Robert Blocker, Dean
oneppo chamber music series
Chien-KimWatkins Trio
David Shifrin, Artistic Director Tuesday, February 27, 2018 • 7:30 pm Morse Recital Hall
Oneppo Chamber Music Series
Chien-Kim-Watkins Trio gloria chien piano • soovin kim violin paul watkins cello
Ludwig van Beethoven 1770–1827
Piano Trio in E-flat major, Op. 70, No. 2 I. Poco sostenuto — Allegro ma non troppo II. Allegretto III. Allegretto ma non troppo IV. Finale. Allegro
Pierre Jalbert b. 1967
Piano Trio No. 2 (2014) I. Mysterious, nocturnal, desolate II. Agitated, relentless intermission
Johannes Brahms 1833–1897
Piano Trio No. 2 in C major, Op. 87 I. Allegro II. Andante con moto III. Scherzo. Presto — Poco meno presto IV. Finale. Allegro giocoso
As a courtesy to the performers and audience, silence electronic devices. Please do not leave the hall during selections. Photography or recording of any kind is prohibited.
Artist Profiles
Gloria Chien, piano
Soovin Kim, violin
Taiwanese-born pianist Gloria Chien has one of the most diverse musical lives as a noted performer, concert presenter, and educator. She was selected by the Boston Globe as one of its Superior Pianists of the year, “… who appears to excel in everything.” She made her orchestral debut at the age of 16 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra with Thomas Dausgaard, and performed again with the BSO with Keith Lockhart. In recent seasons she has performed as a recitalist and chamber musician at Alice Tully Hall, the Library of Congress, the Phillips Collection, the Kissingen Sommer festival, the Dresden Chamber Music Festival, and the National Concert Hall in Taiwan. A former member of CMS Two, she performs frequently with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. In 2009 she launched String Theory, a chamber music series at the Hunter Museum of American Art in downtown Chattanooga, that has become one of Tennessee’s premier classical music presenters. The following year she was appointed Director of the Chamber Music Institute at the Music@Menlo festival by Artistic Directors David Finckel and Wu Han. In 2017, she joined her husband, violinist Soovin Kim, as Co-Artistic Director of the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival in Burlington, Vermont. Ms. Chien received her Bachelor, Master, and Doctor of Musical Arts Degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music as a student of Russell Sherman and Wha-Kyung Byun. She holds the position of artist-inresidence at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee. She is a Steinway Artist.
Internationally renowned violinist Soovin Kim performs as both a concert soloist and recitalist and with the Johannes String Quartet. In 2009 he founded the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival in Burlington, Vermont, which has quickly gained national attention for excellence in performance, innovative programming, educational outreach, and work with young composers and performers. Soovin received first prize at the Paganini International Competition when he was only 20, which launched an international concert career. He later was a recipient of such distinguished prizes as the Henryk Szeryng Career Award, the Avery Fisher Career Grant, and the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award.
» gloriachien.com
Soovin has released nine commercial CD recordings in recent years including Niccolò Paganini’s demanding 24 Caprices and a French album of Fauré and Chausson with pianist Jeremy Denk and the Jupiter Quartet. He is currently working on a recording of the Bach works for solo violin. Soovin grew up in Plattsburgh, NY, and joined the Vermont Youth Orchestra as its then-youngest member at age 10. He is often heard in Vermont through his performances with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, on the Lane Series at the University of Vermont, on the Rochester Chamber Music Society series, at Middlebury College, with the Burlington Chamber Orchestra, and on Vermont Public Radio. Soovin is passionate about music education and joined the violin faculty at the New England Conservatory of Music in the Fall of 2014, after teaching at SUNY-Stony Brook and the Peabody Conservatory of Music.
Artist Profiles • notes on the program
Paul Watkins, cello Acclaimed for his inspirational performances and eloquent musicianship, Paul Watkins enjoys a distinguished career both as a cellist and as a conductor. As solo cellist he performs regularly with all the major British orchestras including the London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, Philharmonia, BBC Symphony, and City of Birmingham Symphony. Outside the UK, he has performed with the Netherlands Philharmonic, Melbourne Symphony, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, and the RAI National Symphony Orchestra of Turin. Recent highlights include a BBC Proms appearance with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales performing the world premiere of his brother Huw Watkins’ Cello Concerto, a tour with the European Union Youth Orchestra under the baton of Bernard Haitink, and his US conducting debuts with the Detroit Symphony, Cleveland Chamber Orchestra, and at the Lake Tahoe Music Festival. He also premiered (and was the dedicatee of) Mark-Anthony Turnage’s new concerto with the Royal Flemish, Tampere, and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestras and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. A dedicated chamber musician, he was a member of the Nash Ensemble from 1997 to 2013, and joined the Emerson String Quartet in 2013. He has given solo recitals at the Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, South Bank Centre, Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall, and Queens Hall in Edinburgh. In 2009 he signed an exclusive contract with Chandos Records. Recent releases include the Delius, Elgar, and Lutoslawski concertos, and discs of British and American music for cello and piano. In 2014 he was appointed
artistic director of the Great Lakes Music Festival of Detroit. Mr. Watkins plays a cello made by Domenico Montagnana and Matteo Goffriller in Venice, c. 1730. ludwig van beethoven Piano Trio in E-flat major, Op. 70, No. 2 A year after completing his earth-shattering Fifth Symphony and shortly after completing his Sixth, Beethoven lived for months at the Viennese palace of Countess Marie von Erdödy. The countess, a strong admirer and advocate of Beethoven, had frequently helped introduce the composer to new patrons. To show his gratitude, Beethoven dedicated his two Opus 70 piano trios to her that winter. The first trio of the set, nicknamed “ghost” for its eerie atmosphere, explosive dynamics and high drama, contrasts with the second in E-flat major — warm, luxurious, and at times utterly classical, perhaps nodding to Haydn and Mozart. The first movement begins with the cello playing alone, joined by the violin, and finally by the piano (a patter present throughout the first movement until it is reversed in the recapitulation); the two strings initiate and maintain prominence throughout the work, in stark contrast to the piano trios of Haydn and Mozart in which the piano plays front and center. The second movement points eastward with its lilting, playful gestures and rustic peasant interludes. The third movement features long and tender melodic lines. Quizzical interludes feature distantsounding strings decorated by glittering, high-register piano responses. The finale,
notes on the program
with unabashed, majestic vitality is most representative of his other works written at this time, his “heroic” middle period. Writer E.T.A Hoffman wrote of the trios: “How deeply, O! exalted Master! have your noble piano compositions penetrated into my soul; how hollow and meaningless in comparison all music seems which does not emanate from you, or from the contemplative Mozart, or that powerful genius, Sebastian Bach...[I]t has been such a pleasure to me this evening that now, like one who wanders through the sinuous mazes of a fantastic park, among all kinds of rare trees, plants, and wonderful flowers, always tempted to wander further, I am unable to tear myself away from the marvelous variety and interweaving figures of your trios. The pure siren voices of your gaily varied and beautiful themes always tempt me on further and further. You carry the romantic spirit of music deep into my soul and with what high geniality, with what deep sense of self-possession you enliven each work.” — Julia Clancy Pierre Jalbert Piano Trio No. 2 (2014) Written in 2014 for the Morgenstern Trio at the behest of the Arizona Friends of Chamber Music, Pierre Jalbert’s second piano trio pairs two contrasting movements, each loosely inspired by a different image. The composer is careful about not ascribing a programmatic narrative to this work; rather than seeking to explicitly depict an extramusical image, this “absolute music” developed on its own terms out of
the aesthetic starting point of two different ideas. The nocturnal quietude of a desert served as the impetus for the first movement, and the opening’s bodiless high string harmonics blanket the twinkling piano in an ethereal sheen. As the terse beginning gestures spin out into longer, more animated lines, the movement’s energy mounts toward a Presto agitato quasi-scherzo section. Following a clear, pyramidal structure, the movement recedes from its excited middle back to the starry, formless material of the opening. The second movement stems from the composer’s experience on a highway cutting through Houston’s downtown and the dissonance between the slow passage of buildings in the distance and the fast, weaving cars nearby. The instruments careen for much of the movement through frenzied, unsettled stretches that are occasionally arrested by dreamy, asynchronous moments of repose. The three instruments trade the spotlight throughout each of the more frenetic sections before finally joining together in a mad dash to the end. — Graeme Steele Johnson johannes brahms Piano Trio No. 2 in C major, Op. 87 Brahms’ second trio in C major begins with a resolute melody in octaves in the violin and cello. This boldness characterizes much of the approximately thirty-minute piece. Perhaps the sense of self-assurance in Brahms’ musical materials reflects a newfound self-assurance in his own life — Brahms finished the second piano trio in 1882, during a period when he had finally
notes on the program
received international acclaim as a composer. Of the trio, he wrote to his publisher, “You have not yet had such a beautiful trio from me and very likely have not published its equal in the last ten years.” The first movement, Allegro moderato, adopts the sonata form of the classical style rejected by Dvořák ten years later in his E minor trio. However, this is not without carefully considered quirks in each phrase. Brahms often sets the piano rhythmically against the unified strings, creating an ambiguity of meter that gives the music a sense of relentless drive. When all three instruments come together in a grand unison at the end of the movement, the movement comes to a decisive stop. The second movement, a theme and variations marked Andante con moto, again opens with the violin and cello linked in octaves, with syncopated accompaniment in the piano. Brahms takes particular care to treat every aspect of his theme as potential for variation. This is evident when, by the fourth variation, for example, the piano’s syncopated accompaniment from the beginning of the movement has become a theme in itself to be varied. The third movement, a fidgety scherzo, begins again with the strings locked together in octaves. A brief but magical moment of sunlight bursts from this shadowy agitation. In the finale, Allegro giocoso, Brahms emphasizes the contrast between the unified strings and the piano. Throughout the movement, they engage in a back-and-forth dialogue, playfully exchanging melodic and accompaniment roles. — Katherine Balch
Oneppo Chamber Music Series an evening with peter schickele Tuesday, March 27 • 7:30 pm Morse Recital Hall Schickele, the famed composer, performer, and raconteur whose alter ego, P.D.Q. Bach, has entertained and enriched audiences for more than 50 years, will share stories of his uniquely compelling and multifaceted career, no doubt with inimitable humor. Tickets from $10, Students from $5 FREE for current OCMS subscribers
br entano string quartet Tuesday, April 10 • 7:30 pm Morse Recital Hall The Brentano String Quartet, YSM’s ensemble-in-residence, performs Mozart’s captivating “Dissonance” Quartet and works by Beethoven and Shostakovich. Tickets from $26, Students $13
competition winners Tuesday, May 8 • 7:30 pm Morse Recital Hall A performance by the winners of the School of Music’s annual chamber music competition. Tickets from $10, Students $6
Oneppo Chamber Music Series • 2017–2018 Patrons
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Upcoming Events Composition Faculty march 1 Faculty Artist Series An evening of music by faculty composers Martin Bresnick, Aaron Jay Kernis, David Lang, Hannah Lash, and Christopher Theofanidis. Morse Recital Hall | Thursday | 7:30 pm free admission Harp vs. Harp: Edmar Castaneda & Grégoire Maret march 2 Ellington Jazz Series A concert showcasing the musical range and imagination of harpist Edmar Castaneda and harmonicist Grégoire Maret. Morse Recital Hall | Friday | 7:30 pm Tickets start at $20 • Students free Robert van Sice & Friends march 3 Faculty Artist Series Celebrating 20 years at the School of Music, Yale Percussion Group Director Robert van Sice is joined by students and alumni for the premiere of a new piece by YSM alumnus Garth Neustadter, a performance of Steve Reich’s pioneering Sextet, and more. Morse Recital Hall | Saturday | 7:30 pm free admission
Vista: Chamber Music march 6 YSM Ensembles Student chamber ensembles perform and provide insight into the repertoire. Morse Recital Hall | Tuesday | 7:30 pm free admission Robert Blocker, piano march 7 Horowitz Piano Series A recital by faculty pianist and School of Music Dean Robert Blocker, whom the Los Angeles Times has described as an artist of “great skill and accomplishment.” Morse Recital Hall | Wednesday | 7:30 pm Tickets start at $13 • Students free Stephen Hartke, guest composer march 8 New Music New Haven A program of works by the School’s graduatestudent composers and music by Grammy Award-winning composer Stephen Hartke including The Fifth Book, performed by the Brentano String Quartet, YSM’s ensemble-inresidence. Morse Recital Hall | Thursday | 7:30 pm free admission
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