NMNH: Martin Bresnick & David Lang

NEWMUSIC NEWHAVEN christopher theofanidis & hannah lash 路 artistic directors

featuring faculty composers

MARTIN BRESNICK DAVID LANG and music by Yale graduate composers Morse Recital Hall 路 February 6, 2014

Robert Blocker, Dean

Christopher Theofanidis & Hannah Lash, Artistic Directors

Michael Laurello b. 1981

Rose Michael Laurello, harpsichord and synthesizer

William Gardiner b. 1987

Songs from DictĂŠe Molly Netter, soprano Nayeon Kim, Corin Lee, violins* Jurrian van der Zanden, cello* Caroline Ross, oboe * Esther Park, harpsichord, continuo organ William Gardiner, electronics Jacob Ashworth, conductor

BĂĄlint Karosi b. 1979

The Final Wait (text by Audrey Fernandez-Frazer) Sara Couden, mezzo-soprano Nayeon Kim and Corin Lee, violins Jurrian van der Zanden, cello Esther Park, harpsichord intermission

James Rubino b. 1989

Progenie Corin Lee, violin Jurrian van der Zanden, cello Caroline Ross, oboe Esther Park, harpsichord Jesse Limbacher, conductor

As a courtesy to the performers and audience, silence all electronic devices.

Please do not leave the hall during selections. Photography or recording of any kind is prohibited.

Martin Bresnick b. 1946

Josephine, The Singer Sarita Kwok, violin

David Lang b. 1957

for love is strong (2008) Soprano Kathleen Allan Molly Netter Sarah Yanovitch Alto Mindy Chu Sara Couden Megan Kaes Long Tenor Christian Crocker Kyle Stegall Gene Stenger Bass Mark Biggins Edmund Milly Andrew Padgett *Member of the Yale Baroque Ensemble

TEXTS William Gardiner Songs from DictĂŠe compiled of excerpts from the book DictĂŠe (1982)

by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha (1951-1982)

Covering. Draping. Clothing. Sheathe.

Shroud.

It murmurs inside. It murmurs. Inside is the pain of speech the pain to say. Larger still.

Greater than is the pain not to say. To not say.

Says nothing against the pain to speak. It festers inside. The wound, liquid, dust. Must break. Must void.

Conceal. Ambush.

Superimpose. Overlay. Screen.

Disguise. Cache. Mask. Veil.

Obscure. Cloud. Shade. Eclipse. Covert.

Say, say so.

Tell me the story Of all these things.

and it would be the word. Induce it to speak to take

Beginning wherever you wish, tell even us.

to take it takes.

It was the first day She had come from a far tonight at dinner the families would ask How was the first day at least to say the least of it possible the answer would be there is but one thing There is someone From a far

TEXTS Bálint Karosi The Final Wait Text by Audrey Fernandez-Fraser Waiting, in my final hours, anxious and alone, Clock ticking, unforgiving. What will come with the striking bell?

My heart-beats come faster, wishing time would come slower Closer and closer I’m coming to the unknown hour

What is this illuminating light, in my ruminating mind— Is it from the sun that warmed my childhood walks?

Is it of the Son, that humble holy one?

Sun or Son, Lux aeterna, will my dwindling candle’s flame become you?

Waiting for my final hour, hopeful, and helpless.

The chatter of old friends, the hard and softness of furniture Will anything be familiar where I’m going?

My heart beats, the clock ticks toward the dawn of eternity’s light

Angels, I can see you! Will you lift this heavy body?

Share your feathered wings with me, Lift me flying to a perpetual place Of growing life, where strong hearts beat

My heart-beats hasten. I fear.

Evil spirits! Dead spirits!

Wailing in my frightened ears, devouring my flesh.

Night grows darker, my mind is dim.

Yet – I see a table, set with delights, And people whose hearts have struggled and laughed with mine My beloved ones gather to sing and feast, faces lit with life.

Is it Heaven I’m seeing, or only Earth?

Heaven! In heaven are there pastures? I see verdant pastures, They are irrigated with waters from rivers of life, flowing from tears of love.

Lavender and jades, grains and bushes, forests!

And beyond them, flocks of creatures, strange and kind

I wait, I wait for my end to come, an answer to my questions: I cannot resist the pulse of time, the final beat and bell My heart hopes, heavy and hoping.

I’m ready for the rest

TEXTS David Lang for love is strong (after the song of songs) words and music by David Lang after the song of songs

for love is strong

like a roe for love is strong like a young hart like my dove like wine. like the foxes like oil, pouring like the little foxes like wine like our vines like the tents of Kedar like tender grapes. like the curtains of Solomon. like a roe like one who wanders by the flocks like a young hart like women like the roes like the horses of Pharaoh’s chariots. like the hinds of the field like perfume in the vineyards of Engedi. like pillars of smoke like doves’ eyes. like silver like the rose of Sharon like gold like the lily of the valleys. like love, for the daughters of Jerusalem. like the lily among thorns like doves’ eyes like the apple tree among all other trees like a flock of goats like leaping upon the mountains like a flock of sheep that are newly shorn like skipping upon the hills. like a thread of scarlet like a pomegranate

TEXTS like the tower of David, where hang the shields of mighty men.

like his garden like his pleasant fruits.

like two young roes, which feed among the lilies.

like my garden like my myrrh

for love is strong

like my spice like my honeycomb

like the mountain of myrrh

like my honey

like the hill of frankincense.

like my wine

like one chain of your neck.

like my milk

like wine

like my dove

like all spices

like myrrh

like the honeycomb

like my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh

like honey and milk like the smell of Lebanon.

for love is strong

like a garden enclosed like a spring shut up

like another beloved

like a fountain sealed.

like women

like a fountain of gardens

like another beloved

like a well of living waters

like ten thousand.

like streams from Lebanon.

like the most fine gold

like my garden

like a raven.

like the spices thereof

like the eyes of doves

TEXTS like a bed of spices

like the moon

like sweet flowers

like the sun

like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh.

like an army with banners

like gold rings set with beryl

like chariots

like bright ivory overlaid with sapphires.

like the clash of two armies

like pillars of marble

like jewels

like fine gold

like a worker’s skillful hands

like Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.

like a round goblet

like women

like new wheat set about with lilies.

like his garden

like two young roes

like the beds of spices

like a tower of ivory

like the gardens

like ponds

like lilies.

like the tower of Lebanon, looking towards Damascus.

like the lilies. like Carmel like Tirzah like purple like Jerusalem like a palm tree like an army with banners. like clusters of grapes. like a flock of goats like the palm tree like a flock of sheep like the boughs thereof like a piece of a pomegranate like clusters of the vine like my dove like apples like the morning

TEXTS

like the best wine, that goes down sweet, causing the lips of sleepers to speak. like my brother, who sucked my mother’s breasts like the juice of my pomegranate. like a seal upon your heart like a seal upon your arm

for love is strong for love is strong for love is strong

like death like the grave like coals of fire, with a vehement flame. like a wall like a door like a wall like towers like my vineyard, which is mine like a roe like a young hart upon the mountains of spices.

PROFILES + PROGRAM NOTES biography Martin Bresnick

program note Josephine, The Singer

Professor Bresnick’s music has been performed in festivals and concerts throughout the world. He has been acclaimed for compositions in virtually every medium from chamber and symphonic music to film and computer music.

Josephine The Singer takes its title from Franz Kafka’s last published story, “Josephine the Singer or the Mouse People.” This valedictory tale was Kafka’s prescient mediation both on musical divas and also what he considered might be the future of the Jews as a persecuted minority in Europe in the twentieth century.

He has won numerous honors including the Rome Prize, the Stoeger Prize for Chamber Music from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the first Charles Ives Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Aaron Copland Award for teaching from ASCAP, a Berlin Prize Fellowship from the American Academy in Berlin, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He was recently elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has had commissions from the Koussevitzky and Fromm foundations, Chamber Music America, Meet the Composer, and the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as individual ensembles and performers.

Martin Bresnick’s compositions are published

by Carl Fischer Music Publishers, New York; Bote & Bock, Berlin; CommonMuse Music Publishers, New Haven; and have been recorded

by Cantaloupe Records, New World Records, Albany Records, Bridge Records, Composers Recordings Incorporated, Centaur, and Artifact Music. He joined the Yale faculty in 1981 and is currently the coordinator of the composition department. » www.martinbresnick.com

The composition is an extended passacaglia on a subject derived from my earlier work Songs of The Mouse People. This subject itself is found to be consistent with the narrow intervals employed in most mouse melodies.

Josephine The Singer was commissioned by the International Max Rostal competition in Berlin as the required solo composition for violin.

PROFILES + PROGRAM NOTES biography David Lang Passionate, prolific, and complicated, composer David Lang embodies the restless spirit of invention. Lang is at the same time deeply versed in the classical tradition and committed to music that resists categorization, constantly creating new forms.

In the words of The New Yorker, “With his winning of the Pulitzer Prize for the little match girl passion (one of the most original and moving scores of recent years), Lang, once a postminimalist enfant terrible, has solidified his standing as an American master.”

Lang is one of America’s most performed composers and is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, Musical America’s Composer of the Year for 2013, Carnegie Hall’s Debs Composer’s Chair for 2013–2014, the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, ISPA’s 2013 Performing Artist of the Year, the Rome Prize, the BMW Music-Theater Prize (Munich), a Bessie Award, an OBIE Award, and grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The commercial recording of the little match girl passion received the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Small Ensemble Performance.

Recent works include the concerto man made for the ensemble Sō Percussion and a consortium of orchestras, including the BBC Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic; love fail for the early music vocal ensemble Anonymous 4, with libretto and staging by Lang, at the Kennedy Center, UCLA, and the Next Wave Festival at BAM; reason to believe for Trio Mediaeval and

the Norwegian Radio Orchestra; death speaks, for Shara Worden, Bryce Dessner, Nico Muhly, and Owen Pallett, at Carnegie Hall; writing on water, for the London Sinfonietta, with libretto and visuals by English filmmaker Peter Greenaway; and the difficulty of crossing a field, a fully staged opera with the Kronos Quartet.

Lang is Professor of Music Composition at the Yale School of Music and is co-founder and coartistic director of New York’s legendary music collective Bang on a Can. » davidlangmusic.com program note for love is strong for love is strong is a setting of a text I made by finding certain things in the Song of Songs.

The original text is of course the most passionate and erotic of the ancient Jewish books, and it is always strange to encounter it in the Bible. What is such carnality doing in such a holy place? How can this possibly be a spiritual text? Although it describes the relationship of a man and a woman, the Jewish tradition says that it uses the relationship between lovers as a metaphor for one’s relationship to God. The entire book is not only a metaphor, but it is made of metaphors. What is your love like? Like wine. What is your name like? Like oil pouring forth. How black am I? Like the tents of Kedar. Everything in the book begins with a comparison, leading you to the things you cannot see or feel or know by comparing them to those things you can. For my text I took every comparison in the original –every metaphor, every simile–and listed them, beginning with the word ‘like.’ The title comes from one of the last of these comparisons–‘‘for love is strong as death,’’ which seems altogether too terrifying to be only about relationships between people.

PROFILES + PROGRAM NOTES biography Michael Laurello Michael Laurello is an American composer and pianist. He has written for ensembles and soloists such as Sō Percussion (upcoming), Sound Icon, the 15.19 Ensemble, NotaRiotous (the Boston Microtonal Society), guitarist Flavio Virzì, soprano Sarah Pelletier, pianist/composer John McDonald, and clarinetist and linguist/music theorist Ray Jackendoff.Laurello is an Artist Diploma candidate in Composition at the Yale School of Music, studying with Christopher Theofanidis and David Lang. He earned an M.A. in Composition from Tufts University, studying under John McDonald, and a B.Mus. in Music Synthesis (Electronic Production and Design) from Berklee College of Music, where he also studied jazz piano performance with Laszlo Gardony and Steve Hunt. He has been selected as a finalist in the 2014 American Composers Forum National Composition Competition, and was recognized in 2012 with an Emerging Artist Award from the St. Botolph Club Foundation (Boston, MA). He has attended composition festivals at highSCORE (Pavia, Italy) and Etchings (Auvillar, France). In addition to his work as a composer and performer, Laurello is a recording and mixing engineer. biography William Gardiner William Gardiner is an Australian composer currently pursuing doctoral studies at the Yale School of Music, where he has worked with Martin Bresnick, Aaron Jay Kernis, and David Lang.

The product of a diverse musical pedigree, he was born to a pair of passionate early music enthusiasts, and spent his earliest years immersed in early music. His teenage years were accom-

panied by the revelation of rock music, leading to him taking up the drum set. Upon finishing high school, he had one of his first compositional efforts selected for performance at the Sydney Opera House. Gardiner’s work has grown to take on the influence of a wide range of music— classical and non-classical, electronic and acoustic, popular and unpopular—as he forges his own musical direction, and has been credited as “absolutely stunning… a bright beacon of things to come” (Adam Mills, Mess+Noise) and as having “a strong sense of grand sonic movement” (Adam Elmer, Cyclic Defrost).

Born in 1987, Gardiner previously attended the University of Sydney, where he received degrees in Arts and Law. “a coherent vision and a rare ability to incorporate outside influences seamlessly into it ...

Classical music needs more new blood like this.”

Anthony D’Amico, brainwashed.com program note Songs from Dictée The world of early music performance is close to my heart, as I come from a family with a special connection to that practice. I have had the chance to write for early instruments on one previous occasion, and that time around I tried to make a very conscious connection to baroque repertoire and to offer a reinterpretation of some of its musical features. This time I am trying to do something that is much more in my own musical style, but of course I am building it out of the same lexicon of sounds—the sound of these early instruments which I know and love so well. The text for this song is compiled out of excerpts from the book Dictée (1982) by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha (1951-1982). For each of the five sections of this song, there is text from a different section of the book.

PROFILES + PROGRAM NOTES biography Bálint Karosi Hungarian composer and organist Bálint Karosi is currently Minister of Music at First Lutheran Church of Boston, where he has directed an active music program since 2007. He is a candidate for the MMA in composition at the Yale School of Music, where he is working on his compositions and a doctoral thesis on baroque improvisation techniques. As an active performer he has performed in the United States and in Europe playing a variety of instruments and repertoire. As an internationally acclaimed performer of the music of J.S. Bach, he has been invited as a guest conductor for the 2013–14 season of Bach at the Sem in St. Louis, Missouri and was the featured soloist and lecturer at the 2013 Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival in Ohio. As an organ instructor, he taught at Boston University in Spring 2012 and at UMass Boston in 2011–2013, and is scheduled to teach a theory course at the Yale Department of Music in spring 2014. His compositions are published

by Wayne Leopold Editions and Concordia Publishing House. Bálint is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory, Conservatoire de Musique de Genève, and the Liszt Academy in Budapest. program note The Final Wait Original text by Audrey Fernandez-Fraser In “The Final Wait,” I express the progression of feelings and afterlife imaginings that beset my heart and mind when I ponder the fateful bell-strikes that sound throughout the poignantly joyful alto aria, BWV 53. When Balint asked me to base my poem on this aria, he suggested a ritornello form. This form lends itself naturally to the speaker’s vacillation between impressions of her present state–on a sickbed, perhaps–and visions of what death might bring. But the speaker does not stagnate in her ruminations.

She journeys through territories of memory and imagination, beholding alternately fearsome and beautiful inventions of her mind, or perhaps premonitions of a life to come. Through the poem, she moves from anxious waiting, into a mysterious light, then back to her lonely, deadening surroundings. Then, more vividly, she sees angels, demons, friends, and heaven’s landscapes. By the end of the aria, she is “ready.”

Perhaps her diverse musings have satisfied her curious mind, perhaps she is simply exhausted; or maybe she has glimpsed truth in places as yet uncharted by us, and there found comfort.

— Audrey Fernandez-Fraser biography James Rubino James Cruickshank Rubino (b. 1989) is a graduate student at the Yale School of Music. While at Yale, James has worked with Hannah Lash, Christopher Theofanidis, and Aaron Jay Kernis.

James graduated in 2012 with a bachelor degree in music composition from the Cleveland Institute of Music, studying with Keith Fitch.

Previously Rubino studied with Mark Phillips, Ching-chu Hu, and David Tsimpidis.

James studied violin with Carol Ruzicka, Marjorie Bagley, Paul Kantor, and Deborah Price, and was part of the “opus.” string quartet for five years, winning the silver medal at the 2006 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and performing at Carnegie Hall on the From the Top television show.

PROFILES + PROGRAM NOTES

The Yale Baroque Ensemble is a postgraduate ensemble at the Yale School of Music dedicated to the highest level of study and performance of the Baroque repertoire. It is directed by baroque violinist Robert Mealy.

Using the Yale Collection of Musical Instruments’ set of new baroque instruments, members of the Ensemble go through an intensive one-year program of study, immersing themselves in the chamber and solo repertoire from 1600 to 1785 to create idiomatic and virtuosic performances of this music.

The Yale Baroque Ensemble plays on the Collection’s set of new baroque string instruments made by Jason Viseltear of New York City, after del Gesù, Amati, and Testore. Bows are also from the Collection, made by David Hawthorne and Christopher English after seventeenth- and eighteenth-century originals.

The members of the Yale Baroque Ensemble in 2013–14 are Nayeon Kim and Corin Lee, violins; Caroline Ross, oboe; and Jurrian van der Zanden, cello.

NEW MUSIC NEW HAVEN Artistic Directors: Hannah Lash, Christopher Theofanidis Manager: Andrew W. Parker Music Librarian: Roberta Senatore Production Assistant: Brent LaFlam Office Assistant: Timothy Gocklin Assistant Conductors: Jonathan Brandani Louis Lohraseb

Stage Crew: Jonathan Allen Garrett Arney Bogdan Dumitriu Philip Browne Patrick Durbin Jonathan Hammonds Christopher Hwang Stephen Ivany Fiona Last Louis Lohraseb Jacob Mende-Fridkis Thomas Park Douglas Perry Zachary Quortrup John Searcy Elisabeth Shafer Daniel Stone Terrence Sweeney Gregory Vartian-Foss Georgi Videnov Mari Yoshinaga

Music Librarians: Batmyagmar Erdenebat Darren Hicks Matheus Garcia Souza Michael Holloway Allan Hon Choha Kim Hye Jin Koh Fiona Last Michael Laurello David Mason Alan Ohkubo Nicole Percifield Rachel Perfecto Elisa Rodriguez Sadaba

DAVID LANG · COLLECTED STORIES Carnegie Hall • April 22 – 29 Music and storytelling began their lives together —music to accompany heroic tales, music to worship by, music to suggest the emotions running deep below the surface of a text. Not all music tells a story—how could it? It is the most abstract of all the arts. And yet we often listen to music as if it has a tale to tell, teasing a narrative out of all the tunes and harmonies and changes.

My series – collected stories – divides up the narrative world into topics so we can see how the music changes from subject to subject.

Music from different cultures, times, environments, and sound worlds, plus some exciting commissions, are placed next to each other, highlighting their narrative similarities, and telling a larger kind of story about how we listen, experience sound and time, and use music to make sense of the world around us.

— David Lang Tuesday, April 22, 2014 at 6 pm hero Benjamin Bagby, storyteller & Medieval harp Harry Partch Institute Ensemble benjamin bagby Scenes from Beowulf harry partch The Wayward Wednesday, April 23, 2014 at 6 PM spirit Huun-Huur-Tu Julian Wachner, conductor; Nicholas Phan, tenor; Dashon Burton, baritone; Paul Jacobs, organ; ToniMarie Marchioni, oboe; Shelley Monroe Huang, bassoon; Emily Popham Gillins, violin; Saeunn Thorsteinsdottir, cello TENET • Jolle Greenleaf, artistic director Tuvan Throat Singing arvo pärt Passio * World Premiere, commissioned by Carnegie Hall

Thursday, April 24, 2014 at 6 PM love/loss The Uncluded • Aesop Rock, Kimya Dawson Ensemble Signal • Brad Lubman, conductor Iarla Ó Lionáird, voice Sam Amidon, banjo and voice Nadia Sirota, viola Nico Muhly, electronics Program to include: traditional The Two Sisters julia wolfe Cruel Sister nico muhly The Only Tune Saturday, April 26, 2014 at 6 PM travel Louis Lortie, piano franz liszt Années de pèlerinage (complete) Sunday, April 27, 2014 at 6 PM (post) folk Alarm Will Sound • Alan Pierson, artistic director & conductor Iarla Ó Lionáird, voice Kiera Duffy, soprano Kaki King, guitar kaki king New Work * kate moore The Art of Levitation * donnacha dennehy Grá agus Bás richard ayres No. 42 In the Alps (U.S. Premiere) Tuesday, April 29, 2014 at 6 PM memoir Paul Lazar, actor; Steven Schick, percussion; Augustin Hadelich, violin; David Lang, director; Eric Southern, lighting designer john cage Indeterminacy john cage 27’10.554” for a Percussionist david lang mystery sonatas * To learn more about David Lang’s Collected Stories, visit www.carnegiehall.org/lang.

YSM students, faculty, and staff: Please look for a discount code in your email inbox in late March.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Joel Wizansky, piano, and friends february 13 Morse Recital Hall | Thursday | 8 pm Joel Wizansky, piano, and guests play music by Schumann, Bartók, and Fauré.

Free Admission

La Bohème february 14–16 Yale Opera Shubert Theater | Fri & Sat, 8 pm | Sun, 2 pm Yale Opera presents a new production of Puccini’s beloved classic, La Bohème.

Giuseppe Grazioli conducts, and Michael Gieleta is the stage director.

With the Philharmonia Orchestra of Yale.

Tickets $19–50, Students $13, available at the Shubert Theater Box Office, 247 College St. www.shubert.com • 203 562-5666

Artis Quartet february 18 Oneppo Chamber Music Series Morse Recital Hall | Tuesday | 8 pm Mozart: Quartet in D major, K. 575; Zemlinsky: Quartet No. 4; Brahms: Quartet in A minor, Op. 51, No. 2.

Tickets start at $30 • Students $12

Peter Frankl, Wei-Yi Yang, and Boris Berman, pianos february 19 Horowitz Piano Series Morse Recital Hall | Wednesday | 8 pm Music of Brahms and Schumann for piano four hands and two pianos, including Brahms’ Variations on a Theme by Haydn, Op. 56b, and Sonata in F minor, Op. 34b.

Tickets start at $12 • Students $6

Guitar Extravaganza february 22 Special Events All Day | Sprague Hall & Sudler Hall Concerts, talks, master classes, workshops, and more. Benjamin Verdery, artistic director.

Guest artists include David Tanenbaum, René Izquierdo, and Elina Chekan, among others. For the full schedule, visit: music.yale.edu/concerts/guitar-extravaganza

Yale Percussion Group february 23 Student Ensembles Morse Recital Hall | Sunday | 8 pm Robert van Sice, director Free Admission

Concert Programs & Box Office: Krista Johnson, Carol Jackson Communications: Dana Astmann, Monica Ong Reed, Austin Kase Operations: Tara Deming, Chris Melillo Piano Curators: Brian Daley, William Harold Recording Studio: Eugene Kimball P.O. Box 208246, New Haven, CT · 203 432-4158

music.yale.edu Robert Blocker, Dean