March 8, 2026: Jonathan Biss, piano Leoš Janáček (1854-1928) On an Overgrown Path, Series 1, Nos. 1, 6, and 7 March 8, 2026: Jonathan Biss, piano In January 1897 Janáček was asked by schoolmaster Josef Vávra to contribute some pieces to a publication of harmonized Slavonic folk melodies for harmonium, an organlike instrument fashionable in Moravia at the time. Eventually, in October 1900, he contributed three pieces (Nos. 1, 2, and 10 of the present work), but by this time he had gone beyond simple folk arrangements into the realm of character pieces. After those three appeared in 1901, two more (Nos. 4 and 7) were published in the series the following year. Then in 1908, when Prague critic Jan Branberger expressed interest in publishing some of his pieces, Janáček sent him these, transcribed for piano, as well as some newly composed pieces. Branberger wrote back enthusiastically asking about the “poetic content” of the as yet untitled pieces. The composer obliged with brief individual descriptions containing musical examples, saying: “The little pieces On an Overgrown Path contain distant reminiscences. . . . Whenever I have a moment to indulge myself undisturbed in these recollections, then I find another such little piece comes to mind. It is on an overgrown path.” When negotiations with Branberger became unsettled, Janáček sent the pieces along with some added pieces to Brno publisher Arnošt Piša, who complained that they were too difficult but finally issued a set of ten—with poetic titles—in 1911. (Three of the newer pieces and two unpublished ones from the first years of the project were published after Janáček’s death as Series II without programmatic titles.) The success of On an Overgrown Path was a new experience for Janáček, who had won local recognition but had yet to experience the international acclaim that his opera Jenůfa would bring in 1916. Though Janáček was nearing fifty when he began composing On an Overgrown Path , it is considered an early work because his great late flowering was yet to come. He had taken a hiatus from working on his opera Jenůfa , during which time he was developing his “speech melody” technique (related to inflections of spoken Czech) that would permeate his later compositions. On an Overgrown Path was one of the first works to show this new direction, which coincided with a deeper personal resonance in his music. His comments to Branberger emphasize just how autobiographical the work is. In particular, his grief at the death of his beloved twenty-year-old daughter Olga in 1903 cast its unmistakable shadow over the later pieces in the work. In the following brief descriptions of this afternoon’s selections, the quoted phrases are Janáček’s: Our Evenings—The title (from the 1911 publication and so presumably approved by Janáček) gives the only clue to its tender, sometimes nostalgic content. Scholars relate its violent central outburst to verbal fighting with his wife, with whom he had a difficult relationship. Words Fail!—“The bitterness of disappointment,” wrote Janáček about this beautiful lament full of inner unrest. Good Night!—“Perhaps you’ll hear parting in the piece based on [here he gave a musical example] to which the words ‘good night’ are suited.” —©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:

September 26, 2021: Paul Neubauer, viola; Arnaud Sussmann, viola; Nicholas Canellakis, cello; Sihao He, cello; Joel Noyes, cello; David J. Grossman, bass; Paolo Bordignon, harpsichord JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750) Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 September 26, 2021: Paul Neubauer, viola; Arnaud Sussmann, viola; Nicholas Canellakis, cello; Sihao He, cello; Joel Noyes, cello; David J. Grossman, bass; Paolo Bordignon, harpsichord In March 1719, when Bach was in Berlin to collect the new harpsichord made for Cöthen by court instrument maker Michael Mietke, he had occasion to play for Margrave Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg. The meeting spurred an invitation from the Margrave for Bach to send him some compositions. The works that he sent probably originated in Weimar even before Bach’s move to Cöthen in 1717, but it took yet another two years for him to complete, compile, and submit his “Six concerts avec plusieurs instruments” (Six concertos with several instruments). He dedicated the 1721 manuscript to the Margrave, saying: As I had a couple of years ago the pleasure of appearing before Your Royal Highness . . . and as I noticed then that Your Highness took some pleasure in the small talents that Heaven has given me for Music, and as in taking leave of Your Royal Highness, Your Highness deigned to honor me with the command to send Your Highness some pieces of my composition: I have then in accordance with Your Highness’s most gracious orders taken the liberty of rendering my most humble duty to Your Royal Highness with the present Concertos, which I have adapted to several instruments. No record exists of the Margrave of Brandenburg ever using the scores, ever sending Bach a fee, or ever thanking him. Legend has it that a lack of acknowledgment may have stemmed from the Margrave’s instrumental resources not matching those of Cöthen or Weimar, thus rendering the pieces unperformable at his establishment. It is certainly true that Bach used unprecedented and different scoring in each of the individual works, treating the collection like an “Art of the Concerto Grosso” and thus was not aiming to match any specific establishment’s resources. The manuscript eventually became the property of the state library in Berlin, remaining unpublished until the Bach revival in the nineteenth century. In 1880 Philipp Spitta, Bach’s famous biographer, coined the term “Brandenburg Concertos,” which has been used ever since for the beloved works. Bach empoyed the simple yet flexible plan for the eighteenth-century concerto grosso developed by Torelli and Corelli, standardized by Vivaldi—a small solo group (the concertino) alternating with the full ensemble (ripieno or tutti), typically in three movements: fast, slow, fast. The Brandenburg Concertos offer a wide spectrum of innovative instrumental schemes and combinations and a great variety in treatment of form. Nos. 1, 3, and 6 use instrumental forces that are fairly balance in number, with No. 1 containing some violino piccolo solos and No. 6 featuring two violas. Nos. 2, 4 and 5 contrast a small concertino with a large ripieno throughout, with different instruments featured in each case. In the Sixth Concerto Bach uses only strings and continuo, as in the Third. In this case, however, he creates a new atmosphere of somewhat darker colors by dispensing with violins. (Could Brahms have been following his lead in his A major Serenade?) The concertino is made up of two violas (originally viole da braccio), two violas da gamba (now usually played on cello), and cello. The solo violas provide an especially mellow sound that contributes to this Concerto’s unique sonority. Perhaps the most striking feature of the work, other than scoring, is the incredible contrapuntal writing in the first movement. The violas enter in canon separated by a time interval of only two sixteenth notes. The second movement is a poignant Adagio ma non troppo, followed by the energetic final movement in da capo form (A-B-A), made lively by syncopations and a bubbly mood of optimism. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

January 27, 2019: Pinchas Zukerman Trio LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) Kakadu Variations, Op. 121a January 27, 2019: Pinchas Zukerman Trio On July 19, 1816, Beethoven wrote to his Leipzig publisher Gottfried Christoph Härtel offering him his “Variations with an introduction and coda for Piano, violin, and violoncello upon a well-known theme by Müller,” adding, “They are from my earlier compositions but they do not belong to the reprehensible ones.” Beethoven had originally penned the Variations c. 1801–03, taking as his theme the well-known tune “Ich bin der Schneider Wetz und Wetz” (I am the tailor whet and whet) from Wenzel Müller’s 1794 singspiel (light opera with spoken dialogue) Die Schwestern von Prag (The sisters from Prague). The work charmed the Viennese in 130 performances at the Theater in der Leopoldstadt during Beethoven’s lifetime. An 1814 revival—the opera’s 122nd performance—may have prompted Beethoven to revisit the Variations and send them to his publisher in 1816, but he appears to have gone far beyond a mere dusting off. He likely made revisions in two stages, as scholar Lewis Lockwood has pointed out, both around 1816, and, since Härtel did not publish the work then, again around 1824 when Steiner published it as Opus 121a—the last of the master’s piano trios. In particular, Beethoven made substantial changes to his introduction and finale, the latter curiously labeled “rondo” in the 1824 publication but clearly not in that form. The popular tune that Beethoven used as his theme—now the opera’s best-known melody thanks to the Variations—underwent a name change by the time of the 1824 publication, because “Wetz und Wetz” (whet and whet, or grind and grind) had sexual connotations in Viennese dialect. The choice of the innocuous “Kakadu,” a comic bird, may have been related in some way to Mozart’s birdcatcher Papageno from The Magic Flute. In Müller’s singspiel, “Ich bin der Schneider Wetz und Wetz” is the entrance song of the tailor Krispin, who will disguise himself as the “sister from Prague” to gain the required approval for his master Herr von Gerstenfeld to marry Herr von Brummer’s daughter Wilhelmine against a field of undesirable suitors. Beethoven’s introduction, presumably expanded when he revisited the work, contrasts markedly from the more traditional ensuing variations. Fantasia-like, it anticipates the “Kakadu” tune in tantalizing bits as if, as Lockwood suggests, Müller’s simple, jocular theme is being “composed before our very ears.” Beethoven also seems to have tinkered with the last variation, elaborating it in a fugal manner and imbuing the coda with extra weight and the experience of his mature years. That Beethoven returned in Variations 1–9 to the more conventional if still engaging variations of his original set seems to say that he was happy with them as long as his introduction and conclusion now showed how far he had come in his maturity. After the drama of the introduction, the utterly simple presentation of Müller’s Papageno-like theme makes for a delightful comedic jolt. Variation 1 features the piano alone, Variation 2 highlights the violin in running triplets and birdlike ornaments over dainty piano, and Variation 3 presents the cello in lyrical lines to gentle piano accompaniment. Variations 4, 5, and 6 combine the three instruments—No. 4 sending the piano in cascading descents and ascents, No. 5 introducing contrapuntal imitation, and No. 6 requiring virtuosic delicate piano octave figurations with pointed “chirps” from the strings. Variation 7 gives the violin and cello a simple contrapuntal duet, Variation 8 shows Beethoven’s fleet-footed rhythmic play in alternation between strings and piano, and Variation 9 presents the requisite minor-mode Adagio for somberly expressive contrast. Variation 10 scampers at lightning speed until the coda begins in a simple, slightly martial Allegretto that Beethoven builds in fugal style to a grand, spirited conclusion. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

SUNDAY, MARCH 13, 2022 AT 3 PM IMPRESSIONS OF DEBUSSY AND RAVEL BUY TICKETS KRISTIN LEE, VIOLIN NICHOLAS CANELLAKIS, CELLO “Superb young soloist.” — The New Yorker Michael Brown, piano “Fearless performances…one of the leading figures in the current renaissance of performer-composers.” — The New York Times FEATURING ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE BUY TICKETS Impressions of Debussy and Ravel will showcase glittering musical highlights from La Belle Époque. Three of today’s most charismatic young musicians will perform Claude Debussy’s beguiling violin and cello sonatas in alternation with Maurice Ravel’s ravishing duo for violin and cello — his elegy to Debussy — and Ravel’s kaleidoscopic piano trio. PROGRAM Claude Debussy Violin Sonata in G minor, L. 140 Program Notes Maurice Ravel Sonata for Violin and Cello Program Notes Claude Debussy Cello Sonata in D minor, L. 135 Program Notes Maurice Ravel Piano Trio in A minor Program Notes Watch Kristin Lee, Nicholas Canellakis, and Michael Brown perform the first movement of Ravel’s Piano Trio in The Cathedral of Taormina (Sicily):

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

June 19, 2022 – Zukerman Trio LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) Piano Trio in E-flat (“Archduke”), Op. 97 June 19, 2022 – Zukerman Trio Archduke Rudolph, sixteenth and youngest son of Emperor Leopold II, may have been Beethoven’s most important patron in many ways. A talented musician, he met Beethoven in the winter of 1803–04 and studied piano, theory, and composition with him for over twenty years—at times he was Beethoven’s only pupil. Beethoven dedicated more compositions to him than to any other patron; counted among the most important of these eleven works are the Fourth and Fifth Piano Concertos, Les adieux Piano Sonata, the Hammerklavier Sonata, the Missa solemnis, and the only work that bears an informal reference to Rudolph as its nickname, the Archduke Piano Trio. It was Rudolph who established an annuity for the composer that also involved Prince Kinsky and Prince Lobkowitz, though Rudolph was the only donor able to maintain his financial share for the long term. Rudolph also helped Beethoven over difficult patches in his tumultuous relationship with his nephew Karl and in the related custody litigations. Rudolph produced a constant stream of compositions, many of them variations on themes by Beethoven, who once asked him if he planned on covering all the rooftops in Hietzing (the district where Beethoven lived) with variations. If Beethoven sometimes seemed irked by his “little Archduke,” whom as an orphan and epileptic he pitied on some level, the benefits of his association far outweighed the irritations. Beethoven made sketches for the Archduke Trio in 1810, completing it in March 1811. As it turns out, it was to be his last full-fledged piano trio, though he did compose a one-movement Allegretto in B-flat major in 1812 and made a few sketches for an F minor trio in 1816. The Archduke was not performed, however, until April 11, 1814, at a noontime military charity concert organized by violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh. Beethoven played the piano part, as he did again several days later—his last appearance as a chamber music performer. Publication was even further delayed, until 1816. One of the supreme masterpieces of the piano trio literature, the Archduke derives its monumental architecture not from heroic motives developed with intense contrasts, but from “the development of broad, moderately paced, and flowing melodies” (Maynard Solomon). “The practice results,” he continues, “in a sense of calm spaciousness, and measured nobility of rhetoric.” This spaciousness begins at the outset with a quiet, singing, chordal theme for the piano—the only opening for piano alone of all his piano trios. The violin and cello enter tenderly and the whole spinning out of ideas sets a scene of calm nobility. The second theme provides contrast with its staccato chords but soon opens out into flowing melody and cascading runs of fast notes. A fanfare motive from the closing theme carries over to begin the development, which nevertheless spends most of its time exploring aspects of the first theme. A lovely sense of anticipation is created in the development’s ultra-quiet section when the strings play an extended pizzicato passage with the piano in trills and delicate rising thirds. Beethoven makes a wonderfully mysterious transition to the recapitulation, which proceeds along regular lines. Out of the grandeur of the main theme’s appearance in the coda Beethoven creates an exciting build-up to the finish. The composer places an imaginative Scherzo as his second movement. Its disarmingly simple main theme gives no hint of its extended structure—scherzo-trio-scherzo-trio-scherzo—a five-part form similar to that of the scherzo in his Seventh Symphony. Most surprising here, however, is the positively eerie chromatic unfolding of the trio. The contrast of the trio’s lusty second theme could not be greater. The coda brings back the sinuous chromaticism yet again only to end forcefully with a bit of the main theme. For his slow movement Beethoven fashioned a rich, hymnlike theme, which he provided with four connected variations. These follow the Classic concept in which the rhythmic pattern of each employs faster and faster note values. The patterns, though highly individual and mingled with inventive thematic variants in the different voices, all impart a lovely serenity. Beethoven reaches a new level of profundity with the return of the theme, which opens out into a poetic coda that leads without pause into the last movement. The finale bursts in on the listener’s revery with an impudent jolt, much as Beethoven was said to do to shake up his audience while improvising. Nor is that the only surprise he has in store. He humorously lets his refrains take off in unexpected directions in this sonata-rondo and then leads us on a merry adventure in his Prestissimo coda, which contains a jolt or two of its own. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

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OSCAR STAGNARO, JAZZ BASS Oscar Stagnaro, originally from Peru, is considered one of the most versatile bass players on the East Coast. His mastery of playing a variety of styles ranging from jazz and fusion to Latin jazz, Brazilian jazz, and South American music has helped him travel the world performing with the very best Latin jazz artists. Says Bass Player magazine, “Oscar’s technical agility, advanced harmonic and melodic knowledge, and grounding in funk and R&B—as well as his dedication to Latin traditions—give him the ultimate flexibility when it comes time to lay down a groove.” In addition to his performing career he has developed Latin Bass curricula at both the Berklee College of Music, where he is an associate professor, and at the New England Conservatory. Oscar joined Paquito D’Rivera’s group in 1990.

HSIN-YUN HUANG, VIOLA Hsin-Yun Huang is firmly established since 1993 as one of the leading violists of her generation. Virtually simultaneously, in that year, she won the top prizes in the ARD International Music Competition in Munich and the highly prestigious Bunkamura Orchard Hall Award, which included a scholarship grant, and concerto and recital appearances in Japan. Ms. Huang was also the youngest-ever gold medalist in the 1988 Lionel Tertis International Competition on the Isle of Man. As a result of these and other successes, she has been telecast in concerto appearances with the Bavarian Radio Orchestra in Munich, the Zagreb Soloists in Paris and the Tokyo Philharmonic in Tokyo; other significant appearances include live broadcast performances with the Berlin Radio Symphony, the Russian State Philharmonic, and the National Symphony of Taiwan, among others. Recent solo highlights included collaboration with London Sinfonia in South America, with Naumberg Orchestra in Central Park, with ICE at Miller Theater, and with Children Orchestra Society at Alice Tully Hall. A native of Taiwan, Ms. Huang currently resides in New York, and is an active soloist and chamber musician in the U.S., the Far East, and Europe. She has participated in various prominent chamber music festivals, including the Rome Chamber Music Festival, Music@Menlo, Moritzburg Festival in Dresden, Spoleto Festivals in Italy as well as Charleston, SC, Cartagena Festival in Colombia, Chamber Music Northwest, the Marlboro Music Festival, Prussia Cove, England, St. Nazaire in France, Bridgehampton, the El Paso Chamber Music Festival, the Vancouver Chamber Music Festival, Festival de Divonne in France, the Appalachian Festival, the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, the Salt Bay Chamberfest, the Newport Festival, and many others. She has collaborated with artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Jaime Laredo, Joshua Bell, Joseph Suk, Menahem Pressler, the Guarneri, Juilliard, Brentano, Orion, St. Lawrence, and the Johannes String Quartets. She has recorded Mozart Quintet with the Brentann String Quartet and presented the Mozart Quintets with them under the auspices of Carnegie Hall in 2007. Ms. Huang has recently embarked on a series of major commissioning projects for solo viola and chamber ensemble. In July 2006, she premiered a new work from Houston-based Taiwanese composer Shih-Hui Chen, Shu Shon Key (Remembrance) with the Broyhill Chamber Ensemble at An Appalachian Summer Festival in North Carolina. The work was co-commissioned by the festival along with Chinese Performing Arts, and has received performances at Boston’s Jordan Hall and Da Camera of Houston, the Evergreen Symphony Orchestra has commissioned a version of the work for solo viola and orchestra. A new work from Steven Mackey, also for solo viola and chamber ensemble, received its premiere at the Aspen Music Festival in the summer of 2007. Subsequent performances included presentations by the Fulcrum Point New Music Project in Chicago, the International Viola Congress 2008, the La Jolla Summer Festival, and at Princeton University. A new disc, Viola Viola, containing both works, will be released by Bridge Record in the fall of 2012. Ms. Huang was a member of the Borromeo String Quartet from 1994–2000. With the Quartet, she participated in festivals worldwide and in such prominent venues as New York’s Alice Tully Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall, Berlin’s Philharmonie, and Japan’s Casals Hall. In 1998, the Borromeo String Quartet was awarded the prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award and was chosen by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center to be members of “CMS Two” and featured in a “Live from Lincoln Center” telecast. She is currently a founding member of the Variation String Trio with violinist Jennifer Koh and cellist Wilhelmina Smith. Hsin-Yun Huang came to England at the age of fourteen to study at the Yehudi Menuhin School with David Takeno. She continued her studies at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia with Michael Tree, where she earned her Bachelor of Music degree, and at the Juilliard School with Samuel Rhodes, where she earned her Master of Music. She is a dedicated teacher and currently serves on the faculties of the Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute of Music.

MARIKO ANRAKU, HARP Mariko Anraku has won attention as one of the world’s outstanding harpists through numerous appearances as soloist and chamber musician. She has enchanted audiences with her virtuosity and “manifestation of grace and elegance” (Jerusalem Post). The New York Times has hailed her as a “masterful artist of intelligence and wit.” Since 1995, she has held the position of Associate Principal Harpist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Since her debut as soloist with the Toronto Symphony led by Sir Andrew Davis, Ms. Anraku has appeared with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, Yomiuri Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia, among others. As a recitalist, she has performed in major concert halls on three continents, including Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and Merkin Concert Hall in New York, Jordan Hall in Boston, Bing Theater at the Los Angeles County Museum, Opera Comique in Paris, Palazzo dell’Esposizioni in Rome, and the Casals, Kioi, and Oji Halls in Tokyo. Ms. Anraku’s impressive list of awards includes the Pro Musicis International Award, First Prize at the First Nippon International Harp Competition, First Prize in the Channel Classics Recording Prize, and the ITT Corporation Prizes at the Concert Artists Guild Competition in New York. She was also awarded Third Prize and the Pearl Chertok Prize for the best performance of the required Israeli composition at the International Harp Contest in Israel. Ms. Anraku’s strong commitment to contemporary music and the expansion of the boundaries of the harp repertoire has included an invitation to premiere works by Toshio Hosokawa in Germany collaborating with traditional Japanese musicians and monks. She also gave the USA premiere of Jean-Michel Damase’s Concerto “Ballade” with the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra at the American Harp Society Conference, and has collaborated in a tribute to Takemitsu at Merkin Concert Hall in New York. Mariko Anraku has recorded exclusively for EMI Classics, including three solo recordings and a CD with eminent flutist Emmanuel Pahud. A compilation from her solo CDs has also been released. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Juilliard School and is a recipient of an Artist’s Diploma from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. Her teachers have included Nancy Allen, Lanalee deKant, Judy Loman, and her aunt, Kumiko Inoue. Ms. Anraku also studied Oriental Art History at Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan. She has been on the faculty of the Pacific Music Festival since 2011.

December 3, 2023: Brentano String Quartet; Antioch Chamber Ensemble WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791) Ave Verum Corpus for chamber choir and string quartet December 3, 2023: Brentano String Quartet; Antioch Chamber Ensemble Mozart’s wife Constanze once declared that church music was his favorite genre and that if she wanted to give him a “special surprise” at a family festivity, she would “secretly arrange a performance of a new church composition by Michael or Joseph Haydn.” Mozart, whose tastes in church music were as conservative as his tastes in most other music were progressive, composed church music throughout his life. He had ample opportunities in his native Salzburg while he was in the service of the Archbishop Colloredo. Fewer occasions arose for him to compose church music after he moved to Vienna, though it was there that he produced the the glorious but incomplete Mass in C minor and Requiem, several other unfinished pieces, and the present Ave verum corpus. Mozart composed this brief, exquisite motet in June 1791 for Anton Stoll, choirmaster of the local church in Baden where Constanze was taking a cure. The emotional profundity that he achieves through utmost simplicity is nothing short of genius. Text and Translation Ave verum corpus, natum de Maria Virgine, vere passum, immolatum in cruce pro homine cuius latus perforatum fluxit aqua et sanguine: esto nobis praegustatum in mortis examine. O Iesu dulcis, O Iesu pie, O Iesu, fili Mariae. Miserere mei. Amen. Hail true body, born of the Virgin Mary, who having truly suffered, was sacrificed on the cross for mankind, whose pierced side flowed water and blood: May it be for us a foretaste in the trial of death. O sweet Jesus, O pious Jesus, O Jesus, son of Mary, have mercy on me. Amen. Return to Parlance Program Notes