March 8, 2026: Jonathan Biss, piano Leoš Janáček (1854-1928) On an Overgrown Path, Series 1, Nos. 1, 6, and 7 March 8, 2026: Jonathan Biss, piano In January 1897 Janáček was asked by schoolmaster Josef Vávra to contribute some pieces to a publication of harmonized Slavonic folk melodies for harmonium, an organlike instrument fashionable in Moravia at the time. Eventually, in October 1900, he contributed three pieces (Nos. 1, 2, and 10 of the present work), but by this time he had gone beyond simple folk arrangements into the realm of character pieces. After those three appeared in 1901, two more (Nos. 4 and 7) were published in the series the following year. Then in 1908, when Prague critic Jan Branberger expressed interest in publishing some of his pieces, Janáček sent him these, transcribed for piano, as well as some newly composed pieces. Branberger wrote back enthusiastically asking about the “poetic content” of the as yet untitled pieces. The composer obliged with brief individual descriptions containing musical examples, saying: “The little pieces On an Overgrown Path contain distant reminiscences. . . . Whenever I have a moment to indulge myself undisturbed in these recollections, then I find another such little piece comes to mind. It is on an overgrown path.” When negotiations with Branberger became unsettled, Janáček sent the pieces along with some added pieces to Brno publisher Arnošt Piša, who complained that they were too difficult but finally issued a set of ten—with poetic titles—in 1911. (Three of the newer pieces and two unpublished ones from the first years of the project were published after Janáček’s death as Series II without programmatic titles.) The success of On an Overgrown Path was a new experience for Janáček, who had won local recognition but had yet to experience the international acclaim that his opera Jenůfa would bring in 1916. Though Janáček was nearing fifty when he began composing On an Overgrown Path , it is considered an early work because his great late flowering was yet to come. He had taken a hiatus from working on his opera Jenůfa , during which time he was developing his “speech melody” technique (related to inflections of spoken Czech) that would permeate his later compositions. On an Overgrown Path was one of the first works to show this new direction, which coincided with a deeper personal resonance in his music. His comments to Branberger emphasize just how autobiographical the work is. In particular, his grief at the death of his beloved twenty-year-old daughter Olga in 1903 cast its unmistakable shadow over the later pieces in the work. In the following brief descriptions of this afternoon’s selections, the quoted phrases are Janáček’s: Our Evenings—The title (from the 1911 publication and so presumably approved by Janáček) gives the only clue to its tender, sometimes nostalgic content. Scholars relate its violent central outburst to verbal fighting with his wife, with whom he had a difficult relationship. Words Fail!—“The bitterness of disappointment,” wrote Janáček about this beautiful lament full of inner unrest. Good Night!—“Perhaps you’ll hear parting in the piece based on [here he gave a musical example] to which the words ‘good night’ are suited.” —©Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

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) Flute Concerto in G, K. 313 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. In the winter of 1777 when Mozart was visiting Mannheim, he became very friendly with various wind players whose playing he thought was brilliant. One of these, flutist Johan Baptiste Wendling, had even gone so far as to try to get Mozart a position with Karl Theodor, Elector Palatine. When no position was available and it seemed Mozart would have to leave Mannheim, Wendling industriously procured commissions for him. One such commission came from wealthy Dutch surgeon and accomplished amateur flutist Ferdinand Dejean, who requested what the composer referred to in 1777 as “three short, simple concertos and a couple of quartets for flute” for which the fee was to be 200 gulden. By the time Dejean left for Paris on February 15, 1778, Mozart had completed two full-fledged concertos (though one was an arrangement of an earlier oboe concerto) and three quartets (though until relatively recently the C major Flute Quartet was not authenticated as dating from then because of a quirk in paper studies). He was chagrined, nonetheless, to receive only 96 gulden, saying it went against their agreement. Mozart’s father then surmised how many compositions the original commission must have entailed, based on the fact that his son had received less than half of his fee, and sent an angry letter berating him for his laziness. Yet the younger Mozart cannot be accused of lying about the scope of the commission to please his father, as has been repeated for more than a century—in fact his references to the commission vary as to number and type of composition. Rather, there simply remained an unknown number of works to be completed and Wolfgang wanted payment in advance. This suggests that Dejean would be crossing paths with Mozart after Paris—and indeed Dejean, a fellow Freemason, took up residence in Vienna. It is even possible that the Fourth Flute Quartet (associated with Gottfried von Jacquin) may have been played by Dejean and possibly even counted as an extension of the earlier Dejean commission. But to return to Mozart’s response to his father’s angry letter, it contains a line as an excuse that has grieved flute lovers ever since: “You know that I am quite powerless when I am obliged to write for an instrument I cannot bear.” Is this really what he meant? How can he have written such idiomatic, engaging music for an instrument he supposedly did not like? And did he not greatly admire the flute playing of his friend Wendling? The G major Concerto is a charming work and is by no means “short” and “simple.” The first movement’s opening tutti (ensemble) section presents the forthright main theme and hints at a second theme, but closes with a new, rhythmic arpeggiated passage that returns at important junctures. After the flute’s elaborated exposition of the majestic theme, a bit of the arpeggiated tutti returns to launch the second theme. One of the many ways Mozart displays the soloist’s prowess is in frequent wide leaps, which tests the ability to project in the low register and to move quickly between registers. Mozart provides an opportunity for a solo cadenza just before the arpeggiated tutti closes the movement. The Adagio ma non troppo is one of those leisurely, exquisite movements at which Mozart was so adept. He follows slow-movement sonata form, in which an exposition and recapitulation are separated by a short episode rather than a full development section. Of special note here is the velvety sonority achieved by having the upper strings play muted and the lower strings sometimes in gentle pizzicato. Throughout the flute shows its ability to play lyrically and ornament gracefully. Here, too, Mozart provides an opportunity for a cadenza toward the end. The closing sonata-rondo movement brings in the flute right at the outset. Each return of this delightful refrain brings subtle variants to keep the ear engaged. Mozart introduces the contrasting minor mode episode with a little hint that “something is up” by varying the little tutti scale figures that lead up to it. The placement of the cadenza here before the recapitulation allows this section to proceed without interruption and even to end in quiet elegance. —©Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Founders Michael and Inmo Parloff Artistic Director Michael Parloff Artistic Advisory Board James Galway David Finckel Thomas Hampson Members of the Emerson String Quartet (Emeritus): Philip Setzer Eugene Drucker Lawrence Dutton Paul Watkins Executive Board Donald Reeder , Chairman of the Board Michael Parloff , P resident Warren F. Cooke , Vi ce President Elizabeth Forbes, Secretary Edward Lowentha l Peter Riemer Development Director Inmo Parloff Leadership Council Thomas and Heidi Ahlborn Anne Bosch Catherine Cooke Eugene Cornell and Susan Mayo Paul Gridley Christina Hembree Adrian and Christina Jones Gary Knapp Ronald and Mollie Ledwith Thomas and Carol Martin Dorothy Neff Barry Poskanzer and Mary Krugman Suzanne Taranto Donald and Gigo Taylor

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

FRANK HUANG, VIOLIN Frank Huang joined the New York Philharmonic as Concertmaster, The Charles E. Culpeper Chair, in September 2015. The First Prize Winner of the 2003 Walter W. Naumburg Foundation’s Violin Competition and the 2000 Hannover International Violin Competition, he has established a major career as a violin virtuoso. Since performing with the Houston Symphony in a nationally broadcast concert at the age of 11, he has appeared with orchestras throughout the world including The Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony, NDR Radio Philharmonic Orchestra of Hannover, Amadeus Chamber Orchestra, and the Genoa Orchestra. He has also performed on NPR’s Performance Today, ABC’s Good Morning America, and CNN’s American Morning with Paula Zahn. Recent engagements include his debuts at Wigmore Hall (in London), Salle Cortot (Paris), Kennedy Center (Washington, DC), and the Herbst Theatre (San Francisco), as well as a second recital in Alice Tully Hall (New York), which featured the World Premiere of Donald Martino’s Sonata for Solo Violin. Mr. Huang’s first commercial recording—featuring fantasies by Schubert, Ernst, Schoenberg, and Waxman—was released on Naxos in the fall of 2003. Mr. Huang has had great success in competitions since the age of 15 and received top prize awards in the Premio Paganini International Violin Competition and the Indianapolis International Violin Competition. Other honors include Gold Medal Awards in the Kingsville International Competition, Irving M. Klein International Competition, and D’Angelo International Competition. In addition to his solo career, Mr. Huang is deeply committed to chamber music. He has attended the Marlboro Music Festival, Ravinia’s Steans Institute, Seattle Chamber Music Festival, and Caramoor, and frequently participates in Musicians from Marlboro’s tours. He was also selected by The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center to be a member of the prestigious CMS Two program. Before joining the Houston Symphony, Mr. Huang held the position of first violinist of the Grammy Award-winning Ying Quartet and was a faculty member at the Eastman School of Music. Frank Huang was born in Beijing, China. At the age of seven he moved to Houston, Texas, where he began violin lessons with his mother. He commenced study with Fredell Lack at the University of Houston and at 16 he enrolled in the pre-college program at the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) where he studied with Donald Weilerstein. He continued studies with Weilerstein in college and earned his bachelor of music degree from CIM in 2002. He subsequently attended The Juilliard School in New York City, studying violin with Robert Mann, and is an alumnus of the Music Academy of the West, now a partner in the New York Philharmonic Global Academy. Mr. Huang, who began his tenure as concertmaster of the Houston Symphony in 2010, also serves on the faculties of the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University and the University of Houston.

ANNE CRUMB, NARRATOR An internationally known singer and actress, Ann has performed classical and jazz concerts throughout the USA and Europe, having appeared in Austria at the Salzburg Festival, in Holland for the Nederlandse Programma Stichting, in Germany with the Bochumer Symphoniker and in Italy with the Lirico Sinfonica Petruzelli e Teatri di Bari. Recent US appearances include performances at Carnegie Hall and Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center. Ann has originated numerous leading roles on Broadway and London’s West End. Ms. Crumb starred in Aspects of Love (becoming the first American actress chosen by Andrew Lloyd Webber to create a starring role), Neil Simon’s premiere of The Goodbye Girl opposite British comic Gary Wilmot, Nine opposite Jonathan Price, Les Miserables, Chess, and Anna Karenina, for which she received a Best Actress Tony nomination. She headlined the National Tours of Swing and Music of the Night and starred in National Tours of Evita and Man of La Mancha (opposite John Cullum). Ann is also the recipient of two Barrymore nominations (winning for her performance as Ludmilla in Bed and Sofa at the Wilma Theater), a Broadway National Theater Award nomination and an Arts Recognition Award. Her extensive list of theatre credits includes everything from the classics to post-modernist theater, Shakespeare to premieres of Shepard and Ionesco. Ann has also appeared on numerous television shows including Law and Order, One Life to Live, and Criminal Intent. Her first jazz recording “A Broadway Diva Swings” with Harry Allen and his All Star Jazz Band charted nationally, and she recorded “Three Early Songs” for the Grammy Award winning “George Crumb’s 70th Birthday Album”. Ann can also be heard on numerous cast albums and compilations as well as the Bridge premiere recordings of “Unto the Hills” and “River of Life.” (“Best of the Year” Classics.com and All Music Guide, Diapason D’Or) Her most recent release is Daniel Dorff’s “The Tortoise and the Hare and other Fables” which she co-narrated with television news anchor Ukee Washington. Future projects include a new jazz album and the Bridge recordings of her father’s “Songbook VI” with Orchestra 2001 and new song cycle “Sun and Shadow.” In addition to her performance and recording commitments, Ann is completing her first novel tentatively titled “Eben, City Dog” and “It Actually Happened!” a collection of true theater stories.

MARK ROMATZ, BASSOON Mark L. Romatz, bassoon, is currently Second Bassoon and Contrabassoon the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Prior to that appointment, the University of Michigan graduate held positions with the Montreal, Jacksonville, Savannah, Duluth, and Flint Symphonies. He has been a member of the Bellingham, Grand Teton, Grant Park, Colorado, Spoleto, Lancaster, Sunflower, and Buzzard Bay Music Festivals. Mr. Romatz has been a faculty member at McGill University in Montreal, the University of Florida, St. Olaf College, and the University of Minnesota-Duluth. He as served as Acting Second Bassoon with the Minnesota Orchestra and has performed with the Chicago and Detroit Symphony Orchestras and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. He studies with L. Hugh Cooper and John Miller.

April 8, 2018: Danish String Quartet LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) String Quartet in C# minor, Op. 131 April 8, 2018: Danish String Quartet When Prince Nicholas Galitzin ordered “one, two, or three new quartets” from Beethoven in November 1822, he could hardly have realized that he was instigating a series of works by which all later generations would judge profundity. Beethoven had not forgotten the quartet medium in the twelve years since the F minor Quartet, op. 95, but the commission gave him the impetus to turn sketches into finished works. Nevertheless, he could not concentrate on quartet writing until after completing the Missa solemnis , the Diabelli Variations, and the Ninth Symphony, so the project did not begin in earnest until mid-1824. After composing the B-flat major Quartet, the third of Galitzin’s commission, Beethoven continued writing quartets—not for the prince, who never completed payment for the first three, but out of the inner necessity for expression. Thus he added the C-sharp minor Quartet, op. 131, in seven movements in 1825–26, followed by the F major, arriving at the five works known as the “late quartets.” It should be noted that, too late for Beethoven himself but in the proper spirit, a son of Galitzin paid with interest what was owed on his father’s three quartets into the Beethoven estate. In May 1826 Beethoven offered the C-sharp minor Quartet to Schott for publication, receiving much more than he was to have received for each of the three “Galitzin” Quartets, but he did not live to see it in print. Nor did he witness a performance, which first took place publicly in 1835. The work did circulate in private performances, however, and it is fascinating to know that Schubert’s dying wish to hear the Quartet came to pass on November 14, 1828, just five days before the younger composer died. The C-sharp minor Quartet abounds with original features and an otherworldliness that so aptly illustrate the private world of Beethoven’s late period. We have only to listen to the opening notes of the slow fugue that opens the work—a startlingly novel beginning—to realize that we are the privileged eavesdroppers to a bared musical soul. The brooding, contemplative mood immediately sets the movement apart from more customary brisk-paced fugues, and suggests a link with the C-sharp minor Fugue of Bach’s Well-tempered Clavier , which Beethoven had known since his youth. He takes his subject matter through numerous permutations and a wide range of keys, so that when he returns to the home key we experience a sense of recapitulation. Just prior comes a passage of ethereal beauty, in which the transparent texture highlights the two entwined violins followed by a duet between the viola and cello. Beethoven planned for the entire Quartet to be played without pause, though he was induced by the publisher to put in “numbers,” which correspond to what have traditionally been called its seven movements. Many, however, have commented on the fact that some of these “movements” might better be viewed as introductions or transitions to what follows, so that the first movement serves as a very extended introduction to the second movement, the very brief “No. 3” makes a transition to the Andante variation, and following the scherzo, “No. 6” serves as the slow introduction to the finale. Thus we find a highly original, expanded conception of the traditional four-movement quartet scheme. “No. 2” opens in a hush that is both gentle and merry, as if emerging from the shadow of the fugue. Here Beethoven turns to sonata style if not to form, since the movement contains no development section, and the mood is dancelike, much as one would find in a scherzo. Through a dramatic octave unison passage he brings about a brief but forceful climax that he immediately breaks into closing fragments. These impart little finality, however, and “No. 3,” like an opera recitative, prepares the next movement. The central Andante movement consists of a simple lyrical theme and six variations that show an amazing array of textures. Beethoven’s extended coda begins like a seventh variation, but then rhapsodizes, trills, and recalls the main theme in innocent guise, all leading to a dramatic flourish that brings on the subdued conclusion. The Presto scherzo begins impishly with the cello issuing a little invitation, only to be met with complete silence before the movement takes off. Beethoven’s two contrasting trio sections begin with playful two-note interchanges to which he adds a theme—marked piacevole (pleasing or amiable)—that is clearly related to the theme of the scherzo. He even begins his trio a third time—a joke he had also made in his Fourth and Seventh Symphonies—but abruptly shifts into an amazing coda that reduces trio elements to fragments before the scherzo theme gradually takes over. Even this return of the main theme throws us momentarily off guard because Beethoven asks for it to be played sul ponticello (on the bridge), producing a glassy, almost eerie sound. He exits this novel effect with a quick push to fortissimo (very loud) to end the movement. The three somber notes that open the relatively brief Adagio plunge us back into the realm of tragedy, here played out in poignant melancholy before erupting in the outcry of the tempestuous finale. After a forceful chord, the finale alternates pregnant pauses with angry unison statements, then takes off at an energetic gallop. Though Beethoven introduces moments of quiet into the first theme area, he saves his main contrast for the second theme, which first makes a long descent, then leaps rapturously to three repeated notes. His development section introduces a new long-note foil for the galloping motive, and makes much of a fragment of the opening unison idea and the scalar descent from the second theme. Following a murmur that grows ever more intense, the recapitulation bursts on the scene with a number of ingenious alterations, chief among which is the expressive return of the second theme in a key far removed from the original. Beethoven’s full-length coda, as in many of his late works, takes us on yet another developmental journey, during which we hear the astounding use of the long notes from the development in powerful octaves. Though Beethoven turns to the major mode of the home key toward the very end, we find little of the victory such a turn signaled in earlier works—the foregoing sense of tragedy in this Quartet cannot be dispelled. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

February 20, 2022 – Danbi Um, violin; Juho Pohjonen, piano ERICH WOLFGANG KORNGOLD (1897-1957) Suite from Much Ado about Nothing, op. 11 February 20, 2022 – Danbi Um, violin; Juho Pohjonen, piano Erich Wolfgang Korngold showed an incredible gift for composition at an early age. Upon hearing him play his cantata Gold in 1907, Gustav Mahler proclaimed him a genius and recommended that he study with Alexander Zemlinsky at the Vienna Conservatory. At age eleven he composed a ballet, Der Schneemann, that so impressed Zemlinsky that the latter orchestrated and produced it at the Vienna Court Theater in 1910 to sensational acclaim. Richard Strauss was deeply impressed by Korngold’s Schauspiel Ouvertüre (1911) and Sinfonietta (1912), as was Puccini by his opera Violanta (1916). The pinnacle of Korngold’s early career came at the age of twenty-three when his opera Die tote Stadt achieved international recognition. By 1928 a poll by the Neue Wiener Tagblatt considered Korngold and Schoenberg the greatest living composers. In 1934 director Max Reinhardt took Korngold to Hollywood where the second phase of his career began. There he composed some of the finest film scores ever written—nineteen in all, including such classics as Captain Blood (1935), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), and The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939); he became Hollywood’s highest paid composer at that time. Yet he was caught between two worlds and two eras. He was criticized in some quarters for selling out to Hollywood and for ignoring modern trends in music; in Hollywood he was criticized for writing scores that were too complex. Even while immersed in the film world he periodically composed works in other genres—the Violin Concerto (1937; 1945) has remained in the repertoire and has even enjoyed a surge in popularity beginning in the 1990s. Korngold’s incidental music for Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing was composed in 1919 for a production at the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna in 1920, thus it dates from the same period as his successful Die tote Stadt. Though scored originally for chamber orchestra, Korngold arranged Much Ado for violin and piano—he himself played the piano part—when the run of performances was extended but no orchestra was available. He also fashioned several suites from the incidental music—one for violin and piano, one for orchestra, and one for solo piano. The violin and piano Suite consists of four movements. The Maiden in the Bridal Chamber, a graceful ternary-form movement, depicts Hero, the bride-to-be, on her wedding morning, happily unaware that Claudio has been tricked into doubting her fidelity. Occasional “modern” harmonies enliven the prevailing Romantic language. The second movement—Dogberry and Verges. March of the Watch—constitutes a mock serious march to accompany Shakespeare’s Dogberry, the pompous constable who comically confuses words (“comparisons are odorous”), his crony Verges, and the other men of the watch, who protect the good citizens of Messina. Sudden rhythmic shifts that throw the march off kilter add to the humorous effect. The third movement, a slow, flowing waltz with Romantic modulations and sudden key shifts, accompanies an earlier “Scene in the Garden,” in which the plot unfolds to make the play’s other couple, Beatrice and Benedick, fall in love. The two targets, in turn concealed in the bushes, overhear different conversations meant for theirs ears each describing the love of one for the other. The “Masquerade” of the fourth movement actually occurs first in the events of the play described here. The second act begins with a masked ball, which provides a wonderful opportunity for word play between the confirmed bachelor Benedick and the sharp-tongued Beatrice. Korngold’s Hornpipe is a lively dance in rondo form, with a cheerful refrain containing delightful rhythmic shifts and episodes that include folk-like drones, brief touches of minor, and even a quick descending passage in whole tones. The piece ends with an unexpected humorous tag. By Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

September 24, 2017: Paul Neubauer, viola; Arnaud Sussman, violin; Rafael Figueroa, cello; Michael Brown, piano FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847) Octet in E-flat major, op. 20 September 24, 2017: Paul Neubauer, viola; Arnaud Sussman, violin; Rafael Figueroa, cello; Michael Brown, piano The sixteen-year-old Felix Mendelssohn completed one of the ultimate masterpieces of the chamber music literature—the Octet—on October 15, 1825. Even Mozart, with all his well-known precocity, did not create a work of such exquisite perfection by this time in his creative life. Dedicated to Mendelssohn’s violin and viola teacher Eduard Rietz, whose birthday fell on October 17, the Octet is unique not only in its revelation of such consummate skill in so young a composer but also in its instrumental configuration of four violins, two violas, and two cellos. Where did Mendelssohn get the idea for a string octet in which the instruments are not treated in double quartet fashion—as in Louis Spohr’s Double Quartets—but in myriad inventive combinations of the eight instruments? We find no true precedents for his stroke of genius. Though antiphonal effects between two quartets occasionally surface in the Octet, Mendelssohn most often layers the eight parts in an orchestral texture, from which each instrument emerges with solo lines—the first violin most prominently, as befitting a piece in which his teacher probably played the first violin part. Mendelssohn stressed his orchestral intentions in the score: “The Octet must be played by all the instruments in symphonic orchestral style. Pianos and fortes must be strictly observed and more strongly emphasized than is usual in pieces of this character.” No doubt he meant “usual” for chamber music in general, but there really is no other piece quite like the Octet with its combination of orchestral textures and technically virtuosic writing for each player. Since he was thirteen Felix had enjoyed a remarkable friendship with the aging Goethe, Germany’s most venerated writer of the time. The composer’s sister Fanny revealed that in the effervescent Scherzo, Felix had set to music a stanza from the Walpurgis Night Dream from Goethe’s Faust , Part I: “The flight of the clouds and the veil of mist / Are lit from above. / A breeze in the leaves, a wind in the reeds, / And all has vanished.” She continued: To me alone he told this idea: the whole piece is to be played staccato and pianissimo, the tremolos coming in now and then, the trills passing away with quickness of lightning; everything new and strange, and at the same time most insinuating and pleasing, one feels so near the world of spirits, carried away in the air, half inclined to snatch up a broomstick and follow the aerial procession. At the end the first violin takes a flight with a feather-like lightness, and—all has vanished. Mendelssohn scholar R. Larry Todd speculates convincingly that Mendelssohn not only represented additional aspects of Goethe’s dream sequence in the Scherzo—an orchestra of crickets, frogs, flies, mosquitos, and even a bagpipe blowing soap bubbles—but that other movements, too, may contain inspirations from Faust . He cites the first movement’s flamboyant, “Faustian” first violin part, with its bold soaring and tumbling opening, and the grandiose proportions of the movement as a whole. The archaic, lamenting quality of the slow movement perhaps reflects the cathedral scene before the Walpurgis Night, when the guilt-ridden Gretchen attends a church service and faints. And it may be that the fugal finale represents the struggle between Faust and Mephistopheles for Gretchen’s soul, which would also help to explain the reference to “And He shall reign for ever and ever” from the Hallelujah Chorus of Handel’s Messiah . Speculations aside, the first movement shows the kind of mastery of sonata form that enabled the composer to use it flexibly. In the recapitulation he felt free to bring back ideas in a different order and his coda shows the kind of developmental thinking that Beethoven liked to impart to his codas. The soulful Andante, ostensibly in C minor, spends most of its time ingeniously avoiding that key. Mendelssohn’s modulations spin out effortlessly and eventually leave the listener in F minor rather in the home key. The second theme captivates with its slowly cascading chains of thirds, which impart a sense of yearning through beautiful suspensions. Mendelssohn’s inspiration for his celebrated Scherzo has been mentioned, but we should also note that the music poured from his pen as a complete thought. Only this movement of the four shows no crossings-out, revisions, or afterthoughts in the manuscript. Instead of using a traditional scherzo-trio-scherzo form he opted for a miniature sonata form, with the development section breaking out in seven-part imitation that anticipates the fugal finale. Mendelssohn himself noted that the Scherzo almost always elicited an encore. He later bowed to its popularity by adding wind parts and substituting it for the minuet of his First Symphony for a performance in London, a practice that was often repeated. The finale begins with a touch of humor as the second cello in its lowest register presents an energetic solo line, which soon blossoms into a cheerful eight-voice fugue. Mendelssohn offers the perfect foil to this contrapuntal complexity with a powerful second theme in fortissimo octaves. His inspired mix of sonata and rondo form, infused by fugal sections surely had its roots in Mozart’s celebrated Jupiter Symphony finale. Bows to two of his other predecessors occur in the development (middle episode)—first the Handel reference noted above, then a nod to Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony as he cleverly recalls the Scherzo just before the recapitulation. Throughout one can only marvel at the deft contrapuntal handling of the eight individual voices by the sixteen-year-old. The Octet, whose inspiration and effectiveness Mendelssohn may have recaptured but never surpassed, retained a lofty place in his affections. He later called it “my favorite of all my compositions,” nostalgically recalling that “I had the most beautiful time writing it.” © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

2018-2019 SEASON Dear Friends, I am very excited to welcome you to the twelfth season of Parlance Chamber Concerts. Forty-eight remarkable artists will grace our stage in eight exhilarating events. On September 23 , seven dazzling young musicians will blend solo panache and salon intimacy in virtuoso concertos in chamber settings by Mozart, Schubert, and Chausson . Our seasonal opener will start with the pristine classicism of Mozart’s 14th Piano Concerto and culminate with the dramatic romanticism of Ernest Chausson’s masterpiece for solo violin, piano, and string quartet. On October 14 , it will be an honor to welcome the renowned master pianist Garrick Ohlsson to our series for an afternoon of Brahms . The program will climax with the devilishly tricky Variations on a Theme of Paganini — a work so challenging that Clara Schumann called it “The Witches’s Variations!” On November 4 , the charismatic pianists Alessio Bax and Lucille Chung will join forces with eight leading members of the New York Philharmonic in Saint-Saëns’s beloved classic, Carnival of the Animals . The program will also include zoological favorites of Vivaldi, Musorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mozart, and others . Bring your entire family! Our December 16th event will feature the return of the great Emerson String Quartet with special guest cellist, David Finckel . The venerable ensemble and their erstwhile colleague will reunite for a festive performance of Schubert’s cherished Cello Quintet . On January 27 , the legendary violinist Pinchas Zukerman will collaborate with celebrated cellist Amanda Forsyth and pianist Angela Cheng in a performance of treasured piano trios by Beethoven, Arensky, and Brahms . Don’t miss this seasonal highlight! On March 24 , celebrate Bach ’s 334th Birthday with fourteen outstanding artists. The program will include six irresistible Bachian classics including the Double Violin Concerto, Third Brandenburg Concerto, and D-minor Piano Concerto . On April 14, violinist Anne Akiko Meyers and guitarist Jason Vieaux , two of the most scintillating artists of our time, will team up for an afternoon of sparkling music by Paganini, Piazzolla, Falla, and others . Anne Akiko Meyers was Billboard’s top-selling classical instrumentalist of 2014, and Jason Vieaux won the 2015 Grammy Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo. Their starry collaboration will cause sparks to fly! On May 19, Leading Members of the Metropolitan Opera and the Calidore String Quartet will explore the profoundly mysterious world of Mozart’s Last Year . The final event of the season will showcase Mozart’s works from 1791, including songs, arias, organ music, his last string quintet, and two mesmerizing works featuring glass harmonica . Michael Parloff Programs and artists are subject to change 2018-2019 SEASON September 23, 2018 Chamber Concerto October 14, 2018 Garrick Ohlsson, piano November 4, 2018 Carnival of the Animals Bax-Chung Duo and NY Phil Members December 16, 2018 Emerson String Quartet with David Finckel, guest cellist January 27, 2019 Pinchas Zukerman Trio March 24, 2019 Bach’s Birthday Concert April 14, 2019 Anne Akiko Meyers, violin Jason Vieaux, guitar May 19, 2019 Mozart’s Last Year: 1791 Members of the Met Opera and Calidore String Quartet Artist Roster Parlance Program Notes LOCATION At West Side Presbyterian Church 6 South Monroe Street Ridgewood, NJ 07450 For map and directions, click here . CONCERT AMENITIES Whee lchair Accessible Fr e e Parking for all concerts

ETTORE CAUSA, VIOLA Awarded both the “P. Schidlof Prize” and the “J. Barbirolli Prize” for “the most beautiful sound” at the prestigious Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition in 2000, Italian-born violist Ettore Causa has been praised for his exceptional artistry, passionate intelligence and complete musicianship. He has made solo and recital appearances in major venues around the world, and has performed at prestigious festivals. A devoted chamber musician, Causa has collaborated extensively with internationally renowned musicians. At the Yale School of Music, Causa teaches graduate-level viola students and coaches chamber ensembles. He has performed on the School’s Faculty Artist Series and Oneppo Chamber Music Series and at the Yale Summer School of Music/Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. Before Causa joined the faculty of the School of Music in 2009, he taught both viola and chamber music at the International Menuhin Music Academy. He attended the International Menuhin Music Academy, where he studied with Alberto Lysy and Johannes Eskar, and the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Michael Tree. Causa has published many highly regarded CDs on the Claves label. One notable recording is Romantic Transcriptions for Viola and Piano, on which he performshis own transcriptions, which was awarded a prestigious “5 Diapasons” by the French magazine Diapason. In 2015, he was one of the honored guests at the 43rd International Viola Congress, where he performed his own arrangement of the Schumann Cello Concerto. Causa is an honorary member of British Viola Society and he performs on a viola made for him by Frederic Chaudièrein 2003.