April 13, 2025; Quartetto Di Cremona Claude Debussy (1862-1918) String Quartet April 13, 2025; Quartetto Di Cremona Debussy composed his only String Quartet in 1893 amid work on his orchestral Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune . The chamber work marks the transition between Debussy’s youthful and mature styles—bridging the academic world of his Paris Conservatory training with the dreamy, coloristic world of the Faune . In a larger sense it both glances back to the nineteenth-century heritage of Wagner and Franck and looks to the future with original and imaginative ideas that would influence the course of music. The Quartet is Debussy’s only work that bears an opus number and names a key, as if he were thinking of the weighty history of the genre. The work’s tonal center may be G, but “minor” tells little about Debussy’s harmonic scheme. The first movement relies heavily upon the centuries-old Phrygian mode on G and on D. The second movement alternates and combines G major pizzicato chords with an accelerated and chromatically altered version of the first movement’s opening motive, further blurring distinctions between major and minor. The slow movement, placed third in the order of movements, centers around D-flat, the remotest possible key from “home.” Completed in February 1893, the Quartet was premiered December 29 by the Ysaÿe Quartet on a concert that brought Debussy’s music to the notice of many for the first time. Critics initially seemed somewhat baffled—some were uncomfortable with the Quartet’s original ideas, others felt the allure of its new sounds and suspected their importance for the future. The Quartet exhibits a certain cyclicism or the reuse of themes across movements—not as distinctly unmistakable entities in the manner of his conservatory teacher Franck but as alterations of previous ideas. This creation of new possibilities contributes to the music’s fluid quality. Variants of the first movement’s main theme appear throughout the Quartet, some more obviously related than others. Debussy relied more on the motive’s rhythmic characteristics and general contours than on its harmonic scheme and exact melodic details. In the scherzo, the texture and timbre immediately strike the ear even as the thematic ideas clearly derive from the first movement’s main motive, beginning with the viola’s quickened and obsessively repeated version. The murmuring accompaniment in the next section, over which the first violin plays an elongated version of the motive, provide a coloristic effect that Debussy was to employ frequently, particularly in his orchestral works. The often noted Russian character of the slow movement probably has its roots in Debussy’s sojourn in Russia as part of a piano trio employed by Madame Nadezhda von Meck, Tchaikovsky’s patroness. Whereas the movement indulges in a kind of Romantic-period expression, it also foreshadows the new style of Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune . The finale bridges the preceding movement by opening in the same remote key and quiet mood. Recitative-like musings from cello and first violin alternate with all four parts echoing chromatic and rhythmic variants of the main motive. The bridging continues in an animated passage that harks back to the textures and rhythms of the scherzo. Debussy then launches the finale proper with an agitated theme above shifting open-fifth chords. He recalls passages of all the movements, but in altered form so they seem to evolve rather than reprise. Tempo and textural changes abound, which apparently unsettled some of the early critics. The final exciting coda offers yet another look at the germinal motive. Debussy optimistically called the work “Premier quatuor ” as if he expected more to follow. He began a second quartet the following year, primarily to please his friend, composer Ernest Chausson, who had been surprisingly disappointed with the “First.” The two had a falling out, however, and Debussy never returned to the project. The Premier quatuor also contributed to the professional animosity between Debussy and Ravel. When Ravel’s Quartet in F appeared in 1902, the parallels with Debussy’s work were obvious—such as the shadowy accompanimental sixteenth-note figures in the first movement and the pizzicatos in the scherzo—igniting a firestorm in the press about the quartets’ rival virtues. Debussy is said to have written to the younger, harassed composer urging him not to change a note of his work, but this letter has never come to light. —©Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

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NATHAN MELTZER, VIOLIN Recipient of the 2020 Salon de Virtuosi Career Grant, and youngest ever to win the Windsor Festival International String Competition, Nathan has been a soloist with the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Orchestre national d’Île-de-France, the Royal Northern Sinfonia, and the Aalborg, Adelphi, Berlin, Concepción, Evansville, Indianapolis, Medellín, and Pittsburgh orchestras, among others, performing in Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Switzerland, the UK, and across the US. As a recitalist and chamber musician, Nathan has performed at ChamberFest Cleveland, Giardini La Mortella, the Heidelberger Frühling, the Moritzburg Festival, the Musical de l’Orne, the Perlman Chamber Workshop, and the Verbier Festival Academy. He has been a concert artist with Omega Ensemble since 2016. Nathan’s 2020-21 season includes the release of his debut CD with Rohan De Silva, a UK concert tour, and the launch of Opus Illuminate, an online concert series dedicated to the works of composers from underrepresented communities. Nathan studies with Itzhak Perlman and Li Lin at Juilliard. He performs on the “Ames, Totenberg” Antonio Stradivari violin, Cremona 1734, generously on loan from Rare Violins In Consortium, Artists and Benefactors Collaborative .

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KATE LINDSEY, MEZZO-SOPRANO Last season, rising star mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey returned to the Metropolitan Opera as Nicklausse in the new production of Les Contes d’Hoffmann and made her debut at the Bayerische Staatsoper as Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro. She also created the title role in the world premiere of Amelia at the Seattle Opera. During the past summer, she returned to the Santa Fe Opera for Les Contes d’Hoffmann and Albert Herring, and this season she returns to both the Metropolitan Opera for Les Contes d’Hoffmann and the Seattle Opera as Rosina in Il Barbiere si Siviglia, makes her debut at the Los Angeles Opera as Zaida in Il Turco in Italia , and appears at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées as Idamante in Idomeneo. A recent graduate of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, she made her debut there as Javotte in Manon, and has since appeared as Cherubino, the Kitchen Boy in Rusalka, Wellgunde in The Ring Cycle, Second Lady in The Magic Flute (which was broadcast in HD in movie theaters around the world), Stéphano in Roméo et Juliette, the Madrigal Singer in Manon Lescaut, Tebaldo in Don Carlos, and Siebel in Faust. Other recent engagements have included her debuts with the Santa Fe Opera as Zerlina in Don Giovanni, the Lille Opera as Cherubino in performances conducted by Emmanuelle Haim, the New York Philharmonic in a concert performance of L’Enfant et les Sortilege, conducted by Lorin Maazel, the Boston Symphony Orchestra in a new commission by John Harbison conducted by James Levine, the Tanglewood Festival in a concert performance of Les Troyens with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Mostly Mozart Festival in the festival’s closing concerts, and the Cleveland Orchestra in performances of Haydn’s Harmoniemesse conducted by Franz Welser-Möst. She also appeared as Cherubino at the Boston Lyric Opera; Stéphano, Rosina, and Mercedes in Carmen at the Opera Theater of Saint Louis (where she was a Gerdine Young Artist); and Angelina in La Cenerentola at the Wolf Trap Opera. In concert she has appeared in Zankel Hall with James Levine and the Met Chamber Orchestra and in recital at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

A native of Richmond, Virginia, Ms. Lindsey holds a Bachelor of Music Degree with Distinction from Indiana University. Her many awards include the 2007 Richard F. Gold Career Grant, the 2007 George London Award in memory of Lloyd Rigler, the 2007 Lincoln Center Martin E. Segal Award, and a 2006 Sullivan Foundation Grant.

CHELSEA KNOX, FLUTE Chelsea Knox is the principal flutist of the MET Orchestra. A sought-after performer, Ms. Knox has held positions as assistant principal flute of the Baltimore Symphony and principal Flute of the New Haven and Princeton Symphonies. She has been hailed by the New York Times for her warmth, precision, and clarity, as well as by the New York Classical Review for her “expressive life and full tone.” An active orchestral and chamber musician, Ms. Knox has appeared with numerous orchestras including the Seattle Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, San Diego Symphony, and IRIS Orchestra. Additionally, she was a member of the acclaimed woodwind trio, ETA3, managed by Manhattan Music Ensemble. As a soloist, Ms. Knox has performed concertos with the Baltimore Symphony, Hartford Symphony, Manchester Symphony, Juilliard Lab Orchestra, and Connecticut Youth Symphony. She has won competitions including the New York Flute Club Young Artists Competition and the Hartford Symphony Young Artists Competition. Ms. Knox earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Juilliard School in New York City as a student of Jeffrey Khaner. A native of Litchfield, CT, she received her early training at the Hartt School of Music, where she studied with Greig Shearer. In her spare time she is an active visual artist and her work has been displayed in galleries in New York and Connecticut.

KARI DOCTER, CELLO Kari Jane Docter, cello, is a native of Minneapolis, MN. She was a student of Eleonore Schoenfeld at the University of Southern California, and graduated magna cum lauda from Rice University, where she studied with Norman Fischer. Upon graduation from Juilliard, as a masters’ student of Joel Krosnick, Kari entered the professional orchestra scene, which took her from the New World Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic, and the Utah Symphony, to the Minnesota Orchestra, where she played two seasons. In the fall of 2002, she joined the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. A lover of chamber music, Kari has been heard at such prestigious music festivals as Marlboro, Tanglewood, and the Grand Teton Music Festival, as well as on the smaller stages of Carnegie Hall with the MET Chamber Ensemble. She can be seen on Wynton Marsalis’ PBS series, “Marsalis on Music” performing with Yo-Yo Ma.

JORDI SAVALL, VIOLA DA GAMBA Jordi Savall is an exceptional figure in today’s music world. His career as a concert performer, teacher, researcher and creator of new musical and cultural projects, makes him one of the principal architects of the current revaluation of historical music. His task, which has earned him world renown and which is always brimming with live emotion and spectacular creative vitality, is one in which he has always sought to be faithful to historical music, which is to say the reappraisal of the value of repertoires as specific and as universal as the music of Europe, the Mediterranean and of the whole world. Jordi Savall began his musical studies when he was six years old as a singer in the Children’s Choir in Igualada (Catalonia), his hometown, and then he went on to learn the cello, completing his studies in the Barcelona Conservatory (1964). In 1965 he started, as an autodicact, to study the viola da gamba and early music (Ars Musicae) in 1965, so he moved on to start advanced studies in 1968 at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (Switzerland). There he succeeded his teacher August Wenzinger in 1973, and was teaching for some time many courses and master classes. With his three ensembles Hespèrion XXI (1974), La Capella Reial de Catalunya (1987) and Le Concert des Nations (1989), all founded together with Montserrat Figueras. Jordi Savall has explored and fashioned universe full of emotions and beauty, and has projected it to the world and to millions of music lovers, to introduce the viola da gamba and the music which had fallen into oblivion, becoming one of the most important protectors of the early music. With his key contribution to Alain Corneau’s film Tous les Matins du Monde (winner of a César best-soundtrack award), his busy concert life (over 140 concerts a year) and recording schedule (6 recordings a year), and with the creation of his own record label Alia Vox (1998), he demonstrates that the early music does not have to be necessary elitist, so it can be very interesting for a public each time younger and more numerous. Notable in his operatic repertoire are his participation in the rediscovery of Una cosa rara (performed in 1991) and Il burbero di buon cuore (performed in 1995 and 2012) by Vicent Martín i Soler. In 1993 he presented Claudio Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo for the first time at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona, (in 2002 it was recorded by the BBC-Opus Arte and published on DVD). He has also conducted Farnace by Vivaldi at the Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid (2001), Bordeaux (2003), Vienna (2005), Paris (2007) and published on CD by Alia Vox. He has also conducted J. J. Fux’s Orfeo ed Euridice, performed at the Styriarte Festival in Graz in 2010, and Vivaldi’s Il Teuzzone performed in 2011 in a semi-concert version at the Opéra Royal de Versailles. His more than 40 years devoted to the recovery of musical heritage have earned him many distinctions. His recorded works, more than a hundred on a number of labels such as EMI, ASTREE/AUVIDIS and ALIA VOX, have also received numerous awards.

RICHARD GOODE, PIANO Richard Goode has been hailed for music-making of tremendous emotional power, depth, and expressiveness, and has been acknowledged worldwide as one of today’s leading interpreters of Classical and Romantic music. In regular performances with the major orchestras, recitals in the world’s music capitals, and through his extensive and acclaimed Nonesuch recordings, he has won a large and devoted following. Gramophone magazine recently captured the essence of what makes Richard Goode such an original and compelling artist: ‘‘Every time we hear him, he impresses us as better than we remembered, surprising us, surpassing our expectations, and communicating perceptions that stay in the mind.” Mr. Goode began his 2014–2015 season performing Mozart’s Concerto in A major (K.488) to open Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival. He was featured in five appearances at Carnegie Hall, including a recital in the main hall, as a soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Andris Nelsons, in two chamber music concerts with young artists from Marlboro Music Festival and conducting a master class on Debussy piano works. He appeared as soloist with orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, St. Louis, Milwaukee, and San Diego Symphonies. In addition, this season includes recitals at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Wigmore Hall in London, the Celebrity Series of Boston, Cal Performances in Berkeley, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the University Musical Society in Ann Arbor, at Shriver Hall in Baltimore, in Toronto at the Royal Conservatory, at The Schubert Club in St. Paul, Spivey Hall in Atlanta, Yale School of Music, Dartmouth College, Duke Performances, Middlebury College, and in other major series in the U.S. and Europe. In addition, Mr. Goode will present master classes at top conservatories and universities around the world. In the 2013–2014 season, Mr. Goode appeared as soloist with such orchestras as the New York Philharmonic with David Zinman, the Chicago Symphony with Mark Elder, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin with Herbert Blomstedt, and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra with Peter Oundjian, with whom he also appeared in Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal with the Toronto Symphony. His always compelling recitals were heard at Carnegie Hall in New York, in London, in Paris, at the Aldeburgh Festival, and on leading concert and university series around the world. Among the highlights of recent seasons have been the recitals in which, for the first time in his career, Mr. Goode performed the last three Beethoven Sonatas in one program, drawing capacity audiences and raves in such cities as New York, London, and Berlin. The New York Times, in reviewing his Carnegie Hall performance, hailed his interpretations as “majestic, profound readings…. Mr. Goode’s playing throughout was organic and inspired, the noble, introspective themes unfolding with a simplicity that rendered them all the more moving.” Recent seasons have also included performances with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra led by Fabio Luisi at Carnegie Hall; with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel; with Orpheus on tour and at Carnegie Hall playing the Schumann Concerto; and on tour with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. An exclusive Nonesuch recording artist, Goode has made more than two dozen recordings over the years, ranging from solo and chamber works to lieder and concertos. His latest recording of the five Beethoven concertos with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and Iván Fischer was released in 2009 to exceptional critical acclaim, described as “a landmark recording” by the Financial Times and nominated for a Grammy award. His 10-CD set of the complete Beethoven sonatas cycle, the first-ever by an American-born pianist, was nominated for a Grammy and has been ranked among the most distinguished recordings of this repertoire. Other recording highlights include a series of Bach Partitas, a duo recording with Dawn Upshaw, and Mozart piano concertos with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. A native of New York, Richard Goode studied with Elvira Szigeti and Claude Frank, with Nadia Reisenberg at the Mannes College of Music, and with Rudolf Serkin at the Curtis Institute. His numerous prizes over the years include the Young Concert Artists Award, First Prize in the Clara Haskil Competition, the Avery Fisher Prize, and a Grammy award for his recording of the Brahms Sonatas with clarinetist Richard Stoltzman. His first public performances of the complete cycle of Beethoven sonatas at Kansas City’s Folly Theater and New York’s 92Y in 1987–88 brought him to international attention, being hailed by The New York Times as “among the season’s most important and memorable events.” It was later performed with great success at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall in 1994 and 1995. Mr. Goode served, together with Mitsuko Uchida, as co-Artistic Director of the Marlboro Music School and Festival in Marlboro, Vermont from 1999 through 2013. Participating initially at the age of 14, at what the New Yorker magazine recently described as “the classical world’s most coveted retreat,” he has made a notable contribution to this unique community over the 28 summers he has spent there. He is married to the violinist Marcia Weinfeld, and, when the Goodes are not on tour, they and their collection of some 5,000 volumes live in New York City.

PHILIP SETZER, VIOLIN Violinist Philip Setzer, a founding member of the Emerson String Quartet, was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and began studying violin at the age of five with his parents, both former violinists in the Cleveland Orchestra. He continued his studies with Josef Gingold and Rafael Druian, and later at the Juilliard School with Oscar Shumsky. In 1967, Mr. Setzer won second prize at the Marjorie Merriweather Post Competition in Washington, DC, and in 1976 received a Bronze Medal at the Queen Elisabeth International Competition in Brussels. He has appeared with the National Symphony, Aspen Chamber Symphony (David Robertson, conductor), Memphis Symphony (Michael Stern), New Mexico and Puerto Rico Symphonies (Guillermo Figueroa), Omaha and Anchorage Symphonies (David Loebel) and on several occasions with the Cleveland Orchestra (Louis Lane). He has also participated in the Marlboro Music Festival. Mr. Setzer has been a regular faculty member of the Isaac Stern Chamber Music Workshops at Carnegie Hall and the Jerusalem Music Center. His article about those workshops appeared in The New York Times on the occasion of Isaac Stern’s 80th birthday celebration. He also teaches as Professor of Violin and Chamber Music at SUNY Stony Brook and has given master classes at schools around the world, including The Curtis Institute, London’s Royal Academy of Music, The San Francisco Conservatory, UCLA, The Cleveland Institute of Music and The Mannes School. The Noise of Time, a groundbreaking theater collaboration between the Emerson Quartet and Simon McBurney–about the life of Shostakovich–was based on an original idea of Mr. Setzer’s. In April of 1989, Mr. Setzer premiered Paul Epstein’s Matinee Concerto. This piece, dedicated to and written for Mr. Setzer, has since been performed by him in Hartford, New York, Cleveland, Boston and Aspen. Recently, Mr. Setzer has also been touring and recording the piano trios of Schubert and Mendelssohn with David Finckel and Wu Han.

GUILLERMO FIGUEROA, VIOLA One of the most versatile and respected musical artists of his generation – renowned as conductor, violinist, violist, and concertmaster – Guillermo Figueroa is the Principal Conductor of the Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra. He is also the Music Director of the Music in the Mountains Festival in Colorado and Music Director of the Lynn Philharmonia in Florida. Additionally, he was the Music Director of both the New Mexico Symphony and the Puerto Rico Symphony . International appearances, among others, include the Toronto Symphony, Iceland Symphony, Orquesta Sinfonica de Chile and the National Symphony of Mexico . In the US he has appeared with the orchestras of Buffalo, Detroit, New Jersey, Memphis, Phoenix, Tucson and the New York City Ballet . As violinist, his recording of Ernesto Cordero’s violin concertos for the Naxos label received a Latin Grammy nomination in 2012. Figueroa was Concertmaster of the New York City Ballet , and a Founding Member and Concertmaster of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra , making over fifty recordings for Deutsche Grammophon . Also accomplished on the viola, Figueroa performs frequently as guest of the Fine Arts, Emerson, American, and Orion string quartets. Figueroa has given the world premieres of four violin concertos written for him: the Concertino by Mario Davidovsky, at Carnegie Hall with Orpheus ; the Double Concerto by Harold Farberman, with the American Symphony at Fisher Hall , Lincoln Center; the Violin Concerto by Miguel del Aguila, commissioned by Figueroa and the NMSO and Insula , by Ernesto Cordero with the Solisti di Zagreb in Zagreb.