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October 4, 2015 – Richard Goode, piano WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791) Piano Sonata in A minor, K. 300d (K. 310) October 4, 2015 – Richard Goode, piano Mozart petitioned the Salzburg court for release from employment in the summer of 1777 because of difficulties with Archbishop Colloredo and longstanding contempt for Salzburg musicians. Colloredo responded by dismissing both father and son—an unexpected blow to Leopold, who sent Wolfgang on a job-hunting trip accompanied by his mother. One of their stops was Mannheim, where Wolfgang was extremely impressed with the musicians but no offer materialized. He dallied there, however, because he had fallen in love with Aloysia Weber, a fine singer and daughter of a music copier. At home in Salzburg Leopold fumed and in February 1778 ordered his son to Paris. Mozart resumed contacts there from previous trips and kept extremely busy, but he disliked the French musical scene and desperately wished he were in Mannheim. Tragedy struck when his mother sickened in mid-June and died on July 3. Leopold, in his grief, wrote accusingly that Mozart had not done enough for his mother. Whether or not one accepts the premise that biographic events can be reflected in works of art, this time of grief and frustration was the backdrop for one of Mozart’s most dramatic and tragic-sounding pieces ever, the Piano Sonata in A minor, which he composed in July 1778. Long considered one of finest sonatas, it is one of only two he wrote in a minor key, among an enormous body of instrumental works predominantly in major keys. A particular influence that can be documented in the A minor Sonata is the music of Johann Schobert, active in Paris in the last years of his short life, whose sonatas Mozart had played since his childhood visits to Paris and imitated in some of his own sonatas. He had even arranged several movements from Schobert sonatas as concerto movements. Still fascinated, Mozart taught his students Schobert’s sonatas during his 1778 Paris sojourn. Schobert was known for his Romantic tendencies, in particular extreme contrasts of storminess and introversion. The A minor Sonata’s great juxtapositions of loud and soft, rage and despair show this influence, but even more specifically the slow movement quotes a passage from Schobert’s Sonata, op. 17, no. 2, that Mozart had already arranged ten years previously as the second movement of a pastiche concerto in B-flat major, K. 39. An almost violent intensity permeates the first movement, launched by insistent repeated chords and marked dotted rhythms. The great theorist Leonard Ratner associated this kind of music with Turkish or janissary military music, which Western composers often imitated in their art music. Mozart infuses intensity into his less forceful second theme with a spate of running fast notes against the repeated-chord idea, and by invoking a contrapuntal texture that creates great tension when coupled with driving dotted rhythms toward the end of the exposition, in the hair-raising development, and again in the recapitulation. The ferocity of his drive to conclude the exposition—even though it is in the major mode—and especially to end the movement inspires awe. Poignant tenderness radiates from the slow movement, for which Mozart requests a singing style, with expression. Yet the contrasts of soft and loud are extreme here, too, and agitation builds almost to turbulence in his development section. It is in this dramatic section that Mozart recalls a D minor sequence from Schobert’s F major Sonata. The restless, shadowy Presto darts by almost without pause. Contrasts of dynamics abound here too, and Mozart’s ingenuity shows in his remarkable pianistic textures that often consist of four-part writing. He does insert an episode in folklike musette style, but the shadows return, propelled to a dark, tumultuous conclusion. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

ABOUT THE 2007-2008 SEASON 2007-2008 SEASON Artist Roster Parlance Program Notes LOCATION At West Side Presbyterian Church 6 South Monroe Street Ridgewood, NJ 07450 For map and directions, click here . CONCERT AMENITIES Whee lchair Accessible Fr e e Parking for all concerts

DAVID CHAN, VIOLIN David Chan is the concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and an active soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. Mr. Chan made his Carnegie Hall debut during the 2002-2003 season, performing the Brahms Double Concerto with cellist Rafael Figueroa and the Met Orchestra under the baton of James Levine. In addition, he was a featured soloist in the Met Chamber Ensemble’s performance of Alban Berg’s Chamber Concerto for Piano, Violin and 13 Winds at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, also with Maestro Levine. Mr. Chan first gained international recognition when, at the age of seventeen, he won a top prize at the Tchaikovsky International Competition in Moscow. Upon his winning both the bronze medal and the special Josef Gingold prize at the prestigious Indianapolis International Violin Competition, the Strad magazine praised him for his “spectacular virtuosity,” while the Indianapolis News commented on his “lustrous tone” and “the kind of authority that usually comes only with maturity.” Mr. Chan made his New York debut at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall in 1995, performing Paganini’s Concerto No. 2 under the direction of Hugh Wolff. He has performed throughout the United States, Europe, and the Far East, appearing as soloist with such orchestras as the Moscow State Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Taiwan National Symphony, the Aspen Chamber Symphony, and the San Diego, Indianapolis, Richmond, Springfield, and Northbrook symphonies. As a chamber musician, he is a frequent guest at the Seattle Chamber Music Festival and at La Jolla’s SummerFest. His recordings include a recital program, a disc of two Paganini concertos with the English Chamber Orchestra, and an album of violin/cello duos with Rafael Figueroa. A native of San Diego, Mr. Chan began his musical education at the age of four. When he was fourteen, he won the San Diego Symphony’s Young Artists Concerto Competition and subsequently appeared with the orchestra in two series of concerts. That same year he was the featured soloist on the San Diego Youth Symphony’s tour of Austria, Germany, Hungary, and the former Czechoslovakia. Mr. Chan, whose principal teachers were Dorothy DeLay, Hyo Kang, and Michael Tseitlin, received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and his master’s degree from the Juilliard School. He is currently on the faculty of The Juilliard School and lives in the New York area with his wife, violinist Catherine Ro, his daughter Annalise, and his son Michal.

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September 24, 2017: Sean Lee, violin; Michael Brown, piano LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) Romance No. 2 in F major, op. 50 September 24, 2017: Sean Lee, violin; Michael Brown, piano Beethoven may have written his two Romances for violin and orchestra as potential slow movements for an unfinished concerto (WoO 5), but in the end he published them as separate pieces. The F major Romance may date from as early as 1798. In German, Romanze designates a songlike instrumental piece (specifically in alla breve meter or “cut time”), of which the French Romance is a special subcategory used for violin concerto slow movements by composers such as Viotti. Beethoven’s sweetly “singing” Romances clearly show his familiarity with this French style. The F major Romance is especially famous for its high range and sweet melodic line, which may partly account for its being played more often than its companion in G. Beethoven interjects contrasting orchestral sections at the ends of thematic statements, characterizing them with majestic long-short rhythms. He creates a wonderful touch at the end when his accompaniment provides a double echo of the solo violin’s last three notes. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

November 4, 2018: Alessio Bax, piano MODEST MUSORGSKY (1839-1881) Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks November 4, 2018: Alessio Bax, piano Vladimir Stasov, who championed everything “progressive” and “truly Russian” in all forms of art, held gatherings of painters, sculptors, musicians, and writers at his home, and it was probably there in 1870 that Musorgsky met the lively architect, designer, and painter Victor Alexandrovich Hartmann. The great friendship that sprang up was cut short, however, when three years later Hartmann died suddenly of an aneurism. It was the grief-stricken Musorgsky who informed Stasov in Vienna by an almost incoherent letter that paraphrased King Lear: “What a terrible blow! ‘Why should a dog, a horse, a rat have life,’—and creatures like Hartmann must die!” In Hartmann’s honor, Stasov organized a memorial exhibition for the spring of 1874 that featured not only watercolors and drawings, but architectural sketches and designs for jewelry, useful objects, stage sets, and costumes. The display inspired Musorgsky’s famous Pictures at an Exhibition, a piano piece that depicts ten works in the exhibition, with an eleventh recurring “picture,” Promenade, which portrays the composer himself walking through the gallery. Uncharacteristically enthusiastic about his progress, Musorgsky completed the entire composition in a single burst of twenty days. He dedicated the work to Stasov, who penned a preface to the original edition that describes the artworks that Musorgsky depicted—essential, since many of the items disappeared after the exhibition was dismantled. In its original piano version, Musorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition had been somewhat overlooked, but the work was immensely popularized by Maurice Ravel’s orchestration of 1922. That exposure rekindled interest in the piano original, which wonderfully documents Musorgsky’s belief in the elemental power of sheer inspiration, which for him took precedence over harmonic, structural, and pianistic convention. Today we hear the Ballet of Unhatched Chicks, which Stasov’s preface described as “Hartmann’s sketch of costumes for a picturesque scene in the ballet Trilby.” The exhibition catalog describes them as “canary chicks, enclosed in eggs as in suits of armor” with “heads put on like helmets.” Fortunately, this sketch still exists, but Musorgsky’s imagination led him further than costume sketches to depict a delightful pecking spree. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

February 9, 2025: The Virtuoso Cellist, with Steven Isserlis and Connie Shih Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) Cello Sonata, Op. 36 February 9, 2025: The Virtuoso Cellist, with Steven Isserlis and Connie Shih The last formal position of Grieg's career was as conductor of the Bergen Harmoniske Selskab from 1880 to 1882, after which his activities centered around composition and concert tours. In 1883, newly freed from official commitments, Grieg composed his only Cello Sonata, op. 36, the Walzer-Capricen for piano duet, op. 37, a second set of Lyric Pieces, op. 38, and he worked on a second piano concerto (never completed). Grieg wrote twenty years later that he did not rate the Cello Sonata very highly, "because it does not betoken any forward step in my development." As has been noted previously in these pages, he was not as comfortable in the extended forms of a sonata, as in the lyrical miniatures that were his strength. He may have been concerned about his struggle with form, but his remarks cannot detract from the work's singing melodies, expressive writing for both cello and piano, and Norwegian folk-like characteristics. Moreover, Grieg thought enough of the work to perform it several times with notable cellists. In addition to playing the première with Friedrich Grützmacher in Dresden, October 22, 1883, Grieg performed it soon after in Leipzig with Julius Klengel, and twice in Christiania two years later with his older brother John Grieg, to whom the work is dedicated. The composer became acquainted with Pablo Casals through his friend Julius Röntgen, Dutch composer, conductor and pianist, and heard Casals and Röntgen play the Sonata in Amsterdam. The Cello Sonata continued to appear on Casals's recital programs for years. Both the first and last movements of this three-movement Sonata are based on a free sonata form, and both movements contain rich chromaticism and several surprising jazz-foreshadowing sonorities. The first movement begins as if it had already been in progress and the listener just now "tuned in"—a kind of opening favored by many Romantic composers. The second theme is like a folk song, as is the lyrical secondary theme in the last movement. In the slow movement, one imagines the sound of a harp upon hearing the solo piano opening and subsequent accompaniment figures. The last movement opens with a solo cello recitative before breaking into a sprightly dance. Although the Sonata has had its detractors, it has also had supporters. The Boston cellist Wulf Fries, a close associate of Artur Rubinstein, liked the Sonata so much that he wrote to Grieg asking for more of the same kind. Grieg replied that he was ill and had written nothing else for cello, although arrangements for cello of some of his pieces had been made by Goltermann. The great scholar William S. Newman in The Sonata Since the Classic Era regarded it as one of Grieg's best-sounding, most-rewarding sonatas. —©Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

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September 18, 2022: Elaine Douvas, oboe; Joel Noyes, cello; Bryan Wagorn, piano HENRI BROD (1799 – 1839) Duo from Lucia di Lammermoor, Op. 55 for oboe and cello & piano accompaniment September 18, 2022: Elaine Douvas, oboe; Joel Noyes, cello; Bryan Wagorn, piano Henri Brod began studying oboe at the Paris Conservatory at the age of twelve. After receiving the Premier Prix in 1818, he was appointed second oboe in the Paris Opéra orchestra alongside his teacher, Gustav Vogt. Brod filled in as first oboist during Vogt’s absences and succeeded him in 1834. Contemporary accounts often compare the two players—the famous French musicologist and encyclopedist François-Joseph Fétis wrote: “The sound he drew from the oboe was sweeter, smoother and not as forceful as that of his teacher; his phrasing was elegant and graceful; his execution of the virtuosic passages was lively and brilliant.” Brod’s career was all too short—he died just three months short of his fortieth birthday, when he would have received a pension that would have supported his wife and young son. In another facet of his career, Brod, along with his brother Jean-Godefroy, was an innovative oboe maker, possibly the first in France to add the octave key and to extend the oboe’s range. He also developed a straight English horn as well as baritone and “petit” oboes, and he invented a gouging machine for making reeds. In addition, he is the author of an informative method book in two volumes (1826, 1835), of which at least the first is still readily available in an edition by Valerie Anderson. As with many performing composers, Brod wrote mainly for his own instrument—opera fantasies, variations, and chamber works such as wind quintets and trios, as well as six oboe sonatas that were among the works he published in his method book. He also composed an opera, Thésée, presumed lost, which was rejected for performance in 1826 but received a partial performance in 1837. A complete list of his works has yet to be made. Brod’s Duo from Lucia di Lammermoor (or Lucia ed Edgardo, duo de Lucia di Lamermoor de Donizetti arrangé pour hautbois ou clarinette et basson ou violoncelle avec accompaniment de piano, op. 55, as its original title reads) likely dates from around 1837, when Donizetti’s successful 1835 opera was first performed in France. No doubt Brod gave its first performance with some of his Paris Opéra/Conservatory colleagues. The duo appeared in print in 1841, two years after his death. The original title, Lucia ed Edgardo, is apt because the piece is essentially an arrangement of their extended duet from Act I, Scene 2, with the bassoon taking the role of Edgardo, laird of Ravenswood, and the oboe that of Lucia Ashton. The story, set in Scotland, revolves around the love affair they are carrying on despite the bitter feud between their two families. Before the tragic events of her madness and both their deaths, Edgardo meets Lucia secretly to say that he must leave for France, and he wants to make peace with her brother Enrico so he can ask for her hand in marriage. She begs Edgardo to keep their relationship secret, which rekindles his anger against Enrico. This is the point at which the Duo picks up the story. After the three instruments provide a portentous introduction, Lucia (oboe) tries to calm Edgardo (bassoon), but he begins singing mournfully about the tomb of his betrayed father on which he swore revenge. She tries again to calm him and tells him to banish all feelings but love. After a grand pause, a martial-sounding section signals Edgardo’s resolve as he hits on the idea of marrying her on the spot. They exchange rings and call on heaven to witness their vows. The lovers must part, which brings on a wistful mood, and the final section lilts as they sing of the breeze that will carry their ardent sighs. Brod caps the piece with a virtuoso coda of his own design. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

WU HAN, PIANO Pianist Wu Han ranks among the most esteemed and influential classical musicians in the world today. Leading an unusually multifaceted artistic career, she has risen to international prominence through her wide-ranging activities as a concert performer, recording artist, educator, arts administrator, and cultural entrepreneur. In high demand as a recitalist, concerto soloist, and chamber musician, Wu Han has appeared at many of the world’s most prestigious concert series and venues across the United States and around the world. She is a frequent collaborator with many of today’s finest musicians and ensembles. Wu Han appears extensively each season as duo pianist with cellist David Finckel, and in 2012, they were the recipients of Musical America’s 2012 Musicians of the Year award, one of the highest honors granted by the music industry. London’s Musical Opinion said of the duo’s Wigmore Hall debut: “They enthralled both myself and the audience with performances whose idiomatic command, technical mastery and unsullied integrity of vision made me think right back to the days of Schnabel and Fournier, Solomon and Piatigorsky.” In addition to her distinction as one of classical music’s most accomplished performers, Wu Han has established a reputation for her dynamic and innovative approach to the recording studio. In 1997, Wu Han and David Finckel launched ArtistLed, classical music’s first musician-directed and Internet-based recording company, whose catalogue of eighteen albums has won widespread critical acclaim. The duo’s recording for the ArtistLed label of the Rachmaninov, Shostakovich, and Prokofiev sonatas for cello and piano received BBC Music Magazine’s coveted “Editor’s Choice” award. The most recent addition to the ArtistLed catalogue, Wu Han LIVE, was released in December 2014 in collaboration with the Music@Menlo LIVE label and features Wu Han performing solo and chamber works of Mendelssohn, Bach, and Haydn. Now in their third term as Artistic Directors of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, David Finckel and Wu Han hold the longest tenure since Charles Wadsworth, the founding Artistic Director. They are the founding Artistic Directors of Music@Menlo, a chamber music festival and institute in Silicon Valley that has garnered international acclaim, soon to celebrate its thirteenth season. David Finckel and Wu Han also serve as Artistic Directors of Chamber Music Today, an annual festival held in Seoul, Korea. The festival, now celebrating its fifth anniversary, is at the forefront of expanding the presence of chamber music in the Far East. Wu Han has achieved universal renown for her passionate commitment to nurturing the careers of countless young artists through a wide array of education initiatives. For many years, she taught alongside the late Isaac Stern at Carnegie Hall and the Jerusalem Music Center. Under the auspices of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Wu Han and David Finckel direct the LG Chamber Music School, which provides workshops for young artists in Korea. In 2013, Wu Han and David Finckel established a chamber music studio at Aspen Music Festival.

EDWARD ARRON, CELLO A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Mr. Arron made his New York recital debut in 2000 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Since that time, he has appeared in recital, as a soloist with major orchestras, and as a chamber musician, throughout North America, Europe and Asia. The 2024-25 season marks Mr. Arron’s 12th season as the co-artistic director with his wife, Jeewon Park, of the Performing Artists in Residence series at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Mr. Arron tours and records as a member of the renowned Ehnes String Quartet and he is a regular performer at the Boston and Seattle Chamber Music Societies, the Brooklyn Chamber Music Society, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Bargemusic, Caramoor, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival, Seoul Spring Festival in Korea, Music in the Vineyards Festival, Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, Manchester Music Festival, and the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival in Finland. Other festival appearances include Salzburg, Ravinia, Tanglewood, Mostly Mozart, PyeongChang, Bravo! Vail, Bridgehampton, Spoleto USA, Santa Fe, Evian, La Jolla Summerfest, Chamber Music Northwest, Chesapeake Chamber Music, and the Bard Music Festival. Mr. Arron’s performances are frequently broadcast on American Public Media’s Performance Today . In 2021, Mr. Arron’s recording of Beethoven’s Complete Works for Cello and Piano with pianist Jeewon Park was released on the Aeolian Classics Record Label. The recording received the Samuel Sanders Collaborative Artists Award from the Classical Recording Foundation. A graduate of the Juilliard School, Mr. Arron currently serves on the faculty of the University of Massachusetts Amherst.