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2024-2025 SEASON COVID-19 Info for Parlance Chamber Concerts attendees: Read more here. BUY TICKETS 2024 – 2025 CONCERTS SUNDAY, JANUARY 19, 2025 AT 4 PM THE VIRTUOSO ORGANIST PAUL JACOBS, ORGAN On January 19 , the Grammy Award-winning organist Paul Jacobs will again grace our stage in a afternoon of towering masterpieces for the King of Instruments by Bach, Mendelssohn, Franck, Ives and Liszt . Don’t miss the musician that the Washington Post called “one of the great living virtuosos . LEARN MORE “Paul Jacobs is one of the great living virtuosos.” — The Washington Post “… An obliterating performance by one of the major musicians of our time.” - Alex Ross, The New Yorker SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2025 AT 4 PM THE VIRTUOSO CELLIST STEVEN ISSERLIS, CELLO CONNIE SHIH, PIANO On February 9, the renowned British cellist Steven Isserlis will make his long-awaited Parlance debut. Celebrated worldwide for his deeply communicative artistry, Isserlis radiates joy and virtuosity with every note he plays. His internationally diverse program will include works by Beethoven, Martinu, Boulanger , and Edvard Grieg’s soaring sonata for cello and piano . “Steven Isserlis can have the listener in perpetual wonder at the ingredients of his art…” — The Australian “Isserlis's incomparable technique, phrasing, expression and sensitivity across all the tempi and dynamics, quite simply, were incredible. There can be no doubt that Isserlis is an inspired and inspiring - musician” — Limelight Magazine LEARN MORE SUNDAY, MARCH 9, 2025 AT 4 PM CELEBRATE RAVEL’S 150th BIRTHDAY! ERIKA BAIKOFF, SOPRANO SOOHONG PARK, PIANO On March 9 , celebrate Maurice Ravel’s 150th Birthday with the beguiling Russian-American soprano Erika Baikoff and the stellar Korean pianist Soohong Park. Their recital will feature a selection of Ravel’s most alluring song cycles and ravishing piano solos, including Shéhérazade and Gaspard de la nuit . LEARN MORE “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. SUNDAY, APRIL 13, 2025 AT 4 PM QUARTETTO DI CREMONA CRISTIANO GUALCO, VIOLIN PAOLO ANDREOLI, VIOLIN SIMONE GRAMAGLIA, VIOLA GIOVANNI SCAGLIONE, CELLO On April 13 , the lustrous Quartetto di Cremona will make their eagerly anticipated return to PCC. The award-winning Italian ensemble will perform pinnacles of the quartet repertoire including Debussy’s luminous String Quartet and Beethoven’s spiritually transcendent Quartet in A minor, Op. 132 . LEARN MORE “It’s a rare blend: breadth of sound and capriciousness combined with perfect tuning and ensemble has the players sounding absolutely of one voice… Nothing less than life-affirming.” 
 – Gramophone SUNDAY, MAY 18, 2025 AT 4 PM LATE NIGHT WITH LEONARD BERNSTEIN A MULTIMEDIA CABARET JAMIE BERNSTEIN, HOST AMY BURTON, SOPRANO JOHN MUSTO, PIANO MICHAEL BORISKIN, PIANO On May 18 , you won’t want to miss our star-studded seasonal finale, Late Night with Leonard Bernstein . This multimedia cabaret will be hosted by the Maestro’s daughter, Jamie Bernstein , in collaboration with acclaimed soprano Amy Burton and pianists John Musto and Michael Boriskin . They will provide an affectionately intimate portrait of the multifaceted titan of 20th-century American music. LEARN MORE “A look at the after-hours maestro [that] revealed his mischievous personality and musical predilections … the audience filled the room with lusty laughs and applause.” — The New York Times PAST CONCERTS 2024 – 2025 SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2024 AT 4 PM CELLOBRATION! CARTER BREY, CELLO RAFAEL FIGUEROA, CELLO EDWARD ARRON, CELLO ZVI PLESSER, CELLO JEEWON PARK, PIANO Parlance Chamber Concerts’s 17th season will begin joyfully on September 29 with a “Cellobration” spotlighting four of today’s leading cellists. Carter Brey , principal of the New York Philharmonic; Rafael Figueroa , principal of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; Zvi Plesser , professor at The Juilliard School; and the versatile soloist and chamber musician Edward Arron will join forces in a rich selection of cello solos and ensembles by Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Rachmaninoff, and others . LEARN MORE SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2024 AT 4 PM MODIGLIANI QUARTET AMAURY COEYTAUX, VIOLIN LOÏC RIO, VIOLIN LAURENT MARFAING, VIOLA FRANÇOIS KIEFFER, CELLO Founded in 2003, the Paris-based Modigliani Quartet occupies the upper echelon of string quartets. In addition to their annual tours in the United States and in Asia, the quartet’s European tours have inspired acclaim in the major concert halls of London, Paris, Vienna, Berlin, and Saint Petersburg. The elite French ensemble will perform a wide-ranging program that will include Joaquín’s Turina’s lushly impressionistic La oración de torero (The Bullfighter’s Prayer), Brahms’s tenderhearted Quartet in B-flat, Op. 67 , and Beethoven’s sublime Quartet in E minor, Op. 59, No. 2 . His student, Carl Czerny, wrote that the second movement “occurred to Beethoven while he was contemplating the starry sky and thinking of the music of the spheres.” LEARN MORE “ A gripping and persuasive performance, played with awesome individual and communal brilliance ” — The Strad (London) SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2024 AT 4 PM PIANIST PAUL LEWIS PLAYS SCHUBERT’S LAST THREE SONATAS On November 17 , the poetic English pianist Paul Lewis will return to PCC's stage. Universally acclaimed for his sovereign Schubert interpretations, Lewis will perform Schubert’s profound final trilogy of sonatas . LEARN MORE “Mr. Lewis’s playing offered warmth and fluidity with no loss of clarity…[he] transported the listener to the world of late Schubert ” — The New York Times SUNDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2024 AT 4 PM THE VIRTUOSO FLUTIST DENIS BOURIAKOV, FLUTE A RECITAL FOR FLUTE AND ORCHESTRA with MUSICIANS FROM THE NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC MICHAEL PARLOFF, CONDUCTOR On December 15 , the phenomenal Crimean flutist Denis Bouriakov will perform a recital of concertos for flute and orchestra by Mozart, Bach, François Devienne and Saint-Saëns . He will be supported by an ensemble of Musicians from the New York Philharmonic conducted by PCC’s Artistic Director Michael Parloff. LEARN MORE ABOUT PARLANCE CHAMBER CONCERTS VIDEO INTRO TO PARLANCE CHAMBER CONCERTS Michael Parloff introduces the mission and history of PCC. Audience members share their experiences. LEARN MORE PCC: A VIDEO SAMPLER See short video clips from past seasons, featuring the Emerson Quartet, Sir James Galway Richard Goode, and others. MEET THE ARTISTS ABOUT THE SEASON 17 YEARS OF GREAT MUSIC MAKING

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SUNDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2024 AT 4 PM 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 DENIS BOURIAKOV , FLUTE ERIN BOURIAKOV , FLUTE 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 In 2012, Sir James Galway called the young Crimean flutist Denis Bouriakov “the greatest living talent at the moment on the flute.” Since that time, Bouriakov has established himself as one of the world’s leading soloists. With his phenomenal instrumental command and impeccable artistry, he is continually expanding the limits of the flute’s technique and repertoire through his burgeoning catalogue of transcriptions, recordings, and videos. His unique virtuosity will be showcased in a recital of music for flute and orchestra supported by eighteen musicians from the New York Philharmonic conducted by PCC’s Artistic Director, Michael Parloff . The program will include concertos by Mozart and François Devienne , and Denis’ wife, Erin, will share the spotlight in Bach’s Double Concerto in D minor , arranged for two flutes and orchestra. The afternoon will culminate with Denis’s bravura transcription Camille Saint-Saëns’s scintillating Rondo Capriccioso for flute and strings. Musicians from the New York Philharmonic Michael Parloff, conductor Sheryl Staples, Concertmaster Michelle Kim, violin Quan Ge, violin Qianqian Li, violin Audrey Wright, violin Alina Kobialka, violin Cong Wu, viola Robert Rinehart, viola Mathew Christakos, cello Nathan Vickery, cello Timothy Cobb, bass Lauren Scanio, flute Sarah Beaird, flute Ryan Roberts, oboe Michal Cieślik, oboe Tanner West, horn Liana Hoffman, horn Paolo Bordignon, harpsichord PROGRAM W.A. Mozart: Flute Concerto in G, K. 313 Program Notes J. S. Bach: Double Concerto for Two Flutes in D minor, BWV 1043, arr. by Denis Bouriakov (Denis and Erin Bouriakov, flutes) Program Notes INTERMISSION François Devienne: Flute Concerto No. 7 in E minor Program Notes W.A. Mozart: Andante in C, K. 315 for flute and orchestra Program Notes Camille Saint-Saëns: Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, Op. 28, arr. by Denis Bouriakov Program Notes Watch the thrilling conclusion to Denis Bouriakov’s bravura arrangement of Camille Saint-Saëns’s Rondo Capriccioso for flute and strings: Watch Denis Bouriakov’s performance of the third movement of CPE Bach’s virtuosic Concerto in D minor:

HENRI BROD (1799 – 1839) Duo from Lucia di Lammermoor, Op. 55 for oboe and cello & piano accompaniment September 18, 2022: Elaine Douvas, oboe; Joel Noyes, cello; Bryan Wagorn, piano Henri Brod began studying oboe at the Paris Conservatory at the age of twelve. After receiving the Premier Prix in 1818, he was appointed second oboe in the Paris Opéra orchestra alongside his teacher, Gustav Vogt. Brod filled in as first oboist during Vogt’s absences and succeeded him in 1834. Contemporary accounts often compare the two players—the famous French musicologist and encyclopedist François-Joseph Fétis wrote: “The sound he drew from the oboe was sweeter, smoother and not as forceful as that of his teacher; his phrasing was elegant and graceful; his execution of the virtuosic passages was lively and brilliant.” Brod’s career was all too short—he died just three months short of his fortieth birthday, when he would have received a pension that would have supported his wife and young son. In another facet of his career, Brod, along with his brother Jean-Godefroy, was an innovative oboe maker, possibly the first in France to add the octave key and to extend the oboe’s range. He also developed a straight English horn as well as baritone and “petit” oboes, and he invented a gouging machine for making reeds. In addition, he is the author of an informative method book in two volumes (1826, 1835), of which at least the first is still readily available in an edition by Valerie Anderson. As with many performing composers, Brod wrote mainly for his own instrument—opera fantasies, variations, and chamber works such as wind quintets and trios, as well as six oboe sonatas that were among the works he published in his method book. He also composed an opera, Thésée, presumed lost, which was rejected for performance in 1826 but received a partial performance in 1837. A complete list of his works has yet to be made. Brod’s Duo from Lucia di Lammermoor (or Lucia ed Edgardo, duo de Lucia di Lamermoor de Donizetti arrangé pour hautbois ou clarinette et basson ou violoncelle avec accompaniment de piano, op. 55, as its original title reads) likely dates from around 1837, when Donizetti’s successful 1835 opera was first performed in France. No doubt Brod gave its first performance with some of his Paris Opéra/Conservatory colleagues. The duo appeared in print in 1841, two years after his death. The original title, Lucia ed Edgardo, is apt because the piece is essentially an arrangement of their extended duet from Act I, Scene 2, with the bassoon taking the role of Edgardo, laird of Ravenswood, and the oboe that of Lucia Ashton. The story, set in Scotland, revolves around the love affair they are carrying on despite the bitter feud between their two families. Before the tragic events of her madness and both their deaths, Edgardo meets Lucia secretly to say that he must leave for France, and he wants to make peace with her brother Enrico so he can ask for her hand in marriage. She begs Edgardo to keep their relationship secret, which rekindles his anger against Enrico. This is the point at which the Duo picks up the story. After the three instruments provide a portentous introduction, Lucia (oboe) tries to calm Edgardo (bassoon), but he begins singing mournfully about the tomb of his betrayed father on which he swore revenge. She tries again to calm him and tells him to banish all feelings but love. After a grand pause, a martial-sounding section signals Edgardo’s resolve as he hits on the idea of marrying her on the spot. They exchange rings and call on heaven to witness their vows. The lovers must part, which brings on a wistful mood, and the final section lilts as they sing of the breeze that will carry their ardent sighs. Brod caps the piece with a virtuoso coda of his own design. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

RICHARD STRAUSS (1864–1949) Songs November 12, 2023: Angel Blue, soprano; Bryan Wagorn, piano Strauss wrote songs all his life, from his first song, “Weinachtslied” (Christmas song), at the age of six, to his Four Last Songs, so-named by his publisher, which he composed at the age of eighty-four. Many of his more than 200 songs were written for soprano Pauline de Ahna who became his wife in 1894; the composer himself usually accompanied her on the piano. Some of his songs remain infrequently performed—often because of their difficulty—while others hold a firm place both in recital and in orchestrated versions by Strauss and others on symphonic programs. Strauss composed the four marvelous songs of Opus 27 in 1894 as his wedding present to Pauline. He had become interested in a group of poets—followers of Max Stirner and his socialist ideals—who had established themselves as a force against sentimental mid-nineteenth-century poets and against folk and mock-ancient poetry. Strauss was little interested in their politics, but latched onto their Romantic outpourings. Third in the set, “Heimliche Aufforderung” (Secret invitation) sets a text by Scottish-born but German-raised Stirner disciple, John Henry Mackay. His text is an ardent love song, sung during a tryst amid a crowd of merrymakers. The eager vocal line is accompanied by rippling figurations that change several times to a more static texture to reflect the text. A peaceful postlude follows the ecstatic appeal for night to fall. “Allerseelen” (All Soul’s Day) belongs to Strauss’s first set of published songs, Acht Gedichte aus Letzte Blätter von Hermann von Gilm (Eight Poems from Last Leaves by Hermann von Gilm), op. 10. He had come across the poems in an 1864 volume brought back from Innsbruck by his friend and composer Ludwig Thuille. Strauss composed the songs in 1885, dedicating them to Heinrich Vogl, principal tenor at the Munich Court Opera, who had expressed admiration for them to the young composer. “Allerseelen” (All Souls’ Day), which appears last in the Opus 10 collection, refers to November 2, the day when Western Christians commemorate those dear to them who have died. The poet of Strauss’s setting is longing for his departed love to return, tenderly wishing for things to be as they once were. The song shows the twenty-one-year-old’s lyrical and harmonic mastery, in this case unfolding in a through-composed form that becomes progressively more dramatic. Another of Strauss’s greatest songs, “Befreit” (Freed), third in the Opus 39 set of 1898, sets a text by controversial but now largely forgotten Expressionist poet Richard Dehmel, whose poems became popular for their rich symbolism of erotic love, beauty, art, and feeling. Though Dehmel professed that poetry should have many equally valid interpretations, he went so far as to publish a criticism of Strauss’s setting but without giving specifics about why he thought it “too soft-grained.” He did admit that even though he had envisioned a man’s parting with his dying wife, there are many kinds of farewells. The title “Befreit” represents the loving couple so freed from suffering that not even death is a threat. Strauss’s moving setting emphasizes the constancy of their love and acknowledges with his poignant setting of “O Glück!” at the end of each verse that happiness radiates even through sorrow. “Morgen!” (Tomorrow!), which concludes the Opus 27 group (see above), sets another romantic text by John Henry Mackay. Strauss fashioned a delicate, rapturous setting, begun by one of his most extended and engaging introductions. The song concludes in recitative style followed by a condensed reminder of the introduction. Strauss dashed off “Cäcilie” on September 9, 1894, the day before his wedding. In a nice parallel, he was setting a poem that had been written to honor the wife of the poet, Heinrich Hart. (The text is often misattributed to Heinrich’s brother Julius.) Strauss is said to have embellished the already full and virtuosic accompaniment when performing the song, so it comes as no surprise that he decided to orchestrate it in 1897. Strauss placed it second in the Opus 27 set (see above), but it makes a perfect concluding selection here as his most impassioned and ecstatic love song. —©Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

JOSEPH HAYDN (1732-1809) String Quartet in B-flat, Op. 76, No. 4 (“Sunrise”) October 17, 2021: Escher String Quartet When Count Joseph Erdödy commissioned the Opus 76 Quartets in 1796, Haydn had recently returned to Vienna from the second of his highly successful London visits. He had always composed with confidence, but a certain new boldness in his style may have come from the realization that the entire Western world considered him the greatest living composer. The six “Erdödy” Quartets show formal experiments (continued, as mentioned above, in his Opus 77 quartets) both within or instead of sonata-form movements, a new profundity in their extremely slow-paced Adagios, fast “modern” minuets—scherzos in all but name—and more weight and novel tonal approaches in their finales. In June 1797 Haydn played some or all of the quartets on the piano for Swedish diplomat Frederik Silverstolpe, who considered them “more than masterly and full of new thoughts.” The Quartets were completed in time for a September 1797 performance at Eisenstadt as part of the grand festivities surrounding the visit of the Viceroy of Hungary, Palatine Archduke Joseph. Count Erdödy’s rights to the Quartets precluded their being published until 1799. That year English music historian Charles Burney wrote to Haydn that he “never received more pleasure from instrumental music: [the Quartets] are full of invention, fire, good taste, and new effects.” The B-flat major Quartet exudes the composer’s supreme confidence and originality: in one of the greatest openings in chamber music, the lovely first violin melody rises out of a chord sustained by the three lower instruments in a wonderful sunrise effect that earned the Quartet its nickname. Several commentators have remarked on the feeling of growth that this idea initiates in the movement. The continuation of the main theme brings great contrast with an energetic idea that fosters all the fiery passages in the movement, including the remarkable fortissimo bursts that close the exposition and recapitulation. The second theme uses the “sunrise” idea of the opening but in a kind of mirror image—the cello plays a winding descent as the others sustain the chord. Throughout the movement one hears the kind of mastery that so impressed Beethoven as he began writing string quartets with his Opus 18 series. Haydn’s Adagio somberly explores the possibilities of its first five notes. For a major-mode movement, this is one of the most dark-hued in the repertoire and seems to create a direct link with the poetic slow movements of Beethoven’s later quartets. Delicate filigree erupts not merrily but poignantly and the great downward leaps at the ends of sections seem to release but not totally relieve built-up tension. The second half, which begins like the opening, exaggerates these qualities with more filigree and wider plunges. For his fast Menuetto Haydn takes a little repeated two-note slur and fashions two entire sections from it. The second much longer section includes a varied return to the first, signaled by the little repeated slur in the cello—a nice bit of humor. Partway through this return, the focus again shifts briefly to the cello, soon followed by the viola. The Menuetto ends with another subtle touch of humor as twice the upward arpeggio fails to resolve in its own register. The contrasting trio evokes a truly rustic atmosphere with its folklike drones in the manner of a musette or bagpipes. The finale is a little masterpiece based on what some suspect is an English folk tune heard on his travels, but which he treats to sophisticated bits of contrapuntal and rhythmic manipulations. The matching first and third sections surround a no less jolly minor-mode section that contains several impish surprises. Following the return of the opening section Haydn takes us on an extended whirlwind ride, suddenly picking up speed only to shift to yet a higher speed for a virtuosic thrill. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862-1918) Danse sacrée et profane December 18, 2016: Mariko Anraku, harp; David Chan, concertmaster; Catherine Ro, violin; Dov Scheindlin, viola; Rafael Figueroa, cello Please refer also to the “private little war” in the notes for Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro. The customary double-action harp is fashioned with seven pedals, which can make each of the seven notes of the diatonic scale either flat, natural, or sharp. In 1897 the famous Paris instrument-making firm of Pleyel introduced a new chromatic harp, which contained a string for every half step, thus almost doubling the number of strings. In 1903 Pleyel invited Debussy to compose a test piece, which was to be used for a class that was being initiated in the new instrument at the Brussels Conservatory. The resulting work, Deux danses (Danse sacrée et profane ), for harp and string orchestra has long since become a beloved part of the repertoire, while the chromatic harp has become a museum piece. The work is now played on the double-action harp, a possibility Debussy had allowed for on the title page; he also transcribed it for two pianos. Debussy used the collective title Danses for the work, which contains two movements, both in triple meter and A-B-A form. The slow Danse sacrée was suggested to Debussy by a piano piece by his friend, composer and conductor Francisco de Lacerda, but also owes something to Erik Satie’s Gymnopédies , of which Debussy was fond enough to transcribe two for orchestra. A vague ritualistic atmosphere, imparted by its slow-moving modal sonorities, often in parallel octaves, accounts for the title “sacred dance.” Similarly, the suggestion of a lilting waltz, rather than any specific pagan scene, gives rise to the title Danse profane . © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

Amanda Maier (1853-1894) Piano Trio in E-flat October 15, 2023: Lysander Piano Trio During the all-too-short span of her life, Amanda Maier excelled in two male-dominated fields—as a solo violinist and as a composer. Although little is known about her childhood, clearly her musical talent was recognized early and she enrolled at age sixteen in the Kungliga Musikaliska Akademien in Stockholm. She became the first woman to earn the elite Musikdirektör diploma, receiving the highest possible grades in harmony, counterpoint, history and aesthetics, violin, organ, and piano. Her organ skills had merited her a place in the Academy’s even more exclusive Artistklass. Maier continued her education in Leipzig, studying violin with Engelbert Röntgen, concertmaster of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and composition with conductor/composer Carl Reinecke and professor Ernst Friedrich Richter. She became a regular of the Röntgen household, participating in their many musical gatherings and eventually marrying Engelbert’s son Julius, who had become the love of her life. She also socialized and made music with many other renowned Leipzig musicians, including Clara Schumann and Edvard Grieg. Maier’s earliest surviving compositions, including the Piano Trio, date from this Leipzig period. The later 1870s also saw her performing and touring in an ensemble as a violinist, highlighted by a performance for King Oscar II in Malmö in 1876. The following year Maier returned home to Sweden, but after her father died, she returned to Leipzig where her life felt centered. The couple had to spend two years visiting between Leipzig and Amsterdam after Julius accepted a piano teaching position in the Dutch capital while she maintained her performing schedule in Leipzig and on tours in Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Russia. After their marriage in 1880 Maier settled in Amsterdam, and one year later their son Julius II was born, who was to become a violinist. The following year she suffered the first of three debilitating miscarriages, but in 1886 their second son Engelbert was born, who later became a cellist. Besides caring for her sons—whose early music education she oversaw—she continued to perform, though less frequently and rarely in public. Just after Engelbert was born, Maier fell ill with the lung disease that would plague her for the rest of her life. She also suffered from painful recurring eye trouble that often required her to wear dark glasses or a patch. Maier continued her musical activities during good spells between attacks, but they naturally lessened. When the devastated Röntgen wrote of her death to their good friends the Griegs, Edvard wrote back saying, “She was one of my favorites!” In the years after Maier’s death, concerts featured her works in Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Germany, and The Netherlands, but she and her music gently faded from public awareness. Since the 1990s, however, there has been a resurgence of interest in her music, with recordings and publications of works such as her Piano Quartet and Violin Concerto, which she had performed with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in one of the pinnacles of her career. Going back to late April 1874, the diaries of both Julius and Amanda had made copious mentions of the Piano Trio, showing great pride and that they consulted on compositional details. They gave the first of many private performances on May 20, 1874, with cellist Julius Klengel (cousin of Julius Röntgen) at the Röntgen’s Leipzig home. Amanda wrote home to one of her favorite professors at the Stockholm Academy about another performance on June 7, saying: Everything has gone as well as I could have wished, and I believe I have made significant progress. . . . I performed . . . Mendelssohn’s concerto, and, among other pieces, a Trio for piano, violin and cello that I have recently composed. My Trio has been well received and sounds wonderful; they say here in Leipzig that my music has a ‘national’ flavor—a Nordic one, that is—which seems to be all the rage here. Jumping forward more than 140 years, Maier’s great-grandson Reinier Thadiens, who was living in Southern France, saw a list of her “lost works” and found the manuscript of her Piano Trio in a pile of music he had inherited. He immediately notified Swedish cellist and scholar Klas Gagge, who published it in 2018 through the Swedish Musical Heritage project and the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. The world premiere—that is, the public premiere—took place on April 20, 2018, performed in Umeå, Sweden, by violinist Cecilia Zillacus, cellist Kati Raitinen, and pianist Bengt Forsberg. In the first movement, Maier immediately contrasts her forthright opening idea with a quiet phrase in Classic-era style. She proceeds not like Mozart or Haydn, however, but aligns with Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Brahms—those Romantic composers with a classical bent. The expressive second theme is related to the first but has more harmonic instability. Her development section, which journeys through distant harmonies on a scheme similar to Schubert’s E-flat Trio, D. 929, reaches several dramatic peaks before the climax that launches the recapitulation. Taking some Romantic “liberties,” she waits until the coda to bring back her second theme in the main key. The dancelike outer sections of Maier’s Scherzo consist of miniature self-contained sonata forms, much like Brahms’s Scherzo in his Horn Trio of 1865. The songful contrasting central trio section is particularly lovely. Led off by a lyrical cello melody, the slow movement is particularly poignant, with considerable opportunities for contrapuntal intertwining between the violin and cello. The broad three-part form includes a shortened and varied return of the opening and coda. The finale blossoms quickly from a gentle but sprightly opening to surging phrases brimming with Romantic vigor. Maier was clearly aware of some Romantic composers’ cyclic procedures, shown in her recalling of the slow movement. Throughout Maier has delighted in modulating excursions, so it comes as no surprise that she introduces a false reprise before returning “home” for a rousing finish. Return to Parlance Program Notes

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791) String Quartet in D major, K. 575, “Prussian No. 1” March 6, 2016: The Escher String Quartet The String Quartet in D major, K. 575, is the first of the three Prussian Quartets—the last string quartets Mozart ever wrote. In April of 1789 he had left Vienna for Potsdam with his pupil, Prince Karl Lichnowsky (later Beethoven’s patron), who was to introduce him to King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia. The king, like his flutist/composer uncle, King Friedrich Wilhelm I, and his pianist/composer cousin, Prince Louis Ferdinand, was a great music lover—his instrument was the cello. Mozart hoped the visit would result in some financial gain, but all he received was a small amount of money and a commission to compose “six easy clavier sonatas for Princess Friederike and six quartets for the king.” When Mozart got back to Vienna his situation was no better. He was constantly begging money from friends, who this time did not answer his requests; his wife fell seriously ill; and he himself was suffering from rheumatism, toothaches, headaches, and insomnia. He composed one quartet, K. 575 in D major, but waited almost a year before adding two more, K. 589 in B-flat major and K. 590 in F major. He never wrote the other three, nor did he complete the set of sonatas for the princess. He sold the three quartets to a publisher “for a mockery of a fee, only to lay my hands on some money to keep myself going.” In order to highlight the king’s instrument, Mozart wrote significant cello parts in high register, which he balanced with soloistic opportunities for the other instruments—a style called “quatuor concertant,” which was particularly popular in Paris. Here in the D major Quartet Mozart featured solo cello writing in all movements, whereas in the second quartet the cello comes to the fore only in the first two movements and in the third primarily in the first movement. It seems the image of the cello-playing king receded as time went on. Mozart chose the relaxed tempo marking “Allegretto” for three of the D major Quartet’s movements. He emphasizes the opening movement’s delicate quality by giving the rare directive “sotto voce” (in an undertone, subdued) at the outset and at the start of the recapitulation. The first violin, then viola, present the main theme, with equal prominence given to the cello when it enters with the second theme in high register. Mozart marks this “dolce” (sweetly), another of his exceptional directives. The Andante, his only non-Allegretto movement, is only moderately slow—a walking tempo—further minimizing the tempo contrast between movements. His lovely melody bears enough similarity to his 1785 song “Das Veilchen” (The violet) to have given that nickname to the Quartet on occasion. The arching phrases in the middle section of this A-B-A form also feature the cello as an equal conversationalist. An introductory ornament and light staccato repeated notes, both essential thematic elements, give verve to this elegant Menuetto. The cello particularly comes to the fore in the middle trio section, presenting a singing melody in response to the violins’ lightly tripping invitation. The cheerful finale combines both sonata and rondo form with a recurring main theme introduced by the cello with viola counterpoint. Many commentators have pointed out the similarity of the main idea to the that of the first movement, suggesting a possible anticipation of Romantic composers’ interest in cyclic unity. Mozart’s astounding but seemingly effortless contrapuntal writing throughout the movement makes refrains, episodes, and development alike a witty and elegant experience. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) Romance No. 2 in F major, op. 50 September 24, 2017: Sean Lee, violin; Michael Brown, piano Beethoven may have written his two Romances for violin and orchestra as potential slow movements for an unfinished concerto (WoO 5), but in the end he published them as separate pieces. The F major Romance may date from as early as 1798. In German, Romanze designates a songlike instrumental piece (specifically in alla breve meter or “cut time”), of which the French Romance is a special subcategory used for violin concerto slow movements by composers such as Viotti. Beethoven’s sweetly “singing” Romances clearly show his familiarity with this French style. The F major Romance is especially famous for its high range and sweet melodic line, which may partly account for its being played more often than its companion in G. Beethoven interjects contrasting orchestral sections at the ends of thematic statements, characterizing them with majestic long-short rhythms. He creates a wonderful touch at the end when his accompaniment provides a double echo of the solo violin’s last three notes. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) String Quartet in F, Op. 59, No. 1 April 8, 2018: Danish String Quartet Beethoven composed his three Quartets, op. 59, in 1805–06 for the Russian ambassador in Vienna, Count Andreas Kyrilovich Razumovsky. The count was an excellent amateur violinist, who played second violin in his own house string quartet, except when Louis Sina stepped in so he could sit back and listen. His first violinist was the illustrious Ignaz Schuppanzigh, whom Beethoven had known since 1794 and who premiered many of the composer’s works. The three Razumovsky Quartets represent an entirely different world than Beethoven’s six early Quartets, op. 18, published only four years before. In between he had written his never-mailed letter, the heartrending “Heiligenstädt Testament,” which dealt with the anguish of his deafness and solitude, and had composed such innovative new works as the Eroica Symphony, the Appassionata Piano Sonata, and the first version of his opera Fidelio . His radical new style, with its expanded sonata forms, epic themes, complexities, and individualities, met with hostility and derision from early performers and critics. “Perhaps no work of Beethoven’s,” wrote his famed early biographer Alexander Wheelock Thayer, “met a more discouraging reception from musicians than these now famous Quartets.” The first movement of the present F major Razumovsky Quartet is remarkable for its lush expansiveness. This is already apparent in Beethoven’s first theme, which unfolds lyrically in the cello over pulsing repeated-note accompaniment, then is taken over by the first violin. The shift in register is something that he explores throughout the work and is one aspect, in addition to length, that gives such a spacious impression. Once this theme peaks, Beethoven instantly changes texture and introduces several new ideas before moving on to his new key area. When the composer eventually launches what sounds like a repeat of the exposition, he suddenly shoots off in another direction, a grand deception clearly playing on the listener’s expectation of that repeat. A famous “first” in the annals of sonata-form, this “non-repeat” considerably alters the structure of the first movement by making it one long sweep and shifting a greater proportion of time and weight onto the development section. Beethoven takes full advantage of the space he created for development by indulging in contrasts of register, new figuration, tension-building, fugal writing, and a mysterious and enormous preparation for the onset of the recapitulation. Beethoven labeled his second movement “Allegretto vivace e sempre scherzando” rather than calling it a scherzo outright, perhaps because he ingeniously adopts a full-fledged sonata form instead of the traditional scherzo-trio-scherzo or five-fold expansion of that form. Placed second rather than in the more typical third spot in the sequence of movements, this extraordinary scherzo ranks as Beethoven’s most original in form. Again, expansiveness is the ruling feature of the movement, which grows out of the distinctive repeated-note rhythmic pattern of the opening. This idea generates a remarkable number of miniature themes, which Beethoven treats in wonderfully airy “scherzando” textures. The composer uses the relatively rare description “mesto” (mournful) in his performance direction for his slow movement, thereby acknowledging its tragic qualities. It was here in his sketches that he made the strange notation: “A weeping willow or acacia on my brother’s grave.” He may have been referring to his distress at his brother Caspar Carl’s marriage to Johanna Reiss, who was six months pregnant, or remembering another brother who died in infancy, but the main melody, featuring the first violin and then the cello in high register, is certainly an expressive lament. The movement closes with a florid cadenza for the first violin, in which the darkness seems to dissipate and which leads directly into the finale, a device Beethoven had explored in other middle-period works. Beethoven incorporated a Russian theme into each of the first two Razumovsky Quartets, making an audible connection to his patron, though it is uncertain whether the idea and the choice of theme was Beethoven’s or the count’s. Here the cello merrily introduces the Russian theme while the violin is still trilling. We wonder what Count Razumovsky thought of Beethoven’s cheerful rendition of the originally soulful melody. The mood has definitely lightened here, though the scope is still grand—a full sonata form, complete with repeat of the exposition. Beethoven crowns the work with an imaginative coda in which he slows the Russian theme, imbuing it with mock sadness, only to sweep it away with his virtuosic final flourish © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750) Prelude from Suite for Cello in D, BWV 1012 March 24, 2019: Edward Arron, cello Bach most likely composed his Six Suites for unaccompanied cello, BWV 1007–1012, while serving as Kapellmeister at the court of Prince Leopold in Cöthen between 1717 and 1723. Precise dating is difficult because they survive, not in Bach’s own hand, but in a copy made later in Leipzig by his second wife, Anna Magdalena Bach. It is likely that the Suites were written either for Christian Ferdinand Abel or Christian Bernhard Linigke, both accomplished cellists and Cöthen residents. Estimation of their performing abilities is, in fact, considerably enhanced by the mere idea that Bach may have written these substantial works for one or the other of them. Though appreciated in some circles, as Forkel’s 1802 Bach biography makes clear, the Suites fell into quasi-oblivion along with much of Bach’s music in the decades following his death. Bach’s celebrated biographer Philipp Spitta gave them their due for their “serene grandeur” in his monumental study (1873–80), but they remained little known by the general public until they were championed by Pablo Casals in the early twentieth century. Bach’s forward-looking exploration of the cello’s potential unfolds within the traditional configuration of the Baroque suite, which consisted of old-style dances in binary form—allemande, courante, sarabande, and gigue—with a newer-style optional dance movement, or Galanterie, interpolated before the final gigue. These interpolated dances in his cello suites consist of minuets, bourrées, or gavottes, and he prefaced each of the Suites with a Prélude. Throughout, Bach’s contrapuntal genius shows in his ability to project multiple voices and implied harmonies with what is often considered a single-line instrument. The Sixth Suite is unusual in that it was written for a five-stringed instrument. Was it the violoncello piccolo? viola pomposa? cello da spalla? In any case, the fifth string would have sounded a fifth higher than A, the highest string on a four-stringed cello. Any performance problems in playing this work on today’s four-stringed instrument—different tone quality from playing higher on the A string than Bach would normally have written, certain awkward double stops, or rapid string crossings (bariolage) requiring an open E string—have long since been solved. The extensive Prelude immediately proclaims the virtuosic nature of this Suite—the cello plays almost constant triplets except for a passage near the end when Bach employs doubled note values. Specified dynamic markings, used sparingly in Bach’s time, call for quick juxtapositions of loud and soft. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes