ABOUT THE 2025-2026 SEASON Dear Friends, Our 18th season celebrates the human voice — the universal wellspring of musical expression. From the luminous harmonies of the Renaissance to the dramatic sweep of opera and the intimacy of Lieder, vocal artistry will be a radiant thread woven throughout the season. Even our instrumental programs will highlight works shaped by the lyricism and phrasing of the singing voice. We open on September 14 with a concert featuring three of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra’s “instrumental singers”: principal hornist Brad Gemeinhardt, bassoonist William Short, and clarinetist Anton Rist . Joined by their Met Orchestra colleagues and conducted by Artistic Director Michael Parloff , they will perform three of Mozart’s iconic wind concertos . The program also includes Haydn’s sparkling Symphony No. 6 (“The Morning”) , a joyful celebration of the individual virtuosity of the orchestra members. On October 12 , celebrated Metropolitan Opera tenor Lawrence Brownlee brings his thrilling artistry to a program of high-flying bel canto arias — the very repertoire that has made him a star on the world’s great opera stages. He will be joined by pianist Kevin J. Miller. On November 2 , the eloquent baritone Benjamin Appl and pianist James Baillieu will offer To Dieter: The Past and The Future , a heartfelt tribute to Appl’s mentor, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau , in the year of the great baritone’s centennial. Their wide-ranging program will survey art songs by Schubert, Brahms, Wolf, Tchaikovsky, Britten, Barber, and more . This event will include narration by acclaimed actor Peter Francis James. On December 7 , the celebrated Renaissance Choir The Tallis Scholars will illuminate five centuries of English sacred music in Mother and Child , a profoundly moving program that includes works by Tallis, Byrd, Taverner, Britten, and others . On January 18 , violinist Benjamin Beilman , cellist Jonathan Swensen , and pianist Orion Weiss will dazzle in an afternoon of Operatic Fantasies — virtuosic reimaginings of themes from Carmen, The Magic Flute, and more, in works by Beethoven, Wagner, Liszt, and others . The program will culminate with Mendelssohn’s stirring C-minor Piano Trio . On February 22 , Moldovan accordion sensation Radu Ratoi will make his PCC debut in a bold, genre-defying recital of Bach, Liszt, Saint-Saëns , and contemporary works. A trailblazer and a poet of the accordion, Ratoi promises an unforgettable musical experience. On March 8 , the distinguished pianist Jonathan Biss returns with a solo recital spanning three centuries from Mozart’s stormy C-minor Sonata, K. 457 , to Janáček’s nostalgic On an Overgrown Path , to Schumann’s passionate Fantasy in C — a love letter in sound to his beloved Clara Wieck. On April 26 , the renowned Jerusalem String Quartet returns with a far-ranging program of Haydn’s radiant “Sunrise” Quartet , a newly composed gem by Pulitzer Prize–winner Shulamit Ran , and Beethoven’s Quartet in B-flat, Op. 130 , displaying the full range of Beethoven’s late-life inventiveness and mastery. And on May 17 , we close the season with an all-Brahms finale . Violinist Chee-Yun, cellist Sterling Elliott , and pianist Henry Kramer will unite in a richly expressive journey through Brahms’s D-minor Violin Sonata, F-major Cello Sonata, and the majestic B-minor Piano Trio . I look forward to welcoming you soon to another inspiring season at Parlance Chamber Concerts! Michael Parloff
 Artistic Director 2025-2026 SEASON September 14, 2025 “Singers” from the Met Orchestra October 12, 2025 Lawrence Brownlee, tenor November 2, 2025 Benjamin Appl, baritone; James Baillieu, piano December 7, 2025 The Tallis Scholars January 18, 2026 Benjamin Beilman, violin; Jonathan Swenson, cello; Orion Weiss, piano February 22, 2026 Radu Ratoi, accordion March 8, 2026 Jonathan Biss, piano April 26, 2026 Jerusalem String Quartet May 17, 2026 Chee-Yun, violin; Sterling Elliott, cello; Henry Kramer, piano 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

February 8, 2015 – David Finckel, cello; Wu Han, piano SERGEI PROKOFIEV (1891–1953) Sonata for Cello and Piano in C Major, Op. 119 (1949) February 8, 2015 – David Finckel, cello; Wu Han, piano In 1936, after nearly fifteen years spent living in Paris and traveling worldwide, Sergey Prokofiev, admittedly “patriotic and homesick” and longing to “see the real winter again and hear the Russian language in my ears,” moved back to the Soviet Union with his non-Russian wife and two sons. Relocating during one of the most savage political and social periods in Russian history, Prokofiev was set on establishing himself as one of Russia’s greatest composers. Rachmaninov had his hold on America, Stravinsky claimed Europe, and Shostakovich had just been censored by Stalin. Prokofiev kept his passport to tour without having to petition, but upon routine inspection it was confiscated without return, grounding Prokofiev in Moscow for the remainder of his life. The late 1930s saw very few public debuts of Prokofiev’s works, save the Cello Concerto op. 58 (1938) and Romeo and Juliet (1936), both met with negative criticism. In the years following World War II, seeking to recover the Soviet “socialist realism” ideal of art, Andrey Zhdanov, the leading Soviet cultural policy maker, passed a series of resolutions affecting literature, art, film, and finally, in 1948, music. This decree stunted artistic growth in the Soviet Union until Stalin’s death, lasting out the remaining years of Prokofiev’s life. The elderly composer grew ill and deeply insecure. Much of his work had been banned from public performance, and though still composing, he hardly was living the pampered lifestyle he had anticipated returning to Russia. Prokofiev’s Sonata for Cello and Piano, remarkably, was permitted by the Committee of Artistic Affairs to receive a public premiere. It was debuted in 1950 by cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and pianist Sviatsoslav Richter, with the first movement bearing the quote, “Mankind–that has a proud sound.” Despite the sheer horror that besieged Prokofiev at the time of the work’s composition, the work remains remarkably expressive. The first movement, marked Andante grave, opens with a resounding call by the cello, followed by a short call-and-response folk melody between the cello and piano. A throbbing interlude brings the main theme, a cheery and flippant duet. The movement slows as the cello rings out a beautiful harmonic cadence, and the second theme enters much more heavily mechanically than the first. The second movement, a playful Scherzo and Trio, follows suit. A percussive pizzicato entrance transmutes to a complacent romantic trio section. The final Allegro ma non tanto remains timid, with melodies and chordal structure based heavily on Russian folk music. The movement lacks not energy nor drive, yet each climax, rather than developing in timbre and expressive nature, actually becomes more simplistic; sometimes diminishing down to a single note piano melody. The coda recounts the opening resonant notes of the cello in a grand duet statement, marking a turbulent and virtuosic conclusion. ©2013 Andrew Goldstein Return to Parlance Program Notes

April 23, 2017: Isabel Leonard, mezzo-soprano; Warren Jones, piano FREDERIC CHOPIN (1810-1849) Four Mazurkas, op. 67 April 23, 2017: Isabel Leonard, mezzo-soprano; Warren Jones, piano Chopin’s elaboration of dance forms raised them to a high art, and he brought special prominence to the dances related to his native Poland—the mazurka and the polonaise. The mazurka , named for the Mazur people of Mazovia, is one of several turning dances for couples, typically in triple meter like the waltz. Three types of folk dances share the designation: the masur or masurek of lively, sometimes fiery character; the obertas or oberek of faster tempo and merrier character; and the kujawiak , a slow dance from the Kujawy region often in the minor mode and melancholy in expression. All share a basic rhythm that shifts the accent unsystematically to the second or third beat of the measure. Chopin composed over fifty mazurkas, typically in simple ternary form and sometimes adopting the traditional phrase structure of two or four sections of six or eight measures, each repeated. The Four Mazurkas, op. 67, were published posthumously in 1855, bringing together four pieces written at different times in the composer’s life. No. 1 in G major he is said to have copied into an album of Anna Młokosiewicz in 1835, when she and her father were “taking the waters” in Karlovy Vary, but he may have written it much earlier, possibly in Vienna or even Warsaw. It merrily unfolds in a simple ternary form with bounding dance characteristics point that seem to suggest an earlier time. The Mazurka in G minor, placed second in the posthumous collection, is the last mazurka Chopin wrote. (Jeffrey Kallberg has shown that the unfinished F minor Mazurka, op. 68, no. 4, was not his last, as previously thought.) He likely composed it after his return to Paris from Scotland, in the winter of 1848 or the spring of 1849, a time of great loneliness and rapidly sinking health. A wistful melody marks the outer sections, contrasted by a livelier central section with chromatic sequencing, leaping grace notes, and a recitative-like passage leading back to the opening. The piece shows the “new simplicity” of many of his late works. The manuscript of No. 3, in C major, belonged to a Mme. Hoffmann, possibly the writer Kelmentyna (née Tańska), but there was also an Adelina Hoffman who owned a ladies’ fashion shop in Warsaw who could have been its recipient. Composed in 1835, the piece features an easily swinging nostalgia in its outer sections surrounding a brief interlude of hesitating chordal phrases. The Opus 67 set closes with the Mazurka in A minor, for which three versions exist. The earliest manuscript, dated 1846, once belonged to Brahms. Chopin clearly favored the key of A minor for melancholic or contemplative expression in his Mazurkas, for he composed seven in that key. Again in A-B-A form, this mazurka’s outer sections feature delicately ornamented melodic lines that often end in a descent or in seeming resignation. By contrast the middle section provides sunnier tunefulness, if still touched by moments of yearning. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

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:

April 2, 2023: PAUL WATKINS, CELLO; BORIS BERMAN, PIANO JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897) Sonata in E minor for cello and piano, Op. 38 April 2, 2023: PAUL WATKINS, CELLO; BORIS BERMAN, PIANO In 1862 Brahms composed three movements of a cello sonata—his first duo sonata. He put it aside, however, until June 1865 when he added a fugal finale to complete the E minor Sonata for amateur cellist Josef Gänsbacher, who had helped secure his appointment as director of the Vienna Singakademie for the 1863–64 season. At the time Gänbacher was practicing law and giving piano and singing lessons, but eventually devoted himself exclusively to teaching singing. By 1866, when Brahms published the piece, he had deleted the Adagio movement, leaving a three-movement work of curious proportions—an expansive first movement, a minuet-like movement with the air of a valse triste (sad waltz), and a powerful fugal closing movement. A manuscript of the deleted slow movement apparently existed until the 1930s, unlike the typical scenario in which Brahms destroyed his discarded movements. Beloved as a three-movement work, the E minor Sonata takes up the cello-piano tradition of Beethoven, paying homage to the earlier master’s last cello sonata (D major, op. 102, no. 2) by including a fugue as its finale. But Brahms also looks back even further to Bach, whom he also revered greatly. Gänsbacher tells of visiting Brahms after the death of his mother in 1865 and finding him sobbing and playing Bach at the piano—neither of which activity he interrupted despite Gänsbacher’s presence. As pointed out by many commentators, Brahms’s fugue subject bears a striking similarity to Contrapunctus 13 from Bach’s celebrated Art of Fugue. Some have also suggested an additional but more tenuous link between Brahms’s first movement and Bach’s Contrapuntus 3. Naturally Brahms creates his own rich musical language despite his indebtedness to his predecessors. The remarkable, continually evolving main theme of his first movement rises out of the depths, showing off the cello’s lowest register before highlighting the upper register with impassioned lyricism. The second theme is remarkable for its close imitation between cello and piano, as is the exposition’s closing theme for its consolatory effect aided by a shift to the major mode and rocking accompaniment. In the Allegretto quasi Menuetto, the two outer sections project a sad kind of whimsy, something Mahler evoked when he came to write the second movement of his Second Symphony. In the center Brahms provides a flowing trio full of Romantic arpeggios, poignant lyricism, and gentle hesitations. Brahms shatters the gentle mood with the jagged leaping figure and ensuing bustle that constitutes his fugue subject. He then proceeds by ingeniously combining elements of fugue and sonata form, introducing a lovely flowing second theme that gives respite at critical junctures from the contrapuntal intricacies of his fugal material. The grand last appearance of the fugue subject launches a coda that hurtles to its exhilarating conclusion at breakneck speed. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

November 4, 2018: Yoobin Son, solo flute; Sheryl Staples, violin; Qian-Qian Li, violin; Cynthia Phelps, viola; Eileen Moon, cello; Tim Cobb, bass; Alessio Bax, harpsichord ANTONIO VIVALDI (1678-1741) Flute Concerto in D, RV428, (The Goldfinch) November 4, 2018: Yoobin Son, solo flute; Sheryl Staples, violin; Qian-Qian Li, violin; Cynthia Phelps, viola; Eileen Moon, cello; Tim Cobb, bass; Alessio Bax, harpsichord If one were to compose a concerto a month every year for thirty-five years, one would still not match Vivaldi’s feat. He composed close to 500 concertos, including numerous solo concertos and many for different numbers of soloists in a variety of combinations. Of these, twelve complete concertos survive for solo flute—many reworked from other versions—and ten as chamber concertos that include flute. In addition he managed to compose solo and trio sonatas, operas, oratorios, masses, motets, and cantatas, all the while maintaining a heavy schedule of performing, teaching, and traveling. Vivaldi’s extraordinary mastery of instrumental forms and orchestration influenced generations of composers. To him goes the credit for establishing the three-movement norm for concertos. He typically cast his first and last movements in ritornello form, in which periodic returns of thematic material alternate with contrasting episodes. Dating proves difficult with many of Vivaldi’s compositions, but most of his concertos were written for the Ospedale della Pietà, the famous orphanage and music school for girls in Venice. He served as maestro di violino there beginning in 1703 and remained associated with the institution in some capacity for the rest of his life. The present Flute Concerto was published in 1728 in a set of six as Opus 10—the first collection of flute concertos published in Italy. As with most of its companions, Vivaldi adapted it from an earlier version. At several times in his career Vivaldi showed great interest in pictorial composing, most famously in the four Violin Concertos known as “The Four Seasons.” In the present Flute Concerto, which he reworked from an earlier version for chamber ensemble, he focused on the depiction of bird song—not in the type of exact rendering Messiaen would later employ, but in a charming, stylized manner. The Concerto is nicknamed “Il gardinello”—alternately translated as goldfinch, green finch, or bull finch—for its depiction of the finch in raucous and more lyrical moods, with abundant trills, repeated notes, and arpeggios. After the opening ritornello, striking for its forceful unison pattern, the solo flute gives a wonderful free bird-song impression. In other solo passages the flute is joined by solo violin, which also takes an avian role. Certain conventional musical patterns may be superimposed, but the overall effect is delightfully picturesque. The lovely slow movement avoids birdlike representations in favor of a general pastoral atmosphere, with the flute lilting a tender melody in Siciliano style. In contrast to the outer movements, the accompaniment is reduced to continuo alone (keyboard with supporting bass instruments). In between the decisive descending scales in the third-movement ritornello, beguiling pairings of flute and violin again suggest our feathered friends. The solo passages offer more twitterings, some again pairing flute with violin—or two violins—and some pitting the flute alone against the entire ensemble. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

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

SUNDAY, JANUARY 18, 2026 AT 4 PM THE VIRTUOSO OPERA FANTASY BENJAMIN BEILMAN, VIOLIN JONATHAN SWENSEN, CELLO ORION WEISS, PIANO BENJAMIN BEILMAN , VIOLIN JONATHAN SWENSEN , CELLO ORION WEISS , PIANO “Virtuosic and profoundly musical, Benjamin Beilman had a fluidity of phrasing that at times astounded as he stretched the musical lines to the limits and then stretched them some more.” —Limelight Magazine “Jonathan Swenson proves to be a mature artist with a bold, rounded sound and the chops to back it up.” — Clive Paget, Musical America “"When you're named after one of the biggest constellations in the night sky, the pressure is on to display a little star power — and the young pianist Orion Weiss did exactly that in a high-powered and often ferocious recital…” — The Washington Post ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE BUY TICKETS 2025-2026 SEASON September 14, 2025 “Singers” from the Met Orchestra October 12, 2025 Lawrence Brownlee, tenor November 2, 2025 Benjamin Appl, baritone; James Baillieu, piano December 7, 2025 The Tallis Scholars January 18, 2026 Benjamin Beilman, violin; Jonathan Swenson, cello; Orion Weiss, piano February 22, 2026 Radu Ratoi, accordion March 8, 2026 Jonathan Biss, piano April 26, 2026 Jerusalem String Quartet May 17, 2026 Chee-Yun, violin; Sterling Elliott, cello; Henry Kramer, piano 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 THE VIRTUOSO OPERA FANTASY This thrilling program showcases three of today’s most exciting young artists — violinist Benjamin Beilman, cellist Jonathan Swensen, and pianist Orion Weiss — in a dazzling celebration of operatic fantasies. Drawing on melodies from such beloved operas as Mozart’s The Magic Flute, and Bizet’s Carmen , the program features instrumental works that transform iconic operatic themes into virtuosic showpieces. The concert promises to be an electrifying homage to opera’s enduring influence on instrumental brilliance. The program will include works by Beethoven-Mozart, Wagner-Liszt, Massenet, Bizet-Hubay, Fauré, and Mendelssohn. PROGRAM Ludwig van Beethoven: 7 Variations on “Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen” from Mozart’s The Magic Flute, WoO 46 for cello and piano Program Notes Richard Wagner-Franz Liszt: Isolde’s Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde for piano Program Notes Jules Massenet: Méditation from Thaïs for violin and piano Program Notes Jenö Hubay: Carmen Fantasie based on themes from the opera of George Bizet for violin and piano Program Notes INTERMISSION Gabriel Fauré: Élégie, Op. 24 for cello and piano Program Notes Felix Mendelssohn: Piano Trio No. 2 in C minor, Op. 66 Program Notes Watch violinist Benjamin Beilman play Three Pieces by Fritz Kreisler with pianist Gloria Chien: Watch cellist Jonathan Swenson play Chopin’s Cello Sonata in G minor with pianist Soyeon Kate Lee: Watch pianist Orion Weiss play Chopin’s Barcarolle, Op. 60:

December 5, 2021: Paul Jacobs, organ JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750) Trio Sonata in E Minor, BWV 528 December 5, 2021: Paul Jacobs, organ In Leipzig, where Bach served as Kantor of the Thomasschule, teaching was a huge part of his life, and his own sons were some of his very best pupils. Sometime between 1727 and 1730 he composed a set of organ sonatas, BWV 525–530, as a teaching tool for his son Wilhelm Friedemann, who became one of the finest organists of his day. What set these sonatas apart from Bach’s other organ works was their configuration as trio sonatas, in which he assigned one instrumental part to the right hand on one of the organ’s manuals, one to the left on another manual, and the bass part to the feet on the pedals. This configuration led to a lightness and clarity of texture not present in many of his other organ works. He may have also had in mind the forward-looking tastes of Wilhelm Friedemann when he occasionally slipped into a galant, more modern style, such as in the triplet motion of the E minor Sonata’s last movement. In general structure, these six sonatas rely more on concerto form in three movements (fast, slow, fast) than on four-movement sonata models. Because the three individual lines function as in a trio sonata—and because in typical fashion Bach borrowed some of the movements from earlier works and refashioned some into later pieces—the urge for arrangers to transcribe them for myriad combinations of two of more instruments has proved irresistible. In the case of the present Sonata in E minor, Bach borrowed the first movement from the Sinfonia that opens the second half of Cantata 76: “Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes” (1723), which was scored for oboe d’amore (mezzo-soprano oboe with a bulb bell), viola da gamba (viol held between the legs), and continuo (bass line to be realized by a keyboard player). Thus it makes perfect sense for the entire organ sonata to have been arranged for this combination of instruments, as in the present performance. The first movement of the E minor Sonata movement is unusual and striking in that it begins with a brief Adagio introduction that leads without pause into a high-spirited Vivace. The extremely concise ritornello form of the Vivace is also extraordinary, consisting of a ritornello (recurring section) that appears three times, whose imitative subject is immediately followed by a brief imitative answer, but the last of these answers turns into an episode full of derived figures that lasts the remaining third of the movement before being capped by a cadential phrase. The movement is also unusual for its focus on the viola da gamba line to begin the Vivace, and also for the sheer buoyancy of all three lines, the bass line of which is more elaborate here than in the Cantata. The lovely middle movement exists in an early form in D minor, known from three sources, but since those copies were made after 1750 from a now lost source it is difficult to determine the instrumentation or key of the original. (Pieter Dirksen in his “reconstruction” for oboe d’amore, viola da gamba, and continuo suggests that the lost source may have dated from as early as ca.1714 when Bach was in Weimar.) Sources aside, the beautiful main theme is remarkable for its constant emphasis on two-bar phrase lengths, which Bach maintains even in the sequencing material that follows. These two types of music alternate, A-B-A-B, before Bach brings back the opening in stretto (closer together entries) and adds a final cadence. Bach configures the lively third movement as a rondo fugue, its subject alternating with sequential episodes. The irrepressible triplet figure, introduced only briefly in the subject’s third bar, soon becomes the merry propulsive force of the entire perpetual motion movement. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

April 19, 2009 – Jon Manasse, clarinet; John Novacek, piano JOHN NOVACEK Four Rags for Two Jo(h)ns for clarinet and piano April 19, 2009 – Jon Manasse, clarinet; John Novacek, piano John Novacek writes: American music may well force upon us the futility of certain distinctions: “popular” and “serious”, “folk” and “culivated”. Case in point, ragtime, that complex hybrid of black dance tunes filtered through the procedures of the polka, march, and white minstrel song. Classic ragtime flourished from 1895 to 1915 when a number of talented pianists gathered at Tom Turpin’s Rosebud Cafe in St. Louis. The greatest was Scott Joplin (1868-1917), whose infectiously syncopated marches conceal a solid compositional technique. Inspired by the Joplin revival of the 1970s (itself spurred by the soundtrack to the film The Sting), I found playing and composing rags habit-forming, and the habit persists. My own rags show various influences: classic ragtime, the classical showpiece, and stride (the highly embellished, virtuosic offshoot of ragtime practised by Harlem pianists James P. Johnson and Fats Waller). The Four Rags for Two Jo(h)ns were written at the insistence of clarinetist Jon Manasse and pianist Jon Nakamatsu. I’m mightily grateful to them for the pressure they exerted, for they play the set with virtuosity, panache, and an uncanny feel for the idiom, and I am delighted that they’ll be recording the rags for Harmonia Mundi later this year. This afternoon, I’ll do my best in filling Mr. Nakamatsu’s spot on the piano bench. By Michael Parloff Return to Parlance Program Notes

April 3, 2016: Sir James Galway, flute; Nicholas Canellakis, cello; Paolo Bourdignon, harpsichord JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750) Sonata in E, BWV 1035 for flute and continuo April 3, 2016: Sir James Galway, flute; Nicholas Canellakis, cello; Paolo Bourdignon, harpsichord Bach presumably wrote the E major Flute Sonata in 1741 in connection with his visit to the court of the flute-loving King Frederick the Great in Potsdam (close to Berlin), and probably for the King’s flute partner and chamberlain Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf. The sources for the work all date from the nineteenth century, so the exact date of composition and circumstances for which it was written remain conjecture—hence the attempt of Bach scholars to suggest a plausible scenario. The style of the piece, though an unreliable way to date a composition, also fits with the 1741 date. The E major Sonata does not contain the kind of imitative polyphony usually considered “typical” of Bach, and it takes the form of a sonata da camera—typically a free introductory movement and several dance movements—the only such instance among Bach’s ensemble sonatas. Instead of casting doubts on the work’s authenticity, this style fits in with the progressive tendencies Bach showed in the late 1730s and early 1740s, before he adopted an older, increasingly contrapuntal style after 1745. Bach may also have associated a more galant, dance-inspired style with the transverse flute, which developed primarily in France. He did not, after all, indicate the flute as interchangeable with violin or any other treble instrument. (Later publications have done this to make the flute sonatas available to a wider public.) The opening motive—a long note with a florid continuation—recurs throughout the slow first movement. Bach provides agreeable rhythmic variety with two sections of triplets. The Allegro second movement follows rounded binary form—two sections, each repeated, with the opening theme returning halfway through the second section in its original key—the precursor of sonata form. The Siciliano, also in binary form, exhibits the characteristic 6/8 meter and dotted rhythms of the Baroque dance suite movement. The final movement, Allegro assai in 3/4 meter, features phrases alternately beginning with three eighth-note or three sixteenth-note upbeats. As in the work’s other binary movements, Bach follows the custom in Baroque suites for the main thematic material to initiate both sections. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

February 18, 2024: Stefan Jackiw, violin; Michael Stephen Brown, piano Arvo Pärt Fratres for violin and piano February 18, 2024: Stefan Jackiw, violin; Michael Stephen Brown, piano In 1960, while still a student at the Talinn Conservatory, Arvo Pärt won national attention for his Nekrolog, dedicated to the victims of the Holocaust. It was the first work by an Estonian composer to use Schoenberg’s twelve-tone system, so it created something of a scandal. The notoriety had its rewards, however, as it brought Pärt commissions from state sources and from cellist Rostropovich. Soon tired of his serial phase, Pärt began a series of alternations between creative output and withdrawal to search for a new style. One of his explorations came up with the collage technique, resulting in such compositions as his Collage on the Theme B-A-C-H (1964) and Second Symphony (1966). During the 1970s Pärt supported himself by writing some fifty film scores. His Third Symphony (1971) followed one of his “withdrawal” periods, in which he studied fourteenth- to sixteenth-century polyphony, from Machaut to Josquin. He followed another of his “creative silences” with For Alina (1976), a small piano piece of high and low extremes. Pärt said he reached a “new plateau” with this piece: “It was here that I discovered the triad series, which I made my simple, little guiding rule.” He has written in this triadic style, which he calls “tintinnabuli” (after the bell-like resemblance of notes in the triad), ever since, with only slight modifications. From 1982, when he moved to Berlin, he has composed primarily religious works for chorus or small vocal ensembles. Pärt composed Fratres, originally for string quintet and wind quintet, in 1977 for Hortus Musicus, an early-music ensemble in Tallinn. The title refers to the fraternal spirit of the Hortus Musicus. In the decades since then he has written versions of this popular piece for many different combinations: wind octet and percussion, strings and percussion, and string quartet—and versions in which violin, cello, or guitar take a solo role. In the violin and piano version, the violin alone introduces the piece’s essential hymnlike theme in its low register under virtuosic string crossings that transmit Pärt’s triadic harmonies. The hymnlike additive theme—reminiscent of a style of medieval church singing called organum—recurs eight times in the piano, employing slight variants but always in the same contour and with the same rhythmic pattern. The violin weaves imaginative “variations” through and around this framework. Pärt employs a brief, low tolling in the piano punctuated by percussive strums of the violin to separate each recurrence. The dynamics create an arch form, moving from soft to loud and back, with a particularly climactic use of double-stop chords in the violin’s central “variation.” The piece concludes with the quiet tolling measures. —©Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes