Fine Arts Quartet with
Ralph EvAns Efim BoiCo Nicolò EugElmi
& RobeRt CoHEn, guEst CEllist
N o v e m b e r 6 , 2 0 11 3 p m Helen Bader Concert Hall
Fine Arts Quartet | Chamber Music 1
Presented by
The UW-Milwaukee Peck School of the Arts The Fine Arts Quartet season is supported in part by: Co-Presenting Sponsors Sheldon & Marianne Lubar Fund of the Lubar Family Foundation Katharine and Sandy Mallin
Co-Sponsor Dr. Lucile Cohn
Media Co-Sponsor
Additional Media Sponsors
Guest Artist Sponsors Susan DeWitt Davie Dr. Josette B. Grossberg and Dr. Sidney E. Grossberg
Carol and Leonard Lewensohn Kathleen E. Peebles Jane Abelson Zeft
Friends of the Fine Arts Quartet Gary A. Back Darrell and Sally Foell Debra Franzke and James Theselius Keith Huennekens & Christine Sentz Jewish Community Foundation: Jack & Barbara Recht Donor Advised Fund P. Rea Katz Anna Mary Look
Robert J. and Nancy Mitchell George W. and Patricia Torphy Prof. Pierre L. Ulllman Otto and Hilde A. Wiegmann Marian W. Weinberg Barbara and Dr. Stanley Weiss Anonymous
Gifts in memory of Wolfgang Laufer Dr. Sheldon Burchman and Ms. Delores Cohen Dr. Edith A. Moravcsik Kathleen E. Peebles
Cassandra A. Plott Barbara and Dr. Stanley Weiss Jane Ableson Zeft
All gifts are added to the UWM Foundation/Fine Arts Quartet Fund Donor listing as of 10-19-11 Attire for members of the Fine Arts Quartet has been generously provided by Mark Berman & Son.
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PROGR A M String Quartet in D Minor, KV 421...........................................Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Allegro (1756-1791) Andante Menuetto: Allegretto Allegro ma non troppo String Quartet No. 3 (1927)....................................................................................... Béla Bartók Prima parte: Moderato (1881-1945) Seconda parte: Allegro Ricapitulazione della prima parte: Moderato --- Intermission --String Quartet in G Minor, Op. 27.........................................................................Edvard Grieg Un poco Andante - Allegro molto ed agitato (1843-1907) Romanze: Andantino - Allegro agitato Intermezzo: Allegro molto marcato Finale: Lento - Presto al Saltarello
PROGR A M NOTES Timothy Noonan-Senior Lecturer, Music History and Literature Mozart, String Quartet in D Minor, K. 421 Between December 1782 and January 1785, Mozart composed a set of six string quartets that he dedicated to his friend and fellow composer Joseph Haydn. How appropriate: the two had a great deal of respect for the compositional abilities of the other, and Haydn was an established master of the string quartet medium. They probably first met in 1781, though the specifics of their initial meeting are not documented. In 1785, Haydn said to Mozart’s father Leopold that “before God, and as an honest man, I tell you that your son is the greatest composer known to me in person or by name. He has taste, and, what is more, the greatest knowledge of composition.” Mozart described the six quartets as “the fruits of long and laborious endeavor,” and close study reveals that they are crafted with a high level of mastery. In keeping with the tradition of including one work in a minor key in a published set of six, the set of quartets has as its second member the present quartet in D minor, composed in Vienna in June 1783. The first movement opens with a theme that seems to emphasize the dark, somber sonorities we associate with a minor key. But as the second theme enters in F major, there is a new optimism. The development expands upon the dotted trill figure of the opening theme. A long cello pedal point prepares the recapitulation, in which the unrelenting minor mode prevails in the return of the second theme. In the second movement, the key is F major, but the darkness of the minor returns in the mid-section. Then the main idea returns, and the movement remains major to the end. The minuet and trio movement inverts this contrast: the minuet is in the stark minor key, and the ensuing trio section is a charming passage in the major in which the first violin’s triadic short-long theme is accompanied by pizzicato in the other instruments. And the finale is a theme with four variations in siciliano rhythm. The second variation is particularly complex, with contrasting rhythms and off-beat accents that result in a strikingly advanced texture. The quartet ends with a coda at a faster tempo that recalls the original theme, and the ending turns to major. Fine Arts Quartet | Chamber Music 3
P R O G R A M N O T E S ( c o n t .) Bartók, String Quartet No. 3 Béla Bartók’s six string quartets, composed over the period 1908 to 1939, stand among the most important quartets after Beethoven and among the twentieth century’s highest achievements in the field of chamber music. The Third Quartet, written during the Summer of 1927 and completed in September, is Expressionist, abstract, intense. About 15 minutes in duration, it is made of up one movement, the composer’s only such chamber work. During the course of the movement, Bartók designates sections that, when one considers their content, are the basic structural divisions of the work. The first section, marked Prima Parte (first part), is written with a considerable degree of polyphony, as voices enter using such techniques as imitation and canon. Here, and in the quartet as a whole, the instruments are called on to perform a variety of special effects, like the cello’s glissandi early on, and the muted lower strings (playing a bitonal ostinato) in the second theme while the violins play sul ponticello (on the bridge) above them. The Seconda Parte begins, without an intervening pause, with a long pedal-point D/E-flat trill in the second violin, whereupon the cello introduces a new theme in pizzicato triple stops. Here again, multiple themes are presented, in a post-tonal, but not atonal, idiom. A fugal section, introduced by the second violin and viola, incorporates such traditional techniques as fugal entries in quick succession (stretto) and a mirror image of the theme (inversion). After a loud trill in all the instruments, the lower voices die away as the next section, the Ricapitulazione della prima parte (return of the first part) begins with an accented sustained note in the cello. In accordance with its title, the section is made up of materials first heard in the first part, albeit considerably transformed. The final section, marked Coda, is based on material heard in the second part. In 1927, the year of its composition, Bartók entered the Third Quartet in a competition organized by the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia, and the formidable work shared the $6000 first prize with Alfredo Casella’s Serenata for string quartet. It received its first performance in London in February of 1929. Grieg, String Quartet in G Minor, Op. 27 Born in Bergen, Norway in 1843, Edvard Grieg came to be the leading Scandinavian composer of his time. When he was 15, the violinist Ole Bull heard him play the piano and succeeded in convincing his parents to enroll him in the Leipzig Conservatory, where his teachers included Ignaz Moscheles and Carl Reinecke. By 1862 he was back in Bergen, and the next year he went to Copenhagen, where he made the acquaintance of Niels Gade. Gade asked him to write a symphony, a work dated 1864 that Grieg directed must never be performed. The String Quartet was composed between summer 1877 and February 1878, a period when he and his wife Nina were living at Lofthus in Hardanger, in western Norway, a bucolic area that he so loved that he extended his stay. While poor health put a stop to his composing for a time thereafter, the quartet did receive performances in Leipzig and Cologne, and in the Spring of 1879 he performed his piano concerto before royalty in Copenhagen. Of the quartet, Grieg wrote that is was “not intended to deal in trivialities for petty minds. It aims at breadth, flight of imagination, and above all, sonority for the instruments for which it was written.” Large, homophonic, almost orchestral sonorities contribute to the unique textures of this work, though the quartet is hardly devoid of counterpoint. The first movement begins with a brief slow introduction with forceful unisons that presents the main idea, one that will be treated cyclically in the remainder of the work. This idea is a self-borrowing, from his song Spillemaend (“Minstrels” or “Fiddlers”), Op. 25 No. 1 (1876). The second movement is a Romanze, with highly contrasting slow and fast sections. The third movement Intermezzo is structured 4 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Peck School of the Arts
P R O G R A M N O T E S ( c o n t .) in the manner of a scherzo and trio. The main section is a short sonata form in itself, and the trio is a set of variations on an eight-measure phrase based on a Norwegian dance, the halling. And the Finale begins, like the first movement, with a slow introduction that is marked by imitative entries, and this gives way to a Presto al Saltarello in a form resembling the sonata-rondo. T H E F I N E A R T S Q UA R T E T The Fine Arts Quartet, now celebrating its 65th anniversary, is one of the most distinguished ensembles in chamber music today, with an illustrious history of performing success and an extensive recording legacy. Founded in Chicago in 1946, and based at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee since 1963, the Quartet is one of the elite few to have recorded and toured internationally for over half a century. Three of the Quartet’s artists, violinists Ralph Evans and Efim Boico, and cellist Wolfgang Laufer, had performed together for nearly 30 years, up to the time of Laufer’s untimely death on June 8, 2011. Violist Nicolò Eugelmi joined the Quartet in 2009. Each season, the Fine Arts Quartet tours worldwide, with concerts in such musical centers as New York, London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Madrid, Moscow, Tokyo, Beijing, Istanbul, Jerusalem, Mexico City, and Toronto. The Quartet has recorded more than 200 works, over 80 of them with Evans, Boico, and Laufer. Their latest releases on Naxos include: the world premiere recording of Efrem Zimbalist’s Quartet in its 1959 revised edition, the world premiere digital recording of Eugène Ysaÿe’s long-lost masterpiece for quartet and string orchestra, “Harmonies du Soir”; Fritz Kreisler’s String Quartet, the two Saint-Saëns String Quartets, three Beethoven String Quintets; the Franck String Quartet and Piano Quintet; Fauré Piano Quintets; complete Bruckner chamber music; complete Mendelssohn String Quintets; “Four American Quartets” by Antheil, Herrmann, Glass, Evans; complete Schumann Quartets; and the Glazunov String Quintet and Novelettes. Aulos Musikado released their complete Dohnányi String Quartets and Piano Quintets, and Lyrinx released both their complete early Beethoven Quartets and complete Mozart String Quintets in SACD format. Releases planned for 2012 on Naxos include three of Robert Schumann’s greatest chamber works: the Piano Quintet, Piano Quartet, and Märchenerzählungen. The Quartet’s recent recordings have received many distinctions. Their Fauré Quintets CD on Naxos with pianist Cristina Ortiz was singled out by the 2011 Gramophone Classical Music Guide as a “Gramophone award-winner and recording of legendary status”, and was among the recordings for which musical producer Steven Epstein won a 2009 Grammy® Award (“Producer of the Year, Classical”). The Quartet’s Franck CD was named “Editor’s Choice” by Gramophone Magazine in February, 2010, and their Glazunov, Mendelssohn, and Fauré CD’s were each named a “Recording of the Year” by Musicweb International (2007-2009). In addition, their “Four American Quartets” album was designated a “BBC Music Magazine Choice” in 2008, their Schumann CD was named “one of the very finest chamber music recordings of the year” by the American Record Guide in 2007, and their Mozart Quintets SACD box set was named a “Critic’s Choice 2003” by the American Record Guide. Nearly all of the Quartet’s Naxos CDs were selected for Grammy® Awards entry lists in the “Best Classical Album” and/or “Best Chamber Music Performance” categories. Special recognition was given for the Quartet’s commitment to contemporary music: a 2003-2004 national CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, given jointly by Chamber Music America and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers. Fine Arts Quartet | Chamber Music 5
T H E F I N E A R T S Q UA R T E T ( c o n t .) The Quartet members have helped form and nurture many of today’s top international young ensembles. They have been guest professors at the national music conservatories of Paris and Lyon, as well as at the summer music schools of Yale University and Indiana University. They also appear regularly as jury members of major competitions such as Evian, Shostakovich, and Bordeaux. Documentaries on the Fine Arts Quartet have appeared on both French and American Public Television. For more information on the Quartet, please visit: www.fineartsquartet.org. BIOGR APHIES RALPH EVANS, violinist, prizewinner in the 1982 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, concertized as soloist throughout Europe and North America before succeeding Leonard Sorkin as first violinist of the Fine Arts Quartet. Evans has recorded over 85 solo and chamber works to date. These include the two Bartók Sonatas for violin and piano, whose performance the New York Times enthusiastically recommended for its “searching insight and idiomatic flair,” and three virtuoso violin pieces by Lukas Foss with the composer at the piano. Evans received four degrees including a doctorate from Yale University, where he graduated cum laude with a specialization in music, mathematics, and premed. While a Fulbright scholar in London, he studied with Szymon Goldberg and Nathan Milstein, and soon won the top prize in a number of major American competitions, including the Concert Artists Guild Competition in New York, and the National Federation of Music Clubs National Young Artist Competition. His award winning composition “Nocturne” has been performed on American Public Television and his String Quartet No.1, recently released on the Naxos label, has been warmly greeted in the press (“rich and inventive” - Toronto Star; “whimsical and clever, engaging and amusing” - All Music Guide; “vigorous and tuneful” - Montreal Gazette; “seductive, modern sonorities” - France Ouest; “a small masterpiece” - Gli Amici della Musica).
EFIM BOICO, violinist, enjoys an international career that has included solo appearances under conductors Zubin Mehta, Carlo Maria Guilini, Claudio Abbado and Erich Leinsdorf, and performances with Daniel Barenboim, Radu Lupu and Pinchas Zuckerman. After receiving his musical training in his native Russia, he emigrated in 1967 to Israel, where he was appointed principal second violin of the Israel Philharmonic - a position he held for eleven years. In 1971, he joined the Tel Aviv Quartet as second violinist, touring the world with guest artists such as André Previn and Vladimir Ashkenazy. In 1979, Boico was appointed concertmaster and soloist of the Orchestre de Paris under Daniel Barenboim, positions he held until 1983, when he joined the Fine Arts Quartet. Boico has been guest professor at the Paris and Lyons Conservatories in France, and the Yehudi Menuhin School in Switzerland. He is also a frequent juror representing the United States in the prestigious London, Evian, and Shostakovich Quartet Competitions. As music professor at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, he has received numerous awards, including the Wisconsin Public Education Professional Service Award for distinguished music teaching, and the Arts Recognition and Talent Search Award from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts.
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B I O G R A P H I E S ( c o n t .) NICOLÒ EUGELMI, violist, joined the Fine Arts Quartet in July, 2009. He is described by The Strad magazine as “a player of rare perception, with a keen ear for timbres and a vivid imagination.” As soloist, recitalist, and member of chamber ensembles, he has performed around the world, collaborating most notably with conductors Mario Bernardi, Jean-Claude Casadesus, and Charles Dutoit. Eugelmi completed his musical training at the University of British Columbia and the Juilliard School. In 1999, he was appointed associate principal violist of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, and in 2005, he became principal violist of the Canadian Opera Company. Eugelmi’s recording, Brahms: Sonatas and Songs, was named a “Strad Selection” by The Strad, and his recording, Brahms Lieder, a collaboration with Marie-Nicole Lemieux, was named “Editor’s Choice” by Gramophone. He has recorded regularly for the CBC and Radio-Canada. His mentor, Gerald Stanick, was a member of the Fine Arts Quartet from 1963 to 1968. ROBERT COHEN, guest cellist. Following his Royal Festival Hall debut at the age of 12, Robert Cohen burst onto the international scene at the age of 19 with a recording of the Elgar Cello Concerto which earned a silver disc and placed him at the forefront of his musical generation. Subsequently he has consolidated an award-winning discography ranging from solo Bach, (and the Schubert Quintet with the Amadeus Quartet for DGG) to the concertos of Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, Beamish and HK Gruber and a comprehensive British series for DECCA. The creative give-and-take of the concert hall remains Cohen’s first love however. As a busy performing artist his career takes
him to the USA, Europe, Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, Australia, Japan and the UK. He has performed with such conductors as Claudio Abbado, Maris Jansons, Riccardo Muti and Sir Simon Rattle and his enthusiasm for chamber music provides the bedrock of the Charleston Manor Festival, which he has directed since 1989. Cohen’s passionate and articulate views on the art of learning, performing and communicating music have stimulated illuminating master classes and have been widely broadcast and published. He is a professor at the Royal Academy of Music, London and at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano. In November 2009, Cohen gave the world premiere of Sally Beamish’s Cello Concerto No.2 “The Song Gatherer.” Co-commissioned by the Minnesota and Hallé Orchestras, the piece was specially written to mark Cohen’s 50th birthday. Osmo Vänskä conducted the Minneapolis first performance and Sir Mark Elder and the Hallé will give the UK premiere in December 2010. Cohen has also recently launched two new ventures:“Robert Cohen’s Cello Clinic” (www.celloclinic.com), is a unique personal service giving musicians access to in-depth, specialist diagnosis and resolution of physical and performing issues; Cohen Pod Talks, (www.cohenpodtalks. com) offers a ground breaking series of podcasts in which Cohen talks to leading figures in the arts, politics and business. Cohen was recently invited by eminent film producer Don Boyd to become “curator” of a classical music channel of HiBrow.TV, a new arts based internet global website to be launched in Spring 2010. As soloist, conductor, chamber musician and inspirational teacher, Robert Cohen’s music-making takes him all over the world; holding, as The Guardian observed, audiences “in the palm of his hand”. He plays the ‘Ex Roser’ cello by David Tecchler. Rome 1723. Fine Arts Quartet | Chamber Music 7
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N o v e m b e r 1 0 , 2 0 11 8 p m Helen Bader Concert Hall
PROGR A M Sonata No. 4 in C Major, Op. 102, No. 1 (1815).............................Ludwig van Beethoven Andante-Allegro Vivace 1770-1827 Adagio-Tempo d’Andante-Allegro Vivace Stefan Kartman, cello Jeannie Yu, piano Trio in G Minor, Op. 63 (1819).............................................................Carl Maria von Weber Allegro Moderato 1786-1826 Scherzo: Allegro Vivace Schafers Klage: Andante Espressivo Finale: Allegro Caen Thomason-Redus, flute Stefan Kartman, cello Elena Abend, piano - Intermission -
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P R O G R A M ( c o n t .) Morgenmusik von Turm zu blasen (1932)...................................................Paul Hindemith Musiktag: Mässig bewegt 1895-1963 Lied: Langsame Viertel Bewegt Kevin Hartman, trumpet Josh Haake, trumpet Gregory Flint, horn Mark Hoelscher, bass trombone Notturno, Op. 112 (1870).......................................................................................Carl Reinecke 1824-1910 Gregory Flint, horn Jeffry Peterson, piano Elegie (1921)....................................................................................................... Ferruccio Busoni 1866-1924 Todd Levy, clarinet Elena Abend, piano Wind Quintet in G Minor, Op. 56, No. 2................................................................ Franz Danzi Allegretto 1763-1826 Andante Menuetto: Allegretto Allegretto Caen Thomason-Redus, flute Margaret Butler, oboe Todd Levy, clarinet Theodore Soluri, bassoon Gregory Flint, horn Supported in part by the William F. Vilas Trust and the Greater Milwaukee Foundation’s Dr. Abraham B. and Irma F. Schwartz Fund. PROGR A M NOTES Timothy Noonan-Senior Lecturer, Music History and Literature Beethoven, Sonata No. 4 in C Major for Cello and Piano, Op. 102 No. 1 Beethoven’s first two cello sonatas, the Op. 5 of 1796, stand as the earliest works of their kind in the repertoire. The cello’s role in earlier music was largely connected with providing harmonic foundation, and solo roles for the instrument were uncommon. As Mozart’s mature sonatas for violin and piano were the earliest prominent works for violin with a written-out, substantial piano part, so Beethoven inaugurated the tradition of the cello sonata. After Op. 5, written early in his career, he was to compose three more. Op. 69 followed in 1807-08, and in 1815 he wrote the last two, grouped as Op. 102. These five works stand with the solo suites of Bach among the staples of the cellist’s repertoire. “It is so original that no one can understand it on first hearing.” So wrote Michael Frey, Hofkapellmeister at Mannheim, about Beethoven’s Fourth Cello Sonata. The autograph manuscript of the sonata is dated “toward the end of July 1815,” 10 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Peck School of the Arts
P R O G R A M N O T E S ( c o n t .) and he titled the work a “free sonata.” That it is freer than its companion, Op. 102 No. 2 (titled simply “sonata”), is evident in the respective layout of the sonatas’ movements. While no. 2 is a conventional fast-slow-fast cycle, no. 1 is organized most distinctively. The first movement begins with the cello alone, like the Third Sonata, Op. 69, presenting an idea that comes to take on considerable significance in the totality of the work. The tempo is Andante, and the passage gives way to a concise Allegro vivace in sonata form. Yet the introduction is tonally very unconventional. It ostensibly begins in the home key, though the key of C is not stated explicitly at the beginning. And the introduction ends in the tonic, not the conventional dominant—but the Allegro vivace that follows is in A minor, not C major, and the structure that ensues is in keeping with the traditional treatment of A minor. The music that follows appears initially to be the slow movement. Marked Adagio, it is replete with ornamental gestures, and proves to be more an interlude than a full slow movement. This Adagio, only nine measures long, gives way to a return of the material that began the sonata, a cyclic return of seven measures that leads to the finale, a lighthearted sonata form movement in the home key of C. Its fugal development section might be viewed as a counterpart to the fugal finale of Op. 102 No. 2. Further, the overall shape of the Fourth Sonata, including the cyclic return of its opening idea, is also to be found in the Piano Sonata in A major, Op. 101, written in the same period, and it has been suggested that the three works that comprise Beethoven’s Opp. 101 and 102 form a trilogy. Weber, Trio for Flute, Cello and Piano, Op. 63, J. 259 After a four-year stay in Prague, Carl Maria von Weber took on the post of Kapellmeister (music director) at Dresden early in 1817. His goal of establishing a company to perform opera in German was not fully successful, owing largely to difficulties in securing prominent singers. His first opera composed at Dresden was his most celebrated, Der Freischütz, written in 1817-21. It was also the period of the Jubel-Ouvertüre (1818), the Aufforderung zum Tanze (Invitation to the Dance, 1819), and the present trio, begun in 1818, completed on July 25, 1819 at his summer cottage at Hosterwitz, and published in 1820. The trio is dedicated to one Dr. Jungh, an amateur cellist. The first movement is in sonata form, beginning with a dotted theme in the cello and flute as the piano supports in regular eighth notes. The piano soon takes up the theme to a unison climax, followed by a soaring idea that leads to the clearly articulated second theme. These materials are treated with considerable virtuosity in the development section, whereupon the recapitulation begins, unexpectedly, with the second theme. Weber quietly closes the movement with a return of the opening, absent at the recapitulation. The second movement Scherzo opens with staccato chords answered by the piano’s double octaves, and there follows a waltz-like theme played by the flute. Some of the cello’s accompaniment is played pizzicato. The third movement, called the “Schäfers Klage” (Shepherd’s Lament), begins with a pleasing melody in the flute which is then taken up by the solo piano. A portion of the movement shifts to D major, and then the flute and cello play the main theme as a duet. In the finale, the piano’s initial statement supplies the array of motivic ideas upon which the movement is based, including the first five notes, which will serve as the subject for a fugal passage in the development section. Then the flute enters with a new Fine Arts Quartet | Chamber Music 11
P R O G R A M N O T E S ( c o n t .) theme in the major key. In a section of the recapitulation marked “scherzando” a motive from the piano’s initial statement, originally deep in the bass, returns high in the flute, while the piano maintains a tonic pedal. The conclusion of the trio is loud and brilliant. Hindemith, Plöner Musiktag: “Morgenmusik von Turm zu blasen” In 1927 Paul Hindemith began teaching composition at the Berlin Musikhochschule, though political changes led to his resignation from that post in 1937, whereupon he made his first visit to the United States. He moved to this country for good in 1940, and led a distinguished career teaching at Yale University. During his years at Berlin, he received an invitation from the students at a music school in the city of Plön, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, to visit the school and hear their music. He accepted the invitation and planned a new composition for the occasion. Titled Plöner Musiktag (A Day of Music at Plön), it was a work to be prepared and rehearsed during a June 1932 festival at the school. It consists of nine pieces of instrumental and choral music to be performed over the course of the day. It began with the piece we hear today, the “Morgenmusik von Turm zu blasen” (Morning Music Played from the Tower), a fanfare to be performed from the top of the tower at the school. During lunch, students performed an instrumental suite titled “Tafelmusik,” or music for the table. After that, a cantata titled Mahnung an die Jugend, sich der Musik zu befleissigen (Admonition to Youth to Apply Themselves to Music) was performed, and in the day ended with the evening concert (“Abendkonzert”), consisting of six instrumental pieces. The Plöner Musiktag is among the latest examples of Hindemith’s so-called Gebrauchsmusik (music for use), later called Sing- und Spielmusik (music to sing and play), an important concept in Hindemith’s work that emphasizes music-making as a group activity. Hindemith believed that even serious composers should write light music for people to enjoy. Reinecke, Notturno for Horn and Piano, Op. 112 Carl Reinecke was an important figure in German musical life in the nineteenth century. During his stay in Leipzig, he was acquainted with Mendelssohn, the Schumanns, and Liszt, and while in Paris he taught Liszt’s daughter Cosima. Beginning in 1860, he taught at the Leipzig Conservatory, becoming its director in 1897. As director, Reinecke strove to maintain classical traditions and improve the curriculum. He was interested in the music of the past, especially Palestrina and Bach, and as pianist frequently performed the works of Mozart. He wrote over 40 cadenzas for concertos by Mozart, Beethoven, and others. He also served as conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra until 1895, and upon his retirement in 1902, became more active in composition. Reinecke is best known as a composer of piano music, though his sonata for flute and piano titled Undine (1882) is his most often performed work today. The Notturno for Horn and Piano, which dates from 1870-71, begins with a gentle and melodious A section that is contrasted with a more vigorous B section. The A section then returns and, while the coda recalls the energetic middle section, the piece ends peacefully.
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P R O G R A M N O T E S ( c o n t .) Busoni, Elegie for Clarinet and Piano During his lifetime the compositions of Ferruccio Busoni received somewhat less attention than his virtuosic pianism. He gave six recitals in Berlin playing the music of Liszt, a repertoire in which he specialized, and in 1912 he played an eight-concert series in Italy that traced the history of keyboard writing since Bach. It is only in recent times that scholars have revealed his importance as a composer. In the period when the Elegie was composed, Busoni began teaching a master class in composition at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin. In his mid-fifties, his health was failing, and by 1922 he was no longer able to concertize. When he died in 1924, aged 58, his final project, the opera Doktor Faust, was just two scenes short of completion. The Elegie was Busoni’s final chamber work. The composer dedicated it as a birthday gift to the Swiss clarinetist Edmondo Allegra, also the dedicatee of his Clarinet Concertino. It was published in 1921 without an opus number. The piece originated in a sketch of just 13 measures that Busoni wrote while in London in September 1919, and at that point he considered the material as having potential for use in Doktor Faust. When he went to Zurich in January 1920, he took the sketch with him, completed it, and gave it the title Elegie for Clarinet and Piano. With flowing melody and simple accompaniment, it incorporates Busoni’s characteristic shifts between major and minor keys. Danzi, Wind Quintet in G Minor, Op. 56 No. 2 As a boy Franz Danzi played in the Mannheim Orchestra. When the orchestra moved to Munich in 1778, he remained in Mannheim, studying with composer and theorist Georg Joseph Vogler and writing some of his early theatrical works. Then, in 1784, he went to Munich, where he became principal cellist in the court orchestra. From there, he went to Stuttgart where he worked as Kapellmeister in 1807-12, and where he met Weber and encouraged the younger composer’s early operatic efforts. From there, he went to Karlsruhe, taking up the position of Kapellmeister and composing a substantial body of chamber music. Danzi’s nine woodwind quintets, published in sets of three, Opp. 56, 67, and 68, are his best known works today. The second quintet, Op. 56 No. 2, is a graceful and charming work, in spite of its minor key. The first movement begins with a staccato back-and-forth idea that is then used widely over the course of the movement. The second movement, in E-flat major, begins with lyrical melodic parts for the horn and then the oboe, extending the untroubled character of the previous movement. The Minuet and Trio, somewhat quicker than many minuets, returns to the home key of G minor, as Danzi plays with the traditional 3/4 meter with suggestions of 2/4. The trio section is an accompanied solo for the flute, and thereupon the minuet makes its return. The flute also presents the rhythmic main theme of the finale, a movement that affords the bassoonist an opportunity to shine in some quick accompanimental figures. Though the movement begins in the home key of G minor, it ends in the major, in keeping with the galant nature of the work as a whole.
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BIOGR APHIES Elena Abend, piano Born in Caracas, Venezuela, pianist Elena Abend is well known as a soloist and chamber musician. She has performed with all the major orchestras of her country and has recorded with the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Venezuela. As the recipient of a scholarship from the Venezuelan Council for the Arts, Ms Abend studied at the Juilliard School, where she received her Bachelor and Master degrees. She was awarded the William Schuman Prize for outstanding achievement given to a single graduate student of her class. She has performed at the Purcell Room in London’s Royal Festival Hall, Avery Fisher Hall in New York’s Lincoln Center, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and the Academy of Music with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Other engagements have included the Wigmore Hall in London, the Toulouse Conservatoire and the Theatre Luxembourg in France, the Corcoran Gallery in Washington D.C., the United Nations, Merkin Concert Hall in New York, Chicago Cultural Center, Pabst Theater in Milwaukee, Atlanta Historical Society, and the Teresa Carreno Cultural Center in Caracas. Other chamber music collaborations include performances at the Ravinia and Marlboro Music Festivals, as well as live broadcasts on Philadelphia’s WFLN, The Dame Myra Hess Concert Series on Chicago’s WFMT and Wisconsin Public Radio at the Elvehjem Museum in Madison. Ms Abend has been on the Faculty of the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, Indiana University’s String Academy summer program and the Milwaukee Chamber Music Festival. An active performer in the Milwaukee area, Ms. Abend has performed on the Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra Series at Schwan Concert Hall, Piano Chamber, New Generations, Music from Almost Yesterday, and the Yolanda Marculescu Vocal Art Series at the UWM. She has performed with Present Music Now and the Frankly Music Series, as well as being an invited guest on several
occasions to perform with the Fine Arts Quartet. She recorded a CD with clarinetist Todd Levy performing music of Brahms and Schumann for the Avie Label, as well as numerous CD projects for the Hal Leonard Corporation. She is currently on the faculty at the University of WisconsinMilwaukee where she teaches piano and chamber music. Margaret Butler, oboe Oboist Margaret Butler grew up in Rhode Island where she began her studies on the recorder and flute. A love for the sound of the Baroque oboe led her to study the modern oboe. She received her Bachelor of Music degree from the New England Conservatory of Music and her Master of Music degree from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. Margaret participated in the Ban! Summer Music Festival where she was a featured soloist and has also played in Graz, Austria with the American Institute of Musical Studies. She was principal oboist for the Florida Grand Opera, Miami City Ballet and Palm Beach Opera before joining the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in 2002. In 2007, she played principal oboe for the Santa Fe Opera Company and participated as a soloist in the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. The following Spring she was invited to play as guest principal oboist for the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. In addition to performing with the Milwaukee Symphony, Margaret is principal oboist for the Milwaukee Ballet Orchestra and is on faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Gregory Flint, horn Gregory Flint is associate professor of horn at the University of WisconsinMilwaukee and co-director of the Chamber Music Milwaukee concert series. As a performer, he is currently principal horn with the Elgin Symphony, the Chicago Jazz Orchestra, Present Music of Milwaukee and the Fulcrum Point New Music Project. He often performs with the Milwaukee
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B I O G R A P H I E S ( c o n t .) Symphony, and has also appeared with the Chicago Symphony, Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Honolulu Symphony, the Florida Orchestra, and the Ravinia Festival Orchestra. A busy chamber musician, Flint is a founding member of the critically acclaimed Asbury Brass Quintet, hornist with the Tower Brass of Chicago, and has also toured regularly with the Prairie Winds and the Chicago Brass Quintet. Past summers have included solo appearances in Spain, Costa Rica and South America. Gregory currently spends his summer months in New Mexico as a member of the Santa Fe Opera orchestra. Joshua Haake, trumpet Joshua Haake is currently a Masters student in trumpet performance at UW-Milwaukee. From 2002 - 2011 he was the Director of Bands at Port Washington High School and still maintains some teaching duties at the University. As a performer, Joshua has played with such groups as the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra, St. Cloud Symphony Orchestra, Fargo/ Moorhead Symphony Orchestra, and Kettle Moraine Symphony Orchestra. He has also performed with the Lakeshore Symphonic Band, Northernaires Big Band, Ozaukee Big Band, Absolute Brass Quintet, as well as the Washington Brass Quintet. As an avid learner, he has sought out and participated in numerous master classes with performers such as Jouko Harjanna, Bobby Shew, Vince DiMartino and Adolph Herseth. Joshua currently resides in Milwaukee with his wife Rachel, and two sons Liam and Lukas. Kevin Hartman, trumpet Kevin Hartman maintains a very active performance schedule in addition to his teaching duties. He performs frequently with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and has played on numerous concerts, recordings
and tours with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, including two Grammy winning recordings. Conductors he has worked for include Sir Georg Solti, Pierre Boulez, Bernard Haitink, Daniel Barenboim, Claudio Abbado, Zubin Mehta, Christoph Eschenbach, Michael Tilson Thomas, and many others. He has served as principal trumpet with the Wichita Symphony Orchestra, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic, the Ravinia Festival Orchestra, the Lancaster Festival Orchestra, and assistant principal with the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra. He has also performed with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. He is a member of the Fulcrum Point New Music Project, a founding member of the Asbury Brass Quintet and was formerly a member of the Chicago Brass Quintet. On the commercial side, he has spent countless hours in the theater pits of Chicago during runs of Billy Elliot, Mary Poppins, Showboat, Beauty and the Beast, Miss Saigon, West Side Story, and has performed with Doc Severinsen, Arturo Sandoval, Celine Dion, Peter Cetera, Josh Groban, Andrea Bocelli, Enrique Eglasias, Dennis DeYoung, Yes, the Temptations, the Manhattan Transfer and many others. Mark Hoelscher, bass trombone Bass trombonist Mark Hoelscher is a member of the Chicago-based Millar Brass Ensemble and is an Edwards artist/clinician. He freelances with groups in the Chicago, Milwaukee, and Madison areas and is an active teacher and coach. Mark holds a Master’s Degree in trombone performance from Kent State University and an undergraduate degree in trombone from Wichita State University. As a fellowship recipient at the Aspen Music Festival, he performed with the Festival Jazz Ensemble, Chamber Symphony and Festival Orchestra and studied chamber music with American Brass Quintet. He is an active studio musician and has toured nationally and internationally with classical and pops orchestras, as well as big Fine Arts Quartet | Chamber Music 15
B I O G R A P H I E S ( c o n t .) bands and touring shows. Hoelscher has performed with the Hamilton Philharmonic and Symphony Hamilton (Hamilton Ontario, Canada), the Canton Symphony, and was a member of the Wichita Symphony. Since moving to Milwaukee in 1993, he has performed with such groups as the Chicago Sinfonietta, Milwaukee Symphony, Elgin Symphony, Chicago Civic Orchestra, Milwaukee Ballet Orchestra, Present Music, Madison Symphony Orchestra, and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. Stefan Kartman, cello Stefan Kartman is currently associate professor of cello and chamber music at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee. In addition to solo performance, he has performed to critical acclaim as cellist of the Kneisel Trio and the Florestan Duo. He has given performances and master classes in conservatories and schools of music worldwide including the Cleveland Institute of Music (USA), the Xiamen Conservatory of Music (China), and the D’Albaco Conservatory of Music (Italy), among many others. An avid chamber music enthusiast, Dr. Kartman has served on the faculties of the Alfred University Summer Chamber Music Institute, the MidAmerica Chamber Music Festival, the Troy Youth Chamber Music Institute, the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, and was artistic director of the Milwaukee Chamber Music Festival. His early training in chamber music was with his
father, Myron Kartman, of the Antioch String Quartet and during his formal training as a chamber musician, he studied with members of the Guarneri and Juilliard String Quartets and the Beaux Arts Trio. Stefan Kartman received degrees from Northwestern University, The Juilliard School of Music, and his doctorate from Rutgers University. He has been teaching assistant to Harvey Shapiro and Zara Nelsova of the Juilliard School and proudly acknowledges the pedagogical heritage of his teachers Shapiro, Nelsova, Bernard Greenhouse, Alan Harris, and Anthony Cooke. Todd Levy, clarinet Principal clarinet of the MSO and The Santa Fe Opera orchestras, two-time Grammy Award winner Todd Levy has performed as a soloist at Carnegie Hall, Mostly Mozart, with the Israel Philharmonic, and at the White House; as chamber musician with members of the Guarneri, Juilliard, Orion, Miami quartets, James Levine, Christoph Eschenbach, and Mitsuko Uchida; and as guest principal clarinet with the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera, and frequently for Seiji Ozawa and Ricardo Muti in Japan. He has performed world premiere concerti or chamber works by composers such as John Harbison, Joan Tower, Peter Schickele, Paquito D’Rivera, Morton Subotnick, and Marc Neikrug and performs on the new release of Marc Neikrug’s Through Roses chamber work
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B I O G R A P H I E S ( c o n t .) with violinist Pinchas Zuckerman, actor John Rubenstein and the composer conducting. He has recorded the Brahms Clarinet Sonatas for Avie, and three educational book/CD’s of clarinet competition works for G. Schirmer/Hal Leonard, and a new edition/CD of the Bernstein Clarinet Sonata for Boosey and Hawkes/ Hal Leonard. He performs exclusively on Vandoren reeds, mouthpieces, and ligatures, and Selmer Signature clarinets. He is also on the faculty of UW-Milwaukee and is co-director of Chamber Music Milwaukee. For a more complete biography, visit toddlevy.org. Jeffry Peterson, piano Jeffry Peterson is best known for his work in the field of collaborative piano and has performed throughout the United States with such celebrated singers as Yolanda Marculescu, Erie Mills, Evelyn Lear and Kurt Ollmann. Peterson performs regularly on UWM’s Chamber Music Milwaukee series; other notable performances include a recital with soprano Mary Elizabeth Williams at the Mateus Festival in Portugal and performances with Erie Mills, soprano, and James Tocco, pianist, at the John Downey Festival in London. Recording credits include collaborations with Yolanda Marculescu-Stern, an album of American flute music with Robert Goodberg, and the Something to Sing About choral anthology for G. Schirmer. His CD with the renowned soprano Erie Mills, Always It’s Spring (VAI audio),
includes three songs by John Downey. Songs of Love and Longing, with soprano Valerie Errante, was released on Albany Classics in 2008, and Skyborn Music, with the Milwaukee Choral Artists, will be released on the Gothic label in fall 2009. Peterson is professor of piano at UWM and often performs with the UWM voice faculty. He founded UWM’s Vocal Arts Series. He chairs the graduate program in vocal accompanying and recently introduced a new Bachelor’s degree in Collaborative Piano at UWM. Theodore Soluri, bassoon Theodore Soluri has been the principal bassoonist of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra since 2004. Prior to this appointment, he held the same position with the Canton Symphony Orchestra (Ohio), the Akron Symphony Orchestra, and the Wheeling Symphony (West Virginia). Mr. Soluri is also the principal bassoonist of the Santa Fe Opera. As a soloist, Mr. Soluri has performed numerous works, including Mozart’s Concerto for Bassoon, Carl Maria von Weber’s Bassoon Concerto, Ferdinand David’s Concertino, Richard Strauss’s Duett-concertino, and Michael Daugherty’s Dead Elvis. Mr. Soluri has performed at many music festivals including the National Repertory Orchestra, the National Orchestral Institute, The Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute, the Solti Orchestral Project at Carnegie Hall, the
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B I O G R A P H I E S ( c o n t .) Grand Teton Music Festival, and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. Mr. Soluri has performed with the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Grant Park Orchestra among others. He was also invited to play with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on their East Coast tour in 2005 and has played with them several times since. In the summer of 2006, Mr. Soluri was invited to perform two recitals at the International Double Reed Society (IDRS) Conference in Muncie, IN. He also performed at the IDRS conference in the summer of 2010 in Norman, OK and will be performing at the 2011 conference in Tempe, AZ. Mr. Soluri received his Bachelor of Music degree from The Florida State University and his Master of Music degree from The Cleveland Institute of Music. He plays Fox bassoons and owns a 101 and red maple 601. Mr. Soluri is a Fox Artist. Caen Thomason-Redus, flute Caen Thomason-Redus performed two seasons with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra as the minority fellow and previously served as principal flute of the Evansville Philharmonic, Owensboro Symphony and Missouri Chamber Orchestras. Caen held teaching positions at the University of Evansville, Wayne State University, San Francisco Conservatory Summer Music West, and the Sphinx Preparatory Academy which provides free music education to African-American youth
in Detroit. Caen is an active recitalist and chamber musician with a particular interest in early music, contemporary music, and the music of other cultures. Caen earned performance degrees from Rice University (MM) and the University of Redlands (BM) with additional studies at the University of Michigan and the Mozarteum Akademie in Salzburg, Austria. His primary instructors were Leone Buyse, Candice Palmberg and Yaada Weber. Caen regularly presents recitals and master classes around the country and together with his wife, hornist Kristi Crago, develops music outreach programs that bring music closer to people of all backgrounds and ages. Jeannie Yu, piano Jeannie Yu is an award-winning pianist who is equally at home with chamber music, collaborative arts, and solo performances. She has performed as soloist with the Flint Symphony, Portland Symphony, Marina del ReyWestchester Symphony, Des Moines Symphony, Des Moines Brandenburg Symphony, the Xiamen Symphony Orchestra(China), Sheboygan Symphony Orchestra, and the Milwaukee Ballet Orchestra. She is an avid chamber musician who is an associate member of the Rembrandt Chamber Players in Chicago. She received her Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees from the Juilliard School, and her Doctorate Degree from the Peabody Conservatory.
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D E PA R TM E N T O F M U S I C FAC U LT Y A N D T E AC H I N G S TA F F Ensembles John Climer, Bands Scott Corley, Bands Margery Deutsch, Orchestras Curt Hanrahan, Jazz Band Gloria Hansen, Choirs Sharon Hansen, Choirs David Nunley, Choirs Paul Thompson, Choirs Guitar Peter Baime Beverly Belfer Pete Billmann Elina Chekan René Izquierdo Don Linke John Stropes Harp Ann Lobotzke+ Jazz Studies Curt Hanrahan, Jazz Ensemble/ Jazz Arranging Steve Nelson-Raney, Jazz Theory and History Music Education Scott Emmons Sheila Feay-Shaw Jeffrey Garthee Beth Sacharski Bonnie Scholz Musicology and Ethnomusicology Mitchell Brauner Judith Kuhn Timothy Noonan Gillian Rodger Martin Jack Rosenblum Music Theory, Composition and Technology James Burmeister Christopher Burns Lou Cucunato William Heinrichs Jonathan Monhardt Steve Nelson-Raney Kevin Schlei Amanda Schoofs Jon Welstead*
Piano Elena Abend Judit Jaimes Leslie Krueger Peggy Otwell Jeffry Peterson María Valentina Schlei Strings Scott Cook, String Pedagogy^ Darcy Drexler, String Pedagogy^ Stefan Kartman, Cello Thomas McGirr, Jazz Bass Lewis Rosove, Viola Laura Snyder, String Bass+ Bernard Zinck, Violin Fine Arts Quartet Ralph Evans, Violin Efim Boico, Violin Nicolò Eugelmi, Viola Guest Artists, Cello Voice Kerry Bieneman Valerie Errante Jenny Gettel Constance Haas Tanya Kruse Ruck Kurt Ollmann Winds, Brass and Percussion Stephen Ahearn, Clarinet Dave Bayles, Percussion Dean Borghesani, Percussion+ Margaret Butler, Oboe+ Marty Erickson, Tuba & Euphonium Gregory Flint, Horn Beth Giacobassi, Bassoon+ Curt Hanrahan, Saxophone Kevin Hartman, Trumpet Mark Hoelscher, Trombone Todd Levy, Clarinet+ Ted Soluri, Bassoon+ Carl Storniolo, Percussion Caen Thomason-Redus, Flute Thomas Wetzel, Percussion+ *Department Chair +Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra ^String Academy of Wisconsin
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PECK SCHOOL OF THE ARTS Wade Hobgood......................................................................................................................... Dean Scott Emmons.......................................................................................................Associate Dean ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF Mary McCoy................................................................................................ Assistant to the Dean Sue Thomas...............................................................................................Administrative Officer Randall Holper..................................................................................................Facilities Manager Ellen Ash................................................................................Performance Programs Manager MARKETING AND DEVELOPMENT STAFF Ellen Friebert Schupper........................ Director, Marketing and Community Relations Diane Grace..............................................................................................Development Director Nicole Schanen........................................................................................... Marketing Specialist BOX OFFICE Tianna Conway............................................................................................. Box Office Manager Chris Ouchie, Nicholas Ouchie, ....................................................................... Box Office Staff. Lauren Messner, Chelsea Ottery, Samantha Roeming
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20 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Peck School of the Arts