Season 2011-2012

The Philadelphia Orchestra

Sunday, November 20, at 3:00 27th Season of Chamber Music Concerts—Perelman Theater

Hummel Piano Quintet in E-flat major, Op. 87 I. Allegro e risoluto assai II. Menuetto: Allegro con fuoco III. Largo— IV. Finale: Allegro agitato Sonya Ovrutsky Piano (Guest) Paul Arnold Violin Judy Geist Viola Kathryn Picht Read Cello Robert Kesselman Double Bass

Beethoven Piano Trio No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 70, No. 2 I. Poco sostenuto—Allegro, ma non troppo II. Allegretto III. Allegretto, ma non troppo IV. Finale: Allegro Sonya Ovrutsky Piano (Guest) Paul Arnold Violin Kathryn Picht Read Cello

Intermission

Schubert Piano Quintet in A major, D. 667 (“Trout”) I. Allegro vivace II. Andante III. Scherzo (Presto)—Trio—Scherzo da capo IV. Tema (Andantino) con variazioni V. Finale: Allegro giusto Sonya Ovrutsky Piano (Guest) Paul Arnold Violin Judy Geist Viola Kathryn Picht Read Cello Robert Kesselman Double Bass

This program runs approximately 1 hour, 35 minutes. Piano Quintet in E-flat major, Op. 87

Johann Nepomuk Hummel Born in Pressburg (now Bratislava), November 14, 1778 Died in Weimar, October 17, 1837

As an exceptionally talented composer, and one of the greatest pianists of his generation, Johann Hummel would have been perfectly poised to effect the transition from 18th-century Classicism into 19th-century Romanticism were it not for Beethoven. It is something of a thorn in the side of Hummel’s reputation that his career was so overshadowed by the powerful genius of Beethoven, as the two worked side-by-side, not always amicably, in early-19th-century Vienna. But the recognition that there was a more influential composer should not diminish Hummel’s status. Far from being a petit maître, Hummel was a pivotal figure in early German Romanticism, very popular in his day, and an example of how elegantly Classicism would still have merged into Romanticism even without the force of Beethoven’s musical personality.

A child prodigy, Hummel moved to Vienna when he was eight so his father could take up a position as violinist and conductor at the Theater auf der Wieden. There young Johann became Mozart’s pupil, living with the family for several years before Mozart advised Hummel’s father to take him on a concert tour across Europe to make his name and reputation. But by the time Hummel returned to Vienna in 1793, Beethoven had moved there as well, and was already working hard to establish his own reputation in the musical capital of Europe.

Hummel began music lessons with Johann Albrechtsberger (who was also Beethoven’s teacher), Antonio Salieri, and Franz Joseph Haydn, and was appointed concertmaster at the Esterházy court on Haydn’s recommendation. But even though he was extraordinarily well- connected in the Viennese music scene, not everything went smoothly for Hummel. He faced resistance from the Esterházy court, who considered him insufficiently loyal to his patron. And when Hummel married Elisabeth Röckel (with whom Beethoven had also been romantically linked) in 1813, it only added another difficulty to Hummel’s precarious relationship with his rival.

His Vienna career under something of a cloud, Hummel embarked on another concert tour in 1814, and it was a tremendous success. He took up a position at the court in Weimar and became an associate of Goethe, the two of them proving to be among that city’s most popular tourist attractions. In 1827 Hummel returned to Vienna to visit the ailing Beethoven, where there was a full reconciliation between the rival friends. It was during this stay that he also met Schubert, who was so impressed by Hummel’s piano improvisations that he dedicated his last three piano sonatas to his older colleague.

Hummel’s reputation reached its peak in 1830, and almost immediately began to decline as illness and age, combined with the rising reputations of a new crop of performing virtuosos, conspired to relegate him to the margins of musical activity. His forms, procedures, and textures were all rooted in 18th-century practice, and though his later works began to explore more expressive harmonies and a wider variety of moods, the essence of Hummel’s style was markedly Classical, and therefore increasingly passé. It was Hummel’s death in 1837, not Beethoven’s a decade earlier, that truly marked the conclusion of the Classical era in music.

Hummel’s music, and not just his playing, did enjoy a degree of popular success throughout his career, even while working in Beethoven’s shadow. In 1819, when Schubert was asked to write his now-famous “Trout” Quintet, it was for an ensemble that was already planning a performance of Hummel’s 1816 Septet, in an arrangement for piano quintet. That arrangement was for a particular instrumentation that Hummel had previously used in a Quintet in E-flat minor, written in 1802 for piano, violin, viola, cello, and double bass. Hence, Schubert’s most famous chamber work took its inspiration, and instrumentation, from two Hummel works that were still popular years after their original composition.

Hummel reworked his earlier Piano Quintet and published it as Op. 87 in Vienna around 1822, taking advantage of the expanded range available to him on early-19th-century pianos. Although the Quintet was published and advertised as a work in “E-flat major,” it is clearly in E-flat minor throughout. It’s quite possible that a key signature with six flats in it was the “kiss of death” for the mostly amateur musicians that would purchase the music, and by using the key signature of E-flat major (with all the necessary accidentals) Hummel was able to expand the work’s commercial viability and popularity. Also, with the inclusion of a double bass this piece inclines more toward the divertimento and serenade genres, away from the seriousness of true chamber music. This is underscored by Hummel’s decision to remain in the same key for all four movements—a trait more associated with lighthearted serenades—rather than moving to contrasting keys for the interior movements. And the relative absence of chamberistic interplay among the strings lightens the overall emotional atmosphere of the work.

Still, the first movement (Allegro e risoluto assai) begins seriously. But what sounds like a slow introduction turns out to be simply a stately tempo and an exposition of the main four- note motif. The movement’s surface rhythms gradually quicken as the movement then progresses. By shifting to A major for the second key area—a tritone away from tonic, and an entirely unrelated key—Hummel demonstrates his emerging “Romantic” harmonic audacity. This, and a series of modulations by thirds, show that Beethoven wasn’t the only composer of the day to experiment with non-functional harmonic relationships. The recapitulation is abbreviated and drastically recomposed, and the coda dies away morendo with murmuring figurations from both keyboard and strings.

The second movement Menuetto is marked Allegro con fuoco, but the “fire” is fairly temperate as the motifs are tossed congenially between the piano and strings. It quickly turns to the relative major mode (notated in the simpler D major, even though the music is unquestionably in F-sharp), but flirts with both major and minor throughout. The brief trio is playful, with its rising accompanimental scales lifting the contours of the melody and the spirits of the movement before a reprise of the minuet.

A brief Largo—little more than an introduction to the finale—still hints at E-flat minor before settling into major in preparation for the finale itself (Allegro agitato). Returning to the energetic and lively mood of the opening movement, and its minor mode, the finale’s main motif includes a rising inflection that introduces a questioning character. The piano provides much of the “agitato” in this movement, as the strings accompany with simple figures. The rondo format gives Hummel plenty of opportunity for contrasts of emotion, mode, motif, and texture, but it is the main theme that drives the movement, and the Quintet, to its thrilling conclusion.

—Luke Howard

Piano Trio No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 70, No. 2

Ludwig van Beethoven Born in Bonn, probably December 16, 1770 Died in Vienna, March 26, 1827

Listeners who know Beethoven’s major works but are unfamiliar with Op. 70, No. 2, may reasonably expect heroic music along the lines of the “Eroica” Symphony. After all, here is Beethoven in his middle period, finding the pinnacle of fame in the wake of his gripping Symphony No. 5. The very key of E-flat—the same as that of the “Eroica”—suggests struggle and triumph.

But these listeners would be surprised. The second of the two piano trios that make up Op. 70, this penultimate of Beethoven’s essays in the form, is a lithe and almost frolicsome score. If it resembles any well-known work by Beethoven, that work would be the score he penned in the months just before writing Op. 70 in the summer of 1808: his Symphony No. 6, the “Pastoral.”

The piano trio was of special importance to the younger Beethoven, just as the string quartet would take pride of place for the older Beethoven. Beethoven and the trio came to maturity at virtually the same time. As Basil Smallman, the author of a major study of piano trio form, has pointed out, the piano trio before the mid-1780s was largely a piano sonata with melody and bass strengthened by the violin and cello. Haydn’s piano trios are largely in this mold. But with Mozart’s mature piano trios of 1786, the form changed into a dialogue between keyboard and strings.

As it turned out, Beethoven in 1786 was already, at age 15, experimenting with the piano trio as a form. His first attempt was a work in E-flat (unrelated to the present score) that he eventually judged unsuitable to bring out. (It was published posthumously.) And when he announced himself to the world in 1795 with an Op.1, that first published work consisted of three piano trios. When Beethoven published his first two symphonies, he also made arrangements of them for violin, cello, and piano.

The piano trio might have remained an important form for Beethoven, except for his deafness. Beethoven generally played the piano part in the premieres of his trios, but as his hearing grew worse, this became impossible. One of his last appearances as a pianist came in 1814 with the premiere performance of his final piano trio, the “Archduke.” The composer Louis Spohr, who attended, reported to a friend that Beethoven banged the loud notes so hard the strings of the piano jangled, and played the soft notes so softly they failed to make a sound at all. Beethoven would turn increasingly to the more abstract realms of the string quartet.

But in 1808 the piano trio form was still important to Beethoven. He wrote that year to his publisher that he was at work on a pair of trios, citing a purely practical reason: “because there is a shortage of such works.” The first of the two, nicknamed the “Ghost” Trio, was in three movements instead of the usual four, featured some radical harmonies, and had at its center the slowest movement Beethoven ever put to paper. The second number of Op. 70 was altogether more conventional, though its subtleties make it, in certain ways, the more sophisticated score. No. 2 has no real slow movement per se; the 19-bar poco sostenuto introduction to the first movement is as slow as things will get. The two internal movements are more like side-by-side scherzos, and while they are disarmingly fleet, they contain several notable features. The second movement is a brief set of double variations, the form Beethoven would many years later exalt in the second movement of his Ninth Symphony. One of the varied themes is in C major; the other in C minor. The third movement is in A-flat, where generally it would be in the home key. This makes Op. 70, No. 2, one of the very first Beethoven scores featuring movements in three different keys.

The first movement (Poco sostenuto—Allegro, ma non troppo), after the brief but suspenseful introduction, falls into a dance-like sonata-form piece in 6/8. The development is unremarkable, but the arrival of the recapitulation, which involves the cello entering on the “wrong” note and the piano contradicting it with the right one, has been called “one of the most astounding returns in music” by the celebrated music critic Donald Francis Tovey. The slow introduction makes a repeat appearance near the end.

The first subject of the Allegretto second movement is an insouciant C-major melody characterized by a Scottish “snap” rhythm. The contrasting C-minor subject is pure Sturm und Drang (storm and stress), recalling, perhaps, the storm music in the “Pastoral” Symphony. The third movement (Allegretto, ma non troppo) was originally sketched as a minuet. It is one of Beethoven’s most purely serene moments, a sunlit sky in which the only tiny clouds are the F-minor exchanges in the middle, between piano and strings. The finale is a go-for-broke Allegro that showcases the bravura potential of all three instruments.

The Op. 70 piano trios were premiered in December 1808 at the home of Beethoven’s friend Countess Marie von Erdődy, to whom they are dedicated. They were published the following year and almost immediately the “Ghost” Trio became a favorite with musicians and audiences, pushing the E-flat-major Trio into the background. The “Archduke,” a few years later, was even more popular, and quickly became the audience favorite of Beethoven’s works in that genre. Op. 70, No. 2, is not the heroic Beethoven, but rather the Beethoven who was heir to Haydn, who loved the peace of the countryside, and who delighted in the sheer exuberance of making music.

—Kenneth LaFave

Piano Quintet in A major, D. 667 (“Trout”)

Franz Schubert Born in Vienna, January 31, 1797 Died there, November 19, 1828

Franz Schubert spent the summer of 1819 in the town of Steyr in Upper Austria, with his friends Albert Stadler and Johann Michael Vogl. Before long Stadler and Vogl had introduced the young composer to Sylvester Paumgartner, a local businessman and amateur cellist whose salon was one of the town’s principal centers of musical activity. Paumgartner suggested to Schubert that he write a piano quintet, one that might include a set of variations on the composer’s song “Die Forelle” (The Trout). He also suggested it could be modeled on Hummel’s D-minor Septet (or more correctly, on a piano quintet arrangement of the Hummel score). Schubert began work on the quintet while still in Steyr, and finished it later that fall in Vienna.

This Quintet is an amiable composition, redolent with all the delights—natural, social, and musical—that Schubert enjoyed on his vacation. Musicologist Clive Brown writes that it reveals Schubert in his genial mood: “He certainly did not intend to impress listeners with subtleties of compositional technique, but he succeeded magnificently in charming and captivating them. Despite occasional deeper moments, four of the five movements seem primarily to reflect the carefree atmosphere of his holiday in Upper Austria; only the second movement sustains a more introspective mood.”

Although the score was not published until after the composer’s death (any performances necessarily being prepared from the manuscript), the publication announcement included the observation that connoisseurs had already declared it a masterpiece. Since its publication the Quintet has become one of Schubert’s most famous compositions, exceeded perhaps only by a handful of songs and the “Unfinished” Symphony. It is certainly one of his most refreshing and delightful scores.

The inspiration for the commission of this work may have been Hummel’s Septet, but the nearest model is perhaps Beethoven’s popular Septet, which also has five movements. This structure aligns the Beethoven and Schubert works with the “serenade” tradition, which relied more often on unusual combinations of available instruments (Schubert’s Quintet includes a double bass) and a more friendly outlook than most “serious” chamber compositions.

The tonic pedal with piano triplets that opens the first movement (Allegro vivace) is a call to attention, and precedes the actual first theme. The theme itself doesn’t require elaboration, and much of the exposition consists of variations on the motifs, but the triplet figure persists through the movement, functioning as a unifying device.

The Quintet as a whole is based on the notion of song-derived instrumentality, and doesn’t feel confined to classical notions of form or development. This becomes especially clear when Schubert begins the first-movement recapitulation a fifth lower than expected, in the sub-dominant key. By transposing the entire first theme down a fifth for the recapitulation, the second theme then reappears in the tonic without need for any recomposition. Occasionally criticized by pedants as a “lazy” approach to sonata form—or the possible result of composing in haste—the movement is so abundantly cheerful that this transgression of traditional Classical procedure succeeds merely in reinforcing its easy- going and carefree demeanor.

The second movement Andante states and varies the melodic materials with little “working out” of motifs. It is in a binary form that roughly approximates a sonata-allegro form without development section (sometimes referred to as “slow-movement sonata form”). Melodies emerge gently from the violin, cello, and piano, with the cello’s countermelodies prefiguring some of Schubert’s ravishing string duets in his late chamber works. The frequency of unexpected harmonic shifts suggest that Schubert used harmony and modulation coloristically rather than functionally, such as the breath-catching move from F major to F- sharp minor near the start of the movement. Schubert uses the same “lazy” sonata principle here to bring back the second theme in the tonic key near the end.

The Scherzo (Presto) and Trio are much more developmentally wrought. The driving and abrupt Scherzo hints that something stormier may be lurking nearby, and an unexpectedly dark modulation confirms the impression. But the Trio dispels those moods with much use of the Austrian folk rhythms that seemed to come so naturally to Schubert.

The first stanza of Schubert’s song “Die Forelle” (first written in 1817, but subsequently revised several times) provides the theme for the variation fourth movement (Andantino). The song itself was replete with drama, as the tranquil scene established in the opening stanzas is disturbed by the fisherman’s successful deception and capture of the trout. But Schubert focuses on the simple harmonization of the song’s opening melody (repeating the first line to create a simple binary form), making it the basis for five variations of increasing elaborateness and exploratory verve. The first three variations move the melody into inner voices, while the fourth and fifth explore distant and dramatic harmonic realms. At the end, a return to the opening melody also signals for the first time a recollection of the piano accompaniment from the song, with its characteristic rippling, watery figures.

The Allegro giusto finale is simple and lighthearted, with abundant Magyar rhythms and dance-like syncopations. Again Schubert effects a wholesale transposition of materials so that the secondary themes come back in the home key at the conclusion. Exotic, martial figures dominate much of the movement, until the bubbling triplets that had announced the opening of the first movement return to unify and frame the entire Quintet.

—Luke Howard

Program notes commissioned by The Philadelphia Orchestra Association; © 2011 Luke Howard and Kenneth LaFave. All rights reserved. GENERAL TERMS Binary: A musical structure consisting of two mutually dependent sections of roughly equal duration Coda: A concluding section or passage added in order to confirm the impression of finality D.: Abbreviation for Deutsch, the chronological list of all the works of Schubert made by Otto Erich Deutsch Da capo: Repeated from the beginning Development: See sonata form Divertimento: A piece of entertaining music in several movements, often scored for a mixed ensemble and having no fixed form Minuet: A dance in triple time commonly used up to the beginning of the 19th century as the lightest movement of a symphony Op.: Abbreviation for opus, a term used to indicate the chronological position of a composition within a composer’s output Recapitulation: See sonata form Rondo: A form frequently used in symphonies and concertos for the final movement. It consists of a main section that alternates with a variety of contrasting sections (A-B-A-C-A etc.). Scherzo: Literally “a joke.” Usually the third movement of symphonies and quartets that was introduced by Beethoven to replace the minuet. The scherzo is followed by a gentler section called a trio, after which the scherzo is repeated. Its characteristics are a rapid tempo in triple time, vigorous rhythm, and humorous contrasts. Serenade: An instrumental composition written for a small ensemble and having characteristics of the suite and the sonata Sonata form: The form in which the first movements (and sometimes others) of symphonies are usually cast. The sections are exposition, development, and recapitulation, the last sometimes followed by a coda. The exposition is the introduction of the musical ideas, which are then “developed.” In the recapitulation, the exposition is repeated with modifications. Sturm und Drang: Literally, storm and stress. A movement throughout the arts that reached its highpoint in the 1770s, whose aims were to frighten, stun, or overcome with emotion. Syncopation: A shift of rhythmic emphasis off the beat Tonic: The keynote of a scale Trio: See scherzo Triplet: A group of three equal notes to be performed in the time of two of like value in the established rhythm Tritone: The interval of three whole tones

THE SPEED OF MUSIC (Tempo) Agitato: Excited Allegretto: A tempo between walking speed and fast Allegro: Bright, fast Andante: Walking speed Andantino: Slightly quicker than andante Con fuoco: With fire, passionately, excited Largo: Broad Morendo: Fading away Presto: Very fast Risoluto: Boldly, vigorously, decisively Sostenuto: Sustained Vivace: Lively

TEMPO MODIFIERS Assai: Much Giusto: Strict Ma non troppo: But not too much Poco: Little, a bit

Paul Arnold, violin, joined The Philadelphia Orchestra in 1983. Previously he was principal second violin of the Rochester Philharmonic, with which he made numerous solo appearances. A native of New York, he graduated from the Eastman School in Rochester. He has appeared as a recitalist and chamber musician with Yefim Bronfman, Sarah Chang, Tan Dun, Christoph Eschenbach, Keith Jarrett, Truls Mørk, Gil Shaham, and the Emerson Quartet. Mr. Arnold gives master classes around the country. An active lecturer on musical subjects, he has also has given numerous pre-concert talks for The Philadelphia Orchestra. He currently serves as music director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Philadelphia Orchestra Connection Series. He is a founding member of both the Society Hill Quintet and the Dalihapa Ensemble.

Judy Geist, viola, joined The Philadelphia Orchestra in 1983. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, she went on to become a member of the Audubon Quartet, the Philharmonia Virtuosi, and the Soviet Émigré Orchestra, and she performed frequently with Orpheus and the New York Philharmonic. She toured extensively with the National Ballet of Canada as principal viola and played with Chick Corea on a world tour in his 13-piece band. Ms. Geist has recorded and premiered works with Parnassus, the Philadelphia Composer’s Forum, the American Composer’s Orchestra, Orchestra of Our Time, the Network for New Music, and the Penn Contemporary Players. She is active as a recitalist and chamber musician and has participated in the Mostly Mozart, Milwaukee New Music, Madeira Bach, Grand Teton, and Newport Jazz festivals. She is also a visual artist.

Robert Kesselman, double bass, is a native Philadelphian and attended Temple University and the Curtis Institute of Music. In 1980 he won a section bass position with the Pittsburgh Symphony, where he remained until 1987. Mr. Kesselman had always dreamed of playing in The Philadelphia Orchestra, and in 1987 he was accepted into the bass section. When he is not playing in the Orchestra, he enjoys teaching, solo playing, and performing chamber music. He was formerly on the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore and currently teaches at Temple University.

Sonya Ovrutsky, piano, is the founder/executive director of the Main Line Music Academy. She won the International Competition in Senigalia, Italy, at the age of 15, and her other competition credits include the Aspen Music Festival Concerto, the Studio Club, and the Lehigh Valley—Juilliard Concerto competitions, and winning the New York Municipal Concert Award. Ms. Ovrutsky has performed in major centers in Brussels, New York, Rome, Moscow, Madrid, Barcelona, and throughout South Africa, among others. Recent concerts include recitals at Vienna’s Konzerthaus, Salzburg’s Schumann Festival, the Lucerne Festival, and a tour of Switzerland and France. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Juilliard School, studying with Herbert Stessin. Ms. Ovrutsky and her brother, violinist Mikhail Ovrutsky, recently released their debut CD, Turning Point.

Kathryn Picht Read, cello, studied piano with her mother from the age of five and began cello lessons when she was 10. She attended the University of Wisconsin and holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Illinois and a Master of Music degree from Boston University. While in Boston she studied with George Neikrug. Prior to joining The Philadelphia Orchestra in 1979, Ms. Picht Read was assistant principal cello of the Kalamazoo Symphony, a member of the Springfield (MA) Symphony, and principal cello of the Battle Creek and Champagne-Urbana symphonies. A former faculty member of the New School of Music, she is now an adjunct professor at Temple University and is on the faculty of FOSJA, the Festival of the Youth Symphony Orchestra of the Americas, in San Juan, Puerto Rico.