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ABRAHAM APPLEMAN, VIOLA Abraham Appleman was born in Yokohama, Japan. He began his studies on the violin and piano at the age of four, soon after his family moved to the Boston area. His continued studies there led to his debut, at age fifteen, performing Max Bruch’s G minor Violin Concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Since then, Mr. Appleman has had a multifaceted career, performing in Asia, Europe, and the Americas as a soloist, concertmaster, and chamber musician. He is a founding member of the chamber ensemble Voce Intimae and has served as concertmaster of the Colorado Music Festival and the Atlantic Classical Orchestra in Florida. In New York, Mr. Appleman performs regularly in the first violin section of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. As one of the foremost violinists in the recording industry, he can be heard as a soloist on numerous CDs and motion picture soundtracks. During the summer season, Mr. Appleman is regularly invited to perform with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the Tanglewood Music Festival.

December 15, 2024: THE VIRTUOSO FLUTIST. DENIS BOURIAKOV, FLUTE. A RECITAL FOR FLUTE AND ORCHESTRA, with Erin Bouriakov, Flute. Musicians From The New York Philharmonic. Michael Parloff, Conductor. Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Double Concerto for Two Flutes in D minor, BWV 1043, arr. by Denis Bouriakov (Denis and Erin Bouriakov, flutes) December 15, 2024: THE VIRTUOSO FLUTIST. DENIS BOURIAKOV, FLUTE. A RECITAL FOR FLUTE AND ORCHESTRA, with Erin Bouriakov, Flute. Musicians From The New York Philharmonic. Michael Parloff, Conductor. An accomplished violinist as well as keyboard player, Bach wrote at least six concertos for one or more violins and several that combine violin with other types of solo instruments. The celebrated “Double” Concerto is in fact a concerto grosso, in which a small solo group (concertino )—here two violins—is contrasted with a larger group (ripieno or tutti ). Accordingly Bach titled his manuscript: Concerto à 6, 2 violini concertini, 2 violini e 1 viola di ripieni, violoncello e continuo di J. S. Bach . It was once thought that Bach had composed the work between 1717 and 1723 in Cöthen where he composed the Brandenburg Concertos, but scholar Christoph Wolff has convincingly suggested that this and the A minor Violin Concerto date from around 1730–31 in Leipzig, where Bach directed the Collegium Musicum. Founded at the University in 1702 by Georg Philipp Telemann, this society was made up primarily of students under professional leadership. The Collegium presented public community concerts, one of the first organizations to do so in Germany, and ultimately led to the renowned Leipzig Gewandhaus. During Bach’s tenure he was constantly composing for their weekly concerts: overtures, duo and trio sonatas, sinfonias, and concertos, which he often performed with his sons and pupils as soloists. A longtime admirer of the works of Vivaldi, Bach employed the concerto form that the Italian master standardized in the eighteenth century—three movements: fast, slow, fast. He also availed himself of Vivaldi’s ritornello form (in which a refrain alternates with episodic excursions). All three movements of the Double Concerto make use of or allude to ritornello form. Surprisingly for a concerto, the first movement’s ritornello refrain occurs in the manner of a fugue. In the Largo, ma non tanto, one of Bach’s most beautiful and heart-stirring slow movements, the soloists dominate. The way in which the solo parts intertwine, often weaving lovely chains of suspensions, continues to create a fascinating and emotional effect no matter how many times one has heard the work. The finale begins with a rhythmic cascade of close imitative counterpoint and unfolds in a free ritornello structure. Of special interest are the episodes in which, reversing their roles, the soloists play broad chords while the orchestra provides the motivic interest. The movement’s rhythmic drive creates a hypnotic momentum. Denis and Erin Bouriakov made the present arrangement for two flutes and orchestra (or piano accompaniment). Such a switch of scoring among treble instruments was common in Bach’s day, and the Double Concerto works extremely well with flutes as the protagonists. —©Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

April 13, 2025: Quartetto Di Cremona Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) String Quartet in A minor, Op. 132 April 13, 2025: Quartetto Di Cremona When Prince Nicholas Galitzin ordered “one, two, or three new quartets” from Beethoven in November 1822, he could hardly have realized that he was instigating a series of works by which all later generations would judge profundity. Beethoven had not forgotten the quartet medium in the twelve years since the F minor Quartet, op. 95, but the commission gave him the impetus to turn sketches into finished works. Nevertheless, he could not concentrate on quartet writing until after completing the Missa solemnis , the Diabelli Variations, and the Ninth Symphony, so the project did not begin in earnest until mid-1824. Beethoven completed the E-flat major Quartet, op. 127, in early 1825; the present A minor, op. 132, that July; and the B-flat major, op. 130, in early 1826. The prince loved the Quartets, but was able to make only one payment before going bankrupt and joining the army. The floodgates had been loosed, however, and out of inner necessity Beethoven completed two more quartets in 1826, the C-sharp minor, op.131, and the F major, op. 135, to arrive at the five works known as the “late quartets.” It should be noted that, too late for Beethoven himself but in the proper spirit, a son of Galitzin paid with interest what was owed on his father’s three quartets into the Beethoven estate. While pestering Beethoven in 1823 and 1824 about when he would received his quartets, Galitzin was always quick to say he understood that genius couldn’t be rushed. Beethoven’s problem was not a lack of ideas, but his hectic life as a world-famous composer, as mentioned above. With the A minor Quartet, illness was a major impediment. Though he began work late in 1824, from mid-April to mid-May 1825 he suffered from such a serious intestinal inflamation that part of the time he was bedridden. Though considerably weakened, he managed to complete the A minor Quartet by July, his recovery having prompted one of the few genuinely autobiographical manifestations in his music: he included a slow third movement entitled “Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit, in der lydischen Tonart” (A Convalescent’s Holy Song of Thanksgiving to the Deity, in the Lydian Mode). The opening of the Quartet’s first movement has won special comment ever since the late quartets were considered as a group. Its signature four notes—an ascending half step then a descending half step—bears striking similarity to the main theme of the Grosse Fuge (the original finale of the B-flat Quartet) and the opening fugue subject of the C-sharp minor Quartet. Some have even traced it in all five quartets. Whether Beethoven intended the motive as a unifying feature or recognized instances where he or other composers had used it previously, it seems to have been associated with painful emotions, which fits with these profound, introspective late works and particularly with this Quartet’s underlying script of pain transcended. A remarkable aspect of the first movement is how Beethoven is able to relate this motive—of which he gives several permutations in the brief slow introduction—with the distinctive opening gesture of the fast main part. Another noteworthy feature of the movement is the “double recapitulation,” the first in the “wrong” key and the second capped by an especially key-confirming coda. For his second movement he wrote a new style of waltzlike scherzo with a pastoral musette (bagpipe piece) for a trio. In this slightly contemplative dance, pairs of half steps reappear, but with a third note added, which makes the lilting main theme so distinctive. Pronounced utterances of the half steps gruffly interrupt the end of the ethereal musette. Beethoven employs the Lydian church mode (like F major, but with B-naturals instead of B-flats) to give his convalescent’s hymn an archaic, reverent tone. This exquisitely calm music returns in two equally slow-moving variations, twice contrasted by livelier music with wide leaps and trills that he labeled “Feeling new strength.” At a very late stage Beethoven decided the “German dance” that had originally followed the Thanksgiving movement should be replaced by an almost fierce march. (The original movement wound up transposed as the Alla danza tedesca in his next quartet, the B-flat.) He often seemed to require something earthy after something heavenly, or a witticism after something poetic, which is just what the Alla marcia provides. Shortly, however, the first violin plunges into the dramatic recitative that introduces the finale. This rondo—Beethoven’s last except for the replacement finale of the B-flat Quartet—employs a main theme that he had originally sketched as a “Finale instrumentale” for his Ninth Symphony. He gives the lyrical, pensive melody a sense of unrest with his agitated rocking accompaniment. Toward the end Beethoven increases the speed to a dizzying Presto with the cello playing this theme in extremely high register. Having slipped into a scintillating A major, Beethoven decided at the last phase of composition to extend his coda significantly to provide the proper tonal balance in this key for the entire Quartet. —©Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

March 13, 2022: Kristin Lee, violin; Nicholas Canellakis, cello; Michael Brown, piano MAURICE RAVEL (1875-1937) Sonata (Duo) for Violin and Cello March 13, 2022: Kristin Lee, violin; Nicholas Canellakis, cello; Michael Brown, piano In 1920 Henry Prunières, editor of La Revue Musicale, commissioned pieces by ten prominent composers—Bartók, Dukas, Falla, Eugene Goossens, Malipiero, Ravel, Roussel, Satie, Schmitt, and Stravinsky—to be published in a special issue commemorating Debussy and to be played on a special recital at the Société Musicale Indépendante on January 24, 1921. Ravel’s contribution was the first movement of his Duo for violin and cello. Owing to work on a concurrent commission for the opera L’enfant et les sortilèges and numerous other distractions—including moving into a country villa where he could compose undisturbed—Ravel did not resume work on the Sonata until the summer of 1921, completing it in January 1922. At the time of the premiere on April 6, 1922, by violinist Hélène Jourdan-Morhange and cellist Maurice Maréchal, the work was still titled Duo, perhaps reflecting Kodály’s 1914 work of the same title for the same combination of instruments. Indeed the Hungarian flavor of parts of the finale may indicate more than titular influence. Ravel noted the Sonata (its published title)—as a “turning point” in his career from the lushness of previous works to a more “stripped down” style. The work shows a “restraint from harmonic charm,” wrote the composer, and is “more and more an emphatic reversion to the spirit of melody.” Unintended dissonances marred the first performance—consequences of Ravel’s novel ideas, which proved technically challenging. Naturally some critics complained about the austerity of the new style, but Gustave Samazeuilh wrote of the “supple imagination of the first movement, “the surprising verve” of the second and fourth movements, and the “pure and sustained line” of the slow movement. Ravel met the challenge of composing for reduced forces not only through a new melodic style, but through an incredible variety of textures, articulations, and timbres. In the sonata-form first movement he keeps both instruments in the same register much of the time, thus focusing not on their differences but their pitch content, which shifts between major and minor. By contrast, the scherzo showcases the different ranges of the two instruments and, even more striking, the difference between pizzicato (plucked) and arco (bowed) articulations. A wonderful texture is created by broken chords in harmonics that accompany the violin’s folklike pizzicato theme, which later returns arco with a new accompaniment. Another novel sonority occurs at the conclusion with the cello’s pizzicato, triple-stop glissando (slide). The slow movement begins and ends in calm introspection, rising to a turbulent peak in the middle. Its simple lyricism provides a great foil for the preceding scherzo and the following finale, which by turns can be characterized as agitated, playful, and driven. In this concluding movement Ravel delights in changing meters, Hungarian folk touches, and further pizzicato and arco contrasts as he artfully creates new themes and combines them with ideas that we’ve heard before, including prominent recalls from the first movement. The great swirl of themes, keys, and textures suddenly comes to a halt in a simple C major chord. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

NANCY WU, VIOLIN Nancy Wu has served as Associate Concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra since 1989. She performs regularly with the MET Chamber Ensemble and has been a guest artist with the Chamber Music Society of Martha’s Vineyard and the Fondation Giannada in Martigny, Switzerland. Ms. Wu has been a coach for the Verbier Festival Orchestra since its founding in 2000. She is an exclusive artist for Thomastik-Infeld Strings. A Fulbright grant recipient, Ms. Wu graduated with honors from Stanford University and the Vienna Hochschule für Musik, and lives in Pleasantville, New York, with her husband, double bassist Leigh Mesh and their two children.

ALEXI KENNEY, VIOLIN Violinist Alexi Kenney is forging a career that defies categorization, following his interests, intuition, and heart. Alexi has appeared as soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, among many others, and in recital at Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, Princeton University Concerts, the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, and the Phillips Collection. A passionate advocate for music of our time, Alexi has commissioned major works for the violin from composers including Salina Fisher, Angélica Negrón, and Paul Wiancko, and is constantly incorporating new works into his repertoire. Alexi regularly appears at chamber music festivals including Bridgehampton, Kronberg, Ojai, Seattle, and Spoleto, on tour with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Musicians from Marlboro, and as a member of the quartet collective Owls. A recipient of a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award and an Avery Fisher Career Grant, he has been profiled by the New York Times and Strings magazine, and written for The Strad. Born in Palo Alto, California, Alexi is a graduate of the New England Conservatory, where he studied with Donald Weilerstein and Miriam Fried. He plays a violin made in London by Stefan-Peter Greiner in 2009.

December 3, 2023: Brentano String Quartet; Antioch Chamber Ensemble LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) Cavatina from String Quartet in B-flat, Op. 130 December 3, 2023: Brentano String Quartet; Antioch Chamber Ensemble When Prince Nicholas Galitzin ordered “one, two, or three new quartets” from Beethoven in November 1822, he could hardly have realized that he was instigating a series of works by which all later generations would judge profundity. Though the prince may have sensed something new in the first of the quartets (E-flat major, op. 127) and might have raised an eyebrow when the second (A minor, op. 132) appeared with an “extra” march and recitative before the finale, he must have been astounded by the third (B-flat major, op. 130). Composed between August and November 1825 in its original version, the B-flat Quartet began with an outwardly normal first movement only to be followed by a suite of four shorter movements and capped by a fugue of incomprehensible scope and difficulty. The prince pronounced himself pleased with the Quartets, but was only able to make one payment before going bankrupt and joining the army. Too late for Beethoven himself, but in the proper spirit, a son of Galitzin paid with interest what was owed into the Beethoven estate. The ever-faithful Schuppanzigh Quartet premiered the B-flat Quartet on March 21, 1826. Despite clamorous applause for other movements, the colossal fugue met with some resistance and the usually headstrong Beethoven was somehow persuaded to detach it and compose another concluding movement. Eventually, however, performances proliferated with the original ending—or sometimes both. The fifth movement, Cavatina, one of Beethoven’s most introspective and eloquent pieces, borrows its title from the term for an operatic aria. The emotional force of this “prayer” never failed to touch the composer himself. His friend, violinist Karl Holz reported that “the Cavatina was composed amid tears of grief; never had [Beethoven’s] music reached such a pitch of expressiveness, and the very memory of this piece used to bring tears to his eyes.” In an outwardly simple three-part form, the movement climaxes with the heartrending sobs of the first violin—Beethoven marks these “beklemmt” (oppressed, fearful)—before the condensed reprise of the opening. The emotional impact that Holz reported is so widely recognized that the movement is often played as a memorial tribute. Return to Parlance Program Notes

BENJAMIN BEILMAN, VIOLIN Benjamin Beilman is one of the leading violinists of his generation. He has won international praise for his passionate performances and deep rich tone which The New York Times described as “muscular with a glint of violence”, and the Strad described as “pure poetry.“ Le Monde has described him as “a prodigious artist, who combines the gift of utmost sound perfection and a deep, delicate, intense, simmering sensitivity”. Benjamin's 2024/25 season included his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic and Kirill Petrenko on tour in the US, as well as returns to the Chicago Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, and Antwerp Symphony. He also makes his debut with the Belgian National Orchestra in a performance of Stravinsky’s concerto, and with the Tokyo Metropolitain Symphony performing Korngold. In the US, he also embarked on a recital tour with pianist Steven Osborne. Last season included Benjamin's subscription debut with the Chicago Symphony with Semyon Bychkov, and six weeks of performances in Europe, including concerts with the SWR Symphonieorchester Stuttgart alongside Elim Chan, a return to the Kölner Philharmonie with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken, and appearances at the Grafenegg Festival, Festpielhaus St. Pölten, and the Musikverein in Vienna with the Tonkünstler Orchester and Tabita Berglund. He also returned to play-direct the London Chamber Orchestra, and re-united with Ryan Bancroft for his debut with BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Meanwhile, performances in the US included his debut with the St Louis Symphony under Cristian Macelaru, as well as returns to the Minnesota Orchestra with Elim Chan. In past seasons, Benjamin has performed with many major orchestras worldwide including the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Trondheim Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic, Taipei Symphony, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Zurich Tonhalle, Sydney Symphony, and Houston Symphony. He has also extensively toured Australia in recital under Musica Aviva, and in 2022, became one of the youngest artists to be appointed to the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music. In recent seasons Beilman’s commitment to and passion for contemporary music has led to new works written for him by Frederic Rzewski (commissioned by Music Accord), and Gabriella Smith (commissioned by the Schubert Club in St. Paul, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music). He has also given multiple performances of Jennifer Higdon’s violin concerto, and recorded Thomas Larcher’s concerto with Hannu Lintu and the Tonkünstler Orchester, as well as premiered Chris Rogerson’s Violin Concerto (“The Little Prince”) with the Kansas City Symphony and Gemma New. Conductors with whom he works include Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Cristian Măcelaru, Lahav Shani, Krzysztof Urbański, Ryan Bancroft, Matthias Pintscher, Gemma New, Karina Canellakis, Jonathon Heyward, Juraj Valčuha, Han-Na Chang, Elim Chan, Roderick Cox, Rafael Payare, Osmo Vänskä, and Giancarlo Guerrero. Beilman studied at the Curtis Institute of Music with Ida Kavafian and Pamela Frank, and with Christian Tetzlaff at the Kronberg Academy, and has received many prestigious accolades including a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship, an Avery Fisher Career Grant and a London Music Masters Award. He has also recorded works by Stravinsky, Janáček and Schubert for Warner Classics. He performs with the ex-Balaković F. X. Tourte bow (c. 1820), and plays the “Ysaÿe” Guarneri del Gesù from 1740, generously on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation.

STEPHEN WILLIAMSON, CLARINET Stephen Williamson is the newly appointed principal clarinetist of the New York Philharmonic. Prior to joining the Philharmonic, he served for two seasons as Ricardo Muti’s principal clarinetist in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and, before that, eight seasons as James Levine’s principal clarinet in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Steve also was recently appointed principal clarinet with the Saito Kinen Festival Orchestra in Japan under Seiji Ozawa. As a core member of the MET Chamber Ensemble, Williamson performed extensivelyperformed with James Levine as soloist and as chamber artist. In August 2011, he performed Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto with the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra in Japan under Fabio Luisi. In January 2012, Williamson joined Luisi and the MET Orchestra as soloist in a performance of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto at Carnegie Hall. Williamson serves on the clarinet faculty at Columbia University and the Mannes College of Music in New York City, as well as at the Pacific Music Festival. He has recorded for the Sony Classics, Telarc, CRI, BMG, Naxos and Decca labels and can be heard on numerous film soundtracks. Williamson received his bachelor’s degree and performer’s certificate from the Eastman School of Music, and his master’s degree from the Juilliard School. As a Fulbright Scholar, he furthered his studies at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin, where he collaborated with various members of the Berlin Philharmonic. His past teachers include Peter Rieckhoff, Charles Neidich, Kenneth Grant and Michael Webster. Williamson was the grand prize winner of the 1994 Boosey & Hawkes/Buffet Crampon First Annual North American Clarinet Competition. Other past awards include the Concert ArtistsGuild Competition as well as the Coleman International Chamber Music Competition. A long-time Selmer-Paris and Vandoren Artist, Mr. Williamson currently plays Selmer Signature clarinets and uses Vandoren traditional reeds with a James Pyne JX/BC mouthpiece. He resides in Nyack, NY with his wife Jill, sons Ryan, Connor, Matthew and their dog Lila.

SUNDAY, MARCH 9, 2025 AT 4 PM CELEBRATE RAVEL’S 150th BIRTHDAY! ERIKA BAIKOFF, SOPRANO SOOHONG PARK, PIANO ERIKA BAIKOFF , SOPRANO SOOHONG PARK , PIANO ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE BUY TICKETS 2024-2025 SEASON September 29, 2024 Cellobration! October 20, 2024 Modigliani Quartet November 17, 2024 Paul Lewis Plays Schubert December 15, 2024 The Virtuoso Flutist Denis Bouriakov January 19, 2025 The Virtuoso Organist Paul Jacobs February 9, 2025 The Virtuoso Cellist Steven Isserlis March 9, 2025 Ravel’s 150th Birthday Concert April 13, 2025 Quartetto Di Cremona May 18, 2025 Late Night With Leonard Bernstein Artist Roster Parlance Program Notes LOCATION At West Side Presbyterian Church 6 South Monroe Street Ridgewood, NJ 07450 For map and directions, click here . CONCERT AMENITIES Whee lchair Accessible Fr e e Parking for all concerts FEATURING BUY TICKETS “As Barbarina in the Met’s Le Nozze di Figaro, soprano Erika Baikoff made the most of her moment to shine. When staged simply and sung so beautifully, as it was here, Barbarina’s short aria, ‘L’ho perduta…me meschina’, is one of the brightest musical gems in the opera.” — Seen and Heard International "What sounds like easy playing in both senses of the word actually requires not only extraordinary technique but also a sensitive feeling for the breaks and depths of Schumann's music. Only a few people can do this really well, like pianist Soohong Park, the gold medal winner of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama” — Die Glocke, Germany. Celebrate the musical genius of Maurice Ravel on the 150th anniversary of his birth. The beguiling Russian-American soprano Erika Baikoff will collaborate the stellar Korean pianist Soohong Park in an afternoon of Ravel’s most alluring songs and ravishing piano solos . Throughout his life, Ravel drew inspiration from legends, poetry, and exotic locales. Erika and Soohong’s recital will journey across the musical landscapes of Greece, Spain, and Asia. Along the way, they will perform two of Ravel’s most beloved melodies, the poignant Pavane for a Dead Princess and the sinuous Vocalise in the Form of a Habanera . Another high point of the afternoon will be Soohong Park’s performance of Ravel’s dazzling triptych, Gaspard de la nuit , widely considered to be one of the most fearsomely challenging piano piece ever written. Ravel created fantastical musical images of the water-princess Undine, slowly twisting gallows in the setting sun, and the maniacally pirouetting goblin Scarbo. Bon anniversaire, Monsieur Ravel! PROGRAM Maurice Ravel Cinq mélodies populaires grecques for soprano and piano Program Notes Maurice Ravel Pavane pour une infante défunte for piano Program Notes Maurice Ravel Vocalise Etude en forme de habanera for soprano and piano. Program Notes Maurice Ravel Air de feu from L’enfante et les sortileges Program Notes Maurice Ravel Le Tombeau de Couperin for piano Program Notes INTERMISSION Maurice Ravel Manteau de fleurs for soprano and piano Ballade de la reine morte d’aimer for soprano and piano Program Notes Maurice Ravel Gaspard de la nuit for piano Program Notes Maurice Ravel Shéherazade for soprano and piano Program Notes Watch Erika Baikoff and Soohong Park’s mesmerizing performance of Schubert’s Nacht und Träume, D. 827: Watch Erika Baikoff and Soohong Park perform Schubert’s Frühlingsglaube, D.686:

November 20, 2022: Steven Banks, Saxophonist-Composer Xak Bjerken, Piano, Principal Strings of The Met Orchestra WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791) Quartet for oboe (soprano saxophone) and strings, K. 370 November 20, 2022: Steven Banks, Saxophonist-Composer Xak Bjerken, Piano, Principal Strings of The Met Orchestra Mozart was entranced by what he called the “delightfully pure tone” of oboist Friedrich Ramm when they met in Mannheim in 1777. Ramm, who was thirty-three at the time, had served as principal oboe of the Mannheim Court Orchestra since he was nineteen, having joined the orchestra at the age of fourteen! Mozart presented him with a copy of his Oboe Concerto (written for Giuseppe Ferlendis in Salzburg), with which Ramm soon created a sensation. The following year in Paris, Ramm enthusiastically anticipated playing one of the four solo wind parts in Mozart’s newly composed Sinfonia concertante (now lost in its original form). Mozart reported that he “flew into a rage” when he learned its performance had been blocked by the director of the Concert Spirituel, Joseph Legros, owing to the machinations of rival composer Giuseppe Cambini. In the winter of 1780–81, Mozart met up with his friend Ramm again in Munich, where the composer was presenting his opera Idomeneo and where the oboist had moved with the court orchestra when Karl Theodor became Elector of Bavaria. There in the first months of 1781 Mozart wrote his Oboe Quartet for Ramm, thereby adding a priceless gem to the chamber music literature. In this performance, the soprano saxophone (henceforth referred to as “soloist”) takes the oboe part, presenting most of the work’s enchanting melodies and offering brilliant displays of virtuosity, particularly in the finale. Mozart even offers the wind player a chance for a cadenza in the slow movement. Lest this soloistic treatment and the three- rather than four-movement structure suggest a concerto, it should be said that the Quartet still engages the listener in the more intimate discourse of chamber music. Particularly alluring are the interchanges between the soloist and the violin, as in the first movement when Mozart’s “second theme” consists of the violin now rendering the opening theme while the soloist joins in with a soaring countermelody. The slow movement must have displayed Ramm’s singing tone admirably—and now does the same for that of Steven Banks. Indeed, Mozart treats the melody much like that of an aria, exhibiting not only the soloist’s ability to sustain a long line but to negotiate wide leaps such as he often required of his singers. The soloist dominates again in the Rondeau (Mozart employed the French spelling), presenting all three occurrences of the jolly refrain. The second contrasting episode contains an extremely unusual device for Mozart: the soloist switches to duple meter while the violin, viola, and cello carry on merrily in the prevailing triple meter, creating a delightful if brief tension. Passages of rapid figuration and further wide leaps test the soloist’s agility, and several times Mozart’s writing ascends to lofty heights—as at the piece’s conclusion—again demonstrating his full confidence in the artistry of his friend. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

March, 10 2024: Richard Goode, piano LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) Sonata No. 30 in E, Op. 109 March, 10 2024: Richard Goode, piano In 1826, the last year of his life, Beethoven told his friend Karl Holz that he would write no more piano pieces. He made the statement during a discussion of his last three piano sonatas—opp. 109, 110, and 111—which he considered the best piano sonatas he had written. “It [the piano] is and remains,” he said, “an inadequate instrument. In the future I shall write, in the manner of my grandmaster Handel, one oratorio and one concerto for any string or wind instrument per year, provided that I have finished my Tenth Symphony (C minor) and my Requiem.” Commentators still argue over whether Beethoven felt limited by the physical qualities of the piano of his day or whether he needed more moving parts/voices than pieces for piano alone could accommodate, but these last three sonatas certainly show no waning of interest in the creative possibilities of form within the sonata genre. Written between 1820 and 1822 while Beethoven was working on the Missa solemnis and Ninth Symphony, these late sonatas return to exploring the fluid forms and balances among movements that had characterized his piano sonatas of 1814–16—opp. 90, 102 (Nos. 1 and 2), and 101. In the interim years, the Hammerklavier Sonata, op. 106, a revolutionary work in many other ways, had reverted to a traditional four-movement pattern. Beethoven completed the present E major Sonata mainly in the summer of 1820. He dedicated the work to Maximiliane Brentano, the daughter of Antoinie (whom many believe to be the intended recipient of the famous “Immortal Beloved” letter) and Franz Brentano, Beethoven’s frequent benefactor and financial provider for the publication of the Missa solemnis . There is no evidence that Maximilane ever played the Sonata or was even capable of handling its challenges, but along with the dedication copy Beethoven included a sweet personal letter full of appreciation for her and her parents, saying, “While I am thinking of the excellent qualities of your parents, there are no doubts in my mind that you have been striving to emulate these noble people and are progressing daily—my memories of a noble family can never fade, may your memories of me be frequent and good.” Given the astounding form of the E major Sonata—two unusual and brief sonata-form movements capped by an expansive slow variation movement—several salient details bear noting. The sonata-form of the first movement is unprecedented in both the surprising brevity of its carefree main theme and the shocking interruption by the dramatic, slow recitative-like second theme. Further, Beethoven’s lively development section never varies the arpeggiated, alternating hands texture from the short opening theme; instead the process of development comes from harmonic manipulations. The fierce Prestissimo erupts from the subdued close of the previous movement. Even faster than Presto, the movement serves the purpose of a scherzo but with the more serious framework of a concentrated sonata form. The regular four- and eight-bar phrase lengths contrast with the previous movement’s metric ambiguities. Beethoven not only shows his academic prowess by invoking double counterpoint but uses it for the novel purpose of showing off the piano’s registral range. The hauntingly beautiful variation set that concludes the E major Sonata aptly shows Beethoven concentrating the weight of these late sonatas toward the end. Following the theme, marked “Gesangvoll, mit innigster Empfindung” (Songful, with innermost feeling), the first two variations add harmonic interest, whereas the third, fourth, and fifth variations feature various contrapuntal techniques. The fourth variation, in particular, presents an exquisite study in the timing of certain sounds decaying while others are held. The sixth variation returns, seemingly to the simplicity of the theme, but the added insistent repeated notes suggest a grander purpose here as Beethoven intricately builds up his layers of ornamental sonorities. —©Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes