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Home , Berthold Goldschmidt, Erich Kleiber, Hawthorne String Quartet, String Quartet (Debussy)

SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

James Levine, Music Director Designate Bernard Haitink, Principal Guest Conductor Seiji Ozawa, Music Director Laureate 123rd Season, 2003-2004

CHAMBER MUSIC TEA II Friday, December 5, at 2:30

COMMUNITY CONCERT II

Sunday, December 7, at 3, at St. Catherine's Church, Somerville

This concert is made available free to the public through the generosity of State Street Corporation.

HAWTHORNE RONAN LEFKOWITZ, SI-JING HUANG, violin MARK LUDWIG, SATO KNUDSEN,

SCHULHOFF String Quartet No. 1

Presto con fuoco Allegretto con moto e con malinconia Allegro giocoso alia slovacca Andante molto sostenuto

POST String Quartet No. 3 (2003)

GOLDSCHMIDT String Quartet No. 2 in A minor Allegro molto e con fuoco Scherzo. Molto allegro quasi presto Folia. Andante molto tranquillo Finale. Presto

Week 8 — —

Ervin Schulhoff (1894-1942) String Quartet No. 1

At the age of ten, Ervin Schulhoff began studying with Jindrich Kaan at the Conservatory. Antonin Dvorak encouraged and guided the young talent's early studies at the Conservatory. Schulhoff would later join the Prague Conserva- tory faculty in 1929 teaching composition, instrumentation, and score-reading. In addition to musical studies at the conservatories of Vienna, Leipzig, and Cologne, he received private instruction from Max Reger and Claude . Twice, he was awarded the Mendelssohn prize; first in 1913 for piano and again in 1918 for composition. From 1914 to 1916, during World War I, Schulhoff served in the Aus- ". trian army. In his personal diary dated January 8, 1916, he writes: . July 1914 the madness began. And now we are supposed to be patriots, shout 'hurrah/ and dash off war poems, short stories, and military marches. . .but the most 'sublime' thing is to be a soldier. The popular cry 'safeguard your culture,' while men are being killed, is for me painfully tasteless. I maintain that the years 1914, 1915, and 1916 are on the lowest human level, and quite frankly make a mockery of the twentieth century. I say this even though I am a soldier myself."

Schulhoff 's wartime experiences had broad-reaching effects on his political and artistic associations. In the early post-war years he worked with several contem- porary German artists, including George Grosz, Paul Klee, and the Dadaists. At the time, Schulhoff 's politics of pacifism, anti-nationalism, and socialism were consid- ered extremely left-wing. In the 1920s and '30s he faced the challenge of balancing the demands of two careers, those of concert pianist and . This is poignantly revealed by Ervina Brokesova, a performer working with Schulhoff in the 1924 Festival of the International Society of New Music in Prague: "His [Schul- hoff 's] rhythmic precision, technical sovereignty, and his earnest effort to explore the imagination of a composer deeply impressed me. I worked very hard since the rehearsals with him were tough, yet there was one thing I could not understand it was that he never systematically practiced the hardest parts; our rehearsals which however lasted many hours—were enough for him. Otherwise, he would not have had enough time to compose. At that time in the '20s, he enjoyed his rep- utation as an excellent pianist, but I am convinced that he could have become one of the greatest pianists in the world if he had wanted it. He owned all the require- ments: phenomenal memory, the ability to sight-read flawlessly, innate technical facility, and total composure in all performance situations. His performance was al- ways equally precise and sparkling. But his heart—to my utter regret—belonged exclusively to ." By the 1930s Schulhoff was very active in communist causes. When the Nazis occupied Czechoslovakia in March 1939, Schulhoff became a target for Nazi per- secution on three fronts—as a Jew, a communist, and a composer influenced by the "entartete" ("degenerate") characteristics of jazz and the avant-garde. "Entartete Musik" was the name given by the Nazis to a wide variety of and musical genres as part of their propaganda machine. On June 23, 1941, the day after invaded the Soviet Union—Operation Barbarossa—Schulhoff was arrested by the Nazis; he was then transported to the Wurzburg internment camp in Bavaria. One year later, on August 18, 1942, at age 48, Ervin Schulhoff died in the lager camp. The String Quartet No. 1 was completed on September 10, 1924, shortly after his Five Pieces for String Quartet. The quartet was later designated "No. 1" by the Uni- versal Edition Publishing House. In 1924 and 1925 both works were respectively awards and first prize in the 1996 premiered by the Czechoslovak Quartet—to whom Schulhoff dedicated the com- New Reed Trio Composition Competition. His work has received positions—at the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM). The first wide exposure on WGBH radio in Boston and WNYC in dances New York City. Flis orchestral and chamber works three movements of the String Quartet No. 1 are a series of Slavic folk-like have been played and recorded first movement by international organizations including the Czech Radio Orchestra, full of color and rhythmic drive. The energetic rhythmically driven Symphony the with a tinge of the Moravian Philharmonic, and the Salem Philharmonic, among others. Soundbites, a is followed by the melancholic mood of the second movement recent commission grotesque expressed by the viola. The third movement returns to a spirited Slovak from the Aiolos Collective—an international group of wind dances like players was premiered in August 2001 to critical acclaim. dance filled with harmonics and pizzicatti. In stark contrast to these — David Posf s music is published Music, Inc., St. Louis, movements, the forth movement is a veiled nocturne drifting into a nether world by MMB MO. His discography includes his Sym- phony No. 1 performed by the Czech of existentialism. Radio Symphony Orchestra under Vladimir Valek, his String Quartet No. 1 performed by the Boston Composers String —Mark Ludwig Quartet, a Concerto for English Horn and Orchestra with soloist Donna Marie Cobert and Director, Terezin Foundation the Moravian Philharmonic, Vit Micka , and Soundbites for nine double reed instruments, recorded by the Aiolos Collective. David L. Post (b.1949) David Post wrote his String Quartet No. 3 for the Hawthorne String Quartet, String Quartet No. 3 which gave the premiere on November 11, 2003, in Gasson Hall at in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. It was completed in July 2003; the first page of the David L. Post was born in New York City in 1949. He started musical training score notes, "For My Friends, the Hawthorne Quartet." The composer's program early, studying cello with Samuel Reiner and Charles Forbes, and composition with note for his new piece follows. Charles Whittenberg and later with Ralph Shapey at the University of Chicago. —Robert Kirzinger He also worked with Larry Bell and Lukas Foss, and he holds degrees from the University of Chicago, the New School for Social Research, and Brandeis Univer- When the Hawthorne Quartet took up my Second String Quartet last year and per- sity. For several years he was a participant in the Chamber Music Conference and formed and recorded it with such distinction, I knew I had to write something just Composers Forum of the East at Bennington College. He is a contributing music for them. After a year of listening intently to their live and recorded performances, editor for Dover Publications. Recent honors have included several ASCAP special I tried to compose a piece that would fit their unique sound.

I began the Third String Quartet this past spring, at the beginning of the Iraqi war.

Originally, I had intended to write a traditional four-movement work, but as is often 2OOJ-2O04 the case, my compositions insist on taking off in directions I do not plan for them, BOSTON SYMPHONY and the piece started to tell me it was going to be a one-movement work. Once that

became clear, and I gave up trying to make it something it wasn't, the writing went Chamber Players quickly and the quartet was finished in the Berkshires during the summer. Though written in one movement, there are four connected sections: Vivo e

Enjoy the full spectrum of the chamber music repertoire as performed ritmico, Adagio languido, Burlesque, and Tenebroso. Each section steps off from the one before, with the last folding back into thematic material from the first, by the Boston Symphony Chambers Flayers and special guest artists. completing a cycle of sorts. 3pm at Jordan Kali, Conservatory Despite moments of boisterous merriment and manic energy, at its heart, the

quartet is dark and ruminative. As much as I try to compose music on its own SUNDAY, JANUARY 11, AT 3 2004, PM terms that exists completely in its own world, I can't help but feel now that the Ludovic Morlot, conductor anxieties and uncertainties of the new millennium have found their way in. —David Post LUTOStAWSKI Chain i NIELSEN Wind Quintet Berthold Goldschmidt (1903-1996) DVORAK String Quintet in C, Op. 77 String Quartet No. 2

Berthold Goldschmidt was born in , Germany, in 1903, and, having emi- grated to London in 1935 in flight from Nazism, died there in 1996 at ninety-three. Tickets: $30, $22, $17, (617) 266-1200 • www.bso.org He was a pianist, composer, and conductor, at age twenty-two serving as assistant to On the day of the concert, tickets are available only at the Jordan Hall Box Erich Kleiber for the premiere performances of Berg's in 1925. He was also a conductor the with the . His first im- Office, 30 Gainsborough St., Boston, AAA. of Opera and worked portant works included the Passacaglia, Opus 4, the String Quartet No. 1, Opus 8, All programs and artists are subject to change. and his Piano Sonata, Opus 10, which was premiered at the International Society of Contemporary Music Festival in Geneva in 1929. An opera, Der gewaltige Hahnrei (Terezin). The quartet boasts a rich history of collaborations with such artists as (nowadays acclaimed by many as a standout work of the period), was premiered in Christopher Hogwood, Ned Rorem, Andre Previn, Sir , Yo-Yo Ma, , but with the rise of the Nazi party, performances scheduled for Berlin Joshua Bell, Lynn Harrell, Martha Argerich, and the Philobolus Dance Company. in 1932-33 were cancelled. As a Jew, Goldschmidt was excluded from mainstream In addition, the quartet has made solo appearances with the Boston Symphony musical activities and worked only in segregated contexts with Jewish musicians. Orchestra and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie. With these orchestras, the Goldschmidt, following an interrogation by the Gestapo, left in Hawthorne String Quartet gave the American and German premiere performances the 1930s, but instead of ending up in Hollywood (like Schoenberg, Weill, Eisler, and of Ervin Schulhoff 's Concerto for Solo String Quartet and Chamber Orchestra. In others), he went to London, where he lived the rest of his life. He continued to com- October 1991, the quartet performed in Terezin and Prague in ceremonies hosted by pose and conduct, leading opera and orchestral concerts throughout Great Britain, Presidents Havel and Herzog to mark the opening of the Ghetto Museum in Terezin and began working for the British Broadcasting Service. In 1958, though, he stopped and to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first transports to the Theresien- composing, having become disheartened at the lack of reception for his conserva- stadt Concentration Camp. The quartet has since returned for performances in tively styled works (in the harmonic vein of Hindemith and Weill), and concentrated the Czech Republic, most recently for concerts in Prague and Terezin in November on conducting. He resumed his composing career only in the 1980s, and his music 2002 at the invitation of President Vaclav Havel and with the sponsorship of the experienced a revival in concerts and recordings. This year, many organizations and U.S. State Department. The concerts were part of a diplomatic cultural mission to ensembles (particularly in Germany and the UK) have been celebrating the com- raise funds for Czech flood relief and restoration efforts at Pamatruk Terezin. The poser's centenary with performances of his major works, including numerous quartet has been invited to perform at Prague Castle in 2004. performances of his concertos for violin, for cello, and for ; excerpts from The Hawthorne String Quartet's recording "Chamber Music from Theresien- his Der gewaltige Hahnrei and Beatrice Cenci, and many other works. stadt" has received international critical acclaim and won the German Preis der Goldschmidt's String Quartet No. 2 (the second of four; he wrote the last in Schallplattenkritik in 1991. Their "Silenced Voices" CD on Northeastern Records also

1992) dates from the difficult period just following his departure from Germany. premiered newly recovered music of composers persecuted during World War II. The composer's program note for the piece follows. The Terezin Chamber Music Foundation produced these recordings. Displaying a —Robert Kirzinger diverse repertoire, the ensemble has also recorded compact discs featuring cham- ber music by Arthur Foote, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, and , as well The quartet was written in 1936 in London and first performed on 14 July 1953 at as several motion picture and documentary soundtracks including The Secret of Roan a Coronation Concert given by the London String Quartet at the Waterloo Room Inish and Mr. Death. Throughout its travels, the quartet has performed on radio and (Royal Festival Hall), London. television programs worldwide. In April 1993, the Hawthorne Quartet began record- In the opening Allegro molto several themes are developed through kaleido- ing for London/Decca. The quartet's first recording as part of London/ Decca's "En- scopic shifts of key, ending in a quizzical F-sharp. The following scherzo is as re- tartete Musik," of string quartets by Haas and Krasa, was released in April 1994. The lentlessly fast as the preceding movement. Its drive is merciless, almost hunted. recording was awarded Belgium's Cecilia Grand Prix Special du Jury, an award Syncopated episodes contrast with the deceptive lyricism of the Trio, which is not presented in recognition of "an exceptional undertaking and paying homage to an allowed to develop normally, but is strangulated. The third movement arises from interpreter who has made a mark on the history of recorded sound." Their next this tragic background: a chaconne whose title, Folia, may recall the ancient dance recording for London/Decca was Ervin Schulhoff 's Concerto for Solo String Quartet of that name but is more directly related to the consequences of quite another kind of and Chamber Orchestra. Upcoming projects include recordings, the commission- human folia, or madness. The movement's elegiac character is sustained by an unbro- ing and performance of new chamber works, the national release of a PBS docu- ken 6/8 rhythm and an uninterrupted sequence of three notes (E, A, and G-sharp) mentary on the history of artists incarcerated in Terezin, and educational programs which appears 71 times, first in the viola, then in the cello part, and finally (a last spearheaded by the Terezin Chamber Music Foundation. Concert tours in 2004 farewell) in the first violin. The finale is again a perpetuum mobile. The first theme is will include chamber and solo appearances at New York's 92nd Street Y, the ironic in character: it alludes to incidental music to Schiller's Wilhelm Tell, which Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and Prague Castle. Jiirgen Fehling boldly commissioned for his 1933 production at the Berlin Schaus- The Hawthorne String Quartet includes violinists Ronan Lefkowitz and Si-Jing pielhaus. (The music was duly performed, but without mention of the composer). Huang, violist Mark Ludwig, and cellist Sato Knudsen, all members of the Boston Orchestra. Based in Boston, and quartet-in-residence at —Berthold Goldschmidt Symphony appointed Boston College in 1998, the Hawthorne String Quartet takes its name from the New Hawthorne String Quartet England novelist .

Since its inception in 1986, the Hawthorne String Quartet has performed exten- sively throughout Europe, South America, Japan, and the , including such major festivals as Tanglewood, Ravinia, and Aspen. The quartet has an expan- sive repertoire ranging from the classics of the 18th and 19th centuries to contempo- rary works. They have distinguished themselves internationally for championing the works of composers persecuted during the Nazi regime, with an emphasis on the Czech composers incarcerated in the Theresienstadt concentration camp