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ALEXI KENNEY, VIOLIN Violinist Alexi Kenney is forging a career that defies categorization, following his interests, intuition, and heart. Alexi has appeared as soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, among many others, and in recital at Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, Princeton University Concerts, the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, and the Phillips Collection. A passionate advocate for music of our time, Alexi has commissioned major works for the violin from composers including Salina Fisher, Angélica Negrón, and Paul Wiancko, and is constantly incorporating new works into his repertoire. Alexi regularly appears at chamber music festivals including Bridgehampton, Kronberg, Ojai, Seattle, and Spoleto, on tour with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Musicians from Marlboro, and as a member of the quartet collective Owls. A recipient of a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award and an Avery Fisher Career Grant, he has been profiled by the New York Times and Strings magazine, and written for The Strad. Born in Palo Alto, California, Alexi is a graduate of the New England Conservatory, where he studied with Donald Weilerstein and Miriam Fried. He plays a violin made in London by Stefan-Peter Greiner in 2009.

April 14, 2019: Jason Vieaux, guitar ANTÔNIO CARLOS JOBÍM (1927-1994) A Felicidade April 14, 2019: Jason Vieaux, guitar Composer, pianist, guitarist, and arranger Antônio Carlos Jobim was greatly influenced by the American West Coast jazz composers of the 1950s, such as Jerry Mulligan, Chet Baker, and Barney Kessel, and, he said, by French Impressionist composer Claude Debussy. But he always infused his music with a bit of Brazilian samba, which gave it an exotic uniquenesss that attracted enormous popularity. Jobim is especially known for helping to launch the bossa nova craze, the movement that sprang up in the late 1950s in Rio de Janeiro as a stylistic shift in the urban samba. The term bossa nova may have first been used publicly in 1957 by journalist Moyses Fuks in promoting a concert by the Grupo Universitário Hebraico do Brasil, but it was a style that was already being pioneered by guitarist João Gilberto. His recordings of bossa nova songs by Jobim and lyricists Vinicius de Moraes and Newton Mendonça took the world by storm. The term combined bossa —slang in Rio for “shrewdness”—together with nova to describe the new complex melodic intervals, harmonies, and rhythmic structure. The subdued, almost spoken delivery, blending with the innovative guitar style—Gilberto had just recently invented his now-famous “stammering” guitar stroke—became just as important for bossa nova as its melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic innovations. Jobim is known especially for his bossa nova song “Girl from Ipanema,” composed in 1962 with Moraes, but another of his famous songs, also written with Moraes, came at the outset of the bossa nova craze. They wrote “A felicidade” in 1958 for the French film Orfeu Negro (Black Orpheus), directed by Marcel Camus and released in 1959. Sung by Agostinho dos Santos with Roberto Menescal on guitar, the song accompanies the opening credits. Jobim underlays its lyrical, haunting melody with exuberant bossa nova rhythms, exemplifying the conflict of its opening lines: “Sadness has no end, happiness / happiness does.” In 2001 guitarist, composer, and arranger Roland Dyens arranged “A felicidade” for guitar only, dedicating it Gilberto. He added idiomatic figuration and flourishes that make it a great virtuoso showpiece. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

December 3, 2023: Brentano String Quartet; Antioch Chamber Ensemble ENGLISH MADRIGALS December 3, 2023: Brentano String Quartet; Antioch Chamber Ensemble The rise and fall of the English madrigal is remarkable in that it occurred within such a short period of time—roughly a quarter of a century—but what makes its performance and study so rewarding is the quality of the output of the composers within that short period. The English madrigal owes its existence to its Italian and Flemish models, which were being published by 1540, but the first English publication of what could be considered madrigals did not occur until 1588 with William Byrd’s Psalms, Sonets, and Songs. Madrigal singing was becoming popular in England before this, but for decades the only music available was that of the continental composers. English madrigalists were in a position to draw from some of the best literature in the English language for their lyrics. These composer were contemporaries of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Sidney, Donne, Spenser, Fletcher, Chapman and many others, and quite possibly were intimately acquainted with them. In “The Ape, the Monkey and Baboon,” Thomas Weelkes refers to the Mermaid Tavern, a famous club to which many of these poets belonged, and to which in all probability some of the great madrigalists belonged as well. Unfortunately it was not the custom to print the name of the author of the lyrics in music books, so it would be·nearly impossible to prove authorship of most madrigal lyrics. Also the poems themselves do not exist outside of the madrigal song-books, and many madrigal composers probably wrote their own lyrics, but it would be natural to suppose that some of the great poets wrote a few of the poems or suggested a line here and there. Weelkes indicated pretty clearly that he did not write his own lyrics. He describes himself as “untoucht with any other arts, and I hope, my confession is unsuspected, many of us Musitians thinke it is as much praise to be some what more then Musitians,” which in addition to suggesting that he wrote none of his lyrics, implies that other musicians did. The sole purpose of the madrigal was to enhance the beauty of a given text with appropriate music. Carefully setting individual lines and even individual words was the Italian idea which the English adopted. The structure was determined·by the text and often. new material was employed for each line. Rapid changes of mood were demanded by certain texts. The Italian methods of word painting and creating contrast were sometimes extreme in order to achieve a “dramatic” style. All Elizabethans “word painted,” but this did not completely dictate the form of their madrigals. Whereas many Italian madrigals tend to be more a series of contrasting episodes, English madrigals tend to be a more unified whole. Because “word painting” and “phrase painting” conventions were common practice among Elizabethans, much of what seems trite or trivial to the modern mind was completely ordinary and acceptable then. There are countless examples of these word painting devices. Words like happy, joy, fly, sing, or laugh were almost always set to phrases of rapid notes. The flight of a bird could be specifically portrayed by the curve of the notes. Words such as weep, moan, sobs, loud lamenting were set with slower notes, discords, or suspensions. “Dancing” was almost always set in triple rhythm. A device used by almost all madrigalists to set a “sigh” was to precede it by a rest for a more realistic effect—the list goes on forever. Since these realistic methods were used by all, the great composers stand out as the ones who did not let them become trivial or interfere with the beauty of their work. Our first selection, “All Creatures Now ” by John Bennet (fl. 1575–1614), was first published in the famous 1601–03 collection edited by Thomas Morley, The Triumphs of Oriana, which represented twenty-three English madrigal composers. It has long been thought that “Oriana” referred to Queen Elizabeth I, but an alternate theory suggests that Anne of Denmark (later Queen of England) was being honored in an early failed attempt to push out Elizabeth I in order to restore Catholicism in England. Text painting abounds, already apparent in the opening phrase at “merry.” Note, in particular, Bennet’s glorified treatment of the concluding word, “Oriana.” William Byrd (c. 1540–1623) is regarded as the founder of the English madrigal school since he was the first to publish “madrigals,” though not so named (see above) and “Though Amarillis Dance” first appeared in that 1588 collection. Although most of his contribution to music was in the area of church music, his madrigals are equally rewarding, some naturally exhibiting elements of his church style. Here though, triple meter and lively rhythmic play suggest the dance, and the effect of the popping “Hey ho”s in the refrain is delightful. Thomas Weelkes (?1576–1623) was one of the most gifted of the English madrigal composers, and like Byrd, he was also a composer of church music. Little was known about his life until 1597 when he published his Madrigals to 3. 4. 5. & 6. Voyces, many of which show his familiarity with the Italian madrigalists. The influence of Thomas Morley, who was apparently one of his good friends, shows more in his second book, published just one year later: Balletts and Madrigals to Five Voyces, which includes one of the all-time favorites in the madrigal repertory, “Hark, All Ye Lovely Saints above.” Here in this ballett (a form marked by its “fa-la” refrains), Weelkes’s wit and brilliance shines. Thomas Tomkins (1572–1656) was born to a family of musicians—son of a choirmaster and vicar—and, based on one of his dedications, appeared to have studied with William Byrd. He also marked up a copy of Morley’s Plain and Easy Introduction to Practical Music (1597), and must have been known to him personally, because Morley included one of his madrigals in The Triumphs of Oriana (see above). Tomkins’s Songs of 3.4.5. & 6. Parts (1622), besides the madrigal dedicated to Byrd, included “Adieu, Ye City Prisoning Towers” in its mixed compilation of sacred songs and madrigals. This lesser-known madrigal scintillates with its lively word-painting, rapid-fire imitation, and metrically contrasting sections. John Wilbye (1574–1638), one of the finest of the English madrigalists, was born to a prosperous tanner and soon entered the service of the Kytson family, remaining in their service for most of his career. Like other English madrigalists, he was influenced by Thomas Morley, but his style is often more subtle in his word painting. Though less prolific than some of the other madrigalists, he was a master of polish and sensitivity, as the classy melancholy of “Draw on Sweet Night” exhibits so well. He characteristically used varied repetition to expand and reinforce, such as here with the return of the opening music. Scholar David Brown goes so far as to say that this madrigal “is not only Wilbye’s finest single achievement, but perhaps also the greatest of all English madrigals.” We close with a return to Thomas Morley in his iconic “Fyer, Fyer!” published in his First Booke of Balletts to Five Voyces (1595). Yelling “Fire!” has always been an effective warning, and here in this ballett (think “fa-la” refrain), he likens that kind of emergency to being smitten in love. Admittedly, the cries of “My heart” never sounded so enjoyable. Texts Bennet: All Creature Now All creatures now are merry minded, the shepherd’s daughters playing, the nymphs are falalaing. Yon bugle was well winded. At Oriana’s presence each thing smileth. The flow’rs themselves discover, birds over her do hover, music the time beguileth, See where she comes, with flow’ry garlands crowned, queen of all queens reknowned. Then sang the shepherds and nymphs of Diana, “Long live fair Oriana!” Byrd: Though Amarillis Dance Though Amarillis daunce in green, like Fayrie Queene, and sing full cleere, Corina can with smiling cheer: yet since their eyes make hart so sore, hey ho, chill* love no more. My sheepe are lost for want of food, and I so wood: that all the day, I sit and watch a heardmaid gaye: who laughes to see mee sigh so sore, hey ho, chill love no more. Her loving lookes, her beautie bright, is such delight: that all in vaine, I love to like, and lose my gaine: for her that thanks mee not therefore, hey ho, chill love no more. Ah wanton eyes my friendly foes, and cause of woes: your sweet desire, breedes flames of ice and freese in fire: yee skorne to see mee weep so sore, hey ho, chill love no more. Love yee who list I force him not, sith God it wot, the more I wayle, the lesse my sighes and teares prevaile, what shall I doe but say therefore, hey ho, chill love no more. *Obsolete word meaning I will. Weelkes: Hark, All Ye Lovely Saints above Hark, all ye lovely saints above Diana hath agreed with Love, his fiery weapon to remove. Fa la la. Do you not see how they agree? Then cease fair ladies; why weep ye? Fa la la. See, see, your mistress bids you cease, and welcome Love, with love’s increase, Diana hath procured your peace. Fa la la. Cupid hath sworn his bow forlorn to break and burn, ere ladies mourn. Fa la la. Tomkins: Adieu, Ye City-Prisoning Towers Adieu, ye city pris’ning towers, better are the country bowers. Winter is gone, the trees are springing, birds on ev’ry hedge sit singing. Hark, how they chirp, come, love, delay not, come, come, sweet love, O, come and stay not. Wilbye: Draw on, Sweet Night Draw on, Sweet Night, best friend unto those cares that do arise from painful melancholy. My life so ill through want of comfort fares, that unto thee I consecrate it wholly. Sweet Night, draw on! My griefs when they be told to shades and darkness find some ease from paining, and while thou all in silence dost enfold, I then shall have best time for my complaining. Morley: Fyer, Fyer! Fyer, fyer, my heart! Fa la la la. O help, alas, o help! Ay me! I sit and cry me, and call for help, alas, but none comes ny me! Fa la la la. O, I burne mee, alas! Fa la la la. I burne, alas, I burne! Aye mee! Will none come quench mee? O cast, cast water on, alas, and drench mee! Fa la la la. Return to Parlance Program Notes

JEEWON PARK, PIANO Hailed for her “deeply reflective” playing (Indianapolis Star), pianist Jeewon Park is rapidly garnering the attention of audiences for her dazzling technique and poetic lyricism. Since making her debut at the age of 12 performing Chopin’s First Concerto with the Korean Symphony Orchestra, Ms. Park has performed at major venues such as Weill Recital Hall, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall and Kaplan Penthouse, Merkin Hall, 92nd Street Y, Steinway Hall, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Kravis Center (FL). As a recitalist, she has been heard at the Steinway Hall in New York, Seoul Arts Center in Korea, Caramoor International Festival, Norfolk Music Festival, Music Alp in Courchevel (France) and Kusatsu Summer Music Festival (Japan), among others. An avid chamber musician, Ms. Park has performed in numerous festivals such as the Spoleto USA Festival, Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, Beethoven Festival, Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival (VT), Appalachian Summer Festival (NC), Emilia-Romagna Festival (Italy) and Barge Music. She has performed as a guest artist with the Fine Arts Quartet and New York Philharmonic Chamber Ensemble, and has collaborated with numerous artists. As an orchestral soloist, she has performed with the Charleston Symphony (SC), Mexico City Philharmonic, Monterrey Symphony, Mexico State Symphony, in addition to many major orchestras from her native Korea. Following her performance of the Mozart Concerto K. 453 with the Charleston Symphony, the Post and Courier acclaimed that “Park demonstrated rare skill and sensitivity, playing with a feline grace and glittering dexterity…. lyrical phrasing and pearly tone quality.” In the 2008-2009 season, Ms. Park appears in many North American cities including New York, Boston, Washington D.C., St. Paul, Indianapolis, Buffalo, Burlington and Omaha. Highlights of this season include several performances of Mozart Piano Concertos K. 414 and K. 415, a solo recital and an all-Mendelssohn chamber music program at Caramoor, and a U.S. tour with the “Charles Wadsworth and Friends” series. Jeewon Park most recently recorded an album of chamber works by the Pulitzer Prize winning composer Paul Moravec, which was released by Naxos in the fall of 2008. She has been heard in numerous live broadcasts on National Public Radio and New York’s Classical Radio Station, WQXR. Additionally, her performances have been nationally broadcast throughout Korea on KBS and EBS television. Ms. Park holds degrees from The Juilliard School and Yale University, where she was awarded the prestigious Dean Horatio Parker Prize. Her teachers include Herbert Stessin, Claude Frank and Gilbert Kalish.

WENDY CHEN, PIANO At the age of fifteen, Wendy Chen debuted with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under conductor André Previn. In 1990 she became the youngest winner ever of the National Chopin Competition, was one of the inaugural recipients of the Irving S. Gilmore Young Artists Award, and was named a Presidential Scholar by the National Foundation for the Arts. Since then, her career has flourished, adding Young Concert Artists International Auditions and Washington International Competition to her numerous awards. Ms. Chen has garnered critical acclaim for her engagements with leading orchestras and concert halls worldwide, with reviewers exclaiming that “having pianist Wendy Chen on the program is a guarantee that sparks will fly.” Her numerous orchestral appearances have included the New York Chamber Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony and Chamber Orchestra, the Phoenix Symphony, the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Uruguay’s Orquesta Sinfonica del Sodres, New Zealand’s Auckland Philharmonia and Wellington Sinfonia, Montreal’s I Musici and many others. The Dominion of New Zealand described that “Chen possesses all the qualities of a modern musical star. Her playing was cuttingly virtuosic, had fantastic clarity and crispness, yet also plenty of sensitivity.” Ms. Chen has also appeared with the Boston Pops and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra in unique programs that also featured musical legends James Taylor and Art Garfunkel, respectively. Of her performance with the Pops, the Boston Globe wrote “Chen’s performance had stamina, chops, brilliance and sensitivity – a formidable combination. She has given recitals throughout the world, including appearances in Prague’s Philharmonic Hall, Poland’s Warsaw Philharmonic Hall, Korea’s Seoul Arts Center, New York City’s Alice Tully Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Washington D.C.’s John F. Kennedy Center, Toronto’s Glenn Gould Studio, Nexus Hall in Tokyo, The Forbidden City in Beijing, and at the United States Supreme Court, in a special evening presented by The Honorable Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Equally sought after as a chamber musician, Ms. Chen spent many years performing duo recitals with the late cellist Stephen Kates, a pupil of Gregor Piatigorsky. She regularly appears in duo recitals with cellist Andrés Diaz. She has appeared at the Tanglewood, Boston Chamber Society, Montreal, Seattle, Spoleto, Amelia Island, Strings in the Mountains, Cartageña, St. Denis and Montreux music festivals. Having studied with legendary pianists Aube Tzerko and Leon Fleisher, Ms. Chen is a dedicated pedagogue, frequently giving master classes throughout the world. She completed a five year residency teaching at the University of Louisville, and has taught at the Innsbrook Institute in Missouri, the Community School of Performing Arts in Springfield, Massachusetts, the International Festival of Music in Cartageña, Colombia, and The Juan Corpas University in Bogota, Columbia. Ms. Chen has appeared on St. Paul Sunday Morning, can be heard regularly on NPR’s Performance Today, and serves as panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts. Her solo recording BOLERO featuring works by Chopin, was released on the RCM label. American Record Guide acclaimed “it glitters and it is gold.”

CARTER BREY, CELLO Carter Brey was appointed Principal Cello, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Chair, of the New York Philharmonic in 1996. He made his official subscription debut with the Orchestra in May 1997 performing Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations under the direction of then Music Director Kurt Masur. He has since appeared as soloist almost every season, and was featured during The Bach Variations: A Philharmonic Festival, when he gave two performances of the cycle of all six of Bach’s cello suites. Most recently, he was the soloist in performances of Haydn’s Cello Concerto in C major at David Geffen Hall in February 2020 and at the Bravo! Vail Music Festival in July 2021, and the Brahms Double Concerto at Geffen Hall in June 2024 with Music Director Jaap van Zweden conducting on all occasions. He is a member of the New York Philharmonic String Quartet, established in the 2016–17 season, and has made regular appearances with the Tokyo and Emerson string quartets, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and at festivals such as Spoleto (both in the United States and Italy) and the Santa Fe and La Jolla Chamber Music festivals. He and pianist Christopher O’Riley recorded Le Grand Tango: Music of Latin America, and has recorded the complete works of Chopin for cello and piano with Garrick Ohlsson. Carter Brey was educated at the Peabody Institute, where he studied with Laurence Lesser and Stephen Kates, and at Yale University, where he studied with Aldo Parisot and was a Wardwell Fellow and a Houpt Scholar. An avid sailor since childhood, he holds a Yachtmaster Offshore rating from the Royal Yachting Association.

February 8, 2015 – David Finckel, cello; Wu Han, piano ALEXANDER SCRIABIN (1872–1915) Five Preludes for Solo Piano, Op. 16 (1894–1895) February 8, 2015 – David Finckel, cello; Wu Han, piano A student of the Moscow Conservatory alongside the likes of Sergei Rachmaninov and Aleksandr Goldenweiser, the pianist and composer Aleksandr Skryabin struggled greatly to compose, enduring massive anxiety attacks for much of the 1890s. With the support of the conservatory’s director, Vasily Safonov, Skryabin was permitted to graduate early (in the same year as Rachmaninov), although his mentor, Anton Arensky, who had been working closely with Skryabin on counterpoint and fugue, was adamantly against his departure. Nevertheless, Skryabin graduated from the conservatory, and through Safonov’s support was soon contacted by Mitrofan Belyayev, an Imperial Russian music publisher in Moscow. Through Belyayev’s connections, Skryabin was given opportunity to tour Russia in 1894, and was sent to Paris in 1895. Compositionally, during this period, Skryabin devoted himself almost entirely to composing Preludes towards an outstanding bet he had made with Belyayev that he could compose 48 Preludes before departing for Paris; it was to fulfill this bet that Skryabin composed his Twenty-Four Preludes, op. 11, and Five Preludes, op. 16. Shostakovich and Nina separated, and the composer, as Vollman alludes, remained in Moscow with no definite plans to follow his wife back to Leningrad. It was during this time that work on the Cello Sonata began. By 1935, however, Nina was pregnant with the Shostakoviches’ first child, and the marriage essentially righted itself (which did not preclude later extramarital affairs by both Dmitry and Nina). Shortly after the affair ended, Konstaninovskaya received an anonymous political denunciation and spent roughly a year in prison. The first of the Opus 16 Preludes paints a heavily romantic dreamscape. Like a wind-up music box, it is as if Skryabin leads us to question whether the next note will actually come, or whether it will leave us in an airy suspense. Far more decisive than is the following prelude, in g-sharp minor: the work carries a depth in the left hand reminiscent of Franz Liszt, whom Skryabin deeply admired. The third and fourth preludes alternate between a hymn-like chordal melody and a dainty right-hand melody, which recalls the first prelude’s sensibility. The set concludes with a brief, yet fulfilling Allegretto in f-sharp minor. ©2013 Andrew Goldstein Return to Parlance Program Notes

RAYMOND MENARD, RECITER Raymond Menard is a New York based theater professional. In 1987 he joined the stage management staff of the Metropolitan Opera Association and now holds the title of Production Stage Manager. Prior to joining the Met, he was Staff Stage Director and Artistic Administrator for the New York City Opera. While at NYCO, he was honored with the Julius Rudel Award in recognition of his musical and administrative skills. In addition to his behind the scenes work, Ray has appeared onstage as Pasha Selim in Mozart’s ABDUCTION FROM THE SERAGLIO for Opera New Jersey and as King Bobeche in the Bronx Opera production of Offenbach’s BLUEBEARD. He is a frequent participant in the Met Live in HD and Sirius radio broadcasts. Ray studied music at the New England Conservatory of Music and theater at the PrattInstitute. Since 2010 he has served on the faculty of the Graduate School of the Arts of Columbia University. A New Jersey native, Ray makes his home in Boonton Township with his wife, Laura, and daughters, Amity and Isobel.

April 2, 2023: BORIS BERMAN, PIANO JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897) Three Intermezzos for piano, Op. 117 April 2, 2023: BORIS BERMAN, PIANO In the four sets of piano pieces that appeared in 1892–93, opp. 116–119, Brahms took up the writing of “miniatures” that he had begun with the Ballades, op. 10, and the Piano Pieces, op. 76. The later pieces, particularly the Intermezzos, which make up fourteen of the twenty pieces in these four sets, tend generally toward the introspective. No precise chronology can be determined for these pieces, yet the structural economy and tendency toward harmonic and textural “impressionism” all point to Brahms’s late style. Brahms used the label “intermezzo” for a wide range of expressive styles, but all three of the Opus 117 pieces can be considered lullabies. If the sweet lilt of the famous first Intermezzo were not suggestion enough, Brahms headed the piece with two lines of the Scottish ballad Lady Anne Bothwell’s Lament in Herder’s translation: Schlaf sanft, mein Kind, schlaf sanft und schön! Mich dauert’s sehr, dich weinen sehn. (Sleep softly, my child, sleep softly and well! It grieves me so to see you weep.) The piece presents its tender melody “cradled” in an inner voice in the right hand. Brahms employs ternary form here as in most of his Intermezzos and, true to type, he varied the return of the opening, this time with gently leaping chords and later a rippling “inner-voice” accompaniment pattern. The darker central section in the tonic minor sets up the special radiance of the reprise. The second Intermezzo, as beloved as the first, maintains a delicate arpeggiated texture in its first section, which seems only to be hinting at a melody. The melody becomes more explicit in the second section, which in the manner of a sonata form is presented in a secondary key area. After a short development of sorts, an altered and still developmental “reprise,” and a coda based on the “second theme,” we realize that Brahms has treated us to a full miniature sonata form. Brahms’s first biographer Max Kalbeck was the first to point out that the third Intermezzo may also have been inspired by another Herder translation of a Scottish poem, O weh! O weh, hinab ins Thal’ (O woe! o woe, down into the valley), which Brahms had copied out alongside Schlaf sanft in one of his notebooks. The somber murmuring in bare octaves reminds us of similar Brahms themes, such as the opening of the finale of his Third Symphony. This Intermezzo is also in ternary form with a major-key central section that delicately ranges the entire keyboard. Again the return to the opening is varied; here the main melody appears in an inner voice. In a letter to a friend Brahms referred to the Intermezzos as “three lullabies to my sorrows.” And when his publisher hoped the first might be another smash hit as a song—just as the famous Lullaby, op. 49, no. 4, had been—Brahms warned him that it would have to be entitled “Lullaby of an Unfortunate Mother,” or “of a disconsolate bachelor,” or with illustrations by Max Klinger entitled “Sing Lullabies of My Sorrow.” The air of sadness in many of Brahms’s late works gives them that quality that commentators so often call “autumnal,” but if they are tinged with regret they also show the mastery and poetry that Brahms could only have gained through years of experience. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

Morris Robinson, bass Morris Robinson is quickly gaining a reputation as one of the most interesting and sought after basses performing today. GRAMMY® Award-winning bass Morris Robinson featured on recording of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 (“Symphony of a Thousand”) with the Los Angeles Philharmonic led by conductor Gustavo Dudamel. Read more at https://morrisrobinson.com .