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MICHAEL BROWN, PIANO Michael Brown has been described as “one of the most refined of all pianist-composers” (International Piano) and “one of the leading figures in the current renaissance of performer-composers” (The New York Times). His unique artistry is reflected in his creative approach to programming, which often interweaves the classics with contemporary works and his own compositions. Winner of a 2018 Emerging Artist Award from Lincoln Center and a 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Mr. Brown is an artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, performing regularly at Alice Tully Hall and on tour. His engagements have taken him across four continents, with regular appearances with orchestras such as the National Philharmonic, the Seattle, Grand Rapids, North Carolina, Maryland and Albany Symphonies and recitals at Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, and the Louvre. He was also selected by pianist Sir András Schiff to perform on an international solo recital tour, making debuts in Zurich’s Tonhalle,and New York’s 92nd Street Y. Mr. Brown has appeared at the Tanglewood, Marlboro, Music@Menlo, Gilmore, Ravinia and Bard music festivals and performs regularly with his longtime duo partner, cellist Nicholas Canellakis. As the Composer and Artist-in-Residence at the New Haven Symphony for the 2017-19 seasons, Mr. Brown will make multiple soloist appearances with the orchestra, as well as compose a newly commissioned symphony in 2019. Other commissions have come from the Maryland Symphony Orchestra, Bargemusic, Concert Artists Guild, Shriver Hall, and Norton Building Concerts; for Osmo Vänskä and Erin Keefe, pianists Adam Golka, Roman Rabinovich and Orion Weiss; and a consortium of gardens including Wave Hill, Longwood, and Desert Botanical. A prolific recording artist, Mr. Brown’s most recent releases include performances as a soloist with the Seattle Symphony, Brandenburg State Symphony and a solo album of works by Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Bernstein and Brown. Mr. Brown was First Prize winner of the Concert Artists Guild Competition and a recipient of the Juilliard Petschek Award, and is a Steinway Artist. He earned dual bachelor’s and master’s degrees in piano and composition from The Juilliard School, where he studied with pianists Jerome Lowenthal and Robert McDonald and composers Samuel Adler and Robert Beaser. His mentors also include pianists Richard Goode and Sir András Schiff. A native New Yorker, he lives there with his two 19th century Steinway D’s, Octavia and Daria.

May 19, 2019: Friedrich Heinrich Kern, glass harmonica; Chelsea Knox, flute; Elaine Douvas, oboe; Jeremy Berry, viola; Estelle Choi, cello WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791) Adagio and Rondo, K. 617 for glass harmonica, flute, oboe, viola, and cello May 19, 2019: Friedrich Heinrich Kern, glass harmonica; Chelsea Knox, flute; Elaine Douvas, oboe; Jeremy Berry, viola; Estelle Choi, cello On a visit to England in 1761, Benjamin Franklin was impressed by Edmund Delaval’s playing on musical glasses—the rubbing of moistened fingertips around the rims of glasses tuned by adding or subtracting water. He was inspired to improve on the instrument by affixing glass bowls of graduated sizes concentrically around a horizontal metal spindle and rotating the apparatus with a crank attached to a treadle. This keyboard-like arrangement made chords and scales easily playable. Franklin’s glass armonica (later dubbed “harmonica”) received later modifications, some unsuccessful—such as the use of a kind of violin bow or keyboard mechanism to activate the sound—but others were worthwhile, such as the extension of the instrument’s range by German maker Joseph Aloys Schmittbaur. Performances across Europe by Schmittbaur’s student Marianne Kirchgässner (1769–1808), blind from the age of four, brought the instrument to the peak of its popularity. Kirchgässner’s playing in Vienna in 1791 inspired Mozart to compose his Adagio for solo glass armonica and also the Adagio and Rondo, K. 617, for glass armonica, flute, oboe, viola, and cello, which he dated May 23. She gave the quintet’s first performance with Mozart himself—probably on the viola part—at Vienna’s Kärntnerthortheater on August 19, and performed both pieces many times thereafter. Despite the fact that she died from a chest infection, rumor had it that the cause of death was nerve deterioration caused by the instrument’s piercing vibrations. The overall volume of the glass armonica, however, is relatively soft, and a critique of a performance she gave in London complained that her part couldn’t be heard above the other instruments. Whether the volume of the glass armonica was at issue, or there was simply a desire for wider circulation, a version with piano came into use even in Mozart’s day. In the present performance, Friedrich Heinrich Kern plays the verrophone, a modern version of the glass harmonica using tuned glass tubes, invented in 1983 by Sascha Reckert. Thus it gives a contemporary presentation of the sound rather than a “period instrument” re-creation. Mr. Kern has made subtle modifications in Mozart’s score to accommodate the differences in playing technique between the two instruments. Because the verrophone can produce more volume than the glass harmonica, the instrument is perfectly suited for Mozart’s quintet—a captivating, rarely heard piece that turned out to be the last chamber work from the master’s pen. The Adagio’s dramatic C minor outer sections alternate powerful chords with delicate ruminating passages. The contrast of the solemn and the ethereal brings to mind Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute, which he was composing contemporaneously. His turn to the major mode brings a graceful middle section that features a lovely keyboard melody interspersed with comments by the quartet. Throughout both movements Mozart takes special care to alternate the keyboard with the other instruments, making the London critic’s complaint seem querulous. Mozart’s treatment of the deceptively simple main theme of the Rondo shows sophistication in its many decorative variants that keep the ear engaged. The form is also a masterful infusion of rondo and sonata form. Most striking are the intervening sections that use a descending chordal pattern—which also receives its share of variation—to launch some ravishing modulations. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

December 5, 2021: Paul Jacobs, organ JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750) Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor, BWV 582 December 5, 2021: Paul Jacobs, organ For the last work in this 335th anniversary celebration of Bach, we turn to the earliest work on the program and one of his most famous, the Passacaglia in C minor. Not only has this organ work been arranged numerous times for orchestra, piano, or various chamber groups, but it has made its way into popular culture through films and such diverse renditions as Jimi Hendrix’s Lift Off and the jazz flute version by Hubert Laws, both in 1973. Precise dating of the Passacaglia is educated guesswork, but a range between 1706 and 1713 is typically given. Though no manuscript in Bach’s hand exists, the various sources show enough variants to suggest that the original version was written out in organ tablature (system of notation with numbers, letters, and other signs to indicate keys). The thinking is that Bach may have made such a version during his visit to Lübeck in 1705–06 or perhaps shortly after he got back to Arnstadt, where he soon felt stifled after the stimulation of Lübeck and moved to an organist position at Mühlhausen. Or it could be that a later version spilled over into his early years at Weimar (see the note for BWV 582 for more about Weimar). The form of a passacaglia, often indistinguishable from that of a chaconne, consists of a series of variations based on a repeating pattern in the bass—typically four or eight measures—and relies on traditional chord progressions. Such pieces flourished especially during the Baroque era, when many composers made use of existing passacaglia themes for their own sets of variations. In Bach’s case, his work consists of a theme and twenty variations, the last of which is extended without pause by a fugue, which could also count as Variation 21. Some scholars have conjectured that Bach may have composed the Fugue first, basing it on two main subjects—the first drawn from a mass by French organist André Raison from his Livre d’orgue, published in Paris in 1699, and the second, which he would tweak to become the Passacaglia’s second half, placed as a pulsing countersubject to the first subject. Yet a third fugue subject in faster note values then enters as a countersubject to the combined counterpoint of the first two. The tweaked second half of the Passacaglia has been found to be similar to a passacaille in a different mass by Raison, which some view as just a coincidence. Whether or not the Fugue or the Passacaglia came first, both show added influences of other composers such as Buxtehude and Legrenzi whose works on repeating patterns Bach was studying around that time. Many commentators have proposed theories of what sorts of symbolism or symmetries seem to be at work in the Passacaglia, and there are numerous differences of opinion as to where formal divisions and groupings lie. A general consensus, however, seems to be that there is a break in intensity after Variation 12, followed by an “interlude” of three variations and another group of five that ends with great majesty. The Fugue is the work’s crowning achievement—more complicated than a fugue on a single subject and thus called a double fugue by many, though definitions vary. The upshot is that Bach was thinking about counterpoint in remarkably sophisticated ways and surpassing all of his models in creating an original design. After the first presentation of the subject and countersubject, this pair returns four times, migrating systematically among voices and moving out of and back into the home key—and at the same time incorporating a third subject (countersubject) as well as a layer of freely composed material. All of this leads with dramatic purpose to a resounding conclusion. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

CONRAD TAO, PIANO The only classical musician on Forbes’ 2011 “30 Under 30” list of people changing theworld, 18-year-old Chinese-American pianist Conrad Tao was found playing children’s songs on the piano at 18 months of age. Born in Urbana, Illinois, he gave his first piano recital at age 4; four years later, he made his concerto debut performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto in A Major, K. 414. In June of 2011, the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars and the Department of Education named Conrad a Presidential Scholar in the Arts, while the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts awarded him a YoungArts gold medal in music. Later that year, Conrad was named a Gilmore Young Artist, an honor awarded every two years highlighting the most promising American pianists of the new generation. In May of 2012, he was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. In January of 2012, Conrad’s performance of Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra was hailed by the Detroit News as “a blazing debut…a performance no less seductive in its lyrical beauty than hair-raising in its technical brilliance.” Following a recital at Carnegie’s Weill Hall in February of 2012, the New York Times wrote of the “lovely colors and poetic nuances” of his Liszt, and the eloquence and “fiery panache” of his Prokofiev. Later that year, in June, a writer for All Things Strings attended Conrad’s performance at the Montréal Chamber Music Festival and noted that “Tao is ready for his own TV show: he plays music as if the composer were at his side, with color, joy, and spontaneous poetry. He composes, studies, researches, writes…like that whiz kid on the West Coast, Conrad Tao should be licensed to operate by the time he’s 21.” Sporting a truly international career, Conrad has appeared as soloist in the United States with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Russian National Orchestra, and the Baltimore, Dallas, Detroit, and San Francisco Symphonies, among others. He has made multiple tours of Europe, giving solo recitals in Paris, London, Munich, Berlin, and Verbier, and performed with orchestras in Brazil, China, Hong Kong, Mexico, Moscow, and Singapore. Highlights of his 2012-2013 season include two more tours of Europe, including a concerto debut at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and a third reëngagement at the Louvre in Paris, appearances at the Mostly Mozart and Aspen Music Festivals, debuts with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Canada and a return to Asia with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, and performances of all five Beethoven piano concertos in the United States. As an accomplished composer, Conrad has won eight consecutive ASCAP Morton GouldYoung Composer Awards since 2004; he also received BMI’s Carlos Surinach prize in 2005. For the 2012-2013 season, Conrad has been commissioned by the Hong Kong Philharmonic to write a concert overture ringing in their new season – frequent colleague Jaap von Zweden’s inaugural season there as music director – as well as celebrating the region’s annual China Day. He was also asked by the Dallas Symphony to compose a work observing the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, which will be performed in November of 2013. As an award-winning violinist, Conrad has performed with orchestras in Pennsylvania and Florida; in 2009, he gave nine performances of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor (followed by Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in G minor in the second half) with the Symphony of the Americas in Boca Raton. Conrad’s violin prowess was featured on Jackie Evancho’s Dream With Me PBS special, on which Conrad also traded spots with David Foster behind the piano. Conrad is an exclusive EMI recording artist. His first album, released as an iTunes exclusive in February of 2012 as part of the “Juilliard Sessions” series, comprised works by Debussy, Stravinsky, and Conrad himself. His second record will also prominently feature Conrad’s own compositions, and is expected for release in 2013. Conrad currently attends the Columbia University/Juilliard School joint degree program and studies piano with Professors Yoheved Kaplinsky and Choong Mo Kang at Juilliard. He studies composition with Professor Christopher Theofanidis of Yale University, and studied violin with Ms. Catherine Cho for five years at Juilliard’s Pre-College Division.

September 24, 2017: Danbi Um, violin; Michael Brown, piano JENÖ HUBAY (1858-1937) Scènes de la Csárda No. 3, op. 18, “Maros vize” (The waters of Maros) September 24, 2017: Danbi Um, violin; Michael Brown, piano Hungarian violinist and composer Jenő Hubay studied with his father and then with the great Joachim before traveling to Paris, where he became a close friend of Vieuxtemps. Hubay taught at the Brussels Conservatory, Budapest Conservatory, and Budapest Academy of Music, and continued to almost annually. He and many of his pupils, including Eugene Ormandy, Zoltan Székely, and Joseph Szigeti helped to shape European violin playing. Between 1879 and 1920 Hubay composed fourteen Scènes de la Csárda , following the model of Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies. As was typical of the time Hubay grouped them all together as Gypsy music whether their tunes were true Magyar folk music or melodies by Hungarian composers that had become Gypsy fare. Subtitled “Maros vize” (The waters of Maros), No. 3 begins like a fantasia with the violin sounding dramatically improvisatory, accompanied by imitations of cimbalom tremolos in the piano. An expressive melody, another dramatic pronouncement, and a virtuoso cadenza bring on a lively version of Miska Borzó’s “Slowly Flows the Bodrog” (1859), which Brahms also used in a varied version in his Hungarian Dance No. 1. Dazzling virtuosity pervades Hubay’s treatment of the tune, followed by yet another exuberant theme that brings the scene to a spirited conclusion. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

JAMIE BERNSTEIN, HOST Jamie Bernstein is an author, narrator, director, broadcaster, and filmmaker. Her 2018 memoir, Famous Father Girl , is about growing up with composer-conductor Leonard Bernstein, and pianist and actress Felicia Montealegre in an atmosphere bursting with music, theatre and literature. Jamie has written and narrated concerts about Mozart, Aaron Copland, and Stravinsky, as well as “The Bernstein Beat,” a family concert about her father modeled after his groundbreaking Young People’s Concerts. She appears worldwide performing her own scripted narrations as well as standard concert narrations, such as Copland’s “A Lincoln Portrait” and her father’s Symphony No. 3, “Kaddish.” Jamie has produced and hosted the New York Philharmonic’s live national radio broadcasts, as well as many summer broadcasts from Tanglewood. She recently narrated the podcast “The NY Phil Story: Made in New York.” Jamie is the co-director of Crescendo: the Power of Music , an award-winning documentary film focusing on children in struggling urban communities, who participate in youth orchestra programs for social transformation. Jamie’s articles and poetry have appeared in such publications as Symphony, Town & Country, and Opera News. She also edits “Prelude, Fugue & Riffs,” a newsletter pertaining to her father’s legacy.

September 14, 2025: “SINGERS” FROM THE MET ORCHESTRA MUSICIANS FROM THE MET ORCHESTRA; MICHAEL PARLOFF, CONDUCTOR JOSEPH HAYDN (1732-1809) Symphony No. 6 in D, Hob. 1/6 (“The Morning”) September 14, 2025: “SINGERS” FROM THE MET ORCHESTRA MUSICIANS FROM THE MET ORCHESTRA; MICHAEL PARLOFF, CONDUCTOR In May 1761 the twenty-nine-year old Haydn was hired in the newly created position of vice-Kapellmeister by Prince Paul Anton Esterházy to serve under the aging, increasingly infirm Gregor Joseph Werner. The prince was in fading health himself, but he saw the opportunity to modernize and upgrade his musical establishment and had already begun to hire top-notch musicians to create a small orchestra. His first order to Haydn was to compose three symphonies, and he suggested the “times of day” as a subject. Despite his myriad duties, Haydn fulfilled the order quickly, producing Symphonies Nos. 6, 7, and 8, which soon earned the nicknames “Le matin” (Morning), “Le midi” (Noon), and “Le soir (Night)—in French, owing to popular taste. Having already begun to help hire musicians in April, a month before the start of his official appointment, Haydn continued to shape the orchestra throughout the decades of his employment at Esterháza. The orchestra expanded considerably under Prince Nicolaus, an even more avid music-lover than his brother Paul Anton, who died only one year after hiring Haydn. At first, however, the orchestra consisted of just thirteen to fifteen players, several of whom performed on more than one instrument: approximately six violins and one each of viola, cello and bass; pairs of oboes and horns but just one bassoon and occasionally one or two flutes. Haydn led this early ensemble as a violinist (second to the virtuoso first violinist) rather than by playing keyboard continuo. Haydn was undoubtedly aware of Baroque precedents for programmatic orchestral works—he may have known Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and certainly Kapellmeister Werner’s twelve instrumental suites titled Der curiose musikalische Instrumentalkalender —and, given his amazing fount of originality, he could easily have made more of Prince Paul Anton’s “times of day.” Instead he limited himself to composing a storm as the fourth movement of Le soir and a “sunrise” introduction to Le matin , because he was far more interested in impressing the prince with his own ingenious approaches to abstract forms. Further, one of Haydn’s principal aims was to display the talents, individually and as a whole, of the ensemble of virtuosos that he now had at his disposal—among them violinist Luigi Tomasini and cellist Joseph Weigl along with flutist and oboist Franz Siegl, oboist brothers Michael and Georg Kapfer, bassoonist Johann Hinterberger, bassoonist and bassist Georg Schwenda (who must have played bass in Symphonies Nos. 6–8), violinists Franciscus Garnier and Georg Hegner (and several other violin and viola players), and horn players Johannes Knoblauch and Thadteus Steinmüller. Consequently these symphonies contain prominent solos for violin, flutes (an additional player must have doubled on flute), oboes, horn, cello, and bass. With this concertante focus Haydn updated the traditional Baroque concerto grosso with an attention to shifting orchestral colors that looks toward the future. Symphonies Nos. 6–8 received their first performance in May or June 1761, not at Esterháza in Eisenstadt, but at the Esterházy palace in the Wallnerstrasse, Vienna. Despite his failing health, Prince Paul Anton had to have been pleased because he continued his plans for musical expansion and requested many more works from Haydn. Slow introductions to symphony first movements were uncommon at the time, but Haydn’s “sunrise”—though only six measures long—makes the perfect opening to the “times of day” trilogy and to “The Morning” Symphony in particular. Beginning with violins alone, it ascends, growing from pianissimo to fortissimo as all the other instruments enter. In the merry exposition that ensues, the flute followed by oboes enter in birdlike solos. Haydn then ingeniously combines Classsic sonata form—exposition, development, and recapitulation—with the Baroque concertante principles of solo and tutti (ensemble) alternation, which must have delighted the prince. Haydn’s renowned wit shows in the solo horn’s imitation of the flute’s “bird” theme as a “false start” of the recap, something that Beethoven famously did in the first movement of his Eroica Symphony four decades later. The slow movement, for strings only, opens with an Adagio in which lovely dissonances create a poignant mood. A violin solo emerges, but this is just a prelude to the central Andante—an extended violin and cello duet in a stately minuet style. Haydn closes with a brief return to the Adagio’s poignant harmonies. The full ensemble returns for the third-movement minuet, which elicits a new sprightlier character in contrast to the Andante of the previous movement. For the central trio section, Haydn must have relished writing the surprising duet for double bass and bassoon, just as his musicians must have relished playing it. The finale barrels along with infectious enthusiasm alternating lively solos for almost every instrument with tutti ensemble passages in a concertante manner. Several times Haydn revels in pronounced dissonances that make their resolution all the more satisfying. —©Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

DIEGO URCOLA, TRUMPET Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, three-time Grammy Award nominee Diego Urcola has been a member of the Paquito D’Rivera Quintet since 1991. This in-demand trumpeter also performs regularly with the legendary saxophonist Jimmy Heath and the Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Star Big Band. “A disciplined technician blessed with classical and jazz chops—but when he lets his bebop loose, this guy is pure excitement, with passionate range and attack.”

May 19, 2019: Wendy Bryn Harmer, soprano; Inn-Hyuck Cho, basset horn; Ken Noda, piano WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791) Non più di fiori from La Clemenza di Tito, K. 621 May 19, 2019: Wendy Bryn Harmer, soprano; Inn-Hyuck Cho, basset horn; Ken Noda, piano In July 1791 Mozart received a “last-minute” commission to compose an opera to celebrate Leopold II’s coronation as King of Bohemia. He had to work quickly in order to complete La clemenza di Tito (The clemency of Titus) by September 6, when it would open at the National Theatre in Prague. Having begun the work in Vienna in late July, Mozart arrived in Prague on August 28 and completed the opera only the day before it opened. After modest successes, La clemenza di Tito experienced a triumphant closing night, which was reported to Mozart back in Vienna on September 30, the day of the premiere of Die Zauberflöte. Since most of Die Zauberflöte had been written before Mozart left for Prague, La clemenza is often considered his final opera. He died just nine weeks after the premiere of Die Zauberflöte, and critics attached a sort of stigma to La clemenza, possibly because some of the simple recitatives had to be subcontracted owing to time restraints. The fact remains, however, that Mozart admirably fulfilled the demands of eighteenth-century opera seria (serious opera) for dramatic, noble, and virtuosic writing. More than forty composers had previously set Pietro Metastasio’s libretto for La clemenza di Tito, beginning with Caldara in 1734. For Mozart’s purposes the libretto was adapted by Caterino Mazzolà—“reduced to a proper opera” as Mozart put it—by shortening it by one-third and manipulating almost all of Metastasio’s texts so that there would be ensembles and finales in addition to solo arias. The plot, typical of eighteenth-century opera seria, concerns Titus (Tito), Roman emperor, whose plans to marry someone else inflame Vitellia, daughter of the deposed emperor, with jealousy. She involves Sextus (Sesto), who is in love with her, in a plot to kill Tito that goes awry. Sesto is condemned to death, and Vitellia, unable to bear the guilt, confesses her part in the scheme. Tito, however, has granted Sesto clemency and now does the same for Vitellia. Mozart and Mazzolà reduced the number of Metastasio’s arias to eleven, which include Sesto’s great virtuosic aria with elaborate clarinet obbligato, “Parto, parto” (I go, I go), and Vitellia’s equally renowned showpiece with basset horn obbligato, “Non più di fioro” (No more flowers). Mozart’s friend Anton Stadler came from Vienna especially to play these important solos. Just before the final two scenes, Vitellia resolves to confess all, knowing not only that she’ll lose Tito and the throne but could also be put to death. Her alternately agitated and sorrowful accompanied recitative: “Ecco il punto, o Vitelia” (Now is the moment, O Vitellia) leads into her powerfully restrained “Non più di fiori.” Famous for its tessitura that is lower than much of the role, the aria unfolds in rondo form, painting a deceptively serene picture—except for a few dazzling outbursts—of a woman who is nevertheless experiencing intense emotions prior to possible death. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

September 18, 2022: Seth Morris & Maron Anis Khoury, flutes; Bryan Wagorn, piano FRANZ AND KARL DOPPLER (1821-1883; 1825-1900) Rigoletto Fantasie for 2 flutes & piano September 18, 2022: Seth Morris & Maron Anis Khoury, flutes; Bryan Wagorn, piano Brothers Franz and Karl Doppler both began studying flute at an early age with their father, composer and oboist Joseph Doppler. Franz played in the conventional manner with the flute out to his right, but Karl played “backwards” with the flute out to the left! As teenage flute virtuosos they made several concert tours together, then in 1838 settled in Pest, Hungary. They both became flutists of the German Town Theater and in 1841 of the Hungarian National Theater. Karl also served as a conductor at the National Theater until 1862. Franz composed several operas that met with considerable success, and Karl composed a singspiel, some incidental music, and songs that also found a receptive audience. They even composed several works jointly, such as the present Rigoletto Fantasy. Together they helped found the Philharmonic Concerts in 1853 and periodically toured as a duo. In 1858 Franz left for Vienna to become first flutist for the Court Opera and later conductor of the ballet orchestra; his fifteen ballets date from this period. From 1865 Franz also taught flute at the Vienna Conservatory. Karl stayed on for a time in Pest, but then moved to Stuttgart in 1865 to serve as court Kapellmeister, a post he held for thirty-three years. Besides composing for the theater, they each wrote a number of piano pieces and works for male chorus, and the compositions of both brothers achieved great popularity in their day. The Fantasy and Variations on Motives from the Opera Rigoletto, of Verdi, to use the work’s full title, was published in 1878 as Opus 38, but it may have been composed years earlier. One can easily imagine the brothers working on it when they lived in the same vicinity and touring with the piece long before it was published. On the other hand, maybe they had a reunion and celebrated by collaborating on the piece. In any case, they would have been very familiar with Verdi’s themes, since Rigoletto had been immensely popular ever since its Venice premiere in 1851. The aria that receives the most attention in the course of the Fantasy is the celebrated “Caro nome,” which is treated to several variations, interspersed with interludes that bring in other themes from the opera. The famous “La donna è mobile” makes a brief appearance, and we also hear parts of “Povero Rigoletto—La rà, la rà,” “Bella figlia dell’amore,” “Figlia! Mio padre!,” “Cortiginai, vil razza dannata,” and “Sì, vendetta.” The scoring for two flutes happily accommodates the many passages of parallel thirds and sixths so common to Italian opera. The Dopplers also added virtuosic filigree, switching off between players so that each has ample chance for dazzling display. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

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

EMANUEL AX, PIANO Born in modern day Lvov, Poland, Emanuel Ax moved to Winnipeg, Canada, with his family when he was a young boy. His studies at the Juilliard School were supported by the sponsorship of the Epstein Scholarship Program of the Boys Clubs of America, and he subsequently won the Young Concert Artists Award. Additionally, he attended Columbia University where he majored in French. Mr. Ax made his New York debut in the Young Concert Artists Series, and captured public attention in 1974 when he won the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv. In 1975 he won the Michaels Award of Young Concert Artists followed four years later by the coveted Avery Fisher Prize. Always a committed exponent of contemporary composers with works written for him by John Adams, Christopher Rouse, Krzysztof Penderecki, Bright Sheng, and Melinda Wagner already in his repertoire, the 2016/2017 season will feature two newly commissioned works. With the New York Philharmonic conducted by Alan Gilbert, January will bring the world premiere of HK Gruber’s Piano Concerto followed in March by the European premiere with the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle. In recitals throughout the season his program will include works by Schubert and Chopin partnered with “Impromptus (2015-2016) ” by Samuel Adams commissioned by Music Accord and inspired by Schubert. His ongoing relationship with the Boston Symphony will include visits with them to Carnegie Hall, Montreal, and Toronto; with the Cleveland Orchestra, Mr. Ax will appear as the featured artist for their Gala opening concert of the season. As a regular visitor he will return to the orchestras of Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Cincinnati, Toronto, Seattle, Milwaukee, and Detroit. A Sony Classical exclusive recording artist since 1987, recent releases include Mendelssohn Trios with Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman, Strauss’ Enoch Arden narrated by Patrick Stewart, and discs of two-piano music by Brahms and Rachmaninoff with Yefim Bronfman. In 2015, Deutsche Grammophon released a duo recording with Mr. Perlman of Sonatas by Faure and Strauss which the two artists presented on tour during the 2015/2016 season. Mr. Ax has received Grammy® Awards for the second and third volumes of his cycle of Haydn’s piano sonatas. He has also made a series of Grammy-winning recordings with cellist Yo-Yo Ma of the Beethoven and Brahms sonatas for cello and piano. His other recordings include the concertos of Liszt and Schoenberg, three solo Brahms albums, an album of tangos by Astor Piazzolla, and the premiere recording of John Adams’ Century Rolls with the Cleveland Orchestra for Nonesuch. In the 2004/05 season Mr. Ax also contributed to an International Emmy® Award-Winning BBC documentary commemorating the Holocaust that aired on the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. In 2013, Mr. Ax’s recording Variations received the Echo Klassik Award for Solo Recording of the Year (19th century music/Piano). A frequent and committed partner for chamber music, he has worked regularly with such artists as Young Uck Kim, Cho-Liang Lin, Mr. Ma, Edgar Meyer, Peter Serkin, Jaime Laredo, and the late Isaac Stern. Mr. Ax resides in New York City with his wife, pianist Yoko Nozaki. They have two children together, Joseph and Sarah. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and holds honorary doctorates of music from Yale and Columbia Universities. For more information about Mr. Ax’s career, please visit www.EmanuelAx.com .