09/22/2023, Balourdet Quartet with Jordan Bak, viola | Candler Concert Series

BALOURDET QUARTET with JORDAN BAK,

viola

Friday, September 22, 2023 | 8 p.m.

CANDLER CONCERT SERIES

This concert is presented by the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts and is made possible by a generous gift from the late Flora Glenn Candler, a friend and patron of music at Emory University.

404.727.5050 | schwartz.emory.edu | boxoffice@emory.edu

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Audience Information

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The Schwartz Center wishes to gratefully acknowledge the generous ongoing support of Donna and Marvin Schwartz.

Design and Photography Credits

Balourdet Quartet photos: Kevin W. Condon | Jordan Bak photos: Dario Acosta

Cover Design: Nick Surbey | Program Design: Lisa Baron

CONCERT SERIES

Balourdet Quartet with Jordan Bak, viola

Friday, September 22, 2023, 8:00 p.m.

Emerson Concert Hall

Schwartz Center for Performing Arts

Program

String Quintet No. 3 in C Major, K. 515

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

I. Allegro (1756–1791)

II. Menuetto. Allegretto

III. Andante

IV. (Allegro)

String Quintet No. 2 in B-flat Major, op. 87

Felix Mendelssohn

I. Allegro vivace (1809–1847)

II. Andante scherzando

III. Adagio e lento

IV. Allegro molto vivace

Intermission

String Quintet No. 2 in G Major, op. 111

Johannes Brahms

I. Allegro non troppo, ma con brio (1833–1897)

II. Adagio

III. Un poco Allegretto

IV. Vivace ma non troppo presto

Balourdet Quartet is a winner of the Concert Artists Guild International Competition and is represented by Concert Artists Guild, 12 East 49th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10017 concertartists.org

Jordan Bak is represented by Arts Management Group, 130 West 57th Street, Suite 6A, New York, NY 10019 • artsmg.com

Notes on the Program

String Quintet No. 3 in C Major, K. 515 (1787)

In spring 1781, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart left the service of the Court of his native Salzburg to make a living as a freelance musician in Vienna. Mozart’s Vienna career reached its apex in the mid-1780s. Mozart soon found himself in constant demand as a composer, performer, and teacher. However, the exhilaration of those triumphant years soon yielded to profound frustration and unhappiness. Mozart experienced a precipitate decline in the demands for his services in Vienna. In December 1787, Mozart and his family were forced to vacate their luxurious Vienna apartment, finally settling into far more humble lodgings in the northwest suburbs. Mozart was reduced to begging for money from acquaintances, principally Michael Puchberg, a fellow Mason and ardent music lover. One of the ways Mozart sought to repay Puchberg was by selling subscriptions to purchase scores of new compositions. In April 1788 in the Wiener Zeitung, Mozart advertised subscriptions to three String Quintets—C Major, K. 515 (completed April 19, 1787), G Minor, K. 516 (completed May 16, 1787), and C Minor, K. 516b (a 1788 arrangement of Mozart’s 1782 Serenade for Winds, K. 388).

In June 1788, Mozart wrote to Puchberg:

Your true friendship and brotherly love give me the necessary courage to ask you a big favor;—I still owe you eight ducats— but at present I am not only unable to pay it back, but my trust in you is so great that I dare ask you to help me out with another 100 gulden until next week (when my concerts start at the casino)—by that time I will definitely have received my subscription money and can easily pay you back the 136 gulden, together with my warmest thanks.

As it turned out, neither the concerts nor the subscription proceeds materialized. Mozart was forced to extend his subscription offer on the three String Quintets from June 25, 1788, to January 1, 1789.

In the final two years of his life, Mozart composed two more String Quintets—D Major, K. 593 (1790), and E-flat Major, K. 614 (1791). In time, the five late String Quintets became recognized among Mozart’s crowning achievements in chamber music repertoire. It appears that Mozart (as

well as a dear friend of his) held these Quintets in high esteem. In his 1829 Reminiscences, Mozart’s friend, the Abbé Maximilian Stadler, recalled:

Mozart and (Franz Joseph) Haydn frequently played together with (Stadler) Mozart’s Quintettos; (Stadler) particularly mentioned the 5th in D Major (K. 593) . . . the one in C Major (K. 515), and still more that in G Minor (K. 516) . . . 1st Viola either Mozart or Haydn in turn.

I. Allegro—The opening of the C Major Quintet is sheer magic. Over throbbing accompaniment by the second violin and violas, the cello plays a rather gruff ascending arpeggio. The first violin offers a demure and graceful response. This dialogue is repeated twice more. After a measure of silence, the duet resumes, but now in the minor key, and with the violin and cello roles reversed. Typical of Mozart, an extraordinary wealth of thematic material follows to round out the exposition. The brief development opens with another minor-key variant of the celloviolin dialogue. The cello once again launches the recapitulation. The elegant closing measures lead to a pianissimo conclusion.

II. Menuetto. Allegretto—The Quintet’s second movement is a Minuet, an elegant court dance in triple meter. The violins immediately present the Minuet’s principal ascending and descending melody. The melody journeys throughout the ensemble, with the other instruments providing responses. The central Trio, an extended episode in F Major with frequent chromatic passages, creates a rather unsettled mood. A reprise of the Minuet brings the movement to a close.

III. Andante—The Quintet’s slow-tempo movement is very much in the spirit of an operatic duet. The first violin and first viola assume the soprano and tenor roles. Various themes provide the basis for a series of tender dialogues. A repeat of the sequence leads to a final exchange between the first viola and violin, and the pianissimo closing bars.

IV. (Allegro)—The first violin, accompanied by the remainder of the ensemble, sings the sunny principal theme of a finale that blends sonata and rondo forms. As in the first movement, several more themes follow, although the first predominates. The carefree mood established in the opening bars continues right to the ensemble’s concluding joyful outburst.

String Quintet No. 2 in B-flat Major, op. 87 (1845)

In autumn 1844, Felix Mendelssohn concluded three years of service as composer and choirmaster in Berlin. For various reasons, Mendelssohn found the experience far from rewarding.

That December, Mendelssohn and his wife, Cécile, settled with their family in Frankfurt. The English musician William Rockstro visited Mendelssohn there the following spring:

Reaching Frankfurt, at the beginning of the bright spring weather, we found him living out of doors, and welcoming the sunshine, and the flowers, with a delight as unaffected as that of the youngest of his children. On the evening of our arrival . . . he playfully proposed that we should go to an “open-air concert,” and led the way to a lonely little corner of the public gardens, where a nightingale was singing with all its heart.

“He sings here every evening,” said Mendelssohn, “and I often come to hear him. I sit here, sometimes, when I want to compose. Not that I am writing much, now; but, sometimes, I have a feeling like this”—and he twisted his hands rapidly and nervously, in front of his breast—“and when that comes, I know that I must write.”

In summer 1844, Mendelssohn vacationed with his family in Soden, a spa located in the foothills of the Taunus Mountains, near Frankfurt. Mendelssohn quipped that he felt “at home among cows and pigs: my equals!” In a letter to his sister, Rebecka, Mendelssohn described his happy existence in Soden:

After my crazy, absolutely crazy, life in England . . . I got through more music in two months than in all the rest of the year put together—this life at Soden, with its eating and sleeping, without morning coat, without piano, without visiting-cards, without carriage and horses, but with donkeys, with wild flowers, with music-paper and sketch-book, with Cécile and the children, is doubly refreshing.

It was during the 1844 stay in Soden that Mendelssohn completed one of his greatest works, the Violin Concerto in E Minor, op. 64. When Mendelssohn and his family returned to Soden in summer 1845, he again found the peaceful surroundings a source of musical inspiration. During that summer, Mendelssohn composed his String Quintet in B-flat Major. The work was published after the composer’s death as opus 87, and premiered in November of 1852.

I. Allegro vivace—The first violin, over tremolo accompaniment by the remainder of the ensemble, immediately presents the opening movement’s bold, vaulting first principal theme. The first violin also leads the initial presentation of an elegant, descending second theme. The extended (and often hushed) development finally builds to the fortissimo start of the recapitulation. Here, the second violin sings the opening theme, to tremolo accompaniment by the violas and cello, and the first violin’s soaring line. In the coda, the second theme initially takes center stage. However, the first theme makes a triumphant return in the ebullient closing bars.

II. Andante scherzando—The brief second movement serves as the Quintet’s scherzo, though the music is more delicate and in slower tempo than the norm. Indeed, the second movement invokes the spirit of a courtly Baroque dance. The ensemble provides pizzicato accompaniment to the first violin’s introduction of the tripping principal theme that returns throughout. The closing measures offer a delightful juxtaposition of plucked and bowed passages.

III. Adagio e lento—The slow-tempo movement, remarkable for its sustained intensity and despair, is the emotional centerpiece of the Quintet. The first violin leads the introduction of the principal dottedrhythm theme, immediately establishing the pathos that dominates the greater part of the movement. Toward the close, the first violin’s soaring line radiates like beams of sunshine. The finale ensues without pause.

IV. Allegro molto vivace—The life-affirming spirit of the opening movement returns in the Quintet’s sparkling finale. A brief forte statement by the ensemble sets the stage for the first violin’s introduction of the scurrying principal theme. The violas sing the flowing subsidiary theme. The first theme predominates throughout the finale. A brief return of the viola melody sets the stage for the triumphant final measures.

String Quintet No. 2 in G Major, op. 111 (1890)

The early 1890s seemed to mark the abrupt termination of the career of one of the 19th century’s greatest composers. In the preceding years, Johannes Brahms had suffered the deaths of family members, and many of his closest friends. These losses seem to have taken a devastating toll on the German composer’s spirits. In December 1890, Brahms forwarded the score of the Second String Quintet in G Major to his publisher, Simrock. Brahms informed Simrock: “With this letter you can bid farewell to my music—because it is certainly time to leave off. . . . ” Brahms also told friends, “I have worked hard enough; now let

the young folks take over.” In 1891, Brahms drafted his will, known as the “Ischl Testament.”

That same year, however, Brahms encountered the inspiration for a new series of compositions that would serve as crowning glories to a magnificent career. That inspiration came in the person and talents of Richard Mühlfeld, principal clarinet of the famed Meiningen Orchestra. Brahms heard the Meiningen Orchestra under the direction of its new conductor, Fritz Steinbach. Brahms was immediately impressed by Mühlfeld’s extraordinary musicianship. It was not long before Brahms and Richard Mühlfeld commenced a professional collaboration and warm friendship. During the next few years, Brahms created numerous works for Mühlfeld.

The String Quintet, op. 111, received its premiere in Vienna on November 11, 1890, performed by the Rosé Quartet, with violist Franz Jelinek. In January 1897, Brahms, stricken with cancer, attended a Vienna performance of the Quintet by violinist Joseph Joachim’s ensemble. Brahms went to the stage to acknowledge the applause of the audience. Joachim recalled at the Vienna concert, Brahms conveyed “unusual gratitude and warmth . . . it was almost as if he was satisfied with his work.” Three months later, Brahms died, a month shy of his 64th birthday.

While the String Quintet No. 2 was not Brahms’s final composition, the work represents a culmination of Brahms’s unique legacy. Brahms’s G-Major Quintet embodies a characteristic and remarkable synthesis of Classical-era structures and Romantic passion. Brahms’s brilliant deployment of the ensemble creates a seemingly infinite variety of colors and textures, often of symphonic dimension. And while the inner movements most certainly have their moments of introspection and melancholy, the opening movement and finale radiate optimism and joy for life. As Brahms’s friend Elisabet von Herzogenberg wrote to the composer, “The person who can have invented all this must be in a happy frame of mind! One feels you must have been celebrating—say, your 30th birthday.”

I. Allegro non troppo, ma con brio—The opening of Brahms’s Quintet No. 2 is one of the most thrilling in the chamber music repertoire. The violins and violas’ shimmering forte passages serve as the foundation for the cello’s bold proclamation of the vaulting first principal theme. The theme journeys throughout the ensemble, finally yielding to the violas’ presentation of a lilting, espressivo waltz-like theme that the first violin soon transports into the heavens. The second violin adds the dolce final principal theme. A vigorous passage for the ensemble yields to a more

reflective episode, setting the stage for the development section. This extended episode contrasts moments of introspection with intense drama. Finally, the cello repeats the opening theme, launching the recapitulation. The coda opens in hushed fashion, but soon propels to a vigorous, fortissimo close.

II. Adagio—The Quintet’s slow-tempo movement offers a marked contrast to its predecessor. The first viola immediately sings the Adagio’s mournful principal theme. The melody returns throughout the Adagio, achieving its most forceful character toward the conclusion. A brief flourish by the first viola is the bridge to a final, hushed statement of the melody, that Brahms directs be played in both “expressive” and “sweet” fashion.

III. Un poco Allegretto—The third movement, in G minor, is in the spirit of the waltz, but one with a slightly hesitant quality. The G-Major Trio section leads to a reprise of the opening waltz. A final invocation of the Trio brings the third movement to a serene close.

IV. Vivace ma non troppo presto—The first viola launches the opening theme, immediately establishing the dance-like character that pervades the finale. The first violin soon introduces the two subsidiary themes—a three-note motif, and an arpeggio figure. A bold unison passage leads to the animato final pages—a vibrant Gypsy dance, perhaps a tribute to Brahms’s great friend, the Austro-Hungarian violinist Joseph Joachim.

—Notes on the program by Ken Meltzer.

Balourdet Quartet

The Balourdet Quartet—currently in residence at the prestigious Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University—received the grand prize at the 2021 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition, as well as prizes in international competitions including the Banff, Borciani, and Carl Nielsen competitions. The quartet was also awarded the gold medal at the 2020 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and the 2021 Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition.

Notable upcoming performances include those at Northwestern University, the La Jolla Music Society, Schneider Concert Series, and Chamber Music Houston. The quartet will serve as the quartet-in-residence for the Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle in 2023–2024. Highlights of the Balourdet’s 2022–2023 season included appearances at Chamber Music Detroit; the Grand Piano Series in Naples, Florida; NEC’s Jordan Hall; Merkin Hall; and Wigmore Hall. Summer 2022 also saw the Balourdet performing at festivals including Bravo! Vail, Music Mountain, and

Angela Bae, violin | Justin DeFilippis, violin Benjamin Zannoni, viola | Russell Houston, cello

Strings Music Festival. Additionally, in 2022–2023 the quartet was thrilled to premiere a new commissioned work by celebrated composer Karim Al-Zand, made possible through Chamber Music America’s Classical Commissioning Grant.

The Balourdet has performed at festivals and series including Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, La Jolla Music Society Summerfest, the Dame Myra Hess Concerts, Montgomery Chamber Music, Santa Fe ProMusica, and the Schneider Concert Series. Committed to sharing their musical values with the next generation, the quartet has given master classes and coachings at New England Conservatory’s Preparatory Department, the Fischoff Chamber Music Academy, Upper Valley Chamber Music, and Wright State University, as well as a residency teaching and performing at the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival.

The Balourdet Quartet was formed in 2018 at Rice University in Houston, Texas, under the tutelage of James Dunham, Norman Fischer, and Cho-Liang Lin, and considers Paul Katz, Miriam Fried, and members of the Cleveland and Borromeo quartets mentors. The quartet is currently working closely with the estimable Pacifica Quartet at Indiana University. The quartet takes its name from Antoine Balourdet, chef extraordinaire at the Hotel St. Bernard and beloved member of the Taos School of Music community.

balourdetquartet.com

“

. . . an exceptionally talented group . . . With bows flying and notes swirling, this quartet has a bright future ahead.”

—Ponca City News, February 2022

Jordan Bak, viola

Award-winning Jamaican American violist Jordan Bak has achieved international acclaim as a trailblazing artist, praised for his radiant stage presence, dynamic interpretations, and fearless power. Critics have described him as “an exciting new voice in Classical performance” (I Care If You Listen), “a powerhouse musician, with a strong voice and compelling sound” (Whole Note), and lauded his “haunting lyrical grace” (Gramophone). The 2021 YCAT Robey Artist and a top laureate of the 2020 Sphinx Competition, Bak is also a grand prize–winner and audience prize–recipient of the 2019 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition, the recipient of the 2019 Samuel Sanders Tel Aviv Museum Prize, and the 2019 John White Special Prize from the Tertis International Viola Competition. Other recent accolades include being named one of ClassicFM’s “30 Under 30” Rising Stars, Musical America’s New Artist of the Month, and a featured artist for WQXR’s inaugural Artist Propulsion Lab.

Bak’s enthusiastically received debut album IMPULSE (Bright Shiny Things) was released in May 2022, garnering more than one million streams on major digital media platforms and featuring new compositions by Tyson Gholston Davis, Toshio Hosokawa, Anne Leilehua Lanzilotti, Quinn Mason, Jeffrey Mumford, and Joan Tower. A proud new music advocate, Bak gave the world premieres of Kaija Saariaho’s Du gick, flög for viola and mezzo-soprano; Jessica Meyer’s Excessive Use of Force for solo viola and On fire . . . no, after you for viola, mezzo-soprano, and piano; and Augusta Read Thomas’s Upon Wings of Words for string quartet and soprano. He has additionally championed works by H. Leslie Adams, Esteban Zapata Blanco, Carlos Carillo, Caroline Shaw, and Alvin Singleton.

Bak has appeared as soloist with such orchestras as Sarasota Orchestra, London Mozart Players, New York Classical Players, Juilliard Orchestra, and Brandon Hill Chamber Orchestra, among others, and has performed under such esteemed conductors as Howard Griffiths, Stephen Mulligan,

Keith Lockhart, Gerard Schwarz, and Ewa Strusińska. As a recitalist and chamber musician, he has been heard at some of the world’s greatest performance venues including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Concertgebouw, Wigmore Hall, Jordan Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, Princeton University Concerts, Perelman Theater at the Kimmel Center, Elgar Concert Hall, and Helsinki Musiikkitalo. Bak’s recent performances include recitals at Kravis Center, Wiltshire Music Centre, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Harriman-Jewell Series, Lichfield Festival, and Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival.

Bak has been a presence at numerous chamber music festivals such as Marlboro Music Festival, Tippet Rise, Chamber Music Northwest, Roman River Festival, and Newport Classical, and has appeared during the year at Chamber Music Detroit, Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia, and Chamber Music Society of Little Rock. Recent and upcoming highlights include NEXUS Chamber Music, Brooklyn Chamber Music Society, and Emory University, as well as an upcoming tour with Musicians from Marlboro. Bak has performed as a guest with the Verona Quartet and Merz Trio and has collaborated with such artists as Jonathan Biss, Lara Downes, Jennifer Frautschi, Ani Kavafian, Soovin Kim, Charles Neidich, Marina Piccinini, and Gilles Vonsattel.

Passionate about education, Bak currently serves as assistant professor of viola at University of North Carolina School of the Arts . He was a former faculty member of Bowling Green State University in Ohio and served as a visiting artist and ambassador for music masters in London. Additionally, he has given master classes at Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, Oberlin Conservatory, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (UK), Conservatorio del Tolima (Colombia), and the Brevard Music Center.

Only the third violist to earn the artist diploma from the Juilliard School, Bak has a bachelor of music degree from New England Conservatory and a master of music degree from the Juilliard School, where he was awarded the prestigious Kovner Fellowship. His principal teachers were Dimitri Murrath, Hsin-Yun Huang, and Samuel Rhodes.

Bak plays a 2016 viola made by Jon van Kouwenhoven. He is married to violist Rubina Bak and shares two cats, Bartok and Walton. An avid car buff, he drives a very loud Dodge Dakota 5.9 R/T.

Schwartz Center Staff

Rachael Brightwell, Managing Director

Terry Adams, Box Office Coordinator

Lisa Baron, Communications Specialist

Kathryn Colegrove, Associate Director for Programming and Outreach

Lewis Fuller, Associate Director for Production and Operations

Jennifer Kimball, Assistant Stage Manager

Jeffrey Lenhard, Operations Assistant

Brenda Porter, House Manager

Caroline Renner, Program Coordinator

Alan Strange, Box Office Manager

Nicholas Surbey, Senior Graphic Designer

Alexandria Sweatt, Marketing Assistant

Mark Teague, Stage Manager

Matt Williamson, Multimedia Specialist

The Schwartz Center for Performing Arts offers a variety of jazz, classical, and crossover music each season. Visit schwartz.emory.edu for more event details and up-to-date information.

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