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November 4, 2018: Alessio Bax and Lucille Chung, pianos; Yoobin Son, flute; Pascual Martinez-Fortese, clarinet; Sheryl Staples, violin; Qian-Qian Li, violin; Cynthia Phelps, viola; Eileen Moon, cello; Tim Cobb, bass; Barry Centanni, xylophone CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS (1835-1921) The Carnival of the Animals 2018 November 4, 2018: Alessio Bax and Lucille Chung, pianos; Yoobin Son, flute; Pascual Martinez-Fortese, clarinet; Sheryl Staples, violin; Qian-Qian Li, violin; Cynthia Phelps, viola; Eileen Moon, cello; Tim Cobb, bass; Barry Centanni, xylophone Saint-Saëns’s popularity as a pianist, organist, and composer was so great that in the 1890s his picture appeared in a series of cards depicting famous people included with packets of chocolate, in the same way that pictures of famous baseball players were wrapped with bubble gum in America. (The bubble gum disappeared from such packets only in the twenty-first century.) He naturally composed works featuring his own instruments, but he also composed operas, symphonies, chamber music, and many songs. Most of these were serious pieces, but he also had a sense of humor, which surfaced, for example, in his Odors of Paris for piano, harp, trumpet, bagpipe, tin whistle, bird warbler, cuckoo, quail, bass drum, and humming top. He never published the piece, however, for fear it would damage his reputation. For the same reason, he did not allow his Carnival of the Animals to be published or played in public while he was still alive, though it was played in private performances. Saint-Saëns composed the piece in just a few days in February 1886 as a surprise for the annual Shrove Tuesday concert of his cellist friend Charles-Joseph Lebouc. The two first performed it with a small group of instrumentalists—two pianos, flute doubling piccolo, clarinet, glass harmonica (now usually played on glockenspiel or celesta), xylophone, and string quintet—though the work has since been played more often by a larger orchestra. The first public performance took place on February 25, 1922, only two months after Saint-Saëns died. He was proved right in a way: the piece became so popular that much of his “serious” music was overlooked. Saint-Saëns’s inspired portrayals go beyond typical animal specimens to include pianists, fossils, and even habitats, as in Aviary and Aquarium. Often a famous actor or the conductor will describe the pieces during modern performances, especially for educational or young people’s concerts—or they recite the delightful accompanying poems that Ogden Nash wrote in 1949. Many others have since supplied humorous verses, among them Peter Schikele, Bruce Adolphe, and John Lithgow. This afternoon’s performance is enhanced by Frances Button’s amusing poems. Saint-Saëns’s fourteen movements include: The Introduction and Royal March of the Lion: The king of beasts is presented in a majestic march. The lion’s roars are heard in the piano parts. Hens and Roosters: The pianos and strings, with the addition of clarinet, depict pecking and squawking. Wild Tibetan Donkeys: These animals are known for their speed and are imitated by the two pianos alone in fast, running notes. Turtles: Saint-Saëns made a great joke here by transforming Jacques Offenbach’s famous and lively can-can from Orpheus in the Underworld into a piece representing some of nature’s slowest animals. The Elephant: The composer continues his fun by having the bass line represent the elephant with a lumbering version of a delicate, fairy-like piece by Hector Berlioz called “Dance of the Sylphs.” The composer also recalls a bit of the Scherzo from Felix Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream , another exquisite bit of fairy music. Kangaroos: The pianists represent these jumpers, sometimes taking short hops and sometimes making giant leaps. Aquarium: Rippling figures create a beautiful water picture. The part usually played by the glockenspiel was originally intended for the glass harmonica. This instrument, invented by Benjamin Franklin, was played by rubbing wet, tuned glass disks (like water goblets at the dinner table). Characters with Long Ears: The raucous braying of mules is imitated by the violins alone. The Cuckoo in the Depth of the Woods: The pianos play muted chords while the clarinet adds the voice of the cuckoo. Aviary: This habitat houses the fluttering creatures depicted by the flute while the strings play tremolo (quick repeated notes) and the pianos add bird calls. Pianists: The composer makes fun of beginning pianists practicing their exercises. Fossils: Here the xylophone suggests old bones. Saint-Saëns quotes six old tunes or “fossils” of music: his own Danse macabre (which had also used xylophone to suggest skeletons), French folk songs “J’ai du bon tabac” (I have some good tobacco), “Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman” (Ah! I’ll tell you, Mother, also known as “Twinkle, Twinkle” or “Baa-Baa Black Sheep”), “Au clair de la lune” (In the moonlight), and “Partant pour la Syrie” (Leaving for Syria), and finally an aria from Rossini’s opera The Barber of Seville . The Swan: This most famous movement, written for the composer’s cellist friend, was the only part of the Carnival that Saint-Saëns allowed to be published in his lifetime. The piece was made into a very popular ballet even while the composer was alive, and its beautiful melody has been arranged for almost every instrument. Finale: The work closes with a grand mixture of several of the animals we’ve met: the lion, the wild Tibetan donkeys, a few hens, roosters, and kangaroos, and, at the end, some jeers from the long-eared characters. © 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:

December 4, 2022 – The Sitkovetsky Trio SAM PERKIN Freakshow December 4, 2022 – The Sitkovetsky Trio Sam Perkin earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in composition from the Cork Institute of Technology’s Cork School of Music and an Artist Diploma from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Lyon, France, where he was awarded the Prix Salabert for composition. He has since written for leading orchestras, ensembles, and soloists such as the Irish Chamber Orchestra, the Vanbrugh Quartet, the Fidelio Trio, and Finghin Collins. In 2017 he composed Language for contemporary violin specialist Miranda Cuckson, exploring the inner workings of different human languages, and in Waves (2016–18) he “attempted self-cure for tinnitus” as one of his projects for the Irish Chamber Orchestra. His many fruitful collaborations with that ensemble began in 2015 with his luminescent Nimbus for string orchestra. Based dually in France and Ireland, Perkin serves as composer-in-residence with the Crash Ensemble, Ireland’s leading new-music ensemble. His first major work for that group, Grey Area (2017–19), forges a novel combination of the world of street skateboarding with contemporary music. In Alta, another inventive work of 2019, Perkin collaborated with Finnish northern lights specialist Unto K. Laine to incorporate recorded sounds of the aurora borealis. Emerging from the pandemic in 2021, the Luminosa Orchestra premiered his Visualization, in which musicians “bathe” everyone in the vicinity in “invisible music,” inspired by the sonic meditations of Pauline Oliveros. Most recently, in July 2022, his hybrid new symphony Children in the Universe for ensemble and halo track was premiered by the Crash Ensemble at the Galway International Arts Festival. Perkin composed Freakshow in 2016 for the Fidelio Trio on a commission from the leading Welsh music festival Gwyl Gregynog to mark the centenary of the Dublin Easter Rising of 1916, when close to 2,000 activists were arrested and imprisoned in the Welsh camp Fron-Goch for six months. Perkin explained: “Freakshow is inspired by the research of Welsh journalist and broadcaster Lyn Ebenezer, whose book Fron-Goch Camp 1916 explains how the camp became known as the ‘University of Revolution’ because leading figures such as Michael Collins were imprisoned there. “One anecdote in particular fired my imagination: the story of the Circus of Rats which acts as a portal to the absurd world of this macabre Suite. One of the prisoners at Fron-Goch used to go to great lengths to catch these rats and to put on a show for his fellow inmates. From an oblique compositional perspective and through a macabre lens, I decided to write a set of miniatures dedicated to the stars of the ‘Freakshow.’ “Building on themes of captivity and spectacle, the seven movements in the work explore seven different stories. One such story is that of the two-headed nightingale, conjoined twins who were sold to the circus when they were very young, then went on to learn five languages, dance, and play music. They eventually went on to tour the globe and achieve stardom due to their famous waltzes and vocal duets. I conveyed this musically by composing a warped waltz that shifts slightly out of and back into time.” Other stories include The Living Skeleton as the third movement and The Gentle Giant, a tribute to the world’s tallest man, Robert Wadlow, as the fourth. The fifth movement deals with the Ovitz family, Hungarian Jewish actors/traveling musicians most of whom were dwarves and who were horrifically experimented on by Nazi “doctor” Josef Mengele. The sixth features Li Yeng, “The Basket Lady of Weijing Province,” a famed contortionist who dazzled audiences on world tours from 1880 to 1910 with the Circus of the Electric Antlers—an avant-garde troupe far ahead of their time in using psychedelic mushrooms and loudly amplified tape loops of electric guitar. The suite concludes with The Armless Fiddler, the story of Carl Unthan, who had no arms and instead played the violin with his toes. Says Perkin, “What I really enjoyed in this piece was composing for instruments in a slightly different way than I usually would, being sarcastic, macabre, humorous, something a bit different to how I usually write. How do you make a violin sound sarcastic? Sul pont, pizz, arco? It’s not really that simple; it’s more based on the gestures, the musical gestures, there’s something deeper to it than just an effect. That’s something I really explored in this piece.” Return to Parlance Program Notes

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April 3, 2016: Ying Fang, soprano; Sir James Galway and Lady Jeanne Galway, flutes; Nicholas Canellakis, cello; Paolo Bordignon, harpsichord JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750) Sheep Safely Graze, from Cantata 208 for soprano, two flutes, and continuo April 3, 2016: Ying Fang, soprano; Sir James Galway and Lady Jeanne Galway, flutes; Nicholas Canellakis, cello; Paolo Bordignon, harpsichord Bach wrote secular cantatas for aristocratic patrons to celebrate special occasions such as birthdays, name days, and accession days, or for academic ceremonies. He wrote one of his most famous, Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd! (What pleases me is above all the lively hunt), BWV 208, on a text by Weimar court poet Salomo Franck for the birthday of Duke Christian Weissenfels in 1713. Known as the Hunt Cantata, it contains “Schafe können sicher weiden,” the well-known aria for Pales, second soprano to Diana, goddess of the hunt. For centuries listeners have been captivated by its texture of rocking parallel thirds for two flutes—the quintessential pastoral instrument—accompanying the tender main melody, which praises Duke Christian for ruling his people as a good shepherd. © Jane Vial Jaffe Text and Translation Schafe können sicher weiden, Wo ein guter Hirte wacht. Wo Regenten wohl regieren, Kann man Ruh und Friede spüren Und was Länder glücklich macht. —Salomo Franck Sheep may safely graze where a good shepherd watches. Where rulers are governing well, one may feel rest and peace and what makes countries happy. Return to Parlance Program Notes

ETTORE CAUSA, VIOLA Awarded both the “P. Schidlof Prize” and the “J. Barbirolli Prize” for “the most beautiful sound” at the prestigious Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition in 2000, Italian-born violist Ettore Causa has been praised for his exceptional artistry, passionate intelligence and complete musicianship. He has made solo and recital appearances in major venues around the world, and has performed at prestigious festivals. A devoted chamber musician, Causa has collaborated extensively with internationally renowned musicians. At the Yale School of Music, Causa teaches graduate-level viola students and coaches chamber ensembles. He has performed on the School’s Faculty Artist Series and Oneppo Chamber Music Series and at the Yale Summer School of Music/Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. Before Causa joined the faculty of the School of Music in 2009, he taught both viola and chamber music at the International Menuhin Music Academy. He attended the International Menuhin Music Academy, where he studied with Alberto Lysy and Johannes Eskar, and the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Michael Tree. Causa has published many highly regarded CDs on the Claves label. One notable recording is Romantic Transcriptions for Viola and Piano, on which he performshis own transcriptions, which was awarded a prestigious “5 Diapasons” by the French magazine Diapason. In 2015, he was one of the honored guests at the 43rd International Viola Congress, where he performed his own arrangement of the Schumann Cello Concerto. Causa is an honorary member of British Viola Society and he performs on a viola made for him by Frederic Chaudièrein 2003.

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SUNDAY, MARCH 11, 2018 AT 3 PM VIOLIN & PIANO DUOS FROM FOUR CENTURIES BUY TICKETS BENJAMIN BEILMAN, VIOLIN 2017 “He brought dark chocolate sound and lyricism to his rhapsodic playing and compellingly dispatched the breathless, perpetual-motion finale.” — The New York Times ORION WEISS, PIANO “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…” — The Washington Post FEATURING ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE BUY TICKETS Our March 11 event will spotlight two of today’s fastest-rising stars, violinist Benjamin Beilman and pianist Orion Weiss . Their deeply communicative performances go far beyond technical mastery and have won them worldwide acclaim. Their far-flung musical journey will range from the 18th to the 21st centuries, including music by Mozart , Beethoven , Kreisler , and a newly composed work by the renowned American composer Frederic Rzewski . PROGRAM Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Sonata in A K. 526 (1787) Program Notes Frederic Rzewski Demons for violin and piano (2017) Program Notes Ludwig van Beethoven Sonata No. 10 in G, Op. 96 (1812) Program Notes Fritz Kreisler Viennese Rhapsodic Fantasietta (1947) Program Notes Watch Benjamin Bielman perform Kreisler’s Viennese Rhapsodic Fantasietta: See Orion Weiss perform Scarlatti’s Sonata in G, K. 427:

September 18, 2022: WINDS OF THE MET WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791) Serenade No. 10 in B-flat, K. 361/370a (Gran Partita) September 18, 2022: WINDS OF THE MET In March 1784 the Wienerblättchen announced a benefit concert for virtuoso clarinetist and basset-horn player Anton Stadler that would include “a big wind piece of quite an exceptional kind composed by Herr Mozart.” Johann Friedrich Schink, who had attended the concert, later published the following account: I heard music for wind instruments today by Herr Mozart, in four movements, glorious and sublime. It consisted of thirteen instruments; viz. four corni, two oboi, two fagotti, two clarinetti, two basset-corni, a contreviolin, and at each instrument sat a master—Oh what an effect it made—glorious and grand, excellent and sublime. This concert at the National Hoftheater in Vienna had indeed included only four movements of this marvelous work, though the manuscript shows that all seven had been composed at the same time. Perhaps concert or rehearsal time was restricted, necessitating the cuts, or perhaps Mozart was aiming more at symphonic proportions—it was common practice for him to delete movements of typical six- or seven-movement serenades to make four-movement symphonies. The exact date of the Serenade’s composition cannot be pinpointed. Expert Alan Tyson has shown that the paper was a type Mozart used in 1782 and not for any composition thereafter, but circumstances and style suggest late 1783 or early 1784 as a more likely date of composition, and Mozart scholars such as Daniel Leeson and David Whitwell stand by this date. Thorough investigation of the manuscript only became possible beginning in 1942 when it was purchased by the Library of Congress after being passed from one noble family to another for over 175 years. The familiar title “Gran Partita” was not Mozart’s idea—it appears in a hand other than his on the manuscript. The instrumentation was indeed unusual, and Mozart apparently worried that such a piece would not be of much use after the occasion for which it was written. Stadler probably played the first clarinet part as “concertmaster,” though he was equally adept on the basset horn (a customized clarinet with a lower range). There can be no mistaking that Mozart intended a string bass as his lowest instrument, for the manuscript says “contrabasso” and the part contains pizzicato indications. Nevertheless it is often played on contrabassoon. A stately introduction, common to such serenades but less common in his symphonies, features contrasting fanfares and gentle responses. The main Molto allegro proceeds in a wonderfully witty manner that has much in common with Mozart’s comic opera style. Its extended sonata form contains a number of memorable features such as the wandering approach to the right key for the beginning of the recapitulation and the almost wistful moments in the coda before the snappy conclusion. The first of the minuets elegantly contrasts the full group with solo utterances. In the first trio we are treated to the singular sound of the two clarinets and two basset horns, while the second trio in the minor mode contrasts a section of scurrying triplets and sequences with a horn call that is answered by oboes and basset horns. “Sublime” is indeed the word for the Adagio, which Mozart starts out in solemn unison before setting up the pulsing accompaniment that will support the exquisitely poignant solos above it. Sustained notes that blossom into motion and expressive leaps between registers play a wonderful role here. The second minuet swings along merrily, again employing pointed contrasts between the full ensemble and solo instruments, in addition to dynamic contrasts. As in the first minuet Mozart includes two trios, the first a slightly mournful piece in B-flat minor—an extremely rare key in his time—and the second based on a simple folklike melody played by oboe, basset horn, and bassoon. Mozart labeled the fifth movement “Romance,” which typically meant something in a vocal style. Here poised, lyrical outer sections frame a lively minor-mode section. In this center section the bassoon’s continuous fast notes drive the shorter phrases of the upper winds to a major mode conclusion before the solemn singing style resumes. The charming theme-and-variations sixth movement is almost exactly reproduced in the C major Flute Quartet, K. Anh. 171, a work whose pedigree is still under scrutiny. Whether or not that arrangement is genuine, Mozart’s music captivates the listener. The movement follows double variation form, in which two themes are alternately varied, giving rise to myriad instrumental combinations. Most impressive is the great pause that halts the action in preparation for Mozart’s poignant Adagio variation. The sprightly final Allegro variation concludes the movement in high spirits. The last movement is a jolly rondo, which might have inspired Beethoven’s finale in his well-known Wind Octet, op. 103. Mozart’s two contrasting episodes each contain a section in his agitated, minor-mode “alla Turca” style. The second also features the bassoon in a fast-paced solo. Mozart extends the ebullient refrain on its final appearance with a brilliant wind-up to a decisive end. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

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