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KEN NODA, PIANO Ken Noda studied with renowned pianist/conductor Daniel Barenboim and made his concert debut in London in 1979 with the maestro conducting the English Chamber Orchestra. He has since performed as soloist with the great orchestras of the world: the Philharmonic Orchestras of Berlin, Vienna, New York, Israel, and Los Angeles; the Symphony Orchestras of London, Boston, Chicago, Montreal, Toronto, and San Francisco; the Cleveland Orchestra, Orchetre de Paris, and the Philharmonia Orchestra of London, under such famed conductors as Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Riccardo Chailly, Rafael Kubelik, James Levine, Zubin Mehta, Seiji Ozawa, and Andre Previn. He has also collaborated as chamber musician with James Levine (at two pianos), Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Lynn Harrell, and Nigel Kennedy; and as lieder accompanist to Hildegard Behrens, Maria Ewing, and Jessye Norman. In 1991, Ken Noda retired from a full-time performing career as concert pianist and became Musical Assistant to James Levine on the Artistic Administration of the Metropolitan Opera. However, he continues to perform as accompanist to today’s great vocal artists. He is also actively involved with the Met’s Young Artist Development Program.

Development Director Inmo Parloff Leadership Council Thomas and Heidi Ahlborn Anne Bosch William and Zitta Chapman Catherine Coo ke Christina Hembree Adrian and Christina Jones Ronald and Mollie Ledwith Youngick and Joyce Lee Carol Martin Dorothy Neff Suzanne Taranto Donald and Gigo Taylor Richard and Michelle Vaccaro

June 19, 2022 – Amanda Forsyth; Shai Wosner, piano LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) Cello Sonata in G minor, Op. 5, No. 2 June 19, 2022 – Amanda Forsyth; Shai Wosner, piano Beethoven composed his first two cello sonatas in the early summer of 1796 while visiting the Berlin court of King Friedrich Wilhelm II, who was himself an amateur cellist. Dedicated to the king, the sonatas were premiered by the composer at the piano with cello virtuoso Jean-Louis Duport—not to be confused with his brother Jean-Pierre, a less famous cello virtuoso who was already in the employ of the king. Ferdinand Ries, Beethoven’s student and biographer, reported that “on his departure he received a gold snuffbox filled with Louis d’ors. Beethoven declared with pride that it was not an ordinary snuffbox, but such a one as it might have been customary to give to an ambassador.” Despite their being “early” works, the Opus 5 Cello Sonatas, like the early trios and piano sonatas, show the hand of a full-fledged master. The original title—“two grand sonatas for piano and obbligato cello”—reflects the eighteenth-century tradition in which the keyboard predominated and the second instrument played an accompanying role. Though the keyboard is indeed prominent in these works, Beethoven often made it an equal partner, thus forging a new realm for the cello sonata far beyond what scholar Lewis Lockwood called “wallpaper sonatas” of such cellist-composers as Luigi Boccherini. Inspired in part by Mozart’s violin sonatas, Beethoven now showed off the cello in all of its registers and as a match for the piano’s wide range of expression. This expansion of the cello’s role had much to do with the Duports—in particular, the proficiency and personality of Jean-Luis, who had opened up a new era of technical achievement in his playing and teaching of the instrument. Both of the Opus 5 Sonatas follow the same two-movement layout, possibly modeled after Mozart’s C major Violin Sonata, K. 303. Their first movements are preceded by a long, slow introduction, which makes a slow movement unnecessary, and each concludes with a merry rondo finale to finish off the form. The extensive introduction of the G minor Sonata presents a many-faceted drama with plots and subplots that include forceful pronouncements, plentiful dotted rhythms, lyrical yearning lines, and judicious uses of silence near the end to build suspense for the main Allegro section. He generously presents two ideas in both of the exposition’s first and second theme groups, all of which he treats virtuosically in the development section, where he even introduces a lightly dancing new theme. Following his recapitulation he concludes with a turbulent coda. This is one of Beethoven’s most extended sonata movements—it amounts to more than five hundred measures even without the prescribed repeat of the exposition and of the development and recapitulation—and yet its coherence is remarkable. The bubbly rondo refrain of the second and final movement banishes the dark mood. It begins unexpectedly in C major rather than G major, a trick the composer liked enough to repeat for the last movement of his G major Piano Concerto. This catchy refrain encompasses three ideas, all of which Beethoven returns to and varies in this ingenious combination of rondo, variation, and ternary form. The refrain alternates with equally inspired episodes: the first sweet then poignant as it turns to the minor mode and the second a much extended episode in the C major key of the opening. The entire refrain-episode-refrain succession of the beginning returns after this substantial middle episode, and so the rondo form (A-B-A | C | A-B-A) gives the overall impression of a simpler three-part form. Beethoven adds a coda that pauses the forward momentum with a new alternately soft and forthright melodic phrase before the whirlwind conclusion. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

QIAN-QIAN LI, VIOLIN Violinist Qianqian Li joined the New York Philharmonic as Principal, Second Violin Group, in December 2017. An avid chamber musician, she has performed with Donald Weilerstein, Roger Tapping, Natasha Brofsky, Brett Dean, Gilbert Kalish, Curtis Macomber, and Anthony Marwood. Her honors include First Prize at Kazakhstan’s inaugural International Violin Competition, the Jules C. Reiner Violin Prize at the Tanglewood Music Center, the Ishikawa Music Academy Award, and prizes won with the Clara Piano Trio, of which she was a member for one year. Ms. Li has performed at major music festivals including Aspen, Tanglewood, Yellow Barn, and Sarasota. As a soloist, she has performed with orchestras in major concert halls in Asia, the United States, the United Kingdom, and South Africa. Her performances have been broadcast live on the radio, including by WGBH Boston. Before joining the New York Philharmonic, she served as a member of the first violin section of The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra for three years, after winning positions with the orchestras of Seattle, Atlanta, and St. Paul in the same period. She has also performed in the Boston, Pittsburgh, and Atlanta symphony orchestras and The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Born in Nanjing, China, Qianqian Li received both her bachelor and master of music degrees from the New England Conservatory, where she studied with Donald Weilerstein and served as his teaching assistant, and was granted the Laurence Lesser Presidential Scholarship. Her other mentors include Malcolm Lowe and Lina Yu.

February 12, 2023 – Gloria Chien, piano, Benjamin Beilman and Alexi Kenney, violins, Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, viola, Mihai Marica, cello ERICH WOLFGANG KORNGOLD (1897-1957) Suite for two violins, cello, and piano left-hand February 12, 2023 – Gloria Chien, piano, Benjamin Beilman and Alexi Kenney, violins, Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, viola, Mihai Marica, cello Erich Wolfgang Korngold showed an incredible gift for composition at an early age. Upon hearing him play his cantata Gold in 1907, Gustav Mahler proclaimed him a genius and recommended that he study with Alexander Zemlinsky at the Vienna Conservatory. At age eleven he composed a ballet, Der Schneemann (The Snowman), that was so impressive that Zemlinsky orchestrated and produced it at the Vienna Court Theater in 1910 to sensational acclaim. Richard Strauss was deeply impressed by Korngold’s Schauspiel Ouvertüre (Dramatic Overture, 1911) and Sinfonietta (1912), as was Puccini by his opera Violanta (1916). The pinnacle of Korngold’s early career came at the age of twenty-three when his opera Die tote Stadt (The Dead City) achieved international recognition. By 1928 a poll by the Neue Wiener Tagblatt considered Korngold and Schoenberg the greatest living composers. In 1934 director Max Reinhardt took Korngold to Hollywood where the second phase of his career began. There he composed some of the finest film scores ever written—nineteen in all, including such classics as Captain Blood (1935), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), and The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939); he became Hollywood’s highest paid composer at that time. Yet he was caught between two worlds and two eras. He was criticized in some quarters for selling out to Hollywood and for ignoring modern trends in music; in Hollywood he was criticized for writing scores that were too complex. The Suite, op. 23, was written in 1930, several years before Korngold left for Hollywood and while he was under contract with the Theater-an-der-Wien as an arranger of operettas. His wife Luzi worried that his operetta work would lead to his abandonment of serious music, yet it was that work that had provided a steady enough income for him to marry. He did continue to compose serious works, though in fact their number was dwindling. The Suite, for the unusual combination of two violins, cello, and piano left-hand was written at the request of Paul Wittgenstein, who had lost his right arm in World War I, and whose financial status enabled him to commission left-hand piano concertos from many of the world’s leading composers. Though the Ravel Concerto has remained the best known, works by Prokofiev, Britten, Richard Strauss, and Franz Schmidt were also commissioned by him. And perhaps more to the point, Korngold had already written a remarkable left-hand Concerto for him in 1923. Though Wittgenstein was often known for his temperamental criticisms and rebukes, he performed the Concerto in 1924 and must have admired it enough to want Korngold to write him another piece. Korngold opted for “Suite” as a fitting title for a work of more than four movements, some of which are dance-related. He may also have liked its Baroque associations, for the work begins with a prelude and fugue. The harmonic and rhythmic language, however, displays its Romantically tinged twentieth-century orientation. The piano plays almost the entire Präludium alone, until the strings enter in unison toward the close, introducing the Fuge, which follows without pause. The fugue subject is presented by the cello, followed by the piano then the first violin. The second violin is not given its own fugal entry until the cantabile middle section. The Präludium returns to close the movement. The second movement consists of a waltz, played muted at the beginning and end. A more animated central section provides contrast. The third movement with its main theme of jagged, chromatic broken thirds is labeled “Groteske.” It functions much like a scherzo and trio, but contains intriguing metric shifts between 4/8 and 3/8. Following the Trio, which opens with an extensive piano solo, the “Groteske” is repeated. The Lied brings a singing and introspective contrast, again highlighting the piano at the outset, in an ingenious combination of melody and accompaniment all played by one hand. The Finale is a compositional tour de force, combining rondo and variation form. Introductory piano octaves preview the theme in diminution, whereupon the A theme is presented by the cello and piano, then put through a series of developing variations—developing in the sense that succeeding variations vary what has already been varied, becoming further and further removed from the theme. Korngold’s sophisticated variation techniques include diminution, augmentation, inversion, and retrograde. Episodic material leads to a B theme, which is also treated in a series of variations. The episodic material and the B theme are also closely related to the second section of the A theme, showing Korngold’s fascination with motivic unity. When the A theme returns, as in rondo form, it is in an altered minor key variation, which again leads to more “A” variations. Another set of B variations and another set of A variations bring on the coda—a wistful recall of A similar to its opening guise and a brilliant close. By Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

BRAD GEMEINHARDT, HORN Praised by the New York Times as having performed “with poetry and backbone” at a recent performance on solo horn Mahler’s 5th Symphony at Carnegie Hall, hornist Brad Gemeinhardt is Principal horn of the Metropolitan Opera, where he has been a member of the orchestra since 2007. Over his extensive and varied career spanning the last quarter century, in addition to countless performances at the Met, Mr. Gemeinhardt has performed as a Guest Principal horn of such ensembles as the New York Philharmonic, the Israel Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. He has also performed in numerous Broadway shows, as well as with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra, and the San Francisco Symphony, among many others. Also he can be heard on television shows, radio jingles, commercial recordings and in many feature films, beginning with The Producers (2005) to the more recent The Joker (2019) and In the Heights (2021). Mr. Gemeinhardt also appears frequently with the Met Orchestra Chamber Ensemble’s performances at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, where he has performed the Brandenburg 1st Concerto, the Brahms Horn Trio, Schubert Octet, among other pieces, all to great acclaim. Brad Gemeinhardt is sought after as a teacher and mentor for young, aspiring French horn players. He serves on the faculties of the Juilliard School Pre-College Division and Columbia University, and is a Valade Fellow at Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan. In addition, he is regularly invited to give master classes as a guest artist, most recently at the Juilliard School, the Manhattan School of Music, New York University, the Aspen Music Festival and School, and New York University. Mr. Gemeinhardt received a Bachelor of Music degree from The Juilliard School, where he studied horn with the late Jerome Ashby. He resides in Manhattan with his wife Dana, his teenagers Alex and Marin and his cavapoo Macintosh.

NATHAN HUGHES, OBOE Nathan Hughes is Principal Oboe of the Metropolitan Opera and a member of the faculty at The Juilliard School. He previously served as Principal Oboe of the Seattle Symphony and has recorded, toured, and made guest appearances as Principal Oboe with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, and San Francisco Symphony. An avid chamber musician, Hughes has performed with the Philadelphia, La Jolla, Seattle, and Brooklyn Chamber Music Societies, as well as at ChamberFest Cleveland, and Chamber Music Pittsburgh. In addition, he has made appearances at the festivals of Aspen, Bridgehampton, Lucerne, Marlboro, Pacific, Salzburg, Santa Fe, Sarasota, Spoleto, and Tanglewood. He has received critical acclaim for his performances as soloist with the MET Chamber Ensemble at Carnegie Hall, Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Seattle Symphony, La Jolla SummerFest Chamber Orchestra, and Verbier Festival Orchestra. A dedicated teacher, his students have earned significant positions in numerous major symphony orchestras throughout the country. Hughes earned degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music and The Juilliard School, and has lectured and presented masterclasses at institutions around the world including at the New World Symphony, Cleveland Institute, Eastman, Oberlin, Indiana University, as well as at the Munich Hochschule in Germany, National University in Korea, Stockholm Royal College of Music in Sweden, Royal Conservatory in Canada, and Pacific Music Festival in Japan. He regularly works with young musicians in the summer at the Marlboro Festival in Vermont and at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2018 AT 3 PM EMERSON STRING QUARTET GUEST CELLIST DAVID FINCKEL BUY TICKETS DAVID FINCKEL, CELLO “His playing has great warmth and expressiveness coupled with a noble, aristocratic restraint.” — Strings Magazine EMERSON STRING QUARTET “With musicians like this there must be some hope for humanity.” — The Times (London) FEATURING ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE BUY TICKETS The venerable ensemble will return to Parlance Chamber Concerts with their erstwhile colleague for a festive reunion performance of Schubert’s cherished Cello Quintet. PROGRAM George Walker Lyric for Strings Program Notes Dmitri Shostakovich String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Op. 110 Program Notes Samuel Barber Adagio for Strings Program Notes Franz Schubert String Quintet in C, D. 956 Program Notes Watch Michael Parloff’s Lecture about Shostakovich’s 8th String Quartet at Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society:

May 6, 2018: Oliver Neubauer, violin; Clara Neubauer, violin; Kerry McDermott, violin; Paul Neubauer, viola JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750) Preludio from Partita No. 3 arrg. for 3 violins & viola May 6, 2018: Oliver Neubauer, violin; Clara Neubauer, violin; Kerry McDermott, violin; Paul Neubauer, viola Though we find precedents for Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for unaccompanied violin in works by Johann Jacob Walther, Heinrich Biber, and Johann Paul Westhoff, Bach’s contributions totally eclipsed these and remain unsurpassed to this day in invention and magnificence. Trained as a violinist in his youth by his father, Bach knew the capabilities of the instrument and expanded greatly upon them. The autograph manuscript, dated 1720, presents three sonatas in alternation with three partitas. The sonatas represent the serious Italian sonata da chiesa (church sonata) form with four movements in a slow, fast, slow, fast pattern; the partitas resemble the sonata da camera (chamber sonata), a series of dance movements, which if Bach had been writing in the French style would have been called a suite. Throughout the unaccompanied violin works and in those for solo cello, Bach showed his mastery at creating a many-voiced texture with what is essentially a single-line instrument, often by the use of double stops or rolled chords, but even more often by implying several melodic lines by artful figuration. He counted on the ability of the ear to pick out and hold onto notes in one register and string them together over time as an independent voice; one can often hear such implied voices in counterpoint, occurring in two or more registers. Whereas Bach began each of his solo cello suites with a Preludio, the E major Partita is the only solo violin work to open with such a movement. The cheerful perpetual motion of the Preludio has contributed greatly to the work’s popularity. Bach himself showed a fondness for it by transcribing it for organ and orchestra in Cantatas 120a and 29; he also made a transcription of the entire Partita for lute. The Preludio is notable for its larger-than-usual number of authentic dynamic markings. In 1999 music theorist, conductor, and composer Thomas Krämer published his delightful Preludio in E for four violins based on Bach’s popular movement, whose implied counterpoint translates well to this four-voice treatment. The present performance is adapted for three violins and viola. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

STERLING ELLIOTT, CELLO Acclaimed for his stellar stage presence and joyous musicianship, cellist Sterling Elliott is a 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient and the winner of the Senior Division of the 2019 National Sphinx Competition. Already in his young career, he has appeared with major orchestras such as the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Detroit Symphony and the Dallas Symphony, with noted conductors Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Thomas Wilkins, Jeffrey Kahane, Mei Ann Chen and others. In the 2024/2025 season Sterling Elliott debuts with the Atlanta Symphony, Reno Philharmonic, Columbus Symphony, Ann Arbor Symphony, Des Moines Symphony, Winston-Salem Symphony, and returns to the Wilmington Symphony. He joins the Madison Symphony for the Beethoven Triple Concerto with Gil and Orli Shaham and returns to Carnegie Hall with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s led by Louis Langree. As the YCAT–Music Masters Robey Artist with the London-based Young Classical Artists Trust he will Tour New Zealand in addition to appearances at Wigmore Hall, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, Konzerthaus Berlin, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and others. This season he also begins his tenure as a BBC New Generation Artist, and a three-year residency in the Bowers Program of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center appearing with CMLSC at Alice Tully Hall and on tour throughout the U.S. Sterling has a long history with the Sphinx Organization where he won the 2014 Junior Division Competition, becoming the first alumnus from the Sphinx Performance Academy to win the Sphinx Competition. Last season, Sterling received the Sphinx Medal of Excellence, the highest honor bestowed by the Sphinx Organization. Sterling is pursuing an Artist Diploma at the Juilliard School under the tutelage of Joel Krosnick and Clara Kim, following completion of his Master of Music and undergraduate degrees at Juilliard. He is an ambassador of the Young Strings of America, a string sponsorship operated by Shar Music. He performs on a 1741 Gennaro Gagliano cello on loan through the Robert F. Smith Fine String Patron Program, in partnership with the Sphinx Organization.

BRYAN WAGORN, PIANO Canadian pianist Bryan Wagorn serves as Assistant Conductor at The Metropolitan Opera and regularly performs throughout North America, Europe, and Asia as chamber musician and recital accompanist to the world’s leading singers and instrumentalists. Recent engagements include the Met Chamber Ensemble at Carnegie Hall, and recitals with Angel Blue, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Lise Davidsen, and Nadine Sierra. Mr. Wagorn has appeared at festivals including Tanglewood, Marlboro, Ravinia and Glyndebourne, and served on the faculty of the National Arts Centre of Canada’s Orchestra’s Summer Music Institute, and Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra. He has been a guest coach at the Royal Academy of Music in London, the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Program and at the Glyndebourne Festival’s Jerwood Young Artist Program, and serves on the faculty of Mannes College and Manhattan School of Music.

RADU RATOI, ACCORDIONIST Winner of the 2024 YCA Susan Wadsworth International Auditions, accordionist Radu Ratoi, began playing the accordion at the age of six in his hometown in the Republic of Moldova. A prodigious talent, Radu excelled early on, winning numerous international competitions in the junior category. He has since gone on to achieve an extraordinary record, claiming victory in six of the most prestigious accordion competitions in the world: Coupe Mondiale, Klingenthal Accordion Competition, Trophy Mondiale, Arrasate Accordion Competition, PIF Castelfidardo, and the Moscow Accordion Competition. In total, he has received more than 60 national and international awards. Praised for his originality, versatility, and virtuosity in both classical and contemporary repertoire, Radu has earned several prestigious honors in his homeland. In 2018, he was awarded the "Excellence Diploma"" and in 2022, the esteemed Moldovan National Distinction "Master in Arts"" both presented by the President of the Republic of Moldova. Radu studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, where he was awarded the Sonning Music Prize, one of Denmark's most prestigious honors. His artistry is defined by the unique way he blends two major musical traditions-the Russian school and the Western European school-into a deeply personal and distinctive style. In 2022, Radu released his debut album, Greatest Organ Works Arranged for Accordion, featuring works by J.S. Bach and F. List. Through his transcriptions of pieces by J.S. Bach, D. Scarlatti, J.P. Rameau, F. Liszt, and others, Radu has expanded and redefined the accordion repertoire. As both a soloist and chamber musician, Radu has captivated audiences worldwide with his musicality, technical brilliance, and charisma. He has performed in some of the world's most renowned concert halls, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Radio Concert House Copenhagen, Victoria Concert Hall, Tivoli Hall Copenhagen, Aram Khachaturian Concert Hall in Yerevan, and Harbin Concert Hall, among others. In 2024, he was appointed as a soloist with the National Chamber Orchestra of Moldova. Radu's groundbreaking contributions to the accordion repertoire and his unforgettable performances continue to set him apart as one of the foremost accordionists of his generation.