GUEST ARTIST RECITAL the Mann Quartet Robert Mann, Violin Peter
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GUEST ARTIST RECITAL The Mann Quartet Robert Mann, violin Peter Winograd, violin Nicholas Mann, viola David Geber, cello Wednesday, March 13, 2013 8:00 p.m. Lillian H. Duncan Recital Hall PROGRAM Clarinet Quintet in A Major, op. 146 Max Reger Moderato ed amabile (1873-1916) Vivace Largo Poco allegretto Michael Webster, clarinet Dover String Quartet Bryan Lee, violin Joel Link, violin Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, viola Camden Shaw, cello INTERMISSION Serenade No. 1 in D Major, op. 11 Johannes Brahms Allegro molto (1833-1897) Scherzo: Allegro non troppo (arr. Chris Nex) Adagio non troppo Menuetto I; Menuetto II Scherzo: Allegro Rondo: Allegro Leone Buyse, flute Robert Atherholt, oboe Michael Webster, clarinet Benjamin Kamins, bassoon Matthew Berliner, horn Eric Halen, violin Kenneth Goldsmith, violin Sheldon Person, viola Jesse Christeson, cello Ian Hallas, double bass The reverberative acoustics of Duncan Recital Hall magnify the slightest sound made by the audience. Your care and courtesy will be appreciated. The taking of photographs and use of recording equipment are prohibited. PROGRAM NOTES Clarinet Quintet in A Major, Op. 146 . Max Reger Composers often leave a final work unfinished, but Max Reger was able to complete his clarinet quintet in December, 1915, make corrections and final refinements in April, 1916, and submit it to his publisher on May 1. He died of a sudden heart attack ten days later, May 11. Reger enclosed this note to the publisher: “Do not be alarmed at the length of the enclosed manuscript; this work really will not require appreciably more printed pages than, for example, Brahms’s Clarinet Quintet.” There is no doubt that he was think- ing of it as an homage to Brahms and also to Mozart, whose clarinet quintet shares with Reger’s the key of A major and a theme and variations as a finale. Reger’s admiration for Brahms began in his teenaged years, his Vio- lin Sonata, Op. 3 (1891) “clearly modeled on Brahms” according to the New Grove Dictionary. In 1895 he sent his Suite, Op. 16 for solo organ to Brahms, who sent an encouraging reply. In 1900, Reger honored Brahms by writing a pair of clarinet sonatas, Op. 49, patterned after Brahms’s Op. 120. By comparison with Brahms, they are quite bland, but Reger did come closer to emulating the master with his third and final clarinet sonata,Op. 106, the highlight of which is a gorgeous slow movement. It was written just after Reger had established himself as professor of composition at Leipzig Univer- sity, where Brahms had spent time as well. Reger’s clarinet quintet would never be mistaken for Brahms because its harmonic language is much more chromatic and modulatory. Yet certain me- lodic gestures and formal procedures bear striking resemblance to Brahms’s clarinet quintet. For example, an important building block in Reger’s first movement is the same six-note triple-meter figure that first appears in the third measure of the Brahms and eventually finishes the first and last move- ments. Its most recognizable appearance in the Reger comes immediately after the second theme of the traditional sonata-allegro form, itself a simple downward scale with great poignancy of expression. Reger recognized the special expressivity of this theme and used it to link the development section with the recap. Like Brahms, Reger uses a cyclic approach, choosing this tender theme to reappear as the second theme of the slow movement and again in its development section. Reger was even able to compete with Brahms on the Viennese front! The furtive scherzo, in which the bars are divided in two and three simultane- ously, becomes an ingratiating Ländler in the middle section, complete with a canon between the clarinet and viola reminiscent of the third movement of Brahms’s Clarinet (or Viola!) Sonata, Op. 120, No. 1. The variation form of the finale is reminiscent of both the Mozart and Brahms clarinet quintets, the third variation containing a rapid downward arpeggio in the clarinet, startlingly similar to a moment in the third movement of the Brahms quintet. Yet in spite of all the references to Brahms, both overt and covert, Reger’s quintet remains clearly his own. None of the references is overly obvious, and all are written with the greatest affection for the master. Fifty-seven years passed between Brahms’s Op. 11 and Reger’s Op. 146, yet they clearly grow from the same family tree. Serenade No. 1 in D Major, Op. 11 . Johannes Brahms It was a huge burden for the twenty-year-old Johannes Brahms to live up to the words that Robert Schumann wrote about him in an article called “New Roads” in 1853: “If he aims his magic wand where the massed powers of chorus and orchestra lend him their forces, then we are in store for even more awe-inspiring glimpses into the secrets of the world of spirits.” So Brahms had great misgivings when he contemplated rewriting his first serenade, written for chamber ensemble in 1857-8, as a symphony. A private performance of the ensemble version was given during the summer of 1858, and on December 8 Brahms told his friend and advisor, the violinist Joseph Joachim, that he was planning to transform the serenade into a sym- phony, with this caveat: “I realize that the work is a hybrid in its present form, nothing authentic. I had such a wonderful, grand idea for my first symphony, and now this!” Later he added: “By God, symphonies – if one even dares to write them after Beethoven – will have to look completely different!” By March 1859, Brahms, ever the perfectionist, conducted a performance of the chamber version before finally finishing the orchestration in December followed by a première with the title, Serenade No. 1 in D Major, Op. 11, on March 3, 1860, conducted by Joachim. The original version disappeared completely, and I suspect that Brahms destroyed it, as he did many of his early works that didn’t completely satisfy him. In 2000, Chris Nex published the version that you will hear tonight, captur- ing the flavor of Brahms’s original, but not necessarily the exact instrumenta- tion. Working from the orchestral score, he arranged it for the convenient grouping of string quintet and woodwind quintet. As a chamber piece, it is certainly more serenade-like than symphonic, but the work remains as Brahms described it: a hybrid. The first three movements are, in fact, longer than the first three movements of any of his symphonies! All that Brahms would have needed to do to create a true symphony would have been to eliminate the fourth and fifth movements and write a more extended finale. Instead, he chose to keep the character of a serenade by writing an ingratiating minuet, an al fresco scherzo and a very concise rondo. The serenade as a whole is also longer than any of his symphonies, but that is in keeping with the tradition Mozart had es- tablished with his extended serenades, the Haffner, Posthorn, and Gran Partita for winds, clocking in at 58, 40, and 43 minutes respectively. In either version, the Serenade No. 1 evinces the “magic wand” that Schumann summoned up. Of all the magic moments, my favorite is the re- capitulation of the slow movement, which began in B-flat major. The theme sneaks up on us in the unexpected key of B major and spends a few measures in F-sharp major before gliding back into B-flat. Brahms, the master of the de- ceptive recap (e.g. the first movements of the second piano concerto and fourth symphony), got an early start! –Program notes by Michael Wenbster BIOGRAPHIES Grand Prize-winner of the 2010 Fischoff Competition, the DOVER STRING QUARTET (formerly known as the Old City String Quartet) is the graduate quartet in residence at the Shepherd School. Formed at the Curtis Institute of Music in 2008, when its members were just 19 years old, the Quartet draws from the musical lineage of both the Vermeer and Guarneri Quartets. The Strad recently raved that the Quartet is “already pulling away from their peers with their exceptional interpretative maturity, tonal refinement and taut ensemble.” Violinist BRYAN LEE has performed as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Delaware, Lansdowne, and Temple University Symphony Orchestras, among others. He has been a featured artist at Ravinia's Steans Institute, La Jolla Summerfest, Artosphere Festival, and Music from Angel Fire. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Bryan has studied with Pamela Frank, Victor Danchenko, and Choong-Jin Chang. Violinist JOEL LINK has been a top prize winner of numerous compe- titions including the Johansen International Competition in Washington D.C. and the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition in England. As a result of his prize at the Menuhin Competition, Link was featured in The Strad magazine and has also appeared on numerous radio shows, including NPR’s “From the Top.” MILENA PAJARO-VAN DE STADT is the First Prize winner of the 2010 Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition. In addition to appearances as soloist with the Tokyo Philharmonic, the Jacksonville Symphony, and the Sphinx Chamber Orchestra, she has performed in recitals and chamber music concerts throughout the United States, Latin America, and Europe, including a recent acclaimed 2011 debut recital at London’s Wigmore Hall. Cellist CAMDEN SHAW has performed with such orchestras as the Philadelphia Orchestra and recently released a CD with the label Unipheye Music. Recent teachers include Peter Wiley and Steven Isserlis. He is cur- rently enrolled in the Shepherd School's string quartet program, under the tutelage of Norman Fischer.