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ZUKERMAN TRIO Pinchas Zukerman, violin Amanda Forsyth, cello Shai Wosner, piano A prodigious talent recognized worldwide for his artistry, Pinchas Zukerman has been an inspiration to young musicians throughout his adult life. In a continuing effort to motivate future generations of musicians through education and outreach, the renowned artist teamed up in 2002 with four protégés to form a string quintet called the Zukerman ChamberPlayers. Despite limited availability during the season, the ensemble amassed an impressive international touring schedule with close to two hundred concerts and four discs on the CBC, Altara and Sony labels. Beginning in 2011 Zukerman, along with cellist Amanda Forsyth and pianist Angela Cheng, began offering trio repertoire as an alternative to the quintet works with the ChamberPlayers. In addition to piano trios by Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Dvorak and Shostakovich, programs often include duo performances with various couplings including the Kodaly Duo. Invitations from major Festivals and venues led to the official launch of the Zukerman Trio in 2013. Since then, the ensemble has traveled around the globe to appear in Japan, China, Australia, Spain, Italy, France, Hungary, South Africa, Istanbul, Russia, and throughout the United States. The Trio regularly performs at the Ravinia Festival, and has appeared at major festivals including the BBC Proms, Edinburgh, Verbier, and Bravo! Vail. Beginning with the 2020 season, the trio has included pianist Shai Wosner alongside Zukerman and Forsyth. With a celebrated career encompassing five decades, Pinchas Zukerman reigns as one of today’s most sought after and versatile musicians – violin and viola soloist, conductor, and chamber musician. He is renowned as a virtuoso, admired for the expressive lyricism of his playing, singular beauty of tone, and impeccable musicianship, which can be heard throughout his discography of over 100 albums for which he gained two Grammy® awards and 21 nominations. Born in Tel Aviv, Pinchas Zukerman came to America in 1962, where he studied at The Juilliard School with Ivan Galamian. He has been awarded a Medal of Arts, the Isaac Stern Award for Artistic Excellence, and was appointed as the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative’s first instrumentalist mentor in the music discipline. A devoted and innovative pedagogue, Mr. Zukerman chairs the Pinchas Zukerman Performance Program at the Manhattan School of Music, where he has pioneered the use of distance-learning technology in the arts. He currently serves as Conductor Emeritus of the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Canada, as well as Artistic Director of its Young Artist Program. Canadian Juno Award-winning Amanda Forsyth is considered one of North America’s most dynamic cellists. Her intense richness of tone, remarkable technique and exceptional musicality combine to enthrall audiences and critics alike. From 1999-2015, Amanda Forsyth was principal cellist of the National Arts Centre Orchestra, where she appeared regularly as soloist and in chamber ensembles. She is recognized as an eminent recitalist, soloist and chamber musician appearing with leading orchestras in Canada, the United States, Europe, Asia and Australia. As a recording artist she appears on the Fanfare, Marquis, Pro Arte and CBC labels. Pianist Shai Wosner has attracted international recognition for his exceptional artistry, musical integrity, and creative insight. His performances of a broad range of repertoire—from Beethoven and Schubert to Ligeti and the music of today—reflect a degree of virtuosity and intellectual curiosity that has made him a favorite among audiences and critics, who note his “keen musical mind and deep musical soul” (NPR’s All Things Considered ). Mr. Wosner is a recipient of Lincoln Center’s Martin E. Segal Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award. He is on the faculty at the Longy School of Music in Boston. “The cleanly articulate performance was elevated by an uncommon passion, both in the tender Adagio and in the finale that shifts abruptly from sadness to joy.” – The Chicago Tribune “With Pinchas Zukerman’s matchless musicianship and charisma at its core, this is a trio made in heaven. Amanda Forsyth brings passion and formidable technique as a cellist, and pianist Angela Cheng is the dream accompanist who lives every note.” – Limelight

RICHARD STOLTZMAN, CLARINET Richard Stoltzman’s virtuosity, musicianship and sheer personal magnetism have made him one of today’s most sought-after concert artists. As soloist with more than a hundred orchestras, as a captivating recitalist and chamber music performer, as an innovative jazz artist, and as a prolific recording artist, two-time Grammy® Award winner Stoltzman has defied categorization, dazzling critics and audiences alike throughout many musical genres. Stoltzman graduated from Ohio State University with a double major in music and mathematics. He earned his Master of Music degree at Yale University while studying with Keith Wilson, and later worked toward a doctoral degree with Kalmen Opperman at Columbia University. As a ten-year participant in the Marlboro Music Festival, Stoltzman gained extensive chamber music experience, and subsequently became a founding member of the noted ensemble TASHI, which made its debut in 1973. Since then, Stoltzman’s unique style of playing the clarinet has earned him an international reputation as he has opened up possibilities for the instrument that no one could have predicted. He gave the first clarinet recitals in the histories of both the Hollywood Bowl and Carnegie Hall, and in 1986, he became the first wind player to be awarded the Avery Fisher Prize. In 2006, he was awarded the prestigious Sanford Medal by the Yale School of Music. His talents as a jazz performer as well as a classical artist have been heard far beyond his annual tours. He has performed or recorded with such jazz and pop greats as Gary Burton, the Canadian Brass, Chick Corea, Judy Collins, Steve Gadd, Eddie Gomez, Keith Jarrett, the King’s Singers, George Shearing, Wayne Shorter, Mel Tormé, Spyro Gyra founder Jeremy Wall and Kazumi Watanabe. His commitment to new music has resulted in the commissioning and premiere of numerous new works for the clarinet, including “Fantasma/Cantos” by Toru Takemitsu, the 1994 winner of Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, “Landscapes with Blues” by Stephen Hartke, a concerto by Einojuhani Rautavaara which premiered with conductor Leonard Slatkin and the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall, and “TRIO 2009” written for him, cellist Lynn Harrell and pianist Robert Levin by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, Yehudi Wyner. Richard Stoltzman has a discography numbering over 60 releases on BMG/RCA, SONY Classical, MMC, BIS, Albany and other labels, including a Grammy-winning recording of Brahms Sonatas with Richard Goode. Among Stoltzman’s most beloved releases are “Amber Waves”, a CD of American works, and the Trios of Beethoven, Brahms and Mozart with Emanuel Ax and Yo-Yo Ma, which won Stoltzman his second Grammy® Award. Recent releases include the acclaimed recordings of Hartke’s “Landscapes with Blues” with IRIS, conducted by Michael Stern (Naxos), a New York Times “Best of 2003”, Rautavaara’s Clarinet Concerto recorded with Leif Segerstam and the Helsinki Philharmonic, released on Ondine, an All-Bach recording, “Vibrations and Fantasies”(BMG Japan, 2008), as well as works of Debussy, Tchaikovsky and Weber (Navona Records, 2008), among others. His newest orchestral recording features William Bolcom’s “Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra” and Clare Fischer’s “The Duke, Swee’pea and Me” (Marquis Classics, 2009). Richard Stoltzman continues to be a trailblazer for his instrument and his arrangement and performance of Debussy’s “Maid with the Flaxen Hair”(Navona Records, 2009) was chosen as one of only three tracks to be pre-loaded on the new Microsoft’s Windows® System 7 release. Bach’s “Chromatic Fantasy in D minor,” “performed so persuasively and exquisitely”(Baltimore Sun), as well as his reflections on the composer, that appear in the Michael Lawrence’s Documentary Film, “Bach & friends” have been singled out as “brilliant” (Huffington Post). Live performances have accompanied screenings at the official launch at the January 2010 EG conference in Carmel, CA and World Premiere at Symphony Space in New York City (May 2010). Mr. Stoltzman’s Summer 2010 includes an eclectic mix of performances, such as a duo recital with guitarist Eliot Fisk at Boston’s Jordan Hall, a return to the Norfolk Festival in Connecticut for Mozart Serenade, and helps to open the new venue for the Rockport Chamber Music Festival in Cape Ann with Jazz and Classics. The 10-11 Season includes collaborative performances with the New York Chamber Soloists at UCLA Live! in Los Angeles, CA, UA Presents in Tucson, AZ and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City; several of these performances also reprise his collaboration with renowned pianist Menahem Pressler. Other collaborations include a partnership with the Klezmatics at the University of Texas, Austin, a residency and tour with the University of Northern Florida Jazz Ensemble, and Bach and Brahms in recital with pianist Simone Dinnerstein. Orchestral performances include works of Copland, Corigliano, Mozart, and Rossini. Throughout the season, Stoltzman will also continue his commitment to help bring music to children of all ages as an active Board Member of Young Audiences. Past season highlights have featured Stoltzman’s performances of Toru Takemitsu’s Fantasma Cantos with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony, as well as at the composers official 75th birthday memorial tribute in Japan, Mozart Concerto performances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Ravinia and at New York’s Mostly Mozart Festival, marking Stoltzman’s 25th appearance at the Lincoln Center festival. Performances throughout the US, Canada and Europe of Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Clarinet Concerto, Duo recitals with pianists Lukas Foss and Emanuel Ax, with whom he premiered Yehudi Wyner’s “Commedia,”, as well as performances and tours with the American, Borromeo, Emerson, Orion, Takacs, and Tokyo String Quartets are also highlights. Extended residencies have taken Stoltzman to numerous orchestras including and major universities throughout the U.S. and Canada. Especially memorable are concerts of jazz and classics with his son, pianist Peter John Stoltzman. Father and Son have performed together around the globe and were recently featured on NPR’s “Performance Today” and “Weekend Edition” as well as “Voice of America” radio. For their extraordinary talent on the stage, in the classroom, and throughout the community, WGBH radio in Boston called the Stoltzmans “New England’s First Family of Classical Music”. Over the years, Stoltzman has received numerous requests for the music to the enchanting arrangements and original works that can be heard on his recordings and in live performance. Amateur and professional clarinetists alike are now in luck as they can finally enjoy this music published in two appealing volumes entitled “ARIA,” which features the music from the BMG recording of the same name, and “The Richard Stoltzman Songbook,” a collection of jazz and classics, both published by Carl Fischer. Richard Stoltzman, resides in Massachusetts and is a passionate Boston Red Sox baseball fan. He is also a Cordon Bleu trained pastry chef.

November 15, 2015 – Jeremy Denk, piano; Stefan Jackiw, violin JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897) Violin Sonata No. 2 in A major, op. 100 November 15, 2015 – Jeremy Denk, piano; Stefan Jackiw, violin Brahms composed the A major Violin Sonata during the summer of 1886 in idyllic Hofstetten, Switzerland. That summer he eagerly anticipated the visit of Hermine Spies, the young contralto for whom he wrote many of his late songs. He noted that the Sonata’s second theme quotes one of the songs he wrote with her in mind, “Wie Melodien zieht es mir” (As if melodies were moving), op. 105, no. 1. Commentators have also linked “Komm bald” (Come soon), op. 97, no. 6, with this movement and found references in the finale to two other Opus 105 songs, “Immer leiser wird mein Schlummer” (My slumber grows more and more peaceful)—which climaxes with the words, “Komm’, O komme bald ”—and “Auf dem Kirchhofe” (In the churchyard). Brahms’s friend Elisabet von Herzogenberg was moved to characterize the entire A major Sonata as “a caress.” As was his custom, Brahms himself participated in the premiere of the Sonata on December 2, 1886, with violinist Joseph Hellmesberger, leader of the Hellmesberger Quartet and enthusiastic supporter of the composer. The performance occurred a little over a week after Brahms had accompanied Hermine in her Viennese debut recital. The first movement breathes the kind of lyricism associated with Brahms’s songs whether or not one hears the specific allusions. It is the second theme in this sonata form that recalls his lovely “Wie Melodien,” borrowing the first phrase only, which Brahms varies rhythmically and gives a new continuation. The tune reappears in the recapitulation and furnishes the violin’s last utterance to close the coda. The second movement combines a slow movement and scherzo in alternating sections, in a manner similar to the middle movement of the F major Quintet. Each returning section brings a subtle variation of its former appearance. Brahms marked the finale “Allegretto grazioso quasi Andante” in order to achieve a non-hurried, graceful atmosphere. The climactic phrase “Come, o come soon” (from “Immer leiser wird mein Schlummer”) can be detected in the rondo theme. The first contrasting episode introduces a haze of arpeggiated chords rather than a “tune” before the rondo refrain returns, but the second episode sounds more traditionally songful. A variation of the first theme returns in the coda, extended by warm double stops in the home key. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

MIHAI MARICA, CELLO Romanian-born cellist Mihai Marica is a First Prize winner of the “Dr. Luis Sigall” International Competition in Viña del Mar, Chile and the Irving M. Klein International Competition, and is a recipient of Charlotte White’s Salon de Virtuosi Fellowship Grant. He has performed with orchestras such as the Symphony Orchestra of Chile, Xalapa Symphony in Mexico, the Hermitage State Orchestra of St. Petersburg in Russia, the Jardins Musicaux Festival Orchestra in Switzerland, the Louisville Orchestra, and the Santa Cruz Symphony in the US. He has also appeared in recital performances in Austria, Hungary, Germany, Spain, Holland, South Korea, Japan, Chile, the United States, and Canada. A dedicated chamber musician, he has performed at the Chamber Music Northwest, Norfolk, and Aspen music festivals where he has collaborated with such artists as Ani Kavafian, Ida Kavafian, David Shifrin, André Watts, and Edgar Meyer, and is a founding member of the award-winning Amphion String Quartet. A recent collaboration with dancer Lil Buck brought forth new pieces for solo cello written by Yevgeniy Sharlat and Patrick Castillo. Last season, he joined the acclaimed Apollo Trio. Mr. Marica studied with Gabriela Todor in his native Romania and with Aldo Parisot at the Yale School of Music where he was awarded master’s and artist diploma degrees. He is an alum of The Bowers Program (formerly CMS Two).

February 18, 2024: Michael Stephen Brown, piano Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) The Valley of the Bells for piano February 18, 2024: Michael Stephen Brown, piano In his autobiographical sketch Ravel said that his Miroirs of 1904–05 “mark a change in my harmonic development pronounced enough to have upset those musicians who till then had had the least trouble in appreciating my style.” He no doubt referred to his freedom to avoid the home key for long stretches and to use passages of unresolved chords over pedal points. Ravel’s formal structures in these five “mirrors” of nature were also freer than in his earlier works. When pianist Ricardo Viñes told him that Debussy dreamed of writing “a kind of music whose form was so free that it would sound improvised” (never minding old improvisatory-sounding forms such as fantasias and toccatas!), Ravel told Viñes that he, too, was working along similar principles. Several weeks later Ravel played his free-sounding Miroirs for the Apaches, his circle of Parisian artists. Ravel dedicated each of the five Miroirs to a fellow Apache—the last of the set, La vallée des cloches, to his only pupil, Maurice Delage. Viñes premiered Miroirs on January 6, 1906, at a concert of the Société Nationale de Musique to mixed reviews, as might be expected in view of Ravel’s remarkable new direction. La vallée des cloches, Ravel told pianist Robert Casadesus, was inspired by the sound of the Parisian church bells that rang at noon, and, reported Gabriel Fauré, Ravel referred to the bell sound at the end as “la Savoyarde,” the largest bell in the Basilica of Montmartre. Ravel would go on to feature bells in a number of his other works, such as L’heure espagnole, La cathédrale engloutie, and Gaspard de la nuit. The outer sections of La vallée des cloches depicts five sets of bells, repeating in fragmented phrases at varying rates, with intervals of parallel fourths and octaves prominent to suggest the overtones in the bells’ reverberations. Only in the middle section does a lush melody emerge. Striking but less obvious is Ravel’s use of larger structural planes, extended in time to create varied overarching patterns, much in the same way the Cubists were breaking up time and space to create illusions of solid objects. Ravel required three staves in the score to facilitate the representation of these layers. He was particular, as pianist Henriette Faure learned in a coaching, that the right-hand carillon and the left-hand high octave bells sound on two very distinct levels, “and the whole thing had to remain within a pianissimo that he could, in some mysterious way, achieve without it sounding feeble. . . . The great calm lyrical outpouring [of the central section], on the other hand, requires a profound sonority and a legato that comes from a hand closely wedded to the keys, and from a weight of arm that one ideally gets from sitting rather low at the keyboard.” —©Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

ANNE AKIKO MEYERS, VIOLIN Violin superstar Anne Akiko Meyers is one of the most in-demand violinists in the world. Regularly performing as guest soloist with the world’s top orchestras, she presents ground-breaking recitals and is a best-selling recording artist with 35 albums. Meyers is known for her passionate performances, purity of sound, deeply poetic interpretations, innovative programming and commitment to commissioning significant new works from living composers. Anne’s recent recording of Rautavaara’s Fantasia was the only classical instrumental work to be selected on NPR’s 100 best songs of 2017. Fantasia, Anne’s 35th recording, includes works for violin and orchestra by Rautavaara, Ravel and the Szymanowski Concerto No.1, recorded with Kristjan Järvi and the Philharmonia Orchestra. In 2018, she will premiere a new violin concerto by Adam Schoenberg (which she commissioned) with the Phoenix and San Diego Symphony Orchestras. Anne will also return to Leipzig, Germany to premiere Rautavaara’s Fantasia with the MDR Leipzig Orchestra and has been invited by legendary composer, Arvo Pärt, to perform at the opening celebration of the new Arvo Pärt Centre in Estonia. Earlier this year, Anne performed the world premiere of Fantasia by Einojuhani Rautavaara, a work written for her and considered to be the composer’s final masterpiece, with the Kansas City Symphony, conducted by Michael Stern. She performed recitals in Florida, New York, Virginia, Washington D.C., and returned to the Nashville Symphony to perform the Bernstein Serenade with Giancarlo Guerrero. In May, she headlined the Kanazawa Music Festival performing the Beethoven Concerto with cadenzas by Mason Bates with the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa, toured New Zealand with the Mason Bates Violin Concerto and New Zealand Symphony, and returned to Krakow and Warsaw, Poland to perform the Szymanowski Concerto and Jakub Ciupinski’s newly orchestrated Wreck of the Umbria. Other recent projects include a nationwide PBS broadcast special and a Naxos DVD featuring the world premiere of Samuel Jones’ Violin Concerto with the All-Star Orchestra led by Gerard Schwarz, the French premiere of Mason Bates Violin Concerto with Leonard Slatkin and the Orchestre de Lyon, and two new recordings-Naïve Classics celebrating Arvo Pärt’s 80th birthday and a box set of Anne’s RCA Red Seal discography on Sony Classics. Anne’s prior releases the Four Seasons: The Vivaldi Album, debuted at #1 on the classical Billboard charts, as did Air: The Bach Album, and the Vivaldi was the recording debut of the Ex-Vieuxtemps’ Guarneri del Gesu violin, dated 1741, which was awarded to Meyers for her lifetime use. A champion of living composers, Meyers collaborates closely with many of today’s leading composers. She has expanded the violin repertoire by commissioning and premiering works by composers such as Mason Bates, Jakub Ciupinski, John Corigliano, Jennifer Higdon, Samuel Jones, Wynton Marsalis, Akira Miyoshi, Arvo Pärt, Gene Pritsker, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Somei Satoh, Adam Schoenberg and Joseph Schwantner. Anne has collaborated with a diverse array of artists outside of traditional classical, including jazz icons Chris Botti and Wynton Marsalis, avant-garde musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, electronic music pioneer Isao Tomita, pop-era act Il Divo and singer Michael Bolton. She performed the National Anthem in front of 42,000 fans at Safeco Field in Seattle, appeared twice on The Tonight Show and was featured in a segment on MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann that became that show’s the third most popular story of the year. Anne has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning, CBS’ “The Good Wife”, NPR’s Morning Edition with Linda Wertheimer, All Things Considered with Robert Siegel and recently curated “Living American” on Sirius XM Radio’s Symphony Hall with host David Srebnik. She was on the popular Nick Jr. show Take Me To Your Mother with Andrea Rosen, and best-selling novelist J. Courtney Sullivan consulted with Anne for The Engagements and based one of the main characters loosely on her career. She also collaborated with children’s book author and illustrator Kristine Papillon on Crumpet the Trumpet where the character Violetta the violinist is played by Anne. Anne Akiko Meyers was born in San Diego and grew up in Southern California. She studied with Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld at the Colburn School of Performing Arts, Josef Gingold at Indiana University, and Felix Galimir, Masao Kawasaki and Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School. She received the Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Distinguished Alumna Award from the Colburn School of Music and is on the advisory council of the American Youth Symphony Orchestra.

February 26, 2017: Emanuel Ax, piano FREDERIC CHOPIN (1810-1849) Four Impromptus, Opp. 29, 36, 51, & 66 February 26, 2017: Emanuel Ax, piano Between 1834 and 1842 Chopin composed four impromptus (opp. 66, 29, 36, and 51 in that order), which, though conceived as separate pieces, share certain thematic material and a basic ternary shape (ABA). For Chopin, imprompt u did not mean a piece of an improvisatory nature but rather a character piece—a common if vague nineteenth-century designation—and his impromptus show evidence that he revised his materials more than once before arriving at their final form. Chopin composed his so-called Fantasy-Impromptu in C-sharp minor c. 1834 , but decided not to publish it for unknown reasons. He himself called the piece an “impromptu,” but his friend Julian Fontana added “fantasy” to the title when he published it in 1855, six years after Chopin’s death. (An alternate version was also published from a presentation manuscript Chopin made for dedicatee Baroness d’Este.) In 1834 Chopin had not yet solidified what “impromptu” meant for him personally as a genre. He had recently published his Etudes, op. 10, and this first Impromptu belongs to that world. It also shows indebtedness to the Impromptu in E-flat major, op. 89, by Ignaz Moscheles and to Schubert’s Impromptu, op. 90, no. 2. (It has been suggested that similarities to the Moscheles Impromptu may have been a reason for withholding it from publication, but that notion is contradicted by the fact that he published other pieces modeled on those by Moscheles.) The C-sharp minor Impromptu continues to be one of Chopin’s most popular pieces. It unfolds in a simple ternary form whose outer sections feature rippling figuration from which a melody in longer notes emerges. The slower middle section offers an expansive, lyrical melody (later appropriated for the pop song “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows”), which Chopin treats several times at leisure before returning the scurrying opening section. He also recalls the tune in his ruminating coda. By 1837, when Chopin wrote his second Impromptu in A-flat major , he demonstrated his clear personal definition of the genre by modeling the piece on his own unpublished C-sharp minor Impromptu. Many commentators have pointed out similarities between the two in regard to formal design, texture, and details of phrase structure and motives. That this was a time of despair for Chopin, when his hopes of marrying Maria Wodziński were crushed, contrasts markedly with the effervescent atmosphere of this piece’s outer sections. The middle section becomes more ruminative but hardly brooding. Especially memorable are the cascading chromatics of the “A” sections and the harmonic digressions and melodic embellishments of the “B” section. Chopin composed the third Impromptu in F-sharp minor in 1839 at Nohant, the country estate of writer George Sand (pseudonym of Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin), with whom he had by now become romantically involved. Chopin scholar Jim Samson has argued persuasively that “this piece was the single most important harbinger of Chopin’s later style” in its variation style that is built on an ostinato (repeating pattern), its march-like middle section, and the threefold variation of the reprise. The manuscript reveals that the form of this prophetic composition caused Chopin a great struggle. Some of the most striking features of the piece are the astonishing tonal wrench to the unexpected key of F major for the return of the opening theme and the amazing figuration as the theme is varied—finger exercises transformed into magical effects. The delicate, harmonically adventurous fourth Impromptu in G-flat major , Chopin’s personal favorite, dates from the summer of 1842 at Nohant, polished the following autumn/winter. It exists in two versions, one transmitted through his onetime pupil Carl Filtsch, who copied it out either by ear or from a manuscript in 1841. If by ear, he hadn’t remembered how Chopin exquisitely varied the main theme in thirds and sixths on its later appearances, and, if copying from a manuscript, he must have been looking at a version from before Chopin arrived at this imaginative stroke. Chopin likely modeled his G-flat major Impromptu, especially the figuration of the outer sections, on his A-flat major Impromptu. The fourth Impromptu’s outer sections are striking for their ethereal rising scales before certain phrase endings, the adventurous harmonies of their transition passage, and a new second theme. In the slower middle section Chopin features a singing, contemplative melody in the cello register. The sophistication of his harmonies and intricately interconnected flow of ideas make it clear why Chopin favored this Impromptu and regrettable that it has often been overlooked. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

January 14, 2024: Goldmund Quartet ANTON WEBERN (1883-1945) Langsamer Satz January 14, 2024: Goldmund Quartet Webern was in love. In his third year as a student at the University of Vienna, he became romantically involved with his cousin Wilhelmine (Minna), and Webern’s diary, each entry filled with passionate outpourings combined with images of nature, radiates his happiness: “Our love rose to infinite heights and filled the universe! Two souls were enraptured!” The Langsamer Satz (“slow movement”), originally for string quartet, was composed in June 1905 as a direct expression of that love. They kept their affair secret knowing the anguish it would cause both sets of parents, but they married in 1911 after finding out Minna was pregnant. The marriage was officially prohibited by the Roman Catholic Church and solemnized only in 1915, by which time three of the couple’s four children had been born. In 1904 Webern had begun private composition studies with Arnold Schoenberg, which were to have profound impact on his life. There are some indications in the original set of parts for Langsamer Satz that the work was played, most likely within the Schoenberg “circle,” but Webern never made the work public. He may have suppressed it as a student work or because his compositional style soon underwent a major shift toward Schoenberg’s atonal language. In any case, it was not until 1962, almost twenty years after his death, that the world first heard this moving piece, performed on May 27 in Seattle by the University of Washington String Quartet. Langsamer Satz shows Webern’s indebtedness to late Romanticism in its rich harmonies and sweeping melodic lines. While this kind of expressiveness soon became telescoped into bare essentials, the movement exhibits the contrapuntal techniques that enabled him to structure even his most concise serial compositions. The piece consists of four basic sections, the fourth a reprise of the first, plus a coda. Though the key of the movement is E-flat major, the flowing opening melody gives the initial impression of C minor. A short, more restless section in G minor precedes a beautiful new calm theme that, if the opening was not enough, puts to rest questions about Webern’s lyrical abilities. The section peaks with the opening bar of this theme played triple forte, doubled in three octaves. In the reprise of the opening section, the second statement of the main theme is now the property of the cello. A coda based on the lyrical third section climaxes ecstatically and Webern’s wordless expression of love concludes quietly in E-flat major after a brief reminiscence of the C minor opening. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

October 27, 2019: Quartetto di Cremona OTTORINO RESPIGHI (1879-1936) String Quartet in D major October 27, 2019: Quartetto di Cremona Respighi received his earliest musical training on the violin. At age twelve he enrolled at the Liceo Musicale in Bologna, where he studied violin with Federico Sarti, eminent teacher of a whole string of violin prodigies. Judging by contemporary reports of his playing, Respighi could have made a career solely as a violinist had not his interests turned toward composition and, partly as a composition tool, toward the piano. While in Russia in 1900 he played principal viola in the Imperial Opera orchestra, continuing to study violin between rehearsals and performances. While in St. Petersburg he also met and studied with Rimsky-Korsakov, who had a profound influence on his development as a composer. Even after Respighi’s return to Bologna in 1902, when his compositions began receiving wider recognition, he continued to perform as a violinist and violist. In 1903 he also became the violist of the Mugellini Piano Quintet, with which he performed until 1908. Thus, though Respighi is known principally for his large orchestral pieces that celebrate the glories of Rome, it makes complete sense that he also wrote smaller scale chamber music all his life. Most of his chamber works, however, date from his early period, 1895 to 1910, and many of the early works remain unpublished. Respighi composed the D major Quartet, actually his third quartet, in 1904 (not 1907 as often stated), and it was first performed in 1906 in Bologna, but it remained unpublished until 1921. The first movement’s lush, Romantic, harmonically ranging first theme immediately proclaims Respighi’s confidence. Some consider it a precursor to his Trevi Fountain music in The Fountains of Rome. The more playful second theme provides contrast with its leaps and silences. Both themes frequently incorporate triplet motion. The movement ends in ethereal high harmonics over a poignant rising cello solo, followed by a more earthbound closing gesture. The highly chromatic slow movement unfolds as a moody theme and variations. Seamlessly, the first admits faster note values, the second becomes almost eerie in its winding chromaticism, and the third features an active cello melody with persistent “chatter” in the other parts. There follows a slow waltz over a drone, a slow smooth contrapuntal variation led off by the cello, a sprightly dancelike variation, and a sorrowful final variation whose lush lines for the three upper instruments are intensified by insistent drone-like repeated notes in the cello. A tender introductory gesture launches Respighi’s lightly scampering scherzo, which he calls Intermezzo. After an impassioned central section, he repeats the scherzo literally and appends a sweetly pensive coda. The finale takes off like a galloping tarantella over persistent, fast repeated-note chords. The second theme provides lovely lyrical contrast. After recapping his themes, Respighi inserts a shimmering passage of harmonics and builds over another drone to polish off his tarantella grandly in the major mode. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

YING FANG, SOPRANO Soprano Ying Fang has been hailed by the New York Times for her “pure and moving soprano, phrasing with scrupulous respect for the line and traveling with assurance through the mercurial moods,” as well as “singing with a fresh, appealing soprano and acting with coquettish flair.” She is blooming as a well-rounded singer. Ms. Fang has most recently performed Susanna in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro conducted by Gary Thor Wedow and directed by Stephen Wadsworth at The Juilliard School. She sang the title role in Gluck’s Iphigenie en Aulide conducted by Jane Glover. She sang The Dew Fairy in Hansel and Gretel, Barbarina in the season opening new production of Le Nozze di Figaro conducted by James Levine at the Metropolitan Opera. She has performed Cleopatra in Wolf Trap Opera Company’s 2014 production of Giulio Cesare. She has been featured in The Metropolitan Opera and The Juilliard School’s production of “A concert of comic operas” conducted by James Levine, in which she sang Konstanze, Teresa, and Adina. Ms. Fang made her Metropolitan Opera debut in their 2013–14 season, singing the role of Madame Podtochina’s Daughter in Shostakovich’s opera The Nose. The roles she performed include: Contessa di Folleville in Rossini’s Il Viaggio a Reims with Wolf Trap Opera Company, the title role in Mozart’s opera Zaide with the New World Symphony; Bellezza in Handel’s oratorio Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno with the Juilliard 415 under the baton of William Christie at Alice Tully Hall. She was also heard in the role of Pamina in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte with the Aspen Opera Theater Center, and gained acclaim: “Soprano Ying Fang sang Pamina with a creamy tone and marvelous specificity in each moment” (The Aspen Times). She also did Maria in Bernstein’s West Side Story with the Aspen Opera Theater Center. She made her Alice Tully Hall debut performing Handel’s motet Silete Venti with conductor Steven Fox leading the Juilliard 415. She sang the soprano solo in Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Filene Center in Wolf Trap. In Juilliard opera productions, she has been featured as Zerlina in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Fanny in Rossini’s La Cambiale di Matrimonio, and The Spirit of the Boy in Britten’s Curlew River. A native of Ningbo, China, Ms. Fang is the recipient of Martin E. Segal Award, Hildegard Behrens Foundation Award, The Rose Bampton Award of The Sullivan Foundation, The Opera Index Award of The 2013 Opera Index Vocal Competition and 1st Prize Award of 2013 Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition. She won one of China’s most prestigious awards, the 2009 7th Chinese Golden Bell Award for Music. One of the youngest singers ever accorded this honor, she has been hailed as “the most gifted Chinese soprano of her generation” (Ningbo Daily). Ms. Fang holds a master’s degree from The Juilliard School and a bachelor’s degree from The Shanghai Conservatory of Music. She is a member of The Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and The Artist Diploma in Opera Study program at Juilliard.

FRED SHERRY, CELLO Fred Sherry has introduced audiences on five continents and all fifty United States to the music of our time for over five decades. He was a founding member of Tashi and Speculum Musicae, Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and has been a member of the Group for Contemporary Music, Berio’s Juilliard Ensemble and the Galimir String Quartet. He has also enjoyed a close collaboration with jazz pianist and composer Chick Corea. Elliott Carter, Mario Davidovsky, Steve Mackey, David Rakowski, Somei Satoh, Charles Wuorinen and John Zorn have written concertos for Sherry which he has performed with orchestras including the San Francisco Symphony, Municipal Orchestra of Buenos Aires, BBC Symphony Orchestra, New York CIty Ballet, Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, New World Symphony, and RAI Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale. He has premiered solo and chamber works dedicated to him by Milton Babbitt, Derek Bermel, Jason Eckardt, Lukas Foss, Oliver Knussen, Peter Lieberson, Donald Martino and Toru Takemitsu among others, and has appeared at Festivals including Aldeburgh, Casals, Tanglewood, Spoleto, Toru Takemitsu’s Music Today, Chamber Music Northwest, OK Mozart, Ravinia, and Mostly Mozart. Fred Sherry created the series “Bach Cantata Sundays” at St. Ann’s Church and conceived and directed the acclaimed “Arnold Schoenberg: Conservative Radical” series at Merkin Concert Hall. He was the creator and director of “A Great Day in New York,” the groundbreaking festival featuring 52 living composers presented by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Merkin Concert Hall. Mr. Sherry’s vast discography encompasses a wide range of classic and modern repertoire. He has been soloist and “sideman” on hundreds of commercial and esoteric recordings for RCA, Columbia, Vanguard, CRI, Albany, Bridge, ECM, New World, Delos, Naxos, Tzadik and others. Mr. Sherry was the organizer for Robert Craft’s New York recording sessions from 1995-2012, performing as cellist and forming groups of brilliant and dedicated musicians. This longstanding collaboration produced celebrated performances of the Schoenberg Cello Concerto, all four String Quartets and the String Quartet Concerto as well as major works by Stravinsky and Webern. A member of the cello faculty of The Juilliard School, The Mannes School of Music and The Manhattan School of Music, Mr. Sherry has presented master classes at Curtis Institute of Music, McGill University, Indiana University, and was the Director of the Contemporary Performance Institute at the Composers Conference from 2015-2019. He has served on international juries including the Premio Paolo Borciani String Quartet Competition in Italy, OSM Standard Life Competition in Montreal and Young Concert Artists in New York. Fred Sherry’s book 25 Bach Duets from the Cantatas was published by Boosey & Hawkes in 2011, the revised edition was released in 2019. C.F. Peters unveiled his treatise on contemporary string playing, A Grand Tour of Cello Technique, in 2018.