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vAcquisition of Andrew F. Petryn Collection
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Number 37
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of the Yale University Collection of Musical Instruments
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NEWSLETTER
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Fall 2014
Andrew was a charter member of this museum’s Board of Advisors. In recognition of his long service on the Board, as well as his generous doDirector William Purvis is pleased to announce the acquisition of the Annation of time and talent in restoring the 19th-century oil painting endrew F. Petryn Collection of String Instruments and Bows received in betitled “The Little Flute Player” that quest following Mr. Petryn’s death hangs in the Director’s office, Andy last October. Highlights among the was named an Honorary Life Memgroup of more than twenty objects ber of the Associates of the Collecinclude violins by Italian masters tion in 2004. Preceding the present Nicolò Amati and Andrea Guarbequest, he gave to the Collection in neri, and three bows by the pre2010 two interesting French bowed eminent French archetier François string instruments: a quinton (or Tourte. In addition, the collection pardessus de viole) by Nicolas Augusalso comprises two violins of Gertin Chappuy (Paris, ca. 1770) and a man make and twelve more bows by pochette (dancing master’s fiddle) of important archetiers, among them anonymous make from the early 19th Jean Adam, Jacques LaFleur, Francentury. çois Nicolas Voirin, James Dodd, The Petryn Collection is a splendid and Albert Nürnberger addition to the museum’s fine collec The Guarneri and Amati violins tion of bowed string instruments. are magnificent examples of the Plans are underway for a special exwork of two great representatives hibit of this important acquisition to of the famed Cremonese school of open during the coming season. string instrument making. They are in an especially fine state of preserViolin by Andrea Guarneri, Cremona, 1672 vation, and their provenances are Violin by Nicolò Amati, Cremona, 1679 vConcert Series Audiences at the concerts presented are well documented over the many in this season’s series at the Collection can expect to experience a rich generations that have ensued since they left the hands of their makers and varied repertory of music from a three-century period played by over four centuries ago. some of world’s leading musicians who specialize in performing music Andrew Petryn was born in New Haven on Christmas Day 1918. He in a historical context. received his primary and secondary education in the city’s public schools. vThe season will open on 5 October with a gala Liederabend presentPrecocious as a child in both music and art, he made a career choice for ing Swiss baritone Martin Bruns and German fortepianist Christoph the latter when he accepted a scholarship to the Yale School of Art, where Hammer. Alongside Schumann’s celebrated song cycle Liederkreis, Op. he earned the Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree. He went for further training 39, their program will include a selection of songs by Schubert, Liszt at New York’s Metropolitan Museum and at Harvard’s Fogg Museum. and Lachner. A familiar presence in both opera As a young man, Andrew took a job at the Yale houses and concert stages of Europe and America, Art Gallery in the conservation department and Martin Bruns has received especially high critical rose to the position of Chief Conservator. Andy acclaim for his lieder singing, both live in concert gained a wide reputation in the art world for his and in recording. In demand as a soloist, accompaadvocacy of conservation as opposed to restoranist, and chamber musician, Christoph Hammer tion of art works that derived from his belief that has emerged as one of today’s leading fortepianists. restoration often was mistakenly undertaken with A native of Bavaria, Hammer founded the Neue the illusory idea that a painting could be returned Hofkapelle München in 1996, and has since apto the way it looked on the day it was completed. peared throughout the world as a conductor in maHe believed that conservation, on the other hand, jor opera houses and concert venues throughout should attempt to demonstrate the unadulterated the world. work of the artist, and as far as possible to most vEnglish baroque violinist John Holloway will faithfully reveal and preserve the artist’s original return to the Collection on 16 November along intent. To attain that end, he became a pioneer in with Australian bassoonist Jane Gower and Dandeveloping techniques grounded in physics, chemish harpsichordist Lars Ulrik Mortensen to peristry, and even electron microscopy. form a program entitled “Back to the Future: Ger Andy also cultivated his lifelong love of music. man and Italian Music from the 17th Century,” An exceptionally talented violinist, he frequently enfeaturing works by Boedecker, Buchner, Froberger, joyed performing chamber music with Yale School Rosenmüller, Schmelzer, Castello, Fontana, Matof Music faculty members in informal soirees. His teis, Rossi, and Selma y Salaverde. John Holloway special knowledge and skills as an art conservator Andrew F. Petryn (1918-2013). Drawing by Deane Keller, 1967 is one of today’s leading baroque violinists, appearled him to develop a keen interest in the history and ing throughout the world as a soloist, chamber musician, and conductor. construction of the violin. He was a habitué of the ateliers of the leading He has taught at the Schola Cantorum in Basel and in the Early Music violin maker/dealers in New York, often in the company of legendary figInstitute of Indiana University, and has given classes throughout Europe ures in the violin world such as Heifetz, Milstein, Szigeti, and Francescatti as well as in Korea, New Zealand and the US. From 1999 to 2014 he was at a time when the careers of those artists were at their apogees.
Professor of Violin and Chamber Music at the Hochschule für Musik in Dresden, Germany. Since the fall of 2013 he has been teaching at Trossingen’s University of Music. vUnder the artistic direction of Andrew Appel, the Four Nations Ensemble will return to the Collection on 28 January. For nearly three decades this New York-based group has performed music from the early Renaissance to the Viennese Classical era on period instruments to enthusiastic audiences throughout the country. Consisting of Charles Brink, flute; Tatiana Chulochnikova and Olivier Brault, violin; Loretta O’Sullivan, cello; and Andrew Appel, harpsichord, the group will perform “Strange Accents (or Puttin’ on the Ritz): Composers Writing in Foreign Styles,” a program including music of Telemann, Leclair, Geminiani, Handel and J. K. F. Fischer. vCelebrating its 40th anniversary season, the Aulos Ensemble will return on 22 February with a program entitled “Gold and Glitter: Music from Venice and Versailles.” Violinist Linda Quan will be joined by Christopher Krueger, flute; Marc Swiss baritone Martin Bruns and Schachman, oboe; Myron Lutzke, Germsn fortepianist Christoph cello; and Yale faculty member Ar- Hammer will open the annual thur Haas, harpsichord, to perform series of concerts at the Collecmusical works by Boismortier, Cou- tion on October 5 with a recital perin and Rameau. Formed in 1973, of songs by Schubert, Schumann, the Aulos Ensemble was a pioneering Liszt and Lachner. force in the Early Music movement in the US and in season after season has remained at the forefront of that movement in their live performances and many recordings. vTo conclude the series, Grammy Award-winning El Mundo Ensemble will present the program “Los Reinos de la Castilla” for which they have received worldwide acclaim. Guitarist and artistic director Richard Savino will be joined by Nell Snaidas, soprano; Paul Shipper, bass, percussion and guitar; Adam LaMotte, violin; and William Skeen, cello, in a selection of music by Antonio de Salazar, Rafael Castellanos, George Frederick Handel, Santiago de Murcia, and Sebastian Duron.
vRISD Collection Given to Yale
In 1971, the Rhode Island School of Design sent eleven keyboard instruments from the Albert Steinert Collection on long-term loan to Yale with the understanding that they could be better studied, conserved and appreciated in a facility such as ours dedicated to the special needs of musical instruments. Recently, RISD made the decision to transfer ownership of the entire Albert Steinert Collection along with other musical instruments in its possession to Yale. In August, the thirteen instruments remaining in Providence were delivered to our museum’s facility in the Collection Study Center at Yale’s West Campus. The Yale Collection of Musical Instruments was established in 1900 when Morris Steinert presented the university with the core of his extensive collection of musical instruments. He did this in gratitude for university officials having provided rehearsal space for the developing New Haven Symphony (of which he was co-founder). A successful music retailer who became this country’s leading agent for the sale of Steinway pianos outside of New York, Steinert had collected precursors of the modern piano from about 1875-1895 and had exhibited his collection to wide acclaim, first in Europe and later in this country. Besides the instruments he presented to Yale, Steinert sold instruments to other collectors (including Belle Skinner, whose heirs eventually directed her fine collection to Yale). In time, Steinert’s son Albert assembled a small collection of his own, which he bequeathed to the Rhode Island School of Design after his death in 1927. The recent gift from RISD represents a major acquisition for Yale. It consists of five keyboard instruments, six string string instruments, a lap organ, and a harp. During coming months the instruments will be
formally accessioned, photographed, catalogued and “digitized.” Further information, including a detailed list of the instruments, will be posted on our website later this season.
v From the Director
The 2014-2015 season will be an important one for the YCMI in many ways. The project that has most positively engaged us recently has been the launch of our new website, which went live on September 2 at: http://collection.yale.edu. The new website has involved extensive work for the staff of the Collection, including Curators Susan Thompson and Nicholas Renouf, and also Collection interns Kelly Hill, Jane Mitchell and our newest intern, Katrin Endrikat. We have also received crucial support from the media team of the Yale School of Music, including Dana Astmann and Austin Kase, and led by Monica Reed-Ong, whose keen eye and sophisticated taste are everywhere in evidence. Our goal for the website is for the online visitor to experience the Collection as closely as possible to visiting in person. It is our hope that the website not only will offer a richness of detail to satisfy musicians and scholars but also will provide a vivid online experience that will encourage everyone, including the more casual visitor, to want to come visit the treasures of the collection in person. Please let us know what you think—our website will be updated and enhanced regularly. We are happy to offer a concert series and special events of great variety and high quality. Once again the Collection will co-sponsor with the Oneppo Chamber Music Series of YSM a concert in Sprague Hall: a performance by Musica ad Rhenum on March 3. The season will also include concerts by our Ensemble in residence, the Yale Baroque Ensemble, as well as some other special events, such as the Hopkinson Smith concert on November 4. Look for others to be announced soon on our website. The instruments recently acquired from the Rhode Island School of Design have been transferred to our off-campus storage facility at Yale’s Collection Study Center at West Campus. We will begin this season to set up work stations for conservators and visiting researchers in our space at the CSS as we participate in the university-wide effort of establishing a major center for conservation at West Campus. I look forward to seeing you at the Collection this year, at concerts, master classes or anytime you are visiting. - - William Purvis, Director
vCMI Website & Database
During the past season the Collection has been an active participant at the forefront of the university-wide effort to digitize cultural assets and disseminate the resulting digital assets as widely as possible. Working with the Yale Digital Collections Center (formerly the Office of Digital Assets and Infrastructure), the staff of the Collection and School of Music have been hard at work on a new website and preparing information from the Collection’s database for presentation on the site. The updated This Newsletter is published annually by the YALE UNIVERSITY COLLECTION OF MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS 15 Hillhouse Avenue, P.O. Box 208278 New Haven, CT 06520-8278 Telephone (203) 432-0822; FAX (203) 432-8342 e-mail: musinst@yale.edu On the Internet: www.yale.edu/musicalinstruments
Public Visiting Hours: Sept.-July, Tues—Fri., 1-4 pm; Sun., 1-5 pm Closed during University Recesses and during August.
ticipants’ lives essentially in three ways. The first is musical: these talented website went live on September 2. Fully integrated with the website of young people are inspired to do their best, pushed forward as musicians the Yale School of Music, the new site offers a greatly enhanced presence by enthusiastic YSM graduate student mentors. The second is social: in of the Collection on the Internet. The museum’s website team worked ensemble-playing, and discussions about music, closely with Carly they learn basic teamwork, how to work together Bogen from the Yale on every level. And, finally, these young musiDigital Collections cians by example and experience acquire leaderCenter in setting up ship skills and values that they will carry back to the website so that their own communities. “digital assets” such According to Mr. Rodriguez, “the students’ as photography, auvisits to the Collection are extremely valuable in dio and video recordexposing them to history and to different worlds. ings, measurements, This gives them a larger understanding of the descriptions, provmeaning of music in other cultures, as well as enances and other historically within our own culture.” For the staff metadata related to of the Collection these tours have become more the objects in the Colinspiring every year, as they interact with these lection maintained in intensely motivated young musicians having a the museum’s datadirect experience of the historical instruments in base may be accessed Lutenist Hopkinson Smith will perform an all-Bach program on Tuesday, November 4. the Collection. Although this visit is brief each through the website. year, it is emblematic of an important aspect of the Collection’s mission, This enhanced access to information will doubtless be a boon to scholand how it can be a positive force in the future. ars, instrument makers, and music lovers throughout the world in their researches concerning musical instruments. vLive Streaming of Collection Concerts The new website also offers greatly increased interactivity. Members of the University community as well as the general public can make inA memorable recital by harpsichordist Masaaki Suzuki was streamed over quiries, request photographs and information, arrange appointments for the Internet from the Collection in April of 2011 making it possible for close examination of instruments, and make ticket reservations using listeners anywhere in the world to remotely experience what our audiconvenient on-line forms. The audio tour of the permanent exhibition ence of 100 was witnessing live on campus. Since then, almost all of the of the keyboard collection is available on the website as the museum’s concerts presented at the Collection have been live-streamed. first venture into the world of virtual exhibits. Perhaps our largest online audience was attracted by the performance of pianist Yves Henry, who had emailed friends and colleagues in Europe vSpecial Concerts alerting them to his Collection debut the fall of 2012. Over 50 persons used their computers to hear him play Chopin and Debussy on the ColSeveral special concerts will be presented this season by the Collection. lection’s pianos by Erard and Pleyel that afternoon. On November 4 at 5:30 pm, lutenist Hopkinson Smith will return to Yale When live streaming was initiated in the School of Music, some exto perform a recital of solo works by J. S. Bach. (Tickets $25 each, $20 pressed concern that it would undermine concert attendance. Our experiseniors & Yale staff, $10 students; for tickets call 203-432-0822.) ence has been that, if anything, the op The Collection is sponsoring jointly with portunity to check out a performance the School of Music’s Vincent Oneppo Chamvirtually encourages the viewers to atber Music Series a gala performance by the actend future concerts in person. This claimed German ensemble Musica ad Rhenum is confirmed by the simple fact that all on March 3 at 7:30 pm in Sprague Hall. Tickets our concerts these seasons have been for this concert will be available free of charge by sell-outs. The process of live-streaming request to Associate members of the Collection; allows for the concerts to be simultaneall others should call the YSM Concert Office at ously recorded for our archives. If the 203.432.4158 to order tickets. performers release these recordings, Under the direction of Robert Mealy, the Yale either in toto or in excerpt, for public Baroque Ensemble, the Collection’s own ensemdissemination, they can be posted on ble in residence, will perform four free concerts our website. A foretaste of four video this season. Two of these performances will take excerpts from recent performances on place in Sprague Hall, no reservations necessary. the Collection series can be viewed “Spezzatura: Virtuoso Italian Music of the 17th on demand at: http://collection.yale. Century” is the title of their program on Dec. 6 edu/videos. at 7:30 pm; and on May 4, at 7:30 pm, the group will present “The Harmony of Nations: Music from the Salons of France, Germany, and Italy.” vMuseum Interns Members of the YBE will appear in two recitals Museum Intern Jane Mitchell demonstrates the viola d’amore to students Museum Intern Kelly Ann Hill here offers in the Collection at 15 Hillhouse Avenue. Each from New Haven schools partcipating in the 2014 Morse Academy. her reflections on the ongoing Intern Proof these recitals will be performed twice: the first gram at the Collection: After spending a on Tues.-Wed., November 18-19, at 5:30 pm; the second on Tues.-Wed., summer singing at the Aspen Music Festival, I feel privileged to begin April 7-8, at 5:30 pm. As seating is limited, reservations should be made a second year of residency as an Intern at the Collection. As a recent in advance by calling 203.432.0822. graduate of the Yale School of Music, this position has introduced me to the procedures and protocols of a thriving museum, as it grows through vMorse Academy 2014 acquisition and documentation, and presents its unique holdings to the On July 8, the Collection for the fifth time was host to participants in the public in exhibits, lectures, demonstrations, and especially in concerts, Morse Academy sponsored by the Yale School of Music. Each summer performed by world-renowned artists. Moreover, as a vocalist, this handsthis program attracts students engaged in music programs in local schools, on job has acquainted me with the with a wealth of information about grades 5-12, most of them from disadvantaged backgrounds. Initiated in musical instruments, and I have gained a greatly increased empathy for 2010 with 35 students, the program has grown to the over 80 students in my instrumentalist counterparts. attendance this season. Academy Director Ruben Rodríguez describes the Last year, my colleague Jane Mitchell and I, along with several excepinitiatives offered by this YSM program as important in changing the par- tional student workers, tackled a variety of projects. We learned the pro-
cess of putting on the Collection’s annual concert series, during which vLoan to Art Institute of Chicago we had the pleasure of welcoming audiences that ranged from faithful AsOne of the museum’s six kits (or pochettes) will be lent to the Art Institue sociate members to first-time attendees. Among our instrument holdings, of Chicago next spring for a special exhibit entitled “Ireland: Art on a we uncovered secrets of the charming viola d’amore, World Stage, 1690-1840.” Bearing the stamp, “PERRY/ and discovered the exotic tones produced by objects DUBLIN,” the instrument was made by Thomas Perry from the Robyna Neilson Ketchum Collection of bells. in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century. The And, on Friday afternoons, we ate a lot of cupcakes. kit (fr. pochette) is a small fiddle, originally an offshoot of We had the gratifying experience of retrieving a numthe ancient European rebec. Its small resonator repreber of instruments from storage and preparing them for sents a sacrifice of size and beauty of tone to the convea shoot by photographer Christopher Gardner. These nience of its player being able to stash it in a pocket when photos were utilized in the museum’s most extensive not playing it. During the 18th and early 19th centuries, project of the year—the development of a new website. kits accordingly were in widespread use by dancing masAs we spent many hours entering the names, dates, naters attendant in the homes of the gentry, and they were tionalities, and makers of instruments into an online played by street musicians in humbler circumstances. database, we acquired skills of data-entry and website No doubt many such fiddles found their way into taverns management useful to any young professional today. I or taprooms, where they were used to spin the jigs and look forward to another season of rewarding work at reels popularly associated with Irish music. an institution where every day presents a new venture, The condition of the Perry kit would indicate that it mystery, or surprise as we work with such an impreshas been well used and enjoyed. 18 inches long, it is sive array of historical instruments. Jane has accepted a made from maple (with ebony fittings and gut strings). position in the viola section with the much-lauded New It was given to the Collection in 1982 by the New York World Symphony in Miami under the direction of Mi- The Collection will lend a kit of Irish string dealer and connoisseur Jacques Francais and has chael Tilson Thomas. We all wish her the best as she make to the Art Instistute of Chicago for long been on display in the museum’s Gallery of Wind enters this exciting new stage stage in her career. Back a coming special exhibit. and String Instruments. The exhibit, which runs from 17 in New Haven, I’ll be joined by Katrin Endrikat, a YSM March to 07 June 2015, will present 300 objects drawn graduate in guitar performance. I am sure that her curiosity and positive from public and private collections across North America to provide a spirit will guide us both through a productive and inspiring year. richly layered overview of the Emerald Isle during its first “Golden Age.”
YALE UNIVERSITY COLLECTION OF MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS ASSOCIATE MEMBERS: 2013-2014 HONORARY LIFE MEMBER Mr. Yves Albert Feder Mr. Elias N. Kulukundis Mr. George P. O’Leary Mr. Hans H. Schambach Mr. Timothy A. Steinert Mr. Lawrence S. Wilkinson SKINNER FELLOW Ms. Victoria Keator DePalma Mr. David G. Powrie BENEFACTOR Mr. Elias N. Kulukundis Mr. Thomas G. MacCracken PATRON Dr. and Mrs. Emile L. Boulpaep Ms. Claudine Britton Edward and Susan Greenberg George and Reba O’Leary George and Ellie Warburg SPONSOR Mr. and Mrs. Robert P. Anderson, Jr. Dr. James K. and Peggy F. Baird Mr. Ronald Bell Mrs. Ann Bliss Robert and Serena Blocker Anne and Guido Calabresi
SPONSOR (continued) Prof. Ki and Juliet Chon Mrs. Grace A. Clark Ms. Constance Clement Mrs. Phoebe Coleman Philip and Teri Conforti Dr. Christopher S. Curdo Mr. and Mrs. R. Raleigh D’Adamo Peter and Constance Dickinson Mr. John N. Ellyson The Rev. Richard Fabian Dr. Mary Jewett Greer Joseph F. Hoffman and Eleanor Cirkowitz Mrs. Susan Howard Prof. Francesco Iachello Ms. Alexandra Isles Prof. Boyd M. Jones Mr. Philip Kass Mr. Richard Kingston Bruce Larkin and Donna Jarlenski Carleton and Barbara Loucks Elizabeth D. C. Meyer Prof. Craig A. Monson Ms. Kathleen Moretto Spencer Peter and Kathryn Patrikis Prof. Leon Plantinga Mrs. Jean Purvis Dr. Joseph Purvis Prof. and Mrs. William Purvis Gary and Diane Ransom
SPONSOR (continued) Rodney Regier and Shirley Matthews Mr. Hans H. Schambach Marlowe and Elise Sigal Kerala and Richard Snyder Mr. John R. Stieper, III Shepard and Marlene Stone Dr. J. W. Streett and Family Mrs. Avril Winks Earl and Constance Young Dr. Hugh H. Young FAMILY John and Rebecca Arkenberg Mr. and Mrs. Donald Baerman Francis Braunlich and Elizabeth Neuse Maria and Charles Coldwell Ms. Adela W. Collins Mr. Jeffrey Kahn David and Andrea Kaiser Terry and Martha Maguire Dr. E. Anthony Petrelli Lynda E. Rosenfeld and Richard M. Weiss Daniel and Susan Rosner Mr. David Schonfeld Prof. Koichi Shinohara Pat and Damon Smith Drs. Kurt and Judit Stenn John and Dorothy Sutton Hannah and Herbert Winer
REGULAR Dr. Thomas Anderson Mr. George N.Bozarth, Jr. Mr. F. Vining Bigelow Mrs. Ann Bliss Mrs. Sally B. Brown Mr. John H. Burkhalter III Prof. Walter Cahn Edith H. Evangeliste Grace A. Feldman Dr. Lee Goebel Ms. Joyce V. Goldberg Mr. Ellsworth Hood Susan Rees Jones Prof. George H. Lucktenberg Prof. Susan Marchant Ms. Ann Marlowe Ms. Suzanne Niedzielska Mr. William A. Shaw Ms. Barbara E. Smith Ms. Sally A. Taylor Mr. Robert Webster Ms. Sarah Jessica Whitson STUDENT Tiffany Ng
The Yale University Collection of Musical Instruments, one of the oldest institutions of it kind in the United States, was established in 1900, when New Haven Symphony co-founder Morris Steinert presented the core of his extensive private collection to the University. One of four museums on campus, the Collection preserves, documents, exhibits, and interprets musical instruments as works of art and artifacts of music history. Its holdings of nearly 1000 instruments, including a collection of keyboard instruments unsurpassed in the world, are particularly strong in the area of European art music between 1550 and 1950. Housed in an 1894 Romanesque revival building designed by William H. Allen, the Collection has presented an annual series of concerts since 1967 and contributes in many other ways to the Yale music curriculum and to the cultural life of the University and to the larger community.