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LINO GOMEZ, SAXOPHONE Saxophonist Lino Gomez enjoys an extremely diverse career in the orchestral, chamber, and commercial music fields. A former member of both the American and the New York Saxophone Quartets, his other chamber music credits include performances with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra Chamber Players and recordings with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. He is a frequent guest artist, as both saxophonist and clarinetist, of the Metropolitan Opera, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, American Symphony, American Composers and New York Pops orchestras. He has performed solo roles with all of these ensembles, including performances of Eino Tanberg’s “Concerto Grosso” with the NY Philharmonic and the USA premier of Tan Dun’s “Red Forecast” with the American Composers Orchestra. Lino’s many commercial music credits include feature film soundtracks, radio andtelevision commercials, and Broadway shows. He is a former member of NBC’s Saturday Night Live band.

ANTON RIST, CLARINET Anton Rist was recently appointed Principal Clarinet of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. He has performed with the American Ballet Theater, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Louisiana Philharmonic, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. In addition, he served as the Principal Clarinetist of the Princeton and New Haven Symphonies. Mr. Rist has performed at the Verbier, St. Barts, Pacific, Bravo! Vail, and Aspen Music Festivals, and is a founding member of the Montserrat Music Festival in the West Indies. Mr. Rist grew up on the upper west side of Manhattan and completed two degrees at The Juilliard School. His primary teachers were Jon Manasse, Larry Guy, and Jo-Ann Sternberg.

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SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2023 AT 4 PM THE GOLDEN AGE OF VIENNA BUY TICKETS BENJAMIN BEILMAN, VIOLIN 2019 “Poised and monstrously talented” — Philadelphia Inquirer ALEXI KENNEY, VIOLIN “He made it seem as if this were the only possible way to play the music.” — The New York Times PASCUAL MARTÍNEZ FORTEZA, CLARINET New York Philharmonic Member YOOBIN SON, FLUTE New York Philharmonic Member GLORIA CHIEN, PIANO “…dashing bravado and an uncanny precision of calibration” — Richard Dyer, The Boston Globe MIHAI MARICA, CELLO “Stunning Performance” — New York Times MILENA PAJARO-VAN DE STADT, VIOLA “…lyricism that stood out…a silky tone and beautiful, supple lines.” — The Strad FEATURING ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE BUY TICKETS “Vienna’s Golden Age” signifies the fin-de-siecle cultural hothouse that spawned innovations in art, music, science, literature, and philosophy. Creative pioneers such as Mahler, Freud, Gutave Klimt, Hofmannsthal, and Schoenberg rubbed shoulders in the elegant coffee houses, art salons, and concert halls of Vienna during those momentous, pre-war years. Seven extraordinary musicians will explore the charm and portent of the music that flowered in the rich cultural ferment of Golden Age Vienna. PROGRAM Fritz Kreisler Marche Miniature Viennoise Program Notes Fritz Kreisler The Old Refrain Program Notes Fritz Kreisler Viennese Rhapsodic Fantasietta Program Notes Gustav Mahler Piano Quartet in A minor Gloria Chien, piano Alexi Kenney, violin; Milena Pajaro-Van de Stadt, viola; Mihai Marica, cello Program Notes Johann Strauss Emperor Waltz (arr. Schoenberg) Gloria Chien, piano, Benjamin Beilman and Alexi Kenney, violins; Milena Pajaro-Van de Stadt, viola; Mihai Marica, cello; Yoobin Son, flute; Pascual Martinez-Forteza, clarinet Program Notes Erich Korngold Suite for two violins, cello, and piano left-hand Program Notes Watch Benjamin Beilman perform Fritz Kreisler’s Viennese Rhapsodic Fantasietta:

JONATHAN SWENSEN, CELLO Rising star of the cello Jonathan Swensen is the recipient of the 2022 Avery Fisher Career Grant and was recently awarded joint First Prize at the 2024 Naumburg International Cello Competition. Previously he has been featured as both Musical America’s ‘New Artist of the Month’ and ‘One to Watch’ in Gramophone Magazine. Jonathan first fell in love with the cello upon hearing the Elgar Concerto at the age of six, and ultimately made his concerto debut performing that very piece with Portugal’s Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música. The release of Jonathan’s debut recording ‘Fantasia’, on Champs Hill Records, an album of works for solo cello, including Bent Sørensen’s ‘Farewell Fantasia’, composed for and dedicated to Jonathan and which he premiered in 2021. The album received rave reviews on its release, including from Gramophone, BBC Music, The Strad and Musical America which printed “Swensen proves to be not just a bold programmer, but a mature artist with a bold rounded sound and the emotional chops to back it up.” Solo appearances with orchestras have included the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra under Douglas Boyd, the New England Conservatory Philharmonia and Hugh Wolff, London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, Orquesta Ciudad de Granada, Copenhagen Philharmonic, Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Odense Symphony Orchestra, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Armenian State Symphony Orchestra, the NFM Leopoldinum in a play-direct program, Mobile Symphony, and the Greenville Symphony. During the 2024-25 season Jonathan will make his debut with the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, returns to the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra. He has made critically acclaimed recital debuts at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater and New York’s Merkin Concert Hall, with additional performances in Boston’s Jordan Hall, the Morgan Library and Museum, the Casals Festival, and the Krannert Center. In addition to his many solo appearances, Jonathan is a frequent performer of chamber music in the U.S. and Europe, appearing at the Tivoli Festival, Copenhagen Summer Festival, Chamberfest Cleveland, Krzyżowa-Music, Vancouver Recital Society, San Francisco Performances, La Jolla Music Society’s Summerfest, and Newport Classical. In 2024, Jonathan joined the Bowers Program of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center where he performs at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center’s Rose Studio, and on tour throughout the United States. He captured First Prizes at the 2019 Windsor International String Competition, 2018 Khachaturian International Cello Competition, and the 2018 Young Concert Artists International Auditions. A graduate of the Royal Danish Academy of Music, Jonathan continued his studies with Torleif Thedéen at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, and Laurence Lesser at the New England Conservatory, where he received his Artist Diploma in May 2023. Jonathan is an Artist in Residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Belgium working with Gary Hoffman.

AMY BURTON, SOPRANO With a voice the New York Times has called, “luminous” and “lustrous,” versatile soprano Amy Burton has sung with the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, at the White House, and with major opera companies, orchestras, and at concert and cabaret venues throughout the US, Europe, UK, Japan, Mexico, and Israel. Known for her crystalline portrayals of Mozart heroines as well as French repertoire ranging from opera to chansons populaires, Ms. Burton performs throughout the USA and abroad in recital and cabaret concerts with her husband, composer-pianist John Musto . The couple have toured the US and Mexico with "Late Night with Leonard Bernstein" narrated by the composer's daughter Jamie, with acclaimed pianist Michael Boriskin. Ms. Burton has premiered and recorded several of Musto’s song cycles and has been a champion of contemporary composers such as Paul Moravec, John Corigliano, William Bolcom, Richard Danielpour, John Harbison, and others. Notable concert appearances include her New York recital debut at 92Y, Great Performances at Lincoln Center, Mostly Mozart Festival, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, PS21, The Kennedy Center, Atelier Lardeur in Paris, the Liceu Forum in Barcelona, the Neue Galerie’s Café Sabarsky, and the modern-day premiere of Cole Porter's 1929 show, La Revue des Ambassadeurs at Town Hall with Vince Giordano and the Night Hawks and in Paris with L’orchestre de Pasdeloup.

November 20, 2022: Steven Banks, Saxophonist-Composer Xak Bjerken, Piano, Principal Strings of The Met Orchestra ERWIN SCHULHOFF (1894-1942) Hot Sonate for alto saxophone and piano November 20, 2022: Steven Banks, Saxophonist-Composer Xak Bjerken, Piano, Principal Strings of The Met Orchestra Erwin Schulhoff was a child prodigy who, in 1902 at the age of eight, so deeply impressed Antonín Dvořák with his playing and improvising on the piano that Dvořák advised him to begin composition studies immediately. Schulhoff studied first in Prague, then in Vienna, where he became a good friend of Alban Berg, and later in Leipzig, where he studied with Max Reger. He also took some lessons with Debussy in Paris shortly before World War I. Schulhoff’s musical interests varied widely. He collaborated with visual artists Däubler, Grosz, and Klee in Germany, where he had settled in 1923. A champion of modern music, he worked on the problems of quarter-tone music with Alois Hába after his return to Prague in 1929. His improvisatory skills naturally led to his dedication as a jazz pianist and to the incorporation of jazz in several of his own compositions. He also showed great interest in music of the distant past, unearthing and arranging medieval and Renaissance music of Bohemian composers. Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, the great German music encyclopedia, characterizes Schulhoff as a “composer of extraordinary talent and creative power.” Alfred Einstein appreciated his gift for creating comical and grotesque effects in music. Schulhoff’s desire for social revolution led to his leftist political views. In 1932 he composed a cantata setting of the original German text of the Communist Manifesto of 1848. He was granted Soviet citizenship to protect him from arrest during the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1939, but when the Nazis invaded Russia in 1941 Schulhoff was sent to the Wülzburg Concentration Camp where he died on August 18, 1942. Schulhoff composed his Hot Sonata on a commission from the Funk-Stunde (radio station) AG in Berlin, which premiered the work on April 10, 1930, with American saxophonist Billy Barton and the composer at the piano. By this time Schulhoff was recognized as a jazz expert, having even published a jazz method for piano. Jazz movements had become increasingly more frequent in his works and he used the title Hot-Sonate, using the American word “hot” that had become synonymous with jazz. The piece is laid out in four movements, each headed not by a tempo marking but by a metronome marking, though in the sultry third movement he asks the saxophone to play “lamentoso ma molto grottesco” against the piano’s “molto ritmico.” The jaunty first movement, which has something in common with Debussy’s Golliwog’s Cakewalk, is rife with jazz syncopations, swinging along merrily until its nonchalant ending. The second movement heats up the action with darting licks for the saxophone, an especially syncopated piano part, and a surprisingly abrupt ending. The bluesy third movement has the saxophonist bending pitch to slide into its destination notes while the piano keeps its steady beat. The final movement drives forward motorically until Schulhoff inserts a slow contrasting section. The momentum resumes, once again catching the listener off guard with the suddenness of the ending. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

October 4, 2015 – Richard Goode, piano WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791) Piano Sonata in A minor, K. 300d (K. 310) October 4, 2015 – Richard Goode, piano Mozart petitioned the Salzburg court for release from employment in the summer of 1777 because of difficulties with Archbishop Colloredo and longstanding contempt for Salzburg musicians. Colloredo responded by dismissing both father and son—an unexpected blow to Leopold, who sent Wolfgang on a job-hunting trip accompanied by his mother. One of their stops was Mannheim, where Wolfgang was extremely impressed with the musicians but no offer materialized. He dallied there, however, because he had fallen in love with Aloysia Weber, a fine singer and daughter of a music copier. At home in Salzburg Leopold fumed and in February 1778 ordered his son to Paris. Mozart resumed contacts there from previous trips and kept extremely busy, but he disliked the French musical scene and desperately wished he were in Mannheim. Tragedy struck when his mother sickened in mid-June and died on July 3. Leopold, in his grief, wrote accusingly that Mozart had not done enough for his mother. Whether or not one accepts the premise that biographic events can be reflected in works of art, this time of grief and frustration was the backdrop for one of Mozart’s most dramatic and tragic-sounding pieces ever, the Piano Sonata in A minor, which he composed in July 1778. Long considered one of finest sonatas, it is one of only two he wrote in a minor key, among an enormous body of instrumental works predominantly in major keys. A particular influence that can be documented in the A minor Sonata is the music of Johann Schobert, active in Paris in the last years of his short life, whose sonatas Mozart had played since his childhood visits to Paris and imitated in some of his own sonatas. He had even arranged several movements from Schobert sonatas as concerto movements. Still fascinated, Mozart taught his students Schobert’s sonatas during his 1778 Paris sojourn. Schobert was known for his Romantic tendencies, in particular extreme contrasts of storminess and introversion. The A minor Sonata’s great juxtapositions of loud and soft, rage and despair show this influence, but even more specifically the slow movement quotes a passage from Schobert’s Sonata, op. 17, no. 2, that Mozart had already arranged ten years previously as the second movement of a pastiche concerto in B-flat major, K. 39. An almost violent intensity permeates the first movement, launched by insistent repeated chords and marked dotted rhythms. The great theorist Leonard Ratner associated this kind of music with Turkish or janissary military music, which Western composers often imitated in their art music. Mozart infuses intensity into his less forceful second theme with a spate of running fast notes against the repeated-chord idea, and by invoking a contrapuntal texture that creates great tension when coupled with driving dotted rhythms toward the end of the exposition, in the hair-raising development, and again in the recapitulation. The ferocity of his drive to conclude the exposition—even though it is in the major mode—and especially to end the movement inspires awe. Poignant tenderness radiates from the slow movement, for which Mozart requests a singing style, with expression. Yet the contrasts of soft and loud are extreme here, too, and agitation builds almost to turbulence in his development section. It is in this dramatic section that Mozart recalls a D minor sequence from Schobert’s F major Sonata. The restless, shadowy Presto darts by almost without pause. Contrasts of dynamics abound here too, and Mozart’s ingenuity shows in his remarkable pianistic textures that often consist of four-part writing. He does insert an episode in folklike musette style, but the shadows return, propelled to a dark, tumultuous conclusion. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

LIAM BOISSERT, OBOE Oboist Liam Boisset has performed with many of the most reputable orchestras around the United States. He regularly performs with the Metropolitan Opera and has recently served as guest Principal Oboe with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. During the 2019-2020 season, he also joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic on two international tours as Principal Oboe. He can be heard playing both oboe and English horn in The Witcher on Netflix. In addition to his fruitful performance career, Mr. Boisset is a passionate educator, and has taught masterclasses and lessons at The Juilliard School, Mannes School of Music at The New School, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Aspen Music Festival and School, and Oberlin Conservatory. During the heart of the pandemic, he co-founded the online teaching platform, Aperto Oboe Academy, to connect with and mentor promising young oboists from around the globe. He currently serves on the faculty of Princeton University’s Department of Music.

September 29, 2024: Zvi Plesser and Rafael Figueroa, cellos; Jeewon Park, piano Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759) Sonata in G minor, Op. 2, No. 8 for two cellos and piano September 29, 2024: Zvi Plesser and Rafael Figueroa, cellos; Jeewon Park, piano Did Handel compose the Sonata in G minor, HWV 393? Scholars disagree. The only source is the “Dresden” manuscript dated sometime after 1750, which contains six other trio sonatas by “Hendel” that had originally been published c. 1733 by John Walsh in London as Opus 2. The G minor Sonata plus two additional trio sonatas found in the Dresden manuscript were included by Friedrich Chrysander in the Handel collected works edition where they were inexplicably listed as part of Opus 2. Of these, HWV 392 is generally considered authentic, since it contains movements related to other Handel works, and HWV 394 spurious. The case is more complicated with the present work. Chrysander clearly thought this G minor Sonata—originally for two violins and continuo—was by Handel when he published it in the complete works edition, but Anthony Hicks lists it as “authenticity uncertain” in the Handel work list in Grove Music Online, as has Bernd Baselt in the Handel complete works catalog (HWV). Others such as Terence Best and Peter Holman have instead pointed out similarities with other Handel works in suggesting its authenticity. Best even suggests a likely date of c. 1719 since Handel was in Dresden recrutiing singers from July to September that year, and the work shows consistency with his style at the time. Holman, in the preface to the 2007 Günthersberg edition for two violas da gamba (or other strings) and continuo, goes so far as to say: Musicologists have repeatedly praised it, and performers, editors, publishers, and recording companies have made it one of Handel’s most popular trio sonatas. It is a large-scale, ambitious work, with eloquent and beautifully planned slow movements and fast movements full of energetic and sophisticated free contrapuntal writing; it is difficult to see who else might have composed it. In any case, a tradition arose in the twentieth century of performing the G minor Sonata an octave lower on two violas or cellos, which contributed greatly to its widespread appeal. Of the many arrangements that appeared in print, we hear Heinz Beyer’s version for two cellos and piano, published in 1935. Like Handel’s other trio sonatas and solo sonatas, the G minor, HWV 393, takes the Italianate sonata da chiesa (church sonata) form of four movements, slow-fast-slow-fast. All four movements revel in counterpoint—the first three presenting a subject with a long time interval before the second cello enters, after which the entries become more telescoped and the dialog more varied. It is the character, however, that changes—the slow first movement unfolds in a singing almost galant style, closing on a half cadence that sets up the fast second movement. Here the lively, dancelike character creates great contrast, but the contrapuntal techniques are similar. In the slow third movement the singing quality of the cellos is paramount, with plenty of opportunity for ornamental embellishments but also the same gradually shortening time intervals between contrapuntal entries. The final movement takes off running in triple metter, much like its Italian counterparts labeled “Corrente.” Counterpoint and interplay again reign supreme, but is a more rapid-fire interplay without as many fugal attributes. As a whole, this Sonata in its myriad arrangements presents the scope and artistry of Handel. —©Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

March 19, 2023 – Rachel Naomi Kudo, piano JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750) Chorale Prelude “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme”, BWV 645 (arr. Busoni) March 19, 2023 – Rachel Naomi Kudo, piano Our discussion of the present three Bach transcriptions must begin with Ferrucio Busoni, who was Egon Petri’s teacher. As a youth Busoni adored Bach above all other composers, a passion that endured throughout his life. He not only drew on Bach’s music for inspiration in his own works but he issued a monumental edition of Bach’s solo keyboard works transcribed for piano—a twenty-five volume collection plus a seven-volume set—aided by his students Egon Petri and Bruno Mugellini. So synonymous did Bach and Busoni become in the public’s mind that on Busoni’s first American tour his wife Gerda was once introduced by a society matron as “Mrs. Bach-Busoni.” This anecdote was related by Petri, a superb German pianist of Dutch descent, who began studying with Busoni in Weimar in 1901. Petri eventually settled in the United States, taught at Mills College, and authored many Bach transcriptions at Busoni’s behest. Busoni issued his Bach edition in two collections: the twenty-five-volume Klavierwerke, and the seven-volume Bach-Busoni edition. Although Busoni’s name appears on each volume of the Klavierwerke, many were edited by Petri and a few by Bruno Mugellini. Petri had expected Busoni to supervise his and Mugellini’s editorial work and they strove to operate under his principles and to emulate his style, yet Busoni concerned himself very little with reading their proofs, much to Petri’s surprise. Busoni strove to remain true to the essence of Bach’s music in his transcriptions, but inevitably his own Romantic sensibilities crept in with his addition of tempo and pedal markings, dynamics, register changes, repeats, and performance suggestions. Nevertheless, these transcriptions are rewarding additions to the piano repertoire. Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ—which appears as No. 5 in Busoni’s collection of Ten Chorale Preludes (1898) and No. 41 (BWV 639) in Bach’s Orgel-Büchlein (Little Organ Book)—has become a favorite of pianists and audiences for its poignant serenity. Flowing arpeggios in the middle voice accompany the tender, mostly unadorned chorale melody, supported by a steady “walking bass.” Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme is actually Busoni’s transcription of what was already a transcription by Bach himself. In 1731 Bach had composed the fourth movement of his Cantata 140 (Wachet auf) in chorale-prelude style with tenor(s) taking the chorale melody, surrounded by a a lyrical countermelody for upper strings in unison and supported by continuo (bass line and harmony). Thus it was a simple task to transfer all three parts to organ, which he did in BWV 645, one of a group of six late works that became known as the “Schübler Chorales” after their publication by Johann Georg Schübler in 1748–49. Busoni’s transcription for piano, No. 2 in his Ten Chorale Preludes, maintains the lilting flow in the upper line against the steady chorale in the middle voice. Turning to the first piece of the group of transcriptions, Egon Petri arranged his version of Schafe können sicher weiden (Sheep may safely graze) not from a chorale preude by Bach but rather a soprano aria from Cantata 208 Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd! (What pleases me is above all the lively hunt). Bach wrote secular cantatas for aristocratic patrons to celebrate special occasions such as birthdays, name days, and accession days, or for academic ceremonies, and he composed Cantata 208 on a text by Weimar court poet Salomo Franck for the birthday of Duke Christian Weissenfels in 1713. Known as the Hunt Cantata, it contains “Schafe können sicher weiden,” the well-known aria for Pales, second soprano to Diana, goddess of the hunt. For centuries listeners have been captivated by its texture of rocking parallel thirds for two flutes—the quintessential pastoral instrument—accompanying the tender main melody, which praises Duke Christian for ruling his people as a good shepherd. The lovely aria has been transcribed for countless times for various performing forces, among the first—Percy Grainger’s for band (1931), Mary Howe’s for solo piano and two pianos (1935), and William Walton’s for orchestra (1940). Egon Petri’s transcription, published in 1944 has become the best-known transcription for piano. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

MICHAEL PARLOFF Principal Flutist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra from 1977 until his retirement in 2008, Michael Parloff has been heard regularly as a recitalist, chamber musician, and concerto soloist throughout North America, Europe, and Japan. He has collaborated with such noted artists as James Levine, Jessye Norman, James Galway, Peter Serkin, Dawn Upshaw, Thomas Hampson, Jaime Laredo, and the Emerson String Quartet and has performed on numerous occasions at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. As a lecturer, conductor, and teacher, Michael Parloff has appeared at major conservatories and university music schools in the United States and abroad. These venues include The Juilliard School, Yale University, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Music@Menlo, the Verbier and Tanglewood Festivals, and the National Orchestral Institute at the University of Maryland. He has been a faculty member at the Manhattan School of Music since 1985. Michael Parloff is the founder and Artistic Director of Parlance Chamber Concerts. The mission of Parlance Chamber Concerts is to promote the appreciation and understanding of classical music in Northern New Jersey by presenting the world’s finest singers and instrumentalists in affordable, innovatively programmed public concerts and educational events. In recent seasons, Parlance Chamber Concerts has presented such renowned artists as the Emerson and Brentano String Quartets, pianists Emanuel Ax, Richard Goode, Jeremy Denk, and Simone Dinnerstein, Met Opera singers Stephanie Blythe, Thomas Hampson, Matthew Polenzani, Isabel Leonard, and Nathan Gunn, flutist James Galway, and clarinetist Richard Stoltzman. Since 1996, Michael has also presented over 30 benefit concerts for various nonprofit organizations and humanitarian causes in Northern Bergen County, New Jersey. Michael Parloff has recorded extensively with the Metropolitan Opera for Deutsche Grammophon, Sony Classical, London, and Philips and has recorded solo recital repertoire and 20th-century chamber music for E.S.SAY, Gunmar, CRI, and Koch. To view Michael Parloff’s videos and multimedia lectures, click here .