Ginastera String Quartet Cycle - April 7, 2016

David Finckel and Wu Han, Artistic Directors

THE GINASTERA STRING QUARTET CYCLE Thursday Evening, April 7, 2016 at 7:30 Daniel and Joanna S. Rose Studio 3,563rd Concert

MIRÓ QUARTET DANIEL CHING, violin WILLIAM FEDKENHEUER, violin JOHN LARGESS, viola JOSHUA GINDELE, cello KIERA DUFFY, soprano

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 expresses its deepest gratitude to Mrs. Robert Schuur for her extraordinary leadership support of String Quartet Cycles in the Rose.

This concert is made possible, in part, by The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, the Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Thanks to Millbrook Vineyards & Winery, official wine sponsor of Rose Studio Concerts.

THE GINASTERA STRING QUARTET CYCLE Thursday Evening, April 7, 2016 at 7:30 MIRÓ QUARTET DANIEL CHING, violin WILLIAM FEDKENHEUER, violin JOHN LARGESS, viola JOSHUA GINDELE, cello KIERA DUFFY, soprano

ALBERTO GINASTERA

(1916-1983)

Quartet No. 1 for Strings, Op. 20 (1948) Allegro violento ed agitato Vivacissimo Calmo e poetico Allegramente rustico

GINASTERA

Quartet No . 3 for Strings with Soprano, Op. 40 (1973, rev. 1978) Contemplativo Fantastico Amoroso Drammatico Di nuovo contemplativo

—Intermission— GINASTERA

Quartet No. 2 for Strings, Op. 26 (1958, rev. 1968) Allegro rustico Adagio angoscioso Presto magico Tema libero e rapsodico Furioso

This evening's event is being streamed live at www.ChamberMusicSociety.org/WatchLive Photographing, sound recording, or videotaping this performance is prohibited.

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

TEXTS and TRANSLATIONS Quartet No. 3 for Strings with Soprano, Op. 40 La Música (First movement: Contemplativo) En la noche tranquila, eres el agua, melodía pura, que tienes frescas—como nardos en un vaso insondable—las estrellas.

In the tranquil night, You are the rain, pure melody, keeping the stars alive— Like lilies in a fathomless vase.

De pronto, surtidor de un pecho que se parte, el chorro apasionado rompe la sombra—como una mujer que abriera los balcones sollozando, desnuda, a las estrellas, con afán de un morirse sin causa, que fuera loca vida immensa.

Suddenly, like the flowing from a heart that breaks, the passionate outburst shatters the darkness— like a woman who might sobbingly open the balcony wide to the stars in her nakedness, with eagerness to die without a reason, which might be but a mad abundant life.

¡El pecho de la música! ¡Cómo vence la sombra mostruosa!

The strength of music!

How it vanquishes the monstrous darkness!

El pecho de la música! ¡Redoma de pureza májica; sonora, grata lágrima; bella luna negra— todo, como agua eterna entre la sombra humana; luz secreta por márjenes de luto—; con un misterio que nos parece ¡ay! de amor!

The strength of music!

Vial of magic purity; sonorous, grateful weeping; lovely black moon— all, like rain eternal within human darkness; secret light along margins of mourning—; with mystery which seems, Oh, to be love!

¡La música;— mujer desnuda, corriendo loca por la noche pura!—

Music;— woman unclad, crazily running through the spotless night!

-Juan Ramón Jiménez

(Second movement: Fantastico)

Cancíon de Belisa (Third movement: Amoroso) Amor, amor.

Entre mis muslos cerrados, nada como un pez el sol.

Agua tibia entre los juncos, Amor. ¡Gallo, que se va la noche! ¡Que no se vaya, no!

Love, love.

Between my secret thighs, the sun swims like a fish.

Warm water through the rushes, Love.

Cock crow and the night is fleeing!

Do not let it go, Oh no!

-Federico García Lorca

Morir al sol (Fourth movement: Drammatico) Yace el soldado. El bosque baja a llorar por el cada mañana.

The soldier lies supine. The woods Come down to weep for him each morning’s dawn.

Yace el soldato. Vino a preguntar por él un arroyuelo.

The soldier lies supine. A little brook Came down to ask for him.

Morir al sol, morir, viéndolo arriba, cortado el resplandor en los cristales rotos de una ventana sola, temeroso su marco de encuadrar una frente abatida, unos ojos espantados, un grito...

To die under the sun, to die Seeing it above, Its splendor broken Through the shattered panes Of a single window Whose sill is fearful Of framing a sorrow-stricken Brow, eyes full of Dread, a cry...

Morir, morir, morir, bello morir cayendo el cuerpo en tierra, como un durazno ya dulce, maduro, necesario...

To die, to die, to die, Beautiful dying, the body Falling to earth, like A fully ripe peach, Sweet, needed...

Yace el soldato. Un perro solo ladra por él furiosamente.

The soldier lies supine. Only a dog Barks furiously for him.

-Rafael Alberti

Ocaso (Fifth movement: Di nuovo contemplativo) ¡Oh, qué sonido de oro que se va, de oro que ya se va a la eternidad; qué triste nuestro oído, de escuchar ese oro que se va a la eternidad, este silencio que se va a quedar sin su oro que se va a la eternidad!

Oh what a sound of gold will now remain, Of gold that’s going to eternity; How sad is our listening as we strain To hear the gold that goes to eternity This silence that is going to remain Without its gold that goes to eternity!

-Juan Ramón Jiménez

-Translations by Eloise Roach

notes on the

PROGRAM

Alberto Ginastera is the one of the most important and original South American composers of the 20th century, and his quartets have had an important influence on the Miró Quartet from our very beginning. As young players we immediately identified with the visceral, fantastic, and colorful style of his music, so much so that our very first few seasons together we reveled in playing the Quartet No. 2 as much as we could, even placing it on our winners program for the 1998 Banff International String Quartet Competition. Now almost two decades later, we still find it impossible not to be seduced by the intense energy and emotionality of these pieces. To us, these quartets seem to express the true, authentic voice of the Americas in all its mystery.

All three of Ginastera's quartets are an irresistible fusion of ancient symbol with modern expressionism, morphing the rustic rhythms and textures of traditional Argentine folk music into an obsessive modernist style. The fast movements have a pounding, exhilarating energy; the scherzos weave diaphanous nocturnal textures, creating an almost hallucinatory quality; the slow movements seem to speak directly to the listener with ancient voices, while simultaneously evoking a deeply tense lyricism that is distinctly Latino.

Each quartet is imbued with the meditative quiet of the pampas, the rough physicality of the gaucho, and the ultimately cryptic nature of the Argentine landscape itself.

The Ginastera String Quartet Cycle is a sonic ritual representing the closest classical music gets to embodying the spirit of Magical Realism (as exemplified in Latin American literature by such great authors as Gabriel García Márquez).

This is music of the body: it screams of sex, blood, passion... this is music of the subconscious: it is saturated with dreams, desires, visions... this is music of the universe: it speaks of mystery, magic, and the ultimate silence at the heart of all things.

To play these pieces is to be drawn into an ecstatic, even tortured relationship with the music; every performance we give seems to push us to a new and intoxicating peak leaving us and the audience inevitably drained and spent.

- John Largess

about

ALBERTO GINASTERA

Alberto Ginastera, Argentina’s most famous and widely performed composer, was the outstanding creative figure in South American music following the death of VillaLobos in 1959. Ginastera’s career was divided between composition and education, and in the latter capacity he held posts at leading conservatories and universities in Argentina and at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. His musical works, many written on American commissions, include three operas, two ballets, six concertos, eleven film scores, eight orchestral works, various vocal and choral compositions, and much music for chamber ensembles and piano. Ginastera traveled extensively to oversee the presentation of his scores and to adjudicate major musical competitions, and for his contributions to music he was honored with many awards, including memberships in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Ginastera divided his works into two stylistic categories. The first (“Nationalism”) includes his music before the mid-1950s, which displays overt influences of Argentine musical traits and themes. He modeled the rhythms and melodies of these works on the folksongs and dances known as musica criolla, though he seldom used literal quotations. This nationalistic music is imbued with the symbolism of the indigenous peoples, the pampas, and the gauchesco tradition, for which he became the leading musical spokesperson. Ginastera’s second style (“Neo-Expressionism”) began around 1958 and encompassed most of his later compositions, works characterized by such modernist devices as polytonality, serial writing, use of quarter-tones and other micro intervals, and an extension of instrumental resources. All of this technical jargon might sound rather imposing, but these techniques lend the music a power of expression reinforced by expert craftsmanship that is always tantalizing to the ear and cogent in its expression. Ginastera’s later works bear a strong affinity with the expressionism of Schoenberg and Berg, which was itself an extension of the great European Classical-Romantic tradition. Ginastera’s compositions mark him as one of the most important members of the international community of composers and demonstrate the manner in which he was able to combine the melodic and rhythmic resources of the folk music of his native Argentina with the compositional idioms of the great modern masters. His three string quartets, composed throughout his career, summarize both his creative personality and his stylistic evolution. 

Quartet No. 1 for Strings, Op. 20 Alberto GINASTERA Born April 11, 1916 in Buenos Aires.

Died June 25, 1983 in Geneva.

Composed in 1948.

Premiered on October 14, 1949 in Buenos Aires.

First CMS performance on February 20, 2002.

Duration: 21 minutes Ginastera stated that the Quartet No. 1 of 1948 was the seminal work in his “nationalistic” idiom. “It contains rhythms and melodic motifs of the music of the Pampa,” he explained, and later told of the effect that the vast grassy plains of the Argentinean interior had on him: “Every time I have gone across the Pampa or when I spent a season there, my mind was invaded by different and changing impressions, gay or melancholy, full of euphoria or calmness, produced probably by the Pampa’s unlimited immensity and by the transforming aspects of the country during the course of the day. The same feelings, aroused by the contemplation of ‘that immensity,’ as Hernandez calls the Pampa in Martín Fierro, have been perceived also by painters like Pedro Figari or writers like Richardo Güiraldes. The latter in Don Domingo Sombra says: ‘Over the earth, suddenly darkened, a huge sun appeared and I felt as an exultant man full of life’s happiness’; and when he speaks of the night’s mystery and tranquility, he says:

‘I exhaled deeply the breath of the sleepy fields. The dark night was serene, enlivened by lights bright as the sparkles of a noisy fire.’ And further on, he writes: ‘Above us the starry sky seemed an immense eye full of the dreams’ bright sands.’” These are the impressions that Ginastera sought to capture in his First Quartet.

The opening movement (“violent and agitated,” according to the score), whose form suggests traditional sonata structure, is written in the dynamic style that Ginastera used to evoke the image of the virile cowboys of the Pampa, the gauchos. A forceful underpinning, sometimes suggesting the strumming of a guitar, urges the music inexorably forward, and serves as the platform upon which the dynamic, rhythmically shifting themes are placed. The febrile second movement, the quartet’s scherzo, grows from the tradition of the malambo, the frenzied dance at which gauchos display their prowess for hours on end. The third movement (“calm and poetic”), the expressive heart of the quartet, is a shimmering, mysterious, nearly motionless depiction of the starry night of the Pampas. The finale, brilliant and festive, is based on two themes given in rondo-like alternation (A–B–A–B–A): the first is vigorous and reminiscent of the gaucho dance of the first movement; the second is more relaxed in its rhythmic drive and more delicate in its expression. 

Quartet No. 3 for Strings with Soprano, Op. 40 Alberto GINASTERA Composed in 1973, revised in 1978.

Premiered on February 4, 1974 in Dallas by Benita Valente and the Juilliard String Quartet.

Tonight is the first CMS performance of this piece.

Duration: 26 minutes The composer supplied the following information about his String Quartet No. 3 for the premiere performance given by soprano Benita Valente and the Juilliard Quartet at Caruth Auditorium in Dallas on February 4, 1974: “I wrote my Third String Quartet, commissioned by the Dallas Public Library and the Dallas Chamber Music Society, in Geneva (Switzerland) during 1973. The work is dedicated to the memory of John Rosenfield, music critic of the Dallas Morning News (1900-66).

“I was always fascinated by Schoenberg’s imagination when he included a vocal part in his Second Quartet, not as a soloist with accompaniment, but as a component part of a musical event.

The commission to compose a work of chamber music thus afforded me the opportunity of creating a work in that same style.

“The quartet consists of five movements, with the soprano part added to four of them. The second movement is purely instrumental. The poems were written by three famous contemporary Spanish poets: Juan Ramón Jiménez, Federico García Lorca, and Rafael Alberti; the last

poet is my friend from the times when he lived in Buenos Aires.

“The subject of the first movement (Contemplativo), with a series of poems

by Juan Ramón Jiménez, is music itself.

The movement is written in a juxtaposed form in which purely instrumental parts and vocal parts follow one another, as if the instrumental sections were preludes to the soprano’s verses.

“The second movement (Fantastico) is purely instrumental, and takes the place of the traditional scherzo. It consists of two main parts and a coda. The two principal parts are each divided into three smaller sections: Introduction, Development, and First Climax in the first; Transition, Second Climax, and Désinence [‘ending’] in the second.

The coda provides a synthesis of all the sections. Strange sounds and contrasting atmospheres characterize this movement, which develops in a hallucinatory climate.

“García Lorca’s poem in the third movement (Amoroso), which corresponds to the Classical Adagio, sings of sensual love. Musically, the movement follows a tripartite form, with the voice appearing in the last section.

“The fourth movement (Drammatico) presents, in the poems of Rafael Alberti, the frightening vision of war personified by a dead soldier. This movement, of a violent and anxious nature, is formed by the alternation of two different themes.

“The last movement (Di nuovo contemplativo), based on the poem

Ocaso (Sunset) by Juan Ramón Jiménez, returns to the poetic mood of the first movement with a strain of nostalgia that ‘goes toward eternity.’ The finale corresponds to a coda of the entire quartet, with which the formal cycle of the work concludes.

“In the Third String Quartet, I have made use of a technique based on the interplay of fixed and variable structures, and on the creation and organization of space wherein develop infinite phenomena— and corresponding resonance—of the ever-changing universe of sound.” 

Quartet No. 2 for Strings, Op. 26 Alberto GINASTERA Composed in 1958, revised in 1968.

Premiered on April 19, 1958 in Washington, D.C. by the Juilliard String Quartet at the First Inter-American Music Festival.

Tonight is the first CMS performance of this piece.

Duration: 27 minutes Mrs. Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge exerted a profound and continuing influence on chamber music in both America and Europe. Elizabeth Sprague was born into a wealthy family in Chicago in 1864, studied piano and composition, married the physician Frederic Coolidge, and suffered his death and those of her parents when she was still a young woman. Instead of retreating from life, however, she dedicated herself and her considerable inheritances to the promotion of chamber music, commissioning important works from Ravel, Britten, Copland, Barber, Roussel, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Respighi, Prokofiev, Bartók, and many other outstanding composers, underwriting concerts on two continents, encouraging musical scholarship in the field, and establishing a foundation at the Library of Congress

to build an auditorium there (which bears her name in perpetuity) and to carry on her life’s work after her death in 1953. In 1958, the Coolidge Foundation commissioned Alberto Ginastera to write a string quartet for the First InterAmerican Music Festival, produced by the Organization of American States to promote understanding and artistic interchange among the countries of North and South America. The festival included five concerts of orchestral and chamber music in Washington, DC, between April 18 and 20, 1958; the Juilliard String Quartet premiered Ginastera’s Quartet No. 2 at the Coolidge Auditorium in the Library of Congress on the morning of April 19th.

The Quartet No. 2, uncompromising in style and deeply affecting in expression, solidified the modernist idiom that Ginastera was adopting during that time. Bartók was an important influence on him in that transition, and the work reflects the symmetrical five-movement “arch form” of the Fourth and Fifth Quartets, as well as such techniques as pizzicato glissandos, microtones, sul ponticello (i.e., the glassy effect produced by playing at the bridge), and col legno (i.e., tapping the string “with the wood” of the bow). The first movement—Allegro rustico, “rustic”

in the obvious translation, but closer to “rough” or even “primitive” in musical effect—opens with repeated hammered (nearly) unison notes exuding a visceral power that seems out of proportion for an ensemble of just four instruments. What evolves from this strident beginning, however, is a structure of Mozartian clarity: the second theme is quiet, lyrical, spare in texture, deliberate in motion, and grieving in mood; the development treats just the main theme, and the recapitulation contains compressed versions of the (nearly) unison opening measures and the ascetic second theme.

The coda is based on the hammered notes played, according to the score, violento.

The second movement is based on an austere theme begun by the viola and taken up in turn by the other instruments. The arc of the music’s emotional progress can be followed from the score’s markings: Adagio angoscioso (Slow, anguished)— Crescendo poco a poco (Louder little by little)—Sempre crescendo (Constantly louder)—Movendo il tempo (Increase the tempo)—Con molto passione (With much passion)—Tutta la forza, disperato (With all possible force, desperately)— Rallentando (Slowing down)—Morendo (Dying away)—Dolente (Sorrowful)— Niente (Nothing).

The Presto magico, the quartet’s scherzo and formal center, is Ginastera’s analog of the “night music” Bartók often favored for such movements. It is built around

the returns of the opening music, which is heard initially in dispersed fragments, quiet and weirdly orchestrated, and brought back in a more continuous form and at the close in an abbreviated, firefly version. Separating these reprises are two episodes, the first mysterious with its hovering, glassy sustained notes and the second, sharp and aggressive.

The fourth movement (Libero e rapsodico [Free and rhapsodically]) is a theme and variations in the form of a series of cadenzas: the first violin announces the theme, with its eerie microtonal inflections; the cello presents its variation as a soliloquy; the second violin treats the theme in an aggressive, cross-string version forcefully punctuated by the unison ensemble; and the viola closes with its introspective monologue, which quotes a phrase from Ginastera’s Cinco Canciones Populares Argentinas of 1943: Sad the day without sun. Sad the night without moon.

The finale is a relentlessly furious moto perpetuo that several times refers back to its opening gesture. With its ferocious rhythm, its disembodied fragments of folk-like melody, and its brutalist harmony, the movement is something of an Argentinean chamber counterpart of the sacrificial scene of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, a quality inherent in the score’s final performance exhortation: selvaggio—wild, primitive, savage. 

©2016 Dr. Richard E. Rodda

meet tonight’s

ARTISTS

The Miró Quartet—an Austin, Texas-based string quartet whose moniker was inspired by the highly imaginative works of Spanish surrealist Joan Miró—is one of America’s highest-profile chamber groups. Now in its 20th year, the quartet is constantly praised for its deeply musical interpretations, exciting performances, and thoughtful programming. Each season, the Miró Quartet performs throughout the world on the most important chamber music series and on the most prestigious concert stages, garnering accolades from critics and audiences alike.

The Miró’s concert highlights of recent seasons include a highly anticipated and sold out return to Carnegie Hall to perform Beethoven’s complete Op. 59 Quartets (which it also recorded) as well as the Saratoga Performing Arts Center as part of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s inaugural residency; the world premiere of a new concerto for string quartet and orchestra by Pulitzer Prize winning composer Kevin Puts; the performances of the complete Beethoven Cycle at the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival and Tokyo’s Suntory Hall; and debuts last season in Seoul, Singapore, and the Hong Kong International Chamber Music Festival.

During its 2015-16 season, the quartet returned to the Chamber Music Society performing the complete cycle of Beethoven's Op. 59 quartets in Alice Tully Hall; the quartet will also perform at its birthplace, the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio. With concerts in Philadelphia, Phoenix, and throughout Florida, Texas, and the Midwest, this busy season also includes a complete Late Schubert Quartet Cycle for the prestigious Slee Series in Buffalo, New York.

A favorite of summer chamber music festivals, the Miró Quartet has recently performed at the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, La Jolla Summerfest, Chamber Music Northwest, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and Music@ Menlo. The Miró Quartet regularly collaborates with pianist Jon Kimura Parker, percussionist Colin Currie, and mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke.

A former member of CMS Two, the Miró Quartet took first prize at several national and international competitions including Banff International String Quartet Competition and Naumburg Chamber Music Competition. Deeply committed to music education, members of the quartet have given master classes at universities and conservatories throughout the world. Since 2003, the Miró Quartet has served as the quartet-in-residence at the University of Texas at Austin Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music. In 2005, the quartet became the first ensemble ever to be awarded the coveted Avery Fisher Career Grant.

September 2015 saw the quartet’s 20th anniversary and the release of its Emmy award-winning multi-media project Transcendence. A work with visual and audio appeal available by live stream, CD, and Blu-ray, Transcendence encompasses

philanthropy, documentary filmmaking, and the Miró’s riveting performance of Franz Schubert’s Quartet in G major on rare Stradivarius instruments, while encouraging classical music enjoyment for all.

American soprano Kiera Duffy is recognized for both her gleaming high soprano and insightful musicianship in repertoire that ranges from Handel, Bach, and Mozart to the modern sounds of Berg, Glass, and Carter. This season she debuts with the Bergen Philharmonic in Mozart’s Mass in C minor with Nathalie Stutzmann conducting, after singing the same work with Jacksonville Symphony.

She sings the role of Euridice in Gluck ’s Orfeo ed Euridice as part of Anthony Roth Costanzo’s “Orphic Moments” production at the National Sawdust in Brooklyn.

Following her debut with Houston Symphony in Fauré’s Requiem in May, she will debut at the Mostly Mozart Festival in Netia Jones’ “Illuminated Heart: Selections from Mozart's Operas. ” She has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, London Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, and the National Symphony, in addition to the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opera Philadelphia, and Opera Theatre of St. Louis. Her performances of modern and contemporary music are highly regarded, as are her interpretations of the Baroque repertoire.

Her growing discography includes Richard Strauss: The Complete Songs, Volume 5 with pianist Roger Vignoles (Hyperion), Carmina Burana with the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk Orchestra (Sony), and Mahler's Eighth Symphony with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel (Deutsche Grammophon). She is featured in the documentary The Audition (Decca), which chronicles her experience as a Grand Finalist in the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Audition.

Spring 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.

4/28/16 7:30 PM New Music in the Kaplan Penthouse 5/5/16 7:30 PM Art of the Recital: Benjamin Beilman & Yekwon Sunwoo 5/19/16 7:30 PM The Kirchner String Quartet Cycle 5/26/16 11:00 AM Young Ensembles Concert

All events are free to watch.

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

Join us April 14 at 11:00 AM for the 33rd Annual Young Musicians Concert, featuring outstanding high school ensembles from the Tri-State area.

Reserve your free ticket today!

Call 212-875-5788

Join in on the #chambermusic conversation

Facebook | @chambermusicsociety Twitter | @chambermusic Instagram | @chambermusicsociety YouTube | @chambermusicsociety

Like. Friend. Follow.

Hear more from CMS this season

upcoming

EVENTS

BEETHOVEN, DOHNÁNYI, & DVOŘÁK

Friday, April 15, 7:30 PM • Alice Tully Hall Dvořák's magisterial piano quartet is heard in the company of composers whose cultures influenced his own rich output.

AMERICAN VISIONS

Tuesday, April 19, 7:30 PM, 7:30 PM • Alice Tully Hall Each composer on this program skillfully incorporated aspects of American popular or folk music into their work, from patriotic tunes to familiar melodies.

THE ROMANTIC VIOLA WITH PAUL NEUBAUER

Sunday, April 24, 5:00 PM • Alice Tully Hall The irresistible resonance of the viola is revealed in a set of extraordinary works collected by the incomparable violist Paul Neubauer.