Wednesday, March 31, 2021, at 10:00
MUTI COACHES Riccardo Muti Conductor Fellows from the Chicago Musical Pathways Initiative Mentors from the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and Chicago Sinfonietta Project Inclusion String Quartet in E Minor
verdi
Allegro
Esme Arias-Kim Violin * Ella Saputra Violin * Sameer Agrawal Viola * Jonathan Miller Cello * The musicians were prepared for this performance by Sang Mee Lee, String Department Chair of the Music Institute of Chicago.
Quartet for Oboe and Strings in F Major, K. 370
mozart
Rondo
Zachary Allen Oboe * Brent Taghap Violin ** Seth Pae Viola ***‡ Najette Abouelhadi Cello **§ The musicians were prepared for this performance by William Welter, CSO Principal Oboe.
* CMPI Fellow
** Civic Orchestra Member
*** Civic Orchestra Alum
§ Chicago Sinfonietta Project Inclusion Fellow
‡ Chicago Sinfonietta Project Inclusion Fellow Alum
comments by richard e. rodda giuseppe verdi
wolfgang mozart
String Quartet in E Minor
Quartet for Oboe, Violin, Viola, and Cello in F Major, K. 370
Born October 10, 1813; Le Roncole, near Busseto, Italy Died January 27, 1901; Milan, Italy
composed 1873 f ir st performa nce April 1, 1873; Naples, Italy
Verdi’s extraordinary success was the result not just of his creative genius but also of his no-nonsense business practices and sheer hard work. From the stringent requirements that he placed on his librettists and the meticulous negotiations that he carried on with publishers and impresarios, to overseeing the most minute details of important productions, Verdi was tireless in striving to stage the finest (and most profitable) operas possible, so it is hardly surprising that he asked to supervise personally the first performances of Aida at Naples’s Teatro San Carlo in March 1873. Aida, premiered in Cairo on Christmas Eve 1871, to celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal and first staged in Italy six weeks later at La Scala, was then the hottest operatic property around, and the San Carlo management eagerly accepted his demands, which included engaging the Bohemian soprano Teresa Stolz to sing the title role, in which she had triumphed in Milan. Verdi descended on Naples in November 1872, helped to stage a production of Don Carlos there the following month, and then spent the rest of the winter preparing Aida. Just before opening night, however, Mme Stolz fell ill and the production was delayed. To “pass the time” during the next three weeks, Verdi composed the only purely instrumental piece of his life—the String Quartet in E minor.
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he quartet is indebted in its form, scale, and compositional techniques to the Haydn-Mozart model, but its expressive sensibility and melodic qualities are distinctly those of the mature Verdi. The opening Allegro takes as its main theme a melody of quiet urgency that has been likened to dramatic moments in Aida and La forza del destino. The subsidiary subject is a sweet, falling strain in a brighter key; a playful, staccato passage and some vigorous unison gestures close the exposition. The development section is concerned with the main theme to such a degree that it is omitted from the formal recapitulation, which begins instead with the sweet second theme. The Andantino, despite brief episodes of heightened intensity, is elegant and sentimental, with a principal theme reminiscent of a gentle waltz. The third movement uses a whirling gypsy dance to surround the wordless cello aria with a plucked accompaniment that occupies its central section. Verdi called the finale a scherzo fuga—a jesting fugue—and he recalled its feather-stitched textures, rhythmic exuberance, and joyous close when he composed the final scene of his operatic career twenty years later, the brilliant fugue that summarizes the moral of his Falstaff: Tutto nel mondo è burla—The whole world is but a jest.
Born January 27, 1756; Salzburg, Austria Died December 5, 1791; Vienna, Austria
composed 1781
For all the reflected glory that the ancient city of Salzburg enjoys from the universal renown of its most famous son, it is perhaps ironic to note that Mozart hated the place. He felt demeaned by the servant’s treatment that he had to endure as a member of Archbishop Colloredo’s musical staff, he chafed under the constantly watchful presence of his father, he sniped at the conservative provincial taste of the town’s inhabitants, and he longed to be summoned to some glamorous city with an opera house whose stage he could fill with his music. He tried to escape his “Salzburg captivity,” as he rather injudiciously referred to his employment, from at least the age of fifteen, but failed for over a decade to find a better job. It is therefore not difficult to imagine his excitement at receiving a commission from the Elector Karl Theodor to compose a large-scale grand opera for the 1781 carnival season of the court opera in Munich. Though Mozart’s chief effort in Munich was the creation of Idomeneo, he was eager to show the music lovers of that cultured and influential city other aspects of his genius as well. The most important satellite works circling Idomeneo were the superb Serenade for Ten Winds (K. 361) and the Quartet for Oboe and Strings (K. 370), which were written for the excellent wind players of the court orchestra, many of whom Mozart had met on his tour to Paris four years before, when they were still stationed in Mannheim. The Oboe Quartet was composed for the renowned virtuoso of that recalcitrant instrument Friedrich Ramm, who had fallen so in love with Mozart’s Oboe Concerto (K. 314) in Mannheim that he played the work five times within two weeks of discovering it. Mozart tailored this quartet to the finest elements of Ramm’s playing: fiery virtuosity in the finale; grace and agility in the opening Allegro; sweet cantilena in the Adagio; difficult challenges to technique, range, and musicianship throughout. Given the soloistic nature of the wind part and the manner in which the instrument’s plangent sound naturally differentiates it from the strings, this quartet is essentially a miniature concerto for oboe.
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he sunny opening Allegro follows traditional sonata form, though, uncharacteristically for him, Mozart reused the principal theme, differently scored and in a new key, as the secondary theme rather than devising a new melody. The development section begins with a pedantic, slow-motion canon tenuously related to the earlier material, which soon lapses into the playfulness that characterizes the rest of the movement. The brief minor-key Adagio is an instrumental aria of almost operatic pathos. The finale is a chuckling rondo.
— © Richard E. Rodda
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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.
profiles Riccardo Muti Conductor Born in Naples, Italy, Riccardo Muti is one of the preeminent conductors of our day. In 2010, when he became the tenth music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), he had more than forty years of experience at the helm of Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (1968–1980), the Philharmonia Orchestra (1973–1982), the Philadelphia Orchestra (1980–1992), and Teatro alla Scala (1986–2005). Muti studied piano under Vincenzo Vitale at the Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella in Naples and subsequently received a diploma in composition and conducting from the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan. His principal teachers were Bruno Bettinelli and Antonino Votto, principal assistant to Arturo Toscanini at La Scala. After he won the Guido Cantelli Conducting Competition in Milan in 1967, Muti’s career developed quickly. Herbert von Karajan invited him to conduct at the Salzburg Festival in Austria in 1971, and Muti has maintained a close relationship with the summer festival—marking the fiftieth anniversary of his debut this summer—and with its great orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic. In addition, he has led the orchestra in its annual New Year’s concert from the Golden Hall of the Musikverein on six occasions (1993, 1997, 2000, 2004, 2018, and 2021), a rare privilege accorded to very few conductors. He has received the distinguished Golden Ring and the Otto Nicolai Gold Medal from the Philharmonic for his outstanding artistic contributions to the orchestra. He also is a recipient of a silver medal from the Salzburg Mozarteum and the Golden Johann Strauss Award by the Johann Strauss Society of Vienna. He is an honorary member of Vienna’s Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, the Vienna Hofmusikkapelle, the Vienna Philharmonic, and the Vienna State Opera. Muti has received innumerable international honors. He is a Cavaliere di Gran Croce of the Italian Republic, Officer of the French Legion of Honor, and a recipient of the German Verdienstkreuz. Queen Elizabeth II bestowed on him the title of honorary Knight Commander of the British Empire, Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded him the Order of Friendship, and Pope Benedict XVI made him a Knight of the Grand Cross First Class of the Order of Saint Gregory the Great—the highest papal honor. Muti also has received Israel’s Wolf Prize in Music, Sweden’s prestigious Birgit Nilsson Prize, Spain’s Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts, Japan’s Order of the Rising Sun Gold and Silver Star and Praemium Imperiale, the gold medal from Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs for his promotion of Italian culture abroad as well as the prestigious Presidente della Repubblica award from the Italian government and the Viareggio Repaci Special Prize. Most recently, he received the honorary citizenship of the city of Palermo, conferred on him by its mayor Leoluca Orlando—for his commitment to spreading the values of peace and communion among peoples through the universal language of music—in a ceremony streamed live from Palazzo delle Aquile. Also in attendance were Dario Franceschini, minister of culture (by video), and Francesco Giambrone, superintendent of the city’s Teatro Massimo, among others. Muti holds more than twenty honorary degrees from universities around the world. P H OTO BY TO DD RO S E NB E RG
Passionate about teaching young musicians, Muti founded the Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra in 2004 and the Riccardo Muti Italian Opera Academy in 2015. Through Le vie dell’Amicizia (The Roads of Friendship), a project of the Ravenna Festival in Italy, he has conducted in many of the world’s most troubled areas in order to bring attention to civic and social issues. Riccardo Muti’s vast catalog of recordings, numbering in the hundreds, ranges from the traditional symphonic and operatic repertoires to contemporary works. He also has written four books: Verdi, l’italiano and Riccardo Muti, An Autobiography: First the Music, Then the Words, both of which have been published in several languages; as well as Infinity Between the Notes: My Journey Into Music, published in May 2019 and available in Italian; and Le sette parole di Cristo—Dialogo con Massimo Cacciari (The Seven Last Words of Christ: a Dialogue with Massimo Cacciari), published in October 2020. riccardomutimusic.com
Chicago Musical Pathways Initiative The mission of the Chicago Musical Pathways Initiative (CMPI) is to identify and develop gifted and motivated orchestral students from underrepresented backgrounds for acceptance into top-tier conservatory, college, or university classical-music programs in preparation for careers as professional musicians. CMPI is co-led by the Merit School of Music, Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras, the Negaunee Music Institute at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chicago High School for the Arts, Chicago Sinfonietta, DePaul University School of Music, Hyde Park Suzuki Institute, Musical Arts Institute, and the Ravinia Festival. Together, participating organizations work to identify highly motivated music students from underrepresented backgrounds, including students of color, those who are low-income, and those who would be the first in their family to attend college. Musicians selected for CMPI are carefully assessed and provided with comprehensive supports, including financial assistance, mentoring from professional musicians, access to master classes, workshops and family meetings, and membership in a robust supportive community. The Chicago Musical Pathways Initiative is made possible thanks to a generous, multi-year gift from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, as well as to the generosity of The Julian Family Foundation and John Hart & Carol Prins.
Esme Arias-Kim Violin Esme Arias-Kim, fifteen, is a Merit Scholarship Fellow at the Academy of the Music Institute of Chicago, a training center for advanced precollege students, where she studies violin with Almita Vamos. She is also a fellow of the Chicago Musical Pathways Initiative. Esme made her solo orchestral debut at the age of ten with the Oistrakh Symphony of Chicago. Other solo appearances include
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PROFILES
performances with the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia da Camera, Ottawa Chamber Orchestra, Lincolnwood Chamber Orchestra, and Accademia d’Archi Arrigoni Orchestra, as well as solo recitals at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Chicago Cultural Center, 92nd Street Y New York, and Musikverien am Starnberger See in Germany. She is a first-place winner in the Enkor International Music Competition, New York International Artists Association, Sejong Music Competition, Music Festival in Honor of Confucius Competition, DePaul Concerto Festival for Young Performers, Sinfonia da Camera Concerto Competition, Center Stage Concerto Competition, Lisker Young Artist Scholarship Competition, and the Fox Valley Orchestra Youth Concerto Competition, among many others. Esme has participated in master classes with Julia Fischer, Vadim Gluzman, Kirill Troussov, Grigory Kalinovsky, Mihaela Martin, Ilya Kaler, and the Borromeo String Quartet. Chamber music accolades include advancement to the semifinals of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. In 2020, Esme Arias-Kim received the grand prize in the Sphinx Competition Junior Division and was featured on WFMT 98.7 FM’s Introductions. She also appeared as soloist with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago at Orchestra Hall after participating as one of four finalists and receiving first alternate in the Crain-Maling Foundation CSO Young Artists Competition. Later that year, she performed a recital on NPR’s From the Top. Most recently, she was named Overall Open Division Grand Winner of the 2020 Walgreens National Concerto Competition.
Ella Saputra Violin Ella Saputra, sixteen, is a sophomore at James B. Conant High School in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. She began her musical studies at the age of four and currently is a student of Desirée Ruhstrat. Ella has received prizes and awards from Sejong Music Competition, Music Festival in Honor of Confucius Competition, Society of American Musicians, and Walgreens National Concerto Competition, in addition to DePaul Concerto Festival for Young Performers. She has appeared twice as a concerto soloist with ensembles of Midwest Young Artists Conservatory, of which she is a member, as well as with the Oistrakh Symphony of Chicago as a winner of the DePaul Concerto Festival for Young Performers Junior Division. Ella recently was featured as a soloist on WFMT 98.7 FM’s Introductions. An enthusiastic orchestral musician, Ella is also involved in the chamber-music program of Midwest Young Artists. Her ensemble, Ardente String Quartet, received the audience prize as a finalist in the 2020 Saint Paul String Quartet Competition. Ella Saputra has attended DePaul Summer Violin Intensive (2020), Philadelphia International Music Festival (2019), and HeifetzPEG (2018), where she has respectively worked with Janet Sung, I-Hao Lee, and Ann Setzer; Kimberly Fisher; and Bela Horvath. She has also performed in master classes led by Adele Anthony, Gerardo Ribeiro, Nathan Cole, and Dylana Jenson.
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Sameer Agrawal Viola Sameer Agrawal, sixteen, is a Merit Fellow at the Academy of the Music Institute of Chicago, a precollege training program for advanced string and piano students, where he studies violin with Sang Mee Lee. He is also a Fellow of the Chicago Musical Pathways Initiative, a scholarship program for underrepresented groups in classical music. Sameer made his solo orchestral debut at the age of twelve with the Northeastern Illinois University Symphony Orchestra. He also has been a soloist with the Oistrakh Symphony of Chicago, the Symphony of Oak Park and River Forest, and Northside College Prep Chamber Strings. He has been a prizewinner at the DePaul Concerto Festival, Walgreens National Concerto Competition, Symphony of Oak Park and River Forest Concerto Competition, Midwest National Chamber Music Competition, Sejong Cultural Society Competition, Music Festival in Honor of Confucius Competition, and the Chicago Chamber Music Festival Concerto Competition. Having twice appeared on WFMT FM’s Introductions, Sameer has also performed for the Stars of Tomorrow concert series, Connectd Project, Make Music Chicago, Thirsty Ears Classical Music Street Festival, and in preconcert performances at Symphony Center. Sameer Agrawal attends Northside College Prep in Chicago. Other musical interests include viola, piano, and composition. In addition to music, he enjoys math, Rubik’s Cubes, and computers.
Jonathan Miller Cello Cellist Jonathan George Miller won gold medals in the ACT-SO Southside Classical and Contemporary Performance categories (2020), silver medals in the ACT-SO National Classical and Contemporary Performance categories (2020), first place in the Junior Division of the Society of American Musicians Competition (2018), and second place in the Music Festival in Honor of Confucius Competition (2018). He received honorable mentions in the Sphinx Competition (2019), the DePaul Concerto Festival for Young Performers (2019), and the Music Teachers National Association Competition (2019). Since the age of three, Jonathan has been a soloist in churches, schools, and private events across the country and abroad. When he was six years old, he played for internationally acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma. His chamber music performances began at the age of seven at the Music Institute of Chicago and continued at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance. Jonathan joined the Philadelphia Young Artists Orchestra at eleven years old, earned a principal seat in the Chicago Youth Philharmonic Orchestra at twelve, and was promoted to the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra at thirteen. Jonathan Miller has studied with Tanya Carey, Astrid Schween of the Juilliard String Quartet, Yumi Kendall of the Philadelphia
PROFILES
Orchestra, Wei Yu of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and Hans Jensen. He has performed in master classes with Melissa Kraut, Richard Weiss, Richard Aaron, Anthony Elliott, Jeffrey Zeigler, Daniel McDonough, Horacio Contreras, and Gabriel Cabezas. Jonathan was selected as an inaugural fellow of the Chicago Musical Pathways Initiative (2019–20), which identifies and supports talented, motivated students early in their training. Jonathan enjoys composing, playing guitar and a variety of other musical instruments, reading, creating visual art, and acting.
Zachary Allen Oboe Zachary Allen, sixteen years old, is a sophomore at Niles West High School in Skokie, Illinois. He has studied oboe for three years with Erica Anderson at the Academy of the Music Institute of Chicago, where he currently is a merit scholar. A fellow of the Chicago Musical Pathways Initiative since 2019, he is currently principal oboe of the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra’s Symphony Orchestra. Zachary previously studied cello for five years. Zachary Allen has been named a first-prize winner in a number of international competitions, including the 2020 Music and Stars Awards, for which he received a gold star; the 2020 Canadian International Music Competition; the 2020 Grand Prize Virtuoso International Music Competition; and the 2020 International Great Composers Competition (Best Saint-Saëns Performance category). As first-prize winner of the 2020 American Fine Arts Festival, he will perform at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in the 2021-22 season. Most recently, Zachary won the Winds and Percussion category in the 2020 Midwest Young Artists Walgreens National Concerto Competition and the Winds Division of the 2021 DePaul Concerto Festival for Young Performers. Zachary has performed in master classes for Elaine Douvas, Eugene Izotov, Alex Klein, and William Welter. He attends Interlochen Arts Camp this summer.
Brent Taghap Violin Brent Taghap, twenty-seven, is a violinist from the Tampa Bay area. He holds degrees from Florida State University (BM, 2016) and DePaul University (MM, 2018), and a certificate in performance (2020). His primary teachers include Eliot Chapo, Corinne Stillwell, and Janet Sung. He is a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and a mentor for the Chicago Musical Pathways Initiative. In addition to his studies of traditional Western classical music, Brent is also interested in preserving, cataloging, and performing works by Filipino composers in the hopes that they will become part of the canon of works for violin. Other interests include sleeping, eating, visiting art museums, hanging out with friends, and playing with his cat Wrenly.
Seth Pae Viola Seth Pae, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, began playing viola at the age of nine. He began his musical studies through his public school music program. He was a student of Lembi Veskimets of the Cleveland Orchestra from 2003 to 2009. He earned degrees from Baldwin Wallace University (BM, 2013) as a student of Louise Zeitlin, and from DePaul University (MM, 2015) under Rami Solomonow and Wei-Ting Kuo. A member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago from 2015 to 2018, Seth has also performed with the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra and the Lyric Opera Orchestra. He is in his third year performing with the Chicago Sinfonietta as a fellow in the orchestra’s Project Inclusion program. A champion of playing new music, Seth frequently seeks out Chicago-based composers. It is his mission to perform music by women and people of color as often as possible. Also a composer and arranger, he teaches and mentors in music programs that aim to help the underserved and underrepresented communities in classical music. In his free time, Seth Pae is a certified soccer referee, an amateur runner, and a singer-songwriter. He also plays in various recreational sports leagues.
Najette Abouelhadi Cello Moroccan Italian cellist Najette Abouelhadi is an active orchestral musician with a passion for community connectivity and inclusion. She currently holds fellowship positions with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and Chicago Sinfonietta. As a fellow with Chicago Sinfonietta, she regularly gives concerts and presentations across the Chicagoland area by playing music by less-well-known composers and artists of color in hopes of bringing awareness to the institutional benefits of diversity in our orchestras and in our field. Her love of orchestra began when she was seven years old, and she has since gone on to become principal cello of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra, and Music Academy of the West Festival Orchestra, as well as guest-principal cello of the Amarillo Symphony and the Peabody Symphony Orchestra, among others. Most recently, Najette Abouelhadi branched out of the classical world and performed a sold-out show with Norwegian DJ Kygo at the Anthem in Washington, D.C. A recipient of the Presidential Community Service Award for six years, Najette has been committed to creating and supporting relationships with local senior and rehabilitation centers and hospitals to bring talented performers out into the community. For Najette, music has always been about interacting with others and making friends and connections through music. She holds both a bachelor’s degree and a graduate performance diploma from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University as a student of Alan Stepansky.
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