February 9, 2025: The Virtuoso Cellist, with Steven Isserlis and Connie Shih Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) Cello Sonata, Op. 36 February 9, 2025: The Virtuoso Cellist, with Steven Isserlis and Connie Shih The last formal position of Grieg's career was as conductor of the Bergen Harmoniske Selskab from 1880 to 1882, after which his activities centered around composition and concert tours. In 1883, newly freed from official commitments, Grieg composed his only Cello Sonata, op. 36, the Walzer-Capricen for piano duet, op. 37, a second set of Lyric Pieces, op. 38, and he worked on a second piano concerto (never completed). Grieg wrote twenty years later that he did not rate the Cello Sonata very highly, "because it does not betoken any forward step in my development." As has been noted previously in these pages, he was not as comfortable in the extended forms of a sonata, as in the lyrical miniatures that were his strength. He may have been concerned about his struggle with form, but his remarks cannot detract from the work's singing melodies, expressive writing for both cello and piano, and Norwegian folk-like characteristics. Moreover, Grieg thought enough of the work to perform it several times with notable cellists. In addition to playing the première with Friedrich Grützmacher in Dresden, October 22, 1883, Grieg performed it soon after in Leipzig with Julius Klengel, and twice in Christiania two years later with his older brother John Grieg, to whom the work is dedicated. The composer became acquainted with Pablo Casals through his friend Julius Röntgen, Dutch composer, conductor and pianist, and heard Casals and Röntgen play the Sonata in Amsterdam. The Cello Sonata continued to appear on Casals's recital programs for years. Both the first and last movements of this three-movement Sonata are based on a free sonata form, and both movements contain rich chromaticism and several surprising jazz-foreshadowing sonorities. The first movement begins as if it had already been in progress and the listener just now "tuned in"—a kind of opening favored by many Romantic composers. The second theme is like a folk song, as is the lyrical secondary theme in the last movement. In the slow movement, one imagines the sound of a harp upon hearing the solo piano opening and subsequent accompaniment figures. The last movement opens with a solo cello recitative before breaking into a sprightly dance. Although the Sonata has had its detractors, it has also had supporters. The Boston cellist Wulf Fries, a close associate of Artur Rubinstein, liked the Sonata so much that he wrote to Grieg asking for more of the same kind. Grieg replied that he was ill and had written nothing else for cello, although arrangements for cello of some of his pieces had been made by Goltermann. The great scholar William S. Newman in The Sonata Since the Classic Era regarded it as one of Grieg's best-sounding, most-rewarding sonatas. —©Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

THE ESCHER STRING QUARTET The Escher String Quartet has received acclaim for its profound musical insight and rare tonal beauty. Championed by the Emerson String Quartet, the group was a BBC New Generation Artist from 2010–2012, giving debuts at both Wigmore Hall and BBC Proms at Cadogan Hall. In its home town of New York, the ensemble serves as Artists of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and in 12/13 presented a critically acclaimed 3-concert series featuring the quartets of Benjamin Britten. In 2013, the quartet became one of the very few chamber ensembles to be awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. Within months of its inception in 2005, the Escher Quartet was invited by both Pinchas Zukerman and Itzhak Perlman to be Quartet in Residence at each artist’s summer festival: the Young Artists Programme at Canada’s National Arts Centre; and the Perlman Chamber Music Programme on Shelter Island, NY. The quartet has since collaborated with artists including David Finckel, Leon Fleischer, Wu Han, Lynn Harrell, Cho Liang Lin, David Shifrin, and guitarist Jason Vieaux. Last season, the Escher Quartet undertook an extensive UK tour with pianist Benjamin Grosvenor. The Escher Quartet is increasingly making a distinctive impression throughout Europe as it builds important debuts into its diary and receives consistently high acclaim for its work. Recent such engagements have included the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Auditorium du Louvre in Paris and the Conservatoire de Musique in Geneva among others. In 2013, the group’s first appearance at Israel’s Tel Aviv Museum of Art resulted in an immediate re-invitation, and its performance at Wigmore Hall was followed by an invitation to establish a regular relationship with the venue. The current season sees further significant debuts at London’s Kings Place, Berlin’s Konzerthaus, and Slovenian Philharmonic Hall in Ljubljana, as well as Great Music in Irish Houses and the Risør Festival in Norway. Alongside its growing European profile, the Escher Quartet continues to flourish in its home country, performing at Alice Tully Hall in New York, Kennedy Center in Washington DC, and Ravinia and Caramoor festivals. Last season saw a critically acclaimed debut at Chamber Music San Francisco and an appearance at Music@Menlo in California. Elsewhere, the group gave its first Australian performances at Perth International Arts Festival in 2012, and this season makes its debut at the Hong Kong International Chamber Music Festival. Adding to the current season is the quartet’s involvement in the education of young musicians, with coaching activities at Campos do Jordão Music Festival in Brazil and the Royal Academy of Music in London. The quartet has recorded the complete Zemlinsky String Quartets on the Naxos label, releasing two highly acclaimed volumes in 2013 and 2014 respectively. Forthcoming releases include the complete Mendelssohn Quartet cycle on the BIS label. The Escher Quartet takes its name from Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher, inspired by Escher’s method of interplay between individual components working together to form a whole.

March 19, 2023 – Rachel Naomi Kudo, piano JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750) Toccata in D, BMV 912 March 19, 2023 – Rachel Naomi Kudo, piano Bach composed seven manualiter toccatas, BWV 910–916, whose designation toccata refers to pieces that display a keyboardist’s dexterity and manualiter means “hands only” as opposed to those requiring pedals. Therefore these pieces were to be played on a keyboard instrument other than organ—such as the harpsichord in the eighteenth century. Bach never collected these toccatas under a single title, but they represent the culmination of the genre, begun in the sixteenth century and in Bach’s case likely influenced by early Baroque German models comprised of several distinct contrasting sections. Precise dating has proved impossible, but scholars typically designate a range of “?before 1708” to “before 1714,” which places them before or during his tenure at the court of Weimar. The date often given for the D major Toccata, BWV 912, is “before 1710,” with an early version possibly dating from c. 1707. That could have been during Bach’s year in Mühlhausen, June 1707–June 1708, or in Arnstadt where he was organist from 1703 to 1707. In June 1708 Bach took up the post of court organist at Weimar, where Duke Wilhelm Ernst is said to have greatly enjoyed Bach’s playing, so it is likely that Bach himself performed his toccatas for his employer. It is equally possible that they could have been played by one or more of his talented students, but there is no specific evidence that he intended them for teaching, as he did with other works (mentioned above in connection with the French Suites). The D major Toccata, like the other six, closes with a fugue and like all but one (G major, BWV 916) opens with an improvisatory prelude. This brief lively opening is striking for its similarity to the D major organ Prelude and Fugue, BWV 532, which may date from around the same time, especially as to its to ascending scales, which Bach extends locally and employs in dramatic descents in the extended Adagio transition to the first fugue. Prior to that, however, the prelude brings on a captivating Allegro that unfolds with rondo-like recurring passages. Modulatory excursions into the minor mode and similar journeys in the ensuing recitative-like Adagio prepare for the first fugue in F-sharp minor. This fugue offers a somewhat introspective exploration of that key with three expositions of the simultaneous subject/countersubject pair, seamlessly connected by two brief episodes. Following another dramatic declamatory transition, the final fugue gallops along in 6/16 meter much like a perpetual-motion gigue until its final arresting bars. For the C minor Toccata, BWV 911, scholars suggest a date of “before 1714,” which was the year Bach added the title and rank of Konzertmeister to the post of court organist that he had begun at Weimar in 1708. Thus its earliest performers were likely the same as for the D major Toccata above and the other manualiter toccatas, that is, Bach himself or possibly his sons or students. The C minor Toccata begins with an improvisatory, ornate-style introduction, followed by a relatively short Adagio, maintaining a lamenting mood. The main portion of the piece consists of a massive fugue, interrupted by a recitative-like passage, after which Bach introduces a second subject and launches into a double fugue (treatment of his two subjects in contrapuntal combination). A majestic adagio passage brings Bach’s mighty work to a close. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

DEBORAH HOFFMAN, HARP Deborah Hoffman has been principal harpist with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra since 1986. Ms. Hoffman is chairperson of the harp department at Manhattan School of Music and has been a faculty member since 1997. She has appeared as soloist with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Jupiter Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and the MET Orchestra in Carnegie Hall under the baton of James Levine. Ms. Hoffman has also toured extensively in Latin America as soloist with the symphony orchestras of Santiago, Costa Rica, Caracas, and Colombia. Ms. Hoffman was the first-prize winner of the 1981 American Harp Society Competition, and in 1978 was a top-prize winner in the Seventh International Harp Competition in Israel. In 1983 she was chosen to represent the United States at the First World Harp Congress in the Netherlands. Ms. Hoffman has performed throughout Canada and the United States as a member of the Hoffman Chamber Soloists, an ensemble comprised of her parents and three brothers. She received both Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Juilliard School, where she was a student of Susann McDonald. Ms. Hoffman records for Arabesque Records and has recently completed a Grammy-nominated recording of original transcriptions of Chopin works.

September 25, 2016: Jason Vieaux, guitar JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750) Suite in E minor, BWV 996 for solo guitar September 25, 2016: Jason Vieaux, guitar The ingenious and practical Bach, one of history’s most masterful recyclers, constantly took advantage of upcoming performances, employers’ needs, or teaching opportunities to recycle or adapt existing works. Thus differing versions survive of many works, and others carried his indication that they could be played on alternate instruments. In the case of his compositions for lute, he may have written them for lute virtuosos of his acquaintance—he was in contact with virtuosos S. L. Weiss and K Kropfans of Dresden and historian and player E. G Baron in Leipzig—or for his students, such as lute players/composers J. L. Krebs and R Straube. He was well aware, however, that lute pieces could easily be adapted to the keyboard—he indicated that his E-flat major Sonata, BWV 998, could be played on lute or harpsichord—and of the seven works that bear lute designations, more survive in keyboard than lute versions. The Suite in E minor, BWV 996, is most likely the earliest of the pieces designated for lute—or possibly “Lautenwerk,” a mechanism to emulate the lute on a harpsichord—dating probably from sometime after 1712 when Bach was working in Weimar. It is entirely in keeping with Bach’s philosophy of transferability that this Suite and his other lute pieces should be played on guitar, as they typically are today. Bach based his suites on a standard series of Baroque dance movements, which by his time were no longer meant for actual dancing—Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, and Gigue. All the movements employ binary form (two sections, each repeated). A variety of additional dance movements could be inserted between the Sarabande and Gigue, the typical place for any slightly more “modern” dance forms. He typically prefaced his suites with a prelude, or in this case, as in his “English” Suite No. 6 for keyboard, with a paired prelude and fugue. Here he labels the prelude “Passagio,” a designation for an improvisatory-sounding introduction, and the short but intense fugue, “Presto.” Bach uses the French designations for the remainder of the Suite’s movements, and the serious but graceful Allemande and the elegant Courante show his best French style, much like his French Suites for keyboard. In the lovely, introspective Sarabande, Bach shows his penchant for mixing French and Italian styles, his Italianate sensibility appearing especially in his melodic ornaments. His “added” movement, a vivacious Bourrée that is perhaps the best-known movement of the suite, is striking for its constant long-short-short rhythmic pattern and propulsive bass line. The exuberant Gigue leaves its dance models far behind with a remarkable contrapuntal display embedded in its lively perpetual motion. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

September 24, 2017: Emily Daggett Smith, violin; Michael Brown, piano MANUEL DE FALLA (1876-1946) Danza española No. 1 from La vida breve September 24, 2017: Emily Daggett Smith, violin; Michael Brown, piano Falla composed his opera La vida breve (The short life) at a feverish pace in 1904–05 for a composition competition that offered a substantial financial prize and the hope of a performance at one of Madrid’s theaters. With librettist Carlos Fernández Shaw, he settled on a tragic subject from one of Shaw’s poems, El chavalillo (The little lass), about a lover’s treachery because of class distinction. Falla won the competition by unanimous decision, but no performance materialized in Madrid—nor did a projected performance occur in Paris, where he soon settled. After numerous revisions and many failed attempts for performance and publication, La vida breve was premiered in Nice on April 1, 1913, and in Paris the following January as part of a joint agreement. The critics raved! Among the opera’s most popular numbers is “Spanish Dance No. 1,” a lively jota , which has since been arranged for a plethora of instrumental combinations, such as the present version for violin and piano by [Fritz Kreisler?]. In the opera, the dance is performed as part of the betrothal celebration for Paco and Carmela, the girl of his own class that he must marry instead of his beloved Salud, a Gypsy maiden. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

February 12, 2023 – Gloria Chien, piano, Benjamin Beilman and Alexi Kenney, violins, Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, viola, Mihai Marica, cello, Yoobin Son, flute, Pascual Martinez-Forteza JOHANN STRAUSS (1804–1849) Emperor Waltz (arr. Schoenberg) February 12, 2023 – Gloria Chien, piano, Benjamin Beilman and Alexi Kenney, violins, Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, viola, Mihai Marica, cello, Yoobin Son, flute, Pascual Martinez-Forteza On November 23, 1918, in Vienna, Schoenberg founded the Society for Private Musical Performances. For slightly more than three seasons, the Society presented new works in thoroughly prepared performances for an audience of card-carrying members, many of them his friends and students. Critics were not allowed, nor applause or expressions of disapproval. The repertoire naturally included some of his own works, though he refrained from programming any of them until the second season. The composers whose works were performed most frequently were Max Reger (34 works) and Claude Debussy (26). Other composers who figured prominently were Berg, Webern, Bartók, Ravel, Scriabin, Mahler, Stravinsky, R. Strauss, Busoni, Szymanowski, Hauer, Zemlinsky, and Suk. Orchestral works had to be transcribed for performing forces that the Society could manage—two- or four-hand piano, or chamber orchestra consisting of piano, harmonium, flute, clarinet, string quartet, and, occasionally bass, percussion, or other added instruments. Though Schoenberg sometimes assigned the work of transcribing to his students, he made many of the arrangements himself. The Society was losing money, and so on May 27, 1921, Schoenberg and his colleagues presented a benefit concert with new arrangements of four Strauss waltzes—among them the Emperor Waltzes—followed by an auction of the scores. The program listed the following performers: Eduard Steuermann, piano; Alban Berg, harmonium; Rudolf Kolisch and Arnold Schoenberg, violins 1, Karl Rankl, violin 2; Othmar Steinbauer, viola; and Anton Webern, cello. Unfortunately, the Society had to fold that December, but in its three years the Society had presented 154 works, some with multiple performances, in 117 concerts! To turn to the original composer of the Emperor Waltzes, Johann Strauss II was originally discouraged in a musical career by his father who ran a celebrated dance orchestra in Vienna. Eventually, however, it was Johann Strauss II who achieved international recognition as “the waltz king.” In 1888 he was inspired to write two different compositions in his capacity as “imperial court ball music director” for the jubilee celebrating Franz-Joseph’s fortieth anniversary as emperor. The first, the Emperor’s Jubilee Waltzes, op. 434, is rarely heard today, while the Emperor Waltzes, op. 437, has proved to be one of Strauss’s most enduring and popular works. Most of Strauss’s great waltzes stem from the 1860s, including his most well-known On the Beautiful Blue Danube. The present Emperor Waltzes as well as the Voices of Spring, however, were written two decades later when he was concentrating more on operettas than independent dances pieces. He did include waltz sequences in his operettas, of which Die Fledermaus (The Bat) and The Gypsy Baron achieved the greatest success and renown. The set of Emperor Waltzes finds itself equally at home in the concert hall as in the dance hall. The work is introduced by a quiet march—a bit Mozartean in style, orchestration, and trills—in which Strauss previews the theme of the first waltz and builds an impressive climax that subsides in a cello solo. The waltz proper is a tender, lilting affair, leading off a string of four charming waltzes. The third is said to recall Franz-Joseph’s military career in its second half, and the last constitutes a ländler (Austrian folk dance in triple meter, precursor to the waltz). The lengthy coda, which again highlights the solo cello, recalls and develops themes from the first and third waltzes. The final reminiscence of the first theme is tinged with an elegant nostalgia before the final flourish. © Michael Parloff Return to Parlance Program Notes

2018-2019 ARTIST ROSTER EDWARD ARRON, CELLO MICHAEL BROWN, PIANO BARRY CENTANNI, PERCUSSION TIMOTHY COBB, DOUBLE BASS DAVID J. GROSSMAN, DOUBLE BASS PAUL HUANG, VIOLIN CHELSEA KNOX, FLUTE SEAN LEE, VIOLIN MIHAI MARICA, CELLO KEN NODA, PIANO WEN QIAN, VIOLIN SHERYL STAPLES, VIOLIN JASON VIEAUX, GUITAR PINCHAS ZUKERMAN; AMANDA FORSYTH; ANGELA CHENG ELAINE DOUVAS, OBOE MAURYCY BANASZEK, VIOLA THE CALIDORE STRING QUARTET INN-HYUCK CHO, CLARINET EMERSON STRING QUARTET WENDY BRYN HARMER, SOPRANO PAUL JACOBS, ORGAN PIERRE LAPOINTE, VIOLA QIAN-QIAN LI, VIOLIN ANNE AKIKO MEYERS, VIOLIN GARRICK OHLSSON, PIANO DOV SCHEINDLIN, VIOLA ARNAUD SUSSMANN, VIOLIN GILLES VONSATTEL, PIANO JOEL NOYES, CELLO PASCUAL MARTÍNEZ FORTEZA, CLARINET ALESSIO BAX, PIANO NICHOLAS CANELLAKIS, CELLO LUCILLE CHUNG, PIANO DAVID FINCKEL, CELLO MING FENG HSIN, VIOLIN FRIEDRICH HEINRICH KERN, GLASS HARMONICA KRISTIN LEE, VIOLIN MATTHEW LIPMAN, VIOLA EILEEN MOON-MYERS, CELLO CYNTHIA PHELPS, VIOLA EMILY DAGGETT SMITH, VIOLIN DANBI UM, VIOLIN SARAH CROCKER VONSATTEL, VIOLIN KEVIN ZHU, VIOLIN YOOBIN SON, FLUTE

April 8, 2018: Danish String Quartet LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) String Quartet in C# minor, Op. 131 April 8, 2018: Danish String Quartet When Prince Nicholas Galitzin ordered “one, two, or three new quartets” from Beethoven in November 1822, he could hardly have realized that he was instigating a series of works by which all later generations would judge profundity. Beethoven had not forgotten the quartet medium in the twelve years since the F minor Quartet, op. 95, but the commission gave him the impetus to turn sketches into finished works. Nevertheless, he could not concentrate on quartet writing until after completing the Missa solemnis , the Diabelli Variations, and the Ninth Symphony, so the project did not begin in earnest until mid-1824. After composing the B-flat major Quartet, the third of Galitzin’s commission, Beethoven continued writing quartets—not for the prince, who never completed payment for the first three, but out of the inner necessity for expression. Thus he added the C-sharp minor Quartet, op. 131, in seven movements in 1825–26, followed by the F major, arriving at the five works known as the “late quartets.” It should be noted that, too late for Beethoven himself but in the proper spirit, a son of Galitzin paid with interest what was owed on his father’s three quartets into the Beethoven estate. In May 1826 Beethoven offered the C-sharp minor Quartet to Schott for publication, receiving much more than he was to have received for each of the three “Galitzin” Quartets, but he did not live to see it in print. Nor did he witness a performance, which first took place publicly in 1835. The work did circulate in private performances, however, and it is fascinating to know that Schubert’s dying wish to hear the Quartet came to pass on November 14, 1828, just five days before the younger composer died. The C-sharp minor Quartet abounds with original features and an otherworldliness that so aptly illustrate the private world of Beethoven’s late period. We have only to listen to the opening notes of the slow fugue that opens the work—a startlingly novel beginning—to realize that we are the privileged eavesdroppers to a bared musical soul. The brooding, contemplative mood immediately sets the movement apart from more customary brisk-paced fugues, and suggests a link with the C-sharp minor Fugue of Bach’s Well-tempered Clavier , which Beethoven had known since his youth. He takes his subject matter through numerous permutations and a wide range of keys, so that when he returns to the home key we experience a sense of recapitulation. Just prior comes a passage of ethereal beauty, in which the transparent texture highlights the two entwined violins followed by a duet between the viola and cello. Beethoven planned for the entire Quartet to be played without pause, though he was induced by the publisher to put in “numbers,” which correspond to what have traditionally been called its seven movements. Many, however, have commented on the fact that some of these “movements” might better be viewed as introductions or transitions to what follows, so that the first movement serves as a very extended introduction to the second movement, the very brief “No. 3” makes a transition to the Andante variation, and following the scherzo, “No. 6” serves as the slow introduction to the finale. Thus we find a highly original, expanded conception of the traditional four-movement quartet scheme. “No. 2” opens in a hush that is both gentle and merry, as if emerging from the shadow of the fugue. Here Beethoven turns to sonata style if not to form, since the movement contains no development section, and the mood is dancelike, much as one would find in a scherzo. Through a dramatic octave unison passage he brings about a brief but forceful climax that he immediately breaks into closing fragments. These impart little finality, however, and “No. 3,” like an opera recitative, prepares the next movement. The central Andante movement consists of a simple lyrical theme and six variations that show an amazing array of textures. Beethoven’s extended coda begins like a seventh variation, but then rhapsodizes, trills, and recalls the main theme in innocent guise, all leading to a dramatic flourish that brings on the subdued conclusion. The Presto scherzo begins impishly with the cello issuing a little invitation, only to be met with complete silence before the movement takes off. Beethoven’s two contrasting trio sections begin with playful two-note interchanges to which he adds a theme—marked piacevole (pleasing or amiable)—that is clearly related to the theme of the scherzo. He even begins his trio a third time—a joke he had also made in his Fourth and Seventh Symphonies—but abruptly shifts into an amazing coda that reduces trio elements to fragments before the scherzo theme gradually takes over. Even this return of the main theme throws us momentarily off guard because Beethoven asks for it to be played sul ponticello (on the bridge), producing a glassy, almost eerie sound. He exits this novel effect with a quick push to fortissimo (very loud) to end the movement. The three somber notes that open the relatively brief Adagio plunge us back into the realm of tragedy, here played out in poignant melancholy before erupting in the outcry of the tempestuous finale. After a forceful chord, the finale alternates pregnant pauses with angry unison statements, then takes off at an energetic gallop. Though Beethoven introduces moments of quiet into the first theme area, he saves his main contrast for the second theme, which first makes a long descent, then leaps rapturously to three repeated notes. His development section introduces a new long-note foil for the galloping motive, and makes much of a fragment of the opening unison idea and the scalar descent from the second theme. Following a murmur that grows ever more intense, the recapitulation bursts on the scene with a number of ingenious alterations, chief among which is the expressive return of the second theme in a key far removed from the original. Beethoven’s full-length coda, as in many of his late works, takes us on yet another developmental journey, during which we hear the astounding use of the long notes from the development in powerful octaves. Though Beethoven turns to the major mode of the home key toward the very end, we find little of the victory such a turn signaled in earlier works—the foregoing sense of tragedy in this Quartet cannot be dispelled. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

DARRYL THOMAS KUBIAN, VIOLIN, THEREMIN Darryl Kubian is a member of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra’s first violin section under the direction of Maestro Neme Järvi and former principal second violin of the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra with Lukas Foss, Dennis Russell Davies and most recently Robert Spano. The 2007-2008 season marked the premiere of Mr. Kubian’s concerto for electric/acoustic violin and orchestra ‘3-2-1′, which was commissioned by the NJSO and dedicated to Maestro Järvi and concertmaster/soloist Eric Wyrick. Based on the work of renowned physicists, Lawrence M. Krauss and Glenn D. Starkman, ‘3-2-1′ traces the fate of the universe as it expands out from the big bang toward an unfathomable infinity. The solo violin conjoins the elemental with a human presence. Following the critically successful premiere of the concerto, Scientific American featured ‘3-2-1′ in its 60-Second Science blog, describing it as a ‘beautiful example of what happens when artists are inspired by scientific discoveries’. In 2006, Darryl composed a special 70th birthday piece for Maestro Järvi entitled ‘The Maestro Waltz’ which was the featured encore for the final two weeks of the season as well as appearing in Maestro Järvi’s biography, ‘The Maestro’s Touch’. Mr. Kubian is presently working on a commission from The New Sussex Symphony for an overture entitled ‘Occam’s Razor’ celebrating the 50th anniversary of the ensemble. This new work will be premiered in May of 2009. Darryl has been a featured soloist with the NJSO on theremin performing the ‘Cantelina’ from ‘Bachianas Brasilerias No. 5′, playing jazz violin with trumpeter Randy Brecker in a program of music by Charlie Parker entitled ‘Byrd Lives!’ as well as arranging and performing Duke Ellington’s ‘Sacred Songs’ in cooperation with the NJSO and the Jazz Studies Program at Rutgers University. Mr. Kubian’s improvisational skills have also been highlighted with artists such as Nigel Kennedy, Al Jarreau, Bobby Short and Rene Fleming. In addition to his many solo and chamber ensemble performances using modern, electric and period instruments, Mr. Kubian has performed in many Broadway musicals including ‘The King & I’, ‘Show Boat’, ‘Crazy for You’ and ‘Tommy’. He has also recorded with such noted artists as Trevor Pinnock, Malcolm Bilson, Meredith Monk, Bruno Weil, Zdenek Macal and Phillip Glass. Mr. Kubian’s music production company Xtreme Medium is involved with many diverse projects which includes the completion of the score for “Living With Predators” for the Wildlife Conservation Society based at The Bronx Zoo. This DVD release, narrated by Glenn Close, is being used as a lobbying tool to save The Endangered Species Act, which is currently under threat. A lighter hearted project was the scoring of all of the Bronx Zoo’s video podcasts for use on their website and on-site kiosks. Other highlights include composing the music for the Discovery Channel’s ‘Jaws & Claws’ series, ‘U.S.S. Indianapolis’ and the docudrama ‘Raging Rapids’ which also ran theatrically at SONY’s High-Definition Television Theatre. Darryl’s scoring for National Geographic includes ‘Phobias’, ‘Killer Ice’, ‘Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union’ and ‘Really Wild Animals’ which starred Dudley Moore. Past projects include music for Pangolin Pictures, NHK, CBS, The Learning Channel, The Travel Channel, Discovery Health and the Disney Channel. In 2004, Darryl released his first solo CD entitled ‘String Theory’. This CD explores the rich tradition of the violin as a solo instrument through original music and arrangements infused with the sounds, styles and techniques of modern music making. It features the Zeta 5-string MIDI violin, an 18-piece string section and is being distributed by CD Baby.com and the iTunes website. Mr. Kubian has engineered and produced recordings for the NJSO/NY City Opera’s principal flutist Bart Feller, The Elements Quartet, The Oberon Quartet, The Halcyon Trio, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and members of The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra including principal flutist Michael Parloff and violinist Garrett Fischbach. Mr. Kubian is looking forward to future projects that include a concerto for processed trumpet and orchestra, a chamber piece for strings and theremin and a continuation of the exploration of the boundaries of electroacoustic music. Darryl received his BM and MM at Rutgers University where he studied violin with Arnold Steinhart and Hiroko Yajima, baroque violin with Benjamin Hudson, conducting with Jens Nygaard and composition with Charles Wuorinen.

October 19, 2008 – Sheryl Staples, violin; Cynthia Phelps, viola WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791) Duo in G, K. 423, for violin & viola October 19, 2008 – Sheryl Staples, violin; Cynthia Phelps, viola Mozart’s relationship with the Archbishop of Salzburg, Hieronymus Colloredo, was never a cordial one. The Archbishop regarded court musicians as members of his household staff, obliged to serve at the whim of the master. Mozart, feeling increasingly resentful and constricted, finally submitted his resignation in 1781. Afterwards, he wrote to his father, “I am no longer so unfortunate as to be in Salzburg’s services – today was that happy day for me.” The tense relationship between the composer and the prince ended ingloriously; the archbishop’s chief steward, Count Arco, dismissed the unruly musician with a “kick in the behind,” as Mozart reported to his father. In the summer of 1783, Mozart returned to Salzburg for the first time since his break with Archbishop Colloredo. It was a nervous visit for Mozart, who was bringing his new wife, Constanze, to meet his father for the first time. In a letter he expressed concern that the archbishop might have him arrested. While in Salzburg, Mozart found the court music director, Michael Haydn (the younger brother of Joseph), suffering from a protracted illness and unable to complete a commission from the Archbishop for six duos for violin and viola. The impatient Archbishop had threatened to cut off Haydn’s salary until the two remaining duos were complete. As a favor to his old friend, Mozart composed the missing duos and gave them to Hadyn to pass off as his own. The two resulting works, in G and B-flat major, received more praise than the other four. It must have given Mozart an ironic pleasure to know that his old enemy Colleredo was unwittingly enjoying the music of his despised former employee. Mozart was a skillful player of both instruments, although his preference was for the viola. The Duo in G reflects this preference, as he treats the lower instrument as a full partner in the musical discourse, rather than relegating it to its more familiar role as an accompanying voice. The first movement features a sparkling interchange between the two instruments. The lyrical slow movement is built on an aria-like main idea, reflecting Mozart’s lifelong love of opera and the human voice. The liting Rondo is a movement of great charm and virtuosity. Although composed in a lighter vein, as befit the style of his older musical colleague, Mozart’s effortless mastery shines through at every turn, often bringing to mind the writing in his earlier masterpiece for solo violin and viola, Symphonie Concertante. By Michael Parloff Return to Parlance Program Notes

December 5, 2021: Paul Jacobs, organ JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750) Sinfonia from Cantata, BWV 29 (arr. Marcel Dupre) December 5, 2021: Paul Jacobs, organ As the busiest and most important musician in one of the most active music centers in Germany in the 1730s and ’40s, how did Bach find time to meet all of his obligations? He had arrived in Leipzig in 1723 to take up the position of Kantor of the renowned Thomasschule, which meant that, in addition to overseeing music at the four major churches, he held the post of civic music director. As if that weren’t enough, he took on the music directorship of the University of Leipzig and, from 1729 until the early 1740s (with a short interruption from 1737 to 1739), he directed the Collegium Musicum, which presented weekly public concerts. The duties associated with all of these positions included composing music for all the principal Sunday services, church feasts, and occasions such as weddings, birthdays, and city events; training all the singers at the Thomasschule to staff the four choirs; and training instrumentalists who ranged from students at the Thomasschule and the University to the city’s professional musicians. Like many an enterprising composer before and after him, Bach borrowed from materials he had composed earlier to meet the constant demand. Just as his cantatas provided a rich source for instrumental works, the cantatas themselves also borrowed from each other and from other genres. In the case of the Sinfonia from Cantata 29, “Wir danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir” (We thank you, God, we thank you), Bach needed to compose a celebratory cantata for the inauguration of the Leipzig town council on August 27, 1731. So, he borrowed from the Sinfonia that opens Part 2 of his Cantata 120a, “Herr Gott, Beherrscher aller Dinge” (Lord God, ruler of all things), which he had written for a wedding, most likely in 1729. (That cantata survives in incomplete state, but has been reconstructed with help from the sources of its borrowed material.) For that wedding cantata, Bach had taken the unusual step of fashioning the Sinfonia for the massive forces of organ and orchestra out of a movement for unaccompanied violin—the Preludio of his E major Partita, which dates from 1720 when he was in Cöthen. As often with his borrowings, he used a different key, in this case D major, which he maintained for the 1731 cantata. The Partita movement’s merry perpetual motion made its reuse entirely fitting for these festive occasions and has contributed to the piece’s remarkable popularity. Numerous arrangers have seized on the Preludio/Sinfonia to adapt it for various instruments and instrumental combinations. Organ transcriptions work particularly well, since Bach himself already paved the way. Out of many, Paul Jacobs has chosen that by the great French organist and composer Marcel Dupré, known especially for his virtuoso, symphonic organ music and for his prodigious technique, improvisation skills, and memory—and, as a fitting sidebar to this 335th Bach anniversary celebration, Dupré is credited as the first to perform Bach’s entire organ works in a series of concerts given at the Paris Conservatoire in 1920. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes