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ANNE AKIKO MEYERS, VIOLIN Violin superstar Anne Akiko Meyers is one of the most in-demand violinists in the world. Regularly performing as guest soloist with the world’s top orchestras, she presents ground-breaking recitals and is a best-selling recording artist with 35 albums. Meyers is known for her passionate performances, purity of sound, deeply poetic interpretations, innovative programming and commitment to commissioning significant new works from living composers. Anne’s recent recording of Rautavaara’s Fantasia was the only classical instrumental work to be selected on NPR’s 100 best songs of 2017. Fantasia, Anne’s 35th recording, includes works for violin and orchestra by Rautavaara, Ravel and the Szymanowski Concerto No.1, recorded with Kristjan Järvi and the Philharmonia Orchestra. In 2018, she will premiere a new violin concerto by Adam Schoenberg (which she commissioned) with the Phoenix and San Diego Symphony Orchestras. Anne will also return to Leipzig, Germany to premiere Rautavaara’s Fantasia with the MDR Leipzig Orchestra and has been invited by legendary composer, Arvo Pärt, to perform at the opening celebration of the new Arvo Pärt Centre in Estonia. Earlier this year, Anne performed the world premiere of Fantasia by Einojuhani Rautavaara, a work written for her and considered to be the composer’s final masterpiece, with the Kansas City Symphony, conducted by Michael Stern. She performed recitals in Florida, New York, Virginia, Washington D.C., and returned to the Nashville Symphony to perform the Bernstein Serenade with Giancarlo Guerrero. In May, she headlined the Kanazawa Music Festival performing the Beethoven Concerto with cadenzas by Mason Bates with the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa, toured New Zealand with the Mason Bates Violin Concerto and New Zealand Symphony, and returned to Krakow and Warsaw, Poland to perform the Szymanowski Concerto and Jakub Ciupinski’s newly orchestrated Wreck of the Umbria. Other recent projects include a nationwide PBS broadcast special and a Naxos DVD featuring the world premiere of Samuel Jones’ Violin Concerto with the All-Star Orchestra led by Gerard Schwarz, the French premiere of Mason Bates Violin Concerto with Leonard Slatkin and the Orchestre de Lyon, and two new recordings-Naïve Classics celebrating Arvo Pärt’s 80th birthday and a box set of Anne’s RCA Red Seal discography on Sony Classics. Anne’s prior releases the Four Seasons: The Vivaldi Album, debuted at #1 on the classical Billboard charts, as did Air: The Bach Album, and the Vivaldi was the recording debut of the Ex-Vieuxtemps’ Guarneri del Gesu violin, dated 1741, which was awarded to Meyers for her lifetime use. A champion of living composers, Meyers collaborates closely with many of today’s leading composers. She has expanded the violin repertoire by commissioning and premiering works by composers such as Mason Bates, Jakub Ciupinski, John Corigliano, Jennifer Higdon, Samuel Jones, Wynton Marsalis, Akira Miyoshi, Arvo Pärt, Gene Pritsker, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Somei Satoh, Adam Schoenberg and Joseph Schwantner. Anne has collaborated with a diverse array of artists outside of traditional classical, including jazz icons Chris Botti and Wynton Marsalis, avant-garde musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, electronic music pioneer Isao Tomita, pop-era act Il Divo and singer Michael Bolton. She performed the National Anthem in front of 42,000 fans at Safeco Field in Seattle, appeared twice on The Tonight Show and was featured in a segment on MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann that became that show’s the third most popular story of the year. Anne has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning, CBS’ “The Good Wife”, NPR’s Morning Edition with Linda Wertheimer, All Things Considered with Robert Siegel and recently curated “Living American” on Sirius XM Radio’s Symphony Hall with host David Srebnik. She was on the popular Nick Jr. show Take Me To Your Mother with Andrea Rosen, and best-selling novelist J. Courtney Sullivan consulted with Anne for The Engagements and based one of the main characters loosely on her career. She also collaborated with children’s book author and illustrator Kristine Papillon on Crumpet the Trumpet where the character Violetta the violinist is played by Anne. Anne Akiko Meyers was born in San Diego and grew up in Southern California. She studied with Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld at the Colburn School of Performing Arts, Josef Gingold at Indiana University, and Felix Galimir, Masao Kawasaki and Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School. She received the Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Distinguished Alumna Award from the Colburn School of Music and is on the advisory council of the American Youth Symphony Orchestra.

February 26, 2017: Emanuel Ax, piano FREDERIC CHOPIN (1810-1849) Four Impromptus, Opp. 29, 36, 51, & 66 February 26, 2017: Emanuel Ax, piano Between 1834 and 1842 Chopin composed four impromptus (opp. 66, 29, 36, and 51 in that order), which, though conceived as separate pieces, share certain thematic material and a basic ternary shape (ABA). For Chopin, imprompt u did not mean a piece of an improvisatory nature but rather a character piece—a common if vague nineteenth-century designation—and his impromptus show evidence that he revised his materials more than once before arriving at their final form. Chopin composed his so-called Fantasy-Impromptu in C-sharp minor c. 1834 , but decided not to publish it for unknown reasons. He himself called the piece an “impromptu,” but his friend Julian Fontana added “fantasy” to the title when he published it in 1855, six years after Chopin’s death. (An alternate version was also published from a presentation manuscript Chopin made for dedicatee Baroness d’Este.) In 1834 Chopin had not yet solidified what “impromptu” meant for him personally as a genre. He had recently published his Etudes, op. 10, and this first Impromptu belongs to that world. It also shows indebtedness to the Impromptu in E-flat major, op. 89, by Ignaz Moscheles and to Schubert’s Impromptu, op. 90, no. 2. (It has been suggested that similarities to the Moscheles Impromptu may have been a reason for withholding it from publication, but that notion is contradicted by the fact that he published other pieces modeled on those by Moscheles.) The C-sharp minor Impromptu continues to be one of Chopin’s most popular pieces. It unfolds in a simple ternary form whose outer sections feature rippling figuration from which a melody in longer notes emerges. The slower middle section offers an expansive, lyrical melody (later appropriated for the pop song “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows”), which Chopin treats several times at leisure before returning the scurrying opening section. He also recalls the tune in his ruminating coda. By 1837, when Chopin wrote his second Impromptu in A-flat major , he demonstrated his clear personal definition of the genre by modeling the piece on his own unpublished C-sharp minor Impromptu. Many commentators have pointed out similarities between the two in regard to formal design, texture, and details of phrase structure and motives. That this was a time of despair for Chopin, when his hopes of marrying Maria Wodziński were crushed, contrasts markedly with the effervescent atmosphere of this piece’s outer sections. The middle section becomes more ruminative but hardly brooding. Especially memorable are the cascading chromatics of the “A” sections and the harmonic digressions and melodic embellishments of the “B” section. Chopin composed the third Impromptu in F-sharp minor in 1839 at Nohant, the country estate of writer George Sand (pseudonym of Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin), with whom he had by now become romantically involved. Chopin scholar Jim Samson has argued persuasively that “this piece was the single most important harbinger of Chopin’s later style” in its variation style that is built on an ostinato (repeating pattern), its march-like middle section, and the threefold variation of the reprise. The manuscript reveals that the form of this prophetic composition caused Chopin a great struggle. Some of the most striking features of the piece are the astonishing tonal wrench to the unexpected key of F major for the return of the opening theme and the amazing figuration as the theme is varied—finger exercises transformed into magical effects. The delicate, harmonically adventurous fourth Impromptu in G-flat major , Chopin’s personal favorite, dates from the summer of 1842 at Nohant, polished the following autumn/winter. It exists in two versions, one transmitted through his onetime pupil Carl Filtsch, who copied it out either by ear or from a manuscript in 1841. If by ear, he hadn’t remembered how Chopin exquisitely varied the main theme in thirds and sixths on its later appearances, and, if copying from a manuscript, he must have been looking at a version from before Chopin arrived at this imaginative stroke. Chopin likely modeled his G-flat major Impromptu, especially the figuration of the outer sections, on his A-flat major Impromptu. The fourth Impromptu’s outer sections are striking for their ethereal rising scales before certain phrase endings, the adventurous harmonies of their transition passage, and a new second theme. In the slower middle section Chopin features a singing, contemplative melody in the cello register. The sophistication of his harmonies and intricately interconnected flow of ideas make it clear why Chopin favored this Impromptu and regrettable that it has often been overlooked. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

January 14, 2024: Goldmund Quartet ANTON WEBERN (1883-1945) Langsamer Satz January 14, 2024: Goldmund Quartet Webern was in love. In his third year as a student at the University of Vienna, he became romantically involved with his cousin Wilhelmine (Minna), and Webern’s diary, each entry filled with passionate outpourings combined with images of nature, radiates his happiness: “Our love rose to infinite heights and filled the universe! Two souls were enraptured!” The Langsamer Satz (“slow movement”), originally for string quartet, was composed in June 1905 as a direct expression of that love. They kept their affair secret knowing the anguish it would cause both sets of parents, but they married in 1911 after finding out Minna was pregnant. The marriage was officially prohibited by the Roman Catholic Church and solemnized only in 1915, by which time three of the couple’s four children had been born. In 1904 Webern had begun private composition studies with Arnold Schoenberg, which were to have profound impact on his life. There are some indications in the original set of parts for Langsamer Satz that the work was played, most likely within the Schoenberg “circle,” but Webern never made the work public. He may have suppressed it as a student work or because his compositional style soon underwent a major shift toward Schoenberg’s atonal language. In any case, it was not until 1962, almost twenty years after his death, that the world first heard this moving piece, performed on May 27 in Seattle by the University of Washington String Quartet. Langsamer Satz shows Webern’s indebtedness to late Romanticism in its rich harmonies and sweeping melodic lines. While this kind of expressiveness soon became telescoped into bare essentials, the movement exhibits the contrapuntal techniques that enabled him to structure even his most concise serial compositions. The piece consists of four basic sections, the fourth a reprise of the first, plus a coda. Though the key of the movement is E-flat major, the flowing opening melody gives the initial impression of C minor. A short, more restless section in G minor precedes a beautiful new calm theme that, if the opening was not enough, puts to rest questions about Webern’s lyrical abilities. The section peaks with the opening bar of this theme played triple forte, doubled in three octaves. In the reprise of the opening section, the second statement of the main theme is now the property of the cello. A coda based on the lyrical third section climaxes ecstatically and Webern’s wordless expression of love concludes quietly in E-flat major after a brief reminiscence of the C minor opening. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

October 27, 2019: Quartetto di Cremona OTTORINO RESPIGHI (1879-1936) String Quartet in D major October 27, 2019: Quartetto di Cremona Respighi received his earliest musical training on the violin. At age twelve he enrolled at the Liceo Musicale in Bologna, where he studied violin with Federico Sarti, eminent teacher of a whole string of violin prodigies. Judging by contemporary reports of his playing, Respighi could have made a career solely as a violinist had not his interests turned toward composition and, partly as a composition tool, toward the piano. While in Russia in 1900 he played principal viola in the Imperial Opera orchestra, continuing to study violin between rehearsals and performances. While in St. Petersburg he also met and studied with Rimsky-Korsakov, who had a profound influence on his development as a composer. Even after Respighi’s return to Bologna in 1902, when his compositions began receiving wider recognition, he continued to perform as a violinist and violist. In 1903 he also became the violist of the Mugellini Piano Quintet, with which he performed until 1908. Thus, though Respighi is known principally for his large orchestral pieces that celebrate the glories of Rome, it makes complete sense that he also wrote smaller scale chamber music all his life. Most of his chamber works, however, date from his early period, 1895 to 1910, and many of the early works remain unpublished. Respighi composed the D major Quartet, actually his third quartet, in 1904 (not 1907 as often stated), and it was first performed in 1906 in Bologna, but it remained unpublished until 1921. The first movement’s lush, Romantic, harmonically ranging first theme immediately proclaims Respighi’s confidence. Some consider it a precursor to his Trevi Fountain music in The Fountains of Rome. The more playful second theme provides contrast with its leaps and silences. Both themes frequently incorporate triplet motion. The movement ends in ethereal high harmonics over a poignant rising cello solo, followed by a more earthbound closing gesture. The highly chromatic slow movement unfolds as a moody theme and variations. Seamlessly, the first admits faster note values, the second becomes almost eerie in its winding chromaticism, and the third features an active cello melody with persistent “chatter” in the other parts. There follows a slow waltz over a drone, a slow smooth contrapuntal variation led off by the cello, a sprightly dancelike variation, and a sorrowful final variation whose lush lines for the three upper instruments are intensified by insistent drone-like repeated notes in the cello. A tender introductory gesture launches Respighi’s lightly scampering scherzo, which he calls Intermezzo. After an impassioned central section, he repeats the scherzo literally and appends a sweetly pensive coda. The finale takes off like a galloping tarantella over persistent, fast repeated-note chords. The second theme provides lovely lyrical contrast. After recapping his themes, Respighi inserts a shimmering passage of harmonics and builds over another drone to polish off his tarantella grandly in the major mode. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

YING FANG, SOPRANO Soprano Ying Fang has been hailed by the New York Times for her “pure and moving soprano, phrasing with scrupulous respect for the line and traveling with assurance through the mercurial moods,” as well as “singing with a fresh, appealing soprano and acting with coquettish flair.” She is blooming as a well-rounded singer. Ms. Fang has most recently performed Susanna in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro conducted by Gary Thor Wedow and directed by Stephen Wadsworth at The Juilliard School. She sang the title role in Gluck’s Iphigenie en Aulide conducted by Jane Glover. She sang The Dew Fairy in Hansel and Gretel, Barbarina in the season opening new production of Le Nozze di Figaro conducted by James Levine at the Metropolitan Opera. She has performed Cleopatra in Wolf Trap Opera Company’s 2014 production of Giulio Cesare. She has been featured in The Metropolitan Opera and The Juilliard School’s production of “A concert of comic operas” conducted by James Levine, in which she sang Konstanze, Teresa, and Adina. Ms. Fang made her Metropolitan Opera debut in their 2013–14 season, singing the role of Madame Podtochina’s Daughter in Shostakovich’s opera The Nose. The roles she performed include: Contessa di Folleville in Rossini’s Il Viaggio a Reims with Wolf Trap Opera Company, the title role in Mozart’s opera Zaide with the New World Symphony; Bellezza in Handel’s oratorio Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno with the Juilliard 415 under the baton of William Christie at Alice Tully Hall. She was also heard in the role of Pamina in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte with the Aspen Opera Theater Center, and gained acclaim: “Soprano Ying Fang sang Pamina with a creamy tone and marvelous specificity in each moment” (The Aspen Times). She also did Maria in Bernstein’s West Side Story with the Aspen Opera Theater Center. She made her Alice Tully Hall debut performing Handel’s motet Silete Venti with conductor Steven Fox leading the Juilliard 415. She sang the soprano solo in Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Filene Center in Wolf Trap. In Juilliard opera productions, she has been featured as Zerlina in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Fanny in Rossini’s La Cambiale di Matrimonio, and The Spirit of the Boy in Britten’s Curlew River. A native of Ningbo, China, Ms. Fang is the recipient of Martin E. Segal Award, Hildegard Behrens Foundation Award, The Rose Bampton Award of The Sullivan Foundation, The Opera Index Award of The 2013 Opera Index Vocal Competition and 1st Prize Award of 2013 Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition. She won one of China’s most prestigious awards, the 2009 7th Chinese Golden Bell Award for Music. One of the youngest singers ever accorded this honor, she has been hailed as “the most gifted Chinese soprano of her generation” (Ningbo Daily). Ms. Fang holds a master’s degree from The Juilliard School and a bachelor’s degree from The Shanghai Conservatory of Music. She is a member of The Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and The Artist Diploma in Opera Study program at Juilliard.

FRED SHERRY, CELLO Fred Sherry has introduced audiences on five continents and all fifty United States to the music of our time for over five decades. He was a founding member of Tashi and Speculum Musicae, Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and has been a member of the Group for Contemporary Music, Berio’s Juilliard Ensemble and the Galimir String Quartet. He has also enjoyed a close collaboration with jazz pianist and composer Chick Corea. Elliott Carter, Mario Davidovsky, Steve Mackey, David Rakowski, Somei Satoh, Charles Wuorinen and John Zorn have written concertos for Sherry which he has performed with orchestras including the San Francisco Symphony, Municipal Orchestra of Buenos Aires, BBC Symphony Orchestra, New York CIty Ballet, Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, New World Symphony, and RAI Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale. He has premiered solo and chamber works dedicated to him by Milton Babbitt, Derek Bermel, Jason Eckardt, Lukas Foss, Oliver Knussen, Peter Lieberson, Donald Martino and Toru Takemitsu among others, and has appeared at Festivals including Aldeburgh, Casals, Tanglewood, Spoleto, Toru Takemitsu’s Music Today, Chamber Music Northwest, OK Mozart, Ravinia, and Mostly Mozart. Fred Sherry created the series “Bach Cantata Sundays” at St. Ann’s Church and conceived and directed the acclaimed “Arnold Schoenberg: Conservative Radical” series at Merkin Concert Hall. He was the creator and director of “A Great Day in New York,” the groundbreaking festival featuring 52 living composers presented by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Merkin Concert Hall. Mr. Sherry’s vast discography encompasses a wide range of classic and modern repertoire. He has been soloist and “sideman” on hundreds of commercial and esoteric recordings for RCA, Columbia, Vanguard, CRI, Albany, Bridge, ECM, New World, Delos, Naxos, Tzadik and others. Mr. Sherry was the organizer for Robert Craft’s New York recording sessions from 1995-2012, performing as cellist and forming groups of brilliant and dedicated musicians. This longstanding collaboration produced celebrated performances of the Schoenberg Cello Concerto, all four String Quartets and the String Quartet Concerto as well as major works by Stravinsky and Webern. A member of the cello faculty of The Juilliard School, The Mannes School of Music and The Manhattan School of Music, Mr. Sherry has presented master classes at Curtis Institute of Music, McGill University, Indiana University, and was the Director of the Contemporary Performance Institute at the Composers Conference from 2015-2019. He has served on international juries including the Premio Paolo Borciani String Quartet Competition in Italy, OSM Standard Life Competition in Montreal and Young Concert Artists in New York. Fred Sherry’s book 25 Bach Duets from the Cantatas was published by Boosey & Hawkes in 2011, the revised edition was released in 2019. C.F. Peters unveiled his treatise on contemporary string playing, A Grand Tour of Cello Technique, in 2018.

January 31, 2010 – Cecilia Brauer, glass harmonica WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791) Adagio in C for Armonica, K. 617 January 31, 2010 – Cecilia Brauer, glass harmonica While visiting England in 1757, Benjamin Franklin attended a concert by a “wine glass organist.” Charmed by the ethereal tones that the performer drew from the rims of the crystal goblets, the ever creative Franklin imagined a mechanical instrument that would allow for greater technical fluency and a full range of chord voicing. His resulting invention, the “armonica, ” was later described by an Italian acquaintance, Alessandro Vietri: “I have been to see the Newton of electricity, the famous Franklin. He is a man of over fifty years of age. You know that by pressing and sliding a moistened finger over the edge of a glass a sound is produced. He has made the instrument on this principle. He has strung on a spindle, or common axis, as many glass bells as correspond to the pegs of a harpsichord, proportionately graduated. The spindle turns by means of the left foot, with a wheel, as the knife grinder does. At the same time one touches with the fingers, as one does a harpsichord, the bells which spin like wheels, after having first wet them slightly with a sponge. A melody comes out which goes to the heart.” Franklin’s musical invention became voguish during the 18th and 19th Centuries. European monarchs were captivated by the instrument, and major composers such as C.P.E. Bach, Gaetano Donizetti, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Camille Saint-Saëns contributed works to showcase its unique sonority. Mozart first encountered the instrument in the Vienna home of the famous German physician-astrologist Franz Mesmer, who incorporated its hallucinogenic strains into his displays of “Mesmerism.” In 1791 the 35-year-old Mozart attended a performance by the reigning armonica virtuosa of the day, Marianne Kirchgaessner. Blinded at the age of four by smallpox, she had learned the armonica as a child and had become a sensational performer on the instrument. A critic of the day wrote, “she plays with an unbelievable talent, full of gentle grace and feeling.” Mozart evidently concurred. So inspired was he by the performance that he composed for her the Adagio in C for solo armonica; the Adagio & Rondo in C for armonica, flute, oboe, viola, and cello; and he began to write a third work, a Fantasia in C for the same combination, but completed only the first 13 measures. Mozart’s two completed works for armonica ranked among the most popular works in Kirchgaessner’s repertoire. The four-minute Adagio, composed at the same time as The Magic Flute, perfectly captures the angelic essence of the armonica. Spiritually akin to the dignified chorales and marches that Mozart wrote for the Priests of Isis and Osiris, the Adagio blends innocence and simplicity with an aura of mystery and timeless wisdom. By Michael Parloff Return to Parlance Program Notes

December 16, 2018: Emerson Quartet FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797-1828) String Quintet in C major, D. 956, op. posth. 163 December 16, 2018: Emerson Quartet Between August and October 1828, just before his tragically early death in November, Schubert completed an amazing number of pieces, widely varying in character and containing some of his most beautiful music—the three late piano sonatas, the song collection Schwanengesang, the incredible C major String Quintet, and Der Hirt auf dem Felsen (The Shepherd on the Rock). The great quantity and quality may have been an act of defiance by one who knew he had little time left, but they could just as easily have been the product of one confident in his creative powers who had no thoughts of dying, since he had always recovered from previous illnesses. No sketches nor autograph manuscript of the miraculous String Quintet survive to give clues about its gestation. It is entirely possible that the work’s total creation took place within two weeks that September. We know only that the Quintet had been recently completed from a letter to publisher Probst on October 2 offering the work for publication along with the three piano sonatas and some Heine songs. In that letter Schubert mentioned that the Quintet would be “tried over in the near future,” something that did not actually happen until 1850 and in a cut version at that. Probst turned down the Quintet, probably because such a large-scale chamber work would not sell well (though he expressed interest in the songs). This masterpiece was not published until 1853. Schubert’s String Quintet has become one of the most beloved chamber music works of all time. Its endless flow of gorgeous melodies and advanced modulating harmonies, its engaging mixture of tenderness and robustness, and its luxurious sonority enhanced by the presence of a second cello have spoken in an especially personal way to audiences and performers alike. Much has been made of Schubert’s pioneering medium—the presence of two cellos rather than two violas as in Mozart’s great Quintets. “Pioneering” is justified here since Boccherini’s earlier two-cello quintets contained a soloistic first cello part to show off his own playing, whereas Schubert’s five players are all equal participants in a true piece of chamber music. Many reasons for his choice have been offered, but the simplest is probably that he loved the sound of the cello in its tenor range but did not want to give up its bass support. This wondrous work, like his G major Quartet two years earlier, begins simply with a sustained chord that blossoms into melodic and rhythmic fragments. The way in which he immediately transforms these elements portends a movement of great breadth and imagination, but nothing can fully prepare the listener for the melting beauty of the second theme. If for no other reason, the sonority of the two cellos singing high above the viola’s bass line more than justifies Schubert’s chosen quintet configuration. This lilting theme makes many appearances in various instrumental configurations, giving the movement its overall sense of serenity, though Schubert does introduce enough dramatic conflict, particularly in the development section, to provide balance. One of the crowning jewels of the Quintet is its exquisite Adagio, one of Schubert’s rare essays in such a slow tempo. The drawn-out unfolding of his theme seems to suspend time, a quality that speaks volumes about Schubert’s confidence and prowess. His memorable texture has the three middle instruments playing the sustained theme while the first violin provides fragmented outbursts and the second cello pizzicato support. Without warning the middle section explodes passionately in a distantly related key, after which the sublime opening section returns with inspired variants. Toward the end, the turbulent music tries to intrude but is quickly repressed by the prevailing calm. The extraordinarily moving quality of this music led both celebrated pianist Artur Rubinstein and esteemed writer Thomas Mann to say they would choose this movement to hear on their deathbeds. The scherzo’s stomping peasant dance, replete with hunting calls, contains remarkable harmonic shifts and bold dissonances that lend a sophisticated sheen to the merriment. No greater contrast can be imagined than the somber, introspective trio that is ultimately brushed aside by the return of the merry Scherzo. The finale imparts rustic Hungarian flavor with its vigorous short-long rhythms in the accompaniment and shifts between minor and major. The lilting second theme gives a more elegant, courtly impression. Toward the end he creates an unforgettable sonority by offsetting the cellos, again in duet, against delicate arching chords in the upper three voices. His exuberant coda speeds up twice to provide a dazzling conclusion. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

November 14, 2021 – Schumann String Quartet FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847) String Quartet in A minor, Op. 13 November 14, 2021 – Schumann String Quartet Mendelssohn’s A minor Quartet would have been an amazing achievement for a mature, fifty- or sixty-year-old composer. That he wrote it at the age of eighteen can scarcely be comprehended. Yet it may have been just because of his youth that it emerged as a masterpiece: he was young enough to have been greatly impressed by the works of Beethoven’s late period, but not old enough to be daunted by them. Mendelssohn wrote his A minor Quartet in 1827, the very year Beethoven died. Not only was Mendelssohn influenced by Beethoven’s Quartet in the same key, op. 132, which he must have known even though it was not published until the end of 1827, but he took thorough notice of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, especially the recall of themes from preceding movements in the Finale and Beethoven’s use of instrumental recitative. Earlier in 1827 Mendelssohn had composed a short song entitled “Frage” (Question), which set some lines by J. G. Droyson (known as “Voss”): “Ist es wahr? das du stets dort in dem Laubgang?” (Is it true that you are always waiting for me in the arbored walk?) The song, marked Thema, is printed at the head of the Quartet score in the Breitkopf & Härtel Complete Works edition. Mendelssohn used the three-note questioning motive for “Ist es wahr?” as the Quartet’s motto. The use of a “texted” motto naturally brings to mind Beethoven’s last String Quartet, op. 135, published in September 1827, with its “Muss es sein?” “Es muss sein!” motto. The Opus 135 Quartet was not premiered until 1828; but provided Mendelssohn became acquainted with Beethoven’s immediately upon its publication, he would have had nearly a month to incorporate this idea into his Quartet, which he completed on October 27. Mendelssohn first presents his “Ist es wahr?” motive in the Adagio introduction just before the onset of the Allegro vivace. He also bases the main theme of the movement on the motto, though disguised by the change to the minor mode and a switch to 4/4 instead of 3/4: after the scurrying sixteenth notes, the viola, imitated by the other instruments, plays the theme based on the motto rhythm. The use of E minor as the secondary key area gives the first movement some of its intensity, as do the fugal writing and high level of dissonance, which again bring Beethoven to mind. We know from some remarks Mendelssohn made about the Quartet’s success with the Parisian avant-garde that he knew he was being revolutionary. The slow movement, curiously marked Adagio non lento, reaches an even higher level of dissonance, especially in the fugal D minor section that follows the opening F major passage. Links to the motto theme can be found in both. After the climax of the developmental middle section, a violin cadenza brings about the return of the opening theme; the fugal section is recalled, but masterfully transformed. Rather than a scherzo, which was usual by this time, Mendelssohn wrote an Intermezzo for the third movement. Its elfin “trio” brings to mind the fleeting scherzos from A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the Octet. The main theme and the trio are cleverly joined in the coda, a feature he would return to in his later quartets. The finale shows a truly remarkable conception. It opens with a dramatic violin recitative over tremolo chords, and ingenious thematic references begin to crowd in. Mendelssohn increases the drama by delaying the establishment of the home key of A minor. The exposition ends forcefully in E minor. The development begins with a subdued treatment of the fugal subject from the slow movement in three-part counterpoint. The violent octave outburst signals the end of the development at which point the movement’s opening recitative over tremolo reappears. Eventually the first violin alone states the fugal subject in the original key, meter, and tempo. Its continuation prepares the work’s perhaps inevitable conclusion: the return of A major, and the opening of the first movement, based on “Ist es wahr?” This time, however, Mendelssohn fully makes the connection with the song by quoting its ending completely: “Was ich fühle, das begreift nur, die es mitfühlt, und die treu mir ewig bleibt” (What I feel, can only mean, she feels it with me, and will stay ever true to me). (Note: Though it is generally agreed that the Quartet is in A minor, it is frequently listed in A major because of the short opening and closing sections in the major.) © 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

September 29, 2024: Edward Arron, Carter Brey, Rafael Figueroa, and Zvi Plesser, cellos Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Vor deinen Thron tret’ ich hiermit arr. for four cellos by Finckel Cello Quartet September 29, 2024: Edward Arron, Carter Brey, Rafael Figueroa, and Zvi Plesser, cellos Bach, who stayed remarkably healthy for most of his life, began losing his sight toward the end to the point that the unbearable pain and hindrance to his work led him to undergo an eye operation by the noted English oculist John Taylor, who was lecturing in Leipzig in March 1750. Though the operation initially seemed successful, a second operation had to be performed, which might have helped had not the post-operative procedures of the day weakened Bach’s entire system, causing total blindness, fever, and—ten days before he died—a stroke. Only at this point did Bach realize that death was near. Sometime during his last week, Bach’s thoughts turned to Wenn wir in hochsten Noten sein (When we are in greatest need), BWV 668, a 45-measure chorale prelude that he had expanded from his 12-measure chorale setting c. 1712–13 of the same name (BWV 641) and included in the Orgel-Büchlein. The expanded work belongs to the collection of chorale preludes known as the “Great Eighteen,” revised c. 1739–42 in Leipzig. As Bach lay on his deathbed, apparently having asked an organist friend to play the chorale prelude for him, he began thinking about the original sixteenth-century melody that had also been sung to the words “Vor deinen Thron tret’ ich hiermit” (“Before your throne I now appear”) and that their complementary texts perfectly suited his own end-of-life thoughts. Ever the earnest perfectionist, he realized even then that he wanted to make several improvements prior to standing in judgment before his God. Bach dictated the tweaks to a student, and apparently the same student or another copyist made a fair copy of this slightly revised version at the end of a manuscript of organ works in Bach’s hand that included revisions to others of the Great Eighteen. (Unfortunately the last page of that copy disappeared at some point.) The year after Bach’s death, his son Carl Philipp Emanuel—who knew that his father had been tinkering with BWV 668 on his deathbed—issued The Art of Fugue with this chorale prelude at the end, thinking it a more fitting conclusion than the final four-voice fugue that the elder Bach had left incomplete. Not knowing about the dictated revisions, C.P.E. simply included BWV 668 as it had appeared earlier but with the new title, Vor den Thron tret’ ich hiermit. In either version Bach demonstrates his great artistry, and his deathbed revisions stand as a testament to his continual striving for perfection. The work, heard this afternoon in the four-cello arrangement made by the Finckel Cello Quartet, presents the four phrases of the chorale melody in the upper voice, each preceded by a fugal exposition based on what eventually appears as counterpoint to that section of the melody. Bach’s brings contrapuntal mastery to his fugal entries by incorporating inversion (mirror image of intervals) and, toward the end, diminution (shortened note values). A nice harmonic diversion dramatically sets up the final chord. —©Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

OLIVER NEUBAUER, VIOLIN (2021) Praised for his sensitive and uniquely beautiful playing, twenty-year-old violinist Oliver Neubauer is establishing himself as an artist of great emotional depth and maturity beyond his years. This summer, Oliver is grateful for the opportunity to perform live music for socially distanced audiences at the Bravo! Vail music festival, collaborating with the Dover Quartet and artistic director Anne-Marie McDermott, among others. In the upcoming season, Oliver will make his debut with the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players and return to Parlance Chamber Concerts. Appearances at Cape Cod Music Festival and Chamber Music Northwest as a protegé artist were unfortunately canceled due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Oliver has been invited to attend the Perlman Music Program Chamber Workshop and Verbier Festival Academy in the summer of 2021. Past seasons have included appearances at the Four Seasons Winter Workshop, Palm Beach Chamber Music Society, Bravo! Vail, YoungArts Miami, Parlance Chamber Concerts, If Music Be the Food NYC, Mostly Music Series, Summerfest La Jolla, Music@Menlo, Lake Champlain Music Festival, OKM Music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest, Music in the Vineyards, Art in Avila in Curaçao, and Music from Angel Fire. Oliver has performed at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall on numerous occasions as well as Symphony Space, the American Museum of Natural History, Neue Gallery, Alice Tully Hall, and David Geffen Hall. Oliver also performed with his sister Clara at the Waldorf Astoria for a 9/11 Memorial and Museum Benefit Dinner, where they shared the stage with Robert De Niro and Bernadette Peters. At the age of twelve years old, Oliver attended the Music@Menlo program for the first time and played Mozart’s E-flat Piano Quartet, an experience that sparked a deep passion for chamber music that remains with him to this day. Since then, Oliver returned to Menlo for three more summers, was a member of the New York Youth Symphony Chamber Music Program from 2013-2015, performed at Juilliard ChamberFest in 2017, and attended the Four Seasons Winter Workshop in 2019 and 2020. Coming from a musical home, Oliver performs frequently with his father Paul Neubauer, mother Kerry McDermott, and sister Clara Neubauer. He has also collaborated and performed with many esteemed artists, including Carter Brey, Fred Sherry, Ani Kavafian, Michael Kannen, Kwan Yi, Ara Gregorian, Sophie Shao, Carmit Zori, the Ulysses Quartet, Axel Strauss, and Steve Tenenbom. As a soloist, Oliver has appeared with numerous orchestras, including the National Repertory Orchestra, the Sound Symphony Orchestra (as winner of their 2016 competition), the New York Concerti Sinfonietta, and the Symphony of Westchester (as winner of their 2018 competition). Oliver received the Gold Award at the 2018 National YoungArts Competition and has garnered top prizes in the 2020 Adelphi Competition, the 2017 Young Musicians Competition at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and the Artist in You Competition sponsored by the Doublestop Foundation, among others. In the summer of 2019, Oliver spent a week in Sao Paulo, Brazil, working with the Guri youth string orchestra and teaching masterclasses. Deeply inspired by the spirit of music making during the exchange program, Oliver hopes to recreate that atmosphere of genuine passion, joy, and curiosity in communities around the world. Oliver has also donated his services to organizations such as Save the Children, Concerts in Motion, Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, Little Orchestra Society, Goddard Riverside Community Center, and Temple Israel. In 2013, Oliver made his debut with the New York Philharmonic as the narrator for Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra in a YPC. Outside of music, Oliver loves playing chess (having competed in dozens of national tournaments), playing ping pong, eating freshly baked cookies, and discussing philosophy. Currently obsessed with the soundtrack of “Fiddler on the Roof,” Oliver spends an abnormal amount of time listening to the entire album on Spotify. Oliver attends the Juilliard School in New York City, where he studies with Itzhak Perlman and Li Lin and is a proud recipient of the Kovner Fellowship. Prior to his studies at Juilliard, Oliver attended the Dalton School, Juilliard Pre-College, and the Perlman Music Program. Previous teachers include Sophie Arbuckle and Arik Braude. Oliver plays a 1734 Matteo Goffriller violin, generously on loan to him from the Juilliard String Instrument Collection.