The Yale Cellos Aldo Parisot, Director April 25, 2018 · 7:30 pm Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall
Robert Blocker, Dean
The Yale Cellos Aldo Parisot, Director
the yale cellos Aldo Parisot, Director
Arcangelo Corelli 1653–1713 arr. Claude Kenneson
Concerto Grosso, Op. 6, No. 8, “Christmas Concerto” I. Vivace – Grave, Arcate, sostenuto e come stà II. Adagio III. Adagio – Allegro – Adagio IV. Vivace V. Pastorale. Largo
Johann Sebastian Bach 1685–1750 arr. Heitor Villa-Lobos
Prelude No. 22 in B-flat minor, BWV 867, from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I
Maurice Ravel 1875–1937 arr. Eric Adamshick
Boléro, M. 81
Ole Akahoshi, Principal Jenny Kwak James Rosamilia Samuel DeCaprio Yiqiu Chen Jiyoung Choi Valentina Črnjak Samuel Walter
Sam Um, snare drum
Anita Balázs intermission
Bo Bae Lee Bitnalee Pong Sophie Yu Justin Park Eric Adamshick
Scott Joplin arr. Charles Tucker
The Entertainer (1902) Ole Akahoshi, cello James Rosamilia, cello Samuel DeCaprio, cello Eric Adamshick, cello
yale school of music April 25, 2018 · 7:30 pm Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall
please note As a courtesy to the performers and audience members, turn off cell phones and pagers.
Antonio Vivaldi 1678–1741 arr. Ole Akahoshi
Concerto for two cellos in G minor, RV 531 I. Allegro moderato II. Largo III. Allegro Ole Akahoshi, soloist Jenny Kwak, soloist Yiqiu Chen, orchestra James Rosamilia, orchestra Samuel DeCaprio, orchestra Eric Adamshick, orchestra
Please do not leave the hall during selections. Photography or recording of any kind is not permitted. Paintings by Aldo Parisot The projections you see
Samuel Barber 1910–1981 arr. Mark Tanner
Adagio for Strings (1936)
Robert Schumann 1810–1856 arr. Alvin Wong
Kinderszenen, Op. 15 VII. Träumerei (Reverie)
tonight over the stage are of paintings created by Aldo Parisot in a career as an artist that began in 1969 and continues to this day. To see more of these
Ole Akahoshi, soloist
artworks, and for more photos and videos about
Gioachino Rossini 1792–1868 arr. Eric Adamshick
Overture to l’Italiana in Algeri (1813)
Aldo Parisot and the Yale Cellos, please visit: » aldoparisot.com
program notes by Susan Hawkshaw (unless otherwise indicated)
arcangelo corelli Concerto Grosso, Op. 6, No. 8, “Christmas Concerto”
Clavier are widely accepted as paragons of contrapuntal and harmonic craft. However, what makes The Well-Tempered Clavier so provocative are the complex and nuanced musical characters of each prelude and fugue. The Prelude No. 22 in B-flat minor is a particularly expressive example — a dark and yearning chorale that ultimately leaves the listener in space at once haunting and spiritual. It is no wonder that the modern Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, whose music is similarly evocative, was driven to arrange this prelude for an “orchestra of cellos.”
Arcangelo Corelli, one of the great musicians of the middle Baroque period, was both a venerated violinist and an imaginative and fastidious composer. He wrote very little music; like his descendent Brahms, he was an obsessive perfectionist and ordered much of his music destroyed. He virtually invented the concerto grosso, a multi-movement work that divides the orchestra into virtuosic solo sections and easier tutti sections, and he was the first composer to become famous for purely instrumental music. Villa-Lobos, with his background in Brazilian folk music, seems to underLike all of the composer’s concerti stand the expressive quality of this grossi, the famous “Christmas” Concerto particular prelude, and his choice to is all at once majestic, sublime, and use a cello ensemble plays to that lively. Though the work has no soulfulness. The arrangement cleverly specific programmatic meaning, its utilizes the sonorous and resonant name comes from its final movement, quality of the cello to masterful effect, labeled “Pastorale,” and thus evokes giving the piece a newfound warmth. the shepherds who gathered at the By bringing a unique expressivity to manger in Bethlehem. In Corelli’s Bach’s technical craftsmanship, Villatime, Italian rural shepherds trad- Lobos reveals the power of Bach’s itionally traveled to nearby towns on music to transcend both time and place, Christmas eve to play their pipes at exposing its true beauty and subtlety. – Aaron Israel Levin nativity scenes. The music associated with this tradition is a siciliano 12/8 meter that gives this concerto’s serene maurice ravel finale its gentle lilt. Boléro, M. 81 Maurice Ravel’s Boléro is in no way a typical classical work. In Arbie Orenstein’s Ravel: Man and Musician, Ravel describes Boléro’s lone melody to a friend as “insistent,” and vows to The preludes and fugues of Johann “try and repeat it a number of times Sebastian Bach’s The Well-Tempered without any development, gradually
johann sebastian bach Prelude No. 22 in B-flat minor, BWV 867, from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I
increasing the orchestra as best I can.” This may seem to be a simple task at first glance, but to effectively create musical direction solely through orchestration means that the piece must progress purely in soundscape, without the help of a narrative line. It is the symphonic equivalent of asking an actor to repeat the same monologue for 15 minutes while keeping the audience fully engaged. For this arrangement, the only remaining actors from the full orchestral version are the cellos and the snare drum. To try to recreate Ravel’s masterful orchestration, the cellos attempt to mimic instruments, pass the melody across and around the stage, and vary the tone and intensity of their expression to help guide the audience from the first quiet thumps of the ostinato through to the bombastic and fiery ending. – Eric Adamshick
scott joplin The Entertainer (1902) Composer and pianist Scott Joplin is regarded as “The King of Ragtime.” During his brief career, he wrote 44 original ragtime pieces, a ragtime ballet, and two operas. Born in northeast Texas, he learned to play piano, mandolin, and guitar at an early age. Leaving his job as a laborer, he took up the life of a traveling musician and eventually settled in Missouri in 1894, where he began writing and publishing music. After a move to St. Louis, he settled in New York City in 1907 where he hoped to achieve
program notes
success with such large-scale projects as his second opera, Treemonisha. One of his first pieces, Maple Leaf Rag, was a hit during Joplin’s lifetime and remains popular today. The Entertainer may be even more famous, perhaps due to its featured role in the soundtrack for the 1973 film The Sting. In the arrangement for four celli by Charles Tucker, passages are ornamented with slides, harmonics, and the use of pizzicato and ponticello to make this ragtime classic even more amusing.
antonio vivaldi Concerto for two cellos in G minor, RV 531 Antonio Vivaldi composed hundreds of concertos for all kinds of instruments and instrumental combinations, many of them written during his tenure as music director of the Ospedale della Pietà, the Venetian all-girls music conservatory. However, the Concerto for two cellos is his only known work for that combination of soloists, making it particularly distinctive. Set in the rich key of G minor, this concerto is both dark and lively, weaving the soloists through imitative dialogue marked with exciting bursts of energetic unison. The opening Allegro (moderato), with its continuous pulse and eruptive gestures, is forceful and brilliant. The Largo second movement is a complementary contrast. Intimate and reflective, the cello’s expressivity and warmth make this movement a heartfelt centerpiece. The final Allegro, with the cello’s full virtuosity on
display, is a fiery ending to a concerto embroiled in emotion and finesse. This electric passion makes the Concerto for two cellos distinctive not only for its unique instrumentation, but also for its sheer musical power. – Aaron Israel Levin
what is known as an “arch form” in the same way that Wagner creates a climax in the prelude to Tristan und Isolde. It was played at the funerals of Presidents Roosevelt and Kennedy, and in connection with memorial services at Ground Zero.
samuel barber Adagio for Strings (1936)
robert schumann Träumerei (Reverie), from Kinderszenen, Op. 15
The Adagio for Strings, an arrangement of the second movement of Barber’s String Quartet, is justifiably one of Barber’s most famous compositions. Its broadcast performance by Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra in 1938 confirmed Barber’s international stature as a composer. Barber’s music is termed neoRomantic; that style of Romanticism pervades his composition. His direction was determined in part by the Romantic orientation of his teachers: composer Sidney Homer, Barber’s uncle and mentor, and Rosario Scalero (a student of Eusebius Mandyczewski), with whom he studied at the Curtis Institute of Music. Barber combines the Romantic aesthetic with a more contemporary language but never loses sight of it. One thinks of the Nocturne, Op. 33, an homage to John Field, which begins as Field or Chopin might have, then veers away to become more chromatic and dissonant, but never loses its melodic character as a nocturne. The Adagio for Strings contains Barber’s trademark long, expressive melodic writing — the piece varies its opening stepwise melody, which builds to a climax, in
The great Romantic composer Robert Schumann, who was unhappy because of Clara Wieck’s father’s disapproval of their romantic relationship, pulled himself out of his depression to begin in January or February of 1838 his Novelletten, and in February and March his Kinderszenen (Scenes from Childhood), Op. 15. He wrote up to 30 short pieces, but chose only 15 to comprise Kinderszenen, a wellknown piano cycle, which was not composed for children but, as Schumann remarked in a letter, as “reflections of an adult for other adults.” The “Träumerei” is the seventh piece in the cycle and is enormously popular and often played apart from the whole cycle, in many different transcriptions, and is sometimes used as an encore. The beauty of the music comes not only from its melodic construction but from the free manner of performance, using tempo rubato, a technique of performance practice involving a rhythmically free interpretation of the music. It presents a lovely ascending phrase, beginning with an upward fourth in several different permutations that form a stable opening,
program notes by Susan Hawkshaw (unless otherwise indicated)
repeated then additional permutations, and a return to the original at the end.
Gioachino Rossini Overture to l’Italiana in Algeri Gioachino Rossini’s l’Italiana in Algeri is a fusion of opera seria and opera buffa, combining serious topics of love with funny bursts of confusion. The general story follows a Turkish royal named Mustafa. Bored with his current life, he aspires to deceptively woo the beautiful Italian girl Isabella, who is not in love with him. As with most opera buffa, Mustafa’s plans end up turning on him in a comically bad way. The overture, as with many Rossini overtures, perfectly captures this mood, playing heavily on surprise and contrast. Known for its characteristic soft pizzicato opening, the ensemble lulls the audience into a pleasant and warm space, which is then smashed to oblivion by a comically loud chord. This sort of playful trickery is the essence of this work, and never lets up. Soloistic arias and conver-sational nods between sections per-meate every moment of this energetic and jovial work. Known for his melody writing, Rossini makes every note count as he introduces multiple melodies which will stay in your ear for years to come. – Eric Adamshick
The only extant biography of renowned cellist Aldo Parisot, this book includes extensive interviews with him as well as contributions from established colleagues that give a first-hand explanation of his performing and teaching style. It is a serious work of scholarship, yet written in a lively and engaging style that captures the drama of Parisot’s life as well as his colorful personality and extraordinary talent. The book takes a chronological and complete approach, focusing on his extraordinary solo career, and is based on newspaper and magazine articles, reviews, and concert programs from all over the world. His extensive repertoire included demanding modern works such as the Schoenberg/Monn Cello Concerto and Martino’s Parisonatina, named and written in Parisot’s honor, as well as revival of older music. With regard to his teaching, one critic has termed his master classes an “object of pilgrimage.” Encounters with famous contemporaries such as
Janos Starker, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Paul Hindemith, and Dave Brubeck are found throughout the book. Starker wrote, “I consider Aldo to be the best cello teacher of our time.” Prominent composers comment about works they dedicated to Parisot. A separate chapter describes his career as an abstract painter working in a sometimes whimsical style with vibrant color, and there are many photographs that highlight his collaboration with well-known colleagues. Now available for purchase from Boydell & Brewer » boydellandbrewer.com
the yale cellos Aldo Parisot, Director
yale school of music Robert Blocker, Dean Box Office 203 432-4158 concerts@yale.edu concert programs & box office Krista Johnson Manager of Concert Programs Kate Gonzales Concert Office Coordinator communications Mackenzie Dilbeck Director of Communications Katie Kelley Design Manager David Brensilver Communications Officer operations Tara Deming Manager Christopher Melillo Assistant Manager Barbara Renner Robert Crowson Brian Daley William Harold Piano Curators Matthew LeFevre Recording Engineer Travis Wurges Video Producer
The members of The Yale Cellos belong to the very select group of young artists from around the world invited by Aldo Parisot to study with him at the Yale School of Music. Formed in 1983, the ensemble has earned an international reputation for its successful recordings, richness of sound, virtuosity, and many additions to the cello ensemble literature. In addition to sold-out annual concerts in Sprague Hall at the Yale School of Music, the ensemble has performed at Weill Recital Hall and Zankel Hall in Carnegie Hall and on tour in the United States, Europe, and Asia. The Yale Cellos, under Parisot’s direction, can be heard on the recording Cellists from Yale issued in Brazil by Phonodisc and the The Yale Cellos Play Favorites, issued by Delos International. The ensemble’s recording Bach/Bachianas, also on Delos, received a Grammy nomination in 1988. The Yale Cellos’ most recent
music.yale.edu
recording for Naxos, Cello, Celli!, was released in November 2005. The group appeared in 1999 and 2001 at the International Cello Festival in Beauvais, France, and at the 2001 Manchester (England) Cello Festival. After the latter appearance, The New York Times described the group as “dazzlingly well-disciplined,” and Ralph Kirshbaum, director of the festival and a former student of Parisot’s, said “the sense of color and phrasing you get from The Yale Cellos is fantastic. Aldo Parisot is one of the great teachers.” The ensemble toured Korea in 2005 to great acclaim and performed at Cellofest (Texas Christian University) and the Dallas Museum of Art in 2007. In 2009, the ensemble presented a gala concert in Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall in celebration of Aldo Parisot’s 50 years on the Yale faculty. Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times concluded a laudatory review of the performance by saying simply, “What a sound.”
featured artists Aldo Parisot
Porter, Alvin Etler, Claudio Santoro, Joan Panetti, Yehudi Wyner, and Heitor Villa-Lobos, whose Cello Concerto No. 2 (written for and dedicated to Parisot) was premiered by Mr. Parisot in his 1955 New York Philharmonic debut. Since then, he has appeared with the Philharmonic on nearly a dozen occasions.
Aldo Parisot Director Long acknowledged as one of the world’s master cellists, Aldo Parisot has led the career of a complete artist — as concert soloist, chamber musician, recitalist, and teacher. He has been heard with the major orchestras of the world, including those in Berlin, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Rio, Munich, Warsaw, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Pittsburgh under the batons of such eminent conductors as Stokowski, Barbirolli, Bernstein, Mehta, Monteux, Paray, Carvalho, Sawallisch, Hindemith, and Villa-Lobos. As an artist seeking to expand his instrument’s repertoire, Mr. Parisot has premiered numerous works for the cello, written especially for him by such composers as Camargo Guarnieri, Quincy
Born in Natal, Brazil, Mr. Parisot began studying the cello at age 7 with his stepfather, Tomazzo Babini, and made his professional debut at age twelve. He came to the United States in 1946 and made his debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood, followed by extensive touring in the United States, Canada, and South America. After his first European tour in 1957, he toured annually as a solo cellist throughout the world. Mr. Parisot’s recital activities have been equally international since his Town Hall debut in 1950, and have featured appearances at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall and both Alice Tully Hall and Avery Fisher Hall in New York. Washington, D.C., was the scene of another coup by Mr. Parisot when he played the difficult and rarely performed Schoenberg Cello Concerto at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In the spring of 1976, Mr. Parisot made a five-week tour of Poland, which included recitals and concerts with orchestras. He created a sensation when he introduced Donald Martino’s composition for solo cello Parisonatina Al’Dodecafonia at the Tanglewood
Festival. The New York Times remarked: “Those at this performance are not going to forget [Parisot’s] feat overnight,” and The Boston Globe wrote “there is probably no cellist that can equal Parisot’s dazzling achievement.” Harold Schonberg of The New York Times has said of him: “A very strong technician with a sweet tone and impeccable intonation, he is altogether a superior instrumentalist and musician.” Articles about him have appeared in a number of magazines, including the New York Herald Tribune Magazine, Music and Artists, Musical America, Music Journal, New York Magazine, U.S. Camera, They Talk About Music, Reader’s Digest, The Strad, and Instrumentalist, as well as numerous newspapers around the globe. Mr. Parisot has recorded for RCA Victor, Angel, Westminster, and Phonodisc. During his career, Mr. Parisot has served on the faculties of the Peabody Conservatory, Mannes School of Music, New England Conservatory of Music, The Juilliard School, and the Yale School of Music. Since 1981 he has been a regular member of the string master class faculty at the Banff Centre in Canada, returning each summer to teach and perform. In addition, he teaches and gives master classes at the Yale Summer School of Music/Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Great Mountains Music Festival in Korea, and other festivals all over the world, such as those in France, Israel, China, Taiwan, Mexico, Venezuela, and Spain, to name a few.
featured artists Aldo Parisot
Mr. Parisot has also served on the juries of several international competitions, including those in Munich, Florence, Chile, Brazil, Evian, and Paris (Rostropovich), as well as several others in the United States and Canada. In 1991, he traveled to Helsinki to serve on the jury of the first Paulo International Cello Competition and to give master classes at the Sibelius Academy. In 1992, Mr. Parisot gave a series of master classes at Chung-Ang University in Seoul, and in 1994 he gave master classes at the Manchester International Cello Festival, where he also conducted the cello ensemble. He toured Taiwan in January of 2000, performing with faculty colleagues to aid earthquake relief in that country. Since then, he has judged international competitions in Mexico and Korea and has given master classes in Venezuela. In addition to his musical preeminence, Mr. Parisot is a noted graphic artist. His tour of Poland included exhibitions of his abstracts in acrylic, and his paintings have been shown at a number of galleries including those in Boston, New York, New Haven, and Palm Beach. He and his wife, pianist Elizabeth Sawyer Parisot, make their home in the Connecticut countryside, keeping a perennial open house for his many students who have literally come from all over the world to study with the master. Many of his students have been top-prize winners in such competitions as Moscow and Rio, and several are pursuing solo careers. In addition, orchestras in
Europe, South America, and North America are showing an increasing number of Parisot’s students on their rosters. Many of Parisot’s former students are on string faculties throughout the country. As director of the Grammy-nominated Yale Cellos, Mr. Parisot performed at the May 2001 Manchester International Festival, where he also gave master classes and was given the Award of Distinction. Under his direction, the group has recorded two CDs for Delos and a CD for Albany Records of the music of Ezra Laderman, Three Works Written for Aldo Parisot. In 2002, a fourth CD, L’art du violoncelle, was released by Calliope Records. The ensemble, which also performed at the Beauvais Festival in France in 1999 and 2001, gave its Carnegie Hall debut in April 1998. Cello, Celli, released by Naxos in 2006, features works by J.S. Bach and Dave Brubeck. In May of 2005, Mr. Parisot and The Yale Cellos toured Korea to great acclaim. Mr. Parisot has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors over the years, including gold medals from Lebanon and Brazil, and honorary citizenships. In 1980 Mr. Parisot received the Eva Janzer “Chevalier du Violoncelle” award given by Indiana University. In 1983, he was awarded the United Nations Peace Medal following his performance at its Staff Day ceremonies, and also received the Artist/Teacher Award presented by the American String Teachers Association. In May of 1997, Mr. Parisot received the Governor’s
Arts Award from the State of Connecticut for outstanding achievement as a musician and teacher. Mr. Parisot was awarded an honorary doctorate of music from Shenandoah University in 1999, an honorary doctor of fine arts degree from Penn State University in 2002, and the Award of Distinction from the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England, in 2001. In 2006, he was honored by Sejong with a special concert in his honor in Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall. A Yale faculty member since 1958, Mr. Parisot was named the Samuel Sanford Professor of Music at Yale in 1994 — the first recipient of this honor — and received the Gustave Stoeckel Award in 2002. In 2009, Aldo Parisot celebrated 50 years on the Yale faculty and was the subject of a feature article in The New York Times, written by Ralph Kirshbaum, titled “Cello Teacher with a License to Dazzle.” As part of the celebration, the School of Music presented a gala concert by The Yale Cellos in Zankel Hall in Carnegie Hall. The sold-out event was attended by dozens of Parisot’s former students. » aldoparisot.com
featured artists Ole Akahoshi
Ole Akahoshi Principal Cello Cellist Ole Akahoshi from Germany enjoys a concert career before audiences in North and South America, Asia, and Europe in recitals, chamber music concerts, and as soloist with orchestras such as the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and Symphonisches Orchester Berlin. He has won numerous competitions, including Concertino Praga and Jugend Musiziert, and is a recipient of the Salon de Virtuosi fellowship award. Mr. Akahoshi has performed at Avery Fisher Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Suntory Hall, Seoul Arts Center, National Center for Performing Arts Beijing, Shanghai and Taipei Concert Halls, Wigmore Hall, Wiener Musikverein, and the Berliner Philharmonie. His performances have been featured on CNN, NPR, WQXR, Korean Broadcasting, and the major German stations. He has recorded for the Albany, New World, Calliope, Bridge, and Naxos labels. His most recent reeases include Behzad Ranjbaran’s String Quartet, and the Mendelssohn Octet with Gil Shaham. Ole Akahoshi has collaborated with the Tokyo, Michelangelo, and Keller quartets and with Syoko Aki, Sarah Chang, Erick Friedman, Ani Kavafian, Cho-Liang Lin, Elmar Oliveira, Gil Shaham, Ettore Causa, Lawrence Dutton, Nobuko Imai, Jesse Levine,
Myung-Wha Chung, Edgar Meyer, Franz Helmerson, Boris Berman, Leon Fleisher, Claude Frank, Peter Frankl, Andre-Michel Schub, Garrick Ohlsson, and Elizabeth Parisot among many others. He has served as a faculty member at the festivals in Banff, Norfolk, Appalachian State University, Festival des Artes Brazil, and the GMMFS in Korea. He has been a guest artist of the Seattle Chamber Music Society and Ensemble for the Romantic Century. He has given numerous classes, most recently at the Central Conservatory in Beijing and Sichuan Conservatory. Mr. Akahoshi has served as a judge for the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra and the Juilliard concerto competitions, among others. At age 11, Ole Akahoshi was the youngest student to be accepted by Pierre Fournier. He received a bachelor’s degree from Juilliard and a master of music degree from Yale, where he studied with Aldo Parisot, as well as an artist diploma from Indiana University, where he studied with Janos Starker. Mr. Akahoshi has served as a teaching assistant for both Parisot and Starker. Ole Akahoshi is the principal cellist of the Sejong Soloists. He teaches at the Manhattan School of Music and joined the faculty of the Yale School of Music in 1997, where he is assistant professor of cello.
featured artists Jenny Kwak
Jenny Kwak Cello Jenny Kwak is currently pursuing her master of musical arts degree at the Yale School of Music under the guidance of Aldo Parisot. She previously completed her master of music degree at the Yale School of Music. Kwak has appeared as a soloist with the Music in the Mountains Chamber Orchestra and the Texas Christian University Symphony Orchestra as its concerto competition winner. She has performed in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall alongside Ani Kavafian and Wei-Yi Yang as part of the Yale in New York series. She has also performed with the Sejong Soloists. Kwak is currently the principal cellist of the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra. Previously, she attended the Aspen Music Festival and School, the Orford Music Festival, the Pacific Music Festival, Music in the Mountains, and the Music Academy of the West, where she was named a 2017 Zarin Mehta Fellow by the New York Philharmonic.
Robert Blocker, Dean