Cal Performances Presents Program

Friday, March 13, 2009, 8pm (1874–1951) Ode to Napoleon for , First Congregational Church Baritone and Piano, Op. 41 (1942)

Brentano String Quartet (1770–1827) for String Quartet in B-flat, Op. 133 (1825–1826) Mark Steinberg, violin Serena Canin, violin Misha Amory, viola Nina Maria Lee, The appears by with David Rowe Artists: www.davidroweartists.com.

with The Brentano String Quartet record for AEON (distributed by Harmonia Mundi USA).

www.brentanoquartet.com , piano and Cal Performances’ 2008–2009 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo Bank. Dean Elzinga, bass-baritone

PROGRAM

Franz (1732–1809) String Quartet in D minor, Op. 76, No. 2, “Quinten” (1797)

Allegro Andante piu tosto Allegretto Sightlines Menuetto (Allegro ma non troppo) Finale (Vivace) Brentano String Quartet Friday, March 13, 7–7:30 pm First Congregational Church

Charles Wuorinen (b. 1938) Piano Quintet No. 2 (2008) (West Coast premiere) Pre-performance talk by musicologist Camille Peters, UC Berkeley Department of . The Second Piano Quintet was composed between June 14, 2007, and January 19, 2008. The work was written for Peter Serkin and the Brentano String Quartet. This work was made possible by This Sightlines talk is free to event ticket holders. a grant from the Jebediah Foundation: New Music Commissions. Additional funding was provided by the Peter Jay Sharp Foundation and the Evelyn Sharp Foundation.

INTERMISSION

10 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 11 Program Notes Program Notes

Haydn: String Quartet in D minor, Op. 76, in one part is picked up in another, tossed around, too hard to be just so. It seems to have potential performed that are capricious he laughs like a fool.” No. 2, “Quinten” (1797) reconsidered, and mused upon, as in the very best as theme music for one of Proust’s society ladies, It is easy to imagine him here among us enjoying of conversations, would be both fascinating and intent on appearing effortlessly gracious but trans- himself every bit as much as we always do when we Haydn often published quartets in groups of six, surprising. The composer is entering into dialogue parent in her wish. She is certainly something to play his quartets. as he did in 1797 with Op. 76, his final complete with his players, and it may be a great way into the behold in her sophistication, it’s just that perhaps set. As musical keys can have nearly synæsthetic as- fabric of the piece for listeners to imagine them- the pinky of her hand holding a teacup is the tini- © Mark Steinberg sociations and suggest differing moods and topoi, selves into the quartet in turn. est bit too stiff. The movement is lovely, but there it was important to present a variety of keys within When Haydn chooses, as he does here, to write are continual reminders that it is all a bit tongue- each opus, and specifically to include at least one monothematic movements, eschewing the natural in-cheek: teasing accents answered by out of con- Wuorinen: Piano Quintet No. 2 (2008) minor key work, exploring the darker intensities variety and relief of a second, contrasting theme, text orchestral hammer blows from which the first those keys can suggest. The present quartet, the the level of rhetoric becomes even more elevated violin scampers away, long stuttering searching My Second Piano Quintet is laid out in four move- so-called “Quinten” Quartet, shares its D minor, and concentrated. Marking the moment when a for a way to begin the tune anew, a frozen mo- ments, in a fast–slow–fast–slow pattern. But along significantly, with Mozart’s K. 421 Quartet, dedi- second theme might naturally appear in this move- ment which leads the cello to attempt a takeover, the way the third (fast) movement is displaced in cated to Haydn, and Bach’s The Art of . Its ment is an extremely odd and striking idea such as a cadenza which gets caught up in repetitions and midstream to make way for the extended slow first movement evinces a seriousness of style and might not be imagined again until the electronic slows to a standstill. fourth movement. The outraged third movement a learned aspect fully resonant with these earlier music age, where sounds could be reversed at will. The Minuet is perhaps Haydn’s tribute to does have its revenge, however, for it resumes after masterpieces. The opening theme (the fifths which There are a series of notes that begin in vowels and Mozart’s D minor Quartet (which was written in the fourth has finished, and thus—in its out-of- give the piece its “Quinten” nickname) is both end in consonants, growing to their ends in con- tribute to Haydn), as it shares its corresponding place way—concludes the whole piece. bold and plain, such as might be profitable fodder tradiction to the usual shape of a struck note (say movement’s severity, far from the courtliness of the There is another matter worth noting. Beneath for a fugue. Although this is a movement in so- the peal of a bell). These gasps serve also to sever typical minuet. It has the nickname Hexenmenuett the surface interplay of the instruments lies a prin- nata form, that tripartite dramatic structure that the theme in half, and the series of them itself gets or Witches’ Minuet, and does certainly seem to ciple of successive leadership by various members allows for exposition, development of ideas, and a punctured by rests on two subsequent appearances cackle along, all in austere two part canon (like a of the ensemble. The violins lead the first, the viola recapitulation that returns to the opening material in the movement. This is the material that then round), the music chased by its Doppelgänger. The the second, the cello the third and the piano the and irons out some of its conflicts (plus, in this in- motivates the dazzling and rhythmically exciting trio, after a long preparation, erupts into the major fourth. But often you would hardly know it, be- stance, a rather brilliant coda, or added ending), it coda of the movement, being tossed back and forth mode, and grasps upon the idea of repeated notes cause this simple ground idea (as all general ideas is highly contrapuntal in texture and subjects its between the second violin and the lower voices (possibly taken from Mozart’s minuet where a se- must be simple if they are to work) is so heavily theme to most of the techniques of fugue. The four while the first violin plays excited figuration. It is ries of three repeated notes is featured) carrying modified in practice by demands of the harmonic, note motive is played in different speeds, upside as if these gasping figures, left in the lurch several it almost to ridiculous extremes of dynamic and registral, and gestural unfolding of the composi- down (and backwards, which amounts to the same times earlier, finally influence the course of the enthusiasm. The end of the trio, quietly ticklish in tion, that for large parts of the work it has only the thing with these pitches), in (answered by discussion enough to drive it to a powerful and the upper reaches of the first violin range, seems to (nevertheless important) status of a starting point. a copy of itself in another voice before its comple- forthright conclusion (with the cello obsessively wink at the whole enterprise, Haydn smiling at his It is always a mistake to apply a broad background tion), compressed and expanded intervallically, hammering home the fifth with which the move- players in case they have taken themselves just a notion with slavish literalness to the dynamically and interrupted and resumed. It is rather like an ment begins). How often in the best conversations touch too seriously in all the bluster. evolving foreground of any music. Escher print where a large, compelling structure a brief aside or interruption casts the premise in The finale is a rollicking Gypsy-inflected move- The Second Piano Quintet was composed be- is built out of small units the potential of which just enough of a new light to bring it, eventually, to ment colored by and slides. It has an tween June 14, 2007, and January 19, 2008. The might go unrecognized by a lesser artist. All of its fullest flowering. infectious energy as well as a good dose of Haydn work was written for Peter Serkin and the Brentano this amounts not only to a compositional tour de The second movement has the rather fancy, de- the trickster: moments that get stuck followed by a String Quartet. This work was made possible by a force, but a very tightly reasoned argument such as tailed marking Andante o piu tosto Allegretto, serious of repeated notes that are only revealed to grant from the Jebediah Foundation: New Music is often felt in . Perhaps Haydn here is con- poised between a leisurely ramble and a somewhat be against the main beat after the fact, a braying Commissions. Additional funding was provided versing with Bach, showing his mastery of these brisker tread. There are quite a few movements by donkey motif, and pauses that tease (and, inciden- by the Peter Jay Sharp Foundation and the Evelyn techniques in the dramatic form of his own time. It Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven that have such in- tally, recall the fifths of the opening movement). Sharp Foundation. is good to realize, however, that these quartets were dications, and they all seem to share an elegance The music eventually finds its way into major, qui- mostly purchased by the public to be read through ever so slightly infiltrated by artificiality, some- etly humming the main theme while adorned by at home with friends; scores (with all of the parts thing just barely mechanical or marionette-like striking drones and hurdy-gurdy figuration. These put together) were not included, only a set of parts. invading an otherwise graceful aspect. In this case drones reappear at the ebullient ending of the Because of this no player at a first reading would the tune, played by the first violin with pizzicato movement where they help give the impression of a be able to imagine what the other parts might do, accompaniment by the others, has some odd ac- festive Gypsy holiday. Muzio Clementi reported of and the vital unfurling of the argument, as an idea cents and self-conscious hesitancy, trying just a bit Haydn that, “when he hears any of his own pieces

12 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 13 Program Notes Program Notes

Schoenberg: Ode to Napoleon, Op. 41 (1942) Before I started to write this text, I consulted description Beethoven gives for the movement— Theorem, which tells us that no logical system will Maeterlinck’s Life of the Bees. I hoped to find there partly free, partly studied—this is the studied side. ever be powerful enough to prove all statements we How I came to compose the Ode to Napoleon: motives supporting my attitude. But the contrary It will be the task of the Grosse Fuge to make sense know to be true. Our faith in the invincibility of The League of Composers had asked me (1942) to happened: Maeterlinck’s poetic philosophy gilds of this everpresent possibility of complete collapse, human reason and perception for explaining our write a piece of for their concert everything which was not gold itself. And so won- to bring resolve and purpose to the human condi- world has been severely shaken. Much of the art of season. It should employ only a limited number derful are his explanations that one might decline tion in the midst of uncertainty. our era has been devoted to feelings of pessimism of instruments. I had at once the idea that this refuting them, even if one knew they were mere During the private premiere of the original ver- and despair. This is not Beethoven’s world. He piece must not ignore the agitation aroused in poetry. I had to abandon this plan. I had to find sion of Op. 130, given by the , shares our recognition of the vulnerable fragility of mankind against the crimes that provoked this another subject fitting my purpose. Beethoven absented himself, choosing to drink in man, the inadequacy of the mind to fully ponder war. I remembered Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, a local pub instead. It fell to the second violinist of all the enigmas of our world. And yet, his view is supporting repeal of the jus prime noctis, Schiller’s Arnold Schoenberg that group, Holz, to go to the pub to report to the one which encompasses hope, and the possibility Wilhelm Tell, Goethe’s Egmont, Beethoven’s composer. He declared the occasion a big success, of triumph, a victorious human spirit. The turn Eroica and Wellington’s Victory, and I knew it was (See Lord Byron’s text on pages 18–19.) and recounted how those present asked to have to clarity and optimism happens late in the piece, the moral duty of intelligentsia to take a stand two of the inner movements repeated. Beethoven and quickly, but it is unmistakable, regretless, and against tyranny. immediately asked about the fugue, and when he moving beyond words. But this was only my secondary motive. I had Beethoven: Grosse Fuge in B-flat major, was told that there was no request for a repeat of Early in our quartet’s relationship with this long speculated about the more profound mean- Op. 133 (1825–1826) that he remarked that the audience had been made piece, I happened to be reading Norman Maclean’s ing of the Nazi philosophy. There was one element up of “cattle and asses.” The audience as well as book Young Men and Fire and came across a para- that puzzled me extremely: the resemblence of the Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge, Op. 133, is one of the the players had in fact had great difficulties with graph which I thought captured something of the valueless individual being’s life in respect to the to- great artistic testaments to the human capacity for the movement, finding it nearly incomprehensible. essential nature of the Grosse Fuge. I would like to tality of the community or its representative: the meaning in the face of the threat of chaos. Abiding It was suggested to the composer that he replace share that passage with you: Queen or the Führer. I could not see why a whole faith in the relevance of visionary struggle in our the last movement of the quartet with one which “Far back in the impulse to find a story is a sto- generation of bees or of Germans should live only lives powerfully informs the structure and charac- would be more accessible. Certainly Beethoven ryteller’s belief that at times life takes on the shape in order to produce another generation of the same ter of the music; this is surely one of the composer’s himself never doubted that the fugue was a mas- of art and that the remembered remnants of these sort, which on their part should also fulfill the most inspiring achievements. terpiece of great potency. One of the great myster- moments are largely what we come to mean by life. same task: to keep the race alive. I even surmised The Great Fugue was originally conceived as ies of musical history is what could have convinced The short semi-humorous comedies we live, our that bees (or ants) instinctively believe their destiny the final movement of the Quartet in B-flat ma- Beethoven, a quintessentially headstrong man, to long certain tragedies, and our springtime lyrics was to be successors of mankind, when this had jor, Op. 130. In that work it followed directly the agree to remove the fugue from Op. 130 and pub- and limericks make up most of what we are. They destroyed itself in the same manner in which our Cavatina, one of the most intimate embodiments lish it separately (as Op. 133), writing an alternate become almost all of what we remember of our- predecessors, the Giants, Magicians, Lindworms of the frailty and vulnerability of love ever made finale for the quartet. Today, quartets often play selves. Although it would be too fancy to take these [Dragons], Dinosaurs and others had destroyed audible to human ears (a movement we had the Op. 130 in its original incarnation, ending with the moments of our lives that seemingly have shape themselves and their world, so that first men knew honor of playing at Carl Sagan’s memorial ser- Grosse Fuge. We have played that piece in both ver- and design as proof we are inhabited by an impulse only a few isolated specimens. Their and the ants’ vice, as he included it among the works sent into sions, finding the original version the more satisfy- to art, yet deep within us is a counterimpulse to capacity of forming states and living according to space on Voyager, representing some of the great- ing of the two, monumental in its scope. the id or whatever name is presently attached to laws—senseless and primitive, as they might look est achievements of humanity). This juxtaposition As confrontational and even brutal as the Grosse the disorderly, the violent, the catastrophic both in to us—this capacity, unique among animals, had with the most touching lyricism makes the open- Fuge seems to us today, it is hard to imagine the ef- and outside us. As a feeling, this counterimpulse to an attractive similarity to our own life; and in our ing of the fugue shocking, as Beethoven takes the fect it must have had at that time. Stravinsky was the id is a kind of craving for sanity, for things be- imagination we could muse a story, seeing them final G of that movement and explodes it into a fond of saying of this piece that it will forever be longing to each other, and results in a comfortable growing to dominating power, size and shape and stark octave passage for the whole quartet. The contemporary. This is perhaps only partly true. The feeling when the universe is seen to take a garment creating a world of their own resembling very little writing is jagged and austere, then, following the unforgiving, jagged texture of much of the piece from the rack that seems to fit. Of course, both the original beehive. Overtura which opens the movement, there is a certainly brings it close to sounds not heard again impulses need to be present to explain our lives and Without such a goal the life of the bees, with brief evocation of the wispy, halting breaths of the for a century hence, and the piece has a raw energy our art, and probably go a long way to explain why the killing of the drones and the thousands of off- Cavatina in eerie double notes for the first violin which will never be blunted. Its surface texture in tragedy, inflamed with the disorderly, is generally spring of the Queen seemed futile. Similarly all the alone. The fugue proper then defiantly announces parts could easily be taken out of context as repre- regarded as the most composed art form.” sacrifices of the German Herrenvolk [Master Race] itself with disjunct, painful and completely unvo- sentative of music of our own time. Still, we live would not make sense, without a goal of world cal leaps, all elbows and knees. Shouting, on the now in the age of quantum mechanics, which takes © Mark Steinberg domination—in which the single individual could brink of whirling into chaos, the argument of the physical world out of the realm of the com- vest much interest. the fugue is actually tightly ordered; of the dual pletely measurable, and of Gödel’s Incompleteness

14 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 15 Texts Texts

Ode to Napoleon Buonoparte That with such change can calmly cope? Fair Freedom! we may hold thee dear, While brooding in thy prison’d rage? George Gordan, Lord Byron Or dread of death alone? When thus thy mightiest foes their fear But one—“The word was mine!” To die a prince—or live a slave— In humblest guise have shown. Unless, like he of Babylon, Thy choice is most ignobly brave! Oh! ne’er may tyrant leave behind All sense is with thy sceptre gone, I. A brighter name to lure mankind! Life will not long confine ’Tis done—but yesterday a King! VI. That spirit pour’d so widely forth— And arm’d with Kings to strive— He who of old would rend the oak, XI. So long obey’d—so little worth! And now thou art a nameless thing: Dream’d not of the rebound: Thine evil deeds are writ in gore, So abject—yet alive! Chain’d by the trunk he vainly broke— Nor written thus in vain— XVI. Is this the man of thousand thrones, Alone—how look’d he round? Thy triumphs tell of fame no more, Or, like the thief of fire from heaven, Who strew’d our earth with hostile bones, Thou, in the sternness of thy strength, Or deepen every stain: Wilt thou withstand the shock? And can he thus survive? An equal deed hast done at length, If thou hadst died as honour dies, And share with him, the unforgiven, Since he, miscall’d the Morning Star, And darker fate hast found: Some new Napoleon might arise, His vulture and his rock! Nor man nor fiend hath fallen so far. He fell, the forest prowler’s prey; To shame the world again— Foredoom’d by God—by man accurst, But thou must eat thy heart away! But who would soar the solar height, And that last act, though not thy worst, II. To set in such a starless night? The very Fiend’s arch mock; Ill-minded man! why scourge thy kind VII. He in his fall preserved his pride, Who bow’d so low the knee? The Roman, when his burning heart XII. And, if a mortal, had as proudly died! By gazing on thyself grown blind, Was slaked with blood of Rome, Weigh’d in the balance, hero dust Thou taught’st the rest to see. Threw down the dagger—dared depart, Is vile as vulgar clay; XVII. With might unquestion’d—power to save— In savage grandeur, home— Thy scales, Mortality! are just There was a day—there was an hour, Thine only gift hath been the grave, He dared depart in utter scorn To all that pass away: While earth was Gaul’s—Gaul thine— To those that worshipp’d thee; Of men that such a yoke had borne, But yet methought the living great When that immeasurable power Nor till thy fall could mortals guess Yet left him such a doom! Some higher sparks should animate, Unsated to resign Ambition’s less than littleness! His only glory was that hour To dazzle and dismay: Had been an act of purer fame Of self-upheld abandon’d power. Nor deem’d Contempt could thus make mirth Than gathers round Marengo’s name, III. Of these, the Conquerors of the earth. And gilded thy decline, Thanks for that lesson—It will teach VIII. Through the long twilight of all time, To after-warriors more, The Spaniard, when the lust of sway XIII. Despite some passing clouds of crime. Than high Philosophy can preach, Had lost its quickening spell, And she, proud Austria’s mournful flower, And vainly preach’d before. Cast crowns for rosaries away, Thy still imperial bride; That spell upon the minds of men An empire for a cell; How bears her breast the torturing hour? XVIII. Breaks never to unite again, A strict accountant of his beads, Still clings she to thy side? But thou forsooth must be a king, That led them to adore A subtle disputant on creeds, Must she too bend, must she too share And don the purple vest, Those Pagod things of sabre sway His dotage trifled well: Thy late repentance, long despair, As if that foolish robe could wring With fronts of brass, and feet of clay. Yet better had he neither known Thou throneless Homicide? Remembrance from thy breast. A bigot’s shrine, nor despot’s throne. If still she loves thee, hoard that gem— Where is that faded garment? where IV. ’Tis worth thy vanish’d diadem! The gewgaws thou wert fond to wear, The triumph and the vanity, IX. The star, the string, the crest? The rapture of the strife— But thou—from thy reluctant hand XIV. Vain froward child of empire! say, The earthquake voice of Victory, The thunderbolt is wrung— Then haste thee to thy sullen Isle, Are all thy playthings snatched away? To thee the breath of life; Too late thou leav’st the high command And gaze upon the sea; The sword, the sceptre, and that sway To which thy weakness clung; That element may meet thy smile— XIX. Which man seem’d made but to obey, All Evil Spirit as thou art, It ne’er was ruled by thee! Where may the wearied eye repose Wherewith renown was rife— It is enough to grieve the heart Or trace with thine all idle hand When gazing on the Great; All quell’d!—Dark Spirit! what must be To see thine own unstrung; In loitering mood upon the sand Where neither guilty glory glows, The madness of thy memory! To think that God’s fair world hath been That Earth is now as free! Nor despicable state? The footstool of a thing so mean; That Corinth’s pedagogue hath now Yes—one—the first—the last—the best— V. Transferr’d his by-word to thy brow. The Cincinnatus of the West, The Desolator desolate! X. Whom envy dared not hate, The Victor overthrown! And Earth hath spilt her blood for him, X V. Bequeath’d the name of Washington, The Arbiter of others’ fate Who thus can hoard his own! Thou Timour! in his captive’s cage To make man blush there was but one! A Suppliant for his own! And Monarchs bow’d the trembling limb, What thought will there be thine, Is it some yet imperial hope And thank’d him for a throne!

16 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 17 About the Artists About the Artists

poetry from him to accompany works of Haydn his studies with Ernst Oster, and and Webern. . In 1959, Mr. Serkin made The Quartet has been privileged to collaborate with such artists as soprano Jessye Norman, pianist and pianist . The Quartet enjoys an especially close relationship with Ms. Uchida, appearing with her on stages in the United States, Europe and Japan. The Quartet has recorded the Op. 71 Quartets of Haydn, and has also recorded a Mozart disc for Aeon Records, consisting of the K. 464 Quartet and the K. 593 Quintet, with violist Hsin-Yun Huang. In the area of newer music, the Quartet has released a disc of the music of Steven Mackey on Albany Records, and has also recorded the music of , Chou Wen-chung and Charles Wuorinen. Kathy Chapman In 1998, cellist Nina Lee joined the Quartet, his Marlboro Music Festival and de- succeeding founding member Michael Kannen. buts with conductor , and in- The following season, the Quartet became the first vitations to perform with the Peter Schaaf Resident String Quartet at . and in Cleveland and Since its inception in 1992, the Brentano String the Konzerthaus in Vienna; Suntory Hall in The Quartet’s duties at the University are wide- and with the Orchestra and Eugene Quartet (Mark Steinberg and Serena Canin, vio- Tokyo; and the Sydney Opera House. The Quartet ranging, including performances at least once Ormandy in Philadelphia and Carnegie Hall soon lins; Misha Amory, viola; and Nina Maria Lee, cel- has participated in such summer festivals as Aspen, a semester, as well as workshops with graduate followed. He has since performed with the world’s lo) has appeared throughout the world to popular the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, composers, coaching undergraduates in cham- major symphony orchestras, with such eminent and critical acclaim. Within a few years of its for- the Edinburgh Festival, the Kuhmo Festival ber music and assisting in other classes at the conductors as Seiji Ozawa, , Daniel mation, the Quartet garnered the first Cleveland in Finland, the Taos School of Music and the Music Department. Barenboim, , , Quartet Award and the Naumburg Chamber Caramoor Festival. The Quartet is named for Antonie Brentano, , and Christoph Music Award; and in 1996 the Chamber Music In addition to performing the entire two-cen- who many scholars consider to be Beethoven’s Eschenbach. Also a dedicated chamber musi- Society of Lincoln Center invited them to be the tury range of the standard quartet repertoire, the “Immortal Beloved,” the intended recipient of his cian, Mr. Serkin has collaborated with Alexander inaugural members of Chamber Music Society Brentano Quartet has a strong interest in both very famous love confession. Schneider, and Yo-Yo Ma, the II, a program which has become a coveted dis- old and very new music. It has performed many Budapest, Guarneri and Orion string quartets, and tinction for chamber groups and individuals ever musical works predating the string quartet as a me- Recognized as an artist of passion and integrity, TASHI, of which he was a founding member. since. The Quartet had its first European tour in dium, among them madrigals of Gesualdo, fanta- the distinguished American pianist Peter Serkin An avid proponent of the music of many of the 1997, and was honored in the UK with the Royal sias of Purcell and secular vocal works of Josquin. is one of the most thoughtful and individualis- 20th and 21st century’s most important composers, Philharmonic Award for Most Outstanding Debut. The Quartet has also worked closely with some of tic musicians appearing before the public today. Mr. Serkin has been instrumental in bringing the That debut recital was at London’s Wigmore Hall, the most important composers of our time, among Throughout his career he has successfully con- music of Schoenberg, Webern, Berg, Stravinsky, and the Quartet has continued its warm relation- them , Charles Wuorinen, Chou veyed the essence of five centuries of repertoire Wolpe, Messiaen, Takemitsu, Henze, Berio, ship with Wigmore, appearing there regularly and Wen-chung, Steven Mackey, Bruce Adolphe and and his performances with symphony orchestras, Wuorinen, Goehr, Knussen and Lieberson, among serving as the hall’s Quartet-in-residence in the György Kurtág. The Quartet has commissioned recital appearances, chamber music collaborations others, to audiences around the world. He has per- 2000–2001 season. works from Wuorinen, Adolphe, Mackey, David and recordings are respected worldwide. formed many important world premieres, in par- In recent seasons the Quartet has traveled Horne and Gabriela Frank. The Quartet celebrat- Peter Serkin’s rich musical heritage extends ticular, works by Toru Takemitsu, , widely, appearing all over the United States and ed its 10th anniversary in 2002 by commissioning back several generations: his grandfather was vio- and , all of which Canada, and in Europe, Japan and Australia. It 10 composers to write companion pieces for selec- linist and composer and his father was were written for him. Most recently, Mr. Serkin has performed in the world’s most prestigious tions from Bach’s , the result of pianist . In 1958, at age 11, he en- played the world premieres of Charles Wuorinen’s venues, including Carnegie Hall and which was an electrifying and wide-ranging single tered the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Piano Concerto No. 4 with the Boston Symphony Hall in New York; the Library of Congress in concert program. The Quartet has also worked where he was a student of Lee Luvisi, Mieczyslaw under the baton of James Levine in Boston, at Washington; the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam; with celebrated poet Mark Strand, commissioning Horszowski and Rudolf Serkin. He later continued Carnegie Hall and at Tanglewood; a solo work by

18 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 19 About the Artists About the Artists

Elliott Carter commissioned by Carnegie Hall and Mr. Serkin’s recording of the six Mozart of Eddie and Schoenberg’s Die glückliche Hand Arizona Opera (Leporello and Figaro), Hawaii the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival; and concerti, composed in 1784, with Alexander at New York’s Bard Festival, and Elliott Carter’s Opera Theatre (Almaviva in Figaro), Sacramento another work by Mr. Wuorinen for piano and or- Schneider and the English Chamber Orchestra What Next? at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Opera (Leporello, Méphistophélès in Gounod’s chestra with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, also com- was nominated for a Grammy Award and received (recorded commercially) and more recently in its Faust), Glimmerglass and New York City Operas missioned by Carnegie Hall. During the 2008– the prestigious Deutsche Schallplattenpreis as well Italian premiere in Turin. (Polyphemus in Handel’s Acis and Galatea), 2009 season, he premieres a fifth piano concerto as “Best Recording of the Year” by Stereo Review. In the 2007–2008 season, Mr. Elzinga added to Opera Omaha (Raimondo in Donizetti’s Lucia di by Mr. Wuorinen with the Metropolitan Opera Other Grammy-nominated recordings include his repertoire Elgar’s D r e a m of G e r o n t i u s (Vancouver Lammermoor), Opera San Jose (title role of Il Turco Orchestra and Maestro Levine at Carnegie Hall, ’s Vingt Régards sur l’Enfant Jesus Symphony), Jesus in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in Italia) and Vancouver Opera (Ramfis in Aida). as well as Mr. Wuorinen’s new piano quintet (com- and Quartet for the End of Time on BMG and a (National Philharmonic), Vaughan-Williams’s A Of special note was his Hagen in the Long Beach missioned by the Rockport, Massachusetts, Music solo recording of works by Stravinsky, Wolpe and Sea Symphony (Rochester Philharmonic), the Verdi Opera’s reduction of Wagner’s Ring cycle. Festival) with the Brentano String Quartet. Lieberson for New World Records. Requiem (debut with the Santa Rosa Symphony) Equally adept at concert literature, Mr. Elzinga Highlights of Peter Serkin’s recent and up- In May 2001, Peter Serkin was the recipient of and Horace in Blitztein’s Regina (debut with has been repeatedly invited by Leon Botstein coming appearances include performances with an honorar y doctora l degree from the New England Canada’s Pacific Opera Victoria), in addition to and the American Symphony Orchestra, in- the , the Philadelphia and Conservatory of Music in Boston. He was also the reprising the Brahms Requiem with the distin- cluding Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg in Avery Fisher Minnesota orchestras, the Boston, San Francisco, first pianist to receive the Premio Internazionale guished Baltimore Choral Arts Society. Hall, Lincoln Center. He is one of the country’s Detroit, St. Louis, Toronto and Atlanta sympho- Musicale Chigiana in recognition of his outstand- Summer 2006 returned Mr. Elzinga to most sought-after Beethoven Ninth Symphony nies, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra; recitals ing artistic achievements. Mr. Serkin resides in Des Moines Metro Opera for Nick Shadow in basses, having performed the work with the in Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Orchestra Massachusetts with his wife, Regina, and is the Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, following last Reading, Vancouver, Long Beach, New West, Hall in Chicago and New York’s 92nd Street Y; father of five children. summer’s Four Villains in the company’s Les Phoenix, Pasadena and San Diego symphonies, performances with the original members of TASHI Contes d’Hoffmann of Offenbach. Reinvitations in the Minnesota Orchestra, and the Rochester and in Boston, Portland, Oregon, Princeton and Town 2006–2007 included the Edmonton Opera (where Naples philharmonics. He is equally acclaimed Hall in New York City; and summer festival ap- he sang Nilakantha in The Pearl Fishers and Nick and in demand for Messiah (Toronto, Pacific, pearances at Ravinia, Aspen, Ojai, Caramoor, Shadow) for Leporello in Mozart’s Don Giovanni; Baltimore and Ann Arbor symphonies and Tanglewood, Blossom, Saratoga and the Mann the Reading Symphony (for an evening of opera Florida Philharmonic), Haydn’s Creation (Florida Center with the . arias and duets) and the National Philharmonic Orchestra and Amarillo Symphony), Britten’s War Internationally, Mr. Serkin returned to Japan (for Mozart’s Figaro, coming after his debut with Requiem (Nashville Symphony), Brahms’s Requiem in September 2007 to play recitals featuring the the orchestra in the title role of Don Giovanni). In (Memphis Symphony) and Berlioz’s R o m é o e t Ju l i e t t e works of Toru Takemitsu and Bach in honor of addition he made his Pittsburgh Opera debut as (Portland Symphony). At the Vienna Volksoper, the 10th anniversary of Takemitsu’s death, and ap- the Speaker in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, a role he he sang Mozart’s Figaro, Escamillo in Carmen, peared with the Berlin Philharmonic, Deutsches also performed with the Leporello and Méphistophélès. Conductors with Symphony Orchestra and the Bamberg Symphony under Leonard Slatkin at the Hollywood Bowl whom he has worked to date include Bramwell during the 2007–2008 season. and at Michigan Opera Theatre. Mr. Elzinga’s Tovey, James Levine, Christopher Seaman, John Mr. Serkin’s recordings also reflect his distinc- opera credentials include the Los Angeles and DeMain, David Lockington, Bertrand de Billy, tive musical vision. The Ocean That Has No West Metropolitan operas, the San Diego Opera (the Asher Fisch, Jorge Mester, Boris Brott, Emmanuel and No East, released by Koch Records in 2000, fea- King in Aida), Seattle Opera (Hoffmann Villains), Villaume, Yves Abel and Maximiano Valdés. tures compositions by Webern, Wolpe, Messiaen, Takemitsu, Knussen, Lieberson and Wuorinen. That same year, BMG released his recording of three Beethoven sonatas. Additional recordings include the Brahms violin sonatas with Pamela Bass-baritone Dean Elzinga is regularly wel- Frank, Dvořák’s Piano Quintet with the Orion comed on concert and opera stages, often in con- String Quartet, quintets by Henze and Brahms temporary works requiring his unique dramatic with the Guarneri String Quartet, the Bach double conviction, presence and assured musicianship. He and triple concerti with András Schiff and Bruno enjoyed international acclaim for Peter Maxwell Canino, and Takemitsu’s Quotation of Dream with Davies’s fiendishly difficult Eight Songs for a Mad Oliver Knussen and the London Sinfonietta. His King, performing it in New York ( and most recent recording is the complete works for East Hampton), Cleveland and Santa Monica. He solo piano by Arnold Schoenberg for Arcana. sang the title role in Harold Farberman’s A Song

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