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SAMUEL BARBER (1910-1981) Hermit Songs, Op. 29 March 29, 2015 – Matthew Polenzani, tenor; Ken Noda, piano Samuel Barber excelled in both singing and composition as a student at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Upon graduation he worked briefly as a baritone for NBC on the Music Guild Series and was even hired for his own series of weekly song broadcasts in 1935. As a composer he was naturally drawn to vocal expression—two-thirds of his compositions consist of songs—but even his instrumental works are infused with a lyrical impulse. In November 1952, Barber was already a well-established composer and had just completed his lighthearted ballet Souvenirs, when another project seized his fancy, drawing on his love of Irish literature and poetry. He wrote to his uncle, composer Sidney Homer, who served as his mentor for much of his career: I have come across some poems of the 10th century, translated into Modern English by various people, and am making a song cycle of them, to be called, perhaps “Hermit Songs.” These were extraordinary men, monks or hermits or what not, and they wrote these little poems on the corners of MSS they were illuminating or just copying. I find them very direct, unspoiled, and often curiously contemporaneous in feeling. Barber himself was something of a hermit, often holing up to compose, so the idea of these ancient scholars scribbling in unguarded moments greatly appealed to him. He elaborated further in his printed preface: They are settings of anonymous Irish texts of the eighth to thirteenth centuries written by monks and scholars, often on the margins of manuscripts they were copying or illuminating—perhaps not always meant to be seen by their Father Superiors. They are small poems, thoughts or observations, some very short, and speak in straightforward, droll, and often surprisingly modern terms of the simple life these men led, close to nature, to animals, and to God. Some are very literal translation, and others, where existing translation seemed inadequate, were especially made by W. H. Auden [“The Monk and his Cat” and “The Praises of God”] and Chester Kallman [“St. Ita’s Vision”]. Barber composed four of the Hermit Songs immediately and by mid-February had completed the other six. A year after he had begun, he received a commission for the cycle from the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation—Mrs. Coolidge had been a great supporter of his work for thirty years. Barber’s search for the ideal singer to present the songs culminated with Leontyne Price, who had recently become known for her portrayal of Bess in Porgy and Bess but had yet to make her recital debut. Price, with Barber at the piano, gave the first performance at the Coolidge Auditorium at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., on Mrs. Coolidge’s eighty-ninth birthday, October 30, 1953. She presented them again with the composer in April in Rome at the Twentieth-Century Music Conference and in November at her New York recital debut—thus began a long and rewarding friendship. The ten songs vary considerably in length and mood according to their subjects, from the tender lullaby of “St. Ita’s Vision” to the bombast of “Sea-Snatch.” But they make a cohesive group based in part on ancient-sounding fourths and fifths and other shared motivic material (a descending whole tone followed by a descending fourth appears in eight of the songs). Whether fast or slow, jaunty or reflective, Barber’s style of declamation fits the text precisely because he allows unhampered metric flow by omitting time signatures altogether. Attested to by the frequency of their performance and by the remarkable number of studies devoted to both their textual and musical analysis, The Hermit Songs rank among the great songs cycles of the twentieth century. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897) Eight Pieces, Op. 76 October 14, 2018: Garrick Ohlsson, piano During his stay in the lovely village of Pörtschach in the summer of 1879, Brahms worked diligently on his Violin Concerto, but he also returned to composing piano pieces, resulting in the Klavierstücke , op. 76. He had produced no piano works for public consumption in fifteen years, but had not abandoned his principal instrument completely as seen by the first of these pieces, which he had originally presented to Clara Schumann as a birthday present in 1871. Having permanently left behind the monumental sonatas and variation sets of his earlier period, he took up the thread of “miniatures,” begun with the Opus 10 Ballades and which would culminate in the late great piano pieces, opp. 116–119. He found such shorter pieces perfect for exploring a myriad of subtle textures and nuances of mood. And, as it turns out, he had not abandoned the variation techniques that fascinated him at all periods of his life—he had simply refined them. The eight Klavierstücke , op. 76, are divided into two main types: the faster, more extroverted Capriccios—Nos. 1, 2, 5, and 8—and the slower, more introspective Intermezzos—Nos. 3, 4, 6, and 7. Brahms invented such a variety of characters within each type, however, that the designations remain only loose categorizations. The first Capriccio, in F-sharp minor, and the second, in B minor, for example, could hardly be more different. The first is a swirling, turbulent piece, whereas the famous second Capriccio presents a lighthearted, sometimes impish demeanor. Brahms’s friend Elisabet von Herzogenberg, from whom he frequently solicited opinions on his music, said the F-sharp minor Capriccio was her favorite, but she also loved playing the second. Brahms employed slightly different forms for each of the eight pieces. They all, however, have to do with the alternation of two main sections and with the ingenious variation of a section when it returns. The first Capriccio contrasts the opening theme of yearning, wide-ranging figures with one in which a four-note figure recurs in many guises. In No. 2 the two basic themes alternate minor and major, but both are playful with enlivening grace notes and off-beat accents. The first of the Intermezzos, No. 3 in A-flat major, gives the impression of a music box in its first and third sections by means of high range and staccato accompaniment; these sections alternate with more lush music that hints at Chopin. The Intermezzo in B-flat major, No. 4, presents an intricate texture somewhat reminiscent of Schumann, with each voice maintaining its own rhythmic pattern. Here Brahms offers a complete miniature sonata form. The powerful Capriccio in C-sharp minor, No. 5, displays one of Brahms’s favorite rhythmic devices—the simultaneous use of 6/8 and 3/4 meter. The wonderful tension this creates is abetted by intense chromaticism. The second theme begins in a waiting pattern of repeated octaves, then bursts out in lively figuration. The Intermezzo in A major, No. 6, again brings Schumann to mind with its many-layered texture; it too juxtaposes rhythmic patterns of twos and threes. The most striking feature of No. 7, the A minor Capriccio, is the chordal theme that frames the piece. The second section is notable for its insistent return to one note (G-sharp). The set closes with a Capriccio of complex moods and textures—No. 8 in C major, which begins with a section of flowing eighth-note figuration, within which tied notes provide slight emphasis. The second, more chordal idea takes intriguing harmonic expeditions. Just when it seems the piece might conclude contemplatively, the coda gathers momentum for a forceful finish. Plagued by self-doubt, Brahms asked Clara Schumann if he should omit No. 8 from the publication. We can be grateful that she told him it was a great favorite of hers, perhaps saving the piece from banishment. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750) Sonata in E, BWV 1035 for flute and continuo April 3, 2016: Sir James Galway, flute; Nicholas Canellakis, cello; Paolo Bourdignon, harpsichord Bach presumably wrote the E major Flute Sonata in 1741 in connection with his visit to the court of the flute-loving King Frederick the Great in Potsdam (close to Berlin), and probably for the King’s flute partner and chamberlain Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf. The sources for the work all date from the nineteenth century, so the exact date of composition and circumstances for which it was written remain conjecture—hence the attempt of Bach scholars to suggest a plausible scenario. The style of the piece, though an unreliable way to date a composition, also fits with the 1741 date. The E major Sonata does not contain the kind of imitative polyphony usually considered “typical” of Bach, and it takes the form of a sonata da camera—typically a free introductory movement and several dance movements—the only such instance among Bach’s ensemble sonatas. Instead of casting doubts on the work’s authenticity, this style fits in with the progressive tendencies Bach showed in the late 1730s and early 1740s, before he adopted an older, increasingly contrapuntal style after 1745. Bach may also have associated a more galant, dance-inspired style with the transverse flute, which developed primarily in France. He did not, after all, indicate the flute as interchangeable with violin or any other treble instrument. (Later publications have done this to make the flute sonatas available to a wider public.) The opening motive—a long note with a florid continuation—recurs throughout the slow first movement. Bach provides agreeable rhythmic variety with two sections of triplets. The Allegro second movement follows rounded binary form—two sections, each repeated, with the opening theme returning halfway through the second section in its original key—the precursor of sonata form. The Siciliano, also in binary form, exhibits the characteristic 6/8 meter and dotted rhythms of the Baroque dance suite movement. The final movement, Allegro assai in 3/4 meter, features phrases alternately beginning with three eighth-note or three sixteenth-note upbeats. As in the work’s other binary movements, Bach follows the custom in Baroque suites for the main thematic material to initiate both sections. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

JOSEPH HAYDN (1732-1809) String Quartet in G, Op. 77, No. 1 October 17, 2021: Escher String Quartet In 1799 the young Prince Lobkowitz commissioned Haydn, the most celebrated composer in Europe, to write a set of six quartets, at the same time commissioning six from Beethoven, Vienna’s rising star. Haydn completed two, the present one in G major and a second in F major, and he even wrote the middle two movements of the next, which was to have been in D minor, but then he stopped. The two quartets were published in 1802 as Opus 77 with a dedication to the prince, and the two separate movements appeared in 1806 as Opus 103. After composing some eighty-three quartets—trailblazing works that greatly defined the genre—why did Haydn abandon the commission and quartet writing altogether? It is likely, as his biographer Robbins Landon suggests, that he didn’t want to compete with Beethoven, his former pupil, whose response to the commission was his wonderful Opus 18 set. Now known as Beethoven’s “early” quartets in view of his later contributions, these were nevertheless considered groundbreaking in their day. In any case, Haydn had nothing to apologize for in his masterful two Opus 77 Quartets, but he was feeling his age and wanted to invest his energy in large vocal works, an area in which Beethoven could not yet compete. The Opus 77 Quartets represent Haydn at his best, providing examples of all the traits we find so characteristic of the mature master: well-proportioned sonata forms sometimes based on a single theme, frequent use of harmonies related by the interval of a third, weighty slow movements, fast minuets that are essentially scherzos, and reliance on folk idioms. And yet they also show him still stretching his creative powers. In the first movement of the G major Quartet, for example, he expands his development section to equal the proportion of the exposition. This first movement’s main theme projects a martial character, based, according to Haydn scholar Bence Szabolcsi, on a Hungarian recruiting song. Haydn soon introduces a running triplet figure that he cleverly weaves around the martial idea and around the lyrical second theme introduced by the second violin. His development section includes a “false reprise” that features this second idea in the “wrong” key. Having dealt at length with this theme in the development, he omits it in the true recapitulation and continues with his coda. The solemn slow movement (in the third-related key of E-flat) gives a soloistic role to the first violin, as Haydn had done in many of his preceding quartets. He relies on a kind of free sonata form though without a clear second theme. Among his felicitous harmonic excursions and devices is a wonderfully unexpected shift in the development that brings on a hushed rendering of the main theme in a distant key. The Presto scherzo-minuet shows the master’s unabated energy in the fast pace and acrobatic leaps. Toward the end of the first of his three sections (minuet-trio-minuet), the violin reaches a note unprecedented in the quartet literature: a super-high D. The trio suggests a rustic peasant dance but in a new style for Haydn. Was he perhaps, as Landon wonders, experimenting in Beethoven’s language to please the prince, or might he even have perpetrated a subtle spoof? Haydn’s spirited finale returns to his Gypsy-Croatian-Eastern roots in its melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic style, though scholars have not identified a direct folk quotation. With his characteristic fashioning of the second theme out of the first, Haydn makes this sonata-form movement essentially “monothematic.” The finale offers the crowning example of Haydn’s successful blend of folk and “art” music. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

BENJAMIN BOWMAN, VIOLIN American-Canadian violinist Benjamin Bowman was recently appointed as concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera by maestro Nézét-Seguin. He is also the concertmaster of the American Ballet Theatre and is a member of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. Benjamin is very active and engaged as a chamber musician, recitalist and soloist. He regularly performs in concerts and festivals in Europe and North America. Most recently, he was nominated for a 2017 Grammy for his recording with the ARC (Artists of the Royal Conservatory) Ensemble (‘The Chamber Works of Jerzy Fitelberg’) and was also featured on the 2013 Juno-winning album ‘Levant’ with the Amici Chamber Ensemble. Other collaborative work includes extensive immersion in contemporary music, improvisation and performance with singer/songwriters. His discography includes recent solo and chamber-music releases on the CHANDOS, Sony Masterworks/RCA Red Seal, ATMA Classique, and Innova labels. Bowman received his Bachelor of Music degree from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Benjamin plays a very fine Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin kindly loaned to him by Irene R. Miller through the Beares International Violin Society.

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< Back Amilcare Ponchielli Quartetto for woodwinds & piano accompaniment Seth Morris, flute; Elaine Douvas, oboe; Anton Rist, B-flat clarinet, Jessica Phillips, E-flat clarinet; Bryan Wagorn, piano Program Notes Previous Next

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CARTER BREY, CELLO Carter Brey was appointed Principal Cellist of the New York Philharmonic in 1996, and made his subscription debut as soloist with the Orchestra in May 1997, performing Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations led by then-Music Director Kurt Masur. He has performed as soloist in subsequent seasons in the Elgar Cello Concerto with André Previn conducting; in William Schuman’s A Song of Orpheus with Christian Thielemann; in the Barber Concerto with conductor Alan Gilbert; in Richard Strauss’s Don Quixote with Music Director Lorin Maazel and with former Music Director Zubin Mehta; and in the Brahms Double Concerto with Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow and conductor Christoph Eschenbach, as well as with Lorin Maazel on the orchestra’s 2007 tour of Europe. The Brahms was also performed at the Tanglewood Music Center in the summer of 2002 as part of Kurt Masur’s final concerts as Philharmonic Music Director. Mr. Brey most recently performed Boccherini’s Cello Concerto in D with Riccardo Muti conducting in April of 2010. Carter Brey rose to international attention in 1981 as a prizewinner in the Rostropovich International Cello Competition. Subsequent appearances with Mstislav Rostropovich and the National Symphony Orchestra were unanimously praised. The winner of the Gregor Piatigorsky Memorial Prize, Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Young Concert Artists’ Michaels Award, and other honors, he also was the first musician to win the Arts Council of America’s Performing Arts Prize, and has performed as soloist with many of America’s major symphony orchestras. 

His chamber music career is equally distinguished. He has made regular appearances with the Tokyo and Emerson string quartets as well as the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Spoleto Festival in the U.S. and Italy, and the Santa Fe Chamber Music and La Jolla Chamber Music festivals, among others. He presents an ongoing series of duo recitals with pianist Christopher O’Riley; together they have recorded The Latin American Album, a disc of compositions from South America and Mexico (Helicon Records). His recording with Garrick Ohlsson of the complete works of Chopin for cello and piano was released by Arabesque in the fall of 2002 to great acclaim. A faculty member of the Curtis Institute, Mr. Brey appeared as soloist with the Curtis Orchestra at Verizon Hall and Carnegie Hall in April of 2009. Mr. Brey was educated at the Peabody Institute, where he studied with Laurence Lesser and Stephen Kates, and at Yale University, where he studied with Aldo Parisot and was a Wardwell Fellow and a Houpt Scholar. He lives in New York City with his wife, Ilaria Dagnini Brey, and their two children, Ottavia and Lucas. Among his outside interests are marathon running, ballroom dancing, and sailing.

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HSIN-YUN HUANG, VIOLA Hsin-Yun Huang is firmly established since 1993 as one of the leading violists of her generation. Virtually simultaneously, in that year, she won the top prizes in the ARD International Music Competition in Munich and the highly prestigious Bunkamura Orchard Hall Award, which included a scholarship grant, and concerto and recital appearances in Japan. Ms. Huang was also the youngest-ever gold medalist in the 1988 Lionel Tertis International Competition on the Isle of Man. As a result of these and other successes, she has been telecast in concerto appearances with the Bavarian Radio Orchestra in Munich, the Zagreb Soloists in Paris and the Tokyo Philharmonic in Tokyo; other significant appearances include live broadcast performances with the Berlin Radio Symphony, the Russian State Philharmonic, and the National Symphony of Taiwan, among others. Recent solo highlights included collaboration with London Sinfonia in South America, with Naumberg Orchestra in Central Park, with ICE at Miller Theater, and with Children Orchestra Society at Alice Tully Hall. A native of Taiwan, Ms. Huang currently resides in New York, and is an active soloist and chamber musician in the U.S., the Far East, and Europe. She has participated in various prominent chamber music festivals, including the Rome Chamber Music Festival, Music@Menlo, Moritzburg Festival in Dresden, Spoleto Festivals in Italy as well as Charleston, SC, Cartagena Festival in Colombia, Chamber Music Northwest, the Marlboro Music Festival, Prussia Cove, England, St. Nazaire in France, Bridgehampton, the El Paso Chamber Music Festival, the Vancouver Chamber Music Festival, Festival de Divonne in France, the Appalachian Festival, the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, the Salt Bay Chamberfest, the Newport Festival, and many others. She has collaborated with artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Jaime Laredo, Joshua Bell, Joseph Suk, Menahem Pressler, the Guarneri, Juilliard, Brentano, Orion, St. Lawrence, and the Johannes String Quartets. She has recorded Mozart Quintet with the Brentann String Quartet and presented the Mozart Quintets with them under the auspices of Carnegie Hall in 2007. Ms. Huang has recently embarked on a series of major commissioning projects for solo viola and chamber ensemble. In July 2006, she premiered a new work from Houston-based Taiwanese composer Shih-Hui Chen, Shu Shon Key (Remembrance) with the Broyhill Chamber Ensemble at An Appalachian Summer Festival in North Carolina. The work was co-commissioned by the festival along with Chinese Performing Arts, and has received performances at Boston’s Jordan Hall and Da Camera of Houston, the Evergreen Symphony Orchestra has commissioned a version of the work for solo viola and orchestra. A new work from Steven Mackey, also for solo viola and chamber ensemble, received its premiere at the Aspen Music Festival in the summer of 2007. Subsequent performances included presentations by the Fulcrum Point New Music Project in Chicago, the International Viola Congress 2008, the La Jolla Summer Festival, and at Princeton University. A new disc, Viola Viola, containing both works, will be released by Bridge Record in the fall of 2012. Ms. Huang was a member of the Borromeo String Quartet from 1994–2000. With the Quartet, she participated in festivals worldwide and in such prominent venues as New York’s Alice Tully Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall, Berlin’s Philharmonie, and Japan’s Casals Hall. In 1998, the Borromeo String Quartet was awarded the prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award and was chosen by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center to be members of “CMS Two” and featured in a “Live from Lincoln Center” telecast. She is currently a founding member of the Variation String Trio with violinist Jennifer Koh and cellist Wilhelmina Smith. Hsin-Yun Huang came to England at the age of fourteen to study at the Yehudi Menuhin School with David Takeno. She continued her studies at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia with Michael Tree, where she earned her Bachelor of Music degree, and at the Juilliard School with Samuel Rhodes, where she earned her Master of Music. She is a dedicated teacher and currently serves on the faculties of the Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute of Music.