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December 5, 2021: Paul Jacobs, organ JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750) Arioso from Cantata, BWV 156 December 5, 2021: Paul Jacobs, organ Bach was especially fond of this justly famous slow movement. He used it as the opening Sinfonia of his Cantata 156: “Ich steh mit einem Fuss im Grabe,” scored for oboe, strings, and continuo, which was first performed in Leipzig on January 23, 1729. Then around 1738 he used it again as the slow movement of his Keyboard Concerto in F minor, BWV 1056. Both, however, are thought to be reworkings of the slow movement of an earlier oboe concerto in G minor that is now lost (though scholars have reconstructed it). This exquisite Sinfonia, also known as “Arioso,” presents a favorite Vivaldi slow-movement texture—a singing melody over pizzicato accompaniment, though not a repeating bass pattern as both Vivaldi and Bach often employed. The melody, whether for oboe or right hand of the keyboard part, provides a perfect example of Bach’s ornamentation technique. His embellishments, simple at first and more extensive when the opening section returns, complement the melodic line without disrupting it. The present version for organ was arranged by American organist Diane Bish, who is also known for her television series The Joy of Music. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

SUNDAY, MARCH 6, 2016 AT 3 PM Escher String Quartet BUY TICKETS ESCHER STRING QUARTET “The Escher players seemed to make time stand still, effortlessly distilling the essence of this introspective music with expressive warmth and a natural confiding intimacy.” — Chicago Classical Review FEATURING ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE BUY TICKETS The Escher String Quartet is one of the fastest-rising young chamber ensembles. Championed by the Emerson Quartet, the Escher Quartet is one of the few ensembles to be awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. Within months of its inception in 2005, the Escher Quartet was invited by both Pinchas Zukerman and Itzhak Perlman to be Quartet in Residence at each artist’s summer festival. Today the quartet is in demand worldwide and serves as Artists of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. The Escher Quartet takes its name from the Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher. The quartet members were inspired by Escher’s method of intricate interplay between individual components to form a cohesive whole. PROGRAM Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Quartet in D, K. 575 (Prussian No. 1) Program Notes Leoš Janáček Quartet No. 1 (Kreutzer Sonata) Program Notes Franz Schubert Quartet No. 14 in D minor, D. 810 (Death and the Maiden ) Program Notes Escher String Quartet - Beethoven Quartet in A minor, Op. 132, Mvt 2 (CMS) Escher String Quartet - Shostakovich Quartet No. 8, Mvt. 2 (CMS)

October 15, 2023: Lysander Piano Trio Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) Andante con moto for piano trio October 15, 2023: Lysander Piano Trio By 1878, when Grieg set out to write a piano trio, he had earned recognition as Norway’s foremost composer. He had made important connections in Germany through his studies in Leipzig and had won renown in Copenhagen as well as in his native Bergen, but it was not without great effort. Influenced by violinist Ole Bull, Grieg had begun incorporating Norwegian folk idioms into his compositions, but he struggled to meet expectations in the larger forms of the chamber music medium because of his natural inclination to short, self-contained, lyrical melodies. Grieg had just completed his G minor String Quartet in the summer of 1878, which he said “is not intended to bring trivialities to market. It strives towards breadth, soaring flight and above all resonance for the instruments for which it is written. I needed to do this as a study. Now I shall tackle another piece of chamber music; I think in that way I shall find myself again.” Yet he composed only one movement of the projected piano trio, the Andante con moto in C minor. He made notes on the manuscript suggesting he might revise it, but he never returned to it nor did he write any other piano trio. After Grieg’s death, his friend, Leipzig-born Dutch pianist and composer Julius Röntgen (who also played a role in this afternoon’s second work), unearthed the Andante con moto and wrote to Grieg’s widow, Nina Hagerup Grieg, saying, “It is a beautiful piece and completely in order. . . . What a solemnity it conveys! How he can’t get enough of that single theme, that even in the major mode retains its mourning character, and then develops so beautifully its full power. . . . The piece can very well stand by itself and does not at all give the impression of being a fragment, as it constitutes a perfect entity in itself.” The piece was not published, however, until 1978 in the Grieg Critical Edition. Grieg’s monothematic movement is so striking because of how often Grieg showcases his theme in octave unison, first presented by the piano after a hushed introduction of string chords. Whereas the major-mode section offers contrast—and one might consider it considerably less “mournful” than Röntgen suggested—there is no doubt about the overall dark intensity of the piece, which rises to a dramatic climax before ebbing quietly. Return to Parlance Program Notes

THOMAS HAMPSON, BARITONE Thomas Hampson enjoys a singular international career as a recitalist, opera singer, and recording artist, and maintains an active interest in teaching, research, and technology. The American baritone has performed in all of the world’s most important concert halls and opera houses with many renowned singers, pianists, conductors, and orchestras. Praised by the New York Times for his “ceaseless curiosity,” he is one of the most respected, innovative, and sought-after soloists performing today. Hampson has won worldwide recognition for his thoughtfully researched and creatively constructed programs that explore the rich repertoire of song in a wide range of styles, languages, and periods. He is one of the most important interpreters of German Romantic song, and with his celebrated “Song of America” project (www.songofamerica.net ), a collaboration with the Library of Congress, has become the “ambassador” of American song. Through the Hampsong Foundation, founded in 2003, he employs the art of song to promote intercultural dialogue and understanding. Hampson begins his 2011-12 season at San Francisco Opera, where he will create the role of Rick Rescorla in the world premiere of Christopher Theofanidis’s Heart of a Soldier. The new opera, commemorating the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, features a libretto by Donna Di Novelli and is directed by Francesca Zambello. Based on the 2002 book by James B. Stewart, the work is inspired by the true story of Rescorla, his wife, Susan, and his friend Daniel J. Hill, culminating in Rescorla’s tragic death in the collapse of the South Tower of the World Trade Center following his heroic evacuation of all 2,700 employees of Morgan Stanley. Hampson’s other operatic engagements this season include Iago in Verdi’s Otello and the title role in Hindemith’s Mathis der Maler, both at Zurich Opera, and Verdi’s Macbeth at New York’s Metropolitan Opera. Among other season highlights for Hampson are the opening night gala concert with Christoph Eschenbach and the National Symphony Orchestra, marking two anniversaries: the orchestra’s 80th and the Kennedy Center’s 40th; Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erdewith the Munich Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta; Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel; Brahms’s Requiem and Dvořák’s Biblical Songs with the Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck; and recitals in the U.S., Spain, Germany, Switzerland and Austria (Vienna’s Musikverein), including “Song of America” programs in New York and Cologne. The 2011-12 season will also see the debut of the syndicated “Song of America” radio series, co-produced by the Hampsong Foundation and the WFMT Radio Network of Chicago for release in October. Hosted by Hampson, the series will consists of 13 one-hour programs exploring the history of American culture through song, bringing the “Song of America” project to a national audience of radio listeners. Hampson’s 2010-11 season was dominated by performances celebrating the 150th anniversary of Gustav Mahler’s birth and the 100th anniversary of his death. Recognized as today’s leading interpreter of the Austrian composer’s songs, the baritone began the worldwide celebrations on July 7, 2010 – Mahler’s 150th birthday – in Kaliste, Czech Republic, with a recital from the composer’s birth house, streamed live on medici.tv, as well as an internationally televised orchestral concert, available on DVD. Throughout the season he performed Mahler with orchestras including the Vienna Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the North German Radio Symphony Orchestra, Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, and the Czech Philharmonic with conductors such as Alan Gilbert, Mariss Jansons, Philippe Jordan, and Antonio Pappano. Hampson also featured the composer’s songs in recitals in Munich, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Zurich, Milan and Oslo, and presented the complete songs as “Mahler Artist-in-Residence” at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie. His new recording of Des Knaben Wunderhorn with the Wiener Virtuosen – a conductorless ensemble comprising principal players of the Vienna Philharmonic – was widely acclaimed. Additional highlights of Hampson’s 2010-11 season included season-opening performances in the title role of a new production of Verdi’s Macbeth at Lyric Opera of Chicago; three all-Strauss concerts with Renée Fleming and the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Christian Thielemann; selections from George Crumb’s American Songbooks, with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center; “Song of America” recitals at Duke University and Minnesota Beethoven Festival; and the world premiere of William Bolcom’s Laura Sonnets, written especially for him. In Switzerland, he performed at Zurich Opera in new productions of Verdi’s I Masnadieri and Wagner’s Parsifal under Adam Fischer and Daniele Gatti, and appeared in a series of opera galas. In March 2011 he oversaw the inaugural season of the Heidelberg Lied Academy, of which he is artistic director; the academy is part of the Heidelberger Frühling music festival and trains young singers in text-based song interpretation. Raised in Spokane, Washington, Hampson has received many honors and awards for his probing artistry and cultural leadership. His discography of more than 150 albums includes winners of a Grammy Award, two Edison Prizes, and the Grand Prix du Disque. He holds honorary doctorates from Manhattan School of Music, Whitworth College (WA), and the San Francisco Conservatory, and is an honorary member of London’s Royal Academy of Music. In the 2009-10 season he served as the New York Philharmonic’s first artist in residence, and in 2011 he received the Concertgebouw Prize. He carries the titles of Kammersänger of the Vienna State Opera and the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the Republic of France, and was awarded the Austrian Medal of Honor in Arts and Sciences in 2004. He is the 2009 Distinguished Artistic Leadership Award recipient from the Atlantic Council in Washington, DC, and in 2008 was named Special Advisor to the Study and Performance of Music in America by Dr. James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress. In 2010, Hampson was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

April 3, 2016: Sir James Galway, flute; Benjamin Beilman and Danbi Um, violins; Mark Holloway, viola; Nicholas Canellakis, cello; Timothy Cobb, bass; Paolo Bourdignon, harpsichord JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750) Air on the G String (from Suite in D, BWV 1068) for flute, strings, and continuo April 3, 2016: Sir James Galway, flute; Benjamin Beilman and Danbi Um, violins; Mark Holloway, viola; Nicholas Canellakis, cello; Timothy Cobb, bass; Paolo Bourdignon, harpsichord For background on Bach’s Orchestral Suites, see Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor. The Third Suite may be the most famous of the four on account of its meltingly beautiful Air. One of the most popular and arranged pieces of all time, it achieved special notoriety through August Wilhelmj’s version for the violin G string (1871). The Air’s binary form—two halves, each repeated—and its “stepping” bass overlaid with a long, sustained melodic line are standard Baroque procedures, but its poignant effect transcends all formulas. James Galway plays its haunting violin part on the flute. Return to Parlance Program Notes

LEIGH MESH, BASS Associate Principal Bass, joined the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in 1993. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, he has taught master classes at the New World Symphony in Miami, the Cincinnati Conservatory, the Juilliard School and the Manhattan School of Music. Mr. Mesh has performed regularly at the Verbier Music Festival, and with the MET Chamber Ensemble, the Caramoor Virtuosi, and the Brentano and Tokyo String Quartets. He lives with his wife and two children in New York, and pursues cycling and skiing whenever he can. Mr. Mesh is an exclusive artist for Thomastik-Infeld Strings.

SUNDAY, MARCH 22, 2020 AT 3 PM PAUL JACOBS, ORGAN ALL BACH IN HONOR OF HIS 335TH BIRTHDAY BUY TICKETS PAUL JACOBS, ORGAN “Paul Jacobs is one of the greatest living virtuosos…he is utterly without artifice.” – The Washington Post FEATURING ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE BUY TICKETS On March 22, Paul Jacobs, America’s foremost organ virtuoso, will celebrate Bach’s 335th birthday with a recital of towering masterpieces for The King of Instruments. The Grammy Award-winning organist will perform Bachian favorites including Sheep Safely Graze , the sparkling Trio Sonata in E minor , and the powerful C-minor Passacaglia and Fugue . PROGRAM J.S. Bach Sinfonia from Cantata, BWV 29 (arr. Marcel Dupre) Program Notes J.S. Bach Trio Sonata in E Minor, BWV 528 Program Notes J.S. Bach Sheep May Safely Graze , BWV 208 Program Notes J.S. Bach Concerto in D Minor after Vivaldi, BWV 596 Program Notes J.S. Bach Prelude and Fugue in C Major, BWV 547 Program Notes J.S. Bach Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor, BWV 582 Program Notes J.S. Bach Arioso from Cantata, BWV 156 Program Notes J.S. Bach Prelude and Fugue in D Major, BWV 532 Program Notes Watch Paul Jacobs perform and introduce Bach’s organ music at NPR: Watch Paul Jacobs discuss and play Bach’s organ music at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in New York City:

MARC-ANDRÉ HAMELIN, PIANO Recital appearances this season include a return to Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage on the Great Artists Series. He also performs at Wigmore Hall, the George Enescu Festival, Ascona (Switzerland), Prague, Munich, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Moscow State Philharmonic, at the Elbphilharmonie for the Husum Rarities of Piano Music Festival, Monte Carlo, and the Heidelberg Festival, among other dates. Mr. Hamelin is the inaugural guest curator for Portland Piano International, where he opens the season with two solo recitals. He returns to San Francisco Performances – a series with whom he has a long and deeply supportive artistic relationship – as a Perspectives Artist for their 40th Anniversary Season, performing a solo recital; Die Winterreise with tenor Mark Padmore; and the world premiere of his own Piano Quintet, commissioned by SFP and performed by himself and the Alexander String Quartet. An exclusive recording artist for Hyperion Records, in 19/20, Hyperion releases two albums by Mr. Hamelin – one a solo disc and the other with the Takács Quartet. He recently released a disc of Schubert’s Piano Sonata in B-Flat Major and Four Impromptus; a landmark disc of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and Concerto for Two Pianos with Leif Ove Andsnes; Morton Feldman’s For Bunita Marcus; and Medtner’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Vladimir Jurowski. His impressive Hyperion discography of more than 60 recordings includes concertos and works for solo piano by such composers as Alkan, Godowsky, and Medtner, as well as brilliantly received performances of Brahms, Chopin, Liszt, Schumann, and Shostakovich. He was honored with the 2014 ECHO Klassik Instrumentalist of Year (Piano) and Disc of the Year by Diapason Magazine and Classica Magazine for his three-disc set of Busoni: Late Piano Music and an album of his own compositions, Hamelin: Études, which received a 2010 Grammy nomination and a first prize from the German Record Critics’ Association. Mr. Hamelin was a distinguished member of the jury of the 15 th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2017 where each of the 30 competitors in the preliminary round performed Hamelin’s Toccata on L’Homme armé; this was the first time the composer of the commissioned work was also a member of the jury. Mr. Hamelin has composed music throughout his career, with nearly 30 compositions to his name. The majority of those works – including the Études and Toccata on L’Homme armé – are published by Edition Peters. Mr. Hamelin makes his home in the Boston area with his wife, Cathy Fuller. Born in Montreal, Marc-André Hamelin is the recipient of a lifetime achievement award from the German Record Critics’ Association and has received seven Juno Awards and eleven GRAMMY nominations. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada, a Chevalier de l’Ordre du Québec, and a member of the Royal Society of Canada.

DENIS BOURIAKOV, FLUTE Established as one of the world’s leading flute soloists, Denis Bouriakov was the winner of the 2009 Prague Spring competition, and prize winner at most major international flute competitions, including the Nielsen, Munich ARD, Kobe, Rampal, Nicolet, Larrieu, and others. He is currently the Principal Flutist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, appointed by Gustavo Dudamel in 2015, and has previously served as the Principal Flute of the Metropolitan Opera in New York under James Levine. Denis has been combining orchestral and solo careers, regularly performing concertos and recitals worldwide. He has collaborated as a soloist with many prominent conductors, including Valery Gergiev, Daniel Harding, and Gustavo Dudamel. With his phenomenal virtuoso technique and musicianship, Denis looks outside the standard flute repertoire for works that would allow the flute to shine, continually transcribing and performing violin concertos and sonatas, and expanding the limits of flute technique and artistry. A number of his arrangements have been published by Theodore Presser, with a few in the works. Additionally, some of them are available as free downloads on his website. His first solo CD, featuring the Bach Chaconne, Sibelius Violin Concerto, and other daring original arrangements, was released in 2009 and followed by a number of other solo albums over the years. His upcoming CD release, in collaboration with the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, features Romantic-era violin and flute concertos such as the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. In addition to his commercially released solo albums, Denis has published hundreds of videos of live performances from recitals and concertos on his YouTube and IGTV channels. Denis has held a full-time teaching position at the University of California, Los Angeles since 2017, alongside his fellow-flutist wife, Erin, who shares his enjoyment of collaborative teaching and duo performing. In 2018 he was appointed Visiting Professor of Flute to his alma mater, the Royal Academy of Music in London. The Academy previously awarded Denis the prestigious titles of Associate and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in 2006 and 2014, respectively. Denis leads many masterclasses for conservatories and universities worldwide and teaches many courses in Germany and Japan. He has been on the faculty of the Verbier Festival in Switzerland and the Pacific Music Festival in Japan, both of which he had participated in as a student. Additionally, Denis has been invited to adjudicate many international competitions. In 2019 he was appointed chairman of the woodwind jury by Valery Gergiev for the prestigious XVI Tchaikovsky International Competition. Denis was born in Simferopol, Crimea, and was a prodigy flutist from a young age. At the age of 10, he was admitted to the Moscow Central Special School, where he studied with the famous Professor Y.N. Dolzhikov, the only French-trained professor in USSR. With the support of the “New Names” International Charity Foundation and the Vladimir Spivakov Foundation, Denis toured as a young soloist in over 20 countries in Europe, Asia, South America, and the USA, performing for Pope John Paul the Second, Prince Michael of Kent, and the presidents of Russia, Romania, and Indonesia. When he turned 18, Denis went on to attend the Royal Academy of Music in London, studying with Professor William Bennett, OBE. While studying in London, he competed internationally and freelanced as a Principal Flute with the Philharmonia of London, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Leeds Opera North, and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. He won his first full-time orchestral position in 2005 as Principal Flute with the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra in Finland, where he also taught at the Tampere Conservatory of Music. In 2008 Denis moved to Spain to become the Principal Flute with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra under Eiji Oue. Later that year, Denis won the position as Principal Flute of the Metropolitan Opera in New York and has resided in the United States since 2009. Denis plays on an Altus PS model flute and a Faulisi silver headjoint.

ERIN KEEFE, VIOLIN Winner of the 2006 Avery Fisher Career Grant, American violinist Erin Keefe is quickly establishing a reputation and earning praise as a compelling artist who combines exhilarating temperament and fierce integrity. A top prize winner of several International Competitions, she recently took the Grand Prizes in the 2007 Torun International Violin Competition (Poland), the 2006 Schadt Competition, and the Corpus Christi International String Competition, and was the Silver Medalist in the Carl Nielsen, Sendai (Japan), and Gyeongnam (Korea) International Violin Competitions, resulting in performances and immediate re-engagements in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Ms. Keefe has appeared in recent seasons with orchestras such as the New Mexico Symphony, the New York City Ballet Orchestra, the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra, the Allentown Symphony, the Sendai Philharmonic, the Suwon Philharmonic, the Torun Symphony Orchestra, and the Odense Symphony Orchestra, and has given recitals in the United States, Austria, Germany, Korea, Poland, Japan, and Denmark. During the 2008–09 season, she will make her concerto and recital debuts in cities throughout Poland, Germany, and Japan. Ms. Keefe has collaborated with many leading artists of today including the Emerson String Quartet, Roberto and Andres Diaz, Edgar Meyer, Gary Graffman, Richard Goode, David Soyer, Colin Carr, Menahem Pressler, Leon Fleisher, and William Preucil. She also performed on a program with Michael Tilson Thomas premiering his own chamber music at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall. Her recording credits include Schoenberg’s Second String Quartet with Ida Kavafian, Paul Neubauer, Fred Sherry, and Jennifer Welch-Babidge for Robert Craft and the Naxos Label, recordings of the Dvorak Terzetto and the Dvorak Piano Quartet in E-flat with David Finckel and Wu Han for the CMS Studio Recording label as well as live performances of the Bartok Contrasts, Dvorak Piano Quintet, and Mozart E-flat Piano Quartet recorded for Deutsche Gramophone. Ms. Keefe’s festival appearances have included the Marlboro Music Festival, Music@Menlo, Music from Angel Fire, Ravinia, and the Seattle, OK Mozart, Mimir, Music in the Vineyards, and Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festivals. As a member of Lincoln Center’s prestigious Chamber Music Society Two program for the 2006–09 seasons, Ms. Keefe will appear in numerous programs at Lincoln Center as well as on tour throughout the U.S. In January of 2008, she and other artist members were featured on “Live from Lincoln Center” playing Schoenberg’s Verklarte Nacht. She has performed with the Brooklyn Chamber Music Society and appears regularly with the Boston Chamber Music Society. Ms. Keefe earned a Master of Music Degree from The Juilliard School and a Bachelor of Music Degree from The Curtis Institute. Her teachers included Ronald Copes, Ida Kavafian, Arnold Steinhardt, Philip Setzer, Philipp Naegele, and Teri Einfeldt.

November 20, 2016: Jonathan Biss, piano; Frank Huang, concertmaster; Sheryl Staples, principal associate concertmaster; Cynthia Phelps, viola; Carter Brey; cello SIR EDWARD ELGAR (1857-1934) Piano Quintet in A minor, op. 84 November 20, 2016: Jonathan Biss, piano; Frank Huang, concertmaster; Sheryl Staples, principal associate concertmaster; Cynthia Phelps, viola; Carter Brey; cello In 1918, when Elgar was sixty-one, he was suddenly seized with the desire to compose chamber music, which he had not done since 1892. On September 15, the day he finished the Violin Sonata, he began the Piano Quintet, and before that was completed, he started working on the String Quartet. The Sonata, Quartet, and the first movement of the Quintet were ready for a run-through on January 7, 1919, and on March 7 another trial performance was arranged for all three pieces with the Quintet now complete. William Henry Reed (“Willie”), concertmaster of the London Symphony Orchestra, had become very friendly with Elgar over the composition of the Violin Concerto a decade earlier. He consulted with Elgar frequently over the chamber works and was involved in the trial performances and public premieres of all three. Reed described a section of the countryside surrounding Brinkwells, where the pieces had been written: “Near the cottage rises a strange plateau, on which there are a number of trees with gnarled and twisted branches, bare of bark and leaves—a ghastly sight in the evening, when the branches seem to be beckoning and holding up gaunt arms in derision.” This partially explains Lady Alice Elgar’s first reference to the Quintet in her diary on September 15: “[Edward] Wrote part of Quintet wonderful weird beginning same atmosphere as ‘Owls’—evidently reminiscent of sinister trees & impression of Flexham Park”; and on September 16: “E. wrote more of the wonderful Quintet—Flexham Park—sad ‘dispossessed’ trees & their dance & unstilled regret for their evil fate—or rather curse—wh. brought it on—Lytton ‘Strange Story’ seemed to sound through it too.” “Owls” was a part song (choral piece) that Elgar had set to his own terrifying poem of 1907; “Strange Story” was a Bulwer Lytton novel about occult happenings in a village—Elgar, who loved supernatural stories, had woven such an atmosphere into the first movement of his Piano Quintet. He wrote to music critic Ernest Newman, the work’s dedicatee: “the first movement is ready & I want you to hear it—it is strange music I think & I like it—but—it’s ghostly stuff.” The opening movement is laid out on a grand scale with a Moderato section presenting themes that will be important throughout the work. The first theme’s piano part has often been likened to the beginning of the Latin Christian antiphon Salve Regina, to which chromatic figuration for the strings has been added. George Bernard Shaw, who in addition to his literary accomplishments was a perceptive music critic, attended the complete trial performance and became quite friendly with Elgar thereafter. Shaw wrote the composer a detailed letter, which Elgar greatly appreciated and which is quoted frequently below for its contemporary insight. He praised the opening as “the finest thing of its kind since Coriolan [Beethoven’s Overture].” The second idea, a kind of chromatic sigh with the cello rising underneath, serves as a motto in the work. The main theme of the Allegro begins in 6/8 in a manner very reminiscent of Brahms. A reference to the motto precedes the quiet second theme, which has sounded vaguely Spanish to several commentators. Shaw objected particularly to the movement’s development section. “You cannot begin a movement in such a magical way as you have begun the Quintet and then suddenly relapse into the expected.” When Elgar forwarded Shaw’s letter to Newman he protested that Shaw had misunderstood the idea: “it was meant to be square at that point & goes wild again—as man does.” The expansive recapitulation brings all the ideas back in modified form. Hints of the “Salva Regina” and motto theme return, closing the movement in reverse order with the last statement of the “chant” in its fullest appearance. The beautiful Adagio fully met with Shaw’s approval: “A fine slow movement is a matter of course with you: nobody else has really done it since Beethoven: at least the others have never been able to take me in. Intermezzos and romances at best, never a genuine adagio.” Relying again on sonata form, Elgar composed a lovely main theme in which the viola is prominent. The development section rises to a great climax before calming down again for the recapitulation. Harmonic niceties of the movement include the magical slipping into F major for the start of the development from the basic F-sharp minor sonorities and a similar half-step shift from C-sharp minor to C major at the start of the coda. The motto theme introduces the finale, another sonata form-movement, which like the first, begins with a Moderato section before moving to the main Allegro. Shaw was “exhilarated by the swing of the three-four [meter]” of the main theme. He may have referred to a section of this movement when he wrote: “There are some piano embroideries on a pedal point that didn’t sound like piano or like anything else in the world, but quite beautiful, and I have my doubts whether any regular shop pianist will produce them: they require a touch which is peculiar to yourself, and which struck me the first time I ever heard you larking about with a piano.” The development contains versions of the “Salve Regina” and “Spanish” second theme of the first movement. The recapitulation is artfully varied and the coda presents the two main themes of the movement in a heightened manner that Elgar described as an “apotheosis.” © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

December 19, 2017: Alessio Bax, piano; Lucille Chung, piano SERGEI RACHMANINOFF (1873–1943) Suite No. 2 in C minor, op. 17 December 19, 2017: Alessio Bax, piano; Lucille Chung, piano Following the disastrous failure of his First Symphony in 1897 Rachmaninoff sank into such a deep depression that he could not compose, yet he knew he must produce another piano concerto for an upcoming engagement. Relatives persuaded him to see Dr. Nicolai Dahl, who had been specializing for some years in a method that involved his patients learning a kind of self-hypnosis (which in the early 1930s became known as the Coué method). Rachmaninoff described his treatment and emergence from his creative slump with enough material not only for the concerto but a two-piano suite: I heard the same hypnotic formula repeated day after day, while I lay half asleep in an armchair in Dahl’s study. “You will begin to write your concerto. . . . You will work with great facility. . . . The concerto will be of excellent quality. . . .” It was always the same, without interruption. Although it may sound incredible, this cure really helped me. Already at the beginning of the summer I began to compose. The material grew in bulk, and new musical ideas began to stir in me—far more than I needed for my concerto. By the autumn I had finished two movements of the concerto: the Andante [his generic term for any slow movement, in this case the Adagio sostenuto] and the finale—and a sketch of a suite for two pianos. Rachmaninoff saw Dr. Dahl daily from January to April 1900. Whether the method worked, or whether he came out of his depression by his extended conversations with Dahl, who was also an amateur musician, Rachmaninoff was soon able to complete both the Second Piano Concerto and the Suite. He sent three of the four movements of the Suite to his friend, pianist and teacher Alexander Goldenweiser, on February 17, 1901. By April 23, the complete work was ready for the two to play through at Goldenweiser’s apartment. Dedicated to Goldenweiser, the Suite was published that October as Opus 17—before the Second Piano Concerto, op. 18, which accounts for the seeming reverse in the order of the opus numbers. In November the composer and his cousin Alexander Siloti gave the first public performance in Moscow. The Suite begins with a lively march, which reaches a grand climax before fading away in the distance. In the lovely waltz Rachmaninoff plays with the expected 3/4 meter, sometimes stretching his themes into what sounds like 6/4, or two-measure instead of one-measure units. At the beginning of the second of two calmer sections, Rachmaninoff makes a brief reference to the Dies irae theme (four notes only) from the Catholic Mass for the Dead, which would play a significant role in a number of his later works. Rachmaninoff fashioned the Romance around one of his ravishing melodies, which he embroiders ingeniously and builds to a fortissimo climax. In his comprehensive study of Rachmaninoff, Barrie Martyn notes that just before the final appearance of the theme, the composer used material from his six-hand Romance, written for in 1891 for three sisters. According to a footnote in the score, Rachmaninoff based the final Tarantella on an Italian folk song, but the tune has yet to be identified. In any case, the fast, whirling dance makes a dazzling conclusion. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes