May 17, 2026: Chee-Yun, violin; Henry Kramer, piano Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108 May 17, 2026: Chee-Yun, violin; Henry Kramer, piano In 1886 Brahms spent the first of three idyllic summers in the village of Hofstetten in the Swiss mountains where the Aare flows into Lake Thun. He wrote to his publisher Simrock of the wonderful view from his lodging—on one hand the ancient town and castle and on the other the amazing array of mountains of the Bernese Oberland. These inspiring surroundings contributed to his immense productivity that summer: he composed his F major Cello Sonata, his C minor Piano Trio, two of his most beloved songs (“Immer leiser” and “Wie Melodien zieht es mir”), his A major Violin Sonata, and all but the finishing touches of the present D minor Sonata. Unlike that summer’s other three chamber works, which Simrock published the following year, the D minor Sonata remained in manuscript until Brahms completed it during his third Hofstetten summer. In October 1888 he sent the Sonata and over twenty new vocal works to his good friend Elisabet von Herzogenberg, who wrote back in ecstatic terms about the Sonata. To Clara Schumann, another of his closest circle, he wrote that he then felt confident enough to have the work sent on to her—thus braving Clara’s disapproval at not receiving it first—saying she might try it out with Naret Koning and with celebrated violinist Joseph Joachim, their longtime mutual friend. With typical self-doubt he added that if she did not like it, not to bother trying it with Joachim, but send it back. Clara often had rheumatic pains at the time, so she first let her daughter Elise play it through with Koning, pronouncing it “magnificent” and “ravishing” in her diary. Clara played the work privately with Koning in Frankfurt on December 8, 1888, and Brahms tried it out himself at the home of his physician friend Theodor Billroth in Vienna four days later. The composer then gave the first public performance with violinist Jenö Hubay on December 21 in Budapest, where he had gone to conduct his Fourth Symphony. After playing the Sonata again with Hugo Heermann in Frankfurt on January 11, 1889, Brahms performed the work with Joachim in Vienna on February 13. When the Sonata appeared in print that spring, Brahms dedicated it to conductor Hans von Bülow, champion of Brahms’s orchestral works. Thirty-five years earlier Bülow had been the first person, aside from Brahms himself, to perform one of the composer’s works publicly (his Opus 1 Piano Sonata). The D minor Violin Sonata, Brahms’s third and last, shows remarkable scope but also great concision. He cast the work in four movements rather than the three of his G major and A major Sonatas, but so concentrated are his methods that it lasts just over twenty minutes, making it shorter than the G major and the shortest of his four-movement chamber works, except, perhaps, for the C minor Trio. The sense of breadth arises out of his invoking such a wide dramatic range, from intimacy to brilliance. The first movement opens sotto voce (in a hushed voice) with the violin singing high above a restless accompaniment. His quiet, extended theme provides a great foil for the passionate eruption that ensues before the gentle second theme. But the movement’s most striking feature is its development section, which takes place over an insistent pulsing low note in the piano—his longest pedal point since the celebrated one in the third movement fugue of his Requiem. This harmonic anchoring of what would traditionally be a harmonically unstable section led to his ingenious transfer of that adventurousness into the recapitulation. The gorgeous slow movement owes its economy to one of Brahms’s simplest forms—basically a melody and its elaborated restatement. Yet the spacious, lyrical line and the luxurious harmonic flow leave no impression of terseness. Brahms sweetens the intensity of each section’s peak with the violin playing parallel thirds, a sonority he loved, with the added phrase of descending thirds in the second section casting a glow that subsides like a musical sunset. The scherzo begins with a quintessentially Brahmsian combination of playfulness and mystery. An impassioned outburst midway through the movement suggests a contrasting trio, which instead turns out to develop ideas from the first section. The return of the playful opening contains some charming variants and a “puff-of smoke” ending. Brahms’s finale is the most impassioned and vehement movement of any of his violin sonatas, despite his contrasting of the turbulent main theme with a more subdued chorale-like idea begun by the piano alone. The movement’s dramatic qualities have led some to speculate that it may have roots in one of the destroyed sonatas of his youth, written around the time his friendship with Joachim began. The most striking structural feature is the entrance of what seems to be a restatement of the dramatic opening in the home key but which soon turns into development, boasting some of Brahms’s most persistent syncopation. When the recapitulation proper begins, Brahms cleverly picks up just where that earlier restatement left off. His fiery coda demands virtuosity and all-out sound from both players. —©Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

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ANTON RIST, CLARINET Anton Rist was appointed Principal Clarinetist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in 2016. He previously held principal positions with the Princeton and New Haven Symphony Orchestras. In addition, he has performed with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Grant Park Festival Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Louisiana Philharmonic, the American Ballet Theater, and on several Broadway productions. Rist toured Japan with the New York Symphonic Ensemble, and has performed as a chamber musician throughout Europe and Asia. As a soloist, he has performed with the Mainly Mozart Festival of Orchestras, the Cheyenne Symphony, the Knoxville Symphony, and the Sullivan County Chamber Orchestra. In addition, he has appeared at Festival Mozaic, the St. Barts Music Festival, Bravo!Vail, and is a founding member of the Montserrat Music Festival in the West Indies.

BENJAMIN BEILMAN, VIOLIN Benjamin Beilman is one of the leading violinists of his generation. He has won international praise for his passionate performances and deep rich tone which The New York Times described as “muscular with a glint of violence”, and the Strad described as “pure poetry.“ Le Monde has described him as “a prodigious artist, who combines the gift of utmost sound perfection and a deep, delicate, intense, simmering sensitivity”. Benjamin's 2024/25 season included his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic and Kirill Petrenko on tour in the US, as well as returns to the Chicago Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, and Antwerp Symphony. He also makes his debut with the Belgian National Orchestra in a performance of Stravinsky’s concerto, and with the Tokyo Metropolitain Symphony performing Korngold. In the US, he also embarked on a recital tour with pianist Steven Osborne. Last season included Benjamin's subscription debut with the Chicago Symphony with Semyon Bychkov, and six weeks of performances in Europe, including concerts with the SWR Symphonieorchester Stuttgart alongside Elim Chan, a return to the Kölner Philharmonie with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken, and appearances at the Grafenegg Festival, Festpielhaus St. Pölten, and the Musikverein in Vienna with the Tonkünstler Orchester and Tabita Berglund. He also returned to play-direct the London Chamber Orchestra, and re-united with Ryan Bancroft for his debut with BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Meanwhile, performances in the US included his debut with the St Louis Symphony under Cristian Macelaru, as well as returns to the Minnesota Orchestra with Elim Chan. In past seasons, Benjamin has performed with many major orchestras worldwide including the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Trondheim Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic, Taipei Symphony, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Zurich Tonhalle, Sydney Symphony, and Houston Symphony. He has also extensively toured Australia in recital under Musica Aviva, and in 2022, became one of the youngest artists to be appointed to the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music. In recent seasons Beilman’s commitment to and passion for contemporary music has led to new works written for him by Frederic Rzewski (commissioned by Music Accord), and Gabriella Smith (commissioned by the Schubert Club in St. Paul, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music). He has also given multiple performances of Jennifer Higdon’s violin concerto, and recorded Thomas Larcher’s concerto with Hannu Lintu and the Tonkünstler Orchester, as well as premiered Chris Rogerson’s Violin Concerto (“The Little Prince”) with the Kansas City Symphony and Gemma New. Conductors with whom he works include Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Cristian Măcelaru, Lahav Shani, Krzysztof Urbański, Ryan Bancroft, Matthias Pintscher, Gemma New, Karina Canellakis, Jonathon Heyward, Juraj Valčuha, Han-Na Chang, Elim Chan, Roderick Cox, Rafael Payare, Osmo Vänskä, and Giancarlo Guerrero. Beilman studied at the Curtis Institute of Music with Ida Kavafian and Pamela Frank, and with Christian Tetzlaff at the Kronberg Academy, and has received many prestigious accolades including a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship, an Avery Fisher Career Grant and a London Music Masters Award. He has also recorded works by Stravinsky, Janáček and Schubert for Warner Classics. He performs with the ex-Balaković F. X. Tourte bow (c. 1820), and plays the “Ysaÿe” Guarneri del Gesù from 1740, generously on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation.

2019-2020 ARTIST ROSTER BENJAMIN BEILMAN, VIOLIN 2019 INN-HYUCK CHO, CLARINET YING FANG, SOPRANO PAUL JACOBS, ORGAN BENJAMIN LUXON, ACTOR-NARRATOR JUHO POHJONEN, PIANO DANBI UM, VIOLIN DEMIAN AUSTIN, TROMBONE CHRIS COLETTI, TRUMPET DAVID J. GROSSMAN, DOUBLE BASS PAUL LEWIS, PIANO FRANK MORELLI, BASSOON QUARTETTO DI CREMONA ZUKERMAN TRIO IAN ROSENBAUM, PERCUSSION ANNI CROFUT, DANCER PAUL HUANG, VIOLIN MATTHEW LIPMAN, VIOLA KEN NODA, PIANO ANDREW TYSON, PIANO

EVAN EPIFANIO, BASSOON Evan Epifanio was appointed Principal Bassoon of The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in 2018. Prior to The Met, Evan was a member of The Sarasota Orchestra and New World Symphony, as well as serving as Principal Bassoon of the Des Moines Metro Opera. He has also performed with other ensembles including The Chicago Symphony Orchestra and The Florida Orchestra. Evan can be heard playing with The MET Orchestra Chamber Ensemble at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall throughout the year. He has lead masterclasses at a variety of locations including The Academia Filarmónica de Medellín, Colombia and most recently The Juilliard School. During his summer months Evan has been heard performing with Classical Tahoe in Incline Village, Nevada and The Mainly Mozart Festival in San Diego.

SUNDAY, JUNE 19, 2022 AT 3 PM THE ZUKERMAN TRIO BELOVED BEETHOVEN BUY TICKETS ZUKERMAN TRIO “Their combination of outsized string sound, exciting ensemble precision, and compelling interpretation puts them at the head of the Piano Trio division of the Chamber Music Major League.” — San Diego Union-Tribune FEATURING ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE BUY TICKETS The star-studded Zukerman Trio will return for an all-Beethoven afternoon. The legendary violinist Pinchas Zukerman will be joined by the passionate cellist Amanda Forsyth and the eloquent pianist Shai Wosner , for performances of Beethoven’s “Spring” violin sonata, G-minor cello sonata, and soaring “Archduke” Trio. PROGRAM Beethoven Violin Sonata No. 5 in F (“Spring), Op. 24 Pinchas Zukerman, violin; Shai Wosner, piano Program Notes Beethoven Cello Sonata in G minor, Op. 5, No. 2 Amanda Forsyth; Shai Wosner, piano Program Notes Beethoven Piano Trio in E-flat (“Archduke”), Op. 97 Program Notes Watch the Zukerman Trio perform Beethoven’s “Kakadu Variations”, Op. 121A” on Parlance Chamber Concerts:

February 16, 2020: Ying Fang, soprano; Ken Noda, piano WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791) S’altro che lagrime from La clemenza di Tito, K. 621 Zeffirettti lusinghieri from Idomeneo, K. 366 February 16, 2020: Ying Fang, soprano; Ken Noda, piano In July 1791 Mozart received a “last-minute” commission to compose an opera to celebrate Leopold II’s coronation as King of Bohemia. He had to work quickly in order to complete La clemenza di Tito (The clemency of Titus) by September 6, when it would open at the National Theatre in Prague. Having begun the work in Vienna in late July, Mozart arrived in Prague on August 28 and completed the opera only the day before it opened. After modest successes, La clemenza di Tito experienced a triumphant closing night, which was reported to Mozart back in Vienna on September 30, the day of the premiere of Die Zauberflöte. More than forty composers had previously set Pietro Metastasio’s libretto for La clemenza di Tito, beginning with Caldara in 1734. For Mozart’s purposes the libretto was adapted by Caterino Mazzolà—“reduced to a proper opera” as Mozart put it—who shortened it by one-third and manipulated almost all of Metastasio’s texts so that there would be ensembles and finales in addition to solo arias. The plot, typical of opera seria (eighteenth-century dramatic opera, usually on a classical subject), concerns Titus (Tito), benevolent Roman emperor, whose plan to marry someone other than Vitellia, daughter of the deposed emperor, causes her to plot his demise. She enlists Sextus (Sesto)—who is Tito’s friend but hopelessly in love with her—to burn down the entire city of Rome and thus roast Tito alive. Meanwhile, Tito’s choice of consort has shifted for political reasons from Berenice to Servilia, Sesto’s sister, but when he learns that Servilia and his friend Annio are in love he declares he will not come between them. He now chooses Vitellia, but she doesn’t find out until it is too late to stop the deadly plot. Miraculously, Tito survives the fire, but Sesto is condemned to death for treason. Vitellia, unable to bear the guilt, confesses her part in the scheme, and Tito, who has granted Sesto clemency, now does the same for Vitellia. “S’altro che lagrime” (If nothing more than tears), a gentle minuet-like arietta, is sung by Servilia in Act II as she comes upon Vitellia crying and warns her that her tears are not enough to save Sesto from death. Servilia doesn’t realize that Vitellia is crying in guilty anguish over having brought about his death sentence. Stepping back in time to Mozart’s first big break in opera, in the summer of 1780 he received a commission to write an opera seria for the Electoral Court of Munich. Elector Karl Theodor’s establishment, having recently moved there from Mannheim, boasted one of the finest opera companies and probably the finest orchestra in Europe. Mozart had encountered many of these musicians in Mannheim during his travels several years earlier and he expended his greatest efforts to write a worthy opera. Salzburg cleric Giovanni Battista Varesco condensed Antoine Danchet’s earlier five-act libretto, Idomenée, into three acts, which Mozart—already exhibiting his exceptional dramatic sense of timing and theatrical effect—had to prune severely. Mozart wrote some of his most glorious music for Idomeneo, rè di Creta (Idomeneus, king of Crete), and the premiere, which Mozart conducted in Munich on January 29, 1781, was well received. Yet despite Mozart’s considerable innovations, opera seria was a dying art form, and Idomeneo disappeared from the repertoire, remaining unappreciated until the twentieth century. The story of Idomeneus, the Greek chieftain returning home after the Trojan war, parallels the Biblical story of Jephtha: in return for his deliverance from a horrendous storm, he vows to Poseidon that he will sacrifice the first living being he encounters when he goes ashore, only to find that this is his own son Idamantes. In Italian fashion, the libretto averts a tragic ending by having Poseidon decree that Idomeneus abdicate his throne in favor of Idamantes, who is to marry Ilia. She is the one he loves, though she had earlier given him up to her rival Electra as Idomeneus maneuvered to avoid sacrificing his son. Ilia sings “Zeffiretti lusinghieri” (Gently caressing zephyrs) at the outset of Act III, tenderly, exquisitely asking the wind to carry her thoughts of love to Idamantes. Graceful fast notes represent her message flying on the breeze. The middle section in this ternary form brings musical contrast, though it expresses the same basic idea even if it is now the plants and flowers that are to relay her love. © Jane Vial Jaffe Texts and Translations SERVILIA S’altro che lagrime Per lui non tenti, Tutto il tuo piangere Non gioverà. A questa inutile pietà che senti oh, quanto è simile la crudeltà. S’altro, etc. —Pietro Metastasio ILIA Zeffiretti lusinghieri, deh volate al mio tesoro, e gli dite ch’io l’adoro, che mi serbi il cor fedel. E voi piante, e fior sinceri, che ora innaffia il pianto amaro, dite a lui che amor più raro Mai vedeste sotto al ciel. Zeffiretti lusinghieri, etc. —Giovanni Battista Varesco after Antoine Danchet SERVILIA If nothing but tears you expend on him, all your weeping will not help. To this useless pity that you feel, oh how similar cruelty is. If nothing, etc. ILIA Gentle zephyrs, oh fly to my beloved, and tell him I adore him, and to keep his heart true to me. And you plants and tender flowers, which my bitter tears now water, tell him that no rarer love you have ever seen beneath the sky. Gentle zephyrs, etc. Return to Parlance Program Notes

March 19, 2023 – Rachel Naomi Kudo, piano JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750) Chorale Prelude “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme”, BWV 645 (arr. Busoni) March 19, 2023 – Rachel Naomi Kudo, piano Our discussion of the present three Bach transcriptions must begin with Ferrucio Busoni, who was Egon Petri’s teacher. As a youth Busoni adored Bach above all other composers, a passion that endured throughout his life. He not only drew on Bach’s music for inspiration in his own works but he issued a monumental edition of Bach’s solo keyboard works transcribed for piano—a twenty-five volume collection plus a seven-volume set—aided by his students Egon Petri and Bruno Mugellini. So synonymous did Bach and Busoni become in the public’s mind that on Busoni’s first American tour his wife Gerda was once introduced by a society matron as “Mrs. Bach-Busoni.” This anecdote was related by Petri, a superb German pianist of Dutch descent, who began studying with Busoni in Weimar in 1901. Petri eventually settled in the United States, taught at Mills College, and authored many Bach transcriptions at Busoni’s behest. Busoni issued his Bach edition in two collections: the twenty-five-volume Klavierwerke, and the seven-volume Bach-Busoni edition. Although Busoni’s name appears on each volume of the Klavierwerke, many were edited by Petri and a few by Bruno Mugellini. Petri had expected Busoni to supervise his and Mugellini’s editorial work and they strove to operate under his principles and to emulate his style, yet Busoni concerned himself very little with reading their proofs, much to Petri’s surprise. Busoni strove to remain true to the essence of Bach’s music in his transcriptions, but inevitably his own Romantic sensibilities crept in with his addition of tempo and pedal markings, dynamics, register changes, repeats, and performance suggestions. Nevertheless, these transcriptions are rewarding additions to the piano repertoire. Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ—which appears as No. 5 in Busoni’s collection of Ten Chorale Preludes (1898) and No. 41 (BWV 639) in Bach’s Orgel-Büchlein (Little Organ Book)—has become a favorite of pianists and audiences for its poignant serenity. Flowing arpeggios in the middle voice accompany the tender, mostly unadorned chorale melody, supported by a steady “walking bass.” Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme is actually Busoni’s transcription of what was already a transcription by Bach himself. In 1731 Bach had composed the fourth movement of his Cantata 140 (Wachet auf) in chorale-prelude style with tenor(s) taking the chorale melody, surrounded by a a lyrical countermelody for upper strings in unison and supported by continuo (bass line and harmony). Thus it was a simple task to transfer all three parts to organ, which he did in BWV 645, one of a group of six late works that became known as the “Schübler Chorales” after their publication by Johann Georg Schübler in 1748–49. Busoni’s transcription for piano, No. 2 in his Ten Chorale Preludes, maintains the lilting flow in the upper line against the steady chorale in the middle voice. Turning to the first piece of the group of transcriptions, Egon Petri arranged his version of Schafe können sicher weiden (Sheep may safely graze) not from a chorale preude by Bach but rather a soprano aria from Cantata 208 Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd! (What pleases me is above all the lively hunt). Bach wrote secular cantatas for aristocratic patrons to celebrate special occasions such as birthdays, name days, and accession days, or for academic ceremonies, and he composed Cantata 208 on a text by Weimar court poet Salomo Franck for the birthday of Duke Christian Weissenfels in 1713. Known as the Hunt Cantata, it contains “Schafe können sicher weiden,” the well-known aria for Pales, second soprano to Diana, goddess of the hunt. For centuries listeners have been captivated by its texture of rocking parallel thirds for two flutes—the quintessential pastoral instrument—accompanying the tender main melody, which praises Duke Christian for ruling his people as a good shepherd. The lovely aria has been transcribed for countless times for various performing forces, among the first—Percy Grainger’s for band (1931), Mary Howe’s for solo piano and two pianos (1935), and William Walton’s for orchestra (1940). Egon Petri’s transcription, published in 1944 has become the best-known transcription for piano. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

April 14, 2019: Jason Vieaux, guitar PHILLIP GLASS (BORN 1937) Metamorphosis II April 14, 2019: Jason Vieaux, guitar One of the most successful and controversial composers of our time, Philip Glass developed a distinctive style as a minimalist pioneer in the 1960s and early ’70s, using additive and subtractive cycles in static harmony and motoric rhythms for amplified instruments. He created a large body of music in this style for his celebrated Philip Glass Ensemble and for the Mabou Mines Theater Company, which he cofounded. This period culminated in his Music in Twelve Parts (1971–74), eventually a four-hour work, which was the first that his ensemble played in a traditional concert hall. Glass’s landmark opera Einstein on the Beach , created with Robert Wilson in 1976 for New York’s Metropolitan Opera, brought him instant renown. Since then he has further explored the operatic genre in more than twenty works, also branching out into dance, theater, and film music. His film scores for Martin Scorsese’s Kundun and Stephen Daldry’s The Hours received Academy-Award nominations and his score for Peter Weir’s The Truman Show won a Golden Globe. He has also produced a significant amount of chamber and orchestral music. Among Glass’s recent compositions—premiered in 2017—are his Symphony No. 11, music for the film Jane about the life of Jane Goodall, his Piano Concerto No. 3 for Simone Dinnerstein, a new theater work for the Days and Nights Festival, Passacaglia (Distant Figure) for solo piano, and his String Quartet No. 8. His Piano Quintet, “Annunciation,” premiered in April 2018, and January 2019 saw the spectacular premiere by the Los Angeles Philharmonic of his Symphony No. 12, “Lodger,” a symphonic song cycle on texts by David Bowie and Brian Eno from Bowie’s album Lodger . In 1988 Glass completed a set of five Metamorphoses for piano, which he released on his landmark Solo Piano album the following year. A longtime admirer of Franz Kafka’s works, Glass took his title from the author’s famous short story Die Verwandlung (The metamorphosis) about a salesman transformed into an insect. The pieces draw on two projects that Glass had recently completed—the score for Errol Morris’s 1988 documentary The Thin Blue Line about a man wrongfully sentenced to death for the murder of a police officer, and his score for part of Gerald Thomas’s 1987 staging in Brazil of a Kafka Trilogy (A Process, Metamorphosis, and Praga) . Said Glass, “As both projects were undertaken at the same time, the music seemed to lend itself well to a synthesis of this kind.” Metamorphosis II has become the most frequently performed of the five pieces and received even more exposure in the 2002 film The Hours . Anne Akiko Meyers writes, “The first time I heard Philip Glass’s hauntingly beautiful Metamorphosis II , I was so struck by it that I asked Michael Riesman (who has collaborated closely with Philip Glass for decades) to arrange it for violin and piano. To my surprise, during our collaboration, Michael mentioned that Metamorphosis II, was influenced by Arvo Pärt’s Fratres .” Riesman adds, “This arrangement is fairly straightforward, except that the middle section, which has rapid four-note arpeggios for piano, didn’t seem idiomatic enough on violin to me, so I changed the pattern to three notes with top and bottom notes repeated, as in Arvo Pärt’s Fratres.” For this series of concerts featuring the collaboration between Anne Akiko Meyers and Jason Vieux, Riesman adapted the piano part for guitar. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes