May 15, 2016: James Morris, bass-baritone; Rafael Figueroa, cello; Ken Noda, piano GIUSEPPE VERDI (1813–1901) Come dal ciel precipita from Macbeth, Ella giammai m’amò from Don Carlo May 15, 2016: James Morris, bass-baritone; Rafael Figueroa, cello; Ken Noda, piano In 1846 Verdi was given free rein by the Teatro della Pergola to choose an opera subject and opted for Shakespeare’s Macbeth when he learned that the cast would include first-class singer-actor baritone Felice Varesi. Francesco Maria Piave wrote the libretto, bullied by Verdi into making certain changes, along with Andrea Maffei, whom Verdi hired to pen some additional material. Verdi closely supervised rehearsals, which resulted in a successful premiere on March 14, 1847, but Verdi was criticized, much to his outrage, for not knowing his Shakespeare. Verdi lavished great care on several revisions and personally oversaw many productions, but Macbeth met with relatively little success during his lifetime. He was especially baffled when the production at Paris’s Théâtre Lyrique, for which he had made substantial revisions in 1864, was largely unsuccessful. Verdi’s annoyance at the opera’s reception, however, did nothing to alter its status in his eyes as the favorite of his early operas, and time has proved its merit. In Act II Macbeth has murdered King Duncan and become king, but plots the murder of Banco and his son Fleance to thwart the prophecy that Banco’s children will rule Scotland. As the assassins lie in wait for Banco outside the castle, Banco sings his famous recitative and aria—unchanged in Verdi’s many revisions—“Studia il passo . . . Come dal ciel precipita” (Watch your step . . . How from the heaven falls), in which he warns his son about his feeling of foreboding. The aria’s noble, rich unfolding comes to an impassioned peak just before the coda, when the assassins strike him down but fail to halt his escaping son. * * * * * In 1865, when Verdi was planning a grand opera for the Paris Opéra, he returned to the idea of Don Carlos, a subject he had rejected in the 1850s, but now fit his conception of a “magnificent drama,” offering the perfect potential for both spectacle and sympathy for the lovers. He closely supervised the preparation of the libretto, which François Joseph Méry loosely adapted from Schiller’s play, and which Camille de Locle completed after Méry’s death. Verdi had completed most of the opera in 1866 before arriving in Paris that July to supervise the long rehearsal period, but found his five-act opera far too long and made substantial cuts. Despite his careful attention to all aspects of the production, the premiere on March 11, 1867, met with only modest success. Verdi made numerous revisions for Italian revivals over twenty years, ending with a four-act version for La Scala in 1884 that cut the entire first act. Since then companies have juggled versions, cuts, and restoration of certain portions, but the opera, typically performed in Italian and called Don Carlo, has now emerged from the filter of history as one of Verdi’s most respected and beloved. Verdi’s unsurpassed dramatic and musical mastery culminates in his depiction of the power struggles, private loves, and tragic consequences of these historic personages. The story is based on the son of Spanish King Philip II, Don Carlos, who plots with Marquis Posa against the tyrannical king. Carlos is betrothed to Elisabeth of Valois, but she instead marries his father, Philip II, as part of a peace treaty. The heartbreak of the two lovers lies at the heart of the opera, but equally tragic is Philip II’s role. Verdi gives him one of the best bass arias in the repertoire, “Ella giammai m’amò” (She never loved me), in which he poignantly laments that his wife has never loved him. A moving cello obbligato interlaces his heartbreaking expression of his loneliness and the powerlessness of his crown to see into others’ hearts. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

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QUARTETTO DI CREMONA Cristiano Gualco, violin; Paolo Andreoli, violin; Simone Gramaglia, viola; Giovanni Scaglione, cello Quartetto di Cremona is admired as a preeminent quartet of its generation, noted for its lustrous sound, refined musicianship, and stylistic versatility. Since its founding in 2000 at the Accademia Walter Stauffer in Cremona, the Quartet has toured extensively in Europe, the United States, South America, and Asia, appeared at leading festivals, and performed regularly on radio and television broadcasts, including RAI, BBC, Westdeutscher Rundfunk, and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The Quartetto di Cremona’s extensive repertoire encompasses key masterworks—Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert—and essential twentieth-century literature by Berg, Schoenberg, Webern, Bartók, Shostakovich, and Mauricio Kagel. Highlights of Quartetto di Cremona’s 2018-2019 season include a major tour throughout Europe—Milan, Verona, Florence, Rome, Genoa, Bergamo, Berlin, Hamburg, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Leiden, Geneva, Zurich, and Valencia. In the Americas, the quartet appears in Cartagena, London, Ontario, Santa Monica, and Chapman University in Orange, California, as well as New York at the Frick Collection, in a program that includes Hugo Wolf’s Italian Serenade, Puccini’s elegiac Crisantemi, Verdi’s String Quartet in E minor, and Tempi di Quartetto by contemporary Italian composer Lorenzo Ferrero. During the 2017-2018 season, the Quartetto di Cremona made its debut at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and appeared at the city’s Muziekgebouw, as a participant in the prestigious String Quartet Biennale. It toured the United States, China, Japan, Denmark, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Notable engagements included performances at Hamburg’s Laeiszhalle, Stockholm, Berlin’s Konzethaus, Geneva, Zurich, and Madrid, and appearances in the major concert halls of their native Italy. The quartet collaborates with both eminent and rising musicians in a range of chamber music, including clarinetist David Orlowsky, violist Lawrence Dutton, double bassist Edicson Ruiz, pianists Andrea Lucchesini, Anna Geniushene, Aaron Pilsan, Cédric Tiberghien, cellists Eckart Runge, Jaime Walton, Pieter Wispelway, and the Emerson String Quartet.In July 2018, the German label Audite issued the box set of Quartetto di Cremona’s complete cycle of the Beethoven quartets, recorded during the period 2013-2016, which includes the String Quintet in C major, Op. 29 with Lawrence Dutton, violist of the Emerson String Quartet. The first volume in the series received widespread and immediate recognition, including a five-star rating in BBC Music Magazine and selection as album of the month by Fonoforum, the German journal. The seventh CD gained the Supersonic Award from the German magazine Pizzicato and the Echo Klassik 2017 prize. More recently, the Quartet was a winner of the International Classical Music Awards 2018 for the seventh and eighth discs of the Beethoven series, and a new recording of Schubert works with cellist Eckart Runge is slated for release in September 2018. Awarded with the BBT Fellowship in 2005, the Quartetto di Cremona is the recipient of the second “Franco Buitoni Award” (2019), in recognition of their contribution in promoting and encouraging chamber music in Italy and throughout the world. Since 2011, they have led a renowned program for professional and advanced string quartets at the Accademia Walter Stauffer, in addition to conducting masterclasses throughout Europe and tours of the United States. Quartetto di Cremona is supported by the Kulturfond Peter Eckes which provides the musicians with four superb instruments: violin Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, violin Paolo Antonio Testore, viola Gioachino Torazzi, cello Don Nicola Amati). In 2015, the musicians were awarded honorary citizenship by the city of Cremona. The Quartet resides in Genoa.

JAMES THOMPSON, VIOLIN Violinist James Thompson is forging a promising career as a versatile chamber musician, soloist, and music educator. A native of Cleveland, Ohio, he is currently a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Bowers Program and is on faculty at Music@Menlo. In 2014, James made his solo debut with the Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall. He was recently invited to perform in Budapest as part of the 1st Bartok World Competition and in Sendai for the 7th Sendai International Violin Competition. He has collaborated in concert with a multitude of established artists including David Finckel, Soovin Kim, Jaime Laredo, Paul Neubauer, Roger Tapping, and a variety of musicians from both the Cleveland Orchestra and the Cleveland Institute of Music. James holds Artist Diploma, Masters, and Bachelor of Music degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he has studied with Jaime Laredo, William Preucil, and Paul Kantor.

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FRANK MORELLI, BASSOON Introduced to the bassoon in the Massapequa, NY public schools, Frank Morelli studied with Stephen Maxym at the Manhattan School of Music and later became the first bassoonist to be awarded a doctorate by the Juilliard School. He has made nine appearances as soloist in New York’s Carnegie Hall playing concertos, Sinfonias concertantes, and even a solo ballad with the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band. The Miami Herald has hailed his “breathtaking virtuosity” and the Toronto Globe and Mail proclaimed his performance: “the kind of Mozart even the most tireless concertgoer is lucky to hear once a year.” Morelli has four solo CDs on MSR Classics: From the Heart: 20th Century Music for Bassoon and Piano and Romance and Caprice, with pianist Gilbert Kalish, Bassoon Brasileiro with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and guitarist Ben Verdery and Baroque Fireworks, which features harpsichordist Kenneth Cooper and bassoonist Harry Searing. The magazine, Gramophone proclaimed: “Morelli’s playing is a joy to behold.” The American Record Guide stated: “the bassoon playing on this recording is a good as it gets.” Of his DG recording of the Mozart Bassoon Concerto with Orpheus, Gramophone Magazine noted the “delicacy of articulation and colouring, [and] the lyrical warmth of the Andante.” Fanfare Magazine added that this recording “reset a reviewer’s standards at too high a level for comfort in a world more productive of ordinary music making.” The Orpheus CD “Shadow Dances,” which features Frank Morelli, won a 2001 Grammy Award. A prolific chamber musician, Frank Morelli appeared with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center on numerous occasions, including at the Whitehouse for the final State Dinner of the Clinton Presidency. He has participated in many major music festivals, including the Norfolk and Sarasota Chamber Music Festivals, Marlboro, Banff, Angel Fire, Casals Festival (France) and Music@Menlo. He is a member of Festival Chamber Music and the woodwind quintet, Windscape, in residence at the Manhattan School of Music with whom he has recorded two recent CDs, one featuring the music of Antonin Dvorak and the other music of Maurice Ravel (which includes his transcriptions of “Mother Goose” and “Valses Nobles et Sentimentales” both published by TrevCo). Chosen to succeed his teacher, Stephen Maxym, Mr. Morelli serves on the faculties of the Juilliard School, the Manhattan School of Music and the Yale School of Music, as well as SUNY Stony Brook. Morelli’s students are active in major orchestras and on important faculties
throughout the USA, Canada, Mexico, the Far East, and Europe. He is editor of Stravinsky: Difficult Passages for Bassoon, a landmark excerpt book for bassoon and contra bassoon published by Boosey & Hawkes, and has several transcriptions for bassoon, woodwind quintet and other ensembles to his credit, published by Trevco Music. His unprecedented edition, The First Complete Weissenborn Bassoon Method and Studies Op. 8 Vols. 1&2 and Ludwig Milde’s Scale and Chord Studies Op. 24, is now available worldwide, published by Carl Fischer. Mr. Morelli performs exclusively on the Leitzinger Bassoon Model 1.

September 24, 2017: Michael Brown, piano FREDERIC CHOPIN (1810-1849) Valse brillante in A-flat major, op. 34, no. 1 September 24, 2017: Michael Brown, piano Much as he did with the mazurka and polonaise, Chopin took the waltz from its function as dance accompaniment and placed it in the elegant surroundings of high-society salons. He dedicated the A-flat major waltz to Mlle. De Thun-Hohenstein—Jozefina—for whom he had copied it out on September 15, 1835, while he and his parents were staying at her family’s castle in Tetschen. In “brillante” (virtuoso) style, the work unfolds as a tightly organized succession of five waltzes framed by a bravura introduction and coda. Some of the waltzes are repeated with variations and return at various stages; the last, in perpetual motion, appears only once. The waltz section that returns most often is notable for its use of the repeated-note motive from the introduction, its rocketing scalar passages, and its stunning leaps. The return of the theme in sixths that followed the introduction brings a sense of recapitulation. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

September 27, 2009 – Danielle de Niese, soprano; Stephen Williamson, clarinet; Ken Noda, piano FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797-1828) Shepherd on the Rock, Op. 129, D. 965, for soprano, clarinet and piano September 27, 2009 – Danielle de Niese, soprano; Stephen Williamson, clarinet; Ken Noda, piano Franz Schubert was unusual among the great composers of the 18th and 19th centuries in that he was not an instrumental virtuoso. Composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Brahms, and Liszt developed early reputations for their formidable keyboard prowess. Their performance skills enabled them to attain varying degrees of “star power,” giving them the ability to introduce their solo and chamber compositions directly to the public, publishers, and influential, music-loving aristocrats of the day. While Schubert sang in a small, pleasant voice and had functional keyboard and string instrument skills, his performance abilities were better suited to intimate musical circumstances. For this reason, his reputation remained largely confined to a Bohemian circle of devoted admirers and friends who gathered on a weekly basis in private homes to hear and perform his latest musical offerings. These events, known as Schubertiades, were attended by artists, literary figures, musicians, and middle-class Viennese music lovers. Schubert was the kind of person to whom friends were naturally drawn and became devotedly attached. He lived most of his adult life off the good graces of his colleagues, who gave him lodgings and would occasionally raise funds to have his music published. When he died at 31, he left behind no books, money, furniture, or estate, but his musical legacy was enormous. Although most of his music remained unpublished at his death, he composed over 1000 separate pieces during his short lifetime. Like Mozart, his memory and ability to concentrate were prodigious. He was able to imagine and hold entire compositions in his head, then write them down at breakneck speed. Schubert’s greatest musical gifts were melodic – for all intents and purposes, he invented the Art Song, composing over 600 of them. In 1828, his final year, Schubert’s friends rented the Vienna Concert Hall and sponsored the first public recital of his music. The response among the attendees was effusive, and Schubert was enormously heartened. It seemed that his fortunes were finally about to change for the better. He received an open-ended request for music from the prominent publishing firm Schott, and he set to work in a final burst of creative activity. One of the most famous sopranos of the day, Anna Milder-Hauptmann (the creator of the role of Leonora in Beethoven’s opera Fidelio), requested that Schubert write her a brilliant concert aria that would allow her wide expressive latitude and be suitable for large audiences. The result was one of Schubert’s most popular songs, The Shepherd on the Rock. Sadly, he died only weeks after completing the song and never had the opportunity to hear it performed. Of the hundreds of songs that Schubert wrote, only two, both composed during his last year, feature obbligato instruments. The first, On the River, involves the French horn, and the second, Shepherd on the Rock, the clarinet. In keeping with the outdoors imagery of the text, the clarinet sonority provides appropriately folkish associations, as well as conveying the pathos and melancholy of the song’s introspective middle section. Schubert chose to blend three poems by two different poets in order to express a wide range of human emotion. Romantic sensibilities are represented in the poetic and musical evocations of nature, picturesque landscapes, the desolation of separated lovers, and the joy of wandering. The song begins in the alpine heights with a young shepherd yodeling across mountain ravines to his lover somewhere below. The clarinet responds with echoes from the depths of the valley. The second section expresses the sadness of life, evoking sorrow and grief as hope for the future ebbs. Optimism and positive emotions return in the final section, which heralds the beginning of spring and the joyous anticipation of wandering. The song ends in a jubilant cascade of scales and arpeggios in the soprano and clarinet. By Michael Parloff Return to Parlance Program Notes

February 20, 2022 – Paul Huang, violin; Danbi Um, violin AMY BARLOWE Hebraique Elegie for two violins February 20, 2022 – Paul Huang, violin; Danbi Um, violin Daughter of acclaimed natural history artists Dorothea and Sy Barlowe, Amy Barlowe began playing viola in elementary school, but she really wanted to play violin. Her parents found her a local teacher and she was good enough to play very difficult repertoire even if her technique was unconventional. In high school she worked her way from the back of the second violins to concertmaster, but she needed a good teacher. The great Ivan Galamian accepted her after some “reconstruction work” with Margaret Pardee, and she won admission to the Juilliard School where she earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Barlowe’s playing career blossomed with acclaimed solo and chamber music concerts across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. She toured the Northwest with the Oregon Trio and she performed and recorded with her husband, Alan Bodman, as Duo [AB]2 (AB squared). She has also taught extensively—at Willamette University, Juilliard Pre-College, New York’s School for Strings, and the Ohio Conservatory, as well as during summers at the Estherwood and Bowdoin Summer Music Festivals and—for over twenty-five years—the Meadowmount Music School. The death of her father in 2000 gave the impetus for her to begin composing, and two years later, with the onset of an incurable tremor, composition became a more frequent outlet for her energy. She did develop techniques so she could still play the violin, but with the curtailment of her solo career, she realized “that the impending void could be filled if I were to become more creative than re-creative. If I were to write music that I envisioned, it would be another form of ‘world-building’ that I could explore for the rest of my life.” Barlowe’s compositions and arrangements include many works for two violins and piano, solo violin, two Requiems—Aeternum in memory of her father and a Requiem for soprano and orchestra—and 12 Etudes in the Style of the Great Performers, which has won worldwide acclaim. Her arrangement of John Williams’s Theme from Schindler’s List for two violins or violin and viola with orchestra or piano won the endorsement of the composer. More recently The Peace of Wild Things was premiered in June 2019 by Akron Baroque, a chamber orchestra founded by Barlowe in 2006 in which she plays assistant concertmaster to her husband. On the same concert he premiered her Sicliano, written as the middle movement of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 for which he left just two chords on which creative performers were meant to improvise. Even more recently, in October 2021, Barlowe’s Epitaph for viola and soprano was premiered at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. Barlowe composed her Hebraique Elegie in 2001 in memory of her father and has often performed it with her husband to great accalim. The piece has also received a number of performances by today’s violinists, Paul Huang and Danbi Um. Barlow has also arranged it for two violas and for solo violin. She writes: “There is something about the history of the Jewish people, their struggle for survival, their innate ability to buoy themselves from the depths of tragedy through the use of humor, that has always fascinated me. The Hebraique Elegie was born of the desire to find a home for the emotions I experienced at the passing of my father. The hypnotic dance at its core is a sweet reminiscence of dancing with my father at Bar Mitzvahs, while a very little girl, first with my feet atop his polished black shoes; then on my own. From the lonely, chant-like cadenza at its opening, to reflection and reluctant acceptance at its close, the Hebraique Elegie is a lament expressing the irony and juxtaposition of joy and suffering; the struggle with the inevitable.” © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

September 26, 2021: James Thompson, violin; Oliver Neubauer, violin; Clara Neubauer, violin; Jeanelle Brierley, violin; Paul Neubauer, viola; Isabella Bignasca, viola; Nicholas Canellakis, cello; Sihao He, cello; Joel Noyes, cello; David J. Grossman, bass; Paolo Bordignon, harpsichord ANTONIO VIVALDI (1678-1741) Concerto for Four Violins in B minor, RV 580, op. 3, no. 10 September 26, 2021: James Thompson, violin; Oliver Neubauer, violin; Clara Neubauer, violin; Jeanelle Brierley, violin; Paul Neubauer, viola; Isabella Bignasca, viola; Nicholas Canellakis, cello; Sihao He, cello; Joel Noyes, cello; David J. Grossman, bass; Paolo Bordignon, harpsichord If one were to compose a concerto every month for thirty-five years, one would still not match Vivaldi’s feat. Of his close to 500 concertos, more than 230 were written for solo violin and strings, some 120 for a variety of other solo instruments with string accompaniment, many for more than one soloist, and approximately 60 for string orchestra without solo instrument known as ripieno concertos. And, he managed to compose solo and trio sonatas, operas, oratorios, masses, motets, and cantatas in addition to performing, teaching, and traveling. Vivaldi’s extraordinary mastery of instrumental forms and orchestration influenced generations of composers. Vivaldi was an accomplished violinist himself, having studied with his father, a violinist at the famous St. Mark’s cathedral in Venice. Vivaldi trained for the priesthood, taking his Holy Orders in 1703, the same year he became maestro di violino at the Pio Ospedale Pietà, an orphanage and renowned conservatory for girls in Venice. Though his later activities as a composer and impresario occasioned much travel, Vivaldi retained his association with the Pietà throughout his life and many of his instrumental works were designed for his students there. About 1711 the Amsterdam firm of Estienne Roger issued Vivaldi’s first published set of concertos, L’estro armonico (“harmonic caprice”), op. 3, one of the most influential collections of instrumental music of the eighteenth century. The twelve concertos were composed over a period of years, probably for the Pio Ospedale Pietà. L’estro armonico was and still is prized for its wealth of originality in regard to style, form, orchestration, and concentrated rhythmic designs. Bach was among the many who were enthralled by the collection, transcribing six of the concertos for his own use and imitating Vivaldi’s rather flexible forms in his own concertos. Vivaldi established the three-movement norm for concertos. He typically cast his first and last movements in ritornello form, in which periodic returns of thematic material alternate with contrasting episodes. Ritornello elements are present in the present Concerto’s first movement, but the ritornello itself is subordinate to the domination of the four soloists. Instead of opening with a typical ritornello for the full ensemble, Vivaldi introduces the major motives in two of the solo violins. The texture of the four solo parts is constantly varied, but the four soloists are never featured simultaneously; most often they play singly or in pairs. The slow movement follows the multisection style of previous composers such as Corelli. The sections consist of a Largo featuring dotted rhythms, a Larghetto made up entirely of elaborative repeated figures—a different figure in each part—and an Adagio probably meant for a cadenza-like elaboration. The dancelike finale in 6/8 meter follows a much more clear-cut ritornello form. The first solo violin predominates, but each soloist is given an opportunity to shine. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

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