmically active whirlwind that drops the slower music, and the sixth contrasts its slow music, marked Lento maestoso, with some of the most vigorous dance music in the work. A final reference back to the first movement is heard before the lively coda.

Program notes by Chris Morrison

Biographies

Pianist Wu Han, named Musical America’s Musician of the Year, is recognized as one of today’s most influential classical artists. Her multifaceted career spans performance, recording, education, and artistic leadership at the highest level. She appears regularly at major venues worldwide, including Lincoln Center, and has performed concertos with leading orchestras such as the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Atlanta Symphony.

Wu Han is Co-Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Music@Menlo, and Artistic Director of La Musica in Sarasota. She also serves as Artistic Advisor for Wolf Trap’s Chamber Music at the Barns and the Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach. A passionate educator, she directs CMS’s Bowers Program and the Chamber Music Institute at Music@Menlo, mentoring outstanding young musicians.

A pioneer in artist-led recording, she co-founded ArtistLed, the first musician-directed, internet-based classical label. Her discography of over 80 recordings includes core chamber works and collaborations with renowned artists, most recently Winterreise with baritone Nikolay Borchev.

During the pandemic, she produced over 270 digital events, sustaining chamber music audiences nationwide. She has also taught at Isaac Stern’s Chamber Music Encounters in Israel, New York, and Japan. Her mentors include Lilian Kallir, Rudolf Serkin, and Menahem Pressler.

Wu Han is a recipient of the Andrew Wolf Award. She has been married to cellist David Finckel since 1985, with whom she frequently performs. They divide their time between New York City and Westchester County.

British violinist Daniel Hope has enjoyed a distinguished international career for over 35 years, performing as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral director. Known for his musical versatility and humanitarian spirit, he has received numerous honors, including Germany’s Order of Merit and the European Culture Prize. Hope directs both the Zurich Chamber Orchestra and San Francisco’s New Century Chamber Orchestra, and in 2025 becomes Intendant & Artistic Director of Switzerland’s Gstaad Menuhin Festival.

A Deutsche Grammophon artist since 2007, Hope has released more than 30 acclaimed albums. His wide-ranging discography includes Vivaldi Recomposed by Max Richter, Escape to Paradise, Journey to Mozart, and the recent America and Music for Ukraine. He is a passionate advocate for contemporary music, having premiered or commissioned over 30 works by composers such as Tan Dun, Penderecki, and Sofia Gubaidulina.

Hope first rose to prominence as the youngest member of the Beaux Arts Trio and has since performed with leading orchestras and conductors worldwide. He has served in artistic leadership roles at the Savannah Music Festival, Dresden’s Frauenkirche, and Beethoven-Haus Bonn.

Also an author, broadcaster, and documentary producer, Hope created the award-winning TV series Hope@Home during the pandemic, reaching millions globally. He is host of Germany’s Hope@9pm and contributes regularly to international media.

A student of Zakhar Bron and Yehudi Menuhin, Hope plays the 1742 “exLipinski” Guarneri del Gesù and lives with his family in Switzerland.

Cellist David Finckel enjoys a multifaceted international career as a recitalist, chamber musician, orchestral soloist, recording artist, educator, and arts leader. The first American student of Mstislav Rostropovich, he won both junior and senior divisions of the Philadelphia Orchestra competition, leading to two concerto appearances.

In 1979, he joined the Emerson String Quartet, performing worldwide for 34 seasons and earning nine Grammy Awards and the Avery Fisher Prize. His quartet discography includes complete cycles of Beethoven, Shostakovich, and other major composers.

Finckel and pianist Wu Han, his wife and frequent duo partner, co-founded ArtistLed, classical music’s first artist-directed, internet-based label. Its 20+ releases feature cello-piano staples and works written for them by leading composers including Augusta Read Thomas, Pierre Jalbert, and Gabriela Lena Frank. His concerto recordings include the Dvořák and Harbison concertos.

As Artistic Co-Director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and co-founder of Music@Menlo, he is a key figure in American chamber music. He oversees the Bowers Program for emerging artists and the Chamber Music Institute at Music@Menlo. A committed educator, he teaches at The Juilliard School and Stony Brook University, and was a longtime teaching colleague of Isaac Stern. Dedicated to mentoring and accessibility, he developed online resources for musicians and arts presenters at davidfinckelandwuhan.com/resource, and his acclaimed video series Cello Talks offers over 100 free lessons to a global audience. In 2012, Finckel and Wu Han were named Musical America’s Musicians of the Year.

Art of the Piano

April 14, 2026 • The Folly Theater

Alexandre Kantorow

Franz LISZT (1811-1886)

Variations on a Motive from the Cantata ‘Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen’ and ‘Crucifixus’ from Mass in B minor by J. S. Bach (1862)

Nikolai MEDTNER (1880-1951)

Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 5 (1901-3)

Allegro

Intermezzo: Allegro

Largo

Finale: Allegro risoluto

Frédéric CHOPIN (1810-1849)

Prelude in C-sharp minor, Op. 45 (1841)

Alexander SCRIABIN (1872-1915)

Piano Sonata No. 10, Op. 70 (1913)

Moderato — Allegro

Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)

Piano Sonata in C minor, Op. 111 (1821-22)

Maestoso — Allegro con brio ed appassionato

Arietta: Adagio molto semplice e cantabile - intermission -

The Art of the Piano Series is made possible by the generous support of the Muriel McBrien Kauffman Family Foundation.

The Friends of Chamber Music is grateful for the generous support of our Golden Jubilee Sponsor Sanders and Blanche Sosland Music Fund.

Franz LISZT: Variations on a Motive by J. S. Bach

Composed: 1862 Duration: 18 minutes

In 1848, Liszt was given the position of Kapellmeister in the city of Weimar. Liszt was keenly aware of his connection there with Johann Sebastian Bach, who had also held a position in the city a century and a half before. Liszt had played Bach's keyboard works from his youth, and wrote several of his own works based on motives from Bach's music.

In 1859, Liszt composed a short prelude for solo piano based on a bass line from Bach's Cantata No. 12, Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen (Weeping, lamenting, worrying, fearing) and a similar theme from the Crucifixus of Bach's great Mass in B minor. The text that opens the cantata begins “Tears, complaints, care, fear, anguish, and stress are the bitter bread of Christians,” and these words hit home for Liszt when, in 1862, his daughter Blandine, just twenty-six years old, died due to complications associated with childbirth. This was only three years after his son Daniel had also passed away at twenty.

After Blandine's death, Liszt, having moved to a monastery just outside of Rome, took that piano prelude and expanded it into an extended lament in something like the form of a passacaglia, in which a bass line repeats, over which melodies and harmonies constantly change. “Written after Liszt joined the Third Order of Saint Francis and during a time of deep personal tragedy,” as one commentator has put it, the Variations on Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen “reflects both Liszt’s religious journey and his coping with suffering and shows daring explorations of chromaticism that pushed the limits of tonality.”

The theme is presented in a declamatory fashion at the start of the work. The variations range from peaceful and consoling to dramatic, even fierce. The chromatic nature of the Bach theme allows Liszt to explore the more dissonant musical language that became so important in his later music. Some of the variations require considerable technical facility of the pianist, a regular feature of Liszt's music. Near the end of the piece, a new chorale theme, “Was Gott tut, das ist wohl getan” (What God does, is done well), drawn from the final movement of the same Cantata No. 12, is introduced. It powerfully joins forces with the work's central melodic idea, giving Liszt's composition a conclusion not of sorrow, but of hopeful affirmation.

Nikolai MEDTNER: Piano Sonata no. 1 in F minor, Op. 5 Composed: 1901-3 Duration: 32 minutes

Nikolai Medtner is, along with Sergei Rachmaninoff and Alexander Scriabin, one of the most important composers of music for the piano to hail from Russia. Medtner entered the Moscow Conservatory at age eleven, graduating nine years later with the institution’s Gold Medal. Although he was by all accounts a fantastic pianist, Medtner, urged on by his teacher Sergei Taneyev, turned to composition as his main focus. His early works attracted the attention of people like Rachmaninoff, who called Medtner “the greatest composer of our time” and became a lifelong friend. Unsympathetic with the Russian Revolution, Medtner left the country in 1921. While he didn't tour often, Medtner did play concerts in the United

States and Canada in 1924. By 1936, he and his wife Anna had settled in London, where Medtner embraced a regular routine of teaching, performing, and composing. His works include fourteen piano sonatas, three piano concertos, and a host of other sonatas, chamber music, songs, and short piano pieces.

Unlike the three sonatas that followed it, all of which are in a single movement, the Piano Sonata in F minor is a fourmovement work. The ambitious, dramatic first movement unfolds on a large scale. It opens with a questing theme, a sighing single line answered by chords, that builds in power. Turbulent arpeggios give the music a surging, Romantic quality, with brilliant, challenging passages for the pianist. A commentator at the Fugue for Thought website colorfully describes the music this way: “The first movement sounds like if Bach had spent a few decades in Romantic-era Russia, a biting Slavic wind in his face, with the openness and singing church-bell sonority of so much Russian music.”

The following Intermezzo, which derives from a piece Medtner composed in his teens, is the shortest movement of the work, lighter in touch than the first movement, but with a subtle menace. As implied by its tempo marking Largo divoto, much of the slow third movement has a prayer-like quality; one passage is even marked pietoso. It moves through lyrical and more dramatic passages, building to a confident Maestoso climax that subsides to a more questioning tone in the final moments.

The third movement's conclusion moves without pause into the Finale, marked Allegro risoluto. There is in fact a resolute quality to some of the faster music, but also a return to the prayerful tone of the third movement in a second theme marked religioso (recalling an idea from the first movement), as well as passages that are most agitated. A sort of galloping rhythm takes over in spots. All this material is developed, as the pace becomes furious and headlong. After one last passage of questing doubt, the work ends in a major key and a burst of jubilance.

Frédéric CHOPIN: Prélude in C-sharp minor, Op. 45

Composed: 1841 Duration: 5 minutes

Chopin's canonical twenty-four Préludes, Op. 28 were composed over the years 1836 to 1839. They were published in 1839, right after he had returned from a winter trip to the island of Majorca with writer George Sand, with whom he had started a relationship months before. Along with those twenty-four, however, Chopin composed two other lone Préludes, including this Prélude in C-sharp minor composed for Chopin's former publisher Maurice Schlesinger and dedicated to Chopin's student Princess Elisabeth Chernysheva. Marked sostenuto, it opens with descending sixth chords and a melancholy main theme that develops from a flowing figure that rises from the piano's lower register. Perhaps this music reflects that place where Chopin composed it, the tranquil countryside setting of Nohant, France. Dissonance and tension occasionally weave their way into the musical fabric, as Chopin moves through distant keys in an almost improvisatory fashion. The climax features cascading arpeggios that ultimately dissolve into a serene conclusion.

Alexander SCRIABIN: Piano Sonata no. 10, Op. 70

Composed: 1913 Duration: 12 minutes

Alexander Scriabin’s early career parallels that of Sergei Rachmaninoff – they both had piano lessons with the famous teacher Nikolai Zverov, and both attended the Moscow Conservatory. Scriabin also taught there for several years. He won the Conservatory’s Little Gold Medal in piano performance, and soon became an internationally-known virtuoso. His early compositions were heavily influenced by Chopin, in Chopinesque forms like nocturne, étude, and mazurka. But with his visionary and dissonant later works like the Poem of Ecstasy and Prometheus, Scriabin came to believe that his music could have a cosmic, mystical impact.

The Piano Sonata No. 10 was Scriabin's last work in that form. It is sometimes called his “Insect Sonata,” based on a remark he made during a conversation with Leonid Sabaneev: “Insects, butterflies, moths – they are all living flowers. They are the most subtle caresses, almost without touching...They are all born of the sun and the sun nourishes them...This sun-like caress is the closest to me. Take my tenth sonata – it is an entire sonata from insects.”

Scriabin was always attracted to trills, rapid alternations between notes, and here the trills may well evoke the buzzing of insect wings. But he also may have had a more subtle, metaphorical idea in mind, according to musicologist Ross Mitchell: insects “combine many of Scriabin’s favored philosophical, symbolic, and metaphorical strains – ceaseless activity, fluttering, illumination, seduction – into one potent symbol for enabling spiritual enlightenment.”

The Sonata No. 10 is, like the four sonatas that preceded it, in a single movement. The opening of the work features descending thirds in both the soprano and bass. A subsequent theme bounds upward, as the score directs, “with joyous exaltation.” This music is soon overcome by trills that suffuse both of the main melodies. The opening thirds recur, and the music builds in power amid more trills before a final statement of the descending thirds from the opening – “transformed,” as one writer has it, “into a glorious reverberation, as if shimmering with pulses of glowing light and taking on lives of their own.”

Ludwig van BEETHOVEN:

Piano Sonata no. 32 in C minor, Op. 111

Composed: 1821-2 Duration: 28 minutes

By 1819, having emerged from the difficult, distracted previous few years during which he composed almost no music, Beethoven was starting to write the masterpieces of his “late” period. His withdrawal and introspection are reflected in these works, in which one also encounters ambition and scope, intellectual depth, innovations in and extension of traditional forms, an increased interest in contrapuntal textures, and intense, highly personal emotional expression. This is the period of the Ninth Symphony, the Missa solemnis, and the later piano works and string quartets. Listeners have had the privilege of hearing several of those later works in this series,

including the program that pianist Richard Goode played in May 2023 featuring the Piano Sonata No. 30 and the Diabelli Variations

As he was working on his Missa solemnis in 1819, Beethoven conceived the idea of writing a trio of piano sonatas, which became Op. 109, 110, and 111. Late that year, Beethoven was making some initial sketches for what became his final piano sonata, the Op. 111. The work went through many revisions, though, as Beethoven brought it to form, completing it in 1822 and dedicating it to Archduke Rudolf, his friend, pupil, and patron. This Sonata is among Beethoven's last works for piano, with only the Diabelli Variations (1823) and the two collections of Bagatelles, Op. 119 (1822) and Op. 126 (1823) to follow. Perhaps because of the rarefied, spiritual quality of the music, the Sonata No. 32 was slow to catch on, and only became part of the standard piano repertoire in the second half of the nineteenth century.

C minor was always an important key for Beethoven. Even before him, the key implied music that was stormy, intense, and serious-minded. Beethoven only made it more so, in works like the Piano Trio, Op. 1, No. 3 (1793), the “Pathétique” Piano Sonata, Op. 13 (1798), the Piano Concerto No. 3, Op. 37 (1800), the famous Fifth Symphony, Op. 67 (1808), and the present Sonata.

One hears that stormy, dramatic quality in the first movement of Op. 111. The tempo marking, Maestoso – Allegro con brio ed appassionato, could be translated as “Majestic – Fast, with vigor and passion.” The Maestoso comes first, with its hammered dissonances and rumbling bass, a quasi-timpani roll that leads into the main theme. That theme – which Beethoven may have originally intended for a third movement that never came to be – was found in a sketch book dating from 1801 to 1802. Its aggression, even anger, is much in contrast to the calm and elevation of the short second theme, which admittedly plays but a small role in the movement. That calm, though, reestablishes itself in the movement's final moments, with its lyrical melody over rolling arpeggios in the bass.

The first movement's closing C major chord establishes the key of the second movement, an ambitious theme-and-variations that can last as long as twenty minutes in the hands of some pianists. Here, the tempo marking is Adagio molto semplice e cantabile – “slowly, very simple and song-like.” But while the lovely, contemplative, song-like theme is relatively simple, the five variations are not.

Like the theme, the first three variations all consist of two repeated parts (AABB). The basic tempo remains the same, but the rhythmic subdivision of the beat gets smaller, leading to a feeling of increasing momentum. The first variation continues the gentle movement of the main theme, to which an extra note is added. The textures become brighter in the second variation. The third variation, with its odd time signature of 12/32, is something of a dance, with much syncopation. Pianists Mitsuko Uchida and Jeremy Denk are among those that have compared this music to jazz and boogie-woogie.

The fourth variation leaves behind the triplet rhythms of the first three variations, employing a tremolo-like figure embellished with syncopated chords and brilliant passages in the right hand. The music seems to be dissolving, gradually ascending into the atmosphere. The mysterious trills that became such an important expressive device in Beethoven's later works recur here, emerging, as one writer has it, “not from the keyboard but from some mysterious and enchanted source.” (Compare the trills heard here with those of the preceding Scriabin sonata.) After an interlude which moves

through many different keys, the main theme makes a return in a complex coda, with scales and leaps, contrasting with the ascending dominant to tonic progression at the opening of the melody. The late, great pianist Alfred Brendel called this second movement “distilled experience … perhaps nowhere else in piano literature does mystical experience feel so immediately close at hand.”

Program notes by Chris Morrison

Biography

In 2019 Alexandre Kantorow became the first French pianist to win the gold medal at the Tchaikovsky Competition, as well as the Grand Prix, awarded only three times before in the competition’s history. He has been hailed by critics as ‘the reincarnation of Liszt’ (Fanfare), and in September 2023 he became the youngest and first French winner of the Gilmore Artist Award, one of the most prestigious and important American and international music prizes, awarded every four years. Alexandre Kantorow has appeared with some of the world’s greatest conductors.

In recent years these have included Manfred Honeck with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Vasily Petrenko with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the BBC Proms in London, John Eliot Gardiner with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Valery Gergiev with the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra and Iván Fischer with the Budapest Festival Orchestra.

Alexandre Kantorow has performed with many of the world’s leading conductors. In recent years, he has appeared with Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the BBC Proms in London, John Eliot Gardiner and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, as well as Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra. He has also toured internationally with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and Jaap van Zweden, and with the Orchestre National de France and Cristian Măcelaru.

In recital, he performs in some of the world’s most renowned concert halls, such as Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw in its Master Pianists series, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Philharmonie de Paris, Bozar in Brussels, London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall and Wigmore Hall, Tokyo’s Suntory Hall and at the most prestigious festivals including La Roque d’Anthéron, the Ravinia Festival, the Verbier Festival, and the Klavier-Festival Ruhr.

Chamber music is also one of his great passions, which he shares notably with Liya Petrova and Aurélien Pascal. He is co-artistic director alongside them of the Musikfest and the “Rencontres Musicales de Nîmes,” as well as the Pianopolis festival in Angers.

Alexandre Kantorow records exclusively for BIS. His recordings have received the highest critical acclaim worldwide.

In 2024, Alexandre was awarded the title of Chevalier of the National Order of Merit by the French President of the Republic, having already been made a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the Minister of Culture. In July 2024, performing Ravel’s Jeux d’eau, Alexandre appeared at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games.

Alexandre Kantorow studied with Pierre-Alain Volondat, Igor Lazko, Frank Braley, and Rena Shereshevskaya.

Mysteries and Miracles

April 18, 2026 • Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception

The Tallis Scholars

Peter Phillips, director

Amy Haworth, Emma Walshe, sopranos

Caroline Trevor, Elisabeth Paul, altos

Simon Wall, Steven Harrold, tenors

Rob Macdonald, Tim Scott Whiteley, basses

Giovanni GABRIELI (c.1554-1612)

Tomás Luís de VICTORIA (c.1548-1611)

Giaches de WERT (1535-1596)

Tomás Luís de VICTORIA (c.1548-1611)

Giaches de WERT (1535-1596)

Tomás Luís de VICTORIA (c.1548-1611)

Thomas TALLIS (c.1505-1585)

Jacobus GALLUS (1550-1591)

Francisco GUERRERO (1528-1599)

Arvo PÄRT (b.1935)

O magnum mysterium

Missa O magnum mysterium (Kyrie and Gloria)

Egressus Jesus

Missa O magnum mysterium (Credo)

Ascendente Jesu

Missa O magnum mysterium (Sanctus and Agnus) (twice)

Videte miraculum

Mirabile mysterium

Maria Magdalena

Tribute to Caesar

Virgencita

The Friends of Chamber Music is grateful for the generous support of our Supporting Sponsor Patricia Cleary Miller.

“This programme consists entirely of music which was inspired by a miraculous event in the life of Jesus, as set by a host of differing composers. The texts tell their own story. Opening with Gabrieli, we move to Victoria's Missa O magnum mysterium which is based on his motet of the same name, in which Christ's miraculous birth is described, with the animals looking on. In the two De Wert motets interspersed – both madrigalian in style – Egressus Jesus tells the story of Christ curing a girl who is possessed of a demon, while Ascendente Jesu illustrates in music (rather graphically) how Christ calmed the waves of the sea in the midst of a raging storm.

The second half begins with Tallis's Videte miraculum, which is based around the most potent miracle of all, the virgin birth. This theme is taken up in the extraordinary motet Mirabile mysterium by the Slovenian composer Jacob Gallus, who evokes in sound the sense of wonder which might be felt by anyone hearing this story. Guerrero's Maria Magdalena recounts in narrative form the biblical story of the two Marias visiting Christ's tomb to anoint his body and find that he has risen. The moment they discover this, Guerrero's music takes on an extraordinary dimension. The final settings are by the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. His Tribute to Caesar describes how the Pharisees reacted to Christ's teaching. The words 'they marvelled' inspired one of the great turns of phrase in modern music. In Virgencita he hymns the miraculous Virgin of Guadalupe, whose image has recently been found to have survived, like that of the Turin image, imprinted on a shroud.

Giovanni GABRIELI: O magnum mysterium

Composed: 1587 Duration: 4 minutes

Giovanni Gabrieli represents the culmination of the so-called Venetian School of composition. He was largely trained by his uncle Andrea, another prominent Venice musician. In 1584 he became temporary organist at St. Mark's Basilica. Gabrieli wrote most of his music, including some one hundred sacred motets, for the civic and religious ceremonies of state that took place in St. Mark's. He and the music of St. Mark's became famous, and composers from all over Europe came to Venice to study. Gabrieli not only was the first to specify what instruments played what musical line, but also the first to indicate dynamic levels in his scores, as he composed works that took advantage of the interior of St. Mark's, with its facing choir lofts.

The text of O magnum mysterium, which dates from the Middle Ages, draws on imagery associated with the birth of Jesus from several books of the Bible, prominently the Gospel According to Luke, and emphasizes the humble setting of the event. Gabrieli's motet unfolds in eight vocal parts, divided into two choirs. First the phrase “O magnum mysterium” (O great mystery) repeats, culminating in full polyphony. The mystery that “animals should see the newborn Lord, lying in a manger!” is described in flowing polyphony, leading to a concluding “Alleluia.”

Tomás Luis de VICTORIA: Missa O magnum mysterium Composed: 1592 Duration: 22 minutes

Along with with Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and Orlando di Lasso, Tomás Luis de Victoria is recognized as one of the most important composers of the European Counter-Reformation. Victoria was born in the Spanish province of Ávila, Castile, and served in his youth as a choirboy at Ávila Cathedral. Such were his early accomplishments that he traveled to Rome in 1566 on a grant from King Philip II of Spain. Victoria became cantor, and then a teacher, at the German College founded by St. Ignatius Loyola, and by the early 1570s also served as chapelmaster and teacher at the Pontifical Roman Seminary. Palestrina also worked at that Seminary, and Victoria may have studied with him. After Palestrina left, Victoria took his position as the Seminary's maestro of music. In 1574, Victoria was ordained as a priest. After years as Maestro di Capella at San Apollinare and co-chaplain at San Girolamo della Carità, Victoria returned to Spain in 1587. He was named chaplain to the King's sister, the Dowager Empress Maria, at the Monasterio de las Descalzas de St. Clara in Madrid. Victoria remained there for twenty-four years, seventeen as chaplain to the Empress.

Victoria wrote 21 masses and 44 motets along with hymns and other works. His music was recognized for its melodic nature, reliance on homophonic rather than elaborate contrapuntal textures, and directness of expression.

One of Victoria's most-performed works is his serene motet O magnum mysterium, using the same text as Gabrieli. Twenty years after he wrote the motet, Victoria employed several of its major musical ideas, in the manner of the “parody mass” of the Renaissance, in his Missa O magnum mysterium. The Kyrie moves in serene counterpoint, making reference to the memorable opening of the motet. The Gloria is jubilant, and the Credo, the longest section of the mass, features much homophonic texture, with the voices moving alongside one another in harmony.

Victoria returns to the opening phrase of his motet at the beginning of the flowing Sanctus. For the adjoined Benedictus, Victoria thins the texture to just three voices. But then he expands to five lines in the concluding Agnus Dei: the soprano/ treble part divides in two, singing in an imitative canon. Typically, the Agnus Dei is repeated, incorporating into the second rendition the words “dona nobis pacem” (give us peace).

Giaches de WERT: Egressus Jesus

Composed: 1568 Duration: 6 minutes

Giaches de WERT: Ascendente Jesu

Composed: 1581 Duration: 5 minutes

Giaches de Wert was from Flanders, but was taken to Italy as a boy to be a singer in an aristocratic household near Naples. About 1550 he moved to Novellara, where he became a musician for the famous Gonzaga family. For a few years in the early 1560s he served as choirmaster at the main Gonzaga chapel in Milan. In 1565 he was appointed maestro di cappella

to Guglielmo Gonzaga, the duke of Mantua, at the ducal chapel of Santa Barbara, where he served until 1592. Wert and his wife became enmeshed in the complicated politics and romances of the Gonzaga family, and much of Wert's time there was difficult. But he was able to produce several volumes of madrigals as well as sacred works including seven masses and over 125 hymns and motets.

The two pieces by Wert on this program, heard as interludes between movements of Victoria's mass, are rather different in sound. In seven voices, Egressus Jesus tells the story, as told in the Gospel According to Matthew, of Christ curing a girl who is possessed of a demon. The textures are more often than not homophonic and flow naturally, only occasionally breaking into counterpoint.

Dating from almost fifteen years after Egressus Jesus, Ascendente Jesu, in six voices, is much more contrapuntal in texture. Like his contemporaneous madrigals, it features some colorful examples of tone-painting, occasionally introducing passing but noteworthy dissonances in its depiction, again drawn from Matthew, of Jesus calming the waters of a raging storm at sea.

Thomas TALLIS: Videte miraculum Composed: 1575 Duration: 9 minutes

Thomas Tallis was born toward the end of the reign of Henry VII. He may have sung as a young man in Dover and at Canterbury Cathedral. He also was employed at the Chapel Royal, probably starting in 1543, and served as both composer and organist at the court of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I. Unlike his student and assistant William Byrd, Tallis was largely able to steer clear of religious controversy.

Candlemas, also known as the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus Christ, or the Feast of the Holy Encounter, is a Christian feast day observed on or around February 2. Inspired by the presentation of Jesus in the Gospel According to Luke, the feast day is documented as early as the fourth century. Tallis's Videte miraculum, composed for Candlemas, is a six-voice motet, with sections that alternate between the full choir and a soloist or solo group, in the manner of a responsory. Note the imitation of voices, with a hint of dissonance, at the word “miraculum,” or the moments at which the musical line ascends powerfully. Words like “sensuous” and “hypnotic” have been used to describe Tallis's motet, which has also been compared to the music of Arvo Pärt, heard later in this concert.

Jacobus GALLUS: Mirabile mysterium Composed: 1586 Duration: 4 minutes

Gallus, also known as Jacobus or Jacob Handl, was born and raised in Slovenia. In his teens he traveled to Austria, where he lived for a time in a Benedictine monastery, then became a member of the Viennese court chapel. From 1585 until his death he served as organist at the Church of St. John on the

Balustrade in Prague. In his music, Gallus embraced the style of the Counter-Reformation, mixing elements of the FrancoFlemish School and Venetian School. He was quite prolific, with over 500 works to his credit, some of them featuring as many as twenty-four independent parts, true to the Venetian polychoral manner.

Unlike Victoria, who only wrote religious music, Guerrero's compositions encompass both sacred and secular works, including instrumental music for the vihuela (a Spanish version of the lute), nineteen masses, requiems, Passion settings, motets, and songs. The six-voice motet Maria Magdalena, or to give its full title Maria Magdalene et altera Maria (Mary Magdalene and the other Mary), sets a text based on the Gospel According to Mark that describes in some detail their visit to Jesus's tomb. Guerrero employs some striking word-painting here, notably at the mention of Christ's resurrection near the end of the piece.

Arvo PÄRT: Tribute to Caesar

Composed: 1997 Duration: 7 minutes

From nearly 400 years later than the other works on this program, but working in a similar musical space, is one of the most famous composers of the present day, Arvo Pärt. Pärt was born and trained in Estonia. Having grown disillusioned with the modern composing techniques then in favor, from the early 1970s he spent years finding a new way forward. The result was a style called tintinnabuli, from the Latin tintinnabulum or “little bell,” in which the melody line and its harmonies become a single unit, evoking the ringing of bells as well as the vocal music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

Tribute to Caesar was composed for the 350th anniversary of the Karlstad Episcopacy in Sweden. The work presents, in English, a scene from the Gospel According to Matthew in which the Pharisees question Jesus about the tribute. The speech of the Pharisees is sung by all the voices. By contrast, the words of Jesus have been given to the lower voices, in a melodic line that is much more dynamic and wide-ranging.

Arvo PÄRT: Virgencita

Composed: 2012 Duration: 6 minutes

Virgencita, sometimes subtitled Virgin of Guadalupe, was inspired by an invitation Pärt received to participate at the international Cervantino Festival. Pärt himself has written: “When Agustín Gutiérrez Canet, the Mexican ambassador to Estonia, invited me to Mexico, my interest and notions of the country were strongly affected by the famous legend of Juan Diego and his reports of the apparition of the Virgin Mary. The happy anticipation of being in Mexico very soon and the name Guadalupe left me no peace; they inspired me to write a choral work which I took along as a present to the people of Mexico.”

For his text, Pärt selected lines from prayers in Spanish, all of which talk about turning to Our Lady of Guadalupe, the symbol of Catholic Mexico.

Biographies

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. Peter Phillips has worked with the ensemble to create, through good tuning and blend, the purity and clarity of sound which he feels best serves the Renaissance repertoire, allowing every detail of the musical lines to be heard. It is the resulting beauty of sound for which The Tallis Scholars have become so widely renowned.

The Tallis Scholars perform in both sacred and secular venues, giving around 80 concerts each year. In 2013 the group celebrated their 40th anniversary with a World Tour, performing 99 events in 80 venues in 16 countries. In 2020 Gimell Records celebrated 40 years of recording the group by releasing a remastered version of the 1980 recording of Allegri’s ‘Miserere’. In 2023/24, as they celebrated their 50th Birthday, the desire to hear this group in all corners of the globe was as strong as ever. They have now performed well over 2,500 concerts.

2024/25 season highlights include performances in Japan, the USA, East Asia and a number of appearances in London as well as their usual touring schedule in Europe and the UK.

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,

Peter Phillips got the polyphony bug when an undergraduate at Oxford in 1973. An ideal choral sound got fixed in my head at that time, and I've spent all the years since then trying to recapture it. Hence The Tallis Scholars. I haven't done much else of creative importance - no novels or films (yet) - just a lot of concerts and recordings, and endless travelling. This in turn has piqued an interest in exploring the cuisines of the world, and even some of the languages, though rarely

the first recording of early music ever to win this coveted award. In 1989 the French magazine Diapason gave two of its Diapason d’Or de l’Année awards for the recordings of a mass and motets by Lassus and for Josquin’s two masses based on the chanson L’Homme armé. Their recording of Palestrina’s Missa Assumpta est Maria and Missa Sicut lilium was awarded Gramophone’s Early Music Award in 1991; they received the 1994 Early Music Award for their recording of music by Cipriano de Rore; and the same distinction again in 2005 for their disc of music by John Browne. The Tallis Scholars were nominated for Grammy Awards in 2001, 2009 and 2010. In November 2012 their recording of Josquin’s Missa De beata virgine and Missa Ave maris stella received a Diapason d’Or de l’Année and in their 40th anniversary year they were welcomed into the Gramophone ‘Hall of Fame’ by public vote. In a departure for the group in Spring 2015 The Tallis Scholars released a disc of music by Arvo Pärt called Tintinnabuli which received great praise across the board.

A 2020 release including Missa Hercules Dux Ferrariae was the last of nine albums in The Tallis Scholars’ project to record and release all Josquin’s masses before the 500th anniversary of the composer’s death. It was the winner of the BBC Music Magazine’s much coveted Recording of the Year Award in 2021 and the 2021 Gramophone Early Music Award. Their latest Gimell release in November 2024 is of music by Robert Fayrfax and was made Editor’s Choice in Gramophone.

the right ones. A thorough grasp of Latin would have been good; Arabic has proved of limited value as a tool for promoting Christian sacred musi Other daft things I've done include: starting a choral foundation in Oxford's oldest and most beautiful college chapel; writing a column in the London Spectator on music for over 33 years, and on cricket for one; encouraging my fellow citizens to eat horse; learning to fly small aeroplanes; carrying rare foodstuffs (especially horse) around the world in my luggage, and visiting a restaurant near my house so often that I now have my own table there. The best thing I've done is marry Caroline Trevor and help to bring up three children who, to my lasting relief and delight, have grown into very civilised people.

Carnival of the Animals and Other Delights

May 3, 2026 • Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts

Tara Helen O’Connor, flute

José Franch Ballester, clarinet

Michael Stephen Brown, piano

Gabriel FAURÉ (1845-1924)

Three Pieces for Cello and Piano

Romance, Op. 69

Sicilienne, Op. 78

Papillon (Butterfly), Op. 77 Park, Atapine

Pavane in F-sharp minor, Op. 50

Michael Stephen BROWN (b.1987)

Hyeyeon Park, piano

Orion Weiss, piano

Ian Rosenbaum, percussion

Kristin Lee, violin

Arnaud Sussmann, violin

Paul Neubauer, viola

Dmitri Atapine, cello Nicholas Canellakis, cello Anthony L. Manzo, bass

A Magical Carnival: A Zoological Fantasy of Endangered Wonders for Two Pianos, Flute, Clarinet, Percussion, and Strings (2025)

Camille SAINT-SAËNS (1835-1921)

The Carnival of the Animals (1886)

Introduction et marche royale du lion (Introduction and Royal March of the Lion)

Poules et coqs (Hens and Roosters)

Hémiones (animaux véloces) (Wild Asses (Swift Animals))

Tortues (Tortoises)

L'Éléphant (The Elephant)

Kangourous (Kangaroos)

Aquarium

Personnages à longues oreilles (Characters with Long Ears)

Le Coucou au fond des bois (The Cuckoo in the Depths of the Woods)

Volière (Aviary)

Pianistes (Pianists)

Fossiles (Fossils)

Le cygne (The Swan)

Final (Finale) - intermission -

The International Chamber Music Series is made possible by the generous support of the William T. Kemper Foundation.

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Gabriel FAURÉ: Romance, Op. 69

Composed: 1894 Duration: 4 minutes

Gabriel FAURÉ: Sicilienne, Op. 78

Composed: 1893/1898 Duration: 4 minutes

Gabriel FAURÉ: Papillon, Op. 77

Composed: 1884/1898 Duration: 3 minutes

Gabriel Fauré was one of France’s most influential composers and teachers. A prodigy who from his teens enjoyed the support of Camille Saint-Saëns, Fauré’s earliest jobs were as an organist. Through the 1880s he held a variety of organist, choirmaster, and teaching positions while also writing criticism for Le Figaro and composing smaller piano pieces and songs along with a few more ambitious chamber works. In 1896 he became professor of composition at the Paris Conservatoire, where he remained for the next twenty-five years, eventually becoming the institution’s director in 1905. His early years at the Conservatoire were his most productive as a composer, and while the later increase in teaching duties curtailed his composing somewhat, the students with whom he worked –including Maurice Ravel, Nadia Boulanger, and George Enescu – are testimony to his stature as an educator. Despite growing deafness and a number of other health problems in his later years, he produced many of his most powerful compositions during World War I and the brief period after his retirement from the Conservatoire.

These three miniatures for cello and piano all date from the years just before and just after his employment at the Paris Conservatoire. The Romance started life as a piece for cello and organ, with the cello-piano arrangement coming out in published form in 1894. The Sicilienne was composed in 1893 for a theatrical production of Molière's Le Bourgeois gentilhomme. Five years later, Fauré adapted it for cello and piano, dedicating his arrangement to the English cellist W.H. Squire, while also creating an orchestral version for his incidental music for Maurice Maeterlinck's play Pelléas et Mélisande. Papillon (Butterfly) was perhaps composed as early as 1884, although it was not published until 1898. The butterfly seems to flutter about in a fast-paced perpetuum mobile, with a contrasting second theme that temporarily calms the mood.

Gabriel FAURÉ: Pavane in F-sharp minor, Op. 50

Composed: 1887 Duration: 7 minutes

Fauré's Pavane, which he dismissed as “elegant but not otherwise important,” ultimately became one of his most famous pieces. Like its ancient models from the sixteenth and seventeenth century Spanish court, Fauré's work is slow, stately, and lovely, with the tempo and rhythm of a processional. It was written for, and dedicated to, Élisabeth de Caraman Chimay, Vicomtesse Greffulhe, an important patroness and eminence in Parisian society into whose circle Fauré had been admitted. Originally for solo piano, the Pavane was later arranged for other forces, including orchestra with optional choir.

Michael Stephen BROWN: The Magical Carnival – A Zoological Fantasy of Endangered Wonders (2025)

Pianist-composer Michael Stephen Brown has been hailed by The New York Times as “one of the leading figures in the current renaissance of performer-composers.” He has performed as a soloist with leading orchestras and in recitals at iconic venues in the United States and Europe. A frequent artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Brown tours internationally with his longtime musical partner, cellist Nicholas Canellakis. A passionate educator, he regularly gives lectures and masterclasses worldwide.

Brown’s compositions have been commissioned by leading organizations and artists, including the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Maryland Symphony, the SPA Trio, and pianists Anne-Marie McDermott, Jerome Lowenthal, and Ursula Oppens. A 2025 MacDowell Fellow and 2024 Yaddo Artist, Brown has been a winner of the Emerging Artist Award from Lincoln Center and an Avery Fisher Career Grant. Brown earned dual degrees in piano and composition from The Juilliard School, where he studied with pianists Jerome Lowenthal and Robert McDonald, and composer Samuel Adler. Brown is also an Artist Ambassador for Creatives Care, an organization helping artists access affordable mental healthcare.

Michael Stephen Brown was kind enough to provide the following note on his work The Magical Carnival, which we reproduce here with his permission.

“The Magical Carnival is a large-scale chamber work that imagines one fantastical day around the world – beginning with the rustle of orangutans in Borneo at dawn and ending with the call of the Puerto Rican Parrot at sunrise. Along the way, we meet 14 rare and wondrous creatures: blue whales, axolotls, manatees, buff-cheeked gibbons, vaquita porpoises – even pianists, whose quick hands and fragile spirits seemed worth depicting. Inspired by Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals, each movement evokes a distinct creature – often endangered – through sound, gesture, and color. The animals I chose are those that moved me – some I’ve encountered in person, others I’ve spent hours watching in videos. Each captivated me uniquely, carrying a precious story waiting to be heard.

“Co-commissioned by four organizations close to my heart – La Musica Sarasota, The Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach, the Friends of Chamber Music Kansas City, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center – the work is scored for two pianos, strings, flute, clarinet, and percussion, including a musical saw and a shofar to portray the famously fierce cassowary.

“I composed much of this work during residencies at Yaddo and MacDowell, where I had the rare gift of stillness, time, and conversations with fellow artists. The Magical Carnival is about creating something a little wild and wistful for people I love to make music with, while inviting listeners of all ages into a world that’s still speaking.”

Camille SAINT-SAËNS: Carnival of the Animals

Composed: 1886 Duration: 25 minutes

After a concert tour that didn't go well, in early 1886 Saint-Saëns settled for a time in a small Austrian village. He was supposed to be finishing his “Organ” Symphony No. 3, but found more fun in creating the lighthearted and humorous “grand zoological fantasy” Carnival of the Animals for an upcoming Mardi Gras party. However, because he had a keen desire to be recognized as a composer of serious, substantial music, shortly after his Carnival was premiered at a few private concerts in 1886 – and another in 1892 which “took place with the musicians wearing masks of the heads of the various animals they represented” – Saint-Saëns banned further public performances of it, and refused to have it published until after his death. Only in 1922 did it receive its first public performance, and now Carnival of the Animals is one of Saint-Saëns's best-loved works, a favorite of children and adults alike. The work's vivid portraits are sometimes supplemented by humorous verses written in 1949 by American poet Ogden Nash.

1. Introduction and Royal March of the Lion

Opening with a tremolo from the pianos, the strings soon enter with a stately theme. The pianos play glissandi going in opposite directions. A march melody, the lion's regal theme, is introduced by the strings. Then the strings and pianos trade roles, and the pianos take up the grand march.

2. Hens and Roosters

This movement is dominated by a theme from the pianos and strings imitating the sound of hungry birds pecking at grain. A quotation from Jean-Philippe Rameau's harpsichord piece La poule (The Hen) is heard, as is something of a “cock-a-doodledoo” from the pianos.

3. Wild Asses (Swift Animals)

The two pianos play up-and-down “running” figures in octaves in this very brief movement. Saint-Saëns had hémiones (also known as dziggetai), Tibetan wild donkeys known for their speed, specifically in mind.

4. Tortoises

Over pulsating figures from the piano, the strings play a humorous, agonizingly slow version of the famous “Galop infernal” (also known to the world as the “Can-can”) from Jacques Offenbach's comic opera Orpheus in the Underworld

5. The Elephant

Marked Allegro pomposo, this movement features a waltz-like idea from the piano, over which the double bass plays a jaunty melody that quotes the Scherzo from Felix Mendelssohn's incidental music to A Midsummer Night's Dream as well as Hector Berlioz's “Dance of the Sylphs” from The Damnation of Faust – both originally composed for high-pitched instruments, here heavily rendered by the double bass.

6. Kangaroos

The two pianos play a series of “hopping” triadic chords that get faster and louder as they move up the keyboard, and slower and softer as they descend.

7. Aquarium

The peaceful movement of fish in the mysterious water world of the aquarium is evoked by a flowing flute melody, accompanied by strings and arpeggios from the piano, along with the glass harmonica (or celesta or glockenspiel in many performances).

8. Characters with Long Ears

It's said that Saint-Saëns had both donkeys and music critics (!) in mind when he wrote this music, in which two violins play high and low notes imitating the “hee-haw” of a donkey.

9. The Cuckoo in the Depths of the Woods

The pianos play soft chords, the sound of the dark woods, as the clarinet plays a two-note ostinato; C and A-flat, mimicking the call of a cuckoo bird.

10. Aviary

High strings provide a sort of background buzz, the cellos and basses play a quick cadence, and the flute, representing the birds, plays a whirlwind of a melody, alongside little figures and trills from the piano.

11. Pianists

Once again humor is at the fore, as pianists (apparently likened to animals here) play their finger exercises and scales (the C, D-flat, D, and E-flat scales), in the manner of the educational pieces by Carl Czerny and Charles-Louis Hanon that all young pianists encountered. Saint-Saëns was himself a virtuoso pianist and a longtime piano teacher, and he may have been picking a little fun at himself here.

12. Fossils

Saint-Saëns has a humorous take on his own Danse macabre, as the xylophone (which in the Danse macabre represented skeletons dancing) plays along with strings, piano, and clarinet. One also hears allusions to “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” (known in France as “Ah! vous dirai-je, maman”), other nursery songs, and even “Una voce poco fa” from Gioacchino Rossini's opera

The Barber of Seville. As Ogden Nash’s verse for this piece says, “It’s kind of fun to be extinct.”

13. The Swan

The one exception Saint-Saëns made to his lifetime ban on performances and publication of Carnival of the Animals was for The Swan, which was published in an arrangement for cello and piano in 1887. The elegant cello melody is said to represent the swan gliding gracefully along the water's surface, and the rolled chords and rippling motion of the piano both the water's movement and the swan's feet propelling it along below.

14. Finale

All the instruments of the ensemble are finally heard together in this closing movement. Opening with the same piano trills heard in the introduction, with the wind instruments and xylophone joining in, glissandi from the piano introduce the bouncing main melody. Many of the main ideas from previous pieces make a return. The work ends with a series of six “heehaws” from the donkeys, giving them the last word before the final set of C major chords.

Biographies

O’Connor serves as Visiting Associate Professor, Adjunct, of Flute at the Yale School of Music, and is Artistic Director of the Music from Angel Fire Festival. A champion of contemporary music, Ms. O’Connor has premiered hundreds of works and has appeared on numerous recordings and film and television soundtracks including Barbie, Respect, The Joker, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Only Murders in the Building, and Schmigadoon! to name only a few.

Jose Franch-Ballester, the multi-awardwinning Spanish clarinetist, is recognized as one of the leading classical soloists and chamber musicians of his generation. Praised for his “technical wizardry and tireless enthusiasm” (The New York Times) and “subtle and consummate artistry” (Santa Barbara Independent), he is the recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and winner of both the Young Concert Artists and Astral Artists auditions. He is currently Assistant Professor of Clarinet and Chamber Music at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Franch-Ballester regularly performs as Principal Clarinetist of Camerata Pacifica in Santa Barbara and appears with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York. As a soloist, he has appeared with ensembles including the BBC Concert Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic, Louisville Orchestra, I Musici Montreal, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de México, and Spain’s Radio and Television Orchestra.

A passionate chamber musician, he is a frequent guest at international festivals including Music@Menlo, Chamber Music Northwest, Mainly Mozart, the Dresden Music Festival, Westport Festival (Ireland), Kon-Tiki Festival (Norway), and Nexus Festival (Tokyo).

Born into a family of musicians in Moncofa, Spain, Franch-Ballester studied at the Joaquín Rodrigo Conservatory in Valencia before completing his training at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia under Donald Montanaro and Ricardo Morales. As a recording artist, he has been featured on Deutsche Grammophon, Harmonia Mundi, and Warner Music.

Michael Stephen Brown pianist, composer, and 2025 MacDowell Fellow, has been hailed by The New York Times as “one of the leading figures in the current renaissance of performer-composers.” A recipient of both a Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award and an Avery Fisher Career Grant, he has performed with major orchestras including the Seattle Symphony and NFM Leopoldinum, and appeared in recital at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Louvre, and Beethoven-Haus Bonn.

A frequent artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Brown tours internationally with cellist Nicholas Canellakis and collaborates with violinists Pinchas Zukerman and Arnaud Sussmann. He is also a passionate educator and sought-after masterclass clinician.

Brown’s works have been commissioned by Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Gilmore Festival, pianists AnneMarie McDermott and Ursula Oppens, soprano Susanna Phillips, and others. His symphonic work American Diaries draws on texts by Maya Angelou and Langston Hughes, alongside WWII writings of his grandfather.

Chosen by András Schiff for a solo recital tour, he has performed at Zurich’s Tonhalle, 92nd Street Y, and festivals including Tanglewood, Marlboro, Ravinia, and Music@Menlo. His upcoming albums Connection and Mendelssohn+ will be released in 2025.

A Juilliard graduate in both piano and composition, Brown is an Artist Ambassador for Creatives Care and lives in New York City with his two 19thcentury Steinways, Octavia and Daria. Known for his engaging commentary and colorful socks, he brings wit and warmth to every performance.

A prizewinner at the Ettlingen, Oberlin, Maria Canals, and Hugo Kauder competitions, Park was named “Artist of the Year” by the Seoul Arts Center in 2012. She is a regular collaborator with distinguished artists including David Shifrin, Paul Neubauer, Ani and Ida Kavafian and many others. Originally from South Korea, Park studied with Daejin Kim, Peter Frankl, and Yong Hi Moon. She holds degrees from Korea National University of Arts, Yale University, and a doctorate from Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University. She is Professor of Piano at the University of Nevada, Reno where she founded Apex Concerts. She serves as Artistic co-Director of the Friends of Chamber Music Kansas City, and in 2027 she will assume the role of Artistic Co-Director of Music@Menlo, one of the nation’s leading chamber music festivals, where she currently leads the Young Performers Program.

Orion Weiss, one of the most soughtafter American pianists of his generation, is widely celebrated for his “powerful technique and exceptional insight” (The Washington Post) and “head-spinning range of colors” (Chicago Tribune). With a warm, engaging presence, he has performed with major orchestras including the Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and New York Philharmonic.

In 2025, Weiss released Arc III, the final album in his acclaimed Arc recital trilogy on First Hand Records. His 2024–25 season features international performances of the complete Beethoven and Brahms Violin Sonatas with James Ehnes and Akiko Suwanai; a debut at David Geffen Hall with the American Symphony Orchestra; and solo recitals of the Goldberg Variations at major festivals including Santa Fe and Newport Classical.

A passionate chamber musician, Weiss collaborates frequently with violinists James Ehnes and Augustin Hadelich, pianists Michael Brown and Shai Wosner, and leading string quartets including the Ariel, Parker, and Pacifica. He is a regular presence at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Tanglewood, Ravinia, Aspen, and other leading festivals.

Weiss’s recordings span a wide range, from Gershwin with the Buffalo Philharmonic to solo albums of Bartók, Scriabin, and Bach. His Arc trilogy has received critical acclaim from Gramophone. A graduate of Juilliard, where he studied with Emanuel Ax, Weiss was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Gilmore Young Artist Award. Born in Ohio, he made his orchestral debut at 17 and has since captivated audiences worldwide with his artistry and depth.

Praised for his “spectacular performances” (Wall Street Journal), and his “unfailing virtuosity” (Chicago Tribune), GRAMMY®nominated percussionist Ian Rosenbaum has developed a musical breadth far beyond his years.

As a passionate advocate for contemporary music, Mr. Rosenbaum has premiered dozens of new chamber and solo works. He has collaborated with and championed the music of established and emerging composers alike, from Andy Akiho, Christopher Cerrone, and Amy Beth Kirsten to John Luther Adams, George Crumb, and Paola Prestini.

Mr. Rosenbaum’s recordings were nominated for three GRAMMY® awards in 2021 for performances of music by Andy Akiho and Christopher Cerrone, including two nominations for Seven Pillars, an album by Sandbox Percussion released on Aki Rhythm Productions, a record label that Mr. Rosenbaum and Mr. Akiho founded in 2021. His recording of Andy Akiho’s LIgNEouS Suite with the Dover Quartet was nominated for a GRAMMY® award in 2022.

In 2017, Mr. Rosenbaum released his first full-length solo album, Memory Palace, on NS Tracks. It features five signature commissions, as well as collaborations with Brooklyn Rider and flutist Gina Izzo.

He has appeared at the Bay Chamber, Bridgehampton, Chamber Music Northwest, Edinburgh Fringe, Lake Champlain, Moab, Music from Angel Fire, Music@Menlo, Norfolk, and Yellow Barn festivals, and has collaborated with the Dover Quartet, Brooklyn Rider, cellist Jeffrey Zeigler, and violinist Kristin Lee. In 2012 Mr. Rosenbaum joined the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Bowers Program (formerly CMS Two) as only the second percussionist they have selected in their history, and has performed regularly with CMS since then.

Mr. Rosenbaum is a member of Sandbox Percussion, The Percussion Collective, and The Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble. He is on faculty at the Peabody Institute, the Mannes School of Music, and the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Mr. Rosenbaum endorses Pearl/Adams instruments, Vic Firth mallets, and Remo drumheads.

Kristin Lee is a violinist of remarkable versatility and “flawless technique” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch), celebrated for her stylistic range and “artistic maturity” (The Strad). She enjoys a dynamic career as a soloist, chamber musician, educator, and artistic director. As a soloist, Lee has appeared with leading orchestras including The Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, and Korean Broadcasting Symphony. She has performed at major venues around the world, including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Avery Fisher Hall, Ravinia Festival, the Louvre, and Korea’s Kumho Art Gallery.

A passionate chamber musician, Lee joined the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center after completing The Bowers Program residency. She is also the founding Artistic Director of Emerald City Music, a vibrant chamber series in Washington State that blends world-class artistry with inclusive community programming. Dedicated to education, Lee is Assistant Professor of Violin at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where she inspires the next generation of performers. Her honors include an Avery Fisher Career Grant, top prizes in the Naumburg and Astral Artists competitions, and awards from the Trondheim Chamber Music Competition, Trio di Trieste, and Aspen Music Festival. Born in Seoul, Lee studied with Dorothy DeLay, Donald Weilerstein, and Itzhak Perlman, and earned her Master’s from The Juilliard School. She performs on a 1759 Gennaro Gagliano violin generously on loan from Paul and Linda Gridley.

Winner of a 2009 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Arnaud Sussmann has distinguished himself with his unique sound, bravura, and profound musicianship. Minnesota’s Pioneer Press writes, “Sussmann has an old-school sound reminiscent of what you'll hear on vintage recordings by Jascha Heifetz or Fritz Kreisler, a rare combination of sweet and smooth that can hypnotize a listener.” A thrilling musician capturing the attention of classical critics and audiences around the world, he has recently appeared as a soloist with the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev, the Vancouver Symphony, and the New World Symphony. As a chamber musician, he has performed at the Tel Aviv Museum in Israel, London’s Wigmore Hall, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, the White Nights Festival in Saint Petersburg, the Dresden Music Festival in Germany, and the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC. He has been presented in recital in Omaha on the Tuesday Musical Club series, New Orleans by the Friends of Music and at the Louvre Museum in Paris. He has also given concerts at the OK Mozart, Moritzburg, Caramoor, Music@Menlo, La Jolla SummerFest, Mainly Mozart, Seattle Chamber Music, Chamber Music Northwest, and the Moab Music festivals. Mr. Sussmann has performed with many of today’s leading artists including Itzhak Perlman, Menahem Pressler, Gary Hoffman, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Wu Han, David Finckel and Jan Vogler.

Violist Paul Neubauer's exceptional musicality and effortless playing led the New York Times to call him “a master musician.” He recently made his Chicago Symphony subscription debut with conductor Riccardo Muti and his Mariinsky Orchestra debut at the White Nights Festival. He also gave the US premiere of the newly discovered Impromptu for viola and piano by Shostakovich with pianist Wu Han. In addition, his recording of the Aaron Kernis Viola Concerto with the Royal Northern Sinfonia was released on Signum Records and his recording of the complete viola and piano music by Ernest Bloch with pianist Margo Garrett was released on Delos. Appointed principal violist of the New York Philharmonic at age 21, he has appeared as soloist with over 100 orchestras including the New York, Los Angeles, and Helsinki philharmonics; National, St. Louis, Detroit, Dallas, San Francisco, and Bournemouth symphonies; and Santa Cecilia, English Chamber, and Beethovenhalle orchestras. He has premiered viola concertos by Bartók (revised version of the Viola Concerto), Friedman, Glière, Jacob, Kernis, Lazarof, Müller-Siemens, Ott, Penderecki, Picker, Suter, and Tower and has been featured on CBS's Sunday Morning, A Prairie Home Companion, and in Strad, Strings, and People magazines. A two-time Grammy nominee, he has recorded on numerous labels including Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, RCA Red Seal, and Sony Classical and is a member of SPA, a trio with soprano Susanna Phillips and pianist Anne-Marie McDermott. Mr. Neubauer is the artistic director of the Mostly Music series in New Jersey and is on the faculty of The Juilliard School and Mannes College.

Nicholas Canellakis has emerged as one of the most sought-after and innovative cellists of his generation, praised for his “rich, alluring tone” (The New York Times) and “superb” solo playing (The New Yorker). A multifaceted artist, he is known not only as a soloist and chamber musician, but also as a filmmaker, composer-arranger, educator, and curator.

Canellakis appears as soloist with orchestras nationwide, including recent performances with the Virginia, Albany, Delaware, Stamford, and Bangor Symphonies, and the American Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. With longtime duo partner Michael Stephen Brown, he tours extensively, performing in major venues such as Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Wolf Trap, and the Four Arts in Palm Beach.

An Artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Canellakis performs internationally at venues including Wigmore Hall, the Louvre, and Seoul Arts Center, and is a regular guest at premier festivals such as Ravinia, Santa Fe, Bridgehampton, and Music@ Menlo. He is the Artistic Director of Chamber Music Sedona, where he is celebrated for his dynamic programming and community engagement.

In 2023, he released b(romance) on First Hand Records, featuring original compositions and arrangements. Also a filmmaker, he writes and directs short films, including the popular series Conversations with Nick Canellakis and award-nominated shorts Thin Walls and My New Cello Canellakis is on faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music, his alma mater. He plays a rare 1840 Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume cello.

Anthony Manzo is a versatile and indemand double bassist, celebrated for his work as a chamber musician, orchestral performer, and educator. Based just outside Washington, DC, he is a regular guest with the National Symphony Orchestra and the Smithsonian Chamber Players, and serves on the faculty at the University of Maryland School of Music. He also holds the position of Solo Bassist with the New Century Chamber Orchestra in San Francisco and was formerly Solo Bassist of the Munich Chamber Orchestra, with which he toured and recorded extensively. Manzo is a frequent performer at renowned chamber music festivals including Spoleto USA, Bay Chamber Concerts, and the Garth Newel Music Center. Recent highlights include touring as a soloist with bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff in performances of Mozart’s Per questa bella mano across Europe, and collaborations with Menahem Pressler, the St. Lawrence Quartet, and the Auryn Quartet. Equally at home in historical performance, Manzo plays with leading period ensembles such as the Handel and Haydn Society, Chicago’s Baroque Band, and Opera Lafayette. His discography includes recordings with ECM Records, the Smithsonian Chamber Players, and a DVD of Schoenberg’s Chamber Symphony Op. 9 Following studies at Boston University and time with the New World Symphony, he performed with Norway’s Bergen Philharmonic before joining the Munich Chamber Orchestra for seven seasons. He now lives in Washington, DC, with his wife, cellist Rachel Young, and their two children. He performs on a Parisian double bass by Jean Thibouville Lamy, c. 1890.

The Friends of Chamber Music annual Soiree was held on March 8th at Indian Hills Country Club, celebrating the Friends' forty-ninth season of sharing world-class chamber music with the Kansas City community. Honorary Chairs David and Sandy Eisenberg joined over 200 guests for a festive evening of sumptuous food and inspiring music presented by Artistic Directors Hyeyeon Park and Dmitri Atapine and students from the Friends of Chamber Music Young Artist Project. Guests supported the organization's concert and education programming through exclusive live and silent auctions, including a wine auction curated by Master Sommelier and Master of Wine, Doug Frost.

Hyeyeon Park, David Eisenberg, Sandy Eisenberg, Dmitri Atapine

Jonathan Kemper, Nancy Lee Kemper, Lauren English, Richard English

Ron Fredman and Kamal Mikhail

Patrons applaud after a beautiful performance by Artistic Directors Dmitri Atapine and Hyeyeon Park

Students from the Friends of Chamber Music Young Artist Project perform for Soirée 2025 patrons

Scott Mattingly, Doris Mattingly, John Stroh, Hilary Stroh, Colleen Diamond and Eugene Diamond

The Friends’ Golden Jubilee fundraising gala, Soirée 2026, will take place on:

Saturday, May 2, 2026

6:00 PM

Hilton President Hotel, Kansas City, MO

Join us for an unforgettable evening as we celebrate 50 years of exquisite chamber music at Soirée 2026, held at the historic Hilton President Hotel in the heart of downtown Kansas City, Missouri. This milestone event will feature a gourmet dinner followed by a captivating live performance that honors the rich legacy and artistry of chamber music. Set against the backdrop of one of Kansas City's most iconic venues, the gala promises an atmosphere of sophistication, inspiration, and community. Whether you're a longtime supporter or a new enthusiast, this is your chance to be part of a timeless tradition and help ensure its future for generations to come.

For more information contact Janell Peterson, Director of Operations Janell@chambermusic.org (816) 561-9999

To learn more about sponsorship for this event contact Edward Sien, Director of Philanthropy Ed@chambermusic.org (816) 561-9999

The Friends of Chamber Music Young Artist Project

Great Chamber Music Needs Great Support.

Thank you for helping us share the magic of Chamber Music! Artistic excellence, commitment to creative programming and our exciting education and community initiatives need your support more than ever!

Below is a list of Donor Benefits and Opportunities. For more information on how you can be a part of our mission to share great music contact, Edward Sien, Director of Philanthropy at 816-561-9999 or Ed@ChamberMusic.org.

OPPORTUNITIES & BENEFITS

E-Newsletter

Recognition on Website and Program Book

Invitation to Season Preview Event Intermission Receptions at Selected Concerts

Opportunity to Sponsor an Artist Invitation to Open Rehearsals*

Opportunity to be a Concert Supporting Sponsor

Two invitations to Post-Concert Dinner* *

Opportunity to Underwrite Club35 for the Season

Opportunity to Sponsor Education and Community Engagement Programs

Recognition from the Stage***

Reserved Premium Seating at General Admission Concerts

Opportunity to be a Concert Presenting Sponsor

Four invitations to Post-Concert Dinner* *

Opportunity to Underwrite Pre-Concert Talks for the Season

Complimentary Parking for Folly and Kauffman Concerts

Opportunity to be a Series Supporting Sponsor

Opportunity to Sponsor Artistic Directors for One Season

Opportunity to be an exclusive Golden Jubilee Sponsor

Opportunity to be a Series Presenting Sponsor

Opportunity to be a Season Sponsor

CONTRIBUTORS

July 1, 2024 - June 30, 2025

The Friends of Chamber Music gratefully acknowledges the generosity and kindness of our many contributors whose support sustains our concerts and educational programs. To join our community of partners in music, please call (816) 561-9999 or visit www.ChamberMusic.org.

Visionaries ($100,000+)

Sally A. Chapple*

William T. Kemper FoundationCommerce Bank, Trustee

Luminaries ($50,000+)

Charles and Virginia Clark

Stanley H. Durwood Foundation

Maestoso ($25,000+)

Dwight and Naomi Arn

Richard and Jane Bruening

Muriel McBrien Kauffman

Family Foundation

Missouri Arts Council

Sanders and Blanche Sosland Music Fund

Grandioso ($10,000+)

Jennifer and Bud Bacon

J. Scott Francis, the Francis Family Foundation

Gregory E. Gille

Hall Family Foundation

Hebenstreit Family Foundation

Irv and Ellen Hockaday

Irv and Ellen Hockaday Fund for The Friends of Chamber Music

Steven M. Karbank

Jonathan and Nancy Lee Kemper

Jay and Cindy Longbottom

Mdivani Corporate Immigration Law

Patricia Cleary Miller

JoZach Miller and Peter Bali

Sosland Foundation

Richard J. Stern Foundation for the ArtsCommerce Bank, Trustee

Glorioso ($5,000+)

Leonard and Irene Bettinger Philanthropic Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Kansas City

Suzy and David Bradley Charitable Fund

Alietia Caughron Commerce Bank

David and Sandy Eisenberg

Doug Frost

Marilyn A.W. and Norman E. Gaar

Hallmark

Michael and Marlys Haverty Family Foundation Fund

Kansas City, Missouri Neighborhood

Tourist Development Fund

Al Mauro Jr. and Molly Dwyer

Tom and Kathy Nanney

J.B. Reynolds Foundation

James R. and Laurie A. Rote

John and Hilary Stroh

Virtuoso ($2,500+)

Paul and Bunni Copaken

Kit and Jay Culver

Jerry Eisterhold

The Kerr Foundation

Kramer Family Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Kansas City

Benny and Edith Lee

Wai and Olive Lee

Kamal and Mary Lynn Soli Mikhail, Soli Printing, Inc.

Honour Helena Miller

Kathleen and Marshall Miller

Charles and Lisa Schellhorn

Suhor Family Foundation

Dr. and Mrs. John Yungmeyer

Annie Zander

Amoroso ($1,000+)

Peggy and Andy Beal

Chris Claflin, in honor of Jackie Lee

Ron and Tricia Fredman

Peter G. Goulet

Kurt and Linn Gretzinger

Dr. Richard K. Gutknecht

Nanci Hawkins

Dr. Marc Johnson and Karen Penner Johnson

Hibbard and Christine Kline

Dennis Marker and Susan Lordi Marker

Muchnic Foundation

Grayson Murphy and Kate Brubacher Murphy

John and Diane Phillips

George and Wendy Powell

Stacy and Bill Pratt

Rowland Family Fund of the Douglas County Community Foundation

Michael and Eileen Schwartzman

J. Michael Sigler

Ian Spinks and Juliette Singer

Jonathan and Meredith Sternberg

Dr. David M. Steinhaus

White-Simchowitz Charitable Family Fund

Overture ($500+)

Dmitri Atapine and Hyeyeon Park

Associated Chamber Music Players

Mr. and Mrs. Richard O. Ballentine

Denny Brisley

Samuel Caughron

Janney Duncan

Richard and Lauren English

Melinda Frenzen

Sherill J. Gerschefske

Kenneth Goertz

Shirley and Barnett Helzberg Jr. Donor Advisory Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Kansas City

Kim and Ted Higgins

Eileen Hohman

Channing and Louise Horner

Mary Leonida

P. Alan McDermott

Dan McLain

Ann Miller

Doug and Dana Nelson

Nancy Panzer-Howell

Wonsin and Namsik Park

Margot Patterson

Powell Gardens

Julia Scherer

Edward Sien

Catherine Beaham Smith

Joshua and Jane Sosland Philanthropic Fund

Terry and Pam Sullivan

Michael and Nancy Thiessen

Perry and Mary Anne Toll

Patrick and Kathy Townsend

Prelude ($100+)

Gary and Mary Adams

Lynn Adkins

Diane Allen and René Bressnick, in honor of Nancy Lee Kemper

Kathy and Andy Anderson

Angie and Andrew Atkison

Thomas Andrew Bamford, in memory of Susan Bamford

Drs. Linda Banister and J. Quentin Kuyper

Clay Bastian

Brad and Libby Bergman

Dan Bernstein

Karen Bissett

Erin Brower

Drs. Scott and Susan Brown

Lenore and Douglas Cameron, in honor of Cindy and Jay Longbottom

Miles Caughron

Marcy Chiasson

Don Closson

Richard Cram

Courtney and Conny Crappell

Molly Cropper

Glion and Marilyn Curtis

Jennifer Davidner Cattano

Donor Advisory Fund

Roger Dirks and Cindy Capellari

Dr. Michael DePriest and Barbara Braznell

Eugene and Colleen Diamond

Jo Anne Dondlinger

Dr. Daniel and Anne Durrie

Jill S. Ferrel

Alfred Figuly

William J. Fossati

Cynthia Gibson

Nathan Gorn

Cristopher Gramling

Patricia Haegelin-Hiatt and Roger L. Hiatt

Kenneth Hagen

Ann Hatfield

Anne Hershewe

Carmen Hostiuc

Mollie K. James

Brian Jewell

David and Tracey Johnson

Julie Kampschroeder

Joe and Lisa Kauten

Victoria S. Kaufman and David Bluford

Terry Kilroy

Arlan Koppel

Arthur and Marianne Lafex

Henry Lane

Jane Lee

Heather Leith

Linda Lighton

Thomas M. Lucero

Evan Luskin

Greg and Julia Malter

James D. Marshall Jr.

Marino Martinez

Doris Mattingly

Jay and Symie Menitove

Marti Moore

Dr. Ernest and Diane Neighbor

Barry and Margaret Nickell

Julia Palmer

Gene Peir

Floyd Pentlin

Kathy Peters

Luci Powell

Stephanie Rawe

Brett and Jennaya Robison

Kevin Rooney

Carmen Sabates

John Schaefer

Michael Schermoly

Mark and Janice Schonwetter

William Schwartz, in honor of Patricia Miller

Susan Sien

Mareta Smith

Shirley Spiegel

Egon Stammler

Helyn Strickland

Sue Strickler

Jim and Jean Stubbs

Willis Theis

John and Cindy Wilkinson

Nancy Waxman

Bruce Williams

John Wise

Jeff Witsken

Mary Ann Wyrsch

Christie Zarkovich

*Legacy Donor

Special thanks to all who participated in the Soirée 2025 auction. Your generous bids and enthusiastic support made it a tremendous success, and the proceeds make wonderful things happen for the Friends!

We gratefully acknowledge those who contributed to the financial success of the auction.

Dwight and Naomi Arn

Emilie Atkins

Angie and Andrew Atkison

Brad and Libby Bergman

Erin Brower

Drs. Scott and Susan Brown

Alietia Caughron

Samuel Caughron

Dr. Michael DePriest and Barbara Braznell

Eugene and Colleen Diamond

Jo Anne Dondlinger

Dr. Daniel and Anne Durrie

David and Sandy Eisenberg

Jill Ferrel

Ron and Tricia Fredman

Melinda Frenzen

Doug Frost

Tammy Gay

Anne Hershewe

Kim and Ted Higgins

Eileen Hohman

Marika Ivanko

Jim Jandt

Steven M. Karbank

Jonathan and Nancy Lee Kemper

Terry Kilroy

Misty Lee

Jay and Cindy Longbottom

Dennis Marker and Susan Lordi Marker

Daniel J. Martin

Doris Mattingly

Al Mauro Jr. and Molly Dwyer

Brian McCallister

Kamal and Mary Lynn Soli Mikhail

Kathleen and Marshall Miller

Honour Helena Miller

Marti Moore

Grayson Murphy and Kate Brubacher Murphy

Doug and Dana Nelson

Geoff Parker

Gene Peir

Brandon and Janell Peterson

Bill and Stacy Pratt

Brett and Jennaya Robison

Larry Rouse

Edward Sien and Russell Savage

Travis Statlander

Tim Tharaldson

Aaron Wynhausen

SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR SEASON SPONSOR

SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR SEASON PARTNERS

1979-80

1985-86

its

1975-76

1981-82

1987-88

1977-78

Making their KC debut, The Beaux Arts Trio performs their first of 10 consecutive annual performances on the series. With a total of 15 concerts throughout the years, they make more appearances on the FCMKC series than any other ensemble.

1983-84

1988-89

Cynthia Siebert founds The Friends of Chamber Music, presenting four performances in private homes.

The Tokyo String Quartet makes their Kansas City debut shortly after appearing on the Johnny Carson Show.

The Juilliard String Quartet makes their first of 13 appearances on the FCMKC series.

Richard Goode plays the complete cycle of Beethoven 32 Piano Sonatas in a series of seven performances.

For

Tenth Anniversary, FCMKC moves into the Folly Theater, which will become the permanent home for the International Chamber Music Series and, later, for the Master Pianists.

The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center makes their FCMKC debut.

Jeffrey Siegel performs with The Friends as the first solo pianist

The English Baroque Soloists and the Monteverdi Choir perform two different programs with founder and director Sir John Elliot Gardiner.

25th ANNIVERSARY

For its 25th Anniversary, the Friends commission a new quartet composed by Richard Danielpour and performed by the American String Quartet .

and

The Tallis Scholars make the first of their 12 appearances with The Friends.

The Waverly Consort performs their fully staged, costumed Christmas Story, a 12th century pageant.

Pinchas Zukerman & Marc Neikrug perform an all-Brahms program.

Jordi Savall makes his first appearance on the series with Hespèrion XXI

La Capella Reial de Catalunya

The medieval ensemble Sequentia , founded by Ben Bagby and the late Barbara Thornoton, performs on the series.

Violinist Pamela Frank makes her first appearance on the series with pianist Peter Serkin

The Friends present the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra with Radu Lupu performing Mozart's Piano Concerto in A Major, K. 488.

Malcolm Bilson performs the complete cycle of Mozart piano sonatas to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Mozart's death.

2005-06

Jonathan Biss makes his debut with The Friends of Chamber Music Kansas City.

2008-09

Chanticleer celebrates its 25th anniversary by commissioning a new work by Chen Yi for themselves and the Shanghai String Quartet . Chen Yi writes From the Path of Beauty. Each of the seven movements honors a specific art form that dominated seven specific Chinese dynasties. The Curator for Chinese Art at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art selects photos of art works from the museum’s collection to best represent each of these art forms and are on display at the theater.

2012-13

2006-07

The Vermeer String Quartet appears with Rabbi Michael Zedek in a performance of Haydn’s Seven Last Words of Christ with texts representing several religions of the world, chosen and read by Rabbi Zedek.

2009-10

Tafelmusik performs the U.S. debut of their multi-media program The Galileo Project in honor of the 400th anniversary of his invention of the telescope. This brought together the music and scientific community in one of the most exciting and unprecedented artistic ventures ever presented in Kansas City.

2013-14

2007-08

The Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin makes their first appearance on the

2011-12

The Friends of Chamber Music develop its first multi-media production entitled The Darwin Project, one of the first performances to be held at the newly opened Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, as a joint presentation with the Kauffman Center.

2014-15

FCMKC series.

British vocal ensemble Stile Antico makes their FCMKC debut.

The Venice Baroque Orchestra performs with countertenor Philippe Jaroussky in a co-presentation with the Performing Arts Series at Johnson County Community College. Sir András Schiff, recently knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, makes his seventh appearance on the series.

2015-16

2018-19

presents a

2016-17

2019-20

The

2021-22 2022-2023

Continuing in the illustrious path of president and founder Cynthia Siebert, the FCMKC conducts a national search for new artistic leadership. A new chapter begins under the direction of cellist Dmitri Atapine and pianist Hyeyeon Park

2017-18

2020-21

2023-24

Sir

to a nearly sold-out

Bach Collegium Japan makes their FCMKC debut.

Pianist Fabio Bidini makes his debut with the Friends

The Dover Quartet performs for the first time on the FCMKC series.

Pianist Vikingur Ólafsson

recital of works by Johann Sebastian Bach and Philip Glass.

The Emerson String Quartet , joined by David Finckel — their cellist for almost 35 years — bids farewell to Kansas City on their last tour.

András Schiff performs

Helzberg Hall at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.

The Friends of Chamber Music Kansas City braves the rough waters of the COVID-19 pandemic by presenting a wide variety of virtual offerings.

Calidore String Quartet makes its FCMKC debut.

A cappella – Choral or vocal music performed without instrumental accompaniment.

Accelerando – Gradually getting faster.

Acciaccatura – A very short grace note, “crushed” quickly before the main note.

Adagio – Slow and stately tempo, often conveying calm or solemnity.

Allegretto – Moderately fast, slightly slower than Allegro.

Allegro – Fast and lively.

Alla breve – Indicating a fast duple meter with the half note getting the beat.

Alla marcia – In the style of a march.

Alla turca – In the style of Turkish Janissary music, with lively rhythms and percussion effects.

Andante – At a walking pace; moderately slow.

Andantino – Slightly faster than Andante. Animato – Animated, lively in character.

Antiphonal – Music featuring alternating groups or voices.

Appassionato – With intense passion or emotion.

Aria – A lyrical solo piece, typically for voice, with instrumental accompaniment.

Arioso – In a singing style, between aria and recitative.

Arpeggio – Notes of a chord played in succession rather than simultaneously.

Assai – Very, much (e.g., Allegro assai = very fast).

Attacca – Proceed immediately to the next movement without pause.

Atonality – Music that lacks a tonal center, avoiding traditional harmonic progression.

Ballade – A narrative or dramatic instrumental piece, often lyrical and expressive.

Barcarolle – A gentle, lilting piece in 6/8 or 12/8, evoking a boat song.

Baroque era – c. 1600–1750. Known for ornate musical lines, counterpoint, and the birth of opera; composers include Bach, Handel, and Vivaldi.

Bartók pizzicato – A pizzicato where the string snaps back sharply against the fingerboard.

Bass – The lowest part in music, or a lowpitched instrument or voice.

Basso continuo – Continuous bass line with harmonies, typical of Baroque music.

Bel canto – “Beautiful singing”; an Italian style emphasizing lyrical, elegant vocal lines.

Binary form – Musical structure with two sections (AB or AABB).

Bitonality – The simultaneous use of two different keys.

Brillante – Brilliant, sparkling, and virtuosic.

Burlesque – Playful, sometimes sarcastic or mocking in character.

BWV (Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis) – German for “Bach Works Catalogue.” A numbering system compiled by Wolfgang Schmieder in 1950 to organize the works of J.S. Bach by genre rather than chronology.

Cadenza – A solo passage, often improvised or written to sound improvised, typically showcasing virtuosity.

Cantabile – Singing style; lyrical and smooth.

Canon – A contrapuntal form where a melody is imitated by one or more voices, entering successively.

Capriccio / Capriccioso – A lively, free-spirited piece, often whimsical.

Chaconne – A set of variations over a repeated harmonic progression.

Chamber music – Music for a small ensemble, usually one player per part, without a conductor.

Chord – A group of notes sounded together.

Chorale – Hymn-like composition, often in four-part harmony.

Classical era – c. 1750–1820. Characterized by balance, clarity, and form; composers include Haydn, Mozart, and early Beethoven.

Cluster chord – A chord consisting of adjacent notes, creating a dense sound.

Colla parte – “With the part”; follow the soloist’s tempo and phrasing.

Col legno – Playing a string instrument with the wood of the bow.

Con brio – With vigor, energy, and spirit.

Con fuoco – With fire, passionately.

Con moto – With motion, not too slow.

Concertino – The small group of soloists in a concerto grosso.

Concerto – A work for solo instrument(s) and orchestra, often in three movements.

Counterpoint – The art of combining independent melodic lines.

Crescendo (cresc.) – Gradually getting louder.

Da capo (D.C.) – From the beginning.

Dal segno (D.S.) – From the sign; return to a specific point in the score.

Decrescendo / Diminuendo – Gradually getting softer.

Development – The section of sonata form where themes are altered and explored.

D. (Deutsch catalogue) – A thematic catalogue of Franz Schubert’s works compiled by Otto Erich Deutsch.

Divertimento – A light, entertaining multimovement work, popular in the 18th century.

Divisi – A section of instruments splits into two or more parts.

Dolce – Sweetly, gently.

Doloroso – Sorrowfully, plaintively.

Drone – Sustained note(s) sounding throughout a passage.

Duo – An ensemble of two performers; in chamber music often a violin and piano, cello and piano, or two string instruments.

Elegy / Elegiac – A piece of mournful, reflective character.

Energico – Energetic, forceful.

Ensemble – A group of musicians performing together.

Espressivo (espr.) – Expressively.

Étude – A study piece focusing on a particular technical challenge.

Exposition – In sonata form, the section presenting the main themes.

Fanfare – A short, ceremonial flourish, often for brass.

Fermata – A hold on a note or rest beyond its written value.

Finale – The concluding movement of a work.

Forte (f) – Loud.

Fortissimo (ff) – Very loud.

Fugue – A contrapuntal composition built on a main theme (subject) introduced and developed in interweaving voices.

Gavotte – A stately French dance in moderate tempo, often in duple meter.

Giocoso – Playful, merry.

Glissando – A rapid slide through consecutive pitches.

Grave – Very slow and solemn.

Grazioso – Gracefully.

Harmonics – High, flute-like tones produced by lightly touching a string at certain points.

Harmony – The combination of simultaneously sounded musical notes to produce chords and progressions.

Hob. (Hoboken catalogue) – A thematic catalogue of Joseph Haydn’s works compiled by Anthony van Hoboken.

Impressionism – Late 19th–early 20th century style emphasizing tone color, atmosphere, and suggestion; associated with Debussy and Ravel.

Intermezzo – Short piece, often light and lyrical, placed between larger works or movements.

Interval – The distance between two pitches.

Intonation – Accuracy of pitch in performance.

K. (Köchel catalogue) – A chronological catalogue of Mozart’s works compiled by Ludwig von Köchel in 1862.

Largo – Very slow and broad.

Legato – Smooth and connected playing or singing.

Lento – Slow.

Libretto – The text of an opera or vocal work.

Lied (plural Lieder) – German art song for voice and piano.

Maestoso – Majestic, dignified.

Marcato – Marked, accented.

Marcia – March-like.

Mazurka – A Polish dance in triple meter, often with accents on the second or third beat.

Medieval era – c. 500–1400. Early Western music, from Gregorian chant to the beginnings of polyphony.

Minimalism – A style featuring repetitive motifs, steady pulse, and gradual change.

Moderato – At a moderate speed.

Molto – Very, much.

Mordent – Rapid alternation between a note and its lower (or upper) neighbor.

Motif / Motive – A short, distinctive musical idea.

Neoclassicism – 20th-century style inspired by forms and styles of earlier periods.

Obbligato – An essential accompanying part, often decorative.

Octave – The interval between one note and another of the same name, higher or lower.

Op. posth. (Opus posthumous) – A work published after the composer’s death.

Opera – A staged dramatic work combining music, singing, and sometimes dance.

Opus – A term indicating a work’s chronological publication number.

Oratorio – A large-scale musical work for orchestra and voices, typically on a sacred theme, performed without staging.

Ornament – Decorative notes such as trills, turns, or mordents.

Ostinato – A repeated musical figure or rhythm.

Overture – An instrumental introduction to an opera, suite, or oratorio.

Pastorale – Gentle, rustic style suggesting the countryside.

Pentatonic scale – A five-note scale common in folk music worldwide.

Pianissimo (pp) – Very soft.

Piano (p) – Soft.

Piano Quintet – Piano plus string quartet (two violins, viola, cello).

Piano Quartet – Piano plus violin, viola, and cello.

Piano Trio – Piano plus violin and cello.

Pizzicato – Plucking the strings of a bowed instrument.

Poco – A little.

Polonaise – A Polish dance in triple meter, stately and processional.

Polyphony – Multiple independent melodies sounding simultaneously.

Presto – Very fast.

Program music – Instrumental music intended to evoke a story, scene, or idea.

Quartet – An ensemble of four musicians, or a piece written for such a group.

Recapitulation – The return of the main themes in sonata form.

Recitative – Vocal style imitating speech, often used in opera.

Renaissance era – c. 1400–1600. Known for polyphony, modal harmony, and the rise of instrumental music.

Rhapsody – Free-flowing work with contrasting moods and themes.

Ritardando (rit.) – Gradually slowing down.

Rococo – c. 1720–1780. Light, decorative style bridging late Baroque and early Classical periods.

Romantic era – c. 1820–1910. Emphasized expression, expanded forms, and rich harmonies; composers include Brahms, Chopin, and Wagner.

Rondo – Musical form featuring a recurring theme alternating with contrasting episodes.

Rubato – Flexible tempo, allowing expressive timing.

Scherzo – Lively, playful movement, often in triple meter.

Segue – Continue to the next section without pause.

Sempre – Always (as in sempre piano = always soft).

Senza – Without (e.g., senza vibrato = without vibrato).

Serialism – Composition technique using ordered series of pitches, rhythms, or dynamics.

Sforzando (sfz) – Sudden, strong accent.

Sonata – A multi-movement work for solo instrument or small ensemble.

Sonata form – Structure with exposition, development, and recapitulation.

Sostenuto – Sustained.

Staccato – Detached, short notes.

String Quintet – Usually a string quartet plus one extra viola or cello.

String Quartet – Two violins, viola, and cello.

String Trio – Violin, viola, and cello.

Suite – Collection of dances or character pieces, often in the same key.

Symphony – Large-scale orchestral work in multiple movements.

Tarantella – Fast Italian dance in 6/8 time.

Tempo – The speed of music.

Ternary form – Three-part structure (ABA).

Tessitura – The most comfortable or frequently used range of an instrument or voice in a piece.

Timbre – Tone color; the quality of a sound.

Toccata – Virtuosic piece emphasizing rapid passages and keyboard technique.

Tranquillo – Calm, tranquil.

Trill – Rapid alternation between two adjacent notes.

Tutti – All instruments or voices playing together.

Twelve-tone technique – A method of composition using all twelve chromatic pitches in a fixed order.

Variation form – Structure where a theme is repeated in altered form.

Vibrato – Small, rapid fluctuation in pitch, adding warmth and expressivity.

Vivace – Lively, brisk.

Vocalise – Vocal piece sung without words.

Virtuoso – A performer with exceptional technical skill.

Whole tone scale – A scale consisting entirely of whole steps.

Wind Quintet – Flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and horn.

WoO (Werke ohne Opuszahl) – German for “Works without opus number.” Used in catalogues of composers such as Beethoven for pieces that were not assigned an opus number.

20th century / Modern era – c. 1900–2000. Diverse styles including Impressionism, atonality, minimalism, and neoclassicism.

21st century / Contemporary era – 2000–present. Broad range of approaches, often blending classical traditions with new media, technology, and global influences.

In young hands, chamber music is imagination at play — the art of listening shaping the leaders of tomorrow.