2016 17 CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES SAMUELI THEATER February 2, 2017 Thursday at 8 p.m. Preview talk by Dr. Byron Adams at 7:15 p.m. String Quartet in D Minor, K. 421 and Pacifica Quartet WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756 1791) I. Allegro II. Andante III. Menuetto: Allegretto IV. Allegro ma non troppo Piano Quintet MARC-ANDRÉ HAMELIN World Premiere (1961 ) Commissioned by Elizabeth and Justus Schlichting for Segerstrom Center for the Arts With special underwriting from: Elizabeth and Justus Schlichting The Center applauds: Piano Quintet in E Flat Major, Op. 44 I. Allegro brillante II. In Modo d una Marcia: Un poco largamente III. Scherzo: Molto vivace IV. Allegro ma no troppo ROBERT SCHUMANN (1810 1856) Media Partner: Out of courtesy to the artists and your fellow patrons, please take a moment to turn off and refrain from using cellular phones, pagers, watch alarms and similar devices. The use of any audio or videorecording device or the taking of photographs (with or without flash) is strictly prohibited. Thank you. 1
About the Program WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Born: January 27, 1756, Salzburg, Austria Died: December 5, 1791, Vienna String Quartet in D Minor, K. 421 Mozart was composing his D minor quartet on June 17, 1783, in the same room in which his wife, Constanze, was giving birth to their first son, Raimund Leopold. According to his biographer, Otto Jahn, When she complained of pain, he would come to her to cheer and console, resuming his writing as soon as she was calm. Although many have searched in vain for a correlation between the immediate situation and this profound melancholy and intensely expressive quartet, most have concluded with Eric Blom that Mozart shows here his amazing power of emotional detachment and the callousness of genius. Perhaps the D minor quartet, again in Blom s words, can be best understood as a personal confession that is kept within the bounds of pure art only because its expressive intensity is matched by the utmost tact and the keenest discernment of a perfect balance between technique and design. The Allegro, a short, concentrated movement, is deeply passionate despite its overall restraint. The principal theme in the first violin is characterized by leaps, both down and up, and by a plenitude of individual motifs. The subsidiary theme, more confined in range, sounds agitated and uneasy, partly because of the faster-moving notes in both the melody and accompaniment. At the end of the exposition the first violin plays once and then again a little isolated figure ending with three repeated notes. This motto, Reginald Barrett-Ayres points out in his book on Haydn s quartets, is heard in every movement and acts as a unifying device. While the following development, recapitulation, and coda fall into traditional sonata form patterns, the actual music is anything but ordinary, making this a very affecting movement. The Andante, in A-B-A form, is almost tender, but with a bustle and agitation that stand in the way. Likewise, it is almost serene, but with too many individual motifs and changes of dynamics to provide the necessary tranquility. Soon after the opening, and several times in the course of the A strain, the first violin plays a three-note motto heard in the last movement, albeit in a slower tempo. The B section is dominated by the three repeated notes. Those, like Wolfgang Hildesheimer in his biography of Mozart, who say that the composer wrote the cries of Constanze in labor into the music think that the two heard in this part are her screams. A shortened A section concludes the movement. The three-note motto forms an important part of the defiant Menuetto s main theme. In a striking volte-face, the trio is all sunshine and light, with the first violin playing a jesting tune over a simple pizzicato accompaniment. But the good times do not last long, as the movement ends with a repeat of the bold Menuetto. The mood brightens considerably for the finale, a set of four variations and coda on an ingenious-sounding theme with the rhythm of a Siciliano, an old, moderately fast Italian dance of pastoral character. In the first variation, the first violin substitutes a florid elaboration for the rhythmic pattern of the dance tune. The two violins share the lead in the next variation, enlivening the melody with sharp, offbeat accents. The viola, sounding as plaintive and doleful as can be, sets the tone for the Variation III; early on it recalls the three-note motto from the previous movements. After three variations that move further away from the starting theme, the fourth variation shifts back toward the original, smoothing out the rhythms, modulating to the major, and adding a flowing countermelody in the cello and viola. The coda, which is slightly faster in tempo and back in minor, comes even closer to the opening theme. The three-note figure appears here again and grows in importance so that the entire quartet ends with three determined repetitions of that unifying motto. Guide to Chamber Music, Melvin Berger ROBERT SCHUMANN Born: June 8, 1810, Zwikau, Germany Died: July 29, 1856, Enfdenich, Germany Piano Quintet in E Flat Major, Op. 44 Schumann s piano quintet is his most frequently performed chamber composition; it is also the pioneering quintet for piano and string quartet and the inspiration for a line of great works for the combination, including those by Brahms, Franck, and Dvorak. Schumann wrote this seminal work in September 1842, taking five days to prepare the sketches and two weeks to complete the score. He dedicated it to his wife, Clara, and scheduled the premiere for December 6 of the same year at the Leipzig home of Carl and Henriette Voigt. Clara, who was to participate, fell ill on the day of the performance, and Felix Mendelssohn stepped in, playing the difficult piano part at sight. Mendelssohn s participation at the premiere left a lasting impact on the work; he found the second trio in the Scherzo move- 2
ment lacking, and it was at his suggestion that Schumann wrote a livelier replacement. Critics have faulted the quintet for what some consider an overly prominent piano part, with strings relegated to the background. According to one explanation, offered by Homer Ulrich in his book on chamber music, Schumann conceived the piano as a counterbalance to the four strings and not as one part among five equals; therefore it bears one-half of the musical burden, not one-fifth. All too often, though, the fault lies not with Schumann but with the pianist, who plays too loudly. If the pianist allows the string tone to predominate when the piano and string instrument are playing the same note, as is so often the case, most of the balance problems see to disappear. The bold, assertive first theme, played in a forceful tutti opens the quintet, followed immediately by its miraculous transformation into a wonderfully warm, cantilena melody. The cello and viola present the sensitive second theme as a conversational dialogue. A heavily accented third theme, an obvious outgrowth of the first, brings the exposition to its conclusion. Schumann ignores the second theme in the development section, which includes long strings of virtuosic piano runs against sustained string chords. The recapitulation brings back the exposition slightly modified, and the movement ends without a coda. The second movement, In Modo d una Marcia ( In the Style of a March ), clearly refers to a funeral march, not in any personal mournful sense but as an objective musical experience. Schumann structures the movement as a cross between rondo and sonata form. The first theme has the cadence of a solemn march. A tenuous, sustained first violin line over a busy, anxious accompaniment functions as a contrasting second theme and precedes the return of the opening. The faster-moving next section works over both the first and second ideas before the movement concludes with a final statement of the first theme. The Scherzo is the glorification of the scale. Whether a single instrument or in combination, going up or down, loud or soft, in even notes or trochees, the subject is always scales. The lyrical, legato first trio with the first violin and viola in canon, offers a welcome respite from the relentlessly scalic Scherzo. The return of the Scherzo is followed by the second trio, a high-powered, heavily accented, perpetual motion. Schumann ends the movement with a final review of the Scherzo and a summarizing coda. The crowning last movement contains all the virility and sturdiness of the first movement. The pianist flings out the muscular principal theme with an accent on every note, backed up by the strings playing a tempestuous repeated note accompaniment. A contrasting quiet and songlike subsidiary melody acts as a foil to the first theme. The short, subdued development is mostly concerned with the second theme, building up at the end to an exultant return of the first to start the recapitulation, which proceeds regularly through both themes. In the vary spacious and remarkable coda, Schumann introduces two major fugal sections, the first based on the movement s principal theme, the second combining that melody with the same theme. Guide to Chamber Music, Melvin Berger MARC-ANDRÉ HAMELIN Born: September 5, 1961, Montreal, Quebec Piano Quintet World Premiere 3
About the Artists 4 Pianist is now ranked among the elect of world pianists for his unrivalled blend of musicianship and virtuosity in the great works of the established repertoire, as well as for his intrepid exploration of the rarities of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries in concert and on disc. This summer Mr. Hamelin appeared at the Schubertiade, Verbier, Lofton, and Salzburg festivals plus recitals at Tanglewood, Domaine Forget, Aspen, and La Jolla, where he performed his new piano/cello sonata, commissioned by the La Jolla Music Society, with cellist Hai-Ye Ni. Mr. Hamelin s 2016-2017 orchestral engagements include performances with the Montreal Symphony under Kent Nagano, the Minnesota Orchestra with Osmo Vanska, the Indianapolis Symphony in a reprise of the Haydn Piano concerto in D Major with Bernard Labadie (which they recently recorded together), and performances with the Bayerische Staatsorchester with Kiril Petrenko, and NDR Hanover, and the symphony orchestras in Gothenburg, Oregon, Bologna, Montpellier, and the Warsaw Philhamonic in repertoire including Brahms 1 and 2, Medtner 2, and Mozart K. 453. In recital, Mr. Hamelin performs in New York at the 92nd Street Y, at the Gilmore Festival, in Cleveland, Toronto, for Chicago Symphony Presents, the Van Cliburn, Spivey Hall, ProMusica Montreal, Music Toronto, and the Green Center in Sonoma. European recitals include Munich, DeSingel in Antwerp, Moscow State Philharmonic Society, Perugia, Heidelberg Festival, Bilbao, Vienna Konzerthaus, Berlin Philharmonic, and the Salzburg Mozarteum, as well as a three-concert residency at the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam, featuring two solo recitals and a concert with the ASKO/Schönberg Ensemble. Mr. Hamelin will also travel to China for a set of recitals at the Shanghai Concert Hall. Special events of 2016-17 include duo recitals with Leif Ove Andsnes at Wigmore Hall in London, in Rotterdam, Dublin, Italy, and in Seattle, San Francisco, Beverly Hills and at Symphony Center in Chicago and at Carnegie Hall in New York. Mr. Hamelin also tours with the Pacifica Quartet, performing the world premiere of his own string quintet. Hamelin concludes the season as juror at the Van Cliburn Piano Competition in Fort Worth for which he was commissioned to write the obligatory solo work for the competition s contestants. Last season, Mr. Hamelin was a featured artist in solo recital on the coveted Keyboard Virtuoso Series at Carnegie Hall s Stern Auditorium in January 2016. He returned to Carnegie Hall for a performance of Franz Liszt s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and conductor Iván Fischer in February 2016, part of a North American tour that also brought Mr. Hamelin and the BFO to the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, and Maison Symphonique in Montréal. Mr. Hamelin collaborated with the London Philharmonic and Principal Conductor Vladimir Jurowski, performing with them on tour at Frankfurt s Alte Oper in September 2015 (Liszt s Totentanz and Rachmaninov s Paganini Rhapsody) and joining them again in March 2016 for performances and recordings of Rachmaninov s Piano Concerto No. 3 and Nikolai Medtner s Piano Concerto No. 2 in London and Eastbourne. Further orchestral highlights included Mr. Hamelin s debut with the Filharmonica della Scala in Milan, and the British premiere performances of Mark- Anthony Turnage s Piano Concerto (which was written for Mr. Hamelin) who gave with the work s world premiere in Manchester. The 2014-15 season saw Mr. Hamelin touring across the United States and Europe, including recitals at Wigmore Hall in London, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Moscow International Performing Arts Center, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Princeton University, and Koerner Hall in Toronto. After his February 21, 2015 recital at New York s 92nd Street Y, which featured the New York premiere of Mr. Hamelin s own work Chaconne, he was praised by David Allen of The New York Times (February 22, 2015) as the emperor of the keyboard, known for his lordly refinement and startling power and the silken gloss and impossibly pellucid touch of his playing. In his review of Mr. Hamelin s December 2014 Munich recital, Klaus P. Richter in the Süddeutsche Zeitung termed Hamelin s interpretation of Schubert s great B-flat major Sonata D. 960 a Schubert event of tremendous poignancy and a magical psychological drama. Last summer, Mr. Hamelin joined the BBC Symphony Orchestra for a performance of Ravel s Left Hand Piano Concerto at the
Pacifica Quartet Recognized for its virtuosity, exuberant performance style, and often-daring repertory choices, over the past two decades the Pacifica Quartet has gained international stature as one of the finest chamber ensembles performing today. The Pacifica tours extensively throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australia, performing regularly in the world s major concert halls. Named the quartet-in-residence at Indiana University s Jacobs School of Music in March 2012, the Pacifica was also the quartet-in-residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (2009 2012) a position that has otherwise been held only by the Guarneri String Quartet and received the 2009 Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance. Formed in 1994, the Pacifica Quartet quickly won chamber music s top competitions, including the 1998 Naumburg Chamber Music Award. In 2002 the ensemble was honored with Chamber Music America s Cleveland Quartet Award and the appointment to Lincoln Center s CMS Two, and in 2006 was awarded a prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, becoming only the second chamber ensemble so honored in the Grant s long history. Also in 2006 the Quartet was featured on the cover of Gramophone and heralded as one of five new quartets you should know about, the only American quartet to make the list. And in 2009, the Quartet was named Ensemble of the Year by Musical America. Highlights of the 2015-16 season include a performance at New York s famed 92nd Street Y, the beginning of a two-season residency at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, a 10-day residency for the Arizona Friends of Chamber Music in Tucson, and return visits to the major series in New Orleans, San Francisco, and Portland. In addition, the Quartet will tour Europe and Japan. The Pacifica Quartet has carved a niche for itself as the preeminent interpreter of string quartet cycles, harnessing the group s singular focus and incredible stamina to portray each composer s evolution, often over the course of just a few days. Having given highly acclaimed performances of the complete Carter cycle in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, and Houston; the Mendelssohn cycle in Napa, Pacifica Quartet Australia, New York, and Pittsburgh; and the Beethoven cycle in New York, Denver, St. Paul, Chicago, Napa, and Tokyo (in an unprecedented presentation of five concerts in three days at Suntory Hall), the Quartet presented the monumental Shostakovich cycle in Chicago and New York during the 2010-11 season and in Montreal and at London s Wigmore Hall in the 2011-12 season. The Quartet has been widely praised for these cycles, with critics calling the concerts brilliant, astonishing, gripping, and breathtaking. An ardent advocate of contemporary music, the Pacifica Quartet commissions and performs many new works, including those by Keeril Makan, in partnership with the Celebrity Series of Boston and the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, during the 2012-13 season, and Shulamit Ran, in partnership with the Music Accord consortium, London s Wigmore Hall, and Tokyo s Suntory Hall, during the 2014-15 season. The work titled Glitter, Doom, Shards, Memory had its New York debut as part of the Chamber Music Society at Lincoln Center series. In 2008 the Quartet released its Grammy Award-winning recording of Carter s quartets Nos. 1 and 5 on the Naxos label; the 2009 release of quartets Nos. 2, 3, and 4 completed the two-cd set. Cedille Records recently released the third of four volumes comprising the entire Shostakovich cycle, along with other contemporary Soviet works, to rave reviews: The playing is nothing short of phenomenal. (Daily Telegraph, London) Recent projects include recording Leo Ornstein s rarely-heard piano quintet with with an accompanying tour, the Brahms piano quintet with the legendary pianist Menahem Pressler, and the Brahms and Mozart clarinet quintets with the Metropolitan Opera s principal clarinetist Anthony McGill. The members of the Pacifica Quartet live in Bloomington, IN, where they serve as quartetin-residence and full-time faculty members at the Jacobs School of Music. Prior to their appointment, the Quartet was on the faculty of the University of Illinois at Champaign- Urbana from 2003 to 2012. The Pacifica Quartet also serves as resident performing artist at the University of Chicago. The Pacifica Quartet is endorsed by D Addario and proudly uses their strings. www.pacificaquartet.com. Management: MKI Artists 5