Fine Arts Quartet Ralph Evans Violin
Efim Boico Violin
Wolfgang Laufer Cello
Nicolò Eugelmi Viola
Sunday, November 14, 2010, 3pm Helene Zelazo Center for the Performing Arts 2419 E. Kenwood Blvd.
UWM Peck School 1
Presented by Peck School of the Arts The Fine Arts Quartet 65th anniversary 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 WUWM 89.7 Additional Media Sponsors The Business Journal Serving Greater Milwaukee Wisconsin Gazette WMSE 91.7 FM Wisconsin Public Radio WHAD 90.7FM Guest Artists Sponsors Betty Bostrom Carol and Leonard Lewensohn Friends of the Fine Arts Quartet Anne Marie Adsen Gary A. Back Tessa Blumberg Susan De Witte Davie Darrell & Sally Foell Debra Franzke & James Theselius Bernice Funches-Mayes
Pinna Rea Katz Marianne King Marcia R. Kleinerman Robert M. Krauss Anna Marie Look Dr. Peter Lor Robert Mitchell
Thomas R. Niebler Eleanor B. Quint Kathleen E. Peebles Laura A. Sussman George W. Torphy
Donor listing as of 11-1-10 Attire for members of the Fine Arts Quartet has been generously provided by Mark Berman & Son. Latecomers will be seated at a suitable break in the performance. Audience members are kindly requested to turn off cellular phones, pagers, and watch alarms.
Ticket SPECIALS 2 UWM Peck School
Visit Footlights.com to check out the latest event discounts.
PROGR A M To honor the bicentennial of Robert Schumann’s birth, the Fine Arts Quartet is including two works by the master composer on today’s program. Märchenerzählungen (Fairy Tales), Op.132.....................................................Robert Schumann Lebhaft, nicht zu schnell (1810-1856) Lebhaft und sehr markiert Ruhiges Tempo, mit zartem Ausdruck Lebhaft, sehr markiert Efim Boico, violin Nicolò Eugelmi, viola Xiayin Wang, piano Piano Quartet in E flat major, Op.47..................................................................Robert Schumann Sostenuto assai - Allegro ma non troppo Scherzo: Molto vivace Andante cantabile Finale: Vivace Ralph Evans, violin Nicolò Eugelmi, viola Wolfgang Laufer, cello Xiayin Wang, piano -- Intermission -Piano Quintet in F Minor (1879)..................................................................................... César Franck Molto moderato quasi lento - Allegro (1822-1890) Lento, con molto sentimento Allegro non troppo, ma con fuoco Ralph Evans, violin Efim Boico, violin Nicolò Eugelmi, viola Wolfgang Laufer, cello Xiayin Wang, piano PROGRAM NOTES BY TIMOTHY NOONAN, LECTURER - MUSIC HISTORY & LITERATURE Schumann, Märchenerzählungen, Op. 132 In September 1850, after having worked in Dresden for two years, Robert Schumann and his wife Clara left for Düsseldorf. There, Robert took up a new post as music director of the orchestra and chorus of the Allgemeine Musikverein. It was not to be a long tenure, though, for his physical and emotional decline led to his institutionalization at Endenich in March 1854, where he died in July 1856. But the Düsseldorf years were creative ones; here he wrote the Third Symphony (“Rhenish”) Op. 97, several Lieder, and a group of new chamber works. The Märchenerzählungen (Fairy Tales) Op. 132 were composed in just three days in October 1853 and dedicated to Schumann’s friend and pupil Albert Dietrich. The work was originally scored for clarinet, viola, and piano, an unusual combination of instruments that represents three different families; perhaps Schumann was inspired by Mozart’s “Kegelstatt”Trio K. 498, scored for the same players. Schumann, however, also allowed for performances in which the violin replaces the clarinet, and it is this rarely heard version we present today. The Märchenerzählungen is a four-movement work, with outer movements in B-flat major and the inner two in G minor and G major, respectively, giving us the sense of a unified cycle, not merely a set of four pieces. The first movement, in a Brahmsian style (Brahms is known to have performed it publicly), places the lyrical lines in a clarinet-viola duet, giving the piano a largely accompanimental role. The second movement is vigorous and march-like, while the third movement features the interplay of the clarinet and viola with the piano’s upper voice, as the piano’s middle voice marks time with continuous sixteenth notes. The finale is in a more improvisaUWM Peck School 3
PROGRAM NOTES BY TIMOTHY NOONAN, LECTURER - MUSIC HISTORY & LITERATURE (cont.)
tory style and cast in an ABA form; the middle section in G-flat major features a rhythmic ostinato in the piano, before returning to the home key of B-flat major and ending with conviction. Schumann, Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 47 Early in 1842, Schumann was carrying out exercises in counterpoint and studying the string quartets of Haydn and Mozart in preparation for his plans to write quartets of his own. It was a period of depression and heavy drinking for the composer, and for a time, he was away from his wife as she performed in Copenhagen. On her return, they played quartets by the 18th-century masters together at the piano. In June and July, he composed his three quartets, Op. 41, and then he and his wife took a trip to Bohemia, on which occasion they met the celebrated statesman Klemens von Metternich. Upon returning home, he composed his famed Piano Quintet, completed in October, and worked on the present Piano Quartet in November. At the end of the year he wrote the Phantasistücke for piano trio, Op. 88, which he would revise in 1850. Thus concluded the year in which Schumann focused primarily on chamber music, creating many of his best known and widely loved works in that realm. The first movement of the Piano Quartet begins with a slow introduction of just 12 measures that anticipates the melodic shape of the four-note figure that begins the Allegro ma non troppo, an idea that is developed extensively over the course of the movement. After a secondary idea marked by an accented off-beat note and an ascending scale, the music of the slow introduction returns to herald the beginning of the development section. Schumann creates a great sense of expectation in the passages prior to the triumphant recapitulation, and the coda begins with another reference to the slow introduction. The second movement is a scherzo in the light and nimble manner of Mendelssohn. There are two trios, each making reference to the movement’s opening theme. The slow movement combines the structural ideas of ABA and variation. After a brief introduction, the cello sings the cantabile opening theme, marked with expressive leaps. Late in this movement the cellist is called on to play a long, sustained low B-flat; beyond the normal range of the instrument, this requires the player to retune the C string a step lower, a technique known as scordatura. The movement ends with a three-note figure, F down to B-flat up to B-flat, in the piano and then in the viola part. Schumann seizes upon this melodic shape for the main motive of the finale, marked Vivace, and the subsequent flurry of sixteenth notes forms the basis for a fugal passage that opens the movement, begun by the solo viola. The movement is structured somewhat in the manner of a rondo, with a brilliant coda bringing it to a close. Franck, Piano Quintet in F Minor Born in Liège, Belgium, César Franck was an important organist and educator in addition to his compositional activities. His works include two operas, the famed Symphony in D Minor, the Variations symphoniques for piano and orchestra, sacred music and songs, and a large body of piano music. In the area of chamber music, he is best known for three works: his String Quartet (1889), the Violin Sonata (1879), and the present Piano Quintet, also completed in 1879. The work received a successful premiere in January 1880 at the Société Nationale, and at the piano on that occasion was the composer Camille Saint-Saëns, to whom the work was dedicated. Saint-Saëns did not look on the work favorably, however, and refused to accept the manuscript dedicated to him. As the first movement’s slow introduction begins, we hear the strings sans piano in a loud statement marked “dramatico.” The solo piano responds with a soft and expressive line, and over the first few pages of the score, the two remain entirely segregated. Then they come together in dramatic fashion before the Allegro is initiated with flourishes in the piano and the bold, dotted main theme. Set in sonata form, the movement is replete with long, arching, romantic melodies; while this music calls for highly advanced players, the virtuosity of the parts always takes a back seat to pleasing, engaging, quality music. The slow second movement exemplifies a central trait of many of Franck’s mature works, the recurrence of certain melodic ideas in different movements. Here, Franck returns to a secondary theme from the first movement for a portion of the second. The singing A-minor slow movement is largely quiet and lyrical, though the quiet is broken in a fortississimo outburst toward the end. In the finale, the initial texture of rapid repeated figures in the violins gives way gradually to the presentation of a dotted theme in the unison strings with an active and virtuosic piano part. The dark minor mode of the opening gives way to F major for the final movement. Set in sonata form, the movement returns to the recurrent theme heard in the preceding movements and ends brilliantly with a series of unison Fs. 4 UWM Peck School
F I N E A R T S Q UA R T E T The Fine Arts Quartet, now approaching 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 current artists, violinists Ralph Evans, Efim Boico, and cellist Wolfgang Laufer, have now been performing together for over 25 years. 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 over 200 works, 75 of them with Evans, Boico, and Laufer. Their latest releases on Naxos include: 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 2011 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 longlost masterpiece for quartet and string orchestra, “Harmonies du Soir”; and Fritz Kreisler’s Quartet, as well as three Shostakovich quartets on Lyrinx. The Quartet’s recent recordings have received many distinctions. Their Franck CD was named “Editor’s Choice” by Gramophone Magazine (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 SACD box set was named a “Critic’s Choice 2003” by the American Record Guide. Many of their CD’s were also selected for Grammy® Awards entry lists in the “Best Classical Album” and “Best Chamber Music Performance” categories. The Quartet’s Fauré CD with pianist Cristina Ortiz was among the recordings for which musical producer Steven Epstein won a 2009 Grammy® Award (“Producer of the Year, Classical”). 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. 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.
UWM Peck School 5
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 80 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 6 UWM Peck School
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. 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. WOLFGANG LAUFER, cellist, is an acclaimed soloist throughout Europe and the Americas. He has appeared as guest artist with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Israel Broadcasting Orchestra, Israel Sinfonietta, Hanover Symphony
B I O G R A P H I E S ( c o n t .) Orchestra, Radio Orchestra of Hamburg, and Freiburg Philharmonic Orchestra, and has toured Europe with the Wührer Chamber Orchestra and the United States with the Israel Chamber Orchestra. As a solo recitalist, Laufer has performed throughout Europe, North America, and South America. He emigrated from his native Romania to Israel in 1961, and completed his musical studies at the Tel-Aviv Academy, subsequently serving as principal cellist and soloist with the Israel Chamber Orchestra, Malmo Symphony Orchestra of Sweden, Hamburg Philharmonic, and State Opera of Germany. Since 1979, Laufer has been a member of the Fine Arts Quartet and Professor of Cello at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. XIAYIN WANG, An artist with a winning combination of consummate technical brilliance, fine musicianship, and personal verve, pianist Xiayin Wang wins the hearts of audiences wherever she appears. As recitalist, chamber musician, and orches-
tral soloist in such venues as New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, she has already achieved a high level of recognition for her commanding performances. Ms. Wang’s latest solo album for the Naxos label features the Russian composer Aleksandr Scriabin in a range of works from his early Chopinesque period to such later compositions as Vers la Flamme, Op. 72 and Deux Danses, Op. 73. Ms. Wang completed studies at the Shanghai Conservatory and garnered an enviable record of first prize awards and special honors for her performances throughout China. Ms. Wang, who began piano studies at the age of five, subsequently came to New York in 1997 and, in 2000, was awarded the “Certificate of Achievement” by the Associated Music Teacher League of New York, winning an opportunity to perform at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall. She also pursued studies at the Manhattan School of Music and won the school’s Eisenberg Concerto Competition in 2002, as well as the Roy M. Rubinstein Award. Ms. Wang holds Bachelor’s, Master’s and Professional Studies degrees from the Manhattan School of Music. She is a Steinway Artist.
PECK SCHOOL OF THE ARTS Wade Hobgood........................................................................................................................................Dean Scott Emmons......................................................................................................................Associate Dean
A D M I N I S T R AT I V E S TA F F Mary McCoy...............................................................................................................Assistant to the Dean Sue Thomas..............................................................................................................Administrative Officer Randall Holper.................................................................................................................Facilities Manager
M A R K E T I N G A N D D E V E L O P M E N T S TA F F Ellen Friebert Schupper.......................................Director, Marketing and Community Relations Diane Grace............................................................................................................Director, Development Nicole Schanen..........................................................................................................Marketing Specialist Craig Kroeger....................................................................................................................Graphic Designer Regan Jacobson........................................................................................ Web Applications Developer
BOX OFFICE Jan Brooks..................................................................................................................... Box Office Manager Charles Hoehnen..................................................................................... Assistant Box Office Manager Katherine Feekin, Sarah Hernandez,............................................................................ Box Office Staff Natalie Kubicek, Stephanie Ninnermann, Chris Ouchie, April Paul, Samantha Roeming UWM Peck School 7
M U S I C D E PA R TM E N T 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 José Rivera, Choirs
Music Theory, Composition and Technology James Burmeister Christopher Burns Lou Cucunato William Heinrichs Jonathan Monhardt Steve Nelson-Raney Kevin Schlei Amanda Schoofs Jon Welstead*
Voice Valerie Errante Jenny Gettel Constance Haas Jamie Johns Tanya Kruse Ruck Kurt Ollmann Teresa Seidl
Winds, Brass and Percussion Guitar Dave Bayles, Percussion Peter Baime Dean Borghesani, Beverly Belfer Piano Percussion+ Pete Billmann Elena Abend Margaret Butler, Oboe+ Elina Chekan Judit Jaimes Stephen Colburn, Oboe+ René Izquierdo Leslie Krueger Marty Erickson, Tuba & Don Linke Peggy Otwell Euphonium John Stropes Jeffry Peterson Gregory Flint, Horn Katja Phillabaum Beth Giacobassi, Bassoon+ Harp Curt Hanrahan, Saxophone Ann Lobotzke+ Strings Kevin Hartman, Trumpet Scott Cook, String Mark Hoelscher, Trombone Jazz Studies Pedagogy^ Kyle Knox, Clarinet+ Curt Hanrahan, Jazz Darcy Drexler, String Todd Levy, Clarinet+ Ensemble/ Pedagogy^ Ted Soluri, Bassoon+ Jazz Arranging Stefan Kartman, Cello Carl Storniolo, Percussion Steve Nelson-Raney, Jazz Lewis Rosove, Viola Caen Thomason-Redus, Theory and History Laura Snyder, String Bass+ Flute Bernard Zinck, Violin Thomas Wetzel, Music Education Percussion+ Scott Emmons Fine Arts Quartet Sheila Feay-Shaw Ralph Evans, Violin *Department Chair Jeffrey Garthee Efim Boico, Violin +Milwaukee Symphony José Rivera Nicolò Eugelmi, Viola Orchestra Wolfgang Laufer, Cello ^String Academy of Music History and Wisconsin Literature Mitchell Brauner Judith Kuhn Timothy Noonan Gillian Rodger Martin Jack Rosenblum
Save the Dates!
Fine Arts Quartet 2011 Concerts February 6 and March 6 Free and open to the public! More events at: arts.uwm.edu Follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/uwmpsoa 8 UWM Peck School