Chamber Music of Brahms

fa culty a rtis t s eries

Chamber Music of Brahms

morse recital hall

Julie Eskar, violin Ettore Causa, viola Clive Greensmith, cello Boris Berman, piano January 31, 2012 • Tuesday at 8 pm

Robert Blocker, Dean

chamber music of brahms Julie Eskar, violin · Ettore Causa, viola Clive Greensmith, cello • Boris Berman, piano Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall

Johannes Brahms 1833–1897

january 31, 2011 tuesday · 8:00 pm

Trio in E-flat major, Op. 40 I. Andante II. Scherzo III. Adagio mesto IV. Allegro con brio Julie Eskar, violin · Ettore Causa, viola Boris Berman, piano

Trio in A minor, Op. 114 I. Allegro II. Andante III. Andante grazioso IV. Allegro Ettore Causa, viola • Clive Greensmith, cello Boris Berman, piano intermission Piano Quartet in C minor, Op. 60 I. Allegro non troppo II. Scherzo — Allegro III. Andante IV. Finale: Allegro comodo Julie Eskar, violin · Ettore Causa, viola Clive Greensmith, cello • Boris Berman, piano

As a courtesy to the performers and audience, turn off cell phones and pagers. Please do not leave the hall during selections. Photography or recording of any kind is prohibited.

About the Artists

Weber, Debussy, Stravinsky, Schnittke, Shostakovich, Joplin, and Cage.

In 1984, Mr. Berman joined the faculty of the Yale School of Music, where he is professor of piano, coordinator of the piano department, and music director of the Horowitz Piano Series. He also gives master classes throughout the world, and in 2005 he was given the title of honorary professor of Shanghai Conservatory of Music.

Boris Berman, piano, is well known to the audiences of close to fifty countries on six continents. He regularly appears with leading orchestras, on major recital series, and in important festivals. He studied at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory with the distinguished pianist Lev Oborin. An active recording artist and a Grammy nominee, Mr. Berman was the first pianist to record the complete solo works by Prokofiev (Chandos).

Other acclaimed releases include all of Scriabin’s piano sonatas (Music and Arts) and a recital of Shostakovich piano works (Ottavo), which received the Edison Classic Award in Holland. The recording of three Prokofiev concertos with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Neeme Järvi conducting (Chandos), was named the Compact Disc of the Month by CD Review. Other recordings include works by Mozart, Beethoven, Franck,

In 2000, Yale University Press published Mr. Berman’s Notes from the Pianist’s Bench; since then, the book has been translated into several languages. In 2008, the same publisher released Mr. Berman’s new book Prokofiev’s Piano Sonatas: A Guide for the Listener and the Performer.

Prokofiev’s Piano Sonatas by Boris Berman

About the Artists

Mr. Causa taught both viola and chamber music at the International Menuhin Music Academy for many years. He was appointed as an associate professor at the Yale School of Music in September 2009. Among his recordings, both the disc of Brahms sonatas and the collection of Romantic pieces garnered overwhelming success and were highly praised by critics worldwide.

Ettore plays on a viola made for him by Frédéric Chaudière in 2003.

Italian-born violist Ettore Causa was awarded both the P. Schidlof Prize and the John Barbirolli Prize for the most beautiful sound at the prestigious Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition in England in 2000. He has since made soloist and recital appearances in many of the major venues around the world. A devoted chamber musician, Mr. Causa was a member of the Aria Quartet from 2004 to 2009 and currently plays in the Poseidon Quartet. He is frequently invited to prestigious chamber music festivals, where he has performed with such internationally renowned musicians as the Tokyo String Quartet, Pascal Rogé, Boris Berman, Thomas Adès, Ana Chumachenco, Natalie Clein, Alberto Lysy, Thomas Demenga, Anthony Marwood, Ulf Wallin, William Bennett, and others.

About the Artists

Julie Eskar began her violin studies with Michael Malmgren and continued them under Professor Milan Vitek of the Royal Academy of Music, before undertaking further studies with Professor Gerhard Schultz at the University of Music and Performing Arts (Vienna). She has participated in master classes given by Alberto Lysy, Ana Chumachenco, Sylvia Rosenberg, Zacher Bron, Christian Tetzlaff, Ruggero Ricci, and Ivry Gitlis, among others. Julie Eskar has received many prizes and scholarships, including the Hvass Foundation Travel Scholarship, the Holstebro Music Prize, and the Jacob Gade Music Prize. She was also awarded the prestigious Aennchen and Eigil Harby Foundation Travel Scholarship following her debut concert from the soloist class of the Royal Academy of Music.

Julie Eskar has performed as a soloist with several orchestras in Denmark and abroad, including the Copenhagen Philharmonic, Aalborg Symphony Orchestra, Belgian Radio Orchestra, Austrian Chamber Philharmonia, Danish Radio Sinfonietta, and the Copenhagen Chamber Soloists.

Julie Eskar is the concertmaster in the Danish Radio Sinfonietta. She plays a 1716 David Teccler violin from the Goof Foundation.

About the Artists

Clive Greensmith, cello, joined the Tokyo String Quartet in June, 1999. As a member of the quartet, he is in residence at the Yale School of Music and the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival.

A graduate of the Royal Northern College of Music and the Musikhochschule in Cologne, his principal teachers were Donald McCall and Boris Pergamenschikow. He has held the position of principal cellist of London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. As a soloist, he has appeared with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic, English Chamber Orchestra, Mostly Mozart Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic, and the RAI Orchestra of Rome. He has collaborated with distinguished musicians such as András Schiff, Midori, Claude Frank, and Steven Isserlis, and has won several prizes including second place in the inaugural Premio Stradivari held in Cremona, Italy.

Mr. Greensmith has served on the faculties of the Royal Northern College of Music, Yehudi Menuhin School, and San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and is currently on the faculty of New York University. Mr. Greensmith’s recording of Brahms sonatas with Boris Berman was recently released on the Biddulph label.

Upcoming Events

New Music New Haven

Hung-Kuan Chen, piano

february 2

february 8

Morse Recital Hall | Thursday | 8 pm Featuring Ezra Laderman’s Sonata No. 5 performed by Amy J. Yang. Also on the program are new works by Daniel Wohl, Paul Kerekes, Stephen Feigenbaum, Jordan Kuspa, and Matthew Welch.

Free Admission

Morse Recital Hall | Wednesday | 8 pm Horowitz Piano Series Beethoven: Sonata in E minor, Op. 90; Sonata in A major, Op. 101; Sonata in B-flat major, Op. 106, “Hammerklavier.”

“A virtuoso...deeply probing, imaginative player with an enormous palette of tone colors.” —Boston Globe Tickets $12–22, Students $6–9

London Haydn Quartet february 4 & 5 Saturday, 8 pm | Sunday, 3 pm Collection of Musical Instruments With Eric Hoeprich, clarinet. Haydn: Quartet in G Major, Op. 33, No. 5, and Quartet in D Major, Op. 20, No. 4; Mozart: Clarinet Quintet in A major.

Tickets $20, Seniors $15, Students $10

Così fan tutte february 10–12 Shubert Theater | Fri & Sat 8 pm | Sun 2 pm Yale Opera presents a new production of Mozart’s comedy Così fan tutte. Justin Way, stage director; Speranza Scappucci, conductor; Dane Laffrey, set and costume designer. Tickets $19–41, Students $13, available at www.shubert.com or 203 562-5666.

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P.O. Box 208236, New Haven, CT · 203 432-4158

Robert Blocker, Dean

music.yale.edu