December 15, 2024: THE VIRTUOSO FLUTIST. DENIS BOURIAKOV, FLUTE. A RECITAL FOR FLUTE AND ORCHESTRA, with Erin Bouriakov, Flute. Musicians From The New York Philharmonic. Michael Parloff, Conductor. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) Andante in C, K. 315 for flute and orchestra December 15, 2024: THE VIRTUOSO FLUTIST. DENIS BOURIAKOV, FLUTE. A RECITAL FOR FLUTE AND ORCHESTRA, with Erin Bouriakov, Flute. Musicians From The New York Philharmonic. Michael Parloff, Conductor. The lovely Andante in C major is considered a product of the Ferdinand Dejean commission (see above)—possibly a substitute for the slow movement of the G major Flute Concerto or as the slow movement of a third but abandoned concerto. Based on the paper type of the undated manuscript, scholars suggest a date of 1779 or 1780—just one or two years after Mozart furnished Dejean with the G major Concerto and the D major Concerto (adapted from the Oboe Concerto). However, the suggestion that Mozart composed the Andante because Dejean had requested a simpler movement for the G major Concerto does not stand up to scrutiny, since Dejean has been shown to be a very talented amateur. Further, we have seen that paper types, whose watermarks were sometimes forged, can be misleading in some dating. Whatever Mozart intended with the Andante, we are fortunate to have this lyrical gem, which has won its own place as a stand-alone concert piece. The movement unfolds in three sections, A-B-A, separated by orchestral interludes. In the final section Mozart provides the flutist with the opportunity to improvise a cadenza before the final utterance of the main theme. —©Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

June 19, 2022 – Zukerman Trio LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) Piano Trio in E-flat (“Archduke”), Op. 97 June 19, 2022 – Zukerman Trio Archduke Rudolph, sixteenth and youngest son of Emperor Leopold II, may have been Beethoven’s most important patron in many ways. A talented musician, he met Beethoven in the winter of 1803–04 and studied piano, theory, and composition with him for over twenty years—at times he was Beethoven’s only pupil. Beethoven dedicated more compositions to him than to any other patron; counted among the most important of these eleven works are the Fourth and Fifth Piano Concertos, Les adieux Piano Sonata, the Hammerklavier Sonata, the Missa solemnis, and the only work that bears an informal reference to Rudolph as its nickname, the Archduke Piano Trio. It was Rudolph who established an annuity for the composer that also involved Prince Kinsky and Prince Lobkowitz, though Rudolph was the only donor able to maintain his financial share for the long term. Rudolph also helped Beethoven over difficult patches in his tumultuous relationship with his nephew Karl and in the related custody litigations. Rudolph produced a constant stream of compositions, many of them variations on themes by Beethoven, who once asked him if he planned on covering all the rooftops in Hietzing (the district where Beethoven lived) with variations. If Beethoven sometimes seemed irked by his “little Archduke,” whom as an orphan and epileptic he pitied on some level, the benefits of his association far outweighed the irritations. Beethoven made sketches for the Archduke Trio in 1810, completing it in March 1811. As it turns out, it was to be his last full-fledged piano trio, though he did compose a one-movement Allegretto in B-flat major in 1812 and made a few sketches for an F minor trio in 1816. The Archduke was not performed, however, until April 11, 1814, at a noontime military charity concert organized by violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh. Beethoven played the piano part, as he did again several days later—his last appearance as a chamber music performer. Publication was even further delayed, until 1816. One of the supreme masterpieces of the piano trio literature, the Archduke derives its monumental architecture not from heroic motives developed with intense contrasts, but from “the development of broad, moderately paced, and flowing melodies” (Maynard Solomon). “The practice results,” he continues, “in a sense of calm spaciousness, and measured nobility of rhetoric.” This spaciousness begins at the outset with a quiet, singing, chordal theme for the piano—the only opening for piano alone of all his piano trios. The violin and cello enter tenderly and the whole spinning out of ideas sets a scene of calm nobility. The second theme provides contrast with its staccato chords but soon opens out into flowing melody and cascading runs of fast notes. A fanfare motive from the closing theme carries over to begin the development, which nevertheless spends most of its time exploring aspects of the first theme. A lovely sense of anticipation is created in the development’s ultra-quiet section when the strings play an extended pizzicato passage with the piano in trills and delicate rising thirds. Beethoven makes a wonderfully mysterious transition to the recapitulation, which proceeds along regular lines. Out of the grandeur of the main theme’s appearance in the coda Beethoven creates an exciting build-up to the finish. The composer places an imaginative Scherzo as his second movement. Its disarmingly simple main theme gives no hint of its extended structure—scherzo-trio-scherzo-trio-scherzo—a five-part form similar to that of the scherzo in his Seventh Symphony. Most surprising here, however, is the positively eerie chromatic unfolding of the trio. The contrast of the trio’s lusty second theme could not be greater. The coda brings back the sinuous chromaticism yet again only to end forcefully with a bit of the main theme. For his slow movement Beethoven fashioned a rich, hymnlike theme, which he provided with four connected variations. These follow the Classic concept in which the rhythmic pattern of each employs faster and faster note values. The patterns, though highly individual and mingled with inventive thematic variants in the different voices, all impart a lovely serenity. Beethoven reaches a new level of profundity with the return of the theme, which opens out into a poetic coda that leads without pause into the last movement. The finale bursts in on the listener’s revery with an impudent jolt, much as Beethoven was said to do to shake up his audience while improvising. Nor is that the only surprise he has in store. He humorously lets his refrains take off in unexpected directions in this sonata-rondo and then leads us on a merry adventure in his Prestissimo coda, which contains a jolt or two of its own. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

ROMAN RABINOVICH, PIANO The eloquent pianist Roman Rabinovich has been highly lauded by The New York Times, BBC Music Magazine, the San Francisco Classical Voice and others. He has performed throughout Europe and the United States in venues such as Wigmore Hall in London, Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Centre in New York, the Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory, the Cité de la Musique in Paris, and the Terrace Theater of Kennedy Center in Washington DC. Rabinovich has participated in festivals including Marlboro, Lucerne, Davos, Prague Spring, Klavier-Festival Ruhr, and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. An avid chamber musician, he is also a regular guest at ChamberFest Cleveland. Rabinovich has earned critical praise for his explorations of the piano music of Haydn. At the 2018 Bath Festival, he presented a 10-recital 42-sonata series, earning praise in The Sunday Times. Prior to that, in 2016 as artist in Residence at the Lammermuir Festival in Scotland, he performed 25 Haydn sonatas in 5 days, and over two seasons, in 2016 and 2017, he performed all Haydn’s sonatas in Tel Aviv. In May 2020 Rabinovich will perform two recitals comprising of Haydn and contemporary works at the 92nd Y in New York and three programs dedicated to Haydn at the Wigmore Hall. Dubbed “a true polymath, in the Renaissance sense of the word” (Seen & Heard International, 2016), Rabinovich is also a composer and visual artist. Rabinovich’s 2019-20 engagements include concerto appearances with Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Sir Roger Norrington, Meiningen Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia, Glacier Symphony and solo recitals highlights include International Piano Series at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Ruhr Piano Festival, Liszt Academy, Union College and ProMusica Detroit. The last two seasons saw Rabinovich’s critically acclaimed concerto debut with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Sir Roger Norrington, as well as with the Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música, the NFM Leopoldinum and Szczecin Philharmonic in Europe, and the Seattle Symphony, the Sarasota Orchestra, Des Moines Symphony, the Sinfonia Boca Raton and James Judd in the US. Solo recitals appearances include Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully and Walter Reade Theatre, the Houston Society for the Performing Arts, the Washington Performing Arts Society, Vancouver Recital Society, Chopin Society in St Paul, MN, the Philip Lorenz Piano Series in Fresno, the Janáček May International Music Festival.and the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff. As a chamber musician Rabinovich appeared with violinist Liza Ferschtman in, among others, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Baden-Baden Festspielhaus and the BeethovenHaus Bonn. Roman Rabinovich made his Israel Philharmonic debut under the baton of Zubin Mehta at age 10. He was a top prizewinner at the 12th Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in 2008, while in 2015, he was selected by Sir András Schiff as one of three pianists for the inaugural “Building Bridges” series, created to highlight young pianists of unusual promise. Born in Tashkent, Rabinovich immigrated to Israel with his family in 1994, beginning his studies there with Irena Vishnevitsky and Arie Vardi; he went on to graduate from the Curtis Institute of Music as a student of Seymour Lipkin, and earned his Master’s Degree at the Juilliard School where he studied with Robert McDonald.

EILEEN MOON-MYERS, CELLO Eileen Moon-Myers joined the cello section of the New York Philharmonic in 1998, and in 2007 was named Associate Principal Cello, The Paul and Diane Guenther Chair. Born and raised in Los Altos, California, she studied piano and cello, eventually continuing her cello studies with Irene Sharp in the Pre-College Division of the San Francisco Conservatory. As a member of the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra (PACO), Ms. Moon-Myers experienced years of immersion in the comprehensive arts community of the Bay Area and toured Europe and the West Coast, often as a featured soloist. She continued her studies at The Juilliard School, where she earned her bachelor of music degree, and then moved to Vienna to study with Valentin Erben of the Alban Berg Quartet. She was a top prize winner in numerous competitions, including YoungArts (Florida) in 1987, Irving Klein (California) in 1988, Geneva International Competition (Switzerland) in 1991, and Tchaikovsky International Competition (Moscow) in 1994. She has performed in prestigious festivals, and is the founder of the Warwick Music Series in Warwick, New York. Ms. Moon-Myers’s biggest passions are music presentation, cooking, running, and animal advocacy. She co-founded Friends of Warwick Valley Humane Society and aims to open a sanctuary for injured, abandoned and “retired” animals and wildlife.

NATHAN GUNN, BARITONE Nathan Gunn has made a reputation as one of the most exciting and in-demand baritones of the day. He has appeared in internationally renowned opera houses such as the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Seattle Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Paris Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper, Glyndebourne Opera Festival, Bilboa, and the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels. His many roles include the title roles in Billy Budd, Eugene Onegin, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and Hamlet, Guglielmo in Cosí fan tutte, the Count in Le Nozze di Figaro, Tarquinius in The Rape of Lucetia, Malatesta in Don Pasquale, Belcore in L’Elisir d’Amore, and Ottone in L’incoronazione di Poppea. A frequent interpreter of new works, Mr. Gunn created the role of Paul in the world premiere of Daron Hagen’s Amelia at the Seattle Opera. He also created the roles of Alec Harvey in André Previn’s Brief Encounter at the Houston Grand Opera, Father Delura in Peter Eötvös’ Love and Other Demons at the Glyndebourne Opera Festival, and Clyde Griffiths in Tobias Picker’s An American Tragedyat the Metropolitan Opera. Also a distinguished concert performer, Mr. Gunn has appeared the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Münchner Rundfunkorchster, and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. The many conductors with whom he has worked with include, Sir Andrew Davis, Sir Colin Davis, Christoph von Dohnányi, Christoph Eschenbach, Alan Gilbert, Daniel Harding, James Levine, Kurt Masur, Kent Nagano, Antonio Pappano, Donald Runnicles, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Robert Spano, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Mark Wigglesworth.

A frequent recitalist, Mr. Gunn has been presented in recital at Alice Tully Hall by both Lincoln Center’s Art of the Song Series and the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society; and by Carnegie Hall in Zankel Hall, Roy Thomson Hall, Cal Performances, the Schubert Club, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the Vocal Arts Society in Washington, DC, the University of Chicago, the Krannert Center, the Wigmore Hall, and the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie. As a student, he performed in series of recitals with his teacher and mentor John Wustman that celebrated the 200th anniversary of Franz Schubert’s birth.

Mr. Gunn has recently ventured outside the standard opera repertoire with appearances in performances of Camelotwith the New York Philharmonic (broadcast live on PBS’s Great Performances) and Showboat at Carnegie Hall. He was also a featured soloist in the New York Philharmonic’s 80th birthday gala celebration for Stephen Sondheim and appeared with Sting and Trudie Styler in the Allen Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center in Twin Spirits, a work that explores the relationship between Clara and Robert Schumann. Mr. Gunn’s solo album, Just Before Sunrise, was released on Sony/BMG Masterworks. Other recordings include the title role in Billy Budd with Daniel Harding and the London Symphony Orchestra (Virgin Classics), which won the 2010 Grammy Award; the first complete recording of Rogers & Hammerstein’s Allegro (Sony’s Masterworks Broadway), Peter Grimes with Sir Colin Davis and London Symphony Orchestra (LSO Live!) which was nominated for a 2005 Grammy Award, Il Barbiere di Siviglia (SONY Classics),Kullervo with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (Telarc), and American Anthem (EMI). He also starred as Buzz Aldrin in Man on the Moon, an opera written specifically for television and broadcast on the BBC in the UK. The program was awarded the Golden Rose Award for Opera at the Montreux Festival in Lucerne. This season, Mr. Gunn returned to the Metropolitan Opera for Cosí fan tutte and The Magic Flute, and made his debut at the Theater an der Wien in The Rape of Lucretia. Upcoming engagements include cabaret shows at the famous Café Carlyle in New York City and at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Orange County, andevening of song with Kelli O’Hara and the New York Philharmonic, a concert with Mandy Patinkin at the Ravinia Festival, and his debuts at the Teatro Real in Madrid in Le Nozze di Figaro and the Cincinnati Opera in Eugene Onegin,. Next season he returns to the Metropolitan Opera for Billy Budd, the Lyric Opera of Chicago for Showboat, the Houston Grand Opera for Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and the San Francisco Opera for Die Zauberflöte. Mr. Gunn was the recipient of the first annual Beverly Sills Artist Award, and was awarded the Pittsburgh Opera Renaissance Award. He is an alumnus of the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artists Program and was the winner of the 1994 Metropolitan Opera National Council Competition. Mr. Gunn is also an alumnus of the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana where he is currently a professor of voice.

ESCHER STRING QUARTET The Escher String Quartet has received acclaim for its profound musical insight and rare tonal beauty. A former BBC New Generation Artist, the quartet has performed at the BBC Proms at Cadogan Hall and is a regular guest at Wigmore Hall. In its home town of New York, the ensemble serves as Artists of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, this season presenting the complete Zemlinsky Quartets Cycle in a concert streamed live from the Rose Studio. In 2013, the quartet became one of the very few chamber ensembles to be awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. Within months of its inception in 2005, the ensemble came to the attention of key musical figures worldwide. Championed by the Emerson Quartet, the Escher Quartet was invited by both Pinchas Zukerman and Itzhak Perlman to be Quartet in Residence at each artist’s summer festival: the Young Artists Programme at Canada’s National Arts Centre; and the Perlman Chamber Music Programme on Shelter Island, NY. The quartet has since collaborated with artists including David Finckel, Leon Fleischer, Wu Han, Lynn Harrell, Cho Liang Lin, Joshua Bell, Vilde Frang, David Shifrin, and guitarist Jason Vieaux. The Escher Quartet has made a distinctive impression throughout Europe, with recent debuts including the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Berlin Konzerthaus, and Les Grands Interprètes series in Geneva. Last season also saw debuts at London’s Kings Place and Slovenian Philharmonic Hall in Ljubljana, and festival appearances at Dublin’s Great Music in Irish Houses and the Risør Chamber Music Festival in Norway. In the current season, the quartet undertakes further UK tours including the Wigmore Hall and makes debuts at the Heidelberg Spring Festival and De Oosterpoort Groningen in the Netherlands. The ensemble also renews its collaboration with pianist Benjamin Grosvenor in a European tour including the Auditorium du Louvre in Paris. Alongside its growing European profile, the Escher Quartet continues to flourish in its home country, performing at Alice Tully Hall in New York, Kennedy Center in Washington DC, and the Ravinia and Caramoor festivals. In 2014, the quartet gave a highly praised debut at Chamber Music San Francisco and in 2015 returned to Music@Menlo in California, focusing on the quartets of Schubert. In the 12/13 season, the ensemble performed a critically acclaimed Britten Quartets series at The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and this season is one of five quartets chosen to collaborate in a complete presentation of Beethoven’s string quartets. Elsewhere, the ensemble made its first Australian appearance at the Perth International Arts Festival in 2012, and last season made its debut at the Hong Kong International Chamber Music Festival. Return engagements took the quartet to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in Israel and the Campos do Jordão Music Festival in Brazil for coaching activities. The quartet fervently supports the education of young musicians and frequently gives masterclasses, including regular coaching at the Royal Academy of Music in London. In Spring 2015, the quartet released Volume 1 of the complete Mendelssohn Quartets on the BIS label, received warmly by critics with comments such as “This is full-blooded quartet playing in the grand, classic manner: extrovert and eloquent… hugely engaging music-making” (BBC Music Magazine) and “The Eschers sound warm, relaxed, and responsive to all of Mendelssohn’s expressive nuances…” (The Guardian). The Mendelssohn series continues this season with the release of Volume 2. The quartet has also recorded the complete Zemlinsky String Quartets in 2 volumes, released on the Naxos label in 2013 and 2014 respectively. Their great critical acclaim included 5 stars in The Guardian with “Classical CD of the Year,” a Recommendation in The Strad, “Recording of the Month” on MusicWeb International and a nomination for a BBC Music Magazine Award. The Escher Quartet takes its name from Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher, inspired by Escher’s method of interplay between individual components working together to form a whole.

MILAN MILISAVLJEVIĆ, VIOLA Milan Milisavljević is Principal Viola with the MET Orchestra, having served as Assistant Principal of the MET for twelve seasons. He has also performed as guest Principal Viola of orchestras worldwide, such as the Toronto Symphony. Milan’s solo album Sonata-Song, published by Delos Music, has been reviewed by the Strad magazine as “most recommendable” and “tonally alluring”, with the recording of A. Khatchaturian’s sonata on the album hailed as “definitive”. He has won prizes at competitions such as ARD, Lionel Tertis and Aspen Lower Strings and has performed at Marlboro, Cascade Head and Aspen music festivals. Milan has appeared as soloist throughout the world, with orchestras such as the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Belgrade Philharmonic, Aspen Sinfonia, Classical Tahoe, Orquesta Filarmónica de Boca del Río and many others. His teachers include James Dunham, Nobuko Imai and Atar Arad. In addition to his activities as a violist, Milan is increasingly in demand as a conductor and teacher worlwide.

ORION WEISS, PIANO One of the most sought-after soloists and chamber music collaborators of his generation, Orion Weiss is widely regarded as a “brilliant pianist” (The New York Times) with “powerful technique and exceptional insight” (The Washington Post). With a warmth to his playing that outwardly reflects his engaging personality, Weiss’s “delicate, even fingerwork” (Washington Classical Review) and “head-spinning range of colors” (Chicago Tribune) have dazzled audiences around the world. He has performed with all of the major orchestras of North America, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the New York Philharmonic. In February of 2025, Weiss released Arc III, the final album in his recital trilogy, on First Hand Records. Weiss’s 24-25 performance schedule includes engagements with violinist James Ehnes, who joins Weiss for a return to London’s Wigmore Hall and for performances of the complete Beethoven Violin Sonatas in Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, and Seattle. Among numerous engagements with U.S. orchestras, Weiss makes his David Geffen Hall debut in New York with the American Symphony Orchestra. He performs Bach's Goldberg Variations at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and Newport Classical in Rhode Island, among other recitals. He is featured in performances at Italy’s Teatro Marrucino Biglietteria and in the Great Artists Series at Washington University in St. Louis, on a tour with Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and at LaMusica Chamber Music Festival in Sarasota, Florida. Weiss also tours Japan, playing the complete Brahms Violin Sonatas with Akiko Suwanai and performs the complete Grieg Sonatas with James Ehnes in Bergen, Norway. Over the last year, Weiss made his return to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, led by Michael Tilson Thomas, and debuted with the National Symphony Orchestra, led by Ken-David Masur. He also toured the United States and Asia with violinist Augustin Hadelich and performed at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music, and Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall. Known for his affinity for chamber music, Weiss performs regularly with Augustin Hadelich, as well as fellow violinists William Hagen and James Ehnes; pianists Michael Brown and Shai Wosner; and the Ariel, Parker, and Pacifica Quartets. As a recitalist and chamber musician, Weiss has appeared at venues and festivals including the Ravinia Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, Tanglewood, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the Mariinsky Theatre (St. Petersburg), the Edinburgh International Festival, the Schubert Club, Hong Kong Premiere Performances, Seattle Chamber Music Festival, the Lucerne Festival, Denver Friends of Chamber Music, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center’s Fortas Series, the 92nd Street Y, and at summer music festivals including Bard, Santa Fe, Bridgehampton, Bravo! Vail, Sunriver, and Grand Teton, among many others. Other highlights from Weiss’s recent seasons include a live-stream with the Minnesota Orchestra; a performance of Beethoven's Triple Concerto with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra; the release of his recording of Christopher Rouse’s Seeing, the first two installments of his critically acclaimed Arc recital trilogy; a recording of Korngold’s Left Hand concerto and other works with Leon Botstein and TON; and recordings of Gershwin’s complete works for piano and orchestra with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and JoAnn Falletta. Weiss can be heard on the Naxos, Telos, Bridge, First Hand, Yarlung, and Artek labels on recordings such as The Piano Protagonists with The Orchestra Now, led by Leon Botstein; a disc of Scarlatti Sonatas for Naxos; a solo recital disc of Bartók, Dvorák, and Prokofiev; Brahms Sonatas with violinist Arnaud Sussmann; a solo recital album of J.S. Bach, Scriabin, Mozart, and Carter; and a recital disc with cellist Julie Albers. In March 2022, First Hand Records released the first album of Weiss’s Arc Trilogy – Arc I: Granados, Janáček, Scriabin – a recording exploring the omens and tension of the period preceding World War I. Gramophone Magazine praised the album as “expansive, colorful, and texturally varied.” Arc II, featuring the music of Ravel, Brahms, and Shostakovich, was released in November 2022. Arc III, featuring works by Brahms, Schubert, Debussy, Dohnányi, Ligeti, and Talma, was released in February 2025 and called a “a worthy successor to the distinguished predecessors” by Gramophone. Over recent years, Weiss has also raised his profile through video, assembling a broad and growing YouTube videography that includes Bach’s Goldberg Variations, the Op. 39 Rachmaninoff etudes, and Grieg’s Lyric Pieces, among many others. In the summer of 2011, Weiss made his debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood as a last-minute replacement for Leon Fleisher. In recent seasons, he has also performed with the San Francisco Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and in summer concerts with the New York Philharmonic at both Lincoln Center and the Bravo! Vail Valley Festival. In 2005, he toured Israel with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Itzhak Perlman. Weiss’s list of awards includes the Classical Recording Foundation’s Young Artist of the Year, Gilmore Young Artist Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Gina Bachauer Scholarship at The Juilliard School, and the Mieczyslaw Munz Scholarship. He won the 2005 William Petschek Recital Award at Juilliard and made his New York recital debut at Alice Tully Hall that April. Also in 2005, Weiss made his European debut in a recital at the Musée du Louvre in Paris. From 2002-2004, he was a member of Lincoln Center’s The Bowers Program (formerly CMS Two). A native of Lyndhurst, Ohio, Weiss attended the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Young Artist Program through high school, where he studied with Paul Schenly, Daniel Shapiro, and Sergei Babayan. His other teachers include Joseph Kalichstein, Jerome Lowenthal, Kathryn Brown, and Edith Reed. In February 1999, Weiss made his Cleveland Orchestra debut performing Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1. The next month, with less than 24 hours notice, Weiss stepped in to replace André Watts for a performance of Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and was immediately invited to return for a performance of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto that October. In 2004, he graduated from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Emanuel Ax. Learn more www.orionweiss.com .

WENDY BRYN HARMER, SOPRANO This season, soprano Wendy Bryn Harmer returns to the Metropolitan Opera as Freia and Ortlinde in The Ring Cycle and makes her debut at the Tanglewood Festival in a concert version of Die Walküre, conducted by Andris Nelsons. A graduate of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Ms. Harmer has appeared in their productions of Le nozze di Figaro, War and Peace, Khovanshchina, Parsifal, Die Agyptische Helena, Jenufa, and the complete Ring Cycle. She also appeared in the Met’s HD broadcasts of the Ring Cycle and The Magic Flute, which have subsequently been released on DVD (Deutsche Gramophone). Other recent opera engagements have included the title role in Ariadne auf Naxos and Adalgisa in Norma at the Palm Beach Opera, Leonora in Fidelio at Opera Omaha, Senta in Die fliegende Holländer and multiple roles in the Ring Cycle at the Seattle Opera, Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus at the Houston Grand Opera, Eglantine in Euryanthe at the Bard Music Festival , Die Walküre at the San Francisco Opera, Glauce in Medea at the Glimmerglas Festival, Wanda in La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein and Vitellia in La Clemenza di Tito at Opera Boston, and Mimi in La Bohéme at the Utah Opera Festival. In concert, Ms. Harmer recently made her debuts with Boston Baroque in performances of Fidelio, and with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in performances of Vaughn William’s Sea Symphony. She has also appeared with the San Francisco Symphony in performances of the Beethoven Symphony No. 9, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra in concert performances of Das Rheingold, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir as a soloist at the Schubert Festival, and in Lincoln Center’s Tribute to Renata Tebaldi. In 2005, she made her New York recital debut under the auspices of The Marilyn Horne Foundation, and was presented by the George London Foundation in a recital with Ben Heppner at the Morgan Library. Born in Roseville, California, Ms. Harmer graduated with a Bachelor’s degree from The Boston Conservatory and attended the Music of Academy of the West. She was also a member of the Merola Opera Program at San Francisco Opera, the Gerdine Young Artist Program at Opera Theater of St Louis, and was one of nine singers invited to study at The Music Academy in Villecroze, France. Her many awards include a 2010 Richard Tucker Grant, the 2007 Jensen Award, the Teatro alla Scala Award at the 2007 Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition, first place at the Palm Beach Opera Competition, the 2005 winner of the George London/Leonie Rysanek Award, and an award from The Marilyn Horne Foundation.

Frank Vignola, guitar Frank Vignola, born December 30th, 1965, is one of the most extraordinary guitarists performing before the public today. His stunning virtuosity has made him the guitarist of choice for many of the world’s top musicians, including Ringo Starr, Madonna, Donald Fagen, John Lewis, Lionel Hampton, the Boston Pops, the New York Pops, and guitar legend Les Paul, who named Vignola to his “Five Most Admired Guitarists List:” for the Wall Street Journal. Frank Vignola is one of the most popular and sought after guitarists on the international music scene. His dynamic genre-spanning music has brought him to 21 countries on three continents – and still growing – performing in some of the world’s most illustrious venues, including the Sydney Opera House, Carnegie Hall, The Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, New York’s Lincoln Center, The Blue Note, and the world’s oldest indoor concert hall, Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, Italy. Vignola has recorded over 30 CD’s as a leader and has been a guest on hundreds of recordings. Vignola has written over 18 educational music books, recorded the critically acclaimed, “Vignola Plays Gershwin” CD, and recorded 3 DVD’s for Mel Bay Publications. He has also produced over 50 full length video teaching courses for TrueFire.com, for all levels. His on-line One on One private lessons and online Jazz Studio continue to thrive, having reached thousands of jazz guitar enthusiasts all over the globe. Currently, Frank Vignola holds residency every Wednesday night at the world famous Birdland Jazz Club Theatre in New York City. Vignola also has a duo partnership with violinist, Tessa Lark. “Frank Vignola’s Guitar Night” has featured some of the finest talent on the planet including Mike Stern, Pasquale Grasso, Jimmy Bruno, Janis Siegel, Sheryl Bailey, Bill Charlap, Houston Person, Tessa Lark, Chris Flory and many more.

ABRAHAM APPLEMAN, VIOLA Abraham Appleman was born in Yokohama, Japan. He began his studies on the violin and piano at the age of four, soon after his family moved to the Boston area. His continued studies there led to his debut, at age fifteen, performing Max Bruch’s G minor Violin Concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Since then, Mr. Appleman has had a multifaceted career, performing in Asia, Europe, and the Americas as a soloist, concertmaster, and chamber musician. He is a founding member of the chamber ensemble Voce Intimae and has served as concertmaster of the Colorado Music Festival and the Atlantic Classical Orchestra in Florida. In New York, Mr. Appleman performs regularly in the first violin section of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. As one of the foremost violinists in the recording industry, he can be heard as a soloist on numerous CDs and motion picture soundtracks. During the summer season, Mr. Appleman is regularly invited to perform with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the Tanglewood Music Festival.

April 23, 2017: Isabel Leonard, mezzo-soprano; Warren Jones, piano ENRIQUE GRANADOS (1867–1916) love songs April 23, 2017: Isabel Leonard, mezzo-soprano; Warren Jones, piano Enrique Granados received most of his musical training in Barcelona, although he did study in Paris for two years. On his return he began to achieve great acclaim as a pianist, but his intense dislike of travel limited his touring. He founded a concert society in Barcelona in 1900 and a music school, the Academia Granados, the following year. Essentially self-taught as a composer, he began gaining recognition with his colorful Spanish Dances (1892–1911), which were among his first published pieces. He considerably enhanced that reputation with Goyescas (1911), piano pieces inspired by the paintings and etching of Goya. Tragically, travel was at the heart of his untimely death at age forty-nine. Accompanied by his wife, he had reluctantly made the sea voyage to attend the Metropolitan's premiere of his opera Goyescas in 1916, and had postponed his voyage home in order to play for President Woodrow Wilson. Having missed the ship to Spain, they sailed instead to Liverpool where they boarded the Sussex for Dieppe. The Sussex was torpedoed by a German submarine and, although Granados was picked up by a lifeboat, he jumped into the water to save his wife from him and they both drowned. Granados published two important song collections: his Tonadillas and his Canciones amatorias, which show opposite sides of his song-writing art, although both are based on love poetry and both are indebted to his fascination with Goya. The Tonadillas , shorter by definition, link directly with the same eighteenth- and nineteenth-century majas and majos of Goya's paintings through the poetry of Fernando Periquet (1873–1940) and feature relatively spare, guitar-like accompaniments. ( Majas and majos were lower-class people of Spanish society distinguished by their elaborate dress and cheeky manners.) The Canciones amatorias , settings of Renaissance texts, boast longer, imaginatively spun-out melodies and more elaborate accompaniments. They have been somewhat overshadowed by the overt link of the Tonadillas to Goya and to popular Spanish song, but the Canciones amatorios show a distinct affinity with Granados's Goyescas , the piano pieces that brought him so much recognition outside of Spain, and they get to the heart of his expressive capabilities—still incorporating folk idioms but in a highly personal style. The Canciones amatorios received their first performance in Barcelona on April 5, 1915, at the debut of soprano Conchita Badía, accompanied by the composer who dedicated two of the songs to her, “Llorad, corazón” and “Gracia mia.” “Discover the thought ,” like many of the songs in this collection, is striking for its harmonic adventurousness. The song's anonymous poet, in the tradition of courtly love, pines for a woman above his social status. Granados provides “Mañanica era” (It was daybreak) with a delicate setting, befitting its images of blooms and seraphs. He gently shifts to a melancholy expressiveness toward the end for the lover who comes to die. Characteristic “strumming” permeates the accompaniment of “No lloráis, ojuelos” (Don't cry, little eyes), whose melodic lines Granados embellishes gracefully. The middle section provides harmonic interest, and the return to the opening text receives a soaring variation. Granados enhances the bittersweet melancholy of “Llorad, corazón” (Weep, heart) with winding chromaticism. He also creates a special effect with the gently rising leaps in the first section. Today's selections conclude with the delightfully ornamented and flowing “Gracia mia” (My graceful one). Spanish rhythms, mixed meters, triplet embellishments, and mercurial shifts between major and minor provide native color—all with Granados's inspired personal stamp. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes