January 14, 2024: Goldmund Quartet ALEXANDER BORODIN (1833-1887) String Quartet No. 2 in D January 14, 2024: Goldmund Quartet A medical doctor and professor of chemistry by profession, Aleksandr Borodin was what he modestly called “a Sunday composer.” Consequently he produced a relatively small body of works, leaving a number of them incomplete at the time of his fatal heart attack at age fifty-three. Yet his remarkable handling of musical materials shows him to be one of the most original composers to come out of Russia in the nineteenth century. As a child Borodin had loved to pick out tunes on the piano by ear and had been given flute lessons. He loved to play four-hand piano arrangements of symphonies with his friend Mikhail Shchiglev, and taught himself to play the cello (Shchiglev similarly learned violin) in order to play chamber music with friends. Once his scientific pursuits began, he continued to play chamber music as relaxation. Borodin composed his String Quartet No. 2, the last major work he completed, while on holiday in July and August 1881 in Zhitovo outside Moscow. Its first performance took place on March 9, 1882, at a concert of the Russian Music Society in St. Petersburg. (Some sources give a premiere date of January 26, 1882.) Dedicated to Borodin’s wife, the Quartet nostalgically and lovingly reflects their first months together in Heidelberg. The Quartet has become Borodin’s most frequently performed work outside of, perhaps, his Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor. Some of its music became especially popular in the form of the Broadway show Kismet, which borrowed not only from the Polovtsian Dances and other Prince Igor music, but from the Quartet’s lively Scherzo for “Baubles, Bangles, and Beads” and the lyrical Notturno for “And This Is My Beloved.” The first movement puts sonata form on parade in a sense, as if to say, “Even chemists know their Classical forms.” This has no negative connotation now, but in the late nineteenth century the “Mighty Handful” (or the “Russian Five”)—Borodin, Balakirev, Musorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Cui—had taken naturalism to new levels and Borodin’s traditionalism sometimes received bad press. Nevertheless, Borodin’s Second Quartet sounds much more like a forerunner of Debussy and Ravel than the works of other contemporaries such as Brahms. Borodin featured the cello, his own instrument, in presenting the movement’s songlike main theme, quickly taken up by the first violin, said to represent his wife. The first violin also leads off the equally lyrical second theme, which also includes a martial portion. Borodin’s effervescent, waltzlike Scherzo also shows his knowledge of sonata form, thwarting the listener’s expectation of a middle trio by presenting a development section instead. The merry movement takes its leave with an increasingly ethereal coda. The famous, poignant Notturno also highlights the cello with the initial presentation of the luxurious theme, followed by the first violin sweetly singing the tune in higher register. The second theme, with its resolute rising scale decorated by trills, does little to alter the movement’s lyrical impression. Borodin’s display of canonic techniques throughout this movement is striking for its unobtrusive Romantic unfolding. In the finale Borodin’s “naturalist” tendencies come to the fore with a folk-like melody that serves almost as a motto. He begins with a slow introduction in two questioning phrases that provides a wonderful foil for the ensuing energetic section as well as furnishing its main thematic material. A tender second theme reminds the listener of the work’s overall lyricism. Borodin achieves a brilliant climax and ends suddenly with four emphatic chords. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

EMI FERGUSON, BAROQUE FLUTE Emi Ferguson is a creative artist expanding the classical music world. Emi bridges genres and disciplines in many roles, as a director, flute player, singer, composer, arranger, radio host, and writer, she has always been excited about finding new ways for people to embrace classical music. She has spoken and performed at several TEDX events and has been featured on media outlets including The Discovery Channel, Netflix’s Explained (Vox), Amazon's The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel , and New York’s radio station, WQXR talking about how music relates to our world today. Emi’s ability to connect through music has resonated in some of the world’s most meaningful moments. Her performance of Amazing Grace at the 10th Anniversary Memorial Ceremony of 9/11 at Ground Zero alongside Yo-Yo Ma, Paul Simon, and James Taylor was broadcast globally and is now part of the permanent collection at the 9/11 Museum. As a radio host and programmer, Emi hosts WQXR’s Young Artists Showcase , a weekly show highlighting fantastic young classical musicians, and Once Upon A Composer , a series created for the youngest of radio listeners, introducing them to music through exciting stories about composers. Her book Iconic Composers co-written with Nicholas Csicsko and featuring artwork by David Csicsko, introduces music lovers of all ages to 50 incredible Western Classical composers from the past 1000 years. Emi first started working with New York’s WQXR as a member of their Artist Propulsion Lab, developing the podcast series T his Composer Is SICK! with Max Fine that explored the impact of Syphilis on composers Franz Schubert, Bedřich Smetana, and Scott Joplin as a way to highlight contemporary case surges. Emi’s recordings celebrate her fascination with reinvigorating music and instruments of the past for the present. Her debut album, Amour Cruel , an indie-pop song cycle inspired by the music of the 17th-century French court, was released by Arezzo Music in September 2017, spending four weeks on the classical, classical crossover, and world music Billboard charts. Her 2019 album Fly the Coop: Bach Sonatas and Preludes , a collaboration with continuo band Ruckus, debuted at #1 on the iTunes classical charts and #2 on the Billboard classical charts, and was called “blindingly impressive ... a fizzing, daring display of personality and imagination” by The New York Times. Emi’s discography also includes releases on Decca Records, Verve Records, New Focus Records, Old Focus Records, Orchid Classics, Canteloupe Music, National Sawdust Tracks, Brontosaurus Records, Coro, and MSR Classics. A 2023 recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, Emi enjoys performing as both a soloist and a collaborator, appearing at major festivals and concert halls around the world. She is the founder and artistic director of the ensemble, Exquisite Corpse , a collective dedicated to music and art that resists categorization. Its projects reimagine works of the past, revive forgotten voices, reframe classics, and bring history vividly back to life while also fostering new collisions amongst today’s composers, performers, and creators across disciplines. She collaborates regularly with AMOC*, Ruckus, the New York New Music Ensemble, the Handel and Haydn Society (where she is principal flute), the Manhattan Chamber Players, and as the music director of Camerata Pacifica Baroque. Recent collaborations include projects with vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant, dancers Julia Eichten and Bret Easterling, composer Michael Hersch, harpist Ashley Jackson, pianists Dan Tepfer and Reed Tetzlof, saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, composer Roscoe Mitchell, and the Metropolis Ensemble. Chamber music and its spirit of collaboration has always been central with experiences at festivals like Marlboro, Lucerne, Ojai, Bach Virtuosi, and June in Buffalo deepening her ability to listen, respond, and create dialogue in front of and within an ensemble. Emi became the first student to earn Undergraduate and Graduate degrees with Scholastic Distinction (for her simultaneous studies in Epidemiology) in flute performance at The Juilliard School. She later earned a second Graduate degree in Historical Performance as the only flutist accepted into Juilliard’s inaugural Historical Performance class as a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow. As an educator, Emi has taught on the faculties of The Juilliard School, the Bach Virtuosi Festival, and the University at Buffalo in addition to being sought after for masterclasses at universities around the country. Born in Japan and raised in London and Boston, she now resides in New York.

2009-2010 SEASON 2009-2010 SEASON 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

QIAN-QIAN LI, VIOLIN Violinist Qianqian Li joined the New York Philharmonic as Principal, Second Violin Group, in December 2017. An avid chamber musician, she has performed with Donald Weilerstein, Roger Tapping, Natasha Brofsky, Brett Dean, Gilbert Kalish, Curtis Macomber, and Anthony Marwood. Her honors include First Prize at Kazakhstan’s inaugural International Violin Competition, the Jules C. Reiner Violin Prize at the Tanglewood Music Center, the Ishikawa Music Academy Award, and prizes won with the Clara Piano Trio, of which she was a member for one year. Ms. Li has performed at major music festivals including Aspen, Tanglewood, Yellow Barn, and Sarasota. As a soloist, she has performed with orchestras in major concert halls in Asia, the United States, the United Kingdom, and South Africa. Her performances have been broadcast live on the radio, including by WGBH Boston. Before joining the New York Philharmonic, she served as a member of the first violin section of The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra for three years, after winning positions with the orchestras of Seattle, Atlanta, and St. Paul in the same period. She has also performed in the Boston, Pittsburgh, and Atlanta symphony orchestras and The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Born in Nanjing, China, Qianqian Li received both her bachelor and master of music degrees from the New England Conservatory, where she studied with Donald Weilerstein and served as his teaching assistant, and was granted the Laurence Lesser Presidential Scholarship. Her other mentors include Malcolm Lowe and Lina Yu.

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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2019 AT 3 PM QUARTETTO DI CREMONA AN ITALIAN JOURNEY BUY TICKETS QUARTETTO DI CREMONA “It’s a rare blend: breadth of sound and capriciousness combined with perfect tuning and ensemble has the players sounding absolutely of one voice… Nothing less than life-affirming.” — Grammophone FEATURING ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE BUY TICKETS The inaugural concert of the 2019 – 2020 season will showcase one of the most exciting chamber ensembles on the international stage. The Quartetto di Cremona received the 2019 Franco Buitoni Award in recognition of their exceptional contribution to promoting Italian chamber music throughout the world. Their musical journey will feature string quartets by four of Italy’s greatest composers. PROGRAM Luigi Boccherini Quartet in C, Op. 2, No. 6 Program Notes Giuseppe Verdi Quartet in E minor Program Notes Giacomo Puccini Crisantemi Program Notes Ottorino Respighi Quartet in D Program Notes Watch the Quartetto Di Cremona perform the first movement of Giuseppe Verdi’s Quartet in E minor:

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SOOHONG PARK, PIANO Pianist Soohong Park's artistry has resonated internationally, with regular performances in Germany and the UK, including celebrated appearances at Carnegie Hall in New York and the renowned Barbican Hall in London as part of the Guildhall Artists Ensemble under the tutelage of Ronan O'Hora from Guildhall School of Music & Drama. He further enriched his musical experience by participating in the IMS Prussia Cove in the UK in 2018 and reaching the finals of the prestigious Tongyeong Isang Yoon International Music Competition in 2019. His talents were further recognised when he won the Guildhall Gold Medal in 2020. In this season, he has made his debut at Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid and at Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona as a collaborative pianist. Pianist Soohong Park also explores the realm of composition. His composition, inspired by the remarkable female divers of Jeju Island garnered him the grand prize from the Jeju World Cultural Preservation Society in 2020.

November 2, 2014 – Sharon Isbin, guitar ENRIQUE GRANADOS (1867–1916) Spanish Dance in E minor, Op. 37, no. 5 November 2, 2014 – Sharon Isbin, guitar Enrique Granados is known chiefly for his colorful Spanish Dances (1892–1911) and his Goyescas (1911), piano pieces inspired by the paintings and etchings of Goya. He achieved great fame as a pianist in his native Spain and in Paris, where he had studied for two years, but his intense dislike of travel limited his touring. Many of Granados’s activities centered around Barcelona, where he had received much of his early musical training. In 1901 he founded a school there—the Academia Granados. Tragically, travel was at the heart of his untimely death. In 1916 he had reluctantly made the sea voyage to attend the Metropolitan’s highly successful premiere of his opera Goyescas , and had postponed his voyage home in order to play for President Woodrow Wilson. Having missed his ship to Spain, he sailed instead to Liverpool where he boarded the Sussex for Dieppe. The Sussex was torpedoed by a German submarine and, though Granados was picked up by a lifeboat, he jumped into the water to save his wife; both were drowned. Granados had published his Spanish Dances in four sets of three beginning in 1892. They were greatly admired by Massenet, Cui, Saint-Saëns, and Grieg because of their new and distinctive expression of folk characteristics of many different regions of Spain. TheDances are often referred to by descriptive titles, only one of which—Villanesca (No. 4)—appeared in the original edition. Several of the Dances acquired titles when they were published separately during Granados’s lifetime. The famous No. 5 is often referred to as “Andaluza” as it represents that southern region of Spain. It follows a simple A-B-A form, with the interesting touch that the chordal “B” section is previewed toward the end of the “A” section. The strumming and picking effects that the piano imitated in the original, return to the instrument of their inspiration in the transcription by Miguel Llobet. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

BENJAMIN LUXON, ACTOR-NARRATOR Benjamin Luxon studied with Walther Gruner at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (while working part-time as a PE teacher in the East End) and established an international reputation as a singer at the age of 21 when he won the third prize at the 1961 ARD International Music Competition in Munich. Soon afterward he joined composer Benjamin Britten’s English Opera Group. On their tour of the Soviet Union in 1963, he sang the roles of Sid and Tarquinius in Britten’s operas Albert Herring and The Rape of Lucretia , respectively. In 1971, Britten composed the title role of his television opera Owen Wingrave specifically for Luxon’s voice; Luxon created the role later that year with the English Opera Group. The following year, 1972, Luxon made his début at both the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden – creating the role of the Jester in Peter Maxwell Davies’ opera Taverner – and at the Glyndebourne Opera Festival, where he sang the title role in Raymond Leppard’s realization of Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria. Thereafter he became a frequent guest at both venues and also at Tanglewood in Massachusetts, USA. In 1974, Luxon began his long association with the English National Opera, which culminated in his appearance in the title role of Verdi’s Falstaff in 1992. He made his Metropolitan Opera début (as Eugene Onegin) in 1980, his La Scala début in 1986, and his Los Angeles début (as Wozzeck) in 1988. He sang in most of the major European opera houses and made frequent appearances in Munich (Bayerische Staatsoper) and Vienna (Wiener Staatsoper). In addition to his opera work, Luxon also developed a reputation as a concert-giver and recitalist with an unusually broad repertoire, ranging from early music through Lieder to contemporary song, music hall and folk music. He has also been recognised for his work rehabilitating parlour songs from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, particularly in partnership with Robert Tear. He made several appearances on BBC TV’s long-running Music Hall Variety show, The Good Old Days, both with Robert Tear and on his own. His rendition of the song ‘Give Me a ticket to Heaven’ always met with tremendous acclaim. It was the song for which the BBC received the largest feedback of any featured on the programme. Luxon has made more than one hundred recordings, many featuring early and mid twentieth-century British songwriting and folksong arrangements by composers such as Britten, George Butterworth, Percy Grainger, Ivor Gurney, Roger Quilter, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gerald Finzi and Peter Warlock. His regular accompanist between 1961 and 1999 was the pianist David Willison. As a guest on the BBC’s Desert Island Discs program, he said that his favourite piece of music is Thomas Tallis’s Spem in alium. Luxon was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1986 Queen’s Birthday Honours.[1] Starting around 1990, Luxon began to be troubled by hearing loss. Though he explored a variety of conventional and ‘alternative’ treatments, continued fluctuation and deterioration in his hearing forced him to end his singing career by the end of the decade. Since then, however, Luxon has developed a career as a narrator and poetry reader, whilst continuing to give master classes and direct opera. He lives in the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts in the U.S.

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