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September 24, 2017: Arnaud Sussmann, violin; Michael Brown, piano GABRIEL FAURÉ (1845-1924) Romance in B-flat major, op. 28 September 24, 2017: Arnaud Sussmann, violin; Michael Brown, piano Fauré began composing his Romance, op. 28, in August 1877 out of great boredom while on a three-week visit to Cautarets in the Pyrenées. He had been persuaded to go there by the famous singer Pauline Viardot to give her daughter Marianne, his reluctant fiancée, some time to think. On September 17, back in Paris, he wrote to his friend Marie Clerc that he had tried out the Romance with Marianne’s violinist brother Paul. Finally on the third run-through the assembled Viardot ladies warmed up to the piece, prompting Fauré to remark, “What a pity one cannot always begin with the third hearing.” Two years later he found himself asking Pauline Viardot if he could borrow the piece, having left the only manuscript at her house. The Romance unfolds in A-B-A form, with the flowing motion of the outer sections contrasted by a dramatic central section with an angular theme for the violin. A cadenza-like passage restores the calm of the opening. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2021 AT 3 PM HAYDN SEEKING BUY TICKETS ESCHER STRING QUARTET “The Escher players seemed to make time stand still, effortlessly distilling the essence of this introspective music with expressive warmth and a natural confiding intimacy.” — Chicago Classical Review ROMAN RABINOVICH, PIANO “Mr. Rabinovich performed with uncommon sensitivity and feeling, playing with a wonderful brio and spontaneity, crisp rhythmic bite, and abundant colorings.” — The New York Times FEATURING ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE BUY TICKETS Mozart called Haydn a “great man and my dearest friend,” and Beethoven knelt before Haydn on his 76th birthday to fervently kiss his hands and forehead. Haydn’s celebrated wit, grace, and eloquence will be richly on display in this musical survey of his seminal chamber works for piano, string quartets, and piano trio. As a special treat, the multitalented pianist Roman Rabinovich will accompany his own short animated film entitled “Imaginary Encounters with Haydn.” PROGRAM Claude Debussy Hommage à Haydn Program Notes Joseph Haydn String Quartet in G, Op. 77, No. 1 Program Notes Joseph Haydn Piano Sonata No. 50 in C Hob. XVI: 50 Program Notes Maurice Ravel Menuet sur le nom d’Haydn Program Notes Joseph Haydn String Quartet in B-flat, Op. 76, No. 4 (“Sunrise”) Program Notes Joseph Haydn Piano Trio in G, Hob. XV: 25 (“Gypsy”) Program Notes Watch Roman Rabinovich play Haydn’s Piano Sonata in G, Hob XVI 39:

RICHARD GOODE, PIANO Richard Goode has been hailed for music-making of tremendous emotional power, depth, and expressiveness, and has been acknowledged worldwide as one of today’s leading interpreters of Classical and Romantic music. In regular performances with the major orchestras, recitals in the world’s music capitals, and through his extensive and acclaimed Nonesuch recordings, he has won a large and devoted following. Gramophone magazine recently captured the essence of what makes Richard Goode such an original and compelling artist: ‘‘Every time we hear him, he impresses us as better than we remembered, surprising us, surpassing our expectations, and communicating perceptions that stay in the mind.” Mr. Goode began his 2014–2015 season performing Mozart’s Concerto in A major (K.488) to open Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival. He was featured in five appearances at Carnegie Hall, including a recital in the main hall, as a soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Andris Nelsons, in two chamber music concerts with young artists from Marlboro Music Festival and conducting a master class on Debussy piano works. He appeared as soloist with orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, St. Louis, Milwaukee, and San Diego Symphonies. In addition, this season includes recitals at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Wigmore Hall in London, the Celebrity Series of Boston, Cal Performances in Berkeley, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the University Musical Society in Ann Arbor, at Shriver Hall in Baltimore, in Toronto at the Royal Conservatory, at The Schubert Club in St. Paul, Spivey Hall in Atlanta, Yale School of Music, Dartmouth College, Duke Performances, Middlebury College, and in other major series in the U.S. and Europe. In addition, Mr. Goode will present master classes at top conservatories and universities around the world. In the 2013–2014 season, Mr. Goode appeared as soloist with such orchestras as the New York Philharmonic with David Zinman, the Chicago Symphony with Mark Elder, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin with Herbert Blomstedt, and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra with Peter Oundjian, with whom he also appeared in Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal with the Toronto Symphony. His always compelling recitals were heard at Carnegie Hall in New York, in London, in Paris, at the Aldeburgh Festival, and on leading concert and university series around the world. Among the highlights of recent seasons have been the recitals in which, for the first time in his career, Mr. Goode performed the last three Beethoven Sonatas in one program, drawing capacity audiences and raves in such cities as New York, London, and Berlin. The New York Times, in reviewing his Carnegie Hall performance, hailed his interpretations as “majestic, profound readings…. Mr. Goode’s playing throughout was organic and inspired, the noble, introspective themes unfolding with a simplicity that rendered them all the more moving.” Recent seasons have also included performances with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra led by Fabio Luisi at Carnegie Hall; with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel; with Orpheus on tour and at Carnegie Hall playing the Schumann Concerto; and on tour with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. An exclusive Nonesuch recording artist, Goode has made more than two dozen recordings over the years, ranging from solo and chamber works to lieder and concertos. His latest recording of the five Beethoven concertos with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and Iván Fischer was released in 2009 to exceptional critical acclaim, described as “a landmark recording” by the Financial Times and nominated for a Grammy award. His 10-CD set of the complete Beethoven sonatas cycle, the first-ever by an American-born pianist, was nominated for a Grammy and has been ranked among the most distinguished recordings of this repertoire. Other recording highlights include a series of Bach Partitas, a duo recording with Dawn Upshaw, and Mozart piano concertos with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. A native of New York, Richard Goode studied with Elvira Szigeti and Claude Frank, with Nadia Reisenberg at the Mannes College of Music, and with Rudolf Serkin at the Curtis Institute. His numerous prizes over the years include the Young Concert Artists Award, First Prize in the Clara Haskil Competition, the Avery Fisher Prize, and a Grammy award for his recording of the Brahms Sonatas with clarinetist Richard Stoltzman. His first public performances of the complete cycle of Beethoven sonatas at Kansas City’s Folly Theater and New York’s 92Y in 1987–88 brought him to international attention, being hailed by The New York Times as “among the season’s most important and memorable events.” It was later performed with great success at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall in 1994 and 1995. Mr. Goode served, together with Mitsuko Uchida, as co-Artistic Director of the Marlboro Music School and Festival in Marlboro, Vermont from 1999 through 2013. Participating initially at the age of 14, at what the New Yorker magazine recently described as “the classical world’s most coveted retreat,” he has made a notable contribution to this unique community over the 28 summers he has spent there. He is married to the violinist Marcia Weinfeld, and, when the Goodes are not on tour, they and their collection of some 5,000 volumes live in New York City.

May 15, 2016: James Morris, bass-baritone; Rafael Figueroa, cello; Ken Noda, piano GIUSEPPE VERDI (1813–1901) Come dal ciel precipita from Macbeth, Ella giammai m’amò from Don Carlo May 15, 2016: James Morris, bass-baritone; Rafael Figueroa, cello; Ken Noda, piano In 1846 Verdi was given free rein by the Teatro della Pergola to choose an opera subject and opted for Shakespeare’s Macbeth when he learned that the cast would include first-class singer-actor baritone Felice Varesi. Francesco Maria Piave wrote the libretto, bullied by Verdi into making certain changes, along with Andrea Maffei, whom Verdi hired to pen some additional material. Verdi closely supervised rehearsals, which resulted in a successful premiere on March 14, 1847, but Verdi was criticized, much to his outrage, for not knowing his Shakespeare. Verdi lavished great care on several revisions and personally oversaw many productions, but Macbeth met with relatively little success during his lifetime. He was especially baffled when the production at Paris’s Théâtre Lyrique, for which he had made substantial revisions in 1864, was largely unsuccessful. Verdi’s annoyance at the opera’s reception, however, did nothing to alter its status in his eyes as the favorite of his early operas, and time has proved its merit. In Act II Macbeth has murdered King Duncan and become king, but plots the murder of Banco and his son Fleance to thwart the prophecy that Banco’s children will rule Scotland. As the assassins lie in wait for Banco outside the castle, Banco sings his famous recitative and aria—unchanged in Verdi’s many revisions—“Studia il passo . . . Come dal ciel precipita” (Watch your step . . . How from the heaven falls), in which he warns his son about his feeling of foreboding. The aria’s noble, rich unfolding comes to an impassioned peak just before the coda, when the assassins strike him down but fail to halt his escaping son. * * * * * In 1865, when Verdi was planning a grand opera for the Paris Opéra, he returned to the idea of Don Carlos, a subject he had rejected in the 1850s, but now fit his conception of a “magnificent drama,” offering the perfect potential for both spectacle and sympathy for the lovers. He closely supervised the preparation of the libretto, which François Joseph Méry loosely adapted from Schiller’s play, and which Camille de Locle completed after Méry’s death. Verdi had completed most of the opera in 1866 before arriving in Paris that July to supervise the long rehearsal period, but found his five-act opera far too long and made substantial cuts. Despite his careful attention to all aspects of the production, the premiere on March 11, 1867, met with only modest success. Verdi made numerous revisions for Italian revivals over twenty years, ending with a four-act version for La Scala in 1884 that cut the entire first act. Since then companies have juggled versions, cuts, and restoration of certain portions, but the opera, typically performed in Italian and called Don Carlo, has now emerged from the filter of history as one of Verdi’s most respected and beloved. Verdi’s unsurpassed dramatic and musical mastery culminates in his depiction of the power struggles, private loves, and tragic consequences of these historic personages. The story is based on the son of Spanish King Philip II, Don Carlos, who plots with Marquis Posa against the tyrannical king. Carlos is betrothed to Elisabeth of Valois, but she instead marries his father, Philip II, as part of a peace treaty. The heartbreak of the two lovers lies at the heart of the opera, but equally tragic is Philip II’s role. Verdi gives him one of the best bass arias in the repertoire, “Ella giammai m’amò” (She never loved me), in which he poignantly laments that his wife has never loved him. A moving cello obbligato interlaces his heartbreaking expression of his loneliness and the powerlessness of his crown to see into others’ hearts. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

October 19, 2008 – Sheryl Staples, violin; Cynthia Phelps, viola; Carter Brey, cello; Warren Jones, piano ROBERT SCHUMANN (1810-1856) Quartet in E-flat, Op. 47, for piano and strings October 19, 2008 – Sheryl Staples, violin; Cynthia Phelps, viola; Carter Brey, cello; Warren Jones, piano Schumann tended to explore specific musical genres extensively before exhausting the possibilities and moving on to other compositional styles. For instance, the years 1831-1839 were devoted almost exclusively to piano music, while in 1840 he composed over 160 songs, inspired by his happy marriage to Clara Wieck and their new life together in Leipzig. In 1841 he shifted his attention to large orchestral works, composing the first of his symphonies and his piano concerto. The year 1842 is often called Schumann’s “Year of Chamber Music.” In a six-month burst of creativity, he composed six major chamber works: his three string quartets, Op. 41, the Piano Quintet in E-flat, Op. 44, the Piano Quartet in E-flat, Op. 47, and a Piano Trio in A minor, later to be published as Fantasiestücke, Op. 88. The Piano Quartet in E-flat was composed between October 25 and November 26, 1842. Dedicated to Count Matvei Weilhorsky, an amateur cellist, it features prominent solos for that instrument, especially in the lyrical third movement. Schumann’s true source of inspiration, however, was the brilliant piano playing of his beloved wife, Clara. Throughout the work, the piano is kept constantly in the spotlight. Clara was delighted by the quartet, writing in her diary, “[It is] a beautiful work, so youthful and fresh, as if it were his first.” A model of concision, the quartet blends Schumann’s deeply Romantic spirit with his fascination for the contrapuntal techniques of his Leipzig predecessor, Johann Sebastian Bach. The first movement begins with a mysterious, floating, four-note figure, which is suddenly transformed into a crisp, forward-moving gesture that permeates the remainder of the movement. This compact motive combines with a flowing, linear melody in the piano that interacts conversationally with the three string instruments. The Scherzo is nimble and hushed, emulating the atmosphere of the scherzos of Felix Mendelssohn, Schumann’s Leipzig friend and colleague. Two contrasting trios are laced with elements of the initial Scherzo, giving the short movement a seamless, unbroken motion. The song-like third movement is the emotional high point of the quartet, beginning with a sweetly yearning cello melody that evolves into a tender duet with the violin. A chorale-like middle section forms a bridge back to the initial melody, now heard in the viola and surrounded by a filigree of violin figuration. The ethereal coda features a sustained “pedal” B-flat in the cello, which, unusually, requires the cellist to stealthily tune the instrument’s low C string down a whole-step. The Finale demonstrates Schumann’s skill as a contrapuntalist. Clara and Robert often enjoyed analyzing Bach’s fugues together. In the early 1840s she wrote in her diary, “Our fugal studies continue. Every time we play one it becomes more interesting for me. Such great art with such a natural flow.” The final movement of the Piano Quartet reflects their passion for Bach, beginning with a vigorous fugue subject in the viola, which is then taken up by the piano and finally the violin. (The absence of a cello entrance of the fugue subject may be intended to give the cellist additional time to retune the lowest string.) The polyphonic writing quickly gives way to freely lyrical and syncopated passages that recall themes from the earlier movements. The final movement displays Schumann’s unique blend of Romantic and Baroque textures and brings the work to an exuberant conclusion. By Michael Parloff Return to Parlance Program Notes

JOEL NOYES, CELLO Joel Noyes is Assistant Principal Cellist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and is also very much in demand as chamber musician and recitalist. He regularly appears at the most prestigious concert halls throughout North America, and in 2018 alone his performing schedule will bring him from New York to Norway to China and across the U.S. He performed with Renee Fleming in the opening night concert of Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall and has been seen there many times since as part of the Musicians from the Met chamber series. He has been featured at festivals including Marlboro Music, La Jolla Summerfest, Strings Music Festival of Steamboat Springs, and serves as principal cellist of the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra. He has also collaborated with many of the world’s leading chamber musicians, including members of the Guarneri, Juilliard, and Vermeer Quartets. Along with fulfilling the demanding schedule at the Met Opera, at various times in his orchestral career Joel has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Born into a musical family in the state of Maine, he began playing the cello at the age of three under the tutelage of his father. Joel graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where he studied with David Soyer. His other teachers have included Richard Aaron at the Cleveland Institute of Music and Marc Johnson of the Vermeer Quartet. A versatile musician, Joel composes his own music, has played Egyptian music in a band in New York, has performed on CBS’ Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and has participated in numerous movie soundtracks.

May 6, 2018: Clara Neubauer, violin; Anne-Marie McDermott, piano ROBERT SCHUMANN (1810-1856) Sonata No. 1 in A minor, Op. 105 for violin and piano May 6, 2018: Clara Neubauer, violin; Anne-Marie McDermott, piano In August 1850 Schumann arrived in Düsseldorf amid great fanfare to take up the position of town music director. By the next season, however, problems had developed with management and musicians alike, augmented by his progressing mental illness. Nevertheless, he strove to improve the town’s musical life by organizing a small select group of singers and a short-lived ensemble of instrumentalists. Thus in the fall of 1851 he had vocal and instrumental chamber music on his mind. The time was now ripe to act on an 1850 request by Ferdinand David, concertmaster of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig for a violin and piano piece. Schumann composed his first violin sonata—A minor, op. 105—between September 12 and 16, 1851, and after a pause to write the G minor Piano Trio, continued with a second—D minor, op. 121—between October 26 and November 2. Clara Schumann, her husband’s greatest champion and interpreter, immediately learned the piano part and played the first private performance of the A minor Violin Sonata on October 16 with Wilhelm Joseph von Wasielewski, Robert’s talented young concertmaster. She wrote in her diary: “We were particularly moved by the very elegiac first movement and the lovely second movement.” The third movement, she said, caused them some difficulties, and though they played it through three more times Wasielewski reported that they were unable to convey its “brusque tone” to the composer’s satisfaction. The first public performance took place on March 29 at the Leipzig Gewandhaus with David, who had first suggested such a work, and he received the dedication when Schumann published it in 1852. Clara continued to play the piece after her husband’s death, most often with the rising young star Joseph Joachim. Schumann’s first movement, designated “With passionate expression,” sets a mood of quiet unrest with the main theme beginning in the violin’s low, throaty range. Throughout the piano does not merely “arpeggiate,” but exhibits the distinctive multiple voices and textures that are quintessentially Schumann. A special feature of this movement is the masterful blurring of the border between development and recapitulation that became such a Romantic art. The Allegretto shows the intimate charm of many of Schumann’s piano miniatures. Twice he interrupts with contrasting episodes—the first in the contemplative manner of Eusebius, the introverted fictional character of his prose and musical writings, and the second à la Florestan, his happy, extroverted persona. The finale cavorts like a scherzo, but with a demonic cast, as opposed to the elfin scherzos characteristic of Schumann’s contemporary Mendelssohn. A wonderful major-mode middle episode imparts a lyrical warmth to offset the more “brusque” drive of the main theme. Toward the end Schumann shows his concern for unity across movements by reintroducing the low restless main theme of the first movement before the final fiendish push to the close. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

October 27, 2019: Quartetto di Cremona LUIGI BOCCHERINI (1743-1805) Quartet in C, Op. 2, No. 6 October 27, 2019: Quartetto di Cremona Boccherini achieved widespread recognition in his day both as a virtuoso cellist and as an extremely prolific composer, primarily of chamber music. He wrote more than 100 string quintets, close to 100 string quartets, and some 150 other chamber works, including more than thirty cello sonatas. The renown that Boccherini enjoyed in his prime is attested to by the remarks of the typically cautious Charles Burney, famed eighteenth-century historian, who rated him “among the greatest masters who have ever written for the violin or violoncello,” placing him second only to Haydn. In 1756 young Luigi made his concerto debut in his native Lucca, and the following year he likely accompanied his bass-playing father and his older siblings on engagements in Venice and Trieste. The following year Luigi gave a successful solo performance in Vienna, and he and his father were soon hired for subsequent full-season orchestral engagements there, returning for the 1760–61 and 1763–64 seasons. Though he continued to give performances in Vienna and in various Italian cities, times were such that a musician could not earn a living as a solo cellist alone, which is why he took various orchestra jobs and began composing at a great rate. This, then, is the backdrop for Boccherini’s first chamber works, composed in 1761—the six String Trios, op. 1, and six String Quartets, op. 2. After his father died in 1766, Boccherini embarked on a concert tour with violinist Filippo Manfredi, traveling first to Paris, where the Trios and Quartets were published in 1767 (with the opus numbers reversed) and where most of Boccherini’s works would continue to be published. They soon left for Madrid and environs, which through royal patronage became Boccherini’s base for the remainder of his life. In 1770 he added to his other duties the position of “court chamber composer” to the King of Prussia, an arrangement through which he sent twelve works a year but never actually visited or lived there. The last years of Boccherini’s life brought loss of family members, illness, and dwindling financial resources, though reports of him dying in poverty are likely exaggerated. The Opus 2 Quartets brim with elegant Italianate melodic lines and perhaps a few Viennese traits but predate any Parisian influence. The works are notable for the cello’s equality with the other instruments and Boccherini’s frequent use of its tenor register—natural features for a cellist-composer. The C major Quartet, op. 2, no. 6, like the others in the set, contains three movements: a fast first movement, a slow middle movement, and—in this case, like Nos. 3 and 4—a closing minuet. Boccherini launches the spirited first movement with a forthright chord, a sprightly upward gesture, and a gradual sequential descent, all over pulsing repeated notes that lend forward propulsion. Both the second theme, led off by paired second violin and high cello, and the exposition’s closing theme maintain the elegant figures and pulsating drive. The second half begins like the first, but Boccherini soon introduces the minor mode and more sinuous lines before the merriness returns, not with the opening theme but with the second and closing themes. The brief slow movement contains a wealth of ideas—melancholy imitative entries, chromaticism, gentle wide leaps, paired triplets, a lovely passage for second violin and cello, descending gestures answered by emphatic chords, and a flowing cello passage. The concluding section, which begins like a development section, drifts into quiet contemplation with the cello in a haunting prominent role. The closing minuet swings along extrovertedly, relying on loud-soft contrasts. After a more introverted trio section, the cheerful minuet returns to round off the movement. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

STEVEN ISSERLIS, CELLO Acclaimed worldwide for his profound musicianship and technical mastery, British cellist Steven Isserlis enjoys a unique and distinguished career as a soloist, chamber musician, educator, author and broadcaster. As a concerto soloist he appears regularly with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, including the Berlin Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra Washington, London Philharmonic and Zurich Tonhalle orchestras. He gives recitals every season in major musical centers, and plays with many of the world’s foremost chamber orchestras, including the Australian, Mahler, Norwegian, Scottish, Zurich and St Paul Chamber Orchestras, as well as period-instrument ensembles such as the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. Unusually, he also directs chamber orchestras from the cello in classical programs. Recent and upcoming highlights include performances with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra at the Salzburg Mozartwoche; the US premiere of Thomas Adès’s Lieux retrouvés with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, following world and UK premieres in Lucerne and at the BBC Proms, and a further performance of the work in Amsterdam with the Britten Sinfonia, conducted by the composer; Prokofiev’s Concerto Op. 58 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Vladimir Jurowski, in London and at the Dresden Music Festival; and Haydn’s C major Concerto with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Adam Fischer. As a chamber musician, he has curated series for many of the world’s most famous festivals and venues, including the Wigmore Hall, the 92nd St Y in New York, and the Salzburg Festival. These specially devised programs have included ‘In the Shadow of War’, a major four-part series for the Wigmore Hall to mark the centenary of the First World War and the 75th anniversary of the Second World War; explorations of Czech music; the teacher-pupil line of Saint-Saëns, Fauré and Ravel; the affinity of the cello and the human voice; varied aspects of Robert Schumann’s life and music; and the music of Sergei Taneyev (teacher of Steven’s grandfather, Julius Isserlis) and his students. For these concerts Steven is joined by a regular group of friends which includes the violinists Joshua Bell, Isabelle Faust, Pamela Frank, and Janine Jansen, violist Tabea Zimmermann, and pianists Jeremy Denk, Stephen Hough, Alexander Melnikov, Olli Mustonen, Connie Shih, and Dénes Várjon. He also takes a strong interest in authentic performance. This season’s projects include a recording of the Chopin Cello Sonata and other works with Dénes Várjon for Hyperion, using ones of Chopin’s own piano; and a recital of Russian sonatas with Olli Mustonen. In recital, he gives frequent concerts with harpsichord and fortepiano. Recent seasons have featured a special performance with Sir Andras Schiff at the Beethovenhaus in Bonn, using Beethoven’s own cello; and performances and recordings (selected for the Deutsche SchallplattenPreis) of Beethoven’s complete music for cello and piano with Robert Levin, using original or replica fortepianos from the early nineteenth century. With harpsichordist Richard Egarr, he has performed and recorded the viola da gamba sonatas of J.S. Bach as well as sonatas by Handel and Scarlatti. This season, they tour together in the US. He is also a keen exponent of contemporary music and has premiered many new works including John Tavener’s The Protecting Veil (as well as several other pieces by Tavener), Thomas Adès’s Lieux retrouvés, Stephen Hough’s Sonata for Cello and Piano, Left Hand (Les Adieux), Wolfgang Rihm’s Concerto in One Movement, David Matthews’ Concerto in Azzurro, and For Steven and Hilary’s Jig by György Kurtág. In 2016, he gave the UK premiere of Olli Mustonen’s of Frei, aber einsam for solo cello at the Wigmore Hall. Writing and playing for children is another major enthusiasm. He has written the text for three musical stories for children – Little Red Violin, Goldiepegs and the Three Cellos, and Cindercella – with music by Oscar-winning composer Anne Dudley; these are published by Universal Edition in Vienna. He has also given many concerts for children, for several years presenting a regular series at the 92nd Street Y in New York. Steven Isserlis’ books for children about the lives of the great composers – Why Beethoven Threw the Stew and its sequel, Why Handel Waggled his Wig – are published by Faber and Faber, and have been translated into multiple languages. His latest book, a commentary on Schumann’s famous Advice for Young Musicians, was published by Faber and Faber in September 2016, and will be published in the US by Chicago University Press this season. As an educator Steven Isserlis gives frequent masterclasses all around the world, and since 1997 he has been Artistic Director of the International Musicians’ Seminar at Prussia Cove in Cornwall, where his fellow-professors include Sir Andras Schiff, Thomas Adès and Ferenc Rados. As a writer and broadcaster, he contributes regularly to publications including Gramophone, The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian, has guest edited The Strad magazine, and makes regular appearances on BBC Radio including on the Today program, Soul Music, as guest presenter of two editions of Saturday Classics, and as writer and presenter of a documentary about the life of Robert Schumann. Most recently, he presented a documentary on BBC Radio 4 ‘Finding Harpo’s Voice’, about his hero Harpo Marx. His diverse interests are reflected in an extensive and award-winning discography. His recording of the complete Solo Cello Suites by J.S. Bach for Hyperion met with the highest critical acclaim, and was Gramophone’s Instrumental Album of the Year and Critics’ Choice at the Classic BRITS. Other recent releases include the Elgar and Walton concertos, alongside works by Gustav and Imogen Holst, with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Paavo Järvi; Prokofiev and Shostakovich concertos with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, also under Paavo Järvi; Dvořák’s Cello Concertos with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Daniel Harding; and recital discs with Stephen Hough, Thomas Adès and (for BIS) a Grammy-nominated album of sonatas by Martinů, as well as works by Mustonen and Sibelius, with Olli Mustonen. His latest recordings include the Brahms Double Concerto with Joshua Bell and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and – as director and soloist – concertos by Haydn and CPE Bach, with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. Forthcoming recordings include a special First World War-inspired disc with Connie Shih, including works performed on a travel cello – now known as “the Trench Cello” – played in the trenches by WWI soldier Harold Triggs. The recipient of many awards, Steven Isserlis’s honors include a CBE in recognition of his services to music, the Schumann Prize of the City of Zwickau, and the Piatigorsky Prize in the USA. He is also one of only two living cellists featured in Gramophone’s Hall of Fame. In 2017, he was awarded the Glashütte Original Music Festival Award in Dresden, the Wigmore Hall Gold Medal, and the Walter Willson Cobbett Medal for Services to Chamber Music. He gives most of his concerts on the Marquis de Corberon (Nelsova) Stradivarius of 1726, kindly loaned to him by the Royal Academy of Music.

WARREN JONES, PIANO WARREN JONES has recently been named as “Collaborative Pianist of the Year” for 2010 by the publication Musical America. He performs with many of today’s best-known artists, including Stephanie Blythe, Denyce Graves, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Matthew Polenzani, Ruth Ann Swenson, Bo Skovhus, Samuel Ramey, James Morris, John Relyea, Joseph Alessi, and Richard “Yongjae” O’Neill-and is Principal Pianist for the exciting California-based chamber music group Camerata Pacifica. In the past he has partnered such great performers as Marilyn Horne, Håkan Hagegård, Kathleen Battle, Barbara Bonney, Carol Vaness, Judith Blegen, Tatiana Troyanos and Martti Talvela. His collaborations have earned consistently high praise from many publications: The Boston Globe termed him “flawless” and “utterly ravishing”; The New York Times, “exquisite”; and The San Francisco Chronicle said simply, “He is the single finest accompanist now working.” Mr. Jones has often been a guest artist at Carnegie Hall and in Lincoln Center’s “Great Performers Series,” as well as the festivals of Tanglewood, Ravinia, and Caramoor. His international travels have taken him to recitals at the Salzburg Festival, Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, the Maggio Musicale Festival in Florence, the Teatro Fenice in Venice, Paris’ Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and Opéra Bastille, Wigmore Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Cultural Centre in Hong Kong and theatres throughout Scandinavia and Korea. Mr. Jones has been invited three times to the White House by American presidents to perform at concerts honoring the President of Russia, and Prime Ministers of Italy and Canada – and three times he has appeared at the U.S. Supreme Court as a specially invited performer for the Justices and their guests. As a guest at the Library of Congress, Mr. Jones has appeared with the Juilliard Quartet in performances of the Schumann Piano Quintet. Recent seasons have included his debut with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in a work commissioned for Stephanie Blythe and him, “Covered Wagon Woman,” by Alan Louis Smith. In addition to performances with the Borromeo and Brentano Quartets, he has been heard at the New York Philharmonic in the Sextet of Ernst von Dohnanyi, and been invited to participate regularly in the annual Marilyn Horne Foundation gala festivities at Carnegie Hall, both as performer and Master Class teacher. In the summer of 2009, he conducted sold-out, critically-acclaimed performances of Mascagni’s “L’amico Fritz” with the Merola Opera Program at San Francisco Opera. Mr. Jones’ discography includes more than 25 recordings: the latest is a compilation of new songs by the American composer Lori Laitman on the Albany label. He can be heard on every major record label, in diverse repertory from Schubert and Brahms to more esoteric compositions of Gretchaninoff, Clarke, and Smit, as well as contemporary works by Harbison and others. Mr. Jones is a member of the faculty at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City, where highly gifted young artists work with him in a unique graduate degree program in collaborative piano. Each summer he teaches and performs at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California. For ten years he was Assistant Conductor at the Metropolitan Opera and for three seasons served in the same capacity at San Francisco Opera.
 Mr. Jones is also a prominent musical jurist, having been a judge for the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, the Walter Naumberg Foundation Awards, the Metropolitan Opera Auditions, Artists’ Association International Fine Arts Competition, and the American Council for the Arts. Born in Washington, D.C., Mr. Jones grew up in North Carolina and graduated with honors from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. He has been honored with the Conservatory’s Outstanding Alumni Award, and currently serves on the Board of Overseers of that institution. A resident of New York City, Mr. Jones enjoys cooking, exercise, historical novels, and lively political discussion.

October 14, 2018: Garrick Ohlsson, piano JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897) Variations on an Original Theme, op. 21, no. 1 and Variations on a Hungarian Song, op. 21, no. 2 October 14, 2018: Garrick Ohlsson, piano Brahms wrote to his friend Elisabet von Herzogenberg, “I have a singular affection for the variation form, and I believe that this form still compels our talent and ability.” His fondness stemmed in large part from his training in piano and composition with Eduard Marxsen, who stressed above all the importance of being able to vary a theme and whose own output contains a plethora of pieces in variation form. Brahms’s entire body of work is permeated with variation techniques, but the variation form itself also looms large—eight individual sets of variations and ten movements within larger works. These span four decades, from his Variations on a Theme by R. Schumann Variations of 1854 (or his Variations on a Hungarian Song if he indeed began them in 1853) to the variation movement in his E-flat Clarinet Sonata of 1894. Alongside the musical evidence, Brahms’s verbal statements make it clear that he preferred “strict” variation form over “fantasy” variations that strayed too far from the structure of the theme. Further, he said, within each discrete variation the resemblance to the theme, even if subtle, should be recognizable and not “found only with the eyes.” Nevertheless, he clearly allowed for great leeway within each distinct variation and showed remarkable ingenuity in his overall organization within a set. Brahms composed the two sets of Opus 21 variations in different waves of inspiration—the Variations on an Original Theme by February of 1857, preceded by the Variations on a Hungarian Song by 1856. On the surface they share little beside their form and D major key, yet in both instances Brahms groups together the minor-mode variations as a unit, connects many of the major-mode variations through melodic figuration, and concludes with a grand finale that returns to elements of the first variation. The differences in the two sets have much to do with his choice of themes—in the first case an expressive original theme written with an eye toward its potential for myriad sophisticated variations, and in the second an existing Hungarian song, which lent itself to a more melody-oriented and often extroverted treatment. Both themes, in different ways, show his penchant for metric play. The lovely theme of the Variations on an Original Theme unfolds in two nine-bar halves—each with a regular four-bar phrase plus an irregular five-bar phrase, a configuration he maintains almost throughout. The first two variations grow out of a gentle left-hand figuration that draws on the harmonic framework even as it contains references to the melodic outline. Brahms includes a nice hemiola (shift between groups of three pulses and two) toward the end of the first variation, and in the second he subtly introduces new harmonies. The third and fourth bring back the theme’s feature of a repeating bass note (pedal tone) with quiet, fluid chordal patterns above—tied over bar lines in the third and in a spate of little two-chord units in the fourth. Variation 5 introduces a delicate canon in contrary motion and Variation 6 scampers off like quicksilver but in gentle arching phrases. Variation 7 is remarkable for its spare, leaping textures. Brahms forcefully unleashes the minor mode in Variation 8 in a texture that quickly alternates right and left hands—something he would return to many times in his career. Variation 9 brings the set’s tempestuous climax, abetted by ominous left-hand rumbles that derive from the original pedal tones. Variation 10 remains agitated even as it recedes from the previous peak. The major mode returns with Variation 11, which is striking for its insistence on the pedal tone in the form of long trills. Brahms varies the repeats in this variation and adds an expansive coda that recalls earlier variations before subsiding peacefully. Brahms first jotted down the theme of the Variations on a Hungarian Song in January 1853 while concertizing with Hungarian violinist Ede Rémenyi, who provided him with a rich store of his country’s tunes. That April Brahms sent a set of three piano settings of Hungarian tunes to another Hungarian violinist, Joseph Joachim, who was to have a longer and much closer association with Brahms. The second of these settings became the theme for the present set of variations, which Brahms sent to Joachim in July of 1865, following up with a revised version in 1857. What especially attracted Brahms was the theme’s alternating measures of 3/4 and 4/4, a kind of metric play that fascinated him as much as it did Marxsen, whose formal tutelage he had just left to tour with Reményi. Brahms maintains the metric alternation through his first eight variations, returning to it at the conclusion of the extended finale. Following his presentation of the brief eight-measure theme in strong chords, Brahms immediately shifts to the minor mode for Variations 1 through 6. Their brevity allows only a glimpse at some fascinating characters—grandiose, lightly chordal, fleeting, imposing, ruminating (with some cimbalon-like accompaniment), and scampering. The switch to major at Variation 7 brings a supremely delicate variation over “quasi pizzicato” left hand. Throughout Brahms retains a melodic connection to the theme, sometimes altered subtly and sometimes migrating into another voice (Variations 2, 7, and 8 in part). The smoothing out of the meter begins in Variation 8, which is fascinating for its texture of little grace notes in the upper left-hand. Variations 9 through 12 retain the expressive vein with increasingly elaborate figuration building to the capping Variation 13 with its kaleidoscopic further variations, excursions to B-flat major and minor, and triumphant recall of the theme. We would be remiss not to mention that Brahms waited until 1861 to send both sets of variations to his publisher Simrock, who issued them in two volumes under the same opus number in March of the following year. The first public performance of the Variations on an Original Theme did not occur until October 31, 1865, when Clara Schumann presented them in Frankfurt am Main. The English pianist Florence May, Brahms’s student and biographer, gave the first public performance of the Variation on a Hungarian Song in London on March 25, 1874. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

LINO GOMEZ, SAXOPHONE Saxophonist Lino Gomez enjoys an extremely diverse career in the orchestral, chamber, and commercial music fields. A former member of both the American and the New York Saxophone Quartets, his other chamber music credits include performances with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra Chamber Players and recordings with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. He is a frequent guest artist, as both saxophonist and clarinetist, of the Metropolitan Opera, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, American Symphony, American Composers and New York Pops orchestras. He has performed solo roles with all of these ensembles, including performances of Eino Tanberg’s “Concerto Grosso” with the NY Philharmonic and the USA premier of Tan Dun’s “Red Forecast” with the American Composers Orchestra. Lino’s many commercial music credits include feature film soundtracks, radio andtelevision commercials, and Broadway shows. He is a former member of NBC’s Saturday Night Live band.