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.

December 5, 2021: Paul Jacobs, organ JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750) Prelude and Fugue in D Major, BWV 532 December 5, 2021: Paul Jacobs, organ Bach’s astounding proficiency as an organist not only earned him legendary renown in his lifetime but contributed immeasurably to his unique position for posterity as an idolized composer of boundless inventiveness, mind-boggling intellect, and technical wizardry. His more than 250 compositions for organ span his entire lifetime, from his earliest pieces written as a student with his father’s cousin, organist Johann Christoph Bach, to an organ chorale, one of his last pieces, composed when he was nearly blind. Most originated during his employment at the Duke of Weimar’s court, 1708–17, the last period of his long life when he held an actual post as organist. The present Prelude and Fugue in D major is thought to be an early Weimar work from about 1710. This was a time during which he had absorbed influences from German predecessors such as Buxtehude, Böhm, and Pachelbel, as well as Italian masters such as Legrenzi and Corelli, but before he encountered Vivaldi’s works, which brought about a significant style change c. 1713–14. Bach’s early organ works show an impassioned exuberance if a generally less polished harmonic and polyphonic technique. Bach’s organ works can be easily categorized in two groups—those based on chorale melodies and those freely invented, such as toccatas, fantasias, preludes and fugues. The two categories do not separate music intended for church—the vast majority of his organ works—from that for any other purpose such as teaching or recitals, rather, there was considerable crossover. The Prelude and Fugue in D major, BWV 532, is one of those formally varied, exuberant “free” pieces, which unfolds on an especially large scale. The Prelude consists of a brilliant and wide-ranging introduction, a contrapuntal “Alla breve” (two beats to a bar) in Italian style with slowly shifting harmonies, and a slow section that ends with recitative-like passages in preparation for the Fugue. The fugue subject shows Bach’s fascinating inventiveness in shaping something extraordinary out of repetitions and sequences (the same material at a different pitch). He was clearly fascinated by this remarkable subject because he reused it in his Toccata in D major, BWV 912, which may date from around the same time. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

December 18, 2016: Mariko Anraku, harp; David Chan, concertmaster; Catherine Ro, violin; Dov Scheindlin, viola; Rafael Figueroa, cello CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862-1918) Danse sacrée et profane December 18, 2016: Mariko Anraku, harp; David Chan, concertmaster; Catherine Ro, violin; Dov Scheindlin, viola; Rafael Figueroa, cello Please refer also to the “private little war” in the notes for Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro. The customary double-action harp is fashioned with seven pedals, which can make each of the seven notes of the diatonic scale either flat, natural, or sharp. In 1897 the famous Paris instrument-making firm of Pleyel introduced a new chromatic harp, which contained a string for every half step, thus almost doubling the number of strings. In 1903 Pleyel invited Debussy to compose a test piece, which was to be used for a class that was being initiated in the new instrument at the Brussels Conservatory. The resulting work, Deux danses (Danse sacrée et profane ), for harp and string orchestra has long since become a beloved part of the repertoire, while the chromatic harp has become a museum piece. The work is now played on the double-action harp, a possibility Debussy had allowed for on the title page; he also transcribed it for two pianos. Debussy used the collective title Danses for the work, which contains two movements, both in triple meter and A-B-A form. The slow Danse sacrée was suggested to Debussy by a piano piece by his friend, composer and conductor Francisco de Lacerda, but also owes something to Erik Satie’s Gymnopédies , of which Debussy was fond enough to transcribe two for orchestra. A vague ritualistic atmosphere, imparted by its slow-moving modal sonorities, often in parallel octaves, accounts for the title “sacred dance.” Similarly, the suggestion of a lilting waltz, rather than any specific pagan scene, gives rise to the title Danse profane . © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

March 8, 2026: Jonathan Biss, piano Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) Sonata in C minor, K. 457 March 8, 2026: Jonathan Biss, piano Mozart completed his Piano Sonata in C minor, K. 457, in Vienna on October 14, 1784, according to his own catalog of his works. The following year he published it together with the Fantasia in C minor, K. 475—a brooding, improvisatory work completed in May 1785—dedicating the pair to Theresia von Trattner, one of his piano students and the second wife of prominent publisher Thomas von Trattner, Mozart’s landlord at the time. Opinions differ as to whether Mozart intended the Fantasia as an extended prelude to the Sonata; Mozart sometimes performed the pieces separately. The C minor Sonata stands apart from Mozart’s other piano sonatas in its dramatic intensity and emotional gravity—its key was one he reserved for music of expressive weight. The outer movements present a stormy character that famously anticipates Beethoven—the young Beethoven knew the work well, and echoes of its opening gesture can be heard in his own First Piano Sonata in F minor, op. 2, no. 1. Mozart’s opening commands attention with a forceful unison theme that rockets upward before dissolving into a chromatic dialogue. The lyrical second theme provides contrast, but the movement’s turbulent energy predominates. The slow second movement with its searching character and expansive treatment is thought to have been composed separately, possibly as a teaching piece for Theresia. Mozart treats its tender melody with rich, varied embellishments each time it returns. The warm middle section no doubt inspired Beethoven in the slow movement of his Pathétique Sonata, op. 13. The finale returns to the restless world of the first movement, with no hint of the merry sort of closing movement Mozart typically favored in his sonatas. Its driven figuration combines quick sighing figures, syncopations, dissonant suspensions, rhetorical pauses, and dramatic hand crossings for a masterfully tragic-sounding conclusion to the Sonata. —©Jane Vial Jaffe 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 17, 2026: Chee-Yun, violin; Sterling Elliott, cello; Henry Kramer, piano Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Piano Trio No. 1 in B, Op. 8 May 17, 2026: Chee-Yun, violin; Sterling Elliott, cello; Henry Kramer, piano “I am thinking of not publishing any of my trios,” wrote the twenty-year-old Brahms in November 1853 to Schumann, his new mentor and friend. How many trios had he written, and what didn’t he like about them? Brahms was notorious for destroying his sketches, student pieces, incomplete works, and compositions that did not measure up to his high standard, so it is unlikely that any of these early trios will ever turn up. The fact that he had written other trios, however, does explain how his “first” Trio—that in B major, which he composed in 1853–54—could be such an accomplished work. It was the first chamber work he considered worthy of publication, and with Clara Schumann recommending it to Breitkopf & Härtel, the Trio was duly published in November of 1854. Almost half a century later, in 1889, Simrock acquired rights from other publishers to the early works by Brahms that were not yet in his catalog, which raised the prospect of reissuing the Trio. The mature composer decided to revise this favored product of his youth by reining in some of its excesses. “You’ll never guess,” he wrote to Clara in September, “with what childish amusement I whiled away the beautiful summer days. I have rewritten my B major Trio and can call it op. 108 instead of op. 8. It will not be so wild as before—but whether it will be better—?” His revisions resulted in a work of roughly two-thirds the length of the original. He tightened up the first movement by writing a new second theme preceded by a shorter transition, and by deleting a fugue, but he left the sublime first theme intact—all fifty-plus measures of it. Like many of Schubert’s melodious themes, this expansive theme and the original second theme were hard to treat developmentally, but his new second theme worked well in that regard. Brahms had always excelled at writing scherzos and he found little to change in his 1854 version. His delicate, almost Mendelssohnian opening soon erupts in a tempestuous “ride to the hounds,” replete with hunting-horn calls. The trio luxuriates in a lovely theme that pairs instrumental lines in intervals of sixths and then thirds apart—sonorities much beloved by Brahms. The few changes the composer did make involved tightening up his coda. Again in the slow movement Brahms retained his first theme, a pious dialogue between piano and strings, but he wrote a completely new middle section. The opening returns in a slightly varied guise that preserves the original version’s atmospheric modulations, but dispenses with an interpolated fast section that Brahms thought excessive. As in the first and third movements, Brahms fit his finale with a new second theme, one that Clara disliked but which he considered much better suited to motivic development. He also substantially rewrote much of the remainder of the movement. The most striking feature of the finale, however, was present from the start: Brahms cast it in the minor mode, and though he traverses other keys in the course of the movement, the minor mode prevails even at the forceful close. This Trio, therefore, is one of the extremely rare pieces that flaunt custom by beginning in the major and concluding in the minor. To the delight of American audiences it was long thought that the first performance of the Trio in the original version took place in New York of all unlikely places. William Mason, an American piano student of Liszt, had brought back a copy of the Trio and performed it on November 27, 1855, with Theodor Thomas and Karl Bergmann in Dodsworth’s Hall. More recent research has determined, however, that the work was first performed in Danzig (Germany) on October 13, 1855, played by Messrs. Haupt (piano), Braun (violin), and Klar (cello). Brahms himself gave the first public performance of the revised version in Budapest on January 10, 1890, with violinist Jenö Jubay and cellist David Popper. Vienna had to wait until February 22, when Brahms again took the piano part, this time with Arnold Rosé and Mr. Hummer. Brahms did not consider the new version of his Trio a replacement of the old, but merely an alternative. He remained ambivalent about its merits, as did his friends who loved the familiar youthful work. Clara wrote in her diary, “The whole trio strikes me as better proportioned than it was, but I do not altogether like it.” And the musically sophisticated Elisabet von Herzogenberg wrote, “You had no right to intrude your masterly touch on this lovable, if sometimes vague, product of your youth,” though she ended by saying, “It is beautiful in its present form, and I gladly leave it to the musical philologues to remonstrate with you.” Posterity has decided overwhelmingly in favor of the revised version, which is now heard almost exclusively whenever the beloved B major Trio is programmed. —©Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

October 15, 2023: Lysander Piano Trio Amanda Maier (1853-1894) Piano Trio in E-flat October 15, 2023: Lysander Piano Trio During the all-too-short span of her life, Amanda Maier excelled in two male-dominated fields—as a solo violinist and as a composer. Although little is known about her childhood, clearly her musical talent was recognized early and she enrolled at age sixteen in the Kungliga Musikaliska Akademien in Stockholm. She became the first woman to earn the elite Musikdirektör diploma, receiving the highest possible grades in harmony, counterpoint, history and aesthetics, violin, organ, and piano. Her organ skills had merited her a place in the Academy’s even more exclusive Artistklass. Maier continued her education in Leipzig, studying violin with Engelbert Röntgen, concertmaster of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and composition with conductor/composer Carl Reinecke and professor Ernst Friedrich Richter. She became a regular of the Röntgen household, participating in their many musical gatherings and eventually marrying Engelbert’s son Julius, who had become the love of her life. She also socialized and made music with many other renowned Leipzig musicians, including Clara Schumann and Edvard Grieg. Maier’s earliest surviving compositions, including the Piano Trio, date from this Leipzig period. The later 1870s also saw her performing and touring in an ensemble as a violinist, highlighted by a performance for King Oscar II in Malmö in 1876. The following year Maier returned home to Sweden, but after her father died, she returned to Leipzig where her life felt centered. The couple had to spend two years visiting between Leipzig and Amsterdam after Julius accepted a piano teaching position in the Dutch capital while she maintained her performing schedule in Leipzig and on tours in Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Russia. After their marriage in 1880 Maier settled in Amsterdam, and one year later their son Julius II was born, who was to become a violinist. The following year she suffered the first of three debilitating miscarriages, but in 1886 their second son Engelbert was born, who later became a cellist. Besides caring for her sons—whose early music education she oversaw—she continued to perform, though less frequently and rarely in public. Just after Engelbert was born, Maier fell ill with the lung disease that would plague her for the rest of her life. She also suffered from painful recurring eye trouble that often required her to wear dark glasses or a patch. Maier continued her musical activities during good spells between attacks, but they naturally lessened. When the devastated Röntgen wrote of her death to their good friends the Griegs, Edvard wrote back saying, “She was one of my favorites!” In the years after Maier’s death, concerts featured her works in Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Germany, and The Netherlands, but she and her music gently faded from public awareness. Since the 1990s, however, there has been a resurgence of interest in her music, with recordings and publications of works such as her Piano Quartet and Violin Concerto, which she had performed with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in one of the pinnacles of her career. Going back to late April 1874, the diaries of both Julius and Amanda had made copious mentions of the Piano Trio, showing great pride and that they consulted on compositional details. They gave the first of many private performances on May 20, 1874, with cellist Julius Klengel (cousin of Julius Röntgen) at the Röntgen’s Leipzig home. Amanda wrote home to one of her favorite professors at the Stockholm Academy about another performance on June 7, saying: Everything has gone as well as I could have wished, and I believe I have made significant progress. . . . I performed . . . Mendelssohn’s concerto, and, among other pieces, a Trio for piano, violin and cello that I have recently composed. My Trio has been well received and sounds wonderful; they say here in Leipzig that my music has a ‘national’ flavor—a Nordic one, that is—which seems to be all the rage here. Jumping forward more than 140 years, Maier’s great-grandson Reinier Thadiens, who was living in Southern France, saw a list of her “lost works” and found the manuscript of her Piano Trio in a pile of music he had inherited. He immediately notified Swedish cellist and scholar Klas Gagge, who published it in 2018 through the Swedish Musical Heritage project and the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. The world premiere—that is, the public premiere—took place on April 20, 2018, performed in Umeå, Sweden, by violinist Cecilia Zillacus, cellist Kati Raitinen, and pianist Bengt Forsberg. In the first movement, Maier immediately contrasts her forthright opening idea with a quiet phrase in Classic-era style. She proceeds not like Mozart or Haydn, however, but aligns with Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Brahms—those Romantic composers with a classical bent. The expressive second theme is related to the first but has more harmonic instability. Her development section, which journeys through distant harmonies on a scheme similar to Schubert’s E-flat Trio, D. 929, reaches several dramatic peaks before the climax that launches the recapitulation. Taking some Romantic “liberties,” she waits until the coda to bring back her second theme in the main key. The dancelike outer sections of Maier’s Scherzo consist of miniature self-contained sonata forms, much like Brahms’s Scherzo in his Horn Trio of 1865. The songful contrasting central trio section is particularly lovely. Led off by a lyrical cello melody, the slow movement is particularly poignant, with considerable opportunities for contrapuntal intertwining between the violin and cello. The broad three-part form includes a shortened and varied return of the opening and coda. The finale blossoms quickly from a gentle but sprightly opening to surging phrases brimming with Romantic vigor. Maier was clearly aware of some Romantic composers’ cyclic procedures, shown in her recalling of the slow movement. Throughout Maier has delighted in modulating excursions, so it comes as no surprise that she introduces a false reprise before returning “home” for a rousing finish. Return to Parlance Program Notes

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

Development Director Inmo Parloff Leadership Council Thomas and Heidi Ahlborn Anne Bosch William and Zitta Chapman Catherine Coo ke Christina Hembree Adrian and Christina Jones Ronald and Mollie Ledwith Youngick and Joyce Lee Carol Martin Dorothy Neff Suzanne Taranto Donald and Gigo Taylor Richard and Michelle Vaccaro

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.

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.

March 24, 2019: Edward Arron, cello JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750) Prelude from Suite for Cello in D, BWV 1012 March 24, 2019: Edward Arron, cello Bach most likely composed his Six Suites for unaccompanied cello, BWV 1007–1012, while serving as Kapellmeister at the court of Prince Leopold in Cöthen between 1717 and 1723. Precise dating is difficult because they survive, not in Bach’s own hand, but in a copy made later in Leipzig by his second wife, Anna Magdalena Bach. It is likely that the Suites were written either for Christian Ferdinand Abel or Christian Bernhard Linigke, both accomplished cellists and Cöthen residents. Estimation of their performing abilities is, in fact, considerably enhanced by the mere idea that Bach may have written these substantial works for one or the other of them. Though appreciated in some circles, as Forkel’s 1802 Bach biography makes clear, the Suites fell into quasi-oblivion along with much of Bach’s music in the decades following his death. Bach’s celebrated biographer Philipp Spitta gave them their due for their “serene grandeur” in his monumental study (1873–80), but they remained little known by the general public until they were championed by Pablo Casals in the early twentieth century. Bach’s forward-looking exploration of the cello’s potential unfolds within the traditional configuration of the Baroque suite, which consisted of old-style dances in binary form—allemande, courante, sarabande, and gigue—with a newer-style optional dance movement, or Galanterie, interpolated before the final gigue. These interpolated dances in his cello suites consist of minuets, bourrées, or gavottes, and he prefaced each of the Suites with a Prélude. Throughout, Bach’s contrapuntal genius shows in his ability to project multiple voices and implied harmonies with what is often considered a single-line instrument. The Sixth Suite is unusual in that it was written for a five-stringed instrument. Was it the violoncello piccolo? viola pomposa? cello da spalla? In any case, the fifth string would have sounded a fifth higher than A, the highest string on a four-stringed cello. Any performance problems in playing this work on today’s four-stringed instrument—different tone quality from playing higher on the A string than Bach would normally have written, certain awkward double stops, or rapid string crossings (bariolage) requiring an open E string—have long since been solved. The extensive Prelude immediately proclaims the virtuosic nature of this Suite—the cello plays almost constant triplets except for a passage near the end when Bach employs doubled note values. Specified dynamic markings, used sparingly in Bach’s time, call for quick juxtapositions of loud and soft. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes