Program: Calder Quartet

CALDER QUARTET

at UC San Diego Saturday, January 23, 2016, at 8 pm

Department of Music’s Conrad Prebys Concert Hall

THANK YOU TO OUR PERFORMANCE SPONSORS Eric Lasley and Judith Bachner, Amnon and Lee Ben-Yehuda

ABOUT ARTPOWER

ArtPower at UC San Diego builds creative experiences in music, dance, film, exhibition and food for our collective pleasure and inspiration. We engage diverse audiences through vibrant, challenging, multi-disciplinary performances by emerging and renowned international artists. Through extensive partnerships, ArtPower provides exciting opportunities for research, participation, and creation of new work, igniting powerful dialogue between artists, students, scholars, and the community.

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1. To create co-curricular opportunities in the performing arts and film that foster learning and self-discovery, as well as personal and professional skill development.

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3. To add to the artistic and cultural life of the La Jolla and San Diego communities.

ArtPower presents

CALDER QUARTET

Saturday, January 23, 2016, at 8 pm Department of Music’s Conrad Prebys Concert Hall Benjamin Jacobson, violin Andrew Bulbrook, violin Jonathan Moerschel, viola Eric Byers, cello

PROGRAM Sabina (2008)

Andrew Norman (b. 1979)

String Quartet No. 2 “Intimate Letters” (1928)

Andante

Adagio

Leoš Janáček (1854–1928)

Moderato Allegro

INTERMISSION Stillshot (2015) String Quartet No. 12 in E-flat Major, Opus 127 (1825)

Maestoso; Allegro

Adagio, ma non troppo e molto cantabile

Scherzando vivace

Finale

Daníel Bjarnason (b. 1979) Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)

ABOUT THE PROGRAM Notes for Andrew Norman’s Sabina and Daníel Bjarnason’s Stillshot will be announced from the stage.

String Quartet No. 2 “Intimate Letters” Leoš Janáček Born July 3, 1854, Hukvaldy, Moravia Died August 12, 1928, Ostravia

In the summer of 1917 Leoš Janáček, a 63-year-old composer little known outside his homeland, met Kamila Stösslová, a 25-year-old married woman with a small child, and fell madly in love. Over the final eleven years of his life, she was the inspiration for a volcanic outpouring of masterpieces by the aging composer: four operas, two string quartets, a mass, tremendous orchestral works, and numerous choral and chamber pieces, as well as 600 letters written to her. Janáček’s love for Kamilla Stösslová was entirely platonic—and one-sided. Mystified by the composer’s passion, she responded with affectionate friendship and encouragement, content to serve as muse for a creator she did not fully understand (Kamila was lucky to have an understanding husband—Janáček had a furiously jealous wife).

Janáček said that all his late works were, at some level, an expression of his love for Kamila, and one piece made that love explicit. During the winter of 1928, he took three weeks (January 29 – February 19) off from work on his opera From the House of the Dead to compose his String Quartet No. 2, which he subtitled “Intimate Letters.” Janáček’s original nickname for the quartet had been “Love Letters,” but he decided against that, telling Kamila that he did not want “to deliver [his] feelings up to the discretion of stupid people.”

To underline the latent meaning of the quartet, he at first intended to replace the viola with the viola d’amore; when the older instrument proved to have insufficient power, he returned to the modern viola, which is given a very prominent role in this quartet.

Janáček noted that each movement had a particular program. The opening movement was inspired by his first meeting Kamila at the Luhačovice Spa during the summer of 1917; the second depicts events of that summer; the third he described as “gay, but melting into a vision of you”; the last expressed Janáček’s “fear for you—however it eventually sounds not as fear, but as longing and its fulfillment.” After hearing a private performance of the first two movements, the exultant composer wrote: “Kamila, it will be beautiful, strange, unrestrained, inspired, a composition beyond all the usual conventions! Together I think that we’ll triumph! It’s my first composition that sprang from directly experienced feeling.

Before then I composed only from things remembered; this piece, ‘Intimate Letters,’ was written in fire.”

This passionate, intense music is in Janáček’s extremely compressed late style. Themes tend to be short, there are countless abrupt tempo shifts, and the music is tightly unified— even accompaniment figures have thematic importance, and there is some cyclic use of themes. The full-blooded beginning of the Andante gives away suddenly to the true first theme: an eerie, unsettling melody played ponticello by the viola—Janáček said that it reflected Kamila’s disquieting arrival in his life. This theme recurs in many forms in this movement, which pitches between the lyric and harshly dramatic. By contrast, the Adagio is based largely on the viola’s opening melody; this rises to a climax marked Maestoso before closing over flautato mutterings from viola and second violin. The Moderato begins 4

Program

with a lilting dance in 9/8, followed by a lyric violin duet. The climax of this movement is a stunner: the music comes to a stop, then the first violin rips out a stabbing entrance on its highest E—marked appassionato, this is an explosive variation of the preceding duet tune. The concluding Allegro, a rondo, gets off to a good-natured start with a theme that sounds as if it might have folk origins (actually it was Janáček’s own). Once again, there are frequent mood and tempo changes, and—driven by furious trills and mordants—the music drives to its impassioned close.

The 74-year-old Janáček was very pleased with this music. To Kamila, he wrote that it was “like a piece of living flesh. I don’t think I ever shall be able to write anything deeper or more truthful.” Six months later, the creator of this passionate music was dead.

String Quartet No. 2 in E-flat Major, Opus 127 Ludwig van Beethoven Born December 16, 1770, Bonn Died March 26, 1827, Vienna

When Russian prince Nikolas Galitzin wrote to Beethoven in the fall of 1822 to commission three string quartets, his request met a sympathetic response: the composer had been thinking about writing string quartets for some time and promised to have the first done within a month or two. After seven years of intermittent activity he had resumed sustained composing in 1820 with a set of three piano sonatas, but other projects now intervened, and despite the prince’s frequent inquiries, Beethoven had to complete the Missa Solemnis, Diabelli Variations, and the Ninth Symphony before he could begin work on the first of the three quartets in the summer of 1824. This quartet—in E-flat major—was not complete until February 1825. Performed immediately by the string quartet of Ignaz Schuppanzigh, the music was a failure at its premiere on March 6, 1825. Furious, Beethoven quickly had it rehearsed and performed by a quartet led by Joseph Böhm. The composer attended their rehearsals and supervised their interpretation (though deaf, he could follow their performance by watching the movement of their bows). The second performance was successful, and this quartet was performed publicly at least ten more times in 1825—an extraordinary number of performances for a new work—and always to great acclaim.

That fact is important because it undercuts the notion that Beethoven’s late quartets were far ahead of their time. Certain features of the late quartets did defy quick comprehension, but this was not true of the Quartet in E-flat Major. At first glance, this is the most traditional of Beethoven’s late quartets. It has a relatively straightforward structure: a sonata-form first movement, a variation-form slow movement, a scherzo in ABA form, and a dancefinale. But to reduce this music to such simplicity is to miss the extraordinary originality beneath its appealing and gentle surface.

In the first movement, Beethoven seems to set out intentionally to blur the outlines of traditional sonata form, which depends on the opposition of material. Contrast certainly seems to be implied at the beginning, which opens with a firm chordal Maestoso, but this Maestoso quickly melts into the flowing and simple main theme, marked Allegro (Beethoven further specifies that he wants this melody performed teneramente—“tenderly”—and sempre piano e dolce). The powerful Maestoso returns twice more, each time in a different key, and then drops out of the movement altogether; Beethoven builds the movement almost exclusively out of the opening melody and an equally gentle second subject. Here is a sonata-form movement that does not drive to a powerful climax but instead remains understated throughout: the movement evaporates on a wisp of the opening Allegro theme.

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Two softly-pulsing measures lead to the main theme of the Adagio, a gently-rocking and serene melody introduced by the first violin and repeated by the cello. There follow six melodic variations, each growing organically out of the previous one until the music achieves a kind of rhapsodic calm—and the original theme has been left far behind. Four sharp pizzicato chords introduce the scherzo, and these four chords then vanish, never to re-appear. The fugue-like opening section, built on a dotted figure and its inversion, leads to a brief—and utterly different—trio section. In E-flat minor, this trio whips past in a blistering blur: Beethoven’s phrase markings here stretch over twenty measures at a time. Beethoven brings back the opening section, then offers a surprise at the ending by including a quick reminiscence of the trio just before the cadence.

The last movement has proven the most difficult for commentators, perhaps because of its apparent simplicity. Marked only Finale (there is no tempo indication), it opens with a four-measure introduction that launches off in the wrong direction before the true main theme appears in the first violin. Of rustic simplicity, this melody has been compared to a country-dance, and the second theme—a jaunty march-tune decorated with grace notes— preserves that atmosphere. The tunes may be innocent, but Beethoven’s treatment of them in this sonata-form movement is quite sophisticated, particularly in matters of modulation and harmony. The ending is particularly striking. At the coda Beethoven rebars the music in 6/8, moves to C major, and speeds ahead on violin trills, chains of triplets, and shimmering textures. The very end, back in E-flat major, is calm, resounding—and perfect.

—Eric Bromberger

ABOUT THE ARTISTS Calder Quartet, called “outstanding” and “superb” by the New York Times, performs a broad range of repertoire at an exceptional level, always striving to channel and fulfill the composer’s vision. Already the choice of many leading composers to perform their works—including Christopher Rouse, Terry Riley, and Thomas Adès—the group’s distinctive approach is exemplified by a musical curiosity brought to everything they perform, whether it’s Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, or sold-out rock shows with bands like The National or The Airborne Toxic Event. Winners of the 2014 Avery Fisher Career Grant, they are known for the discovery, commissioning, recording and mentoring of some of today’s best emerging composers (over 25 commissioned works to date). The group continues to work and collaborate with artists across musical genres, spanning the ranges of the classical and contemporary music world, as well as rock, and visual arts; and in venues ranging from art galleries and rock clubs to Carnegie and Walt Disney concert halls. Inspired by innovative American artist Alexander Calder, the Calder Quartet’s desire to bring immediacy and context to the works they perform creates an artfully crafted musical experience.

Recent season highlights include debuts at New York’s Mostly Mozart Festival, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, London’s Wigmore Hall, Barbican Festival and the Edinburgh International Festival. They returned to the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s 2014 Minimalist Jukebox, and in 2013 the quartet performed Terry Riley’s The Sands with the Cleveland Orchestra. The quartet also returned to Australia for the Adelaide Festival with Iva Bittova, and it appeared at the Laguna Beach Festival alongside Joshua Bell and Edgar Meyer. They have performed in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Cleveland Museum of Art, Walt Disney Concert Hall, and Hollywood Bowl.

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Program

The quartet has been featured in extremely popular TV shows such as the Late Show with David Letterman, the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic, the Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, Late Night with Jimmy Kimmel, and the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.

In 2011 the Calder Quartet launched a non-profit dedicated to furthering its efforts in commissioning, presenting, recording, and education, collaborating with the Getty Museum, Segerstrom Center for the Arts, and the Barbican Centre in London.

The Calder Quartet formed at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music and continued studies at the Colburn Conservatory of Music with Ronald Leonard, and at the Juilliard School, receiving the Artist Diploma in Chamber Music Studies as the Juilliard Graduate Resident String Quartet. The quartet regularly conducts master classes and has taught at the Colburn School, the Juilliard School, Cleveland Institute of Music, University of Cincinnati College Conservatory, and USC Thornton School of Music.

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ARTPOWER DONORS 2015–16 VISIONARY ($50,000+)

Joan and Irwin Jacobs Fund of the Jewish

Community Foundation

CATALYST ($20,000–49,999)

Jon and Bobbie Gilbert George Clement Perkins Endowment The Weil Family Foundation

CREATOR ($10,000–19,999)

Epstein Family Foundation Sam B. Ersan Michael and Susanna Flaster Elaine Galinson and Herbert Solomon of

the Galinson Family Foundation Eric Lasley and Judith Bachner New England Foundation for the Arts

PERFORMER ($5,000–9,999)

Amnon and Lee Ben-Yehuda Joan Jordan Bernstein Hamburger Chamber Music Series

Endowment Fund

ADVOCATE ($2,500–4,999)

Ann Spira Cambell Ronald and Wynnona Goldman Mehran and Susan Goulian Renita Greenberg Alexa Kirkwood Hirsch Charles and Marilyn Perrin Edith High Sanchez and Paul Sanchez Lee and Judith Talner

GUARDIAN ($1,000–2,499)

Joyce Axelrod and Joseph Fisch Bjorn Bjerede and Josephine A. Kiernan Maureen and C. Peter Brown Nelson and Janice Byrne Carol and Jeffrey Chang Alain Cohen and Denise Warren Ruth Covell Martha and Edward Dennis Wayne and Elizabeth Dernetz Dr. Diane Everett-Barbolla Drs. Edwin and Wita Gardiner Norman J. Goldberg and Fusako Yokotobi Pat Jacoby Liz Lancaster and Eli Shefter Marvin and Reinette Levine Barbara and Robert Nemiroff Clayton and Susan Peimer Hans Paar and Kim Signoret-Paar Anne Marie Pleska and Luc Cayet Robert and Lauren Resnik Elaine and Jerry Schneider Ruth Stern and Mort Levy Arthur and Molli Wagner Zelda Waxenberg 8

Program

SUPPORTER ($500–999)

Janice Alper and Charles Kantor Ginger and Ken Baldwin Douglas Bradley Sam and Teresa Buss Bill Coltellaro and Eric Cohen Bill Michalsky Nessa O’Shaughnessy Anne Otterson Edward and Arlene Pelavin Samuel Popkin and Susan Shirk

CONTRIBUTOR ($250–499)

K. Andrew Achterkirchen Connie and George Beardsley William and Wendy Brody Patti and Brian Carlos Jeffrey C. Donahue and Gail Donahue Meg and Allan Goldstein Carol Hinrichs Barry and Helen Lebowitz Robert and Arleen Lettas Athina Markou and Mark Geyer Rod and Barbara Orth Joani Nelson Carol Plantamura and Felix Prael Gary and Brenda Ratcliff Doug and Eva Richman Jim and Kathleen Stiven Mr. and Mrs. Eli Strich Johanna Thompson Sylvia Wechter

SPARK ($100–249)

Shirley Babior and Judith Richards Paulyne Becerra Geoffrey Clow Ed and Edie Drcar Carol Hobson Carole Leland Elaine and Howard Maltz Kate Oesterreicher Ina Page Luc R. Pelletier Stephen and Susan Shuchter Janet Smarr Ellen Speert and Paul Henry Jimmy Tran Carey G. Wall Shirley Weaver Anonymous, In honor of Jimmy Tran

ARTPOWER STAFF DONORS Molly Clark Carolena Deutsch-Garcia Jordan Peimer Jason Smith Joanna Szu Rebecca Webb

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POWERPLAYERS PowerPlayers are an exceptional group of donors that have made a three year commitment to support ArtPower. This multi-year support is crucial to ArtPower’s continued success and growth.

Joyce Axelrod Joan Bernstein Alain Cohen Martha Dennis Phyllis Epstein Elaine Galinson Bobbie Gilbert Norman Goldberg Renita Greenberg Eric Lasley Kim Signoret-Paar Hans Paar Robert and Lauren Resnik Arthur and Molli Wagner Zelda Waxenberg Pat Weil A portion of funding for ArtPower is provided by the UC San Diego Student Services Fee Committee.

Molly Clark, Associate Director of Artistic

Planning & Education Carolena Deutsch-Garcia, Associate

Director of Development John Morgan, Box Office Manager Sean Nash, Ticketing Coordinator Jordan Peimer, Executive Director Jason Smith, Production Manager Joanna Szu, Associate Director of Marketing

and Communications Rebecca Webb, Film Curator Grason Caldwell, Marketing Assistant Crystal K. Chan, Film Curatorial

Assistant Intern Minhtri Chu, Marketing Intern Riley Dewitt-Rickards, Production Assistant Austin Eamnarangkool, Marketing Intern Keita Funakawa, Film Curatorial Assistant Camille Latzke, Marketing Intern Aileen Liang, Marketing Assistant Joyce Liang, Marketing Intern Derrick Lieu, Marketing Intern Cliff Mann, Film Curatorial Assistant Connie Oh, Marketing Intern Kendra Quinlan, Marketing Intern Emily Small, Marketing Intern Maryanee Vargas, Marketing Intern Bryant Vu, Marketing Assistant Karen Wang, Production Assistant

Donor list as of 01.05.2016

Chamber Music

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Save the date!

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Big Bangg Co-Chairs Phyllis Epstein, Bobbie Gilbert, and Joan Bernstein A fundraiser in support of Student Engagement at ArtPower Sunday, April 10, at noon Faculty Club at UC San Diego

2015–16 SEASON DONOR GIVING LEVELS AND BENEFITS BECOME AN ARTPOWER SUPPORTER TODAY! ArtPower is committed to building a future for the arts by presenting extraordinary artists, fostering young audiences, and offering student engagement opportunities. Donors make it possible for us to make a meaningful difference in our community and the lives of students. To make a gift or learn more about how you can help support ArtPower: Donate online at artpower.ucsd.edu/support or call 858.534.7657 for more information.

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U.S.A.

HARLEM QUARTET

Friday, February 19, 2016, at 8 pm The Harlem Quartet, praised for its “panache” by the New York Times, is “bringing a new attitude to classical music, one that is fresh, bracing, and intelligent,” (Cincinnati Enquirer). Program: Ludwig van Beethoven: String Quartet No. 4 in C Minor, Op. 18, No. 3; Buena Vista Social Club Medley, Jazz Standards; Felix Mendelssoh: String Quartet in E Minor, Op. 44, No. 2

2015–16 CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES

POLAND

MECCORE STRING QUARTET Friday, March 4, 2016, at 8 pm

Praised for its breathtaking performances, flawless technique, and visionary interpretations, the quartet won second prize—and three additional special prizes—at the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition at Wigmore Hall in April 2012. Program: Franz Joseph Haydn: String Quartet in C Major, Op. 50, No. 2; Karol Szymanowski: String Quartet No. 1 in C Major, Op. 37; Jean Sibelius: String Quartet in D Minor, Op. 56, “Voces intimae” U.S.A.

CHRISTOPHER O’RILEY TRUE LOVE WAITS: THE MUSIC OF RADIOHEAD Wednesday, April 20, 2016, at 8 pm

While most pop fare has strong melodic foundations for the soloist to build from, Christopher O’Riley has challenged himself with the catalog of Radiohead, one of modern rock’s most acclaimed—and texturally complex—bands.

U.S.A.

CHRISTOPHER O’RILEY AND THE NEW YORK CHAMBER SOLOISTS Thursday, April 21, 2016, at 8 pm

Pianist Christopher O’Riley is joined by the New York Chamber Soloists; acclaimed as an outstanding ensemble of distinguished virtuosi, they have maintained a unique niche in the chamber music world for over five decades. Program: Ludwig van Beethoven: Trio in B-flat Major, Op 11, for clarinet, cello, and piano; Igor Stravinsky: L’Histoire du soldat for clarinet, violin, and piano; Béla Bartók: Piano Sonata and Contrasts for violin, clarinet, and piano; Maurice Ravel: Sonata for violin and cello

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