David Finckel and Wu Han, Artistic Directors
ROSE STUDIO CONCERT Thursday Evening, January 15, 2015 at 6:30 Daniel and Joanna S. Rose Studio 3,385th Concert
GLORIA CHIEN, piano ARETA ZHULLA, violin MARK HOLLOWAY, viola TIMOTHY EDDY, cello ROMIE DE GUISE-LANGLOIS, clarinet
45th Anniversary 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, January 15, 2015 at 6:30 GLORIA CHIEN, piano ARETA ZHULLA, violin MARK HOLLOWAY, viola TIMOTHY EDDY, cello ROMIE DE GUISE-LANGLOIS, clarinet
BERNHARD HENRIK Quartet in E-flat major for Clarinet, Violin, CRUSELL Viola, and Cello, Op. 2 (c. 1807)
(1775-1838) Poco adagio—Allegro Romanze: Cantabile Menuetto: Allegro Rondo: Allegro vivace DE GUISE-LANGLOIS, ZHULLA, HOLLOWAY, EDDY
FELIX Trio No. 2 in C minor for Piano, Violin, MENDELSSOHN and Cello, Op. 66 (1845) (1809-1847) Allegro energico e con fuoco Andante espressivo Scherzo: Molto allegro, quasi presto Finale: Allegro appassionato CHIEN, ZHULLA, EDDY
Please turn off cell phones, pagers, and other electronic devices. Photographing, sound recording, or videotaping this performance is prohibited.
notes on the
PROGRAM
Quartet in E-flat major for Clarinet, Violin, Viola, and Cello, Op. 2 Bernhard Henrik CRUSELL Born October 15, 1775 in Uusikaupunki, Finland. Died July 28, 1838 in Stockholm, Sweden. Composed around 1807. Tonight is the first CMS performance of this piece. Duration: 22 minutes Bernhard Henrik Crusell was born in 1775 in Uusikaupunki, north of Turku, then the capital city of Finland, a province of Sweden since the 12th century. Crusell’s father, a poor bookbinder, soon moved the family to Nurmijärvi, north of Helsinki (Sibelius would spent the last half-century of his life in a house a few miles east in Järvenpää, today a museum), and there young Bernhard received his first musical instruction from a clarinet player at the local Swedish garrison. In 1788, Crusell became a volunteer musician in the military band at the imposing island fortress guarding Helsinki harbor called Sveaborg (“Swedish Fort,” now beloved by the Finns as Suomenlinna—“Finnish Fort”). The opportunities for musical advancement in Finland were limited at that time almost entirely to church, military, and a few positions at the Swedish court in Turku (the first public concerts in Finland had been given by an amateur orchestral society in Turku as recently as 1773), so Crusell followed his regimental band to Stockholm when it was transferred there in 1791. He took lessons with the composer and noted
pedagogue Abt Vogler (later the teacher of Meyerbeer and Weber), and in 1793 landed the job as principal clarinetist of the court orchestra, a post he occupied for the next 40 years. Crusell traveled widely to further his career, taking lessons in Berlin with clarinetist Franz Tausch (regarded as the founder of the German playing style), studying composition in Paris with FrançoisJoseph Gossec (a pioneering French symphonist and the leading composer of the Revolution) and Henri-Montan Berton (a founding faculty member of the Paris Conservatoire), negotiating a publishing contract in Leipzig, and performing across northern Europe. His only return to his native Finland was for a concert in 1801. In addition his clarinet playing, which was noted for its lyricism and beautiful tone, Crusell was also a skilled composer, music director for two regiments of Royal Swedish Grenadiers from 1818 until 1837, and a brilliant linguist who translated French, German, and Italian operas for the Swedish stage. For his contributions to Swedish culture, he was awarded the Swedish Academy’s Gold Medal, inducted into the Wasa Order, and elected a member of the Geatish League, the country’s leading literary circle. He died in Stockholm in 1838. Crusell’s E-flat major Quartet for Clarinet and Strings, composed around 1807, was probably written for his performances at the Stockholm court with his colleagues in the Royal Orchestra or even for private salons; the work succeeded well enough
that he wrote two sequels to it during the next decade. The composition is a congenial blending of wind and string sonorities, with the clarinet providing the leading voice in the ensemble without overwhelming its partners. It opens with a slow introduction for strings alone that proves to be an effective foil for the ingratiating main theme presented by the clarinet in quicker tempo to begin movement’s sonata form. The second theme, also initiated by the clarinet, provides a pleasing complement with its nimble upward leaps and decorative turn figures. The development section extracts a certain amount of drama from elements of the main theme before a
condensed recapitulation of the earlier materials rounds out the movement. The Romanze follows a three-part form (A–B–A), with the clarinet leading a halcyon melody in the outer sections and the violin providing a sweet, arching strain to begin the central episode. The Menuetto, an old-fashioned musical species in 1807 that reflects the conservative Swedish taste of the day, is an extroverted, lilting affair that is nicely balanced by the charming trio at the movement’s center. The finale is a rondo that takes as its returning theme the snappy tune given by the clarinet at the outset.
Trio No. 2 in C minor for Piano, Violin, and Cello, Op. 66 Felix MENDELSSOHN Born February 3, 1809 in Hamburg, Germany. Died November 4, 1847 in Leipzig, Germany. Composed in 1845. First CMS performance on September 14, 1969. Duration: 29 minutes The most intensely busy time of Mendelssohn’s life was ushered in by his appointment in 1835 as the administrator, music director, and conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus concerts. In very short order, he raised the quality of musical life in Leipzig to equal that of any city in Europe, and in 1842 he founded the local Conservatory to maintain his standards of excellence. (The school was to be the most highly
regarded institution of its kind in the world for the next half century.) In 1841, he was named director of the Music Section of the Academy of Arts in Berlin, a cultural venture newly instituted by King Frederick William IV of Prussia, which required him not only to supervise and conduct a wide variety of programs but also to compose upon royal demand—the incidental music that complements his dazzling 1826 Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream was written to fulfill one of Frederick’s requests. Mendelssohn toured, guest conducted, and composed incessantly, and on March 28, 1837 he took on the additional responsibilities of family life when he married Cécile Jeanrenaud. Mendelssohn won a brief hiatus from the press of his accumulating duties when he took a leave of absence from
his post at the Gewandhaus during the 1844-45 season. Before his sabbatical began, he had to fulfill engagements as conductor and piano soloist in London and Germany, but by the beginning of 1845 he had finally managed to clear his schedule sufficiently to devote himself to composition. He made significant progress on Elijah, scheduled for its premiere at the Birmingham Festival the following year, and completed the String Quintet in B-flat major (Op. 87) and the C minor Piano Trio (Op. 66). In the autumn, the King of Saxony convinced him to return to his post at the Gewandhaus. His frantic pace of life was reactivated; he was dead within two years. Except for the F minor String Quartet (Op. 80), the C minor Trio was the last important chamber work of Mendelssohn’s career. In his study of the chamber music, John Horton noted of the opening movement of the C minor Trio, “Mendelssohn never wrote a stronger sonata-form allegro.” The urgent rising-and-falling phrases of the main theme, announced by the piano, generate a subsequent arch-shaped melody for the violin, which is given above the keyboard’s restless accompaniment. A sweeping
subject sung in duet by violin and cello in a brighter tonality serves as the second theme. These motives are elaborated with immense skill and deep emotion as the movement unfolds. The following Andante is an extended song-withoutwords in which the piano often serves as interlocutor for the tandem flights of the strings. The movement is laid out in a smoothly flowing three-part form whose middle section is marked by a heightened animation and a sense of adventurous harmonic peregrination. The gossamer Scherzo is musical featherstitching such as has never been as well accomplished by any other composer—Mendelssohn is simply incomparable in evoking this elfin world of nocturnal wisps and fairy wonder. The Finale is built from two contrasting thematic elements: a vivacious principal subject launched by a leaping interval from the cello and a broad chorale melody introduced in a chordal setting by the piano. The main theme returns for a vigorous working-out before the chorale melody, traced by Eric Werner in his biography of Mendelssohn to the hymn Vor Deinem Thron (Before Your Throne) from the Geneva Psalter of 1551, is summoned in a grand, nearly orchestral guise to cap this masterwork of Mendelssohn’s fullest maturity. ©2015 Dr. Richard E. Rodda
meet tonight’s
ARTISTS
Chosen by the Boston Globe as one of the Superior Pianists of the Year and described by that newspaper as one “… who appears to excel in everything,” pianist Gloria Chien made her orchestral debut at the age of 16 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Since then she has appeared as a soloist under the batons of Sergiu Comissiona, Keith Lockhart, Thomas Dausgaard, and Irwin Hoffman. She has presented recitals at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Jordan Hall, Harvard Musical Association, Caramoor Music Festival, Verbier Festival, Salle Cortot in Paris, and the National Concert Hall in Taiwan. An avid chamber musician, she has been the resident pianist with the Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston since 2000. She has recorded for Chandos Records, and recently released a CD with clarinetist Anthony McGill. In 2009 she launched String Theory, a chamber music series at the Hunter Museum of American Art in downtown Chattanooga, as its founder and artistic director, and the following year she was appointed director of the Chamber Music Institute at the Music@Menlo festival. A native of Taiwan, Ms. Chien is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, where she was a student of Russell Sherman and Wha-Kyung Byun. She is an associate professor at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee, a member of Chamber Music Society Two, and a Steinway Artist. Praised as “extraordinary” and “a formidable clarinetist” by the New York Times, Romie de Guise-Langlois has appeared as soloist with the Houston Symphony, Ensemble ACJW, the Burlington Chamber Orchestra, the Yale Philharmonia, and McGill University Symphony Orchestra, and at Music@Menlo and Banff Centre for the Arts. She is a winner of the 2011 Astral Artists’ National Auditions and was awarded first prize in the 2009 Houston Symphony Ima Hogg competition, the Woolsey Hall Competition at Yale University, the McGill University Classical Concerto Competition, and the Canadian Music Competition. An avid chamber musician, she has toured with Musicians from Marlboro and has appeared at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Philadelphia and Boston Chamber Music Societies, 92nd Street Y, the Kennedy Center, and Chamber Music Northwest, among many others. She has performed as principal clarinetist for the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the New Haven and Stamford Symphony Orchestras, and The Knights Chamber Orchestra. A native of Montreal, Ms. de Guise-Langlois earned degrees from McGill University and the Yale School of Music, where she studied under David Shifrin. She is an alumnus of Ensemble ACJW, a member of Chamber Music Society Two, and is currently on the faculty of Montclair State University.
Cellist Timothy Eddy has earned distinction as a recitalist, soloist with orchestra, chamber musician, recording artist, and teacher of cello and chamber music. He has performed with the Dallas, Colorado, Jacksonville, North Carolina, and Stamford symphonies, and has appeared at the Mostly Mozart, Ravinia, Aspen, Santa Fe, Marlboro, Lockenhaus, Spoleto, and Sarasota music festivals. He has also won prizes in numerous national and international competitions, including the 1975 Gaspar Cassado International Violoncello Competition in Italy. He is a member of the Orion String Quartet, which recently recorded the complete Beethoven string quartets for the Koch label. A former member of the Galimir Quartet, the New York Philomusica, and the Bach Aria Group, Mr. Eddy collaborates regularly in recital with pianist Gilbert Kalish. A frequent performer of the works of Bach, he recently presented the complete six cello suites of Bach in two consecutive days at Colorado's Boulder Bach Festival and Vermont's Brattleboro Music Center. He has recorded a wide range of repertoire from Baroque to avant-garde for the Angel, Arabesque, Columbia, CRI, Delos, Musical Heritage, New World, Nonesuch, Vanguard, Vox, and SONY Classical labels. He is currently professor of cello at The Juilliard School and Mannes College of Music, and he was frequently a faculty member at the Isaac Stern Chamber Music Workshops at Carnegie Hall. Mr. Eddy plays a Matteo Goffriller cello (1728). Violist Mark Holloway is a chamber musician sought after in the United States and abroad. He has appeared at prestigious festivals such as Marlboro, Music@Menlo, Ravinia, Caramoor, Banff, Cartagena, Taos, Music from Angel Fire, Mainly Mozart, Music at Plush, and the Boston Chamber Music Society. Performances have taken him to far-flung places such as Chile and Greenland, and he plays regularly at chamber music festivals in France and Switzerland, and at the International Musicians Seminar in Prussia Cove, England. Around New York City, he frequently appears as a guest with the New York Philharmonic and Orpheus. Mr. Holloway has been principal violist at Tanglewood and of the New York String Orchestra, and has played as guest principal of the American Symphony, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Camerata Bern, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. He has performed at Bargemusic, the 92nd Street Y, the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico, and on radio and television throughout North and South America, and Europe, most recently a Live From Lincoln Center broadcast. Hailed as an “outstanding violist” by American Record Guide, and praised by Zürich's Neue Zürcher Zeitung for his “warmth and intimacy,” he has recorded for the Marlboro Recording Society, CMS Live, Music@Menlo LIVE, Naxos, and Albany labels. A former member of Chamber Music Society Two, Mr. Holloway was a student of Michael Tree at The Curtis Institute of Music and received his bachelor’s degree from Boston University. Praised for her “rare emotional sensitivity and internal articulation,” violinist Areta Zhulla is quickly establishing herself as a passionate and dynamic artist. She was recently named “Young Artist of the Year” by the National Critics Association of Music and Drama in Greece, and is a recipient of the Triandi Career Grant as well as the Tassos Prassopoulos Foundation Award. She has appeared as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician throughout the United States, Europe, Canada, and Asia, at
many renowned venues such as Carnegie Hall, Auditorium du Louvre, Alice Tully Hall, Kennedy Center, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Megaron Hall, and National Arts Centre of Canada. An avid chamber musician, she is a member of CMS Two, where she performs regularly with some of today’s most acclaimed artists. She also appears frequently as a guest artist with the Jupiter Chamber Players and the Ronen Chamber Ensemble. She has performed with legendary violinist Itzhak Perlman at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and collaborated with Pinchas Zukerman, Orli Shaham, Gilbert Kalish, Colin Carr, and the Cavani String Quartet. Ms. Zhulla holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School, where she studied with Itzhak Perlman and Catherine Cho. Other teachers include Pinchas Zukerman, Patinka Kopec, and Lefter Zhulla. She performs on a 1752 Tommaso Balestrieri violin, on generous loan by Howard L. Gottlieb.
THE AMPHION STRING QUARTET
Sunday, January 25, 5:00 PM • Alice Tully Hall
Known for its "brand of fierce, sharply directed energy," (The New York Times) the Amphion String Quartet celebrates its Alice Tully Hall recital debut with an exhilarating program showcasing Haydn's "The Bird" Quartet, Janáček's "Intimate Letters," and Grieg's rarely-heard Quartet in G minor. Tickets available at: www.ChamberMusicSociety.org • 212-875-5788
Winter 2015
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.
1/22/15 7:30 PM Art of the Recital: Gary Hoffman and David Selig 1/29/15 7:30 PM New Music in the Kaplan Penthouse 2/4/15 6:30 PM Inside Chamber Music 2/10/15 11:00 AM Master Class with Gilbert Kalish 2/11/15 6:30 PM Inside Chamber Music 2/12/15 9:00 PM Late Night Rose 2/18/15 6:30 PM Inside Chamber Music 2/25/15 6:30 PM Inside Chamber Music 2/26/15 7:30 PM Orion String Quartet Plays Haydn
All events are free to watch. View full program details online. www.ChamberMusicSociety.org/WatchLive
upcoming
EVENTS
GARY HOFFMAN & DAVID SELIG: FRENCH CELLO SONATAS
Thursday, January 22, 7:30 PM • Daniel and Joanna S. Rose Studio • SOLD OUT This event will also be streamed live at www.ChamberMusicSociety.org/watchlive
THE AMPHION STRING QUARTET
Sunday, January 25, 5:00 PM • Alice Tully Hall In its debut Alice Tully Hall recital, the Amphion Quartet performs Haydn’s “The Bird” Quartet, Janáček’s “Intimate Letters,” and Grieg’s rarely-heard Quartet in G minor.
NEW MUSIC IN THE KAPLAN PENTHOUSE
Thursday, January 29, 7:30 PM • Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse Featuring works by Andrew Norman, Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez, Vivian Fung, and more. This event will also be streamed live at www.ChamberMusicSociety.org/watchlive