October 17, 2021: Escher String Quartet JOSEPH HAYDN (1732-1809) String Quartet in G, Op. 77, No. 1 October 17, 2021: Escher String Quartet In 1799 the young Prince Lobkowitz commissioned Haydn, the most celebrated composer in Europe, to write a set of six quartets, at the same time commissioning six from Beethoven, Vienna’s rising star. Haydn completed two, the present one in G major and a second in F major, and he even wrote the middle two movements of the next, which was to have been in D minor, but then he stopped. The two quartets were published in 1802 as Opus 77 with a dedication to the prince, and the two separate movements appeared in 1806 as Opus 103. After composing some eighty-three quartets—trailblazing works that greatly defined the genre—why did Haydn abandon the commission and quartet writing altogether? It is likely, as his biographer Robbins Landon suggests, that he didn’t want to compete with Beethoven, his former pupil, whose response to the commission was his wonderful Opus 18 set. Now known as Beethoven’s “early” quartets in view of his later contributions, these were nevertheless considered groundbreaking in their day. In any case, Haydn had nothing to apologize for in his masterful two Opus 77 Quartets, but he was feeling his age and wanted to invest his energy in large vocal works, an area in which Beethoven could not yet compete. The Opus 77 Quartets represent Haydn at his best, providing examples of all the traits we find so characteristic of the mature master: well-proportioned sonata forms sometimes based on a single theme, frequent use of harmonies related by the interval of a third, weighty slow movements, fast minuets that are essentially scherzos, and reliance on folk idioms. And yet they also show him still stretching his creative powers. In the first movement of the G major Quartet, for example, he expands his development section to equal the proportion of the exposition. This first movement’s main theme projects a martial character, based, according to Haydn scholar Bence Szabolcsi, on a Hungarian recruiting song. Haydn soon introduces a running triplet figure that he cleverly weaves around the martial idea and around the lyrical second theme introduced by the second violin. His development section includes a “false reprise” that features this second idea in the “wrong” key. Having dealt at length with this theme in the development, he omits it in the true recapitulation and continues with his coda. The solemn slow movement (in the third-related key of E-flat) gives a soloistic role to the first violin, as Haydn had done in many of his preceding quartets. He relies on a kind of free sonata form though without a clear second theme. Among his felicitous harmonic excursions and devices is a wonderfully unexpected shift in the development that brings on a hushed rendering of the main theme in a distant key. The Presto scherzo-minuet shows the master’s unabated energy in the fast pace and acrobatic leaps. Toward the end of the first of his three sections (minuet-trio-minuet), the violin reaches a note unprecedented in the quartet literature: a super-high D. The trio suggests a rustic peasant dance but in a new style for Haydn. Was he perhaps, as Landon wonders, experimenting in Beethoven’s language to please the prince, or might he even have perpetrated a subtle spoof? Haydn’s spirited finale returns to his Gypsy-Croatian-Eastern roots in its melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic style, though scholars have not identified a direct folk quotation. With his characteristic fashioning of the second theme out of the first, Haydn makes this sonata-form movement essentially “monothematic.” The finale offers the crowning example of Haydn’s successful blend of folk and “art” music. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

January 19, 2025: THE VIRTUOSO ORGANIST PAUL JACOBS, ORGAN Franz Liszt (1811-1886) Fantasia and Fugue on 'Ad Nos, Ad Salutarem Undam' January 19, 2025: THE VIRTUOSO ORGANIST PAUL JACOBS, ORGAN Liszt’s fascination with Bach’s organ works was closely tied to three organists: Johann Gottlob Töpfer, municipal organist in Weimar; Alexander Winterberger, who was to premiere the massive “As nos” Fantasy and Fugue; and Alexander Wilhelm Gottschalg, who became the Weimar court organist. Töpfer was the teacher of both Winterberger and Gottschalg, but he was best known as an influential organ builder, and Liszt particularly admired his novel ideas on registration in the midst of most German organists’ conservative style. Liszt spent considerable time visiting church organs across Thuringia with Gottschalg and coached the younger man on playing Bach. Gottschalg published an account of these coachings, revealing that Liszt was puzzled by his playing of the Bach Toccata and Fugue in D minor with the full organ on one manual as was the German custom at the time. Surely Bach would never have done so with three manuals at his disposal, opined Liszt, and when Gottschalg played the work with new registration for Töpfer, his teacher said, “You should always play it like that.” Gottschalg also reported on Liszt’s shortcomings as an organist, saying he never became fluent with the foot pedals and even tried to initiate a notation system of stems up for the right foot and stems down for the left. However, even though Gottschalg himself found it practical it didn’t catch on in Germany. Of Liszt’s original organ works, his first, the epic Fantasy and Fugue on “Ad nos, ad salutarem undam” (Come to us, to the waves of salvation) is considered his finest. Liszt composed it in 1850 based on the chorale sung by three Anabaptists in the first act of Meyerbeer’s opera Le prophète . Though it was commonly held that Meyerbeer had based the chorale on a traditional Jewish melody he had heard in his uncle’s synagogue, Meyerbeer confided to Liszt that he had made it up. Liszt dedicated the dedicated the Fantasy and Fugue to Meyerbeer, who wrote to Liszt that he was honored and pleased, though he mistakenly thought it was written for piano. Five years later the twenty-one year old Winterberger premiered the several-times-revised version of the gigantic work for the inauguration of the new four-manual organ at the Merseburg Cathedral. As Liszt’s Toccata and Fugue on B-A-C-H was not ready, he had asked Winterberger to perform the “Ad nos” Fantasy instead, which had been published in 1852. Liszt traveled several times to Merseburg to help Winterberger prepare, in particular as to its complex registral colors. The Fantasy states the Meyerbeer chorale theme, which Liszt masterfully transforms and manipulates into two grand climaxes. He then introduces the chorale theme in a hushed Adagio in F-sharp major, the key he considered divine. The final virtuosic Fugue employs a subject based on the chorale, and elements of the previous sections return in recapitulatory fashion, to which Liszt adds a triumphal full-organ coda. —©Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2017 AT 3 PM ALESSIO BAX AND LUCILLE CHUNG, PIANOS A Pianistic Partnership BUY TICKETS ALESSIO BAX, PIANO “Among the most remarkable pianists now before the public.” — Gramophone LUCILLE CHUNG, PIANO “…a blazing, gutsy performance.” — The Washington Post FEATURING ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE BUY TICKETS "Bax and Chung are husband and wife, so it's not surprising that their piano duets work so well. They share a brilliant clarity in their playing. In this scintillating recital, it's hard to find even a fleeting moment where ensemble is less than meticulous." - The Sunday Times, London, November 2014 PROGRAM Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Sonata in C, K. 521 for piano 4-hands Program Notes Sergei Rachmaninoff Suite No. 2, Op. 17 for two pianos Program Notes Dmitri Shostakovich Concertino in A minor, Op. 94 for two pianos Program Notes Witold Lutoslawski Variations on a Theme of Paganini for two pianos Program Notes

VIDEOS PARLANCE PERFORMANCE VIDEOS VIDEO CONCERT PREVIEWS PARLOFF MULTIMEDIA LECTURES AND INTERVIEWS Watch in full screen Go to the video you'd like to watch. Press the red button with white arrow to play video. At the bottom-right of the video player, click full screen icon. An introduction to violinist Anne Akiko Meyers and guitarist Jason Vieaux An Introduction to Met Harpists Emmanuel Ceysson and Mariko Anraku Beethoven’s 9th violin sonata: The Kreutzer or the Bridgetower? Introduction to Brahms’s A-Major Violin Sonata, Op. 100; Stefan Jackiw, violinist Introduction to Brahms’s Klavierstücke, Op. 119; Richard Goode, pianist Introduction to Mozart’s A-minor Piano Sonata; Richard Goode, pianist Introduction to pianist Richard Goode Introduction to Vibraphonist Stefon Harris Preview of Matthew Polenzani & Ken Noda’s March 29, 2015 Concert A Short History of William Walton’s Façade Entertainments

2010-2011 SEASON 2010-2011 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

January 14, 2024: Goldmund Quartet ANTON WEBERN (1883-1945) Langsamer Satz January 14, 2024: Goldmund Quartet Webern was in love. In his third year as a student at the University of Vienna, he became romantically involved with his cousin Wilhelmine (Minna), and Webern’s diary, each entry filled with passionate outpourings combined with images of nature, radiates his happiness: “Our love rose to infinite heights and filled the universe! Two souls were enraptured!” The Langsamer Satz (“slow movement”), originally for string quartet, was composed in June 1905 as a direct expression of that love. They kept their affair secret knowing the anguish it would cause both sets of parents, but they married in 1911 after finding out Minna was pregnant. The marriage was officially prohibited by the Roman Catholic Church and solemnized only in 1915, by which time three of the couple’s four children had been born. In 1904 Webern had begun private composition studies with Arnold Schoenberg, which were to have profound impact on his life. There are some indications in the original set of parts for Langsamer Satz that the work was played, most likely within the Schoenberg “circle,” but Webern never made the work public. He may have suppressed it as a student work or because his compositional style soon underwent a major shift toward Schoenberg’s atonal language. In any case, it was not until 1962, almost twenty years after his death, that the world first heard this moving piece, performed on May 27 in Seattle by the University of Washington String Quartet. Langsamer Satz shows Webern’s indebtedness to late Romanticism in its rich harmonies and sweeping melodic lines. While this kind of expressiveness soon became telescoped into bare essentials, the movement exhibits the contrapuntal techniques that enabled him to structure even his most concise serial compositions. The piece consists of four basic sections, the fourth a reprise of the first, plus a coda. Though the key of the movement is E-flat major, the flowing opening melody gives the initial impression of C minor. A short, more restless section in G minor precedes a beautiful new calm theme that, if the opening was not enough, puts to rest questions about Webern’s lyrical abilities. The section peaks with the opening bar of this theme played triple forte, doubled in three octaves. In the reprise of the opening section, the second statement of the main theme is now the property of the cello. A coda based on the lyrical third section climaxes ecstatically and Webern’s wordless expression of love concludes quietly in E-flat major after a brief reminiscence of the C minor opening. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

September 18, 2022: Seth Morris & Maron Anis Khoury, flutes; Bryan Wagorn, piano FRANZ AND KARL DOPPLER (1821-1883; 1825-1900) Rigoletto Fantasie for 2 flutes & piano September 18, 2022: Seth Morris & Maron Anis Khoury, flutes; Bryan Wagorn, piano Brothers Franz and Karl Doppler both began studying flute at an early age with their father, composer and oboist Joseph Doppler. Franz played in the conventional manner with the flute out to his right, but Karl played “backwards” with the flute out to the left! As teenage flute virtuosos they made several concert tours together, then in 1838 settled in Pest, Hungary. They both became flutists of the German Town Theater and in 1841 of the Hungarian National Theater. Karl also served as a conductor at the National Theater until 1862. Franz composed several operas that met with considerable success, and Karl composed a singspiel, some incidental music, and songs that also found a receptive audience. They even composed several works jointly, such as the present Rigoletto Fantasy. Together they helped found the Philharmonic Concerts in 1853 and periodically toured as a duo. In 1858 Franz left for Vienna to become first flutist for the Court Opera and later conductor of the ballet orchestra; his fifteen ballets date from this period. From 1865 Franz also taught flute at the Vienna Conservatory. Karl stayed on for a time in Pest, but then moved to Stuttgart in 1865 to serve as court Kapellmeister, a post he held for thirty-three years. Besides composing for the theater, they each wrote a number of piano pieces and works for male chorus, and the compositions of both brothers achieved great popularity in their day. The Fantasy and Variations on Motives from the Opera Rigoletto, of Verdi, to use the work’s full title, was published in 1878 as Opus 38, but it may have been composed years earlier. One can easily imagine the brothers working on it when they lived in the same vicinity and touring with the piece long before it was published. On the other hand, maybe they had a reunion and celebrated by collaborating on the piece. In any case, they would have been very familiar with Verdi’s themes, since Rigoletto had been immensely popular ever since its Venice premiere in 1851. The aria that receives the most attention in the course of the Fantasy is the celebrated “Caro nome,” which is treated to several variations, interspersed with interludes that bring in other themes from the opera. The famous “La donna è mobile” makes a brief appearance, and we also hear parts of “Povero Rigoletto—La rà, la rà,” “Bella figlia dell’amore,” “Figlia! Mio padre!,” “Cortiginai, vil razza dannata,” and “Sì, vendetta.” The scoring for two flutes happily accommodates the many passages of parallel thirds and sixths so common to Italian opera. The Dopplers also added virtuosic filigree, switching off between players so that each has ample chance for dazzling display. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

CARTER BREY, CELLO Carter Brey was appointed Principal Cello, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Chair, of the New York Philharmonic in 1996. He made his official subscription debut with the Orchestra in May 1997 performing Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations under the direction of then Music Director Kurt Masur. He has since appeared as soloist almost every season, and was featured during The Bach Variations: A Philharmonic Festival, when he gave two performances of the cycle of all six of Bach’s cello suites. Most recently, he was the soloist in performances of Haydn’s Cello Concerto in C major at David Geffen Hall in February 2020 and at the Bravo! Vail Music Festival in July 2021, and the Brahms Double Concerto at Geffen Hall in June 2024 with Music Director Jaap van Zweden conducting on all occasions. He is a member of the New York Philharmonic String Quartet, established in the 2016–17 season, and has made regular appearances with the Tokyo and Emerson string quartets, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and at festivals such as Spoleto (both in the United States and Italy) and the Santa Fe and La Jolla Chamber Music festivals. He and pianist Christopher O’Riley recorded Le Grand Tango: Music of Latin America, and has recorded the complete works of Chopin for cello and piano with Garrick Ohlsson. Carter Brey was educated at the Peabody Institute, where he studied with Laurence Lesser and Stephen Kates, and at Yale University, where he studied with Aldo Parisot and was a Wardwell Fellow and a Houpt Scholar. An avid sailor since childhood, he holds a Yachtmaster Offshore rating from the Royal Yachting Association.

ANTON RIST, CLARINET Anton Rist was recently appointed Principal Clarinet of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. He has performed with the American Ballet Theater, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Louisiana Philharmonic, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. In addition, he served as the Principal Clarinetist of the Princeton and New Haven Symphonies. Mr. Rist has performed at the Verbier, St. Barts, Pacific, Bravo! Vail, and Aspen Music Festivals, and is a founding member of the Montserrat Music Festival in the West Indies. Mr. Rist grew up on the upper west side of Manhattan and completed two degrees at The Juilliard School. His primary teachers were Jon Manasse, Larry Guy, and Jo-Ann Sternberg.

SUNDAY, MAY 18, 2025 AT 4PM LATE NIGHT WITH LEONARD BERNSTEIN A MULTIMEDIA CABARET JAMIE BERNSTEIN , HOST JOHN MUSTO , PIANO AMY BURTON , SOPRANO MICHAEL BORISKIN , PIANO “A look at the after-hours maestro [that] revealed his mischievous personality and musical predilections … the audience filled the room with lusty laughs and applause.” — The New York Times “For lovers of contemporary American music, nothing could exceed Late Night with Leonard Bernstein, which delighted and, even thrilled, a packed house ... Those in attendance will not forget this delicious evening.” — San Diego Times ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE BUY TICKETS 2024-2025 SEASON September 29, 2024 Cellobration! October 20, 2024 Modigliani Quartet November 17, 2024 Paul Lewis Plays Schubert December 15, 2024 The Virtuoso Flutist Denis Bouriakov January 19, 2025 The Virtuoso Organist Paul Jacobs February 9, 2025 The Virtuoso Cellist Steven Isserlis March 9, 2025 Ravel’s 150th Birthday Concert April 13, 2025 Quartetto Di Cremona May 18, 2025 Late Night With Leonard Bernstein Artist Roster Parlance Program Notes LOCATION At West Side Presbyterian Church 6 South Monroe Street Ridgewood, NJ 07450 For map and directions, click here . CONCERT AMENITIES Whee lchair Accessible Fr e e Parking for all concerts FEATURING BUY TICKETS A well-known insomniac for whom night was a time for creativity and friendship, deep introspection and revelry, the iconic Leonard Bernstein worked incessantly, often entertaining friends and guests late into the night and dazzling them with charismatic performances across a wide range of musical styles. Late Night with Leonard Bernstein is hosted by his daughter Jamie and and features three internationally-acclaimed artists – soprano Amy Burton and pianists John Musto and Michael Boriskin. A scintillating and affectionate multimedia portrait of the personal side of this charismatic, singularly public figure, this vibrant production has captivated sold-out audiences across the U.S. and Mexico since it premiered at Lincoln Center. The program weaves together a warm-hearted, revealing script, a video slideshow of rare photographs of the legendary artist and his family, friends, and colleagues, and Bernstein’s most intimate (and favorite) music, along with personal stories and even audio and film clips of the Maestro himself. PROGRAM LEONARD BERNSTEIN: “For Aaron Stern” (from Thirteen Anniversaries, No. 12) “For Stephen Sondheim” (from Thirteen Anniversaries, No. 3) “For Elizabeth B. Ehrman” (from Five Anniversaries, No. 3) “Ilana, the Dreamer” (from Four Sabras, No. 1) Program Notes ZEZ CONFREY: Dizzy Fingers Program Notes AARON COPLAND: Excerpt from Piano Variations Excerpt from El Salon Mexico (arr. Bernstein) Program Notes BERNSTEIN: Canon for Aaron “Ain’t Got No Tears Left” (from On the Town) Program Notes RAYMOND SCOTT: Powerhouse (arr. Lenny Amber) Program Notes BERNSTEIN: Excerpt from Conchtown Program Notes ERNESTO LECUONA: Malagueña Program Notes FRANZ SCHUBERT: Marche Characteristique in C Major Program Notes NOEL COWARD: “If Love were All” (from Bitter Sweet ) Program Notes EDVARD GRIEG: Nocturne, Opus 54, No.4 (from Lyric Pieces , Book 5) Program Notes BERNSTEIN: “Little Smary” (lyrics by Jennie Bernstein, from Arias and Barcarolles) Program Notes BERNSTEIN: Lullaby for JZ “Some Other Time” (from On The Town ) Program Notes Watch the Trailer for “Late Night With Leonard Bernstein”:

March 9, 2025: Ravel’s 150th Birthday Concert, with Erika Baikoff, Soprano; Soohong Park, piano Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) Air de feu from L’enfante et les sortileges March 9, 2025: Ravel’s 150th Birthday Concert, with Erika Baikoff, Soprano; Soohong Park, piano Colette (known only by her surname), one of the most influential French writers of the twentieth century, penned the libretto for her Ballet pour ma fille (Ballet for my daughter) in 1916 at the request of Paris Opéra director Jacques Rouché, who wanted something avant-garde and engaging for younger audience members. Ravel accepted the commission to write the music, but owing to numerous delays—among them his World War I service and the emotional consequences of the death of his mother—he did not begin writing in earnest until 1924. Yet the project, which he envisioned as an opera rather than a ballet, had remained alive in his mind because the subject matter so appealed to him. All of his life he was attracted to the worlds of children, animals, and magic, so bringing Colette=s enchanted characters to life with musical imagery elicited one of the most witty and touching manifestations of his genius. The one-act opera—actually labeled fantasy lyrique and now titled L=enfant et les sortilèges (The child and the spells)—premiered at Monte Carlo on March 21, 1925. The production’s unbashedly enthusiastic reception was contrasted almost a year later by its stormy reception in Paris at the Opéra-Comique. The Paris critics were divided as to the opera’s merits, and as to the audience, Colette wrote to her daughter: “L=enfant et les sortilèges is playing twice a week before a packed but turbulent house. The partisans of traditional music do not forgive Ravel for his instrumental and vocal audacities. The modernists applaud and boo the others, and during the >meowed= duet there is a dreadful uproar.” The story revolves around a naughty child, who is impudent to his mother, tortures his pets, and destroys everything in his room. When the exhausted child tries to sink into an armchair, all of these objects come to life and turn against him. In the garden, the animals and insects also remind him of how he has mistreated them. Afraid and lonely, he cries out “Maman” (Mother), which only infuriates the animals further. In the ensuing frenzy a squirrel is hurt and the child binds up its wounded paw. This show of compassion immediately changes the animals’ opinion of him, and they realize they can help the child by imitating the cry for his mother. The sheer number of characters gave an unusually broad range for Ravel’s skills as a parodist and miniaturist. He wrote a remarkable coloratura soprano aria for the Fire that colorfully depicts this character jumping out of the fireplace and flickering brilliantly about the room in vocal runs, leaps, turns as it threatens: “I warm the good, but I burn the wicked.” —©Jane Vial Jaffe Test and Translation LE FEU Arrière! Je réchauffe les bons, je réchauffe les bons, mais je brûle les méchants. Petit barbare imprudent, tu as insulté à tous les Dieux bienveillants qui tendaient entre le malheur et toi la fragile barrière! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Tu as brandi le tisonnier, renversé la bouilloire, éparpillé les allumettes, gare! Gare au Feu dansant! Tu fondrais comme un flocon sur sa langue écarlate! Ah! Gare! Je réchauffe les bons! Gare! Je brûle les méchants! Gare! Gare! Ah! Gare à toi! FIRE Back! I warm the good, I warm the good, but I burn the wicked. You reckless little barbarian, you have insulted all the benevolent Gods who stretched the fragile barrier between misfortune and you! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! You have brandished the poker, knocked over the kettle, scattered the matches, watch out! Watch out for the dancing Fire! You would melt like a snowflake on its scarlet tongue! Ah! Watch out! I warm the good! Watch out! I burn the wicked! Watch out! Watch out! Ah! Watch out for you! Return to Parlance Program Notes

November 4, 2018: Alessio Bax, piano NIKOLAI RIMSKY-KORSAKOV (1844-1908) Flight of the Bumblebee, arr. Rachmaninoff November 4, 2018: Alessio Bax, piano Rimsky-Korsakov originally composed his ultra-famous Flight of the Bumblebee as part of The Tale of Tsar Sultan, the opera he wrote in 1899 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of the great Russian author Alexander Pushkin. The story of this fairy-tale opera involves “three sisters, three wishes, three wonders, and three bee stings.” The celebrated Flight of the Bumblebee is heard between scenes, after the swan (one of the wonders) shows the hero how he can turn himself into a bee, so he can fly home and meet his father. The composer creates the picturesque frenzy of a bee in flight with incredibly fast notes moving in a narrow range for the violins, clarinet, and flute in turn. Like many others who were so fascinated by this piece as to arrange it for almost every conceivable instrument, Rachmaninoff made a piano arrangement early in 1929. He eliminated its central episode, altered the beginning and end of the outer sections slightly, and tinkered a bit with a couple of harmonies, but he kept close to the Rimsky-Korsakov in other ways, especially in spirit, arriving at a dazzling encore piece that he even recorded on his last piano roll in April of 1929. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes