Program Book - Lincoln Ensemble at Symphony Center

ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-SECOND SEASON

Tuesday, June 20, 2023, at 6:30

CSO Chamber Music Series

LINCOLN ENSEMBLE

Qing Hou Violin

Lawrence Neuman Viola

John Sharp Cello

William Welter Oboe

Vivien Shotwell Mezzo-soprano

Adam Neiman Piano

loeffler Two Rhapsodies for Oboe, Viola, and Piano

L’étang

La cornemuse

william welter

lawrence neuman

adam neiman

brahms Two Songs for Mezzo-soprano, Viola, and Piano, Op. 91

Gestillte Sehnsucht Geistliches Wiegenlied

vivien shotwell

lawrence neuman

adam neiman

intermission

schubert Piano Trio No. 1 in B-flat Major, D. 898

Allegro moderato

Andante un poco mosso

Scherzo: Allegro

Rondo: Allegro vivace

qing hou

john sharp

adam neiman

comments by richard e. rodda

charles martin loeffler

Born January 30, 1861; Schöneberg, Germany

Died May 19, 1935; Medfield, Massachusetts

Two Rhapsodies for Oboe, Viola, and Piano

composed 1901

Charles Martin Loeffler was one of the most prominent and cosmopolitan musical figures of his generation. Before the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, Loeffler moved with his family to the small Russian country town of Smila in the province of Kyiv. The boy received a violin as a gift for his eighth birthday, and some lessons with a member of the Russian Imperial Orchestra followed. From 1871 to 1873, the Loefflers settled in Debrecen, Hungary, and then moved on to Switzerland. By the age of thirteen, Charles had decided to become a professional violinist. He showed such promise that he was accepted as a student by Joseph Joachim, an intimate of Brahms and one of the half dozen greatest virtuosos of his day, with whom he studied from 1874 to 1877 in Berlin; he continued his education at the Paris Conservatory. Loeffler found work for a season as a violinist in the Pasdeloup Orchestra before it folded in 1879 and

above:

then joined the musical establishment of Paul von Derwies, a Russian baron whose nearly immeasurable wealth allowed him to maintain a private orchestra, an opera company, and a Slavic choir for the church services at his seasonal palaces in Nice and Lugano; three trains were required to transport the baron and his household on their semiannual shuttle. When Derwies died in June 1881, Loeffler moved to the New World, arriving in New York armed with a letter of recommendation from Joachim. He joined the just-established Boston Symphony Orchestra as its assistant concertmaster in 1882 and became a favorite soloist with the Boston public, appearing with the orchestra annually and giving the American premieres of works by Bruch, Saint-Saëns, and Lalo. During his years with the BSO, Loeffler pursued a parallel career as a composer and in 1903 resigned his post to devote himself to creative work. He remained active in the musical life of Boston, teaching, advising, serving on the boards of several music organizations, supervising performances of his works, and composing at a measured pace until his death in 1935.

The Two Rhapsodies for Oboe, Viola, and Piano are the 1901 reworkings of two songs Loeffler

Charles Martin Loeffler, oil portrait of the composer painted by John Singer Sargent (1856–1925), 1903

made from poems by Maurice Rollinat (1846–1903) three years before. The first was dedicated to the memory of Leon Pourtau, a clarinetist with the Boston Symphony from 1894 to 1898; the second was inscribed to Georges Longy, the ensemble’s renowned oboist from 1898 to 1925.

Rollinat’s “L’étang” and “La cornemuse” impress bleak messages upon many passages of the two rhapsodies

L’étang

Plein de très vieux poissons frappés de cécité,

L’étang, sous un ciel bas roulant de sourds tonnerres, Etale entre ses joncs plusieurs fois centenaires

La clapotante horreur de son opacité.

Là-bas, des farfadets servent de luminaires

A plus d’un marais noir, sinistre et redouté; Mais lui ne se révèle en ce lieu déserté

Que par ses bruits affreux de crapauds poitrinaires.

Or, la lune qui point tout juste en ce moment,

Semble s’y regarder si fantastiquement, Que l’on dirait, à voir sa spectrale figure,

(the viola quotes the Dies irae (Day of Wrath) from the requiem mass in a glassy, keening sonority midway through the first one), the dominant characteristic of the music is one of sweet (perhaps bittersweet) floating mysticism, a sort of inward-looking rapture produced by Loeffler’s examination of what Carl Engel called “landscapes of the soul.”

The Pond

Full of aged fish struck with blindness,

The pool, beneath a lowering sky rolling with muted thunder, Disperses between its centuries old rushes

The lapping horror of its murky depths.

Down there, water-sprites act as lighting

For a swamp blacker than black, sinister and fearsome; Nothing emerges from this desolate place

But the hideous din of its consumptive toads.

Whereas the moon, which rises just at this moment

Appears to regard herself so eerily, One might say, as she catches sight of her ghostly form there.

(Please turn the page quietly.)

COMMENTS

Son nez plat et le vague étrange de ses dents, Une tête de mort éclairée en dedans Qui viendrait se mirer dans une glace obscure.

—Maurice Rollinat

La cornemuse

Sa cornemuse dans les bois Geignait comme le vent qui brame Et jamais le cerf aux abois, Jamais le saule ni la rame, N’ont pleuré comme cette voix.

Ces sons de flûte et de hautbois Semblaient râlés par une femme. Oh! près du carrefour des croix, Sa cornemuse!

Il est mort. Mais, sous les cieux froids, Aussitôt que la nuit se trame, Toujours, tout au fond de mon âme, Là, dans le coin des vieux effrois, J’entends gémir, comme autrefois, Sa cornemuse.

—Maurice Rollinat

Her flat nose and the strange ripple of her teeth, A death’s head illuminated from within That would come to be reflected in a mirror of darkness.

—Translation Charles Hopkins

The Bagpiper

His bagpipes in the woods Whined like the wind that bellows, And never the stag at bay, Never the willow nor the skull, Has wept like this voice.

Those sounds of flute and oboe Were like the death rattle of a woman. Ah! Near the crossroad of the crosses, His bagpipes!

He is dead. But under the cold skies, As soon as the night weaves itself, Always, in the depths of my soul, There, at the point of old terrors, I hear wailing, just as of old, His bagpipes.

—Translation

Bonnie Todd

johannes brahms

Born May 7, 1833; Hamburg, Germany

Died April 3, 1897; Vienna, Austria

Two Songs for Mezzo-soprano, Viola, and Piano, Op. 91

composed 1884

In 1863 the violinist Joseph Joachim, Brahms’s old friend and musical ally, married the talented contralto Amalie Schneeweiss. The following year, Brahms stood as godfather at the christening of their first child, an event that inspired in him the idea for a song based on the ancient German lullaby-carol associated with the Nativity, “Joseph, lieber Joseph mein” (Joseph, My Dear Joseph). The familiar and beloved tune had been part of the German Christmas tradition since it appeared with the words of Sethus Calvisius (one of Bach’s distant predecessors as music director at Leipzig’s Thomaskirche) in Corner’s GrossKatholisches Gesangbuch of 1631; Liszt included the melody in his 1867 oratorio, The Legend of St. Elizabeth. Brahms did not realize his plan until twenty years later when he used “Joseph, lieber” as a

viola obbligato for a setting for alto and piano of “Die ihr schwebet um diese Palmen” (You, who hover over these palms), a German translation of a poem by Lope de Vega that appeared in Geibel and Heyse’s Spanisches Liederbuch. As a companion piece, Brahms prefaced his “Geistliches Wiegenlied” (Spiritual Lullaby) with a setting of Rückert’s “Gestillte Sehnsucht” (Stilled Longing), whose imagery complemented it nicely. Brahms published the two songs for alto, viola, and piano as his op. 91 in 1884; they were dedicated to Amalie Joachim.

The dark, burnished sonorities of the alto voice and viola, complemented by a piano part that seldom rises above the middle of the keyboard, are essential to the sweet calm that lies at the heart of this music. Only in the central stanza of “Gestillte Sehnsucht,” where the music serves both to mirror the longing sentiments of the text and to provide a contrasting structural paragraph, is the halcyon mood of these songs ruffled.

above: Johannes Brahms, ca. 1880, chalk drawing by Olga von Miller zu Aichholz (1853–1931)

Gestillte Sehnsucht Stilled Longing

In gold’nen Abendschein getauchet, Bathed in the golden glow of evening, wie feierlich die Wälder stehn! how solemn the woods stand! In leise Stimmen der Among the gentle voices of the Vöglein hauchet little birds breathes des Abendwindes leises Wehn. the gentle plaint of the evening wind. Was lispeln die Winde, What do the winds, the little birds, die Vögelein? whisper?

Sie lispeln die Welt in Schlummer ein. They whisper the world to sleep.

Ihr Wünsche, die ihr stets

You, my desires, that constantly euch reget bestir yourselves im Herzen sonder Rast und Ruh! in the heart without rest or peace! Du Sehnen, das die Brust beweget, You, longings, that stir the breast, wann ruhest du, wann schlummerst du? when will you rest, when will you sleep? Beim Lispeln der Winde, At the whisper of the winds, der Vögelein, the little birds, ihr sehnenden Wünsche, you, longing wishes, wann schlaft ihr ein? when will you fall asleep?

Ach, wenn nicht mehr in goldne

Ah, when no longer in the golden Fernen distance mein Geist auf Traumgefieder, my soul hastens on the wings of eilt a dream, nicht mehr an ewig fernen Sternen no longer on ever-distant stars mit sehnendem Blick mein Auge weilt, with longing gaze my eyes linger, dann lispeln die Winde, then the winds, the little birds, die Vögelein will whisper mit meinem Sehnen mein Leben ein. my life, with my longing, to sleep.

—Friedrich Rückert —Translation Bernard Jacobson

Geistliches Wiegenlied Spiritual Lullaby

Joseph, lieber Joseph mein,

Joseph, my dear Joseph, hilf mir wiegen mein Kindlein fein. help me rock my dainty baby. Gott der wird dein Lohner sein, God will reward you im Himmelreich der in the heavenly kingdom of the Jungfrau Sohn, Virgin’s Son, Maria, Maria. Mary, Mary.

(The previous stanza is not set for the voice but is written under the viola part in the introduction.)

Die ihr schwebet um diese Palmen You, who hover over these palms in Nacht und Wind, in the night and the wind, ihr heilgen Engel, stillet die Wipfel! you, holy angels, silence the treetops! Es schlummert mein Kind. My child is sleeping.

Ihr Palmen von Bethlehem im You, palms of Bethlehem in the Windesbrausen, sighing wind, wie mögt ihr heute so zornig sausen! how can you roar so angrily today! O rauscht nicht also! Oh, do not thunder so!

Schweiget, neiget euch leis und lind; Hush, bow your heads softly and gently; stillet die Wipfel, stillet silence the treetops, silence die Wipfel! the treetops!

Es schlummert mein Kind. My child is sleeping.

Der Himmelsknabe duldert Beschwerde; The Son of heaven endures hardship; ach, wie so müd er ward ah, how weary He has become from the vom Leid der Erde. sorrows of the earth.

Ach, nun im Schlaf ihm leise gesänftigt Ah, now in sleep, gently soothed, die Qual zerrinnt. His agony melts away.

Stillet die Wipfel, stillet Silence the treetops, silence die Wipfel! the treetops! Es schlummert mein Kind. My child is sleeping.

Grimmige Kälte sauset hernieder; A bitter cold comes rushing; womit nur deck ich des Kindleins how shall I cover the child’s Glieder? limbs?

O all ihr Engel, die ihr geflügelt Oh, all you angels, you winged ones, wandelt im Wind, wandering on the wind, stillet die Wipfel, stillet silence the treetops, silence die Wipfel! the treetops!

Es schlummert mein Kind. My child is sleeping.

—Lope de Vega; German translation

by Emanuel Geibel

Translation Bernard Jacobson

COMMENTS

franz schubert

Born January 31, 1797; Vienna, Austria

Died November 19, 1828; Vienna, Austria

Piano Trio No. 1 in B-flat Major, D. 898 composed

On January 31, 1827, Franz Schubert turned thirty. He had been following a bohemian existence in Vienna for over a decade, making barely more than a pittance from the sale and performance of his works and living largely by the generosity of his friends—a devoted band of music lovers who rallied around his convivial personality and exceptional talent. The pattern of Schubert’s daily life was firmly established by that time: composition in the morning, long walks or visits in the afternoon, companionship for wine and song in the evening. The routine was broken by occasional trips to the countryside to stay with friends or families of friends.

never forget it—though in the afternoon, to be sure, he became another person,” recorded one friend. The ability to mirror his own fluctuating feelings in his compositions—the darkening cloud momentarily obscuring the bright sunlight—is one of Schubert’s most remarkable and characteristic achievements and touches indelibly the incomparable series of works—Winterreise, the Great C major symphony, last three piano sonatas, the String Quintet, two piano trios, impromptus—that he created during the final months of his brief life.

Though there exists no documentary evidence concerning the provenance or purpose of the Piano Trio no. 1 in B-flat, it was apparently composed during the summer or early autumn of 1827; its companion, the Trio no. 2 in E-flat, was written quickly the following November. Schubert himself assigned the works the consecutive opus numbers 99 and 100. A sense of conviviality and expressive bounty floods from the opening theme of the B-flat trio, a sweeping melody for the strings that paraphrases Schubert’s song “Des Sängers Habe” (The Singer’s Possession) of February 1825, whose text virtually summarizes his music-bound existence: Shatter above: Franz Schubert, ca. 1827

A curious dichotomy marked Schubert’s personality during those final years of his life, one that suited well the romantic image of the inspired artist, rapt out of quotidian experience to carry back to benighted humanity some transcendent vision. “Anyone who had seen him only in the morning, in the throes of composition, will

all my happiness in pieces, take from me all my worldly wealth, yet leave me only my zither, and I shall still be happy and rich! The subsidiary subject is a lyrical inspiration sung by the cello above rippling piano triplets. Both themes figure in the development section. The Andante is one of those creations of ravishing lyrical beauty that could have been conceived by no one but Schubert. Its outer sections, calm and almost nocturnal in expression, take as their theme a flowing cello melody in the nature of a barcarolle. An agitated, minor-key central section provides formal and emotional contrast. The scherzo and trio comprising the third movement juxtapose the two most popular Viennese dances of the day— the ländler and the waltz, just the sort

profiles

Qing Hou Violin

Qing Hou has been a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since 1997. A native of China, she attended the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing before coming to the United States in 1988 to continue her studies at the Peabody Institute and the New England Conservatory. Prior to joining the CSO, Hou was a member of the San Francisco Symphony. An avid chamber musician,

of thing Schubert loved to improvise to accompany the dancing of his friends at their soirées. Schubert called the finale a “rondo,” but its theme returns with such extensive alterations that the movement’s formal type is closer to a developmental sonata form than to the traditional refrain-based rondo structure. Here, also, Schubert hinted in the main theme at an earlier song, “Skolie” (1815): Let us, in the bright May morning, take delight in the brief life of the flower before its fragrance disappears.

Richard E. Rodda, a former faculty member at Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Institute of Music, provides program notes for many American orchestras, concert series, and festivals.

she has performed for the Andover Chamber Music Society and at festivals in Madison, Napa, El Paso, and Sun Valley. Hou has been heard on NPR’s Performance Today and regularly appears in the Chicago area with various ensembles. In 1997 she founded the Lincoln Quartet with her sister, CSO violin Lei Hou, and CSO viola Lawrence Neuman (now Qing’s husband).

As a soloist, Qing Hou has appeared with orchestras in China and in the cities of Boston, Baltimore, and Chicago. In the fall of 2003, she made her solo debut with the Orchestra under Daniel Barenboim.

PHOTO BY TODD ROSENBERG

Lawrence Neuman Viola

Lawrence Neuman has been a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since 1991. Before coming to Chicago, he was violist with the Miami String Quartet. As a chamber musician, he is heard frequently throughout Chicagoland and has performed across the United States and Europe. He has appeared at festivals and chamber music series in Boston, Marlboro, La Jolla, Madison, Napa, Portland, and Davenport. Chamber music collaborators include Daniel Barenboim, Pinchas Zukerman, Yefim Bronfman, Lydia Artymiw, Gil Shaham, and Aaron Rosand.

During the 1998–99 season, Neuman took a leave of absence from the CSO to serve as principal viola of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. He taught viola and chamber music for several years at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University.

A native of Saint Louis, Missouri, Neuman attended the Eastman School of Music, the University of Southern California, and the Cleveland Institute of Music, studying under Heidi Castleman, Donald McInnes, and Robert Vernon.

John Sharp Cello

John Sharp was appointed principal cello of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1986, becoming one of the youngest principal players in the history of the Orchestra. Previously, he was a member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and principal cello of the Cincinnati Symphony. A top prize winner of the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, he has performed as soloist under the baton of Riccardo Muti, Sir Georg Solti, Pierre Boulez, Bernard Haitink, Lorin Maazel, Charles Dutoit, and Michael Tilson Thomas.

Sharp is an active chamber musician, having performed at the festivals of Marlboro, Santa Fe, La Jolla, Vail, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He has recorded with the Vermeer Quartet and collaborated with Mitsuko Uchida, Yo-Yo Ma, Pinchas Zukerman, Emmanuel Ax, and Christoph Eschenbach. He and his wife, violinist Liba Shacht, often perform together as a duo and in chamber music concerts throughout the United States, France, and Spain.

Born in Texas, Sharp studied cello with Lev Aronson and later with Lynn Harrell at the Juilliard School. He has given master classes throughout the United States and Europe and coached at the New World Symphony, National Orchestral Association, National Youth Orchestra of the

PHOTOS BY TODD ROSENBERG

USA, Chicago Civic Orchestra, and the Taipei Music Academic Festival. He is currently a professor of cello at Roosevelt University.

John Sharp plays a rare cello made by Joseph Guarnerius in 1694.

under the instruction of Robert Walters. His other teachers include Eugene Izotov, former principal oboe of the CSO and current principal oboe of the San Francisco Symphony, and Christopher Philpotts, principal english horn of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Welter is an alumnus of the Interlochen Arts Academy, where he studied with Daniel Stolper.

William Welter was appointed principal oboe of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra by Music Director Riccardo Muti in June 2018. Prior to his appointment to the CSO, Welter performed as a guest musician with the Cleveland Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, and New York Philharmonic and as guest principal oboe of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Welter was a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center and participated in several esteemed music festivals, including the Aspen Music Festival, Bravo Vail Festival, and Music Academy of the West. He also participated in Music from Angel Fire by invitation of acclaimed violinist Ida Kavafian.

A native of Omaha, Nebraska, and raised in Crescent, Iowa, William Welter is a 2016 graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Richard Woodhams, the longtime principal oboe of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Welter completed an artist diploma at the Oberlin Conservatory

Vivien Shotwell Mezzo-soprano

Canadian American mezzo-soprano

Vivien Shotwell

recently joined the Rai Symphony Orchestra (Turin, Italy) for Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony under the direction of James Conlon. She made her Los Angeles Opera debut as the second lady in The Magic Flute, praised for the volume and vibrancy of her voice. She received an artist diploma from the Yale School of Music, where she performed Romeo in I Capuleti e i Montecchi under the baton of Speranza Scappucci and sang the title role in The Rape of Lucretia. Shotwell has received grants from the Olga Forrai Foundation, Early Music America, and the Canada Council for the Arts. She was twice a regional finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and was awarded both the David L. Kasdon Memorial Prize and

William Welter Oboe

PHOTOS BY TODD ROSENBERG, NADIA ZHENG

the Phyllis Curtin Career Entry Prize at Yale. Vivien Shotwell has given visiting artist recitals and led master classes at Williams College and the University of Iowa School of Music. Her debut novel about an English singer who loved Mozart, Vienna Nocturne, was a Globe and Mail bestseller and has been translated into seven languages.

Adam Neiman Piano

Hailed as one of today’s preeminent American classical pianists, Adam Neiman has cultivated a career spanning more than three decades and traversing four continents. He has performed as soloist with major orchestras, including those of Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Minnesota, Saint Louis, San Francisco, Slovenia, and the National Symphony

Orchestra of Washington (D.C.). His recitals have spanned many of the great concert halls and festivals across the globe.

Neiman is an accomplished composer with a catalog of compositions that includes two symphonies, two piano concertos, a string quartet, and various solo and chamber works. Recent commissions include his Piano Concerto no. 2, Piano Trio no. 2, and string quartet. Various documentary film appearances as a pianist led to his eventual contribution as a composer to the PBS documentary by Emmy Award–winning director Helen Whitney, Forgiveness: A Time to Love and a Time to Hate.

Neiman is a tenured associate professor of piano at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, where he also serves as chair of the Music Conservatory. From 2016 to 2022, he served as artistic director of the Manchester Music Festival in Vermont, and currently, he is CEO of Aeolian Classics, LLC.

adamneiman.com

PHOTO BY LISA-MARIE MAZZUCCO