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SITKOVETSKY TRIO Alexander Sitkovetsky – violin Wu Qian – piano
Isang Enders – cello The Sitkovetsky Trio has established itself as an exceptional piano trio, with sensational performances in the foremost concert halls around the world. Their thoughtful and committed approach has brought the ensemble critical acclaim and invitations to renowned concert halls around the world, such as the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Frankfurt Alte Oper, Palais des Beaux Arts, Musée du Louvre, l’Auditori Barcelona, Wigmore Hall or Lincoln Center New York. In 2021 the Trio toured Spain, Switzerland, Finland, Denmark and Germany, including appearances at the Mikkeli Festival, the chamber music series in Berne and Basel and a return to the Rheingau Festival. The Trio finished the year off with a tour of the UK and Italy, including performances in Manchester and Rimini. 2022 will see the Trio return to Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw as part of an extensive tour of Holland. Further appearances include the Alte Oper Frankfurt, Helsinki, Milan, the Marvāo and Westport Chamber Music Festivals, and a debut tour of South America. Highlights of the past seasons have been a residency at Hong Kong City Hall, including performances of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, as well as a recital debut in the prestigious Premiere Performances Series. They also toured Asia performing concerts throughout South Korea, Singapore and Japan. In May 2019 they gave the world premiere of a new triple concerto by Charlotte Bray with the Philharmonia Orchestra, with further concerts planned. The Trio has performed the Beethoven Triple Concerto e.g. with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Netherlands Philharmonic, the Munich Symphoniker and the Anhaltische Philharmonie Dessau. First prize-winners of the International Commerzbank Chamber Music Award, the Sitkovetsky Trio is also a recipient of the NORDMETALL Chamber Music Award at the Mecklenburg Vorpommern Festival and the Philharmonia-Martin Chamber Music Award. They have been supported by the Hattori Foundation, the Musicians Benevolent Fund, the Fidelio Trust and the Swiss Global Artistic Foundation. In 2014, the Sitkovetsky Trio released their first recording for BIS Records with works by Smetana, Suk and Dvořák to much critical acclaim. This led to further releases of works by Brahms and Schubert on the Wigmore Live Label and another recording for BIS of Mendelssohn Trios in 2015. In spring 2020, just in time for Beethoven’s birthday celebrations, they recorded their third disc for BIS: Beethoven’s Trios, Op. 1 and Op. 70, and Allegretto in B-flat major for Piano Trio, WoO 39. The album received a Diapason d’Or ARTE and was released as Vol. 1 of a complete Beethoven cycle. In July 2021, the Trio’s fifth album — Ravel Trio and Saint Saëns Trio No. 2 — was released to great critical acclaim and received a Supersonic Award from Pizzicato Magazine and a 2022 BBC Music Magazine Award for Best Chamber Music. Alexander Sitkovetsky plays a Stradivari violin (Cremona, 1697) and Isang Enders plays a cello by Carlo Tononi (Venice, 1720); both instruments have been kindly loaned by the J. & A. Beare Violin Society.

DANIELLE DE NIESE, SOPRANO Danielle de Niese’s “sweet, gleaming soprano,” “phenomenal musicality” and “sharply comic, yet utterly moving acting,” combined with youth and physical presence, have brought her to the edge of a spectacular career. At only 30 years of age, the Australian-born American singer regularly graces many of the world’s most prestigious opera and concert stages, and has an exclusive contract with Decca Records. Her debut solo album, Handel Arias was released to international acclaim in 2007 and her much anticipated second recording, The Mozart Album, is due out internationally this fall. Ms. de Niese’s career got off to a prestigious start when, at age 18, she became the youngest singer ever to enter the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. A year later she made her house debut as Barbarina in a new Jonathan Miller production of Le nozze di Figaro in a cast featuring Renée Fleming, Bryn Terfel, and Cecilia Bartoli, and led by James Levine. Soon after came important operatic debuts with the Netherlands Opera, the Saito Kinen Festival, and the Paris Opera. But it was her portrayal of Cleopatra in a David McVicar production of Handel’s Giulio Cesare for her 2005 Glyndebourne Festival debut that brought her to true international acclaim. The New York Times hailed de Niese’s performance, writing, “Her singing is utterly delectable and completely assured…Sheer ‘joie de vivre’ and mastery come spilling across, to the eyes as well as the ears.” Since then Ms. de Niese has enjoyed operatic successes on the stages of the Paris Opera, Zurich Opera, Netherlands Opera, and Lyric Opera of Chicago among many others. Orchestral engagements have included appearances with the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, National Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. In the 2009-10 season Ms. de Niese returns to the Metropolitan Opera in the same production of Le nozze di Figaro where she made her house debut but this time as Susanna. Other important opera engagements this season include L’incoronazione di Poppea with the Teatro Real, Semele with Théâtre des Champs Elysées, as well as Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro with Lyric Opera of Chicago under the direction of Edward Gardner. Additionally, Ms. de Niese will tour Europe with the period instrument group Il giardino armonico with an all Handel program with performances in Amsterdam, Vienna, Berlin and Madrid among others. She will make her debut in Prague with the Philharmonia under the direction of Jakub Hrusa. Australian-born to parents of Sri Lankan and Dutch heritage, Danielle de Niese grew up in Los Angeles. The soprano has been captivating audiences since childhood, when she was a fixture of Los Angeles local television hosting a weekly arts showcase for teenagers, for which she won an Emmy Award. Trained in dance and piano as well as music at the famed Colburn School in Los Angeles, she participated in the Tanglewood, Aspen and Marlboro summer programs before coming to New York in 1997 to attend the Mannes School of Music. Recently the Netherlands Opera awarded Ms. de Niese their “Prix d’Amis” which is an honor bestowed upon the artist who their audience votes as the past season’s favorite performer. Ms. de Niese is the recipient of the 2008 Echo Award’s New Artist of the Year, the 2008 Orphee D’Or given by the Academie Du Disque Lyrique, and was nominated for the 2009 Classical Brit Award for female artist of the year, all for her debut album, Handel Arias.

arr. for organ by Smith Newell Penfield JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750) Air on the G String from Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068 arr. for organ by Smith Newell Penfield When music scholars began sifting through Bach’s long-forgotten works in the nineteenth century, they came across four orchestral masterpieces that they catalogued as “orchestral suites” because of their similarity to suites for keyboard or individual string instruments—and simply to avoid confusion. Bach, however, had called them “ouvertures” in the tradition of his German contemporaries, who used the term for an orchestral work consisting of an overture and several dance movements in the French style. Bach most likely wrote his Third Orchestral Suite around 1731 in Leipzig. (For a description of his myriad activities there, see the note for the Sinfonia from Cantata 29 above.) Though he may have composed some of the orchestral suites earlier, the earliest existing copies date from Bach’s Leipzig days, so we can assume he performed all of them there with the Collegium Musicum. The Third Suite may be the most famous of the four on account of its meltingly beautiful Air. One of the most popular and arranged pieces of all time, it achieved special notoriety through August Wilhelmj’s version for the violin G string (1871). The Air’s binary form—two halves, each repeated—and its “stepping” bass overlaid with a long, sustained melodic line are standard Baroque procedures, but its poignant effect transcends all formulas. Paul Jacobs plays an arrangement by American composer and organist Smith Newell Penfield (1837–1920), who studied at Oberlin College, with James Flint in New York, and at the Leipzig Conservatory. Penfield taught in Rochester, New York, and in Savannah, Georgia, where he founded a conservatory, and he later served as organist for the Broadway Tabernacle in New York City. He published his arrangement of Bach’s famous Air in 1880 as the fifth installment in his series of arrangements of pieces by Schumann, Chopin, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Donizetti, and Rossini. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

May 6, 2018: Kerry McDermott, violin; Clara Neubauer, violin; Paul Neubauer, viola; Oliver Neubauer, violin CHARLES DANCLA (1817-1907) Variations on Ah! Vous dirai-je, Maman for three violins and viola May 6, 2018: Kerry McDermott, violin; Clara Neubauer, violin; Paul Neubauer, viola; Oliver Neubauer, violin Charles Dancla was so accomplished on the violin at age nine that Pierre Rode gave him letters of introduction to Pierre Baillot, Luigi Cherubini, and Rodolphe Kreutzer. He studied at the Paris Conservatory with Paul Guérin and Baillot, winning the premier prix in 1833. He also studied composition, playing in Paris theater orchestras to support his family. A lover of chamber music, Dancla played in his family’s own group, which became a regular feature of Paris seasons. His career did not unfold as he had hoped, however, when he was passed over for Baillot’s position in 1842. He declined the position of assistant conductor at the Opéra-Comique in 1848 and left Paris because of the political unrest. After returning as an official in the postal administration, he finally won a violin post at the Paris Conservatory in 1855. Forced to retire against his will in 1892 at age seventy-five, he continued to perform his own works. Dancla did not tour, so his reputation relied on his compositions, of which there were many. He composed his Variations on Ah! vous dirai-je , maman! for four violins, op. 161, around 1884—arranged here for three violins and viola. This was the same French folk song on which Mozart had produced his famous set of piano variations in 1781 or ’82. Dancla’s piece begins with a singing introduction, followed by the theme in alternating forceful and quiet sections. The variations highlight each player in turn starting from the bottom up—1) a florid spun-out line, 2) fast notes using sautillé (bouncing bow) technique, 3) spirited gestures ending with fast filigree, and 4) contrasting sections of lightly arpeggiated chords and soaring vocal leaps. The fifth variation features a darting figure that migrates among all the players, the lovely sixth variation provides songlike lushness, and the seventh merrily contrasts the players in pairs. The eighth is especially striking for its presentation of the theme in harmonics—first over pizzicato triplets, then lyrical counterpoint, and finally hushed tremolo—which serves as a perfect foil for the exuberance of the finale and its dazzling coda. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

WESTON SPROTT, TROMBONE Weston Sprott was appointed to the position of second trombone of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in the spring of 2005. He began his musical training in his hometown of Spring, TX. Mr. Sprott attended Indiana University before completing his Bachelor of Music degree at The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. His primary teachers include Michael Warny (Houston Grand Opera and Ballet Orchestras), Carl Lenthe (former Principal Trombone, Bavarian State Opera and Bamberg Symphony) and Nitzan Haroz (Principal Trombone-Philadelphia Orchestra). While a student at Curtis, Mr. Sprott held the positions of Principal Trombone in the Pennsylvania Ballet Orchestra (Philadelphia) and the Delaware Symphony Orchestra. He was the founding member of the Texas Trombone Octet, a group that won the Emory Remington competition and was featured in concert at the International Trombone Festival in Helsinki, Finland. Mr. Sprott has performed with The Philadelphia Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Atlanta Symphony, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the Tanglewood Music Center, Spoleto Festival USA, Hot Springs Music Festival, The American Wind Symphony Orchestra, and The Sphinx Symphony (Detroit). He has also performed with the St. Barts Music Festival and the Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Society. Mr. Sprott has worked under the baton of many of the world’s great conductors including Sir Simon Rattle, James Levine, Kurt Masur, Lorin Maazel, Christoph Eschenbach, Andre Previn and numerous others. Mr. Sprott was recently featured in the documentary film “A Wayfarer’s Journey:Listening to Mahler” with actor Richard Dreyfuss and actress Kathleen Chalfant. He was also a performer in the film “Rittenhouse Square” under the direction of Robert Downey, a documentary that played in major film festivals throughout the United States to critical acclaim. In September 2007, Mr. Sprott made his Carnegie Hall solo debut performing Lars Erik-Larsson’s Concertino in Weill Recital Hall at the invitation of the Bulgarian Consulate. Other engagements have led to performances with gospel and jazz artists such as Branford Marsalis, Take 6 and Donnie McClurkin. Performances and interviews with Mr. Sprott have been seen and heard on PBS’ Great Performances, NPR’s Performance Today, and Sirius Satellite Radio. In demand as a soloist and masterclass clinician, Mr. Sprott has been a featured guest artist at several of America’s leading conservatories and universities. He is currently on the faculty of Juilliard’s Music Advancement Program, and he previously served on the faculty of The New School University, a division of the Mannes School of Music in New York City. Weston Sprott is an artist/clinician for the Edwards Instrument Company. He performs exclusively on Edwards trombones and Doug Elliott mouthpieces.

KEVIN ZHU, VIOLIN Nineteen-year-old Kevin Zhu has amassed an outstanding record of concert performances and competition wins since he began playing violin at age three. Praised for his “awesome technical command and maturity” (The Strad) and “absolute virtuosity, almost blinding in its incredible purity” (L’ape musicale), Kevin regularly performs on the world’s largest stages, ranging from Carnegie Hall in New York to London’s Royal Festival Hall to the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing. Initially coming to international attention after winning the 2018 Paganini Competition and 2012 Yehudi Menuhin Competition, he has established himself as a leading figure among the next generation of musicians, astonishing audiences with his peerless technical mastery and inimitable artistic voice. In the 2020-21 season, Kevin will make debuts with the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra, Polish Baltic Philharmonic, and Colorado Springs Philharmonic, and returns to the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa performing Elgar’s Violin Concerto. He also performs solo recitals in Dresden, New York City, and Washington, D.C., embarking on a project to perform Paganini’s complete 24 Caprices in one concert, one of few violinists to ever do so. Recent orchestral highlights include concerto appearances with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Moscow Virtuosi, and China Philharmonic Orchestra. A highly sought-after recitalist, he has toured across the United States and Europe with repertoire ranging from Beethoven to contemporary commissions. Kevin is also a passionate chamber musician, collaborating with artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Lawrence Power, and Jan Vogler. In addition to his efforts on stage, Kevin serves as a Culture Ambassador of the Lin Yao Ji Music Foundation of China. He has repeatedly been featured on BBC Radio 3, NPR’s From the Top, and RAI Radio 3. Kevin is a proud recipient of a Kovner Fellowship at The Juilliard School, where he studies with Itzhak Perlman and Li Lin. Kevin performs on the c1722 “Lord Wandsworth” Antonio Stradivari violin, which is on loan from the Ryuji Ueno Foundation and Rare Violins In Consortium, Artists and Benefactors Collaborative.

HENRY KRAMER, PIANO Praised by The Cleveland Classical Review for his “astonishingly confident technique” and The New York Times for “thrilling [and] triumphant” performances, pianist Henry Kramer is developing a reputation as a musician of rare sensitivity who combines stylish programming with insightful and exuberant interpretations. In 2016, he garnered international recognition with a Second Prize win in the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. Most recently, he was awarded a 2019 Avery Fisher Career Grant by Lincoln Center – one of the most coveted honors bestowed on young American soloists. Kramer began playing piano at the relatively late age of 11 in his hometown of Cape Elizabeth, Maine. One day, he found himself entranced by the sound of film melodies as a friend played them on the piano, inspiring him to teach himself on his family’s old upright. His parents enrolled him in lessons shortly thereafter, and within weeks, he was playing Chopin and Mozart. Henry emerged as a winner in the National Chopin Competition in 2010, the Montreal International Competition in 2011 and the China Shanghai International Piano Competition in 2012. In 2014 he was added to the roster of Astral Artists, an organization that annually selects a handful of rising stars among strings, piano, woodwinds and voice candidates. The following year, he earned a top prize in the Honens International Piano Competition. Kramer has performed “stunning” solo recital debuts, most notably at Alice Tully Hall as the recipient of the Juilliard School’s William Petschek Award, as well as at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. At his Philadelphia debut, Peter Dobrin of The Philadelphia Inquirer remarked, “the 31-year-old pianist personalized interpretations to such a degree that works emerged anew. He is a big personality.” A versatile performer, Kramer has been featured as soloist with orchestras around the world, including the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, Belgian National Orchestra, Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, Hartford Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony and the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestras, among many others, collaborating with conductors such as Marin Alsop, Gerard Schwarz, Stéphane Denève, Jan Pascal Tortelier and Hans Graf. He has also performed recitals in cities such as Washington (Phillips Collection), Durham (St. Stephens), Hilton Head (BravoPiano! festival), and Seattle (Emerald City Music and the Seattle Series) and made summer appearances at the Anchorage, Lakes Area, Rockport, and Vivo music festivals. Appearances in the 2022-23 season include a debut with New York's Salon Séance, recitals with Newport Classical, Ravinia, Toronto's Koerner Hall, Vancouver Chamber Music Society, and additional appearances in Seattle, Chicago, Detroit, Ithaca, and Montreal. Highlights of the current season include performances with the Adrian Symphony and Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, a return to the Phillips Collection, further appearances with Salon Séance, and recital debuts with Cecilia Concerts in Halifax, Chapelle Historique du Bon-Pasteur in Montréal, Bargemusic, Northwestern University’s Winter Chamber Music Festival, and Music Mountain Summer Festival together with the Borromeo String Quartet. His love for the chamber music repertoire began early in his studies while a young teenager. A sought-after collaborator, he has appeared in recitals at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Mainly Mozart Festival, the Mostly Mozart Festival, and La Jolla Music Society’s Summerfest. His recording with violinist Jiyoon Lee on the Champs Hill label received four stars from BBC Music Magazine. This year, Gramophone UK praised Kramer’s performance on a recording collaboration (Cedille Records) with violist Matthew Lipman for “exemplary flexible partnership.” Henry has also performed alongside Emmanuel Pahud, the Calidore and Pacifica Quartets, Miriam Fried, as well as members of the Berlin Philharmonic and Orchestra of St. Luke’s. Teaching ranks among his greatest joys. In the fall of 2022, Kramer joined the music faculty of Université de Montréal. Previously, he served as the L. Rexford Whiddon Distinguished Chair in Piano at the Schwob School of Music at Columbus State University in Columbus, Georgia. Throughout his multifaceted career, he also held positions at Smith College and the University of Missouri Kansas City Conservatory of Dance and Music. Kramer graduated from the Juilliard School, where he worked with Julian Martin and Robert McDonald. He received his Doctorate of Musical Arts from the Yale School of Music under the guidance of Boris Berman. His teachers trace a pedagogical lineage extending back to Beethoven, Chopin and Busoni. Kramer is a Steinway Artist.

November 12, 2023: Angel Blue, soprano; Bryan Wagorn, piano GIACOMO PUCCINI (1858–1924) Three Arias November 12, 2023: Angel Blue, soprano; Bryan Wagorn, piano Chi il bel sogno While in Vienna in 1913 for a performance of La fanciulla del West, Puccini was invited to compose an operetta for the Carltheater. He agreed in principle but insisted on a through-composed comic opera rather than an operetta which would have had spoken dialogue, songs, and dances. By the time he had set Giuseppe Adamo’s Italian version of A. M. Willner and Heinz Reichert’s German libretto, however, Italy had entered World War I. The contract with Vienna had to be revised, and La rondine (The swallow) was ultimately launched in neutral Monte Carlo on March 27, 1917. Revisions for Bologna, Rome, and Vienna failed to secure the opera’s success and regrettably this elegant work with its part Viennese, part Parisian flair and waltz rhythms remains Puccini’s least-known mature work. The story, similar to La traviata, involves Magda de Civry, a high-society courtesan who falls in love with the earnest but naive Ruggero. When he eventually gets his mother’s consent to their marriage, the heartbroken Magda feels compelled to reveal her past and leaves him to return to her old life—like a swallow returning to its nest. The opera’s most famous aria occurs in Act I before they have even met: At a party at her house, Magda is the only one who takes poet Prunier’s idea of true love seriously. When he begins to tell his unfinished story about Doretta, who spurned a king’s ransom for love—“Chi il bel sogno di Doretta” (Doretta’s beautiful dream)—Magda takes over its completion, recounting how Doretta falls deeply in love with a student. The aria’s pathos and floating melodic lines always evoke an emotional response. How fitting that Angel Blue presents “Chi il bel sogno” this afternoon in anticipation of her starring role in this spring’s revival of La rondine at the Met. Vissi d’arte Composed in 1898–99, Tosca is based on a dramatic play by Victorien Sardou with a libretto by Luigo Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Puccini’s theatrical instincts proved correct when, having had his way with changes to the libretto and having ignored his publisher’s wish for a transcendental love duet in Act III, Tosca played to full houses for twenty evenings beginning January 14, 1900, at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome. Though critical reviews were mixed, Tosca’s success was sealed after performances conducted by Toscanini two months later at Milan’s La Scala. The tragic plot concerns the popular opera singer Floria Tosca and her lover Mario Cavaradossi, a painter who assists fugitive freedom fighter Cesare Angelotti. The evil chief of police, Baron Scarpia, and his agents track down and torture Cavaradossi, leading Tosca to make a deal to save his life—Scarpia will arrange a fake execution in exchange for her favors. As soon as he has penned the safe-conduct papers she kills him. But Scarpia has deceived her, and when Cavaradossi is actually shot and killed, she leaps from the parapet to her own death. Tosca sings “Vissi d’arte” (I lived for art) in Act II just after Scarpia has proposed his cruel bargain. She addresses God movingly, asking why he is treating her thus when she has dedicated herself to music, love, and religious observance. Scarpia is unmoved, and Tosca is forced to give in, setting up the final tragedy. Puccini almost did not include the aria, fearing that it would interrupt the dramatic flow, but audiences remain forever grateful that in the end he kept this beautiful showstopper. O mio babbino caro Puccini completed his first comic opera, Gianni Schicchi, in February 1918 as the third of a series of one-act operas, preceded by the tragic Il tabarro (1916) and the mystic Suor Angelica (1917). Under the title Il trittico (The triptych), these operas premiered at New York’s Metropolitan Opera on December 14, 1918, followed less than a month later by a production in Rome. According to popular success but against Puccini’s wishes, the triptych was soon broken up, with Gianni Schicchi receiving the lion’s share of performances. Composing Gianni Schicchi had gone particularly quickly because Puccini was on familiar territory with an Italian subject and he was thrilled to be working on a comedy for the first time and also to be reaching back to medieval times and Dante’s Divine Comedy. Dante referred to Gianni Schicci only briefly and without humor in Cantos XXV and XXX of the Inferno as a “goblin” who cheated Buoso Donati’s relatives (Dante’s wife was a Donati) out of an inheritance. It was left to librettist Giovacchino Forzano and Puccini 600 years later to turn these scandalous events into a comedy—a brilliant if slightly ghastly one at that. Aside from the shenanigans with a body not even cold, there are the threats of chopped-off hands if the criminal scheme were uncovered. As a counterbalance there are the heartfelt arias for the initially thwarted lovers—such as Lauretta’s extremely popular “O mio babbino caro.” In her brief lyrical outpouring she begs her father, Gianni Schicchi, to help Rinuccio’s family recover some of the money that the just-deceased Buoso Donati has left to the church instead of to them—otherwise the couple will not be allowed to marry. Her heartfelt plea—one of the world’s favorite arias—melts his and the audience’s heart. —©Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

Shirien Taylor, violin Updated bio December 17, 2021 With heavy hearts, we announce the death of Shirien Taylor-Donahue. Shirien was our beloved Principal Second Violin who passed unexpectedly at the tender age of 62. Below are some tributes from members of the orchestra. Shirien and I met each other when I joined the Met Orchestra. She in fact was on my audition committee and later told me that she had voted for me in the deciding final round. But our real friendship developed years later when we decided to carpool together on our long drive from Rockland County to the Met. We were neighbors and often made this trip twice a day. And it wasn’t uncommon that after dropping me off after a rehearsal she would pick up her son Craig from school and drive right back to Lincoln Center for him to attend an ABT rehearsal before she played the evening performance at the Met. We cried on each other’s shoulders during difficult times and laughed tears countless other times when things were good; and things were good most of the time when you were with Shirien. Even this one time when we were in horrific traffic on Riverside drive, desperately trying to get to the Met on time while listening to our orchestra playing the overture to the Marriage of Figaro on the radio, – which we were supposed to be playing as well… She was the most delightful violin teacher for my daughter Sophia when she was about 10 years old. They had so much fun,- often a violin lesson was combined with a cooking or baking lesson as well,- as she was the most incredible cook and had fun sharing it with my daughter. She was there for my family during Hurricane Sandy when we lost our electricity and couldn’t live at our house for a week. She had us stay with her and she cooked for us and made sure we were okay until we could live at home again. She was the most charming hostess at dinner parties which we were so fortunate to be part of many times. Did I mention that she cooked incredibly well,- or that she could do the most beautiful cartwheel in slow motion anybody would ever see? Shirien was a delightful, talented, fun-loving, generous and caring person who got her happiness in life out of taking care of the people who meant the most to her. And for those years, I was lucky enough to be part of her world. It’s hard for me to come to grips with the fact that she was taken from us at such a young age, but I will forever be grateful that my life was connected to hers in such a personal and meaningful way. I will miss her terribly but she will always be in my thoughts and in my heart. Caterina Szepes On tour in Japan As I recall, Shirien was the first violinist to win a Violin Section audition and shortly thereafter the audition for Principal Second – which she won, and had prepared for at the same time that she was playing a full performance/rehearsal load. It seemed ground-breaking, at the time. I first met her before she was at the MET and our conversation led her to say that she felt that a great artist would and should play beautifully in any situation whether as a soloist or in a section. So now I am sure she is happily joining in with our illustrious colleagues in the next realms. Shem Guibbory I had a lot of fun sitting with Shirien; she had a quick laugh and her musical gifts made sharing a stand a delight. I already miss her friendship and spirit. Karen Marx Shirien and I were a month apart when pregnant with our first children. Seen here with former Principal Trumpet Mel Broiles. We shared most of life’s crazy twists and turns spending many wonderful Thanksgivings together . Our kids grew up with wonderful holiday memories together. We all miss her terribly. We commuted for 20+ years helping each other stay awake late nights after the Opera. Always a smile and a hug and her little giggle. Funny memories of a Parks concert in Brooklyn when it started to pour. The concert ended and we had to make a mad dash to the car- we spotted a few black garbage bags on the site so we grabbed two, pulled them over our heads and realized we couldn’t see, so laughing and giggling we poked two holes (uneven of course) in the bags trying all the while to hold our violins and purses thru the pounding rain in the dark like two black zombies bumping into everything! We lost sight of each other but we followed the howls of laughter to stay together! Kathy Caswell The ladies of the orchestra threw us a baby shower in the Orchestra Lounge We have so many fond and loving memories of Shirien over the years. In the 21 years Bob and I ran the Concerts in Windham (1997-2018) Shirien appeared 18 times, most often as concertmaster of the Chamber Orchestra, but also in chamber music, performing Bob’s music and most noteworthy in recital with Peter Serkin. There’s an interesting backstory to that recital. On a 2005 Performance Today broadcast, Fred Child announced Shirien as the violin soloist in the Finzi Romance from Windham, identifying her as principal 2nd violin of the MET Orchestra. On returning from vacation that summer Shirien was surprised to find a voicemail from Peter saying how much he enjoyed the performance and especially her solo. He obviously had gotten her number from the Orchestra secretary at the time. That was their first communication ever. Some years went by and at a C level rehearsal when Peter was to appear with the orchestra he kept looking over at Shirien. They struck up a conversation and he suggested they play together. When Bob and I contacted Peter in early 2010 about doing a solo recital in Windham, he said he’d like to do a joint one with Shirien. Just one of many memories… We miss her terribly and are grateful for our performances with her outside of the MET, but especially for our long, loving friendship. Our hearts go out to Paul, Craig and Livia. Magdalena Golczewski Shirien was a great colleague. She had such a lovely smile and was always up for a good joke. I will miss you. Tom Brennand With her husband Paul Donahue

October 19, 2008 – Sheryl Staples, violin; Cynthia Phelps, viola WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791) Duo in G, K. 423, for violin & viola October 19, 2008 – Sheryl Staples, violin; Cynthia Phelps, viola Mozart’s relationship with the Archbishop of Salzburg, Hieronymus Colloredo, was never a cordial one. The Archbishop regarded court musicians as members of his household staff, obliged to serve at the whim of the master. Mozart, feeling increasingly resentful and constricted, finally submitted his resignation in 1781. Afterwards, he wrote to his father, “I am no longer so unfortunate as to be in Salzburg’s services – today was that happy day for me.” The tense relationship between the composer and the prince ended ingloriously; the archbishop’s chief steward, Count Arco, dismissed the unruly musician with a “kick in the behind,” as Mozart reported to his father. In the summer of 1783, Mozart returned to Salzburg for the first time since his break with Archbishop Colloredo. It was a nervous visit for Mozart, who was bringing his new wife, Constanze, to meet his father for the first time. In a letter he expressed concern that the archbishop might have him arrested. While in Salzburg, Mozart found the court music director, Michael Haydn (the younger brother of Joseph), suffering from a protracted illness and unable to complete a commission from the Archbishop for six duos for violin and viola. The impatient Archbishop had threatened to cut off Haydn’s salary until the two remaining duos were complete. As a favor to his old friend, Mozart composed the missing duos and gave them to Hadyn to pass off as his own. The two resulting works, in G and B-flat major, received more praise than the other four. It must have given Mozart an ironic pleasure to know that his old enemy Colleredo was unwittingly enjoying the music of his despised former employee. Mozart was a skillful player of both instruments, although his preference was for the viola. The Duo in G reflects this preference, as he treats the lower instrument as a full partner in the musical discourse, rather than relegating it to its more familiar role as an accompanying voice. The first movement features a sparkling interchange between the two instruments. The lyrical slow movement is built on an aria-like main idea, reflecting Mozart’s lifelong love of opera and the human voice. The liting Rondo is a movement of great charm and virtuosity. Although composed in a lighter vein, as befit the style of his older musical colleague, Mozart’s effortless mastery shines through at every turn, often bringing to mind the writing in his earlier masterpiece for solo violin and viola, Symphonie Concertante. By Michael Parloff Return to Parlance Program Notes

BORIS BERMAN, PIANO Boris Berman is regularly performing in more than fifty countries on six continents. His highly acclaimed performances have included appearances with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Gewandhaus Orchestra, The Philharmonia (London), the Toronto Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Houston Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, and the Royal Scottish Orchestra. A frequent performer on major recital series, he has also appeared in many important festivals. Born in Moscow, he studied at Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory with the distinguished pianist Lev Oborin. In 1973, he left a flourishing career in the Soviet Union to immigrate to Israel where he quickly established himself as one of the most sought-after keyboard performers. Presently, he resides in New Haven, USA. A teacher of international stature, Boris Berman heads the Piano Department of Yale School of Music and conducts master classes throughout the world. He has been named a Honorary Professor of Shanghai Conservatory, of the Danish Royal Conservatory in Copenhagen, and of China Conservatory in Beijing. He is frequently invited to join juries of various international competitions. A Grammy nominee, Mr. Berman’s recorded all solo piano works by Prokofiev and Schnittke, complete sonatas by Scriabin, works by Mozart, Weber, Schumann, Brahms, Franck, Shostakovich, Debussy, Stravinsky, Berio, Cage, and Joplin. Most recently French label Le Palais des Degustateurs released Boris Berman’s recording of Brahms’s Klavierstücke and Brahms’s chamber music CD with Ettore Causa and Clive Greensmith. In 2000, the prestigious Yale University Press published Professor Berman’s Notes from the Pianist’s Bench . In this book, he explores issues of piano technique and music interpretation. The book has been translated to several languages. In November, 2017 Yale University Press has published the newly revised version of the book electronically enhanced with audio and video components. In 2008, Yale University Press has published Boris Berman’s Prokofiev’s Piano Sonatas: A Guide for the Listener and the Performer . Boris Berman has also been an editor of the new critical edition of Piano Sonatas by Prokofiev (Shanghai Music Publishing House). In 2022-23, Boris Berman is performing and teaching in Austria, Belgium, Canada, England, France, Italy, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, and the USA.

May 19, 2019: Calidore String Quartet; Matthew Lipman, viola WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791) String Quintet in E-flat, K. 614 May 19, 2019: Calidore String Quartet; Matthew Lipman, viola Mozart’s five string quintets (six with the addition of the quintet version of the Serenade for wind octet, K. 516b), show a certain connection with the Haydn brothers, Michael and Joseph. The first, K. 174, an early work from his Salzburg days, no doubt grew out of Mozart’s interest in the quintets of his colleague Michael. Already at this date Mozart was eager to try his hand at the fuller sonorities made possible by the additional of a second viola to the standard string quartet configuration. The later quintets—the glorious C major and G minor, written in Vienna within a month of one another in the spring of 1787, and the last two, in D major and E-flat major, written four months apart in the winter and spring of 1790–91—show a distinct connection with Joseph Haydn. The older composer was reported to have played Mozart’s quintets with him frequently—including the first private reading of the D major, K. 593—and no doubt would have done the same with the E-flat major, K. 614, had Haydn’s career not taken him to London. The music of this last Quintet shows the definite stamp of Haydn’s influence. Dated “April 12, 1791” in Mozart’s own catalog of his works, this E-flat Quintet turned out to be his last major chamber work. The first edition, published posthumously in 1793 with K. 593, bore the inscription “Composto per un Amatore Ongarese” (Composed for a Hungarian Enthusiast), and the publisher, Artaria, was reported by the Wiener Zeitung to have said that both quintets were written in response to “the very active encouragement of a music lover.” Scholar Ernst Franz Schmid suggested in the mid-twentieth century that the commissioner of the two quintets may have been Johann Tost—who had been a second violin player in Haydn’s orchestra at Esterháza and later became a wealthy businessman—though Tost was actually born in Moravia rather than Hungary. Mozart’s widow had mentioned in a letter to publisher André in 1800 that Mozart had done work for Tost, who said he possessed some of her husband’s manuscripts and had promised to identify them for her by their themes, but whether he did so and whether the two quintets were among them remains unknown. Eminent scholars Otto Eric Deutsch and H. C. Robbins Landon took up Schmid’s supposition, but Tost’s involvement remains speculation. Suffice it to say that Mozart seldom composed works without some financial gain in mind, and Tost as commissioner is a likely candidate. Mozart often played viola in the readings of his chamber music with Haydn and others, but he rarely led off boldly with a viola theme which is how the E-flat major Quintet begins. The two violas play a “hunting horn” call in lively 6/8 meter—typical for “hunt” themes but atypical for a Mozart first movement. Robbins Landon suggests that he may have borrowed the idea for a 6/8 first movement from Haydn’s Symphony No. 67 in F major, but an even closer model might be his own “Hunt” Quartet, K. 458. Mozart ingeniously explores this theme with counterpoint, trills, and cello interjections, even transforming it into a lyrical second theme. Another “viola moment” occurs in the recapitulation when the first viola gets to lead off the second theme. The slow movement unfolds as a stately theme with four free variations. Scholar Charles Rosen points to the slow movement in Haydn’s Symphony No. 85, “La Reine,” as a possible influence. Mozart interjects a remarkable chromatically inflected interlude before the first variation begins. The minuet skips along merrily, its playful simplicity masking some sophisticated touches, such as making his main motive rise in the violas instead of making its usual descent. The charming trio section draws on the pastoral device of a rustic drone. Mozart’s finale perhaps pays the greatest tribute to Haydn. As Rosen points out, its jolly main theme bears a remarkable similarity to the finale of one of the quartets that Haydn dedicated to Tost in 1790, op. 64, no. 6, but even more, Mozart’s style throughout reminds us of Haydn’s mischievous wit. The exuberant movement unfolds in masterful sonata-rondo form, with one of its most delicious surprises coming in the form of a fugato section in the development. We can only hope that Haydn got to experience this captivating piece of chamber music even though Mozart’s tragically early death prevented them from ever playing it together. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes