TIMELESS MASTERWORKS THE COMPOSER’S WORLD...(K. 498) in August 1786. He wrote the viola part for himself (he refused to touch the violin after moving to Vienna, always playing viola

WEEK THREE

TIMELESS MASTERWORKS Sunday Afternoon, August 19, 2018 at 3:00Spa Little Theatre

THE COMPOSER’S WORLDTuesday Evening, August 21, 2018 at 8:00Spa Little Theatre

WWW.SPAC.ORG WWW.CHAMBERMUSICSOCIETY.ORG

CMS AT SPAC

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the Saratoga Performing Arts Center’s 2018 Season! As I begin my second summer in Saratoga, I am so grateful for the community’s enthusiastic embrace of our new initiatives, new partnerships and new collaborations. This season you can expect

exhilarating performances from our beloved resident companies, the return of new “classics” like “Live at the Jazz Bar,” “SPAC on Stage” and “Caffe Lena @ SPAC,” and the Saratoga debuts of the National Ballet of Cuba and Trinity Irish Dance Company.

SPAC and its home, the Spa State Park, represent a perfect confluence of manmade beauty and natural beauty and it is the inspiration of place that made us want to explore the interplay between the natural world and the world of art, the nexus between Art & Cosmos. This year, we launch the Out of this World festival, kicked off by a performance of Holst’s The Planets with spectacular NASA Space footage, followed by star-gazing around the reflecting pool. Audiences will engage with roaming astronomers, experience virtual reality space expeditions and even attend a special children’s chamber concert that examines the creative connection between Einstein and Mozart. And we introduce a new SPAC Speakers series with thought-provoking “stars” from the worlds of space, science and the arts.

There are so many other new experiences and surprises in store.We welcome you to a new summer of discovery.

Elizabeth Sobol PRESIDENT AND CEO

A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

CMS AT SPAC

Dear Friends,

On behalf of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center Board of Directors, thank you for your support and attendance at this performance. The strength and progress of SPAC has always depended on the contributions of its audiences and the many sponsors, donors and partners who recognize SPAC’s impact on the cultural and economic life of this region. Thanks to you, as we lift the curtain on our season, we do so in a strong position financially, artistically and as an institution.

Last season, we welcomed Elizabeth Sobol to Saratoga Springs as SPAC’s new president and CEO. In less than two years, Elizabeth has implemented a new vision and path for the Center with innovative programming and an increased emphasis on affordability, accessibility and community outreach. SPAC’s reduced $30 amphitheater ticket and the expanded Fidelity Kids in Free program welcomed hundreds of new guests who had previously never been to the Center. Educational programming such as Classical Kids, Summer Nights at SPAC and the Performance Project have expanded exponentially, reaching more than 23,000 students in over 70 schools. These are just a few of the successes that we will continue to build upon.

Looking ahead to the future, I’d also like to extend a special thanks to New York State for its capital investment of $1.75 million to rehabilitate and upgrade SPAC’s amphitheater ramps, lighting and other high priority infrastructure. The new project is slated to be completed in advance of the 2019 season and is part of the Board’s and SPAC President and CEO Elizabeth Sobol’s vision to strengthen our partnerships and make critical investments into our facilities for generations to come.

As always, your presence and support is what makes this season possible. We invite you to join us often this summer to experience world-class artistry in our world-class venue.

Ron Riggi CHAIRMAN

A MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN

ALESSIO BAX, piano TARA HELEN O'CONNOR, flute SEAN LEE, violin ROMIE DE GUISE-LANGLOIS, clarinet MATTHEW LIPMAN, viola AYANO KATAOKA, percussionMIHAI MARICA, cello

Trio in E-flat major for Clarinet, Viola, and Piano, K. 498, “Kegelstatt” (1786)

Andante Menuetto Rondeaux: Allegretto

DE GUISE-LANGLOIS, LIPMAN, BAX

Assobio a Játo (The Jet Whistle) for Flute and Cello (1950)

Allegro non troppo Adagio Vivo

O'CONNOR, MARICA

Micro-Concerto for Solo Percussion, Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Cello, and Piano (1999)

Part 1: Chords and Fangled Drumset Part 2: Interlude No. 1—Vibes Solo Part 3: Click, Clak, Clank Part 4: Interlude No. 2—Marimba and Cello Part 5: Tune in Seven

KATAOKA, O'CONNOR, DE GUISE-LANGLOIS, LEE, MARICA, BAX

—INTERMISSION—

Quartet in E-flat major for Piano, Violin, Viola, and Cello, Op. 47 (1842)

Sostenuto assai—Allegro ma non troppo Scherzo: Molto vivace Andante cantabile Finale: Vivace

BAX, LEE, LIPMAN, MARICA

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART

(1756-1791)

HEITOR VILLA-LOBOS(1887-1959)

STEVEN MACKEY(b. 1956)

ROBERT SCHUMANN

(1810-1856)

TIMELESS MASTERWORKS Sunday Afternoon, August 19, 2018 at 3:00 Spa Little Theatre

PLEASE TURN OFF CELL PHONES AND OTHER ELECTRONIC DEVICES.Photographing, sound recording, or videotaping this event is prohibited.

Among Mozart’s most loyal friends during his last years in Vienna were the members of the Jacquin family. The paterfamilias, Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin was a distinguished botanist and professor of chemistry at Vienna University who instilled the love of music in his children, Joseph Franz (21 in 1787), Gottfried (19), and Franzisca (18). Mozart was fond of the Jacquins and he visited them frequently to share their dinner, play his music for them, and keep Franzisca up with her lessons when she proved to be one of his most talented piano students. For the entertainment of the household, Mozart composed the Trio in E-flat major for Clarinet, Viola, and Piano (K. 498) in August 1786. He wrote the viola part for himself (he refused to touch the violin after moving to Vienna, always playing viola at his frequent chamber music evenings) and the clarinet part for Anton Stadler, another of his fellow Freemasons and a superb performer who later inspired Mozart's Clarinet Quintet (K. 581) and Clarinet Concerto (K. 622).

The sobriquet “Kegelstatt” has long attached itself to the Clarinet Trio, though it did not originate with Mozart. “Kegel” in German indicates the game of nine-pin bowling (known as “skittles” in English) and “statt” the “place” where it was played, a pastime that enjoyed considerable popularity in Vienna during Mozart’s day. The E-flat Trio, which Mozart entered into his own catalog of compositions on August 5, 1786, was probably not composed while he was bowling, but the Twelve Duos for Horns (K. 496a), finished just one week earlier, were: he noted on that manuscript that it was “untern Kegel schreiben”—written while bowling. (The apparent anomaly of the delicate task of musical notation combined with a physical sporting activity might be explained because Mozart usually worked out his compositions completely in his head before committing them, without mistakes or revisions, to paper, a clerical activity whose drudgery he was known to have alleviated with games, schnapps, or friendly conversation.) The earliest source for the “Kegelstatt” subtitle appears to be the pioneering 1862 catalog of Mozart’s works by Austrian musicologist Ludwig von Köchel. Köchel did not have access to the manuscript of either the Horn Duos or the Trio, so worked these nearly

CMS AT SPAC SUNDAY, AUGUST 19, 2018

NOTES ON THE PROGRAM

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Born January 27, 1756 in Salzburg. Died December 5, 1791 in Vienna.

Composed in 1786.

Duration: 20 minutes

Trio in E-flat major for Clarinet, Viola, and Piano, K. 498, “Kegelstatt”

Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos had little formal training. He learned the cello from his father and earned a living as a young man playing with popular bands, from which he derived much of his musical background.

HEITOR VILLA-LOBOS Born March 5, 1887 in Rio de Janeiro. Died there December 17, 1959. Composed in 1950.


Assobio a Játo (The Jet Whistle) for Flute and Cello


contemporaneous compositions into his chronological list according to anecdotal information available to him—in other words, he may have mixed them up.

Franklin Cohen, Principal Clarinet Emeritus of The Cleveland Orchestra, proposed a delightful alternative to the above conjecture. The theme that begins the trio and courses continually through the first movement comprises a strong opening note followed by a four-note turn figure and four slower descending notes. Nine notes total, the same as the number of pins in Kegel, whose rhythmic progression may reflect the impact of the ball, the initial explosion of the pins, and the lingering fall of the few remaining ones. A strike! Perhaps the “Kegelstatt” Trio was, after all, a souvenir of one of the game-loving Mozart’s many non-musical diversions.

As befits a piece composed for friends, the instruments participate on an equal basis in the trio, exchanging, complementing, and accompanying each others’

musical thoughts. In its unstinting concentration on the turn motive pronounced by the piano in the very first measure, the opening movement shows its indebtedness to Joseph Haydn’s technique of thematic development in sonata forms, which had also served as the model and inspiration for Mozart’s “Haydn” Quartets of the three preceding years. The clarinet introduces a subsidiary theme, a sort of proto-waltz, which does not, however, keep the music from referring stubbornly to the opening phrase. The second movement is among the longest and most serious in expression of all 18th-century minuets. It contrasts the limpid grace of the clarinet with the rather gruff interjections of the viola, and so much looks forward to the encroaching age of Romanticism that Eric Blom said it revealed “a kind of Emily Brontë-like smoldering passion.” The last movement is a melodically rich rondo in which the clarinet alone presents the theme, viola plays it on its first return, and viola and clarinet together give its last recurrence. �

“I imagine ... a kind of vernacular music from a culture that doesn’t really exist,” says Steven Mackey, one of America’s most adventurous and admired composers. Mackey was born in 1956 in Frankfurt, Germany to American parents but grew up in northern California,


STEVEN MACKEY Born February 14, 1956 in

Frankfurt, Germany. Composed in 1999.

Premiered on November 3, 1999 in New York City by percussionist Daniel Druckman and the New York New Music Ensemble.


Micro-Concerto for Solo Percussion, Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Cello, and Piano

From his earliest years, Villa-Lobos was enthralled with the indigenous songs and dances of his native land, and he made several trips into the Brazilian interior to study the native music and ceremonies. Beginning with his earliest works, around 1910, his music shows the influence of the melodies, rhythms, and sonorities he discovered. He began to compose prolifically, and, though often ridiculed for his daring new style by other Brazilian musicians, he attracted the attention of the pianist Artur Rubinstein, who helped him receive a Brazilian government grant in 1923 that enabled him to spend several years in Paris, where his international reputation was established. Upon his permanent return to Rio de Janeiro in 1930, Villa-Lobos became an important figure in public musical education, urging the cultivation of Brazilian songs and dances in the schools. He made his first visit to the United States in 1944, and spent the remaining years of his life traveling in America and Europe to conduct and

promote his own works and those of other Brazilian composers.

Assobio a Játo (The Jet Whistle) for Flute and Cello, composed in New York in 1950, was one of a number of chamber and solo works from his later years in which Villa-Lobos explored the areas of virtuosity and extended techniques for traditional instruments. The piece is in a Classical three-movement form (fast–slow–fast), and exhibits the tuneful influence of Brazilian popular and folk music that was the inspirational and stylistic engine which drove all of Villa-Lobos’s output. Assobio a Játo takes its curious title from the effect at the very end in which the flutist blows air directly into the instrument to produce a rushing, whistling sound reminiscent of a jet engine. During the 1950s, when Villa-Lobos was annually making trips to France and the United States but before commercial jet travel was available, perhaps this piece was a musical sign of his eager longing for a quicker, more modern way of air transportation. �

where he excelled in sports and imitating Jimmy Hendrix on his electric guitar. Mackey entered the University of California at Davis as a physics major but switched to music after being overwhelmed by Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring; he graduated summa cum laude in 1978 with a degree in guitar and lute but with the ambition of being a composer. He did his graduate work in composition at SUNY/Stony Brook (M.A., 1980) and Brandeis University (Ph.D., 1985), and was appointed to the Princeton University faculty as soon as he finished his doctorate; he became a full professor there in 1993 and is now William Shubael Conant Professor of Music at the school. During his first years at Princeton, Mackey established his distinctive creative voice, which his faculty colleague and fellow composer Paul Lansky said “synthesizes the influences of Led Zeppelin, Stravinsky, Monteverdi, Muddy Waters, Mahler, Monk, and others.” Mackey won the prestigious Kennedy Center Friedheim Award in 1987 for his string quartet Fumeux Fume (“He who fumes and lets off steam provokes hot air”), inspired by a piece of the little-known 14th-century French composer Solage, and he has since received

Guggenheim, Lieberson, and Tanglewood fellowships, a second Friedheim Award, Stoeger Prize from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, several awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Princeton University’s first Distinguished Teaching Award, 2012 Grammy for Best Small Ensemble Performance (for Lonely Motel), and many commissions.

Mackey wrote of Micro-Concerto (1999), “When I was a young composer in the mid-1980s, the so-called ‘Pierrot’ ensemble (flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano, named after Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire), with or without added percussion, was the ubiquitous ‘mod music’ group…. Micro-Concerto explores a variety of more complex roles that the individual can play in relation to the ensemble. In Part 1: Chords and Fangled Drum Set, the rhythm is front and center. I imagine that the piano chords harmonize the rhythm instead of the rhythm measuring the harmonies.

Part 2: Interlude No. 1—Vibes Solo is a short, lyrical ballad.

In Part 3: Click, Clak, Clank, the percussionist is neither an accompanying rhythm section nor leading melody. I think of it as a contextualizing and interpreting narration spoken in some imaginary tongue-clicking language.

In Part 4: Interlude No. 2—Marimba and Cello, the two instruments are completely co-dependent; the story is told only by their interplay. In some sense they are a single instrument with timbres no more


MICRO-CONCERTO EXPLORES A VARIETY OF MORE COMPLEX ROLES THAT THE INDIVIDUAL CAN PLAY IN RELATION TO THE ENSEMBLE

In 1842, Robert Schumann turned from the orchestral genres to concentrate with nearly monomaniacal zeal on chamber music. Entries in his diary attest to the frantic pace of his inspiration: “June 4th: Started the Quartet in A minor. June 6th: Finished the Adagio of the Quartet. June 8th: My Quartet almost finished. June 11th: A good day, started a Second Quartet. June 18th: The Second Quartet almost finished up to the Variazioni. July 5th: Finished my Second Quartet. July 8th: Began the Third Quartet. July

10th: Worked with application on the Third Quartet.” Schumann’s three string quartets, published together under the single opus number 41, were completed in a frenzy of creative activity within just six weeks, after which he never wrote another work in the form. Having nearly exhausted himself, he and his wife, Clara, took a holiday at a Bohemian spa in August, but he again threw himself into composition soon after his return: the Piano Quintet (Op. 44) was begun in September and the Piano Quartet (Op. 47) on October 24th; both were finished before the Phantasiestücke for Piano, Violin, and Cello (Op. 88) was created in December. Schumann, drained by three months of feverish work, then slumped into a state of nervous collapse, and he was unable to compose again until the following February, though his achievement


ROBERT SCHUMANN Born June 8, 1810 in Zwickau, Germany. Died July 29, 1856 in Endenich,

near Bonn. Composed in 1842.

Premiered on December 8, 1844 in Leipzig.


Quartet in E-flat major for Piano, Violin, Viola, and Cello, Op. 47

disparate than the clickers and samba whistle that are part of the percussionist’s instrument in Part 3. This movement flows without pause into Part 5: Tune in Seven. In the first half of the movement, the percussionist is one of six players tossing around a set of variations on the Tune. Toward the end, the percussionist returns to the ‘fangled drum set’ and shifts the focus back to what must be (along with singing) the most fundamental form of musical

expression—hitting things in time.The two interludes are played on

big, standard pieces of percussion ‘furniture,’ but the main movements focus on small moves and subtle distinctions. They are full of fussy descriptions of how to play some hand-held ‘toy’ just so. This micro-management of small muscle groups, and the fact that the concerto soloist is accompanied by the smallest orchestra imaginable, suggested the title.” �


of 1842—the composition of six chamber music masterpieces in five months—stands as one of the greatest bursts of creative inspiration in the history of the art.

The Piano Quartet’s opening Allegro, a fully realized sonata form, gives the main theme first in a slow, hymnal, introductory configuration before it is presented in a quick-tempo, staccato transformation to launch the main part of the movement. The second theme, announced in imitation between piano and strings, begins with an accented note followed by a rising scale pattern. The start of the development section is marked

by recalling the slow introduction. The Scherzo is a veritable dance for a whirling dervish. To balance this furious rhythmic exercise, two contrasting trios are interspersed in the movement. The principal theme of the Andante, a beautiful melody enfolding many wide leaps, is entrusted to the cello. Following a central interlude, the viola sings the theme again with detailed embroidery from the violin. The Finale is dominated by a plenitude of fugue. The movement’s thematic abundance is overshadowed only by its pervasive imitative texture, which Schumann contrived to make sound vivacious rather than pedantic. �

© 2018 Dr. Richard E. Rodda

Sonata for Cello and Piano (1915) Prologue Sérénade Finale

MARICA, CHUNG

Petrushka for Piano, Four Hands (1910–11, rev. 1946) The Shrove-Tide Fair Petrushka’s Room The Moor’s Room The Shrove-Tide Fair Towards Evening

CHUNG, BAX

—INTERMISSION—

Quartet No. 1 in G minor for Piano, Violin, Viola, and Cello, Op. 25 (1857-61) Allegro Intermezzo: Allegro ma non troppo Andante con moto Rondo alla Zingarese: Presto

WU HAN, LEE, LIPMAN, FINCKEL

CLAUDE DEBUSSY(1862-1918)

IGOR STRAVINSKY(1882-1971)

JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897)

THE COMPOSER'S WORLD Tuesday Evening, August 21, 2018 at 8:00 Spa Little Theatre

ALESSIO BAX, piano MATTHEW LIPMAN, violaLUCILLE CHUNG, piano DAVID FINCKEL, cello WU HAN, piano MIHAI MARICA, cello SEAN LEE, violin

PLEASE TURN OFF CELL PHONES AND OTHER ELECTRONIC DEVICES.Photographing, sound recording, or videotaping this event is prohibited.

CMS AT SPAC TUESDAY, AUGUST 21, 2018

When the Guns of August thundered across the European Continent in 1914 to plunge the world into “the war to end all wars,” Claude Debussy was already showing signs of the colon cancer that was to end his life four years later. Apprehensive about his health and tormented by the military conflict, his creative production came to a virtual halt. Except for a Berceuse Héroïque written “as a tribute of homage to His Majesty King Albert I of Belgium and his soldiers,” Debussy wrote no new music in 1914. At the end of the year, he undertook (with little enthusiasm) the preparation of a new edition of Chopin’s works to help compensate Durand for the regular advances the publisher had been sending. The death of Debussy’s mother in March 1915 further deepened his depression. That same month, however, he appeared in a recital at the Salle Gaveau with the soprano Ninon Vallin, and his mood brightened somewhat during the following months. “I have a few

ideas at the moment,” he wrote to Durand in June, “and, although they are not worth making a fuss about, I should like to cultivate them.” That summer he completed En blanc et noir for Two Pianos and the Études for Piano, and projected a series of six sonatas for various instrumental combinations inspired by the old Baroque school of French clavecinists. The first of the Sonatas, for Cello and Piano, was completed quickly in July and August 1915 during a holiday at Pourville, near Dieppe; the second one, for Flute, Viola (originally oboe), and Harp, was also written at Pourville before Debussy returned to Paris on October 12th. Surgery in December prevented him from further work until October 1916, when he began the Sonata for Violin and Piano. A sonata for oboe, horn, and harpsichord never went beyond the planning stage; the remainder of the projected set did not get that far. The Violin Sonata, completed in 1917, was his last important work; he premiered the piece on May 5, 1917 in Paris with violinist Gaston Poulet, and played it again in September at St.-Jean-de-Luz, where he was summering. It was his final public appearance.

For the Cello Sonata’s inspiration, style, and temperament, Debussy looked back far beyond the

NOTES ON THE PROGRAM

CLAUDE DEBUSSY Born August 2, 1862 in St. Germain-en-

Laye, near Paris. Died March 25, 1918 in Paris.

Composed in 1915.


Sonata for Cello and Piano


Stravinsky burst meteor-like onto the musical firmament in 1910 with the brilliant triumph of his first major score for the Ballet Russe, The Firebird. Immediately, Serge Diaghilev, the enterprising

impresario of the troupe, sought to capitalize on that success by commissioning Stravinsky to write a second score as soon as possible. Stravinsky was already prepared with an idea that had come to him even before finishing The Firebird. “I saw in imagination a solemn pagan rite,” he recalled in his Autobiography of 1936. “Sage elders, seated in a circle, watched a young girl dance herself to death. They were sacrificing her to propitiate the god of spring. Such was the theme of Le Sacre du

IGOR STRAVINSKY Born June 17, 1882 in Oranienbaum, near

St. Petersburg. Died April 6, 1971 in New York City.

Composed in 1910-11, revised in 1946.

Ballet premiered on June 13, 1911 in Paris, conducted by Pierre Monteux.


Petrushka for Piano, Four Hands

Impressionism of his earlier works to the elegance, emotional reserve, and textural clarity of the music of the French Baroque. In its revival of old techniques and modes of expression enfolded in 20th-century harmonic garb, the piece is one of the harbingers of the “Neo-Classical” movement that touched so many composers during the following decades, though its structure would better be called “Neo-Baroque” since it is based not on the Beethovenian model of continuous thematic development but rather on the 18th-century sectional design employed by Leclair and Couperin. The Prologue that opens the Cello Sonata not only provides a gateway to the work but also a thematic source for its later

movements. Debussy said that he tried in this composition to evoke the spirit of the old Italian commedia dell’arte, and he achieved this quality most fully in the insouciant Sérénade that occupies the middle movement. The finale, a sectional structure, not only refers to the theme of the Prologue, but also hints at Debussy’s early song Fantoches, to a text by Verlaine. For all its determined reactionary tendencies, however, the Cello Sonata is still so essentially imbued with the rich and misty harmonies marking Debussy’s most characteristic works that English musicologist Ernest Newman said it consists “mostly of a fog opening now and then, and giving us a momentary glimpse of ravishingly beautiful countryside." �

Printemps.” Diaghilev was as excited about this vision as was Stravinsky, and he sent the composer off to write the score with all possible haste. Stravinsky continued the story in his Autobiography:

“Before tackling The Rite of Spring, which would be a long and difficult task, I wanted to refresh myself by composing an orchestral piece in which the piano would play the most important part—a sort of Konzertstück. In composing the music, I had a distinct picture of a puppet, suddenly endowed with life.... Having finished this piece, I struggled for hours to find a title that would express in a word the character of my music and, consequently, the personality of this creature. One day I leaped for joy, I had indeed found my title—Petrushka, the immortal and unhappy hero of every fair in all countries. Soon afterwards, Diaghilev came to visit me. He was much astonished when, instead of the sketches of the Sacre, I played him the piece I had just composed and which later became the second scene of Petrushka. He was so pleased with it that he would not leave it alone, and began persuading me to develop the theme of the puppet’s sufferings and make it into a whole ballet.” Though his progress on the score was interrupted by a serious bout of “nicotine poisoning,” Stravinsky finished the work in time for the scheduled premiere on June 13, 1911. The production was a triumph.

Tableau I. St. Petersburg, the Shrove-Tide Fair. Crowds of people

stroll about, entertained by a hurdy-gurdy man and dancers. The Showman opens the curtains of his little theater to reveal three puppets—Petrushka, the Ballerina, and the Moor. He charms them into life with his flute, and they begin to dance among the public.

Tableau II. Petrushka’s Room. Petrushka suffers greatly from his awareness of his grotesque appearance. He tries to console himself by falling in love with the Ballerina. She visits him in his room, but she is frightened by his uncouth antics and flees.

Tableau III. The Moor’s Room. The Moor and the Ballerina meet in his room. Their love scene is interrupted by the arrival of Petrushka, furiously jealous. The Moor tosses him out.

Tableau IV. The Fair. The festive scene of Tableau I resumes with the appearance of a group of wet-nurses, a performing bear, Gypsies, a band of coachmen, and several masqueraders. At the theater, Petrushka rushes out from behind the curtain, pursued by the Moor, who strikes his rival down with his sword. Petrushka dies. The Showman assures the bystanders that Petrushka is only a puppet, but he is startled to see Petrushka’s jeering ghost appear on the roof of the little theater.

The version of Petrushka for piano, four hands, intended to be used both for rehearsals of the ballet and for performance of the music in intimate spaces, was created simultaneously with the orchestral score in 1911 and revised in 1946. �


The high-minded direction of Johannes Brahms’s musical career was evident from his teenage years—as a lad, he studied the masterpieces of the Austro-German tradition with Eduard Marxsen, the most rigorous piano teacher in his native Hamburg, and played Bach and Beethoven on his earliest recitals; his first published compositions were not showy virtuoso trifles but three ambitious piano sonatas inspired by Classical models; he was irresistibly drawn to Joseph Joachim and the Schumanns and other of the most exalted musicians of his day. When Schumann hailed him as the savior of German music, the rightful heir to the mantle of Beethoven, in an article in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (New Music Journal) in 1853, Brahms was only too eager to accept both the renown and the responsibility inherent in such a lofty appraisal. He tried sketching a symphony as early as 1855 (not completing it, however, until two decades later), but his principal means of fulfilling Schumann’s

prophecy during the early phase of his creative life were piano works and songs, and then chamber music.

Finished compositions did not come easily for Brahms, however, and he made several attempts to satisfy himself with a chamber piece before he allowed the publication of his Piano Trio in B major, Op. 8 in 1854. (He had destroyed at least three earlier efforts in that form.) The following year, he turned to writing quartets for piano, violin, viola, and cello, a genre whose only precedents were the two by Mozart and a single specimen by Schumann. Work on the quartets did not go smoothly, however, and he laid one (in C minor, eventually Op. 60) aside for almost two decades, and tinkered with the other two for the next half-dozen years in Hamburg and at his part-time post as music director for the court Lippe-Detmold, midway between Frankfurt and Hamburg.

Brahms was principally based in Hamburg during those years, usually staying with his parents, but in 1860, when he was 27 years old and eager to find the quiet and privacy to work on his compositions, he rented spacious rooms (“a quite charming flat with a garden,” he said) in the suburb of Hamm from one Frau Dr. Elisabeth Rössing, a neighbor of two members of the local women’s choir he was then directing. Hamm was to be his home for the next two

JOHANNES BRAHMS Born May 7, 1833 in Hamburg. Died April 3, 1897 in Vienna.

Composed in 1857-61.

Premiered on November 16, 1862 in Vienna by the composer as pianist and members of the Hellmesberger Quartet.


Quartet No. 1 in G minor for Piano, Violin, Viola, and Cello, Op. 25


years, and there he worked on the Variations on a Theme of Schumann for Piano Duet (Op. 23), Handel Variations (Op. 24), and Piano Quartets in G minor (Op. 25) and A major (Op. 26). Brahms dedicated the A major Quartet to his hospitable landlady. The two piano quartets were finally finished by early autumn 1861 and given a private reading by some unknown local musicians and Clara Schumann during her visit to Hamm shortly thereafter. The public premiere of the G minor Quartet

was given by Brahms and the quartet of Joseph Hellmesberger, director of the Vienna Conservatory, on November 16, 1862, during the composer’s first visit to Vienna.

The opening movement of the G minor Piano Quartet contains an abundance of thematic material woven into a seamless continuum through Brahms’s consummate contrapuntal skill. Balanced within its closely reasoned sonata form are pathos and vigor, introspection and jubilance, storm and tranquility. The second movement (Intermezzo), cast in the traditional form of scherzo and trio, is formed from long-spun melodies in gentle, rocking rhythms. The Andante is in a broad three-part structure, with the middle section taking on a snappy martial air. The Gypsy Rondo finale is a spirited essay much in the style of Brahms’s invigorating Hungarian Dances. �

© 2018 Dr. Richard E. Rodda

THE TWO PIANO QUARTETS WERE FINALLY FINISHED BY EARLY AUTUMN 1861 AND GIVEN A PRIVATE READING BY SOME UNKNOWN LOCAL MUSICIANS AND CLARA SCHUMANN


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ABOUT THE ARTISTSALESSIO BAX Pianist Alessio Bax—a First Prize winner at both the Leeds and Hamamatsu

International Piano Competitions, and the recipient of a 2009 Avery Fisher Career Grant—has appeared with more than 100 orchestras, including the London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, Houston Symphony, Japan’s NHK Symphony, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, and City of Birmingham Symphony. In summer 2017 he launched a three-season appointment as artistic director of Tuscany’s Incontri in Terra di Siena festival, having also appeared at such festivals as Music@Menlo, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Switzerland’s Verbier Festival, Norway’s Risør Festival, Germany’s Klavier-Festival Ruhr and Beethovenfest, and England’s Aldeburgh Festival, Bath Festival, and International Piano Series. An accomplished chamber musician, he regularly collaborates with his wife, pianist Lucille Chung, superstar violinist Joshua Bell, Berlin Philharmonic principals Daishin Kashimoto and Emmanuel Pahud, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, where he is a former member of CMS Two. May 2018 saw the release of his recording of Beethoven’s “Emperor” concerto with the Southbank Sinfonia, expanding a discography that already features a solo album of Mussorgsky and Scriabin, Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier” and “Moonlight” Sonatas, Alessio Bax plays Brahms, Bach Transcribed, and Rachmaninov: Preludes & Melodies. At age 14, Mr. Bax graduated with top honors from the conservatory of Bari, his hometown in Italy, and after further studies in Europe, he moved to the US in 1994.

LUCILLE CHUNG Canadian pianist Lucille Chung made her debut at the age of ten with

the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and went on tour with Charles Dutoit in Asia. She has performed with over 65 leading orchestras including The Philadelphia Orchestra, Moscow Virtuosi, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Israel Chamber Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic, Staatskapelle Weimar, Dallas Symphony, and has appeared with conductors such as Penderecki, Spivakov, Nézet-Séguin, Petrenko, and Dutoit. She has given solo recitals in over 35 countries in venues including New York’s Weill Hall and Lincoln Center, Washington’s Kennedy Center, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Wigmore Hall in London, and Madrid’s Auditorio Nacional. Festival appearances include the Verbier, Bard, Music@Menlo, and Santander festivals. She has received excellent reviews for her discs of the complete piano works of Ligeti and Scriabin on the Dynamic label, garnering five stars from BBC Music Magazine and Fono Forum (Germany), as well as the highest rating, R10, from Répertoire Classica (France). Her vast discography includes Saint-Saëns piano transcriptions, Mozart rarities, and more

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recently for Signum Records, a piano duo album with Alessio Bax, Poulenc piano works, and Liszt piano works. Ms. Chung graduated from both the Curtis Institute and The Juilliard School before she turned 20. She furthered her studies in London, at the “Mozarteum,” and in Imola, Italy. She and her husband, pianist Alessio Bax, live in New York City with their daughter Mila and are co-artistic directors of the Joaquín Achúcarro Foundation.

ROMIE DE GUISE-LANGLOIS Praised as “extraordinary” and “a formidable clarinetist” by the New

York Times, Romie de Guise-Langlois has appeared as soloist and chamber musician on major concert stages internationally. She has performed as soloist with the Houston Symphony, Ensemble Connect, the Burlington Chamber Orchestra, and the Guanajuato Symphony Orchestra, as well as at Festival Mozaic, Music@Menlo, and the Banff Center for the Arts. She was awarded first prize in the Houston Symphony Ima Hogg competition, the Yale University Woolsey Hall Competition, the McGill University Classical Concerto Competition, and the Canadian Music Competition. She has performed as principal clarinetist for the Orpheus and Saint Paul chamber orchestras, NOVUS NY, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the New Haven and Stamford symphony orchestras, and The Knights Chamber Orchestra. She is an alumnus of Astral Artists, Ensemble Connect, and Chamber Music Society Two, and has appeared at series such as the Boston and Philadelphia chamber music societies, Musicians from Marlboro, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and Chamber Music Northwest, among others. A native of Montreal, Ms. de Guise-Langlois earned her bachelor’s degree from McGill University and her master’s degree from Yale School of Music. She is currently assistant professor of clarinet at University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

DAVID FINCKEL Co-Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Society, cellist David Finckel

is a recipient of Musical America’s Musician of the Year award, one of the highest music industry honors in the US. He leads a multifaceted career as a concert performer, recording artist, educator, administrator, and cultural entrepreneur that places him in the ranks of today’s most influential classical musicians. He appears extensively with CMS, as recitalist with pianist Wu Han, and in piano trios with violinist Philip Setzer. Along with Wu Han, he is the founder and Artistic Director of Music@Menlo, Silicon Valley’s acclaimed chamber music festival and institute; co-founder and Artistic Director of Chamber Music Today in Korea; and co-founder and Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Workshop at the Aspen Music

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Festival and School. Under the auspices of CMS, David Finckel and Wu Han also lead the LG Chamber Music School in South Korea. BBC Music Magazine featured the duo on its cover CD this spring. Mr. Finckel is the co-creator of ArtistLed, classical music’s first musician-directed and Internet-based recording company, whose 19-album catalogue has won widespread critical praise as it celebrates its 20-year anniversary. The latest release features the Dvořák Cello Concerto and a work written for him by Augusta Read Thomas. Mr. Finckel served as cellist of the nine-time Grammy Award-winning Emerson String Quartet for 34 seasons. The first American student of Rostropovich, he is on the faculty of The Juilliard School and Stony Brook University.

AYANO KATAOKA Percussionist Ayano Kataoka, formerly a member of Chamber Music

Society Two and the first percussionist to be so chosen, is known for her brilliant and dynamic technique, as well as the unique elegance and artistry she brings to her performances. She has collaborated with many of the world’s most respected artists, including Emanuel Ax, Jaime Laredo, Ani Kavafian, David Shifrin, and Jeremy Denk. She gave the world premiere of Bruce Adolphe’s Self Comes to Mind for cello and two percussionists with cellist Yo-Yo Ma at the American Museum of Natural History in 2009. She presented a solo recital at Tokyo Opera City Recital Hall which was broadcast on NHK, the national public station of Japan. Her performances can also be heard on the Deutsche Grammophon, Naxos, New World, Bridge, New Focus, and Albany record labels. Since 2013 she has toured the US and Mexico extensively as a percussionist for Cuatro Corridos, a chamber opera led by soprano Susan Narucki and Mexican author Jorge Volpi that addresses human trafficking across the US-Mexican border. The recording of Hebert Vazquez's Azucena, the first scene of Cuatro Corridos, on Bridge Records was nominated for a Latin Grammy in the Best Contemporary Composition category. A native of Japan, Ms. Kataoka began her marimba studies at age five, and percussion at 15. She received her artist diploma degree from Yale University, where she studied with marimba virtuoso Robert van Sice. She is a faculty member of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

SEAN LEE Violinist Sean Lee has captured the attention of audiences around the

world with his lively performances of the classics. A recipient of a 2016 Avery Fisher Career Grant, he is one of few violinists who dare to perform Niccolò Paganini’s 24 Caprices in concert, and his YouTube series, Paganini

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POV, continues to draw praise for the use of technology in sharing unique perspectives and insight into violin playing. He has performed as a soloist with orchestras including the Utah Symphony, Israel Camerata Jerusalem, and Orchestra del Teatro Carlo Felice; and his recital appearances have taken him to Vienna's Konzerthaus, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, and Carnegie Hall's Weill Hall. As a season artist at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and a former member of CMS Two, he continues to perform regularly at Lincoln Center, as well as on tour. Originally from Los Angeles, Mr. Lee studied with Robert Lipsett of the Colburn Conservatory and legendary violinist Ruggiero Ricci before moving at the age of 17 to study at The Juilliard School with his longtime mentor, violinist Itzhak Perlman. He continues to call New York City home, and currently teaches at The Juilliard School’s Pre-College Division, as well as the Perlman Music Program. He performs on a violin originally made for violinist Ruggiero Ricci in 1999, by David Bague.

MATTHEW LIPMAN One of the world’s leading young violists, American Matthew Lipman has

been hailed by the New York Times for his “rich tone and elegant phrasing.” The recipient of a 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant, he has appeared as soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra, Illinois Philharmonic, Grand Rapids Symphony, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Juilliard Orchestra, Ars Viva Symphony, and Montgomery Symphony, with the Chamber Music Society in Alice Tully Hall, and in recital at the WQXR Greene Space in New York City and the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC. His debut solo album Ascent will be released by Cedille Records, coinciding with a Lincoln Center recital debut in fall 2018. His recording of Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with violinist Rachel Barton Pine and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields topped the Billboard charts. He was featured on WFMT Chicago’s list of “30 Under 30” of the world’s top classical musicians and has been profiled by The Strad and BBC Music magazines. He performs regularly at the Music@Menlo, Marlboro, Ravinia, Bridgehampton, Seattle, Cleveland, and White Nights festivals. A top prizewinner of the Primrose, Tertis, Washington, Johansen, and Stulberg International Viola Competitions, he received his bachelor's and master's degrees from The Juilliard School as a student of Heidi Castleman, and was further mentored by Tabea Zimmermann at the Kronberg Academy. A native of Chicago, Mr. Lipman is on faculty at Stony Brook University and performs on a fine 1700 Matteo Goffriller viola loaned through the generous efforts of the RBP Foundation.

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MIHAI MARICA Romanian-born cellist Mihai Marica is a First Prize winner of the “Dr.

Luis Sigall” International Competition in Viña del Mar, Chile and the Irving M. Klein International Competition, and is a recipient of Charlotte White’s Salon de Virtuosi Fellowship Grant. He has performed with orchestras such as the Symphony Orchestra of Chile, Xalapa Symphony in Mexico, the Hermitage State Orchestra of St. Petersburg in Russia, the Jardins Musicaux Festival Orchestra in Switzerland, the Louisville Orchestra, and the Santa Cruz Symphony in the US. He has also appeared in recital performances in Austria, Hungary, Germany, Spain, Holland, South Korea, Japan, Chile, the United States, and Canada. A dedicated chamber musician, he has performed at the Chamber Music Northwest, Norfolk, and Aspen music festivals where he has collaborated with such artists as Ani Kavafian, Ida Kavafian, David Shifrin, André Watts, and Edgar Meyer, and is a founding member of the award-winning Amphion String Quartet. A recent collaboration with dancer Lil Buck brought forth new pieces for solo cello written by Yevgeniy Sharlat and Patrick Castillo. This season he joins the acclaimed Apollo Trio. Mr. Marica studied with Gabriela Todor in his native Romania and with Aldo Parisot at the Yale School of Music where he was awarded master's and artist diploma degrees. He is a former member of Chamber Music Society Two.

TARA HELEN O'CONNOR Tara Helen O'Connor is a charismatic performer noted for her artistic

depth, brilliant technique, and colorful tone spanning every musical era. Winner of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and a two-time Grammy nominee, she was the first wind player to participate in the Chamber Music Society Two program. A Wm. S. Haynes flute artist, she regularly appears at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Music@Menlo, the Chamber Music Festival of the Bluegrass, Spoleto USA, Chamber Music Northwest, Mainly Mozart Festival, Music from Angel Fire, the Banff Centre, the Great Mountains Music Festival, Chesapeake Music Festival, and the Bravo! Vail Music Festival. A much sought-after chamber musician and soloist, she is a founding member of the Naumburg Award-winning New Millennium Ensemble, and a member of the woodwind quintet Windscape and the legendary Bach Aria Group. She has premiered hundreds of new works and has collaborated with the Orion String Quartet, St. Lawrence Quartet, and Emerson Quartet. She has appeared on A&E's Breakfast with the Arts, Live from Lincoln Center, and has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, EMI Classics, Koch International, CMS Studio Recordings with the Chamber Music Society, and Bridge Records. She is associate professor of flute, head of the wind department, and coordinator of classical music studies at

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Purchase College Conservatory of Music. Additionally, she is on the faculty of Bard College Conservatory and the contemporary program at Manhattan School of Music and is a visiting artist, teacher, and coach at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.

WU HAN Co-Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Society, pianist Wu Han

is among the most esteemed and influential classical musicians in the world today. She is a recipient of Musical America’s Musician of the Year award, one of the highest music industry honors in the US, and has risen to international prominence through her wide-ranging achievements as a concert performer, recording artist, educator, arts administrator, and cultural entrepreneur. Wu Han appears extensively with CMS; as recitalist with cellist David Finckel; and in piano trios with violinist Philip Setzer. Along with David Finckel, she is the founder and artistic director of Music@Menlo, Silicon Valley’s acclaimed chamber music festival and institute; co-founder and artistic director of Chamber Music Today in South Korea; and co-founder and artistic director of the Chamber Music Workshop at the Aspen Music Festival and School. Under the auspices of CMS, David Finckel and Wu Han also lead the LG Chamber Music School in South Korea. This spring BBC Music Magazine featured the duo on its cover CD. Beginning this fall, Wu Han will serve as Artistic Advisor of Wolf Trap’s Chamber Music at the Barns for two seasons. She is the co-creator of ArtistLed, classical music’s first musician-directed and Internet-based recording company, whose 19-album catalogue has won widespread critical praise as it celebrates its 20-year anniversary. Recent recordings include Wu Han LIVE II. Wu Han’s most recent concerto performances include appearances with the Aspen Chamber Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony, and The Philadelphia Orchestra.

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ABOUT CMSThe Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS) is known for the extraordinary quality of its performances, its inspired programming, and for setting the benchmark for chamber music worldwide: no other chamber music organization does more to promote, to educate, and to foster a love of and appreciation for the art form. Whether at its home in Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, on leading stages throughout North America, or at prestigious venues in Europe and Asia, CMS brings together the very best international artists from an ever-expanding roster of more than 150 artists per season, to provide audiences with the kind of exhilarating concert experiences that have led to critics calling CMS “an exploding star in the musical firmament” (The Wall Street Journal). Many of these extraordinary performances are livestreamed, broadcast on radio and television, or made available on CD and DVD, reaching thousands of listeners around the globe each season. Education remains at the heart of CMS’ mission. Demonstrating the belief that the future of chamber music lies in engaging and expanding the audience, CMS has created multi-faceted education and audience development programs to bring chamber music to people from a wide range of backgrounds, ages, and levels of musical knowledge. CMS also believes in fostering and supporting the careers of young artists through the CMS Two program, which provides ongoing performance opportunities to a select number of highly gifted young instrumentalists and ensembles. As this venerable institution approaches its 50th anniversary season in 2020, its commitment to artistic excellence and to serving the art of chamber music, in everything that it does, is stronger than ever.

Join us 45 minutes before each concert for a panel discussion with the artists led by Kari Fitterer,

CMS’s Director of Artistic Planning and Touring.

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When SPAC’s season ends, we begin.

15 concerts by world-renowned artists.

Tickets from $30.

unioncollegeconcerts.org 518-388-6080

Union College Concert Series

Uchida

18-19

Belcea Quartet

Finckel & Han Keenlyside

Biss Padmore & Lewis Anderszewski

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THE INSIDE CHAMBER MUSIC PODCAST

AVAILABLE ON ITUNES AND GOOGLE PLAY

Join Bruce Adolphe, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's Resident Lecturer, for investigations and insights into chamber music masterworks. Inside Chamber Music lectures are beloved by regulars and a revelation to first-timers for their depth, accessibility, and brilliance.

A new episode, carefully selected from the recording archive, is released every two weeks.

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WATCH CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY PERFORMANCES LIVE

FROM ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD

www.ChamberMusicSociety.org/WatchLive

Throughout CMS's 2018-19 season, view 25 unforgettable chamber music events streamed live to your computer or mobile device, and watch on demand up to 72 hours later. Browse the program, relax, and enjoy a front row seat from

anywhere in the world.

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SPAC Box Office (518) 584-9330 spac.org

Visit spac.org for festival schedule and tickets

SEPTEMBER 7-9

International Wines, Gourmet Foods and Luxury Cars.The 2018 Saratoga Wine & Food Festival has partnered with Colin Cowie Lifestyle and the Saratoga Automobile Museum to present three days of lively, gourmet events. Featuring special appearances by David “Big Papi” Ortiz, celebrity chefs David Burke and Todd English, and a stunning display of 80 luxury Bugatti automobiles, it’s a feast for the senses!

Don’t miss this once-in-a-lifetime event!

Documents

TIMELESS MASTERWORKS THE COMPOSER’S WORLD...(K. 498) in August 1786. He wrote the viola part for himself (he refused to touch the violin after moving to Vienna, always playing viola