Rose Studio Concert - November 19, 2015

David Finckel and Wu Han, Artistic Directors

ROSE STUDIO CONCERT Thursday Evening, November 19, 2015 at 6:30 Daniel and Joanna S. Rose Studio 3,498th Concert

MICHAEL BROWN, piano CHAD HOOPES, violin MATTHEW LIPMAN, viola COLIN CARR, cello

2015-2016 Season

The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center 70 Lincoln Center Plaza, 10th Floor New York, NY 10023 212-875-5788 www.ChamberMusicSociety.org

The Chamber Music Society is deeply grateful to Board member Paul Gridley for his very generous gift of the Hamburg Steinway & Sons model “D� concert grand piano we are privileged to hear this evening.

ROSE STUDIO CONCERT Thursday Evening, November 19, 2015 at 6:30

MICHAEL BROWN, piano CHAD HOOPES, violin MATTHEW LIPMAN, viola COLIN CARR, cello

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART

(1756-1791)

Duo in G major for Violin and Viola, K. 423 (1783) Allegro Adagio Rondo: Allegro HOOPES, LIPMAN

GABRIEL FAURÉ (1845-1924)

Quartet No. 2 in G minor for Piano, Violin, Viola, and Cello, Op. 45 (1885-86) Allegro molto moderato Allegro molto Adagio non troppo Allegro molto BROWN, HOOPES, LIPMAN, CARR

This concert is made possible, in part, by the The Florence Gould Foundation and the Grand Marnier Foundation.

Please turn off cell phones, pagers, and other electronic devices.

Photographing, sound recording, or videotaping this performance is prohibited.

notes on the

PROGRAM

Duo in G major for Violin and Viola, K. 423 Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART Born January 27, 1756 in Salzburg.

Died December 5, 1791 in Vienna.

Composed around 1783.

First CMS performance on February 6, 1970.

Duration: 16 minutes During a visit to his hometown of Salzburg in 1785, Mozart planned to renew acquaintance with old friends, including Michael Haydn, director of the orchestra and composer in the archiepiscopal household, and the younger brother of Joseph Haydn of Esterháza. Upon his arrival in Salzburg, Mozart was distressed to find that Haydn had fallen ill, especially since the Archbishop had ordered a set of six duos for violin and viola from him and was threatening to dock Haydn’s salary if the deadline for their delivery was not met.

Haydn had been able to finish only four of the pieces, so Mozart completed the assignment for him by composing the remaining pair (K. 423 and K. 424). All six duos were written out in fair copy, inscribed with the name of Michael Haydn, and sent to the Archbishop with a flowery dedication. This nice story (first recorded by two of Haydn’s students and repeated in the biography of Mozart

by Georg Nissen, Constanze Mozart’s second husband) has, however, been called into question by some scholars, including Alfred Einstein, since it does

not explain why Mozart twice asked his father to return the duos to him in December if he intended to pass them off as the work of another composer.

Perhaps, after all, he wrote them simply because he was intrigued by the novelty of Haydn’s duos, and wanted to try his own hand at the genre. They were announced for publication under their true author’s name in 1788, but did not appear in print until 1792, a year after Mozart’s death.

Mozart’s string duos provide about as much delight as it is possible to derive from just two melody instruments. The opening movement of the G major Duo is one of the composer’s characteristically crystalline sonata forms. The sparkling main theme is a scalar configuration entrusted largely to the violin, while the complementary melody, initiated by the violin over a flowing accompaniment from the viola, is more lyrical and ingratiating. The development section is begun by a series of double-stopped chords, a remarkable acoustical sleightof-hand that seems to draw some unseen phantom player briefly into the musical argument. The recapitulation balances, to the tiniest musical atom, the form of the movement. The Adagio is a song of the most pleasing and gracious emotions, virtually a wordless operatic love duet, that is embroidered with precisely the correct proportion of melodic embellishment. The closing movement is a felicitous rondo enfolding two contrasting episodes. 

Quartet No. 2 in G minor for Piano, Violin, Viola, and Cello, Op. 45 Gabriel FAURÉ Born May 12, 1845 in Pamiers, Ariège, France.

Died November 14, 1924 in Paris.

Composed 1885-86.

Premiered on January 22, 1887 in Paris by violinist Guillaume Rémy, violist Louis van Waefelgham, and cellist Jules Delsart.

First CMS performance on December 3, 1972.

Duration: 34 minutes It was in 1883 while Fauré was revising the score of the C minor Piano Quartet, composed in 1876 for the fledgling Société Nationale de Musique, that he seems to have become interested in providing it with a sequel. No documentary evidence exists concerning the gestation of the Piano Quartet No. 2 in G minor, though the work was apparently Fauré’s principal creative occupation during 1885 and 1886. The first definitive date that can be attached to the quartet is that of its premiere—January 22, 1887 at the Société Nationale by violinist Guillaume Rémy, violist Louis van Waefelghem, and cellist Jules Delsart, with the composer himself as pianist. The score of the G minor Quartet was published later that year with a dedication to the eminent German pianist and conductor Hans von Bülow, who had said some nice things about Fauré’s music in a recent open letter to the Parisian conductor, violinist, and impresario Édouard Colonne. Bülow responded, “Please accept my heartfelt thanks for your kind wishes and for the honor you have done me in making me the dedicatee of your new quartet. I will

do my best to value the music at its true worth.” Fauré held his G minor Quartet in high regard, and used it frequently as an example of his finest work: he performed it in Brussels with the famed Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaÿe in 1888, 1889 and 1900; he included it on a festival of his music in London in 1896; it was part of the repertory for his extensive tour of Russia in 1910; and he presented a warmly inscribed copy of the score to Tchaikovsky when that Russian master visited Paris in 1888.

The Piano Quartet No. 2 opens with a sweeping unison string theme of almost symphonic breadth whose initial gesture—a heroic octave leap— is followed by a series of short, tightly compressed motivic cells. The piano’s repetition of the main theme leads to the introduction of the quiet, lyrical second subject by the viola. A brief reference to the main theme serves as the transition to the exposition’s third melody, a smoothly arching strain presented by cello and viola in octaves.

The development section concerns itself first with permutations of the main theme and then with the arching theme before a sonorous unison return of the principal subject marks the beginning of the recapitulation. The viola again gets to sing its lyrical subsidiary theme, but the arching melody is omitted in favor of the anxious coda based on the main theme that brings the movement to a dying close.

The scherzo, according to Jean-Michel Nectoux in his study of Fauré, “casts a spell in its headlong career through a

night illuminated by mysterious flashes: we are reminded of Schubert’s Erl King, Berlioz’s Faust, and Franck’s Accursed Huntsman.” The movement, possessed of a kind of demonic force that is rare in Fauré’s writing, is formed around the alternation of two contrasting themes: the first is an agitated, rhythmically unsettled piano melody of scale steps given against a background of plucked strings; the other is a smooth string motive derived from the opening movement’s second theme.

Fauré gave the following explanation of the twilight mood and meditative serenity of the Adagio: “In the slow movement of my Second Quartet, I recalled a peal of bells we used to hear of an evening drifting over to Montgauzy [near Foix, in southwest France, where he lived as a boy] from a village called

Cadirac whenever the wind blew from the west.”

The finale, thematically rich and somewhat prolix, resumes the impassioned energy of the opening movement. A main theme of aggressive triplet rhythms is announced by the strings above a restless piano accompaniment. Other complementary thematic ideas follow: a lyrical but syncopated strain in the piano; a piano subject in hammered chords (the formal second theme); and a smooth, expressive melody in long notes in the viola and cello. The development section is based largely on the opening triplet motive.

The exposition’s four themes are heard again in the recapitulation before a brilliant coda in the sun-bright key of G major brings the quartet to its victorious conclusion. 

©2015 Dr. Richard E. Rodda

meet tonight’s

ARTISTS

Winner of a 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Michael Brown has been described by the New York Times as a “young piano visionary” and “one of the leading figures in the current renaissance of performer-composers.” His recent schedule includes debuts with the Seattle and Maryland symphony orchestras, a Carnegie Hall Stern Auditorium debut with the New York Youth Symphony, and recitals at Wigmore Hall, the Louvre, Alice Tully Hall, and Weill Hall. Recent commissions of his own compositions include a piano concerto for the Maryland Symphony Orchestra and works for the Look & Listen Festival, Bargemusic, and the Stecher and Horowitz Foundation. His compositions have been performed at Tanglewood, Ravinia, and Chamber Music Northwest, and in such venues as the Kennedy Center, (Le) Poisson Rouge, and SubCulture. He has recorded several albums, including an all-George Perle CD for Bridge Records and a solo album for CAG Records. Recordings with pianist Jerome Lowenthal, cellist Nicholas Canellakis, and violinist Elena Urioste are all scheduled for release in 2015. A native New Yorker, Mr. Brown earned dual bachelor’s and master’s degrees in piano and composition from The Juilliard School, where he studied with pianists Jerome Lowenthal and Robert McDonald and composers Samuel Adler and Robert Beaser. He is the first prize winner of the 2010 Concert Artists Guild Competition and was recently appointed adjunct assistant professor of piano at Brooklyn College. He is a Steinway Artist and a member of Chamber Music Society Two. Cellist Colin Carr appears throughout the world as a soloist, chamber musician, recording artist, and teacher. He has played with orchestras worldwide, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; The Philharmonia; Royal Philharmonic; BBC Symphony; the orchestras of Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, Philadelphia, and Montréal; and all the major orchestras of Australia and New Zealand. With his duo partner, Thomas Sauer, he has played recitals at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Philadelphia’s Chamber Music Society, and at the Wigmore Hall in London. He has played complete cycles of the Bach Solo Suites at the Wigmore Hall, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Gardner Museum in Boston, and recently in Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, and Vancouver. His recordings for GM of the Bach Suites and the unaccompanied cello works of Kodály, Britten, Crumb, and Schuller are highly acclaimed. He was the soloist in Elgar’s Cello Concerto in a BBC Music Magazine recording with the BBC Philharmonic. He is the winner of first prize in the Naumburg Competition, the Gregor Piatigorsky Memorial Award, second prize in the Rostropovich International Cello Competition, and the Young Concert Artists competition. He attended the Yehudi Menuhin School, where he studied with Maurice Gendron and William Pleeth. Musician in residence at St. John’s College, Oxford, he is a professor at the Royal Academy of Music and Stony Brook University. His cello was made by Matteo Goffriller in Venice in 1730.

American violinist Chad Hoopes has appeared with numerous ensembles throughout the world since he won the first prize at the Young Artists Division of the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition. He recently had a highly

successful debut with the Orchestre de Paris at Salle Pleyel. Further highlights of last season include a tour to Russia with the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, performances with the Vancouver Symphony, and his Munich debut with the Munich Symphony Orchestra. In October 2013 he was signed by the French label NAÏVE. His first recording with the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra under Kristjan Järvi (Mendelssohn and John Adams concertos) was released in spring 2014 and is highly acclaimed throughout the world. A member of Chamber Music Society Two, he is a frequent guest artist at the Menuhin Festival in Gstaad, Switzerland and at the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, where he has just recently been named the winner of the prestigious audience award. He serves as Munich Symphony Orchestra's first artist in residence this season and he frequently performs with leading orchestras such as the San Francisco Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Brussels Chamber Orchestra, Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, Trondheim Symphony, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra.

Mr. Hoopes began his violin studies in Minneapolis. In 2013 he took up studies as a Young Soloist at Kronberg Academy with Professor Ana Chumachenco. He plays the 1713 Antonio Stradivari Cooper; Hakkert; ex Ceci violin, courtesy of Jonathan Moulds. He is represented worldwide by Tanja Dorn at IMG Artists.

The recipient of a 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant, American violist Matthew Lipman has been hailed by the New York Times for his “rich tone and elegant phrasing” and by the Chicago Tribune for his “splendid technique and musical sensitivity.” His debut recording of Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with violinist Rachel Barton Pine and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields with Sir Neville Marriner was recently released on the Avie label. He has performed with the Juilliard, Minnesota, Grand Rapids Symphony, Wisconsin Chamber, Ars Viva Symphony, and Montgomery Symphony orchestras. The only violist featured on WFMT Chicago’s recent list of “30 Under 30” top classical musicians, he has been profiled by The Strad and BBC Music magazines and recently performed Penderecki’s Cadenza for solo viola live on WQXR with the composer in attendance. A member of CMS Two, Mr. Lipman has performed with the Chamber Music Society at Alice Tully Hall, Wigmore Hall, and at the Kissinger Sommer Festival in Germany, and under the auspices of the Marlboro, Ravinia, Perlman Music Program, and the Music@ Menlo festivals. A top prizewinner of the Tertis, Primrose, Washington, Stulberg, and Johansen International competitions, Mr. Lipman is the recipient of a Kovner Fellowship at The Juilliard School, where he serves as a teaching assistant to Heidi Castleman. He has also studied with Steven Tenenbom, Misha Amory, and Roland Vamos, and performs on a 1700 Matteo Goffriller viola from the REB foundation.

Fall 2015—Winter 2016

WATCH LIVE Enjoy a front row seat from anywhere in the world. View chamber music events streamed live to your computer or mobile device, and available for streaming on demand for the following 24 hours. Relax, browse the program, and experience the Chamber Music Society like never before.

11/19/15 9:00 PM Late Night Rose 11/20/15 11:00 AM Master Class with Torleif Thedéen 1/14/16 9:00 PM Late Night Rose 1/21/16 7:30 PM Art of the Recital: David Shifrin & Gloria Chien 1/28/16 7:30 PM The Bartók Cycle: Part I 2/4/16 7:30 PM The Bartók Cycle: Part II 2/10/16 6:30 PM Inside Chamber Music 2/11/16 7:30 PM New Music in the Kaplan Penthouse 2/17/16 6:30 PM Inside Chamber Music 2/18/16 11:00 AM Master Class with the Escher String Quartet 2/24/16 6:30 PM Inside Chamber Music 2/25/16 7:30 PM Art of the Recital: Anne-Marie McDermott

All events are free to watch.

View full program details online. www.ChamberMusicSociety.org/WatchLive

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Hear more from CMS this season

upcoming

EVENTS

LATE NIGHT ROSE

Thursday, November 19, 9:00 PM • Daniel and Joanna S. Rose Studio Featuring works by Mozart and Fauré, with guest host Fred Child.

This event will also be streamed live at www.ChamberMusicSociety.org/watchlive

MASTER CLASS WITH TORLEIF THEDÉEN, CELLO

Friday, November 20, 11:00 AM • Daniel and Joanna S. Rose Studio The art of interpretation and details of technique are explained as master artists share their wisdom with the next generation of chamber musicians.

This event will also be streamed live at www.ChamberMusicSociety.org/watchlive

NIGHTS IN VIENNA WITH GILBERT KALISH

Sunday, November 22, 5:00 PM • Alice Tully Hall Gilbert Kalish, one of the greatest pianists of our time, leads a cast of formidable CMS artists in a program spanning three centuries of music in Vienna.