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- Concert January 19, 2025 | PCC
SUNDAY, JANUARY 19, 2025 AT 4 PM THE VIRTUOSO ORGANIST PAUL JACOBS, ORGAN ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE BUY TICKETS On January 19, it will be an honor to welcome back the inimitable organ virtuoso organist Paul Jacobs . He will introduce and perform a selection of towering masterpieces by Bach, Mendelssohn, Franck, Ives and Liszt. composed especially for the King of Instruments. 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 PAUL JACOBS, ORGAN “Paul Jacobs is one of the great living virtuosos.” — The Washington Post “… An obliterating performance by one of the major musicians of our time.” - Alex Ross, The New Yorker Heralded as “one of the finest organists and teachers of our day,” by Zachary Woolfe of The New York Times, “one of the major musicians of our time” by Alex Ross of The New Yorker, the internationally celebrated organist Paul Jacobs combines a probing intellect and extraordinary technical mastery with an unusually large repertoire, both old and new. He has performed to great critical acclaim on five continents and in each of the fifty United States. The only organist ever to have won a Grammy Award, Mr. Jacobs is an eloquent champion of his instrument both in the United States and abroad. PROGRAM Felix Mendelssohn Sonata No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 65 I. Allegro moderato e serioso II. Adagio III. Andante--Recitative IV. Allegro vivace assai Program Notes Cesar Franck Program Notes Prelude, Fugue, and Variation, Op. 18 Charles Ives Variations on "America" Program Notes Johann Sebastian Bach Program Notes Arioso from Cantata, BWV 156 Franz Liszt Fantasia and Fugue on 'Ad Nos, Ad Salutarem Undam' Program Notes Watch Paul Jacobs perform Bach's "Great" Fugue in G minor, BMV 542: Watch Paul Jacobs perform "Little" Fugue in G Minor, BWV 578:
- Concert December 15, 2024 | PCC
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2024 AT 4 PM THE VIRTUOSO FLUTIST DENIS BOURIAKOV, FLUTE A RECITAL FOR FLUTE AND ORCHESTRA with Erin Bouriakov, Flute Musicians From The New York Philharmonic Michael Parloff, Conductor DENIS BOURIAKOV , FLUTE ERIN BOURIAKOV , FLUTE 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 In 2012, Sir James Galway called the young Crimean flutist Denis Bouriakov “the greatest living talent at the moment on the flute.” Since that time, Bouriakov has established himself as one of the world’s leading soloists. With his phenomenal instrumental command and impeccable artistry, he is continually expanding the limits of the flute’s technique and repertoire through his burgeoning catalogue of transcriptions, recordings, and videos. His unique virtuosity will be showcased in a recital of music for flute and orchestra supported by eighteen musicians from the New York Philharmonic conducted by PCC’s Artistic Director, Michael Parloff . The program will include concertos by Mozart and François Devienne , and Denis’ wife, Erin, will share the spotlight in Bach’s Double Concerto in D minor , arranged for two flutes and orchestra. The afternoon will culminate with Denis’s bravura transcription Camille Saint-Saëns’s scintillating Rondo Capriccioso for flute and strings. Musicians from the New York Philharmonic Michael Parloff, conductor Sheryl Staples, Concertmaster Michelle Kim, violin Quan Ge, violin Qianqian Li, violin Audrey Wright, violin Alina Kobialka, violin Cong Wu, viola Robert Rinehart, viola Mathew Christakos, cello Nathan Vickery, cello Timothy Cobb, bass Lauren Scanio, flute Sarah Beaird, flute Ryan Roberts, oboe Michal Cieślik, oboe Tanner West, horn Liana Hoffman, horn Paolo Bordignon, harpsichord PROGRAM W.A. Mozart: Flute Concerto in G, K. 313 Program Notes J. S. Bach: Double Concerto for Two Flutes in D minor, BWV 1043, arr. by Denis Bouriakov (Denis and Erin Bouriakov, flutes) Program Notes INTERMISSION François Devienne: Flute Concerto No. 7 in E minor Program Notes W.A. Mozart: Andante in C, K. 315 for flute and orchestra Program Notes Camille Saint-Saëns: Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, Op. 28, arr. by Denis Bouriakov Program Notes Watch the thrilling conclusion to Denis Bouriakov’s bravura arrangement of Camille Saint-Saëns’s Rondo Capriccioso for flute and strings: Watch Denis Bouriakov’s performance of the third movement of CPE Bach’s virtuosic Concerto in D minor:
- Arlen: I Wonder What Became of Me; Gershwin: Our Love is Here to Stay; Weill: Youkali, American Songbook
November 12, 2023: Angel Blue, soprano; Bryan Wagorn, piano American Songbook Arlen: I Wonder What Became of Me; Gershwin: Our Love is Here to Stay; Weill: Youkali November 12, 2023: Angel Blue, soprano; Bryan Wagorn, piano I Wonder What Became of Me Harold Arlen Born in Buffalo, New York, February 15, 1905; died in New York, April 23, 1986 After composing Broadway musicals in New York in the 1930s, Harold Arlen began writing for Hollywood films—he is best-known for his songs for The Wizard of Oz, in particular, “Over the Rainbow” with lyricist Yip Harburg. He spent the next two decades composing primarily in collaboration with lyricist Johnny Mercer, helping to shape the spectacular effusion of American popular song at the time. In the mid-1940s Arlen again turned his attention to the theater, and it was for the 1946 Broadway show St. Louis Woman that he and Mercer wrote “I Wonder What Became of Me.” The lead, Della, was supposed to sing it as a lament that luxury has not brought fulfillment. Though the song was dropped in pre-Broadway tryouts, it took on a life of its own with such illustrious interpreters as Lena Horne. Arlen liked to break the mold of a thirty-two-bar popular song form on occasion, just as he sometimes felt some songs just need to “get into another key” than where they began.” “I Wonder What Became of Me” does both—it employ sections uneven in length and ends up in a new key in reflection of its wistful lyrics. Our Love Is Here to Stay George Gershwin Born in Brooklyn, New York, September 26, 1898; died in Hollywood, California, July 11, 1937 Pursuing his prodigious musical talent after dropping out of high school, George Gershwin went to work at age fifteen for a music publisher of popular songs, singing and playing them at the piano to attract buyers. Soon he began composing his own songs and piano pieces, and when he got a better job as a pianist for Broadway shows, it was a small step for him to compose his own shows, for which his brother Ira wrote the lyrics. They scored their first big hit in 1920 with the song “Swanee,” recorded by Al Jolson. George gained further celebrity with his highly original works combining jazz and classical styles for the concert hall such as Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris. By age thirty he was America’s most famous composer. He and Ira continued to write successful Broadway shows through the 1930s, but George’s untimely death of a brain tumor at age thirty-eight robbed the world of one of its most innovative and successful composers. “Our Love Is Here to Stay” was the last song Gershwin wrote before his death on July 11, 1937. His brother Ira fit it with words after George’s death as a tribute to him for the film The Goldwyn Follies (1938), in which it was sung by Kenny Baker. The song’s extraordinary popularity, however, stems from its use in the hit film An American in Paris, where Gene Kelly sings it to Leslie Caron. Youkali Kurt Weill Born in Dessau, March 2, 1900; died in New York, April 3, 1950 Kurt Weill had already earned recognition as Germany’s leading avant-garde theater composer when the rise of Nazism forced him and his wife, singer and actress Lotte Lenya, to move to Paris in 1934, then to New York in 1935. His greatest European successes—Mahagonny (1927) and Die Dreigroschenoper (1928), with its hit song “Mack the Knife”—had resulted from his collaboration with satiric dramatist Bertolt Brecht. Weill quickly adapted to the very different world of Broadway, having already begun to use American jazz and popular song elements in his European theater works. Writing for stage, film, and radio in America, Weill became especially known for works such as Knickerbocker Holiday (1938), which contains the ultra-popular “September Song”; Lady in the Dark (1940); Street Scene (1946); and Lost in the Stars (1949). Weill originally composed an instrumental version of the tango that became “Youkali” while in Paris as an interlude for the 1934 play Marie galante by Jacques Duval. The following year Roger Fernay (pseudonym of French actor Roger Bertrand) wrote lyrics for it, and the song was published jointly by the two under the title “Youkali.” It lay in obscurity, however, until the aging Lenya turned over a stack of Weill’s materials to Canadian-born soprano Teresa Startas, whose career at the Metropolitan opera spanned thirty-six years. Though written and first published in France, this “Tango Habanera,” as it is subtitled, holds a place in the “American songbook” because it emerged from oblivion when Stratas recorded it in 1981 in New York on her album The Unknown Kurt Weill. “Youkali” refers to an idyllic land where one can escape life’s troubles, but which turns out to be only a dream. —©Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes
- Flute Concerto No. 7 in E minor, François Devienne (1759-1803)
December 15, 2024: THE VIRTUOSO FLUTIST. DENIS BOURIAKOV, FLUTE. A RECITAL FOR FLUTE AND ORCHESTRA, with Erin Bouriakov, Flute. Musicians From The New York Philharmonic. Michael Parloff, Conductor. François Devienne (1759-1803) Flute Concerto No. 7 in E minor December 15, 2024: THE VIRTUOSO FLUTIST. DENIS BOURIAKOV, FLUTE. A RECITAL FOR FLUTE AND ORCHESTRA, with Erin Bouriakov, Flute. Musicians From The New York Philharmonic. Michael Parloff, Conductor. Versatile musician François Devienne held numerous orchestral and chamber music positions as bassoonist and flutist, and he was accomplished enough on both instruments to have performed frequently as concerto soloist in his own works and those by others. Devienne also composed prolifically—concertos (flute, bassoon, and horn), sinfonies concertantes (works for more than one soloist with orchestra), comic operas, and hundreds of chamber works. Devienne was also a member of the military band of the Paris National Guard, which involved teaching children of French soldiers. He served as an adminstrator of the organization’s educational facet, which in 1792 became the Free School of Music of the National Guard—changed to National Institute of Music the following year and the Paris Conservatory two years later—and thus Devienne was one of the founders of the fledgling Paris Conservatory. He also authored an important method book for flute and is renowned for raising the level of works for wind instruments in the late eighteenth century. Devienne’s operas were performed at the Théâtre Montansier and at the Théâtre Feydeau (whose orchestra and that of the Théâtre Favart merged to become the orchestra of the Opéra Comique). Devienne’s most successful opera, Les visitandines received more than 200 performances between 1792 and 1797. He died much too young in 1803 at Charenton, a Parisian home for the mentally ill. Fortunately, though many of his manuscripts have disappeared, most of his hundreds of works were published. His music consistently favors a single melodic line with subordinate accompaniment and rarely thematic development or counterpoint, and his instrumental music contains plentiful opportunities to showcase the performer’s technique. Of Devienne’s twelve flute concertos, No. 7 in E minor, composed c. 1787, is often considered the best. At the time, concertos began with an orchestral exposition before the soloist entered, but Devienne allows the flute to enter the action earlier than normal: after the first theme in the minor home key, the flute enters by doubling the violins on the gentler second theme in the parallel major. Then, to avoid a predictable solo exposition beginning with the first theme, Devienne ingeniously puts the flute’s entrance into the spotlight with yet a third theme. These three themes form the basis of the movement, which grows ever more dazzling. The long flowing lines of the slow movement over sparse accompaniment suggest the style of gentle aria for one of Devienne’s operatic heroines. The most unusual feature of the movement is the introduction of a cadenza (extended improvisatory-sounding passage for the soloist), which is more typical in a fast movement. The finale unfolds as a lively rondo in the charming refrain alternates with contrasting episodes that become more intricate and viruosic as the movement progresses. The final return to the refrain builds to a dazzling conclusion. —©Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes
- Modest Musorgsky | PCC
< Back Modest Musorgsky Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks Program Notes Previous Next
- SATURDAY, JUNE 6 -SUNDAY, JUNE 7 2020 | PCC
SATURDAY, JUNE 6 -SUNDAY, JUNE 7 2020 ZUKERMAN TRIO ALL-BEETHOVEN WEEKEND RESIDENCY BUY TICKETS MATTHEW LIPMAN, VIOLA “Rich tone, eloquent phrasing.” — The New York Times ZUKERMAN TRIO “Their combination of outsized string sound, exciting ensemble precision, and compelling interpretation puts them at the head of the Piano Trio division of the Chamber Music Major League.” — San Diego Union-Tribune FEATURING ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE BUY TICKETS PINCHAS ZUKERMAN, VIOLIN AMANDA FORSYTH, CELLO ANGELA CHENG, PIANO with GUEST VIOLIST MATTHEW LIPMAN SATURDAY, JUNE 6 AT 7:30 PM (CONCERT) SUNDAY, JUNE 7 AT 3 PM (CONCERT) SATURDAY, JUNE 6 AT 2 PM (MASTERCLASS) On June 6 and June 7, the Parlance season will culminate with the triumphant return of the Zukerman Trio. The star-studded ensemble will celebrate the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth with a special weekend residency that will include a Saturday afternoon masterclass and two all-Beethoven concerts on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon. Highlights will include performances of the “Spring” violin sonata, A-major cello sonata, and the “Ghost” and “Archduke” piano trios. PUBLIC MASTERCLASS: SATURDAY, JUNE 6 AT 2 PM Violinist Pinchas Zukerman, cellist Amanda Forsyth, and pianist Angela Cheng will coach exceptional young ensembles in interpretations of Beethoven’s chamber repertoire. Participants and music to be announced. Masterclass attendance will be free with the purchase of tickets to the Saturday evening and/or Sunday afternoon concert. PROGRAM Beethoven “Eyeglasses” Duo in E-flat, WoO 32 for viola and cello Matthew Lipman, viola; Amanda Forsyth, cello Program Notes Beethoven Piano Trio in D (“Ghost”), Op. 70, No.1 Program Notes Beethoven String Trio in G, Op. 9, No. 1 Pinchas Zukerman, violin; Matthew Lipman, viola; Amanda Forsyth, cello Program Notes Beethoven Violin Sonata No. 5 in F (“Spring), Op. 24 Pinchas Zukerman, violin; Angela Cheng, piano Program Notes Beethoven Cello Sonata No. 3 in A, Op. 69 Amanda Forsyth; Angela Cheng, piano Program Notes Beethoven Piano Trio in E-flat (“Archduke”), Op. 97 Program Notes Watch the Zukerman Trio perform Beethoven’s “Kakadu Variations”, Op. 121A” on Parlance Chamber Concerts:
- Concert APRIL 7, 2024 | PCC
SUNDAY, APRIL 7, 2024 AT 4 PM JORDI SAVALL, VIOLA DA GAMBA AND CONDUCTOR HESPÈRION XXI (EARLY MUSIC ENSEMBLE) LE NUOVE MUSICHE THE BAROQUE REVOLUTION IN EUROPE (1560 - 1660) Jordi Savall , viola da gamba, conductor “If there were no Jordi Savall, we’d all live on a musically smaller planet.”— San Francisco Classical Voice Hespèrion XXI “The glorious ensemble sound of Hespèrion XXI featured period-instrument textures rendered with a delicacy and clarity sufficient to make a listener truly feel like a time traveler. — The New York Times ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE BUY TICKETS Jordi Savall and his legendary ensemble, Hespèrion XXI , will explore 100 years of musical history in a fascinating concert of music by early Baroque masters. For more than 50 years, Jordi Savall has rescued musical gems from the obscurity of neglect and oblivion and given them back for all to enjoy. A tireless advocate for early music, he interprets and performs the repertory both as a viola da gambist and a conductor. Savall founded the ancient music ensemble Hespèrion XXI in 1974 as a way of recovering and disseminating the rich and fascinating musical repertoire prior to the 19th century on the basis of historical criteria and the use of original instruments. Today the ensemble is central to the understanding of the music of the period between the Middle Ages and the Baroque. 2023-2024 SEASON October 15, 202 3 Lysander Piano Trio November 12, 2023 Angel Blue, soprano Bryan Wagorn, piano December 3, 2023 Brentano String Quartet Antioch Chamber Choir January 14, 2024 Goldmund String Quartet February 18, 2024 Candlelit Music of The Spirit March 10, 2024 Richard Goode, Piano Late Beethoven April 7, 2024 Jordi Savall, Conductor Hespèrion XXI May 12, 2024 Mothers Day Concert June 2, 2024 Mozart’s Double Concertos 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 PROGRAM Le Nuove Musiche The Baroque Revolution in Europe (1560 - 1660) This program is approximately 75 Minutes in length Program Notes Vincenzo Ruffo (ca.1508-1587) Capricci in musica a tre voci (Milano, 1564) La Gamba – La Disperata – La Piva Emilio de’ Cavalieri (ca.1550-1602) Rappresentatione di Anima, et di Corpo (Roma, 1600) Sinfonia La Pellegrina: Intermedii et concerti (Siena, 1589) Ballo del Granduca Tobias Hume (ca.1569-1645) Captain Humes Poeticall Musicke (Londra, 1607) The Lady Sussex delight The Earle of Pembrookes Galiard Anonymous (England, ca.1610) Greensleeves to a Ground Samuel Scheidt (1587 - 1654) Ludi Musici (1621) Galliard Battaglia, SSWV 59 Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583 - 1643) Il primo libro delle canzoni (Rome, 1628) Canzon terza, a due canti, F 8.14c Andrea Falconiero (ca.1586-1656) Il primo libro di canzone (Naples, 1650) Ciaccona Juan García de Zéspedes (1619-1678) Guaracha Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger (ca.1580 - 1651) Libro terzo d’intavolatura di chitarrone (Roma, 1626) Variations on the Folia Anonymous (Spain, ca.1660) Diferencias sobre la Folía Andrea Falconiero l primo libro di canzone (Naples, 1650) Passacalle Biagio Marini (1594-1663) Per ogni sorte di strumento musicale (Venice, 1655) Passacaglio Tarquino Merula (1595-1665) Canzoni overo sonate concertate per chiesa e camera (Venice, 1637) Chiaccona Antonio Valente (ca.1520-ca.1580) Intavolatura de cimbalo (Naples, 1576) Gallarda Napolitana Watch viola gambist Jordi Savall perform La Rêveuse: Les folies d’Espagne de Marin Marais: Watch Jordi Savall and Hespèrion XXI play an excerpt from Lachrimae Caravaggio: This program has been made possible in part by a grant administered by the Bergen County Department of Parks, Division of Cultural and Historic Affairs from funds granted by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
- TICKETS ONLINE | PCC
BUY TICKETS TO THE 2024-2025 SEASON COVID-19 Info for Parlance Chamber Concerts attendees: Read more here. 2024 – 2025 EVENTS Masking is encouraged but optional at Parlance Chamber Concerts’s events.
- Artist Bios 2013-2014 (List) | PCC
2013-2014 ARTIST ROSTER ALESSIO BAX, PIANO NICHOLAS CANELLAKIS, CELLO STEFÁN RAGNAR HÖSKULDSSON, FLUTE DAVID KRAUSS, TRUMPET JOEL NOYES, CELLO PHILIP SETZER, VIOLIN STEPHEN WILLIAMSON, CLARINET STEPHANIE BLYTHE, RECITER LINO GOMEZ, SAXOPHONE HSIN-YUN HUANG, VIOLA ANTHONY MCGILL, CLARINET SUSANNA PHILLIPS, SOPRANO ARNAUD SUSSMANN, VIOLIN GREGORY ZUBER, PERCUSSION BRENTANO STRING QUARTET JERRY GROSSMAN, CELLO WARREN JONES, PIANO RAYMOND MENARD, RECITER ERIK RALSKE, FRENCH HORN CONRAD TAO, PIANO
- JONATHAN BISS, PIANO
JONATHAN BISS, PIANO Jonathan Biss is a world-renowned pianist who extends his deep musical and intellectual curiosity from the keyboard to classical music lovers in the concert hall and beyond. In addition to his performance schedule, he has spent eight summers at the Marlboro Music Festival, and has written extensively for prestigious media outlets about his own relationships with the composers with whom he shares a stage. A member of the faculty of his alma mater, the Curtis Institute of Music, since 2010, Biss led the school’s first massive open online course (MOOC) to a virtual classroom of 51,000 students last season. Recently, Biss performed throughout the United States and Europe, including appearances with the Chicago, Danish National, BBC, Stuttgart Radio, and Finnish Radio symphony orchestras; the New York Philharmonic; the Philharmonia and Minnesota orchestras, and the Los Angeles and Netherlands chamber orchestras. Biss toured Italy and the United States with Mark Padmore and performed with the Belcea Quartet at Wigmore Hall. He also had recitals in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Houston, Denver, and at the Aldeburgh and Rheingau festivals and the International Piano Series in London. Additional performances include the UK premiere at the BBC Proms of the Bernard Rands piano concerto commissioned by Biss, Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Riccardo Muti, and an appearance with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, playing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3. Biss has embarked on a nine-year, nine-disc recording cycle of Beethoven’s complete piano sonatas, releasing the first disc in the series in 2011. Biss’ first Amazon Kindle Single, Beethoven’s Shadow, was the first-ever Single written by a classical musician. It spent many weeks on the Kindle Singles bestseller list opposite works by major commercial fiction writers and was the number one music title in the Kindle Store for months. In 2013, Biss partnered with the Curtis Institute of Music and Coursera to offer a MOOC, Exploring Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas. The course relaunched in 2015 on Coursera in a new format, allowing students to watch all the video lessons at once or progress at their own pace. The second part of the course, on additional Beethoven sonatas, was added later. Biss’ Schumann: Under the Influence project was a 30-concert exploration of the composer’s role in musical history. Biss and several hand-picked collaborators performed Schumann’s work in juxtaposition with the music of Purcell, Beethoven, Schubert, Berg, Janacek, and Timo Andres. As part of the project, Biss recorded Schumann and Dvořák Piano Quintets with the Elias String Quartet and wrote an Amazon Kindle Single on Schumann, A Pianist Under the Influence. Throughout his career, Biss has been an advocate for new music. Among the works he has commissioned are Lunaire Variations by David Ludwig, Interlude II by Leon Kirchner, Wonderer by Lewis Spratlan, Three Pieces for Piano and a concerto by Bernard Rands, which he premiered last season with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He has also premiered piano quintets by Timothy Andres and William Bolcom and is developing a commissioning project based on Beethoven’s piano concerti. Biss represents the third generation in a family of professional musicians that includes his grandmother Raya Garbousova, one of the first well-known female cellists (for whom Samuel Barber composed his Cello Concerto), and his parents, violinist Miriam Fried and violist/violinist Paul Biss. Growing up surrounded by music, Biss began his piano studies at age six, and his first musical collaborations were with his mother and father. He studied at Indiana University with Evelyne Brancart and at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia with Leon Fleisher. At age 20, Biss made his New York recital debut at the 92nd Street Y’s Tisch Center for the Arts and his New York Philharmonic debut under Kurt Masur. Biss has been recognized with numerous honors, including the Leonard Bernstein Award presented at the 2005 Schleswig-Holstein Festival, Wolf Trap’s Shouse Debut Artist Award, the Andrew Wolf Memorial Chamber Music Award, Lincoln Center’s Martin E. Segal Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, the 2003 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, and the 2002 Gilmore Young Artist Award. He was an artist-in-residence on American Public Media’s Performance Today and was the first American chosen to participate in the BBC’s New Generation Artist program. For more information about Jonathan Biss, please visit www.jonathanbiss.com .
- DOV SCHEINDLIN, VIOLA
DOV SCHEINDLIN, VIOLA Dov Scheindlin is a member and Artistic Director of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and an Associate member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. He has been violist of the Arditti, Penderecki and Chester String Quartets. He has performed in 28 countries around the globe, and won the Siemens Prize in 1999. He has appeared as soloist with the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam and has recorded extensively for EMI, Teldec, and others. He won the Gramophone Award in 2002 for the Arditti Quartet’s recording of Sir Harrison Birtwistle’s Pulse Shadows. He has premiered chamber music by Britten, Carter, Kurtág, Adès and others. He has performed at festivals such as Salzburg, Luzern, and Tanglewood with members of the Juilliard, Alban Berg, Tokyo, and Borodin String Quartets. Dov Scheindlin lives in New York and he plays a viola by Francesco Bissolotti of Cremona, made in 1975. He is married to Met violinist Katherine Fong, and they have a two-year-old son, Ezekiel.
- Song Without Words in D for cello and piano, Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
September 29, 2024: Rafael Figueroa, cello; Jeewon Park, piano Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) Song Without Words in D for cello and piano September 29, 2024: Rafael Figueroa, cello; Jeewon Park, piano Beginning in September 1829 and continuing throughout his life, Mendelssohn composed eight sets of Lieder ohne Worte (Songs without words), a genre he originated, principally for piano, which blurred the boundary between song and character piece. The term first appeared in letters to his sister Fanny and in print in 1833. He composed eight sets of six pieces each: opp. 9b, 30, 38, 53, 62, and 67 were published during his lifetime, and opp. 85 and 102 appeared posthumously. Fortunately for cellists, he also wrote a Song Without Words for cello and piano, op. 109. Penned around October 1845, this gem was published posthumously in 1868. Mostly lyrical, some virtuosic, these short pieces exemplify the Romantic thought that music could express something words could not. Though they are written in the manner derived from solo song, Mendelssohn left most of them untitled except for a handful—Venetian Gondola Song, Duetto, and Folk Song—leaving the listener free to imagine what poetry might have inspired them. The Songs Without Words generally—as in this case—contain a lyrical melody over a figural accompaniment pattern. Though the figuration usually stays the same throughout the piece, the central section often modulates or contains a new melodic idea creating an A-B-A form. Here new piano figuration swirls tempestuously around a turbulent new cello melody. A pensive transition brings a return of the calm A section and an ethereal conclusion. —©Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes



