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October 27, 2019: Quartetto di Cremona GIUSEPPE VERDI (1813–1901) String Quartet in E minor October 27, 2019: Quartetto di Cremona Verdi suddenly found himself with time on his hands in a hotel room in Naples in the spring of 1873. Teresa Stolz, his leading soprano, had fallen ill just after Don Carlos had opened and just as concurrent rehearsals were to begin for Aida. Since she was to sing in both, things ground to a halt and Aida’s premiere was postponed several weeks. Did Verdi relax? Did he work on another operatic project? No—to everyone’s great surprise, he wrote his only piece of solely instrumental music, his String Quartet in E minor. What possessed him to write a string quartet, that most hallowed of media, late in life and without prior experience? We can only assume he was confident he had the skill and wanted to prove it, and because the chance might never come again. On April 1, just after Aida opened, he invited seven or eight guests to the Hotel delle Croce, where he had set up music stands and four chairs. Soon four musicians from the theater orchestra—identified only as the Pinto brothers, violins, Salvadore, viola, and Giaritiello, cello—entered and played the Quartet for the surprised but delighted guests. They were so pleased that they demanded an encore, which Verdi granted, though he himself was unsure whether he liked the Quartet. “I don’t know whether the Quartet is beautiful or ugly,” wrote Verdi to Count Arrivabene several weeks later, “but I do know it’s a Quartet!” For a time Verdi refused to publish the Quartet or to allow other performances, though he did schedule another himself, this time for an invited audience of 100 guests at the Hôtel de Bade when he was in Paris in 1876 for a production of Aida. The Quartet was again received with great enthusiasm, which finally led Verdi to consent to its publication. He must have begun to think fondly of it, for he later indicated he would be willing to conduct a full string orchestra performance of the Quartet in London. Though many commentators have weighed in on whether it has the “proper” sort of working out expected from the Germanic tradition, or whether any operatic “weaknesses” have crept in, the fact remains that it contains wonderful melodic ideas, skillful and idiomatic writing for the strings, and—something Verdi enthusiasts delight in—an occasional hint of one or another of his operas. Verdi had studied the Classic quartets of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven with his composition teacher Vincenzo Lavigna, and it is said that he kept scores of them on a shelf above his bed. Verdi’s Quartet does not sound Classical, nor German, but it does maintain a light enough texture and enough elements of Classical form to sound retrospective. The sonata-form first movement centers around a melancholic wisp of an idea that begins in the low register of the second violin, then begins again, and is finally expanded. The process is repeated again an octave higher with the first violin. Several commentators have found hints of Aida in this theme, which then generates a great deal of activity. The second theme brings a contemplative though brief contrast in smooth four-part writing. Verdi condenses the form so that the first theme is still being developed until the recapitulation begins with the second theme. The second movement contrasts graceful, lilting outer sections with a sweet theme in longer note values and another restless, agitated section. The chromatic inflections of the outer theme give it a more Romantic than Classic flavor. Its return at the midpoint of the movement, between the two episodes, hints at rondo form, though this appearance occurs in a very remote key. The extroverted third movement, which begins at a lightning quick pace, imparts an impish off-kilter effect with its many irregular phrase lengths. The trio section has the cello “sing” an expressive melody to light pizzicato accompaniment—a section that would sound right at home in one of Verdi’s operas. His return to the opening follows traditional scherzo-trio-scherzo form. Verdi shows off all his contrapuntal prowess in the fugal finale. This is a gossamer fugue, however, not majestic nor weighty, prompting Julian Budden’s characterization as “a light-hearted Grosse Fuge,” referring to Beethoven’s monumental quartet movement. The composer himself labels it “Scherzo Fuga,” employing the term scherzo in its original meaning of a merry jest, rather than as a designation for a movement like his third, in triple meter and ternary-form. Several commentators have heard in this finale a premonition of the conclusion of Falstaff, the great comic opera of Verdi’s last years. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

December 19, 2017: Alessio Bax, piano; Lucille Chung, piano WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791) Sonata for Piano Four-Hands in C major, K. 521 December 19, 2017: Alessio Bax, piano; Lucille Chung, piano Four-hand piano music—two players at one keyboard—first surfaced in England in the early seventeenth century and became immensely popular in the mid-eighteenth century. As children/teenagers in the 1760s, Mozart and his gifted older sister Maria Anna (Nannerl) greatly popularized four-hand playing all over Europe through the tours they were taken on by their father Leopold. A famous painting of the Mozart family from about 1780 depicts the two showing crosse-hand technique at the keyboard, their father standing by with violin, and a portrait of their recently deceased mother on the wall. Wolfgang apparently wrote his first four-hand sonata, K. 19d, in London in 1765 when he was nine years old. Nannerl also mentioned in a letter of 1800 that she had other similar four-hand works in her possession, some of which may have been even earlier works, but all of which regrettably are lost. Wolfgang returned to the genre in 1772 with the D major Sonata, K. 123a (K. 381), probably influenced by seeing circulating manuscripts of Charles Burney’s four-hand sonatas even before they were printed in 1777 as the first published set of piano duets. Mozart went on to complete three more, of which the present C major Sonata of 1787 was the last. In Mozart’s day it was customary for the woman to play primo (the higher part, often with the melody) and the man secondo (the lower part, often with the bass support)—Wolfgang and his sister always played thus and perhaps instigated the custom. (From 1769 onward, having reached marriageable age, Nannerl was no longer permitted to perform in public.) Charles Burney, famous for his observations on musical life in many European countries, requested that a lady who wished to play piano duets should remove the hoops from her skirt, and not be embarrassed if her left hand occasionally grazed the gentleman’s right. Today’s piano-duet players—as in the case of Alessio Bax and Lucille Chung—like to change up who plays which part for any number of reasons. In his own thematic catalog, Mozart dated the C major Sonata May 29, 1787, which happened to be the very day he received word of the death of his father Leopold. He shared the sad news that day with one of his best friends, Viennese court official and amateur musician Gottfried von Jacquin, at the same time asking him to “have the goodness to give the sonata to my lady, your sister [Franziska, one of Mozart’s most talented pupils], with my compliments—but she might have a go at it immediately, for it is a bit difficult.” Evidently Mozart was eager to play it with her! Several months earlier he had nicknamed Franziska “Signora Dinimininimi” (related to diminutio and minim), no doubt referring to her skill at playing fast notes. As it turned out, when Mozart published the piece the following year, he dedicated it to some other members of the Jacquin circle, Babette and Nanette Natorp, the young daughters of a wealthy Viennese merchant. Babette was also a pupil of Mozart’s and later married Gottfried and Franziska’s older brother Josef Franz. The C major Sonata breathes grace and elegance, much like Eine kleine Nachtmusik, which he composed just two months later—and in great contrast to the more brilliant character of the F major four-hand Sonata composed just ten months before. The C major Sonata’s sparkling first movement opens by contrasting a forthright idea in octave unison with a more delicate response that alternately highlights the secondo and primo parts. Mozart begins his elegant second theme with a distinct three-note pickup to a dotted idea related to the movement’s opening pronouncement, into which he injects darting fast-note decorations. His development section is a fascinating excursion through new ideas and keys that includes storm and brief melancholy before winding up to a full recapitulation. The middle movement ambles sweetly in its outer sections, which surround a more agitated central section. Each of these sections takes on the binary form of a traditional dance-suite movement—two halves each repeated, except for the return to the opening section which is reprised without repeats. The final rondo shows Mozart’s mastery of understatement in its genial refrain. Its subtle charms provide a great foil for the remarkable yet still seemingly effortless virtuosity of its intervening episodes. Mozart’s ingenuity shows up in some wonderfully unexpected harmonic diversions in the episodes and even in the coda, which Mozart caps with emphatic chords. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

December 3, 2023: Brentano String Quartet; Antioch Chamber Ensemble LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) Cavatina from String Quartet in B-flat, Op. 130 December 3, 2023: Brentano String Quartet; Antioch Chamber Ensemble 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. Though the prince may have sensed something new in the first of the quartets (E-flat major, op. 127) and might have raised an eyebrow when the second (A minor, op. 132) appeared with an “extra” march and recitative before the finale, he must have been astounded by the third (B-flat major, op. 130). Composed between August and November 1825 in its original version, the B-flat Quartet began with an outwardly normal first movement only to be followed by a suite of four shorter movements and capped by a fugue of incomprehensible scope and difficulty. The prince pronounced himself pleased with the Quartets, but was only able to make one payment before going bankrupt and joining the army. Too late for Beethoven himself, but in the proper spirit, a son of Galitzin paid with interest what was owed into the Beethoven estate. The ever-faithful Schuppanzigh Quartet premiered the B-flat Quartet on March 21, 1826. Despite clamorous applause for other movements, the colossal fugue met with some resistance and the usually headstrong Beethoven was somehow persuaded to detach it and compose another concluding movement. Eventually, however, performances proliferated with the original ending—or sometimes both. The fifth movement, Cavatina, one of Beethoven’s most introspective and eloquent pieces, borrows its title from the term for an operatic aria. The emotional force of this “prayer” never failed to touch the composer himself. His friend, violinist Karl Holz reported that “the Cavatina was composed amid tears of grief; never had [Beethoven’s] music reached such a pitch of expressiveness, and the very memory of this piece used to bring tears to his eyes.” In an outwardly simple three-part form, the movement climaxes with the heartrending sobs of the first violin—Beethoven marks these “beklemmt” (oppressed, fearful)—before the condensed reprise of the opening. The emotional impact that Holz reported is so widely recognized that the movement is often played as a memorial tribute. Return to Parlance Program Notes

TIM FAIN, VIOLIN With his adventuresome spirit and vast musical gifts, violinist Tim Fain has emerged as a mesmerizing new presence on the music scene. The “charismatic young violinist with a matinee idol profile, strong musical instincts, and first rate chops” (Boston Globe) was featured as the sound of Richard Gere’s violin in Bee Season. Selected as one of Symphony magazine’s “Up-and-Coming Young Musicians of 2006,” and a StradMagazine 2007 “Pick of Up and Coming Musicians,” Fain has recently captured the Avery Fisher Career Grant and a Young Concert Artists International Award. As The Washington Post recently raved, “Fain has everything he needs for a first-rate career.” He electrified audiences at his New York concerto debut at Alice Tully Hall with Gerard Schwarz and the New York Chamber Symphony, and at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. Performing works from Beethoven and Tchaikovsky to Richard Danielpour and Philip Glass, he has been soloist with the Mexico City and Oxford (UK) Symphonies, recently made his debut with the Baltimore Symphony with conductor Marin Alsop and with the Brooklyn Philharmonic, appeared as soloist with the Philip Glass Ensemble at Carnegie Hall in a concert version of Einstein on the Beach, made his Ravinia recital debut, and gave a special performance of the Beethoven Concerto at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra. Other recent and upcoming performances include appearances with the Champaign-Urbana, Wheeling, Illinois and Maryland Symphonies, as well as recitals for the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Mavrick Concerts, Howland Chamber Circle, and Carmel Music Society and in Utah, Maryland, Syracuse and elsewhere throughout the United States. He appeared in recital at Amsterdam’s venerable Concertgebouw, Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Kennedy Center Mexico’s Festival de Musica de Camara in San Miguel de Allende, Carnegie’s Weill Hall, New York’s Kosciuszko Foundation, and California’s Carmel Mozart Society, University of Georgia, San Diego Art Institute, University of California at Davis, and Boston’s Ives Festival, and Alice Tully Hall and the 92nd St Y. A sought-after chamber musician, Tim Fain has performed at The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, New York’s Bargemusic, Chamber Music Northwest and the Ravinia, Spoleto (Italy), Bridgehampton, Santa Fe, Caramoor, Bard, Lucerne (Switzerland), Vail Valley, Moab, and Martha’s Vineyard Festivals. He has toured nationally with Musicians from Marlboro, and is first violinist of the Rossetti String Quartet. A dynamic and compelling performer in traditional works, he is also a fervent champion of 20th and 21stcentury composers. His provocative debut CD on Image Recordings of music for solo violin reflects Fain’s inquisitive passion and intellect by combining old and new in solo works by J.S. Bach, Fritz Kreisler, Kevin Puts, Mark O’Connor, Daniel Ott, and Randy Woolf. He was hailed for his appearance onstage with the New York City Ballet, where he performed alongside the dancers in the company’s acclaimed premiere of Benjamin Millepied’s “Double Aria,” and he has also appeared with the Mark Morris Dance Group, Seán Curran Company, and Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company in the U.S. and abroad. He also continues to pursue his passion for jazz and has worked with jazz pianist Ethan Iverson, and recently appeared at the Jazz Standard with composer and saxophonist Patrick Zimmerli and The Cutting Room with composer Daniel Bernard Roumain. A native of Santa Monica, California, Tim Fain is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied with Victor Danchenko, and The Juilliard School, where he worked with Robert Mann. He currently lives in New York City.

March 6, 2016: The Escher String Quartet LEOŠ JANÁČEK (1854-1928) String Quartet No. 1 after L. N. Tolstoy: The Kreutzer Sonata March 6, 2016: The Escher String Quartet Between October 30 and November 7, 1923, Janáček quickly penned a string quartet inspired by his rereading of Leo Tolstoy’s rather lengthy “short story” entitled The Kreutzer Sonata . Just as it was not Janáček’s first string quartet (he destroyed a student work that he wrote in Vienna in 1880), the piece was not his first to deal with the Tolstoy story, which in 1908–09 had inspired a piano trio, of which only a sheet of fragments remains. Clearly Janáček was profoundly affected by Tolstoy’s theme of love, both in and outside of marriage. The story, heard by the author during a train ride, is told with every emotional detail by a husband who murders his wife in a jealous rage upon finding her with a violinist, to whom he, ironically, had introduced her. The catalyst for the heightened feelings between the wife and the violinist—and the intensifier of the husband’s jealousy—is Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata, which the wife and the violinist perform for a small gathering. The husband tells of the music’s terrible and dangerous powers, which can incite people to abnormal actions. One day the husband returns home unannounced and, finding them eating dinner together, stabs her to death in a frenzy. By the time of this Quartet, Janáček’s own life had been profoundly affected by the flowering of his rather one-sided love for Kamila Stösslová, a beautiful married woman more than thirty-five years his junior, whom he had met in 1917, and who inspired all of his late works. He and his wife, estranged but living with him, maintained a friendly relationship with the Stössels for the next ten years, but at the time of Janáček’s death in 1928 his wife’s jealousy had escalated to a feverish pitch over his deepening relationship with Kamila. Janáček’s love interests had strayed outside of marriage several times before, but Tolstoy’s examination of passionate extramarital love, and of how destructive marriage could become, seems to have resonated especially during the composer’s late all-encompassing love for Kamila. Janáček’s affinity for Tolstoy’s story seems somewhat surprising given his fundamentally optimistic outlook on life as compared to Tolstoy’s pessimism. Further, Tolstoy reputedly hated music—though his story clearly shows he knew quite a bit about the music he describes—and Janáček, on the other hand, lived and breathed music. Then there is the issue of Beethoven, whose music Janáček is reported to have said “left me cold.” What is not surprising is that Janáček’s four movements do not pretend to follow the narrative, and in fact his choice of an instrumental rather than vocal medium allowed him a vagueness that was actually advantageous for intermingling outside influences with abstract musical elements. The brief first movement, while outlining sonata form, certainly creates an air of passion and tension with its opening of yearning, sustained lines overlaid with scurrying phrases. The second theme seems to start more cheerfully, but becomes stormy and then ruminating as a quasi-development leads in very short order to the recall of the opening. Janáček infuses his second movement with the elements of a polka, an idea he may have gotten from the First String Quartet, “From My Life” of his countryman Smetana. Yet his few merry dance strains are constantly interrupted by darting fragments, disquieting tempo adjustments, pauses, an eerie rustling played sul ponticello (on the bridge), and an impassioned melodic snippet with insistent accompaniment that becomes positively angry. The violin and cello duet that opens the third movement makes reference, as biographer Jaroslav Vogel noted, to the lovely second theme in the first movement of Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata. The calm of this opening is short-lived—again Janáček interrupts with sul ponticello jabs. The struggle between these ideas becomes monumental, which, combined with later pensive moments, make this movement possibly the most emotionally draining of the Quartet. The last movement opens quietly with a reminiscence from the first. The finale also features long melodic lines over driving accompanimental patterns, which erupt in a remarkable sounding pizzicato passage toward the center of the movement. Several commentators have noted how likely it is that Janáček’s performance directions, such as “shyly,” “as in tears,” or “as if speaking” allude to moments in Tolstoy’s story, but the composer left these to the imagination of the listener. After a climax of almost unbearable anguish, the ending sinks to a resigned rather than restful quiet. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

November 4, 2018: Lucille Chung, piano LOUIS-CLAUDE DAQUIN (1694-1772) Le Coucou November 4, 2018: Lucille Chung, piano Louis-Claude Daquin’s intellectual, artistic family immediately recognized his prodigious talents. He took harpsichord lessons with his talented godmother Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre and composition lessons from the illustrious Nicolas Bernier, and at the age of six he performed for Louis XIV. Just two years later he conducted his own Beatus vir at the royal chapel, Sainte-Chapelle, and at twelve he became assistant there to Marin de la Guerre (Elisabeth’s husband). That year he was also hired as organist at Petit St.-Antoine, where crowds flocked to hear him. Daquin won the position of organist at St. Paul in 1727 in competition with a number of fine musicians including the great Jean-Philippe Rameau, and he remained there until his death. Concurrently he held other organist appointments—at Cordeliers from 1732, Chapelle Royale from 1739, and Notre Dame from 1755. He is also known to have mightily impressed his audiences at the Concerts Spirituels at the Palais de Tuileries and the Concerts Français. Contemporary accounts rate Daquin as the finest improviser of his time, but he may have been too busy improvising to commit the extent of his genius to print—just two collections of his compositions were captured for posterity. His Nouveau livre de noëls (New book of Christmas pieces), published in 1757, shows charm, brilliance, and imaginative registrations. But Daquin’s more original side shows in some of the pieces in his Livre de pièces de clavecin (Book of harpsichord pieces), a collection of four suites and a divertissement, for which there was enough demand to be printed twice, in 1735 and again in 1739. In his 1735 preface Daquin points to his use of “new styles of expression” while keeping within true keyboard idioms. He points to Les vents en couroux , in which he says the crossed hands passages represent the fury of the waves and flashes of lightning as the wind whips up a storm on the ocean, and Les trois cadences , which contains the novel technique of the triple trill. He also mentions his attempt to imitate the “appropriate effects and characters” in the publication’s final set of pieces, Les plaisirs de la chasse (The pleasures of the hunt), but other than including it in a list of pieces possible for violins or flutes, he does not mention Le coucou , which has become his most celebrated composition. Le coucou , the first piece in his Third Suite, shows his remarkable use of a stylized bird call in an original way. A cuckoo’s call is generally heard as a descending major or minor third, and Daquin starts with this interval, always placing it in the same rhythmic spot—from the second half of the second beat to the downbeat of the next measure. The call migrates from hand to hand, but more strikingly changes from a third to a second, fourth, fifth, or sixth depending on the harmony, and sometimes ascends rather than descends. It never loses its identity as the cuckoo, however, owing to its rhythmic configuration. In terms of form, Daquin opts for a rondeau in which the opening alternates with two couplets as a refrain in the form A-B-A-C-A. He never alters the texture of running sixteenth-notes against the “cuckoos” except to switch hands and add judicious ornaments, but he keeps the ear engaged with harmonic excursions and the flitting of the cuckoos from place to place. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

November 19, 2017: Los Angeles Guitar Quartet MUSIC FROM THE TIME OF CERVANTES, ARRANGED FOR FOUR GUITARS Music from the Time of Cervantes (arr. W. Kanengiser) November 19, 2017: Los Angeles Guitar Quartet Jácaras – Anonymous (17th century) El Villano – Antonio Martín y Coll Diferéncias Sobre Las Folias – Antonio Martín y Coll Chacona (“La Vida Bona”) – Juan Arañéz Oy Comamos – Juan de Encina In March 2009, LAGQ debuted the theatrical production “The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote” with British actor/comedian John Cleese. Interweaving tales from the classic novel with arrangements of pieces that Cervantes could have heard in his lifetime, it melded music and storytelling. Tonight’s recital includes selections from this production. Jácaras is an anonymous canción (“No hay que decir primor”) from the 17th century. With raucous strumming and castanets imitating horses’ hooves, it accompanies Don Quixote’s departure from his farm to become an adventuring knight. El Villano (“The Rustic”) is a country dance from the anthology “Flores de Música” collected by Antonio Martín y Coll. It introduces Sancho Panza, Quixote’s trusty squire. Diferéncias Sobre Las Folias is a set of variations contrasting on the famous harmonic progression, Folias de Espana. It tells of the famous argument between knight and squire, and of their reconciliation. Chacona (“La Vida Bona”), from the Libro Segunda de Tonos y Villancicos (1624) by Juan Arañes, is one of the most celebrated early examples of the form. The chacona, which by Bach’s time had become one of the most noble and profound of all dance forms, was a suggestive and prohibited danza in 1500s Spain, almost their version of our macarena. It features the lines, “here’s to the good life, good little life: let’s do the Chacona”). Oy comamos y bebamos is a four-voice villancico from the Cancionero Palacio, written by Juan de Encina. The opening stanza is “Hoy comamos y bebamos, y cantemos y holguemos, que mañana ayunaremos” (Today we eat and drink, and sing and make merry, for tomorrow we must fast”). It serves as a fitting epilogue for Don Quixote’s quixotic character. Return to Parlance Program Notes

SUNDAY, MAY 18, 2025 AT 4PM LATE NIGHT WITH LEONARD BERNSTEIN A MULTIMEDIA CABARET JAMIE BERNSTEIN , HOST JOHN MUSTO , PIANO AMY BURTON , SOPRANO MICHAEL BORISKIN , PIANO “A look at the after-hours maestro [that] revealed his mischievous personality and musical predilections … the audience filled the room with lusty laughs and applause.” — The New York Times “For lovers of contemporary American music, nothing could exceed Late Night with Leonard Bernstein, which delighted and, even thrilled, a packed house ... Those in attendance will not forget this delicious evening.” — San Diego Times ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE BUY TICKETS 2024-2025 SEASON September 29, 2024 Cellobration! October 20, 2024 Modigliani Quartet November 17, 2024 Paul Lewis Plays Schubert December 15, 2024 The Virtuoso Flutist Denis Bouriakov January 19, 2025 The Virtuoso Organist Paul Jacobs February 9, 2025 The Virtuoso Cellist Steven Isserlis March 9, 2025 Ravel’s 150th Birthday Concert April 13, 2025 Quartetto Di Cremona May 18, 2025 Late Night With Leonard Bernstein 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 FEATURING BUY TICKETS A well-known insomniac for whom night was a time for creativity and friendship, deep introspection and revelry, the iconic Leonard Bernstein worked incessantly, often entertaining friends and guests late into the night and dazzling them with charismatic performances across a wide range of musical styles. Late Night with Leonard Bernstein is hosted by his daughter Jamie and and features three internationally-acclaimed artists – soprano Amy Burton and pianists John Musto and Michael Boriskin. A scintillating and affectionate multimedia portrait of the personal side of this charismatic, singularly public figure, this vibrant production has captivated sold-out audiences across the U.S. and Mexico since it premiered at Lincoln Center. The program weaves together a warm-hearted, revealing script, a video slideshow of rare photographs of the legendary artist and his family, friends, and colleagues, and Bernstein’s most intimate (and favorite) music, along with personal stories and even audio and film clips of the Maestro himself. PROGRAM LEONARD BERNSTEIN: “For Aaron Stern” (from Thirteen Anniversaries, No. 12) “For Stephen Sondheim” (from Thirteen Anniversaries, No. 3) “For Elizabeth B. Ehrman” (from Five Anniversaries, No. 3) “Ilana, the Dreamer” (from Four Sabras, No. 1) Program Notes ZEZ CONFREY: Dizzy Fingers Program Notes AARON COPLAND: Excerpt from Piano Variations Excerpt from El Salon Mexico (arr. Bernstein) Program Notes BERNSTEIN: Canon for Aaron “Ain’t Got No Tears Left” (from On the Town) Program Notes RAYMOND SCOTT: Powerhouse (arr. Lenny Amber) Program Notes BERNSTEIN: Excerpt from Conchtown Program Notes ERNESTO LECUONA: Malagueña Program Notes FRANZ SCHUBERT: Marche Characteristique in C Major Program Notes NOEL COWARD: “If Love were All” (from Bitter Sweet ) Program Notes EDVARD GRIEG: Nocturne, Opus 54, No.4 (from Lyric Pieces , Book 5) Program Notes BERNSTEIN: “Little Smary” (lyrics by Jennie Bernstein, from Arias and Barcarolles) Program Notes BERNSTEIN: Lullaby for JZ “Some Other Time” (from On The Town ) Program Notes Watch the Trailer for “Late Night With Leonard Bernstein”:

December 16, 2018: Emerson Quartet DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH (1906–1975) String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, op. 110 December 16, 2018: Emerson Quartet The Eighth is probably the best known of Shostakovich’s string quartets because of its compact drama, its quotations from his own earlier works, and its pervasive use of the motto D.SCH, drawn from the initials of his first and last names. (He used Dimitri Schostakowitsch, the German transliteration, which in German musical notation equates to D, E-flat, C, and B-natural.) This “autobiographical” Quartet was composed in only three days, July 12–14, 1960, while the composer was in Dresden supposedly working on the score for a World War II film entitled Five Days, Five Nights. The Quartet that occupied him instead was officially dedicated “to the memory of the victims of fascism and war,” but it masked an inner dedication—to the composer himself. Shostakovich had just been coerced to join the Communist Party and he viewed his submission with self-loathing. His deep depression prompted the contemplation of his own mortality; one scholar and friend of Shostakovich suggested that the composer thought of the Eighth Quartet not only as autobiographical but at the time as his final work. He had in essence written his own Requiem. On July 19, 1960, Shostakovich wrote to his friend Isaak Glikman: “I have been considering that when I die, scarcely anyone will write a work in my memory. Therefore I have decided to write one myself. Then on the cover they can print: ‘Dedicated to the author of this Quartet.’ The main theme of the Quartet is the notes D-S-C-H, my initials. The Quartet contains themes from my works and the revolutionary song ‘Zamuchon tyazholoy nevoley’ [Tormented by Heavy Captivity]. My themes are the following: from the First Symphony, the Eighth Symphony, the [Second Piano] Trio, the [First] Cello Concerto and from Lady Macbeth. I have made allusions to Wagner (Funeral March from Götterdämmerung) and Tchaikovsky (second theme from the first movement of the Sixth Symphony). Oh yes, I forgot my Tenth Symphony. A nice mish-mash.” His continuation described how much he had wept during and after the Quartet’s completion, but in terms of a pseudo-tragedy. Shostakovich was already able to distance himself enough from the emotional content to admire the form of the work as a whole. The Quartet consists of five movements played without pause, unified by the D-S-C-H motto. The motto also announces the various quotations throughout the work—first played by the cello then imitated by the other instruments, it introduces his first self-quotation, from the First Symphony. The second movement provides contrast by means of speed, texture, and constant loud dynamics. After the prominent intoning of the motto by viola and cello, Shostakovich quotes what he calls “the Jewish theme” from his Second Piano Trio. The main theme of the third movement transforms the motto into a kind of grotesque waltz. Shostakovich quotes from his First Cello Concerto in one of the episodes, and the extension of this quotation becomes the first theme of the fourth movement. Music from his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk is quoted both in this and the fifth movement, but the most poignant quotation, again introduced by the motto, is the revolutionary funeral march for prisoners “Tormented by Heavy Captivity.” The fifth movement, a recapitulation-reminiscence of the first movement, closes the work in the tragic mood that pervades the entire Quartet. Even without knowing the sources of the quotations or that Shostakovich was recalling works of special significance in his life, the listener is struck by the dark seriousness of the work and the soul-searching quality it conveys—a characteristic often associated with the late Beethoven quartets. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

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

PAUL NEUBAUER, VIOLA Violist Paul Neubauer’s exceptional musicality and effortless playing led the New York Times to call him “a master musician”. He is the newly appointed Artistic Director of the Mostly Music series in New Jersey. This season he will be featured in a Live from Lincoln Center broadcast with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and will premiere a new work for viola and piano by Liliya Ugay written to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Carson McCullers’s birth. He also appears with his trio with soprano Susanna Phillips and pianist Anne-Marie McDermott, and as soloist with orchestra. His recording of the Aaron Kernis Viola Concerto with the Royal Northern Sinfonia, a work he premiered with the St. Paul Chamber, Los Angeles Chamber, and Idyllwild Arts orchestras and the Chautauqua Symphony will be released on Signum Records. A two-time Grammy nominee, in 2016, Mr. Neubauer released a solo album of music recorded at Music@Menlo. His recording of piano quartets with Daniel Hope, David Finckel and Wu Han was recently released on the Deutsche Grammophon label. Joan Tower’s Purple Rhapsody with Timothy Russsell and the Pro Music Chamber Orchestra, commissioned for him by seven orchestras and the Koussevitsky Foundation, was released by Summit Records. Other recorded works that were written for him include: Wild Purple for solo viola by Joan Tower for Naxos; Viola Rhapsody a concerto by Henri Lazarof on Centaur Records; and Soul Garden for viola and chamber ensemble by Derek Bermel on CRI. His recording of the Walton Viola Concerto was recently re-released on Decca and his Schumann recital album with pianist Anne-Marie McDermott was recorded for Image Recordings. During his six year tenure with the New York Philharmonic, Paul Neubauer appeared as soloist with that orchestra in over twenty performances. One particularly memorable performance was the New York premiere of Krzysztof Penderecki’s Viola Concerto with Penderecki conducting. He has appeared with over 100 orchestras throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the San Francisco, National, St. Louis, Dallas, Indianapolis, Puerto Rico and Cincinnati symphonies, the Bavarian State Radio Orchestra, the Helsinki Philharmonic, the Hungarian Radio Orchestra, the Orchester der Beethovenhalle Bonn (with whom he performed the world premiere of the newly revised version of Bartók’s Viola Concerto), the Kansas City Symphony (premiering Tobias Picker’s Viola Concerto), the English Chamber Orchestra (performing the world premiere of Gordon Jacob’s Viola Concerto no. 2), and the Knoxville Symphony (premiering David Ott’s Viola Concerto). Mr. Neubauer made his Carnegie Hall Debut playing the first performance of Joel Philip Friedman’s Concerto for Viola and Orchestra with the National Orchestral Association. He has also appeared with the Stockholm Chamber Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Ensemble orchestral de Paris, Orquesta Filharmonica de Buenos Aires, Bournemouth Symphony, and the Taipei National Symphony. In Rome, he has performed with violinist Vladimir Spivakov and the Orchestra of the National Academy of Santa Cecelia. Other collaborations include performances with Andre Watts and Vladimir Feltsman at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; with Joshua Bell and Steven Isserlis at London’s Wigmore and Queen Elizabeth Hall’s; and with Pinchas Zukerman, James Galway, Vladimir Spivakov and Alicia de Larrocha at the Mostly Mozart Festival. He has also collaborated with the Emerson, Shanghai, Juilliard, Cleveland, Fine Arts, Orion, Borromeo, Miami, and Brentano quartets. Mr. Neubauer’s musical activities are consistently creative. In a pair of highly acclaimed New York premieres, he performed Bartók’s Viola Concerto (which he helped to revise along with Bartók’s son, Peter and composer Nelson Dellamaggiore), and Max Bruch’s Double Concerto for Clarinet and Viola with clarinetist David Shifrin. He also gave the North American premiere of the Detlev Müller-Siemens Viola Concerto and Richard Suter’s Three Nocturnes for Viola and Orchestra. He has been featured as a special guest artist of the New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center in performances of Viola Alone, and on the popular radio show A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor. He was very successful as the director of Voilà Viola, a viola festival held at Merkin Hall in New York, and has toured the United States with pianist Christopher O’Riley, violinist Pamela Frank, and cellist Carter Brey. In addition to his innumerable orchestral, recital, and festival appearances, Paul Neubauer is accessible to a broad range of television and radio audiences through Live from Lincoln Center telecasts with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He has been featured on CBS’s Sunday Morning; in recital on PBS’s Front Row Center and In Concert; on Argentinean, Brazilian, and Mexican television as soloist with orchestras; on National Public Radio’s Performance Today and Morning Edition, on St. Paul Sunday Morning, as well as on international radio performances throughout the world. Among Mr. Neubauer’s numerous awards are First Prize in the Mae M. Whitaker International Competition, the D’Angelo International Competition, and the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition. He has been the recipient of a Solo Recitalist’s Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and a special prize from the Naumburg Foundation, which awarded him an Alice Tully Hall recital debut. Moreover, the Epstein Young Artists Program has sponsored him and he was the first violist chosen to receive an Avery Fisher Career Grant. Born in Los Angeles and currently residing in New York City, Mr. Neubauer studied with Alan de Veritch, Paul Doktor, and William Primrose. He holds a Master’s Degree from The Juilliard School where he is now a member of the faculty. He also teaches at Mannes College.

January 29, 2023: Danish String Quartet WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791) String Quartet No. 16 in E-flat, K. 428 January 29, 2023: Danish String Quartet Upon his move from his native Salzburg to Vienna in 1781, one of Mozart’s most momentous musical developments was meeting Joseph Haydn for the first time and hearing his Opus 33 Quartets. Their profound influence resulted in Mozart’s composing his six Haydn quartets—the first three between December 1782 and July 1783 and three more between November 1784 and January 1785. He dedicated these “fruits of a long and arduous labor” to his esteemed friend saying, “During your last stay in this capital you yourself, my dear friend, expressed to me your approval of these compositions. Your good opinion encourages me to offer them to you and leads me to hope that you will not consider them wholly unworthy of your favor.” Haydn heard the first three performed at Mozart’s home on January 15, 1785, and the others on another visit February 12, played by Mozart, his father Leopold, and two friends. Leopold proudly reported to his daughter Nannerl back in Salzburg what Haydn had told him: “I tell you before God as an honest man that your son is the greatest composer known to me either in person or by reputation. He has taste, and what is more, the most profound knowledge of composition.” The E-flat major Quartet bears no date in the manuscript, but scholar Alfred Einstein’s best guess was that Mozart composed it in June or July 1783. That may still be the case, though more recent research has allowed that it could date from as late as the following January, which is still a year before the final two of the group, K. 464 and K. 465 (“Dissonance”). Whether or not it is the third of the Haydn Quartets, its lyrical warmth contrasts greatly with the other five quartets while showing every bit as much originality. The sonata-form first movement is at the same time concise yet rich in inventiveness. The opening melody, played softly by all four instruments in octave unison, leaps an E-flat octave that only later becomes confirmed as the movement’s key after a bit of lovely wandering. The second theme, led off by the violin and reiterated by the viola also indulges in quick harmonic deflections. The development briefly revisits the first theme forcefully—in a canonic pairing of violins answered by viola and cello—but focuses mostly on bits of the second theme interspersed with dramatic arpeggios. Mozart brings on the recapitulation through a striking harmonic inflection at the last moment . A movement of breathtaking lyricism and inventiveness, the Andante con moto gently spins out a melody at great length in an otherworldly four-part texture with exquisite tensions and relaxations. This extraordinarily rich, chromatic harmonization unfolds over a regular sonata form with a short but true development section. Mozart’s Menuetto immediately lands the listener in a rustic Haydnesque realm with its merry octave plunges (almost braying)—which reverse the octave leaps of the first movement—and its lightly stepping passages, drone effects, and occasional “horn fifths.” The trio casts a fascinating and mysterious shadow over the proceedings—the drones now host ethereally haunting music before the merrymaking of the Menuetto resumes. The main theme of the finale begins in hesitating two-note fragments before letting loose with running fast notes. Mozart plays with all manner of rhythmic displacements—a fitting tribute to Haydn’s own such witty techniques. The movement is in a modified sonata form, that is, without a development, but the character and contrasting sections certainly suggest a rondo. Comic pauses and sudden dynamic shifts—especially at the very end—contribute to the movement’s high spirits. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes