BRUNO EICHER, VIOLIN Violinist Bruno Eicher is Assistant Concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, which he joined in 2001, after serving for four years as Associate Concertmaster of the Atlanta Symphony and the previous four years as Assistant Concertmaster of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. His wide-ranging orchestral experience includes performing with the Vienna Philharmonic and State Opera orchestras, the New York Philharmonic, the Baltimore Symphony, and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, under the avid chamber musician, Mr. Eicher has performed extensively throughout Europe and the U.S., as well as South Korea. In New York, as a member of the MET Chamber Ensemble from 2002 to 2014, he performed regularly at Carnegie Hall. A native of Burgundy, France, Mr. Eicher is a graduate of the Paris Conservatoire where he studied with Pierre Amoyal and Jean Hubeau. In the United States, he was a student of Dorothy DeLay and Hyo Kang at the Juilliard School, from which he holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees. In 1992, he was the 2nd prize winner of the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition. He lives in Manhattan, with his wife, MET Orchestra cellist Kari Docter, and their two children. Mr Eicher plays an instrument made in 2011 by Christophe Landon, a copy of the “Circle” Stradivari.

SUNDAY, JUNE 19, 2022 AT 3 PM THE ZUKERMAN TRIO BELOVED BEETHOVEN BUY TICKETS ZUKERMAN TRIO “Their combination of outsized string sound, exciting ensemble precision, and compelling interpretation puts them at the head of the Piano Trio division of the Chamber Music Major League.” — San Diego Union-Tribune FEATURING ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE BUY TICKETS The star-studded Zukerman Trio will return for an all-Beethoven afternoon. The legendary violinist Pinchas Zukerman will be joined by the passionate cellist Amanda Forsyth and the eloquent pianist Shai Wosner , for performances of Beethoven’s “Spring” violin sonata, G-minor cello sonata, and soaring “Archduke” Trio. PROGRAM Beethoven Violin Sonata No. 5 in F (“Spring), Op. 24 Pinchas Zukerman, violin; Shai Wosner, piano Program Notes Beethoven Cello Sonata in G minor, Op. 5, No. 2 Amanda Forsyth; Shai Wosner, piano Program Notes Beethoven Piano Trio in E-flat (“Archduke”), Op. 97 Program Notes Watch the Zukerman Trio perform Beethoven’s “Kakadu Variations”, Op. 121A” on Parlance Chamber Concerts:

September 25, 2016: Jason Vieaux, guitar FRANCISCO TÁRREGA (1852–1909) Capricho árabe September 25, 2016: Jason Vieaux, guitar At the age of ten Tárrega studied classical guitar with Julian Arcas, followed by training at the Madrid Conservatory, where he also studied theory, harmony, and piano. He soon began to teach and at the same time establish himself as a guitar virtuoso. His international reputation grew after successful appearances in Paris and London in 1880; he was acclaimed as “the Sarasate of the guitar.” Tárrega did much to promote the instrument at a time when the piano had almost completely overshadowed it. He not only composed some eighty original works for the guitar—Recuerdos de la Alhambra, Capricho árabe, and Danza mora are among his best-known solo pieces—but he transcribed over 140 works by other composers for one or two guitars, including pieces by Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Granados, and Albéniz. Albéniz once stated that Tárrega’s transcriptions were better than his own piano originals! Tárrega’s extremely popular Capricho árabe, composed after a trip to Granada, is dedicated to his friend and composer Tomás Bretón. A brief introduction—an isolated open fourth, an improvisatory riff, a brief chordal motive, all repeated—precedes Tárrega’s well-known melody with its signature beginning of two repeated notes. The accompanimental pattern of four bass notes with afterbeat chords is intriguing to follow as it changes harmonically to introduce new sections. The main theme alternates between presentations in minor and in major, with periodic improvisatory passages providing further contrast. A shortened return of the melody in minor closes the piece. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

TIMOTHY COBB, DOUBLE BASS Timothy Cobb is the principal bass of the New York Philharmonic, prior to which he served as principal bass for the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Mr. Cobb serves as bass department chair for the Juilliard School, as well as serving on the faculties of the Manhattan School of Music, Purchase College and Rutgers University. Mr. Cobb also holds the title ‘Distinguished Artist in Residence’ at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fl. Mr. Cobb has appeared at numerous chamber music festivals worldwide, and as a former participant in the Marlboro Music festival, has toured with the Musicians from Marlboro series. Mr. Cobb serves on the faculty of the Sarasota Music Festival each June, and in 2014 helped to launch a new bass program for the Killington Music Festival in Killington, VT. Mr. Cobb serves as principal bass for Valery Gergeiv’s” World Orchestra for Peace”, an invited group of musicians from around the world who donate their time biannually to form an orchestra promoting international friendship and understanding. From his affiliation with the World Orchestra, Mr. Cobb has been designated a ‘UNESCO Artist for Peace’. Mr. Cobb also served as principal bass for the Mostly Mozart festival orchestra from 1989-2015. Mr. Cobb graduated from the Curtis Institute where he studied with Roger Scott. While at Curtis, Mr. Cobb was a substitute with the Philadelphia Orchestra and in his senior year became a member of the Chicago Symphony under Sir Georg Solti. Mr. Cobb can be heard on all Met recordings after 1986, New York Philharmonic recordings and broadcasts from 2011 on, as well as on the Naxos label, in a recording of Giovanni Bottesini’s duo bass compositions with fellow bassist Thomas Martin, of London. Additionally, Mr. Cobb has an ongoing collaboration with actor Stephen Lang, performing the solo bass soundtrack for Mr. Lang’s animated short, ‘The Wheatfield’, which depicts a moving and factual story from the Battle of Gettysburg. Mr. Lang and Mr. Cobb were joined by historian Harold Holzer when they were invited to Gettysburg in 2013 to mark the 150th anniversary of the battle by performing ‘The Wheatfield ‘at the Gettysburg Museum. In the 2018/19 season, Mr. Cobb will appear on the New York Philharmonic’s Merkin Hall chamber series, as well as two appearances with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at Alice Tully Hall in New York City, and the Harris Theatre in Chicago. Mr. Cobb will also make two appearances at the Parlance Chamber Series in Ridgewood, New Jersey. Additionally, Mr. Cobb will travel to several countries in Asia and Europe to give master classes, as well as performing a full schedule with the New York Philharmonic and a performance of Beethoven’s ninth symphony with the World Orchestra for Peace in November in Germany marking the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day, the end of WW1.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2016 AT 3 PM Jason Vieaux, guitar; Escher String Quartet BUY TICKETS ESCHER STRING QUARTET “The Escher players seemed to make time stand still, effortlessly distilling the essence of this introspective music with expressive warmth and a natural confiding intimacy.” — Chicago Classical Review JASON VIEAUX, GUITAR “…perhaps the most precise and soulful classical guitarist of his generation.” – NPR FEATURING ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE BUY TICKETS Our gala opener on September 25 will have you dancing in the aisles. Grammy Award-winning guitarist Jason Vieaux will collaborate with the stellar Escher String Quartet in an exuberant international mix. The afternoon will journey from Hugo Wolf ’s buoyant Italian Serenade to Luigi Boccherini ’s sizzling Fandango , reaching a toe-tapping climax with Alan Jay Kernis ’s irrepressible 100 Greatest Dance Hits for Guitar and String Quartet . PROGRAM Hugo Wolf Italian Serenade for string quartet Program Notes Antonio Vivaldi Guitar Concerto in D, RV 93 Program Notes Luigi Boccherini Quintet in D for guitar and string Program Notes Johann Sebastian Bach Suite in E minor, BWV 996 for solo guitar Program Notes Francisco Tárrega Capricho árabe for solo guitar Program Notes Alan Jay Kernis 100 Great Dance Hits for guitar and string quartet Program Notes Jason Vieaux performs Albéniz’s Sevilla: The Escher String Quartet performs Schubert’s ‘Death and the Maiden’ Quartet, Mvts 1 & 2:

April 24, 2022 – Marc-André Hamlein, piano LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) Piano Sonata No. 29 in B-flat major, Op. 106 “Hammerklavier“ April 24, 2022 – Marc-André Hamlein, piano In the spirit of nationalism that erupted following the Napoleonic wars in Germany, Beethoven wrote to his publisher on January 23, 1817: “Henceforth all our works that have German titles are to have the name “Hammerklavier” instead of “pianoforte.” The composer also suggested the subtitle for his Opus 101 and 109 Sonatas, but in a curious twist of history only the famous Opus 106 Sonata became known by the designation—and that as a nickname rather than an indication of genre. During the Sonata’s composition in 1817–18 Beethoven was plagued by custody and care issues relating to his nephew Karl and by his own continued ill health. Nevertheless, he had entered his late composing phase, concentrating on one particular work at a time as if to wring the utmost from a genre in expression, intellectual exploration, and aesthetic depth. The Hammerklavier, Missa solemnis, Diabelli Variations, and Ninth Symphony all fit this mold. The Hammerklavier, with its powerful investigation of sonata form and fugue, represents a curious oasis between the daring formal experiments of the piano and cello sonatas immediately preceding and the Piano Sonatas, op. 109–111, that would soon follow. For the first time since his Sonata, op. 31, no. 3, Beethoven writes in the four-movement Classical mold, and yet he expands and explores the traditional forms to a radical extent. The first movement contains one of his longest development sections—replete with a fugal expanse—and his relatively short Scherzo nevertheless sports two trios. Following his slow movement, which is his longest, his fugal finale is positively massive—a precursor to his celebrated Grosse Fuge, originally the finale of his Opus 130 Quartet in the same key of B-flat. Many commentators, led by the distinguished Charles Rosen, have commented on the structural and thematic importance of descending thirds and on the clash of B-flat and B-natural in various harmonic contexts. These unifying threads permeate the composition in a much more profound way than a simple cyclic quotation of one movement in another. The striking chordal opening with its initial leap and distinctive rhythm shows the importance of the interval of the third, but the exuberant gesture also refers to Archduke Rudolph, the work’s dedicatee. The same idea appears in a sketch with the words “vivat, vivat Rudolphus.” A further “Archduke” connection involves the present first movement and that of the Archduke Trio. During the course of their similar harmonic schemes, both descend to the exotic G major for the second subject and employ chains of descending thirds in the development. The relatively brief scherzo adopts the first movement’s rising and falling thirds and warring B-flats and B-naturals but with a comic flair. Beethoven’s ending is a masterpiece of self-mockery—a jab at the weighty conflict between these two adversaries in his first movement. Beethoven added the two-note rising third that opens his slow movement at the proofing stage. This may lessen the shock of the movement’s distant tonality (F-sharp minor), but only by creating a bit of ambiguity before the first full chord. We listen raptly to the contemplative mood, the delicate ornamentation preceding the second theme, the variation of the first theme in the recapitulation, the ensuing unexpected harmonic journey, and the exquisitely simple version of the theme in the coda, but words fail to convey the profound effect of this movement. In the same way that Beethoven audibly searches for how to express the Ode to Joy in the last movement of his Ninth Symphony, here in his Hammerklavier finale he “finds his way” toward the monumental fugue by “trying out” several styles. A decisive leap recalls the opening of the first movement and launches the main fugue subject. He then displays his subject in all its academic permutations—augmentation, retrograde with a new countersubject, inversion—and with the original subject heard simultaneously with its inversion. But instead of pedantic logic he achieves drama and poetry through varied textures, harmonies, and pianistic colors, and mind-boggling manipulation of tension and release. He creates something entirely new out of the genre, remarkably superimposing elements of variation and rondo form on his fugue. The Hammerklavier Sonata has always stood out for its monumental proportions and its demands on the performer and listener alike. Beethoven was fully aware of its challenges when he told his publisher in 1819: “Now there you have a sonata that will keep the pianists busy when it is played fifty years hence.” © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

January 29, 2023: DANISH STRING QUARTET FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797-1828) String Quartet No. 13 in A minor, D. 804, Op. 29 (“Rosamunde”) January 29, 2023: DANISH STRING QUARTET Schubert wrote his first string quartets—seven or eight of them not counting lost or incomplete works—between 1812 and 1814 while he was a student at the Kaiserlich-königliches Stadtkonvikt (Imperial and Royal City College), Vienna’s principal boarding school for non-aristocrats. Already an excellent violinist and pianist, Schubert had begun playing viola in his family’s string quartet from about 1811 on during school vacations—with his brothers Ignaz and Franz on violin and his father on cello. Then, between 1814 and 1816, during his so-called “song years,” he wrote only three more quartets, followed by a hiatus of four years until he began writing a string quartet in C minor. He abandoned this work after writing just one movement, known as the Quartettsatz, and a few bars of a slow movement. Finally, in the spring of 1824 he took up quartet writing again with the A minor Quartet, which along with his next quartet in D minor, “Death and the Maiden,” are some of the best in the repertoire. Two events impacted Schubert’s writing of the A minor Quartet, which he completed very quickly in February and March 1824. One was that he met violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh, who led the quartet that had premiered Beethoven’s recent quartets. When the Schuppanzigh Quartet premiered the A minor Quartet on March 14 that year, it was the first public performance of any of Schubert’s quartets. Dedicated to Schuppanzigh, the work received only minimal though at least not negative notice in the press, and Schubert immediately began composing the D minor Quartet, but that work was not performed until two years later, and he gave up on his idea of writing a third quartet to publish in a set of three. He later did compose the G major Quartet as a separate work, but only the D minor was published during his lifetime—many of his works remined unpublished for decades. The other life event was his health having taken a turn for the worse. Schubert had contracted syphilis in late 1822, and this recent intensification brought extreme dejection as he realized his time was limited. Surely the poignantly beautiful A minor Quartet shows some of that despair. On March 31, shortly after the premiere of the work, he poured out his misery in a letter to his friend Leopold Kupelweiser: I find myself to be the most unhappy and wretched creature in the world. Imagine a man whose health will never be right again, and who in sheer despair continually makes things worse and worse instead of better; imagine a man, I say, whose most brilliant hopes have perished, to whom the felicity of love and friendship have nothing to offer but pain at best, whom enthusiasm (at least of the stimulating variety) for all things beautiful threatens to forsake, and I ask you, is he not a miserable, unhappy being? “My peace is gone, my heart is sore, I shall find it nevermore.” I might as well sing every day now, for upon retiring to bed each night I hope that I may not wake again, and each morning only recalls yesterday’s grief. The quote in that letter is from his 1814 song “Gretchen am Spinnrade,” words by Goethe, and it seems more than coincidence that the first movement of the A minor Quartet begins much like the song that deals with Gretchen’s forlorn state—a restless opening accompaniment figure topped by the violin’s lyrical outpouring of the main theme. The repetition of the theme in the major mode does not banish the mood, nor does the major-mode second theme. Schubert’s development section is a masterpiece of thematic and harmonic construction, exploring several minor keys in a dramatic arc, and the recapitulation takes some unexpected harmonic turns, ending in the minor mode. Schubert borrowed the theme of the slow movement from his incidental music to Wihelm von Chézy’s ill-fated play Rosamunde, Fürstin von Zypern (Rosamunde, princess of Cypress), which closed after only two performances in December 1823. Schubert employs the tender, memorable theme—originally the entrance music for a shepherdess and her flock—not as the subject for variations but for a simple A-B-A-B-coda form in which the coda expressively combines the music of the two sections. Schubert would return to the Rosamunde theme yet again in his B-flat major Impromptu. The characteristic long-short-short rhythm was a favorite with many composers, but it seems especially striking that Beethoven uses it so memorably in the Allegretto of his Seventh Symphony, which Schubert greatly admired. The Menuetto opens with another self-reminiscence, in this case from his song “Die Götter Griechenland” (The gods of Greece) where it sets Schiller’s words “Schöne Welt, wo bist du?” (Beautiful world, where are you?). It soon swings into a lilting dance rhythm, though still tinged with melancholy. Schubert carries the opening motive into the trio section, which provides major-mode though short-lived contrast. The finale gives the impression of a rustic peasant dance, though it does not project the kind of exuberance of, say, the last movement of Mendelssohn’s A minor Italian Symphony. Schubert constructed an ingenious sonata-rondo form in which the main theme does not return in complete form as a refrain. Instead the first part returns before the development section and the second part recurs after. The A major tonality of this movement, as customary in Schubert’s hands, is a very fluid affair; he eventually ends solidly in the major home key in some delightful delicacy topped off with two emphatic cadential chords. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

LIAM BOISSERT, OBOE Oboist Liam Boisset has performed with many of the most reputable orchestras around the United States. He regularly performs with the Metropolitan Opera and has recently served as guest Principal Oboe with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. During the 2019-2020 season, he also joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic on two international tours as Principal Oboe. He can be heard playing both oboe and English horn in The Witcher on Netflix. In addition to his fruitful performance career, Mr. Boisset is a passionate educator, and has taught masterclasses and lessons at The Juilliard School, Mannes School of Music at The New School, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Aspen Music Festival and School, and Oberlin Conservatory. During the heart of the pandemic, he co-founded the online teaching platform, Aperto Oboe Academy, to connect with and mentor promising young oboists from around the globe. He currently serves on the faculty of Princeton University’s Department of Music.

ERIN BOURIAKOV, FLUTE Erin Bouriakov is an international soloist, chamber musician, lecturer and a teacher, and is a faculty at UCLA. She has appeared as a soloist with the Mariinsky theater Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Euro-Asian Philharmonic Orchestra, Musica Viva and others. Together with her husband, Denis Bouriakov, they frequently perform and record together worldwide. Erin has won a number of competitions both in USA and abroad. Mrs. Bouriakov was born in Seoul, Korea. She has moved to USA to study at the Interlochen Arts Academy, where she studied with Tyra Gilb. She then went on to studying at Oberlin Conservatory with Michel Debost, and later at the Royal Academy of Music in London with William Bennett. Erin has also studied with a former principal of La Scala Bruno Cavallo in Milano, Italy. She had been appointed the Principal Flute of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra Co. in 2006. As an orchestral musician Ms. Bouriakov has performed in many orchestras, including the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. While living in New York, she was an assistant teacher at Juilliard pre-college. Erin is a Haynes flutes artist since 2016 and is playing a 14K all gold model.

September 24, 2017: Mark Holloway, viola; Michael Brown, piano FÉLICIEN DAVID (1810-1876) La nuit September 24, 2017: Mark Holloway, viola; Michael Brown, piano One of the world’s great violin prodigies, Henry Vieuxtemps also grew equally proficient on the viola, which he sometimes played in string quartets, a genre he loved. As a composer he developed largely on his own after some preliminary instruction from Simon Sechter in Vienna and Antoine Reicha in Paris. He gravitated naturally to the violin genres, but he also wrote chamber music—his three string quartets stand out in particular—and a select few viola compositions. His gently flowing La nuit for viola and piano draws on the “rêverie du soir” from Le désert, the programmatic ode-symphonie by Félician David that took Paris by storm in 1844. David had spent some years in Egypt to preach the Saint-Simonian gospel in hopes of restoring Egypt to its ancient greatness. His explorations there led to this descriptive work for soloists, male chorus, reciter and orchestra, which won extravagant praise from Berlioz. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

SARAH VONSATTEL, VIOLIN Violinist Sarah Crocker Vonsattel has been a member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra since 2008. She previously held positions in the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Colorado Symphony. Sarah has appeared as soloist with the musicians of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Syracuse Symphony, and the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra, among others. Recent performances include appearances at Lake Tahoe Summerfest, the Dame Myra Hess Concert Series, the Bronxville Chamber Music Series, Downtown Music at Grace Church, the New Marlborough House Concerts, and the Syracuse Society for New Music. As a founding member of the Verklärte Quartet, Sarah was a Grand Prize Winner of the 2003 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, leading to concert tours in the U.S. and Italy with this ensemble. A proponent of new music, Sarah has appeared with the iO string quartet and the Talea Ensemble and can be heard on the Bridge Records label performing the music of Poul Ruders and Tod Machover. She has appeared as both performer and faculty member at festivals including the Orfeo International Music Festival (Italy), the Wellesley Composers Conference (Massachusetts), and the Musical Friends Academy (Tunisia). She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she was a student of David Updegraff, and a Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School, where she studied with Ronald Copes and Naoko Tanaka. In her spare time, she enjoys distance running and traveling.

February 20, 2022 – Paul Huang, violin; Juho Pohjonen, piano LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) Violin Sonata No. 3 in E-flat major, op. 12, no. 3 February 20, 2022 – Paul Huang, violin; Juho Pohjonen, piano Though he achieved his early fame as a pianist, Beethoven had also developed as a respectable violinist. He played violin in his native Bonn and, upon moving to Vienna, took lessons with celebrated violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh and with Wenzel Krumpholtz, who was one of the first to recognize Beethoven’s genius as a composer. His ten sonatas for piano and violin—his generation still thought of the piano first and the violin second—have always held a prominent place in the literature and contain some of his most delightful music. Beethoven completed his three Violin Sonatas, op.12, in 1798, and had them published by Artaria in 1799 with a dedication to composer Antonio Salieri. The dedication is a curious one on two counts—one that Salieri was his mentor in vocal not instrumental music, and the other that most of Beethoven’s dedications went to nonprofessional musicians—aristocrats, patrons, and friends. It is difficult for modern listeners to hear in these Sonatas the “striving for strange modulations,” “inimical barriers,” and “perversities” that upset contemporary critics. His innovative features in these works may also have puzzled Salieri, who, though he admired Beethoven’s talents, thought him wilful and difficult. All three works fit an overall framework that includes a sonata-form first movement, full-fledged slow movement, and rondo, but the rich interplay of motives and Beethoven’s emphatic style took them beyond the comfort level of his contemporaries. The E-flat major Sonata, op. 12, no. 3, is a grand, virtuoso work, whose opening shows just the kind of expansive rhetorical gestures that set Beethoven’s themes apart from those of his Classic period counterparts. And yet, there are enough elegant eighteenth-century-isms to show Beethoven’s deep roots in this tradition, and particularly his study of Mozart’s sonatas for piano and violin. The graceful second theme particularly evokes his forebears. One of the many striking moments in this movement comes just before the close of the exposition when Beethoven builds tension with fast figuration and pounding octaves only to relax into a humorous new little theme. The tempestuous development reminds us of the proximity to his Pathétique Piano Sonata, and the recapitulation is capped by a coda that dramatically suggests the start of a new development section before coming to an emphatic close. The reposeful slow movement highlights first the piano’s lyrical capabilities then the violin’s in the main theme, whereas the violin “sings” the entire middle section over rippling accompaniment. The regular return of the opening section of this aria-like movement seems straightforward until Beethoven takes off on an extended section that almost sounds improvised in its freedoms and unexpected turns. The jolly rondo that rounds off the Sonata contains three contrasting episodes alternating with its dancing refrains. The first, which returns for the third episode, sounds like a variation on the lively main theme, and the second shows Beethoven indulging in his love for contrapuntal devices without actually launching a fugue. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes