Robert Blocker, Dean
ya le in new yor k
Impressions on the French Tradition Music from Schoenberg’s Society for Private Musical Performances
David Shifrin, Artistic Director Friday, December 15, 2017 • 4:30 pm Morse Recital Hall Sunday, March 4, 2018 • 7:30 pm Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall
yale in new york
Impressions on the French Tradition December 15, 2017 • Morse Recital Hall March 4, 2018 • Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall
Claude Debussy 1862–1918
Proses lyriques, L. 84 I. De rêve II. De grève III. De fleurs IV. De soir Janna Baty, mezzo-soprano A F Jill Brunelle, piano
Debussy arr. Benno Sachs
Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun), L. 86 Benjamin Morency, flute S Lauren Williams, oboe S Giovanni Bertoni, clarinet S Hilda Huang, harmonium S June Han, harp A F Luri Lee, violin Jeffrey Dyrda, violin Hezekiah Leung, viola Jonathan Lo, cello Jordan Calixto, double bass S INTERMISSION
yale school of music
Maurice Ravel 1875–1937
String Quartet in F major, M. 35 I. Allegro moderato II. Assez vif, très rythmé III. Très lent IV. Vif et agité Rolston String Quartet Fellowship Quartet-in-Residence Luri Lee, violin Jeffrey Dyrda, violin Hezekiah Leung, viola Jonathan Lo, cello
S
Yale School of Music student Yale School of Music alumnus F Yale School of Music faculty A
As a courtesy to the performers and audience, please silence all electronic devices. Please do not leave the hall during selections. Photography or recording of any kind is prohibited.
Artist Profiles
About the Yale School of Music Established in 1894, the Yale School of Music maintains a position of international leadership in the training of performers and composers. A professional graduate school and the only school of music in the Ivy League, the Yale School of Music observes a highly selective admissions process, admitting approximately 200 students who come from the finest American and international conservatories and universities to study with a distinguished faculty. The School of Music has one of the highest international profiles at Yale: approximately forty percent of students come from countries outside the United States, and the School engages globally in partnerships with leading conservatories, festivals, and opera companies. Alumni of the Yale School of Music hold major positions throughout the music world. Yale graduates perform with and conduct preeminent American and international orchestras, and voice alumni earn renown in professional opera companies. Reflecting the School’s strong chamber music program, many graduates have founded or joined prominent chamber ensembles. Yale composition alumni enjoy noted success, with continual premieres of new music. Along with artistic accomplishment, Yale School of Music graduates provide strong leadership in guiding the course of numerous academic and cultural institutions. The Yale School of Music awards the doctor of musical arts, master of musical arts, and master of music degrees, as well as the artist diploma and the certificate in performance. There is also a five-year
B.A./M.M. program for undergraduates in Yale College. » music.yale.edu Janna Baty ’93mm, mezzo-soprano Praised by The Boston Globe for having “a rich, viola-like tone and a rapturous, luminous lyricism,” mezzo-soprano Janna Baty has sung with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Daejeon Philharmonic, Hamburgische Staatsoper, L’Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Tallahassee Symphony, Tuscaloosa Symphony, Longwood Symphony, Hartford Symphony Orchestra, the Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Eugene Opera, Opera North, and Boston Lyric Opera. She has sung under the batons of James Levine, Seiji Ozawa, Michel Plasson, Carl Davis, Robert Spano, Steuart Bedford, Stephen Lord, Stefan Asbury, Gil Rose, David Hoose, and Shinik Hahm, among numerous others. As a soloist, chamber musician, and recitalist, she has performed at festivals worldwide, including the Aldeburgh and Britten festivals in England, the Varna Festival in Bulgaria, the Semanas Musicales de Frutillar Festival in Chile, and the Tanglewood, Yale Summer School of Music/Norfolk Chamber Music, Monadnock, and Coastal Carolina festivals in the United States. A noted specialist in contemporary music, Ms. Baty has worked alongside many celebrated composers, including John Harbison, Bernard Rands, Yehudi Wyner, Sydney Hodkinson, Peter Child, Reza Vali, Paul Salerni, and Paul Moravec on performances of their music.
Artist Profiles
Ms. Baty has enjoyed a long collaboration with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and with that organization recorded the critically lauded Vali: Folk Songs (sung in Persian), Lukas Foss’ opera Griffelkin, the world-premiere recording of Eric Sawyer’s Civil War-era opera Our American Cousin, and John Harbison’s Mirabai Songs. She joined the faculty of Yale School of Music in 2008. Jill Brunelle, piano Jill Brunelle is a repertoire pianist at Yale University, working with the Yale Opera, Yale Drama, Institute of Sacred Music, and Yale College. She is also the Yale Opera Chorus Master, preparing ensembles for Die Zauberflöte, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Marriage of Figaro, and La Bohème. She was music director for The Apple Tree, Trouble in Tahiti, and The Medium at the Yale Cabaret. Ms. Brunelle is the music director at the Foote School Summer Theater. She is a frequent collaborator and recitalist, performing with area ensembles, including Orchestra New England and Long Wharf Theater. Her upcoming projects include serving as music director for Steven Sondheim’s Passion for the Yale School of Drama, and collaborative vocal recitals in New York, Hartford, and Madison, Conn. Ms. Brunelle has served on the coaching faculties of the Boston University Opera Institute, Tufts University, Hartt School, and the New England Conservatory. She has been a member of contemporary music ensembles, performing many world
premieres at various festivals including Bang On A Can in New York City. Giovanni Bertoni ’18mm, clarinet Italian clarinetist Giovanni Bertoni is currently a first year master of music candidate at the Yale School of Music where he studies with David Shifrin. Bertoni is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory with a bachelor of music in clarinet performance, which he received under the guidance of Richard Hawkins. During the 2015–2016 season, Bertoni was selected by the Oberlin Conservatory faculty to perform at The John F. Kennedy Center for the performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and has toured with the Oberlin Orchestra and Contemporary Music Ensemble. Bertoni’s festival appearances include the MusicaRivaFestival, soundSCAPE new music festival, Round Top Festival Hill Institute (Texas), and the Oberlin in Italy festival. Mr. Bertoni is a finalist and substitute for the New World Symphony’s 2016–2017 season in Miami, Florida. He has participated in Cleveland’s Stars in the Classics concert series and the Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings. Bertoni is also committed to exploring jazz, Brazilian, and Middle Eastern music. Although music is the main focus of Giovanni’s life, he also enjoys hiking and swimming. Jordan Calixto ’18mm, double bass Jordan Calixto is a second-year master of music candidate studying with Donald Palma at the Yale School of Music. Last year, Jordan received his undergraduate
Artist Profiles
degree from The Juilliard School studying double bass with Albert Laszlo. Jordan attended the Aspen Music Festival under the Vincent Wilkinson scholarship in 2013, the National Orchestral Institute in 2015, the Atlantic Music Festival in 2015, the Orford Music Festival in 2016, Caroga Lake Music Festival, and recently the National Arts Centre Young Artists Program run by virtuoso violinist Pinchas Zukerman. Last summer Jordan was asked to perform with a quartet at the White House for President Barack Obama’s last state dinner with the prime minister of Singapore.
orchestras, New York City Opera, Boston Symphony Orchestra, and frequently performs with the New York Philharmonic. Han has been a guest artist at the Santa Fe, Norfolk, OK Mozart, Skaneateles, and Moab music festivals. She has premiered and/or recorded works by Wuorinen, Ruders, Stockhausen, Carter, Zorn, Kernis, Scelsi, and Françaix, to name a few, and with her mother, Young-Ja Lee. Ms. Han is currently on the faculties of the Yale School of Music, the Columbia University Music Performance Program, the PreCollege Division at The Juilliard School, and the Bowdoin International Music Festival. She occasionally holds master classes in her native Korea.
June Han ’96mm ’97ad, harp Born to Korean diplomat parents, June Han lived in Belgium, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, The Netherlands, and France, prior to her arrival in the United States in 1994. She holds a Premier Prix for Harp and for Chamber Music from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, a master of music degree and artist diploma from the Yale School of Music, and a doctor of musical arts degree from The Juilliard School. She was a student of Marie-Claire Jamet and Nancy Allen. An active proponent of chamber and contemporary music, she performs extensively in Korea, France, and New York City. She is a member of the Sequitur Ensemble, Ensemble 21, and the Riverdale Sinfonietta, and has performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Jupiter Chamber Players, Cygnus Ensemble, Speculum Musicae, and The Group for Contemporary Music. She has collaborated with L’Orchestre de Paris, the Kirov Opera and Mariinsky
Hilda Huang ’19mm, harmonium Pianist Hilda Huang came to international attention after being awarded first prize at the 2014 Leipzig International Bach Competition. Her performances of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven have been hailed for achieving “philosophical depths” (West-Allgemeine Zeitung) and for possessing an “alluring extroversion” (New York Concert Review). She has been praised for a “mind that can multi-task and ears that can ... ‘multi-listen’” (San Francisco Examiner). Huang has appeared in recital at the Leipzig Gewandhaus, at BASF Ludwigshafen, and at both the Leipzig and Montréal Bach Festivals as part of the Steinway Prizewinners’ Concert Network. In 2016, she was a Protégé Project young artist at Chamber Music Northwest and in 2017 was a Steans Fellow at the Ravinia Festival.
Artist Profiles
Huang studies with Melvin Chen in pursuit of her master of music degree at the Yale School of Music. She graduated magna cum laude from Yale College in 2017, receiving a bachelor of science in chemistry with distinction. She is a 2013 U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts. Benjamin Morency ’18mm, flute Benjamin Morency is a Canadian flutist currently persuing a master of music degree at the Yale School of Music with professor Ransom Wilson. He is a graduate of the Montreal Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Marie-Andrée Benny. He has participated in multiple music festivals such as Banff, the Young Artist Program at Ottawa, the and Domaine Forget Academy, and was also part of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada during its 2016 tour. He has participated in master classes and lessons with such internationally renowned flutists as Emmanuel Pahud, Patrick Gallois, Philippe Bernold, Jeanne Baxtresser, Michael Hasel, Susane Hoeppner, and others. As a soloist, he performed with the Montreal Orchestre Métropolitain (Montreal Metropolitan Orchestra) in October 2014, and has appeared with the Montreal Conservatory String Orchestra.
Rolston String Quartet Fellowship Quartet-in-Residence Luri Lee, violin Jeffrey Dyrda, violin Hezekiah Leung, viola Jonathan Lo, cello The First Prize laureate of the 12th Banff International String Quartet Competition, the Rolston String Quartet was named among the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s 2016 “30 Hot Canadian Classical Musicians Under 30.” Recently, Musical Toronto said, “they performed with a maturity and cohesion rivaling the best string quartets in the world.” A winner of Astral Artists’ 2016 National Auditions, the quartet was also the Grand Prize winner of the 31st Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition, as well as prizewinners at the inaugural M-Prize competition (2016) and the 2016 Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition. On the heels of their Banff win, the Rolstons immediately embarked on the competition’s tour in the 2016–2017 season, which took them to Germany, Italy, Austria, Canada, and the United States. In the 2017–2018 season, they will perform throughout Canada, the United States, Europe, and Israel. Highlights include appearances in such venues as the Smithsonian, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Koerner Hall at the Toronto Royal Conservatory of Music, and the Esterházy Palace. In the fall of 2017, the Rolston String Quartet began its tenure as the Yale School of Music’s fellowship quartet-in-residence. The quartet has also served as the graduate
Artist Profiles
quartet-in-residence at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music and has participated in residencies and fellowships at the Académie musicale de Villecroze, Aspen Music Festival, Banff Centre, McGill International String Quartet Academy, Yale Summer School of Music/Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Robert Mann String Quartet Institute, St. Lawrence String Quartet Seminar, and the Yehudi Menuhin Chamber Music Festival.
Lauren Williams ’18mma, oboe
Notable collaborations for the Rolston String Quartet include performances with renowned artists Andrés Díaz, Gilbert Kalish, Mark Morris, Donald Palma, Jon Kimura Parker, and Miguel da Silva. Additionally, the quartet has worked with composers John Luther Adams and Brian Current. Their primary mentors include the Brentano String Quartet (the Yale School of Music’s quartet-in-residence), James Dunham, Norman Fischer, and Kenneth Goldsmith. The quartet has received additional guidance from the St. Lawrence String Quartet, Barry Shiffman, Miguel da Silva, and Alastair Tait.
As an orchestral musician, Lauren has performed with the New York City Ballet, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and the Virginia Symphony Orchestra. She has received fellowships from the Tanglewood Music Center, Music Academy of the West, and has performed with the Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra.
The Rolston String Quartet was formed in the summer of 2013 at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity’s Chamber Music Residency. The group takes its name from Canadian violinist Thomas Rolston, founder and longtime director of the Music and Sound Programs at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Luri Lee plays a Carlo Tononi violin, generously on loan from Shauna Rolston Shaw. The Rolston String Quartet is endorsed by Jargar Strings of Denmark.
Oboist Lauren Williams is a versatile, exciting musician and teaching artist active in the New York City area. Her performances have been praised by the New York Times, the Charleston Post and Courier, and the Santa Barbara News-Press, among others, and she is dedicated to promoting and performing new works for her instrument.
A 2010 Presidential Scholar in the Arts, Lauren completed her bachelor and master of music degrees at The Juilliard School in 2014 and 2016, as a student of Elaine Douvas and Nathan Hughes. Upon completing her bachelor’s degree, she was the recipient of the John Erskine Commencement Prize for scholastic and musical achievement. Lauren is currently pursuing a master of musical arts degree at the Yale School of Music where she studies with Stephen Taylor.
notes on the program
The Society for Private Musical Performances Director: Arnold Schoenberg Vienna, November 1921 An excerpt from the 1921 edition of Alban Berg’s Prospectus The Society, founded by Arnold Schoenberg in November 1918, has this purpose: to give artists and friends of art a real and precise knowledge of modern music. It is by no means the purpose of the Society to make propaganda for a certain artistic direction or to be useful to the authors performed, but to serve the members exclusively by establishing clarity instead of the hitherto obscure and problematical relationship to modern music. Thus, it is not a Society for composers, but only for the audience. If joy and pleasure in some of the performed works are awakened, thus encouraging author and work, then this must be considered to be a side effect. But, in the planning of programs, no attention can be paid to this, nor can the opposite always be avoided because our purpose is restricted to giving as perfect a representation of modern music as possible. For the administration of the Society, the following principles are critical: 1. In the selection of works for performance, no specific style is preferred. From Mahler and [Richard] Strauss to the very youngest, the total spectrum of modern music is to be represented, that is, everything that has either a name or physiognomy or character. In general, the Society endeavors to offer its members only the kind of works that reveal the production of a composer at its most characteristic and for the time being, if possible, the most engaging side. For
this reason, there will be considered — in addition to songs — piano pieces, chamber music, smaller choral works, and orchestral works. These, while the Society does not presently have the means to perform them in their original cast, can, for the time being, be reproduced only as arrangements for chamber orchestra (string quintet, piano, harmonium, flute, clarinet, etc.) or in specially adapted piano arrangements for four to eight hands. 2. The preparation of works occurs with the care and thoroughness not to be found in today’s concert life where, in general, one has to make the best of an a priori fixed and always insufficient number of rehearsals. One must go along with this; whereas the number of rehearsals in the Society is always determined by the goal of achieving utmost clarity and fulfillment. As far as the author’s intentions are concerned, unless the ground rules of a good performance are fulfilled, namely, clarity and precision, the works cannot and must not be performed in the Society. 3. The performance of works studied in this manner occurs in the weekly “Evenings” of the Society which are the equivalent of formal concerts. In this current season, from the middle of September, 1921 until the middle of June, 1922, the concerts will take place every Monday evening in the Festival Hall of Engineers and Architects, I., Eschenbachgasse. The establishment of weekly meetings makes it possible, on the one hand, to cover an unusually large repertory within a short time; on the other hand, the Society commands, in this manner, further ways and means to perform music with a view to complete comprehension, namely:
notes on the program
4. By frequent repetition. Every work is not performed just once, but is repeated in different concerts, in general, two to four times, until it can be fully understood. 5. The same goal will be pursued in introductory discussions of the works performed. 6. The performances themselves are removed from the corrupting influence of publicity. Members of the Society are not encouraged to sit in judgment. On the contrary, it would be desirable to get rid of the habit of too rapidly forming judgments, so that the chief aim of the Society can be achieved: understanding. At Society evenings: a) The performances are not public in every respect. Guests are excluded (with the exception of those living abroad). Reviews of the performances in newspapers as well as all publicity for the works or artists is not permitted. b) At the performances, expressions of approval, of displeasure and of gratitude are not permitted. The only success that the author can have is the one that ought to be the most important for him — that he can make himself understood. c) The performers are primarily of the kind that have placed themselves at the disposal of the Society — out of interest to the cause. Through strict selection, mere virtuosity is excluded as are musicians for whom the performed work is not the primary purpose. So far, (31 October 1921), altogether 151 works have been performed. Of these,
only once performed 52 works; 52 more have been once repeated; 40 works have been twice repeated; 29 works three times repeated; 16 works four times repeated; 9 works seven times repeated; one work has been performed eight times. Acceptance of new members occurs one hour before each concert of the Society at the evening box office, or during concert time in the secretary’s office. The member commits himself for one year, starting with the month in which he joins. The members dues are scaled into 7 classes according to the chosen class of seating. This procedure is suited to the inclination of the members to choose a category of seating in accordance with their personal financial status. This presupposes that more affluent members choose one of the first four categories, because the last three classes must remain reserved for members of no means. Membership can be paid once or in installments. – Translated by Judith Karin Meibach
notes on the program
claude debussy Proses lyriques, L. 84 Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun), L. 86 During World War I, there was almost no contact between the musical worlds of Paris and Vienna. Darius Milhaud, who would become a friend of Schoenberg’s after the war, commented, “New music from countries at war with France was no longer readily available. I went to the music shop where I had found previously the Schoenberg piano sets, but to my disappointment there were none of his compositions left, and the only ‘enemy’ works I could buy were a few early ones by Bartók.” In Austria, even though the ban on the performance of works from hostile nations had been lifted in 1918, resentment lingered, especially toward the French who pushed for a prolongation of the punishing allied blockade after hostilities had ceased. Remarkably, despite the animosity, Schoenberg held true to the universalist ideals of his Society for Private Musical Performances, and the exotic, innovative music of Debussy, Dukas, Milhaud, Poulenc, and Satie was often featured on the concerts. Debussy’s Proses lyriques was the third work on the Society’s opening program on December 29, 1918. Also performed that evening were Scriabin’s fourth and seventh piano sonatas and Alfredo Casella’s arrangement of Mahler’s Seventh Symphony for piano, four-hands. Benno Sachs arranged the Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun for chamber ensemble to be performed at Schoenberg’s Society, though, for unknown reasons, it never found its way onto one of the programs. Tonight’s
performance uses the Sachs arrangement with the addition of a harp part created by Yale School of Music Harp Professor June Han from Sachs’ harmonium and piano parts. Sachs and Schoenberg probably did not include the harp for financial reasons, even though the instrument plays a major role in Debussy’s orchestral score. Completed in the years 1892–1893, the group of four melodies entitled Proses lyriques was conceived at the moment in which Debussy was completing both his String Quartet in G minor, Op. 10, and the Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun. Although Debussy wrote many song cycles, this collection is the only one for which he wrote the text himself. His poems were very much influenced by Stéphane Mallarmé, Paul Verlaine, and most notably Charles Baudelaire, all three of whom were founding members of the Symbolist literary movement and all three of whose texts Debussy had set in other cycles. One of the most successful collections that Debussy wrote is titled Five Poems of Baudelaire (1887–1889), the text of which was taken from Baudelaire’s seminal collection Les Fleurs du mal (Flowers of Evil), published in 1857. One of the central ideas of Flowers of Evil is the notion of ennui, meaning boredom or tedium, which also becomes a recurring theme in Proses lyriques. The Symbolist poets were interested in using words to evoke emotions and sensations beyond the direct meaning of the words. For them, the sounds created through alliteration and assonance were just as important as the literal meaning of a word. Consequently, it is very difficult to derive a clear meaning from much of
notes on the program
Symbolist poetry, as is the case in this collection of songs. In Debussy’s setting, there is a sense that the music and the words contradict one another — the poem is dramatic, filled with harsh metaphors, while the music is mainly calm and subdued. Debussy was influenced as well by Richard Wagner’s opera Tristan and Isolde, both in the subject matter of text and in the use of chromatic harmony. Just as the lovers, Tristan and Isolde, can be united only at night, and ultimately in death, so too is Debussy’s narrator drawn to the night. Each of the four songs deals with the Freudian concept that daytime tortures the soul, while the night brings sweet relief. Debussy’s music of the 1890s signaled the beginning of the end of Austro-German musical hegemony and ushered in what is now known as the impressionist musical style. Gustav Doret conducted the premiere of the Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun on December 22, 1894, in the Salle d’Harcourt in Paris. The prelude is a free illustration of Stéphane Mallarmé’s beautiful poem with the same title. Mallarmé wrote about the poem, “I have found an intimate and peculiar manner of depicting and setting down very fugitive impressions. What is frightening is that all these impressions are required to be woven together as in a symphony.” Woven through Mallarmé’s atmospheric verses is a simple narrative: One afternoon, on the sun-baked slope of Mount Etna, the Faun whose thoughts and reveries constitute the poem wakes from a dream. He lustfully pursues or fantasizes about the subject of his dream — two reluctant nymphs. He plays a long soliloquy on his flute, attempts to resurrect the dream, then drifts back to sleep.
After hearing Debussy’s prelude, Mallarmé wrote to the composer: “Your depiction of the afternoon of a faun is not in discord with my text, except that your longing and clarity extend beyond that in my text with finesse, with anticipation, with grandeur.” Debussy captured the elusive nature of Mallarmé’s poem with an entirely new musical imagery. Within the first twenty-eight measures, the meter changes ten times between 6/8, 9/8, and 12/8. He is opening up a musical experience based on a wave-like motion, a kind of ebb and flow rather than something distinct and square. He begins and ends the piece in E major, but everything else within avoids traditional tonal progressions and cadential figures. The tone poem opens with the Faun’s soliloquy — a chromatic line in the flute that serves as the main idea of the entire piece. Each time it returns, Debussy does something different to make it special. The theme is presented twice at the beginning with unresolved punctuations of Wagner’s Tristan chord in the ensemble. This chord also returns again and again, each time leaving the listener off guard, waiting for a resolution. The explicit Wagnerian reference can be seen as Debussy’s way of letting the Germanic world know that he, being French, was also capable of utilizing these harmonies. As the music proceeds from the Faun’s soliloquy in waves of reverie, Debussy defies traditional musical analysis in many ways. Or perhaps he is challenging our desire for security in traditional systems of tempo and harmony. When these are thrown out the window, what are we left with? Simply, beauty! — Jordan Calixto and Sophia Mockler
notes on the program
maurice ravel String Quartet in F major, M. 35 Ravel’s String Quartet in F major is one of his first masterpieces. Composed between 1902–1903, while Ravel was still a student at the Paris Conservatory, it displays the craftsmanship of a mature composer. When the twenty-eight-year-old composer submitted the first movement to a competition at the Conservatory, his failure to comply with the school’s conservative compositional procedures led to his expulsion from the institution. Despite its rocky beginnings, the premiere of the entire quartet in 1904 at the Societé National de Musique by the Heymann Quartet was well received. Ravel dedicated the work to his composition teacher, Gabriel Fauré, who disapproved especially of the last movement and, along with other critics, recommended extensive revisions. However, Claude Debussy, whose string quartet composed ten years earlier was a great influence on the young Ravel advised, “in the name of the gods of music, and in mine, do not change a single note of what you have written.” During his student years, Ravel sought inspiration beyond the walls of the Conservatory by attending soirées where he met Claude Debussy and Erik Satie, and by joining a group of young Parisian poets, artists and intellectuals known as Les Apaches, which included Stéphane Mallarmé, Paul Verlaine, Paul Cézanne, Vincent Van Gogh, Igor Stravinsky, and Manuel de Falla. In this setting, Ravel was able to experiment with all the latest harmonies, shifting meters, unique string textures, and other avant-garde techniques that are evident in his quartet and much of his later music. Another important
influence was the 1889 Paris World Exhibition, which exposed Ravel to the sounds of exotic instruments and pentatonic scales of such ensembles as the Javanese gamelan. Ravel was a master of combining the past and present, and he prized his quartet’s classicism and use of traditional forms. The work is classical in its clear and transparent textures, but new in its lush harmonies, colorful string techniques, metrical variety, hanging dissonances replacing functional harmony, and exploration of nontraditional scales. The first movement is cast in a readily recognizable sonata form, which Ravel infuses with new tone colors and sparkling effects. It presents the thematic material for most of the remainder of the piece. The warm first theme appears over a rising scale in the cello. A soaring second theme differs in its reflective vastness, stated by the violin and viola two octaves apart. The development explores the world of pentatonic and octatonic scales, building up to an intense climax before the reprise of the opening material, which leads the movement to a quiet close, drifting upward in a dream-like manner. The playful second movement is a scherzo, and enters a pizzicato world evocative of Indonesian music. Trills and tremolo effects create textures that also conjure Ravel’s Basque roots. The quieter, lush trio section muted for all the instruments, contrasts with the exotic pizzicato world of the outer sections. The third movement, marked “Very slow,” starts in A minor with the viola introducing the theme. The movement then goes through a series of different tempi. Parts of this movement have an
notes on the program
improvisatory quality, and the use of different textures and string techniques play a large role in creating an almost wistful soundscape. Ravel specified that the finale should be “lively and agitated.” The 5/8 meter, vigorous tremolo, and chromaticism create an almost chaotic atmosphere at the beginning of the exposition. The tremolo accompanies a return of second movement material with strong duple pizzicato against the predominating 5/8. A series of pentatonic figures leads to a varied form of the third movement theme, which itself gives way to what sounds like an improvised version of the opening theme from the first movement. Ravel then takes us to the second theme from the first movement and closes the exposition with a chromatic descent whose last two bars feel like three final breaths. The development works through the thematic material in various chromatic and pentatonic contexts before the tremolo brings us back to the recapitulation, where all the material recurs in its original order. At the beginning of the coda, the viola and cello play a figure that grows into a frenzy with the violin tremolo. Ravel once again fragments all the themes in a final race to the end of the movement on an F major chord. On October 23, 1920, Schoenberg’s Society for Private Musical Performances performed the String Quartet in honor of Ravel, with the composer in attendance. The Society also programmed the work on four other concerts throughout 1919 and 1920. — Bora Kim, Marlea Simpson & Theo van Dyke
texts and translations
claude debussy Proses lyriques, L. 84 Translated by Christopher Goldsack © www.meloditreasury.com I.
De rêve...
Of dreams...
La nuit a des douceurs de femmes! Et les vieux arbres sous la lune d’or, Songent, a celle qui vient de passer la tête emperlée, Maintenant navrée! A jamais navrée! Ils n’ont pas su lui faire signe...
Night has women’s tenderness! And the old trees, under the golden moon, are dreaming of her who has just passed by, her head draped in pearls, now heartbroken, forever heartbroken! They had been unable to beckon to her ...
Toutes! Elles ont passé: Les Frêles, Les Folles, Semant leur rire au gazon grêle, Aux brises frôleuses La caresse charmeuse Des hanches fleurissantes! Hélas! de tout ceci, plus rien qu’un blanc frisson.
All! They have passed by: the Frail women, the Wild ones, sowing their laughter into the fine grass, and, into the brushing breezes, sowing the enchanting caress of blossoming hips! Alas! Of all this, no more than a pale flutter is left.
Les vieux arbres sous la lune d’or, pleurent Leur belles feuilles d’or. Nul ne leur dédiera plus la fièrté des casques d’or Maintenant ternis! A jamais ternis! Les chevaliers sont morts sur le chemin du Graal!
The old trees, under the golden moon, are weeping their beautiful golden leaves. None will ever dedicate the pride of the golden helmets to them again, now tarnished, forever tarnished! The knights died on the path of the Grail!
La nuit a des douceurs de femmes! Des mains semblent frôler les âmes, Mains si folles, si frêles, Au temps où les épées chantaient pour Elles!... D’étranges soupirs s’élèvent sous les arbres. Mon âme! c’est du rêve ancien qui t’étreint!
Night has women’s tenderness! Hands seem to caress the souls, hands so wild, so frail, in the days when swords sang for Them! ... Strange sighs rise up beneath the trees. My soul, it is of the ancient dream that grips you!
texts and translations
II.
e grève ...
Of shores ...
Sur la mer les crépuscules tombent, Soie blanche effilée! Les vagues comme des petites folles, Jasent, petites filles sortant de l’école, Parmi les froufrous de leur robe, Soie verte irisée!
Over the sea dusks fall, frayed white silk! The waves, like wild little things, chatter, little girls coming out of school, among the rustlings of their dresses, iridescent green silk!
Les nuages, graves voyageurs, Se concertent sur le prochain orage, Et, c’est un fond vraiment trop grave A cette anglaise aquarelle. Les vagues, les petites vagues, Ne savent plus où se mettre, Car voici la méchante averse, Froufrous de jupes envolées, Soie verte affolée.
The clouds, solemn travelers, gather together for the next storm, and it is really far too dark a background for this English watercolor. The waves, the little waves, no longer know where to settle, for here is the evil downpour, rustlings of billowing skirts, infuriated green silk.
Mais la lune, compatissante à tous, Vient apaiser ce gris conflit, Et caresse lentement ses petites amies, Qui s’offrent, comme lèvres aimantes A ce tiède et blanc baiser. Puis, plus rien! Plus que des cloches attardées Des flottantes églises, Angélus des vagues, Soie blanche apaisée!
But the moon, compassionate to all, comes to appease this gray conflict, and slowly caresses its little friends who offer themselves up, like loving lips, to this warm and white kiss. Nothing, nothing more! Nothing but the belated bells of the floating churches! Angelus of the waves, calmed white silk!
texts and translations
III. De fleurs ...
Of flowers...
Dans l’ennui si désolément vert De la serre de douleur, Les fleurs enlacent mon cœur de leurs tiges méchantes. Ah! quand reviendront autour de ma tête Les chères mains si tendrement désenlaceuses?
In the tedium, so desolately green, of the glasshouse of sorrow, the flowers entwine my heart with their evil stems. Ah! When will the dear hands return about my head, so tenderly disentwining?
Les grands Iris violets Violèrent méchamment tes yeux En semblant les refléter, Eux, qui furent l’eau du songe , Où plongèrent mes rêves, si doucement Enclos en leur couleur; Et les lys, blancs jets d’eau de pistils embaumés, Ont perdu leur grâce blanche Et ne sont plus que pauvres malades sans soleil!
The big violet irises wickedly ravished your eyes in seeming to reflect them, they which were the water of the dream into which my dreams plunged so sweetly enveloped in their color; and the lilies, white fountains of fragrant pistils, have lost their white grace and are no more than poor sick beings without sun!
Soleil! ami des fleurs mauvaises, Tueur de rêves! Tueur d’illusions! Ce pain béni des âmes misérables! Venez! Venez! Les mains salvatrices! Brisez les vitres de mensonge, Brisez les vitres de maléfice, Mon âme meurt de trop de soleil!
Sun! Friend of evil flowers, killer of dreams, killer of illusions! That blessed bread of wretched souls! Come! Come! Hands of salvation! Shatter the window-panes of lies, shatter the window-panes of malefice, my soul is dying of too much sun!
Mirages! Plus ne refleurira la joie de mes yeux, Et mes mains sont lasses de prier, Mes yeux sont las de pleurer! Éternellement ce bruit fou Des pétales noirs de l’ennui, Tombant goutte à goutte sur ma tête Dans le vert de la serre de douleur!
Mirages! Never again will the joy of my eyes blossom, and my hands are weary of praying, my eyes are weary of weeping! Eternally this maddening noise of the black petals of tedium falling, drop by drop, on my head in the green of the glasshouse of sorrow!
texts and translations
IV. De soir ...
Of evening...
Dimanche sur les villes, Dimanche dans les cœurs! Dimanche chez les petites filles Chantant d’une voix informée Des rondes obstinées Où de bonnes Tours N’en ont plus que pour quelque jours!
Sunday over the towns, Sunday in the hearts! Sunday with the little girls singing obstinate rounds with immature voices in which good Towers, have but a few days left!
Dimanche, les gares sont folles! Tout le monde appareille Pour des banlieux d’aventure En se disant adieu Avec des gestes éperdus! Dimanche les trains vont vite, Dévorés par d’insatiables tunnels; Et les bons signaux des routes Échangent d’un œil unique Des impressions toute mécaniques.
Sunday, the stations are bustling! Everybody is getting under way for suburbs of adventure bidding each other farewell with bewildered waves! Sunday, the trains run fast, devoured by insatiable tunnels; and the faithful track signals, with a solitary eye, exchange purely mechanical impressions.
Dimanche, dans le bleu de mes rêves, Où mes pensées tristes De feux d’artifices manqués Ne veulent plus quitter Le deuil de vieux Dimanches trépassés.
Sunday, in the blue of my dreams, where my sad thoughts of misfired fireworks will no longer quit the mourning of long deceased Sundays.
Et la nuit, à pas de velours, Vient endormir le beau ciel fatigué, Et c’est Dimanche dans les avenues d’étoiles; La Vierge or sur argent Laisse tomber les fleurs de sommeil!
And night, with velvet step, comes to put the beautiful tired sky to sleep, and it is Sunday in the avenues of stars; the Virgin, gold upon silver, lets the flowers of slumber fall!
Vite, les petits anges, Dépassez les hirondelles Afin de vous coucher Forts d’absolution! Prenez pitié des villes, Prenez pitié des cœurs, Vous, la Vierge or sur argent!
Quickly, little angels, overtake the swallows so that you may rest blessed with absolution! Take pity on the towns, take pity on the hearts, you, the Virgin, gold upon silver!
Robert Blocker, Dean
J O IN US FOR T H E 20 17–2018 S EASON More than 200 concerts every year, many of which are free and streamed live, online! PETE
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Come see and hear our distinguished faculty, gifted students and alumni, and acclaimed guest artists in extraordinary solo, chamber, vocal, and orchestral performances of repertoire ranging from early to new music.
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ONEPPO CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES Inspired performances by the Brentano and Takács string quartets, the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble, and a new trio featuring Soovin Kim, Paul Watkins, and Gloria Chien HOROWITZ PIANO SERIES Recitals by YSM’s faculty pianists and renowned guest artists Angela Hewitt and Marc-André Hamelin BREN
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YALE PHILHARMONIA Concerts led by principal conductor Peter Oundjian and guest conductors David Robertson, Ignat Solzhenitsyn, and Marin Alsop, and the world premiere of the International Bruckner Society’s new edition of the composer’s Eighth Symphony, re-edited by Paul Hawkshaw
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ELLINGTON JAZZ SERIES A series launched with a historic convocation in 1972 that brings established and emerging jazz artists to Yale
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NEW MUSIC NEW HAVEN Contemporary works by award-winning Yale faculty and students, and guest composers
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YALE OPERA Ascendant vocalists present fully staged performances at the Shubert Theater and Morse Recital Hall along with programs of opera scenes
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YALE IN NEW YORK Dynamic collaborations between Yale’s remarkable faculty, students, and alumni in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall FACULTY ARTIST SERIES Members of the School’s esteemed faculty perform solo and chamber music programs COLLECTION OF MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS Historically informed performances by early music specialists in an intimate setting Contemporary works by award-winning Yale faculty and students, and guest composers
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upcoming events
Bassoonarama december 18 YSM Ensembles Faculty bassoonist Frank Morelli leads his students in “The ABCs of Bassoon: Amadeus, Berlioz, Brazil, and Christmas,” a program featuring reimagined classical and holiday staples Sudler Recital Hall | Monday | 7:30 pm free admission Bálint Karosi, composition december 21 Student Recitals Composer Bálint Karosi presents a doctor of musical arts degree recital Morse Recital Hall | Thursday | 7:30 pm free admission Melvin Chen, piano january 17 Horowitz Piano Series School of Music faculty pianist and Deputy Dean Melvin Chen, whom The New York Times has described as “a pianist whose playing is powerful and driven,” performs Janácek’s On an Overgrown Path Book I, along with music by Schumann and Liszt Morse Recital Hall | Wednesday | 7:30 pm Tickets start at $13 • Students $7
Arthur Haas, harpsichord january 19 Faculty Artist Series School of Music faculty harpsichordist Arthur Haas presents “Crossing the Rhine: Internationalism in Baroque Music,” with faculty members Daniel S. Lee, baroque violin, and James Taylor, tenor, as well as Martha McGaughey, viola da gamba Morse Recital Hall | Friday | 7:30 pm free admission Impressions on the French Tradition march 4 Yale in New York This year’s Yale in New York series features music from Schoenberg’s Society for Private Musical Performances. The final concert in the series, Impressions on the French Tradition, features Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune and Ravel’s String Quartet, with faculty mezzo-soprano Janna Baty, faculty harpist June Han, and the Rolston String Quartet, YSM’s fellowship quartet-in-residence Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall Sunday | 7:30 pm Tickets $25 • carnegiehall.org
concert programs & box office Krista Johnson, Kate Gonzales, Michael Zuber-Zander communications Katie Kelley, David Brensilver operations Tara Deming, Chris Melillo piano curators Barbara Renner, Robert Crowson, Brian Daley, William Harold media production Matthew LeFevre, Travis Wurges
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If you do not intend to save your program, please recycle it in the baskets at the exit doors. Robert Blocker, Dean