The Chamber Music Society at Yale Chamber Music Competition Winners Tuesday, May 1, 2007 at 8:00 P.M

The Yale School of Music Robert Blocker, Acting Dean presents The Chamber Music Society at Yale Chamber Music Competition Winners TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2007 MORSE RECITAL HALL IN SPRAGUE HALL the chamber music society at yale Chamber Music Competition Winners Tuesday, May 1, 2007 at 8:00 p.m. Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall Trio in E-flat major,k . 498, “Kegelstatt” Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Andante (1756-1791) Menuetto Rondo Romie de Guise-Langlois, clarinet Margot Schwartz, violin Wei-Jen Yuan, piano Triskelion Bruce Adolphe Allegro (b. 1955) Andante (with a ghostly quality) Allegro Joel Brennan and Olivia Malin, trumpet Jocelyn Crawford, horn Joshua Cullum, trombone Stephanie Fairbairn, tuba intermission Quartet in D minor, d. 810, “Death and the Maiden” Franz Schubert Allegro (1797-1828) Andante con moto Scherzo: Allegro molto − Trio Presto The Alianza Quartet Sarita Kwok and Lauren Basney, violin Ah-Young Sung, viola Dmitri Atapine, cello As a courtesy to the performers and to other audience members — Please silence cell phones and pagers Please do not leave the auditorium during selections No flash photography No sound or video recording of any kind 2 0 0 6- 2 0 0 7 s e a s o n Program Notes Mozart: Trio in E-flat,k . 498, “Kegelstatt” The strange subtitle (Kegelstatt or “Skittles”) alone gives this work a unique place in Mozart’s vast chamber music output. Add to that its unusual combination of instruments and you have a very original composition indeed. The story behind the work’s origins is that Mozart wrote this in 1786 while playing skittles (an old game similar to bowling) with his friend, the clarinetist Anton Stadler. As for the instrumental choices, it was probably intended for Mozart’s favorite piano student at the time, Franziska von Jacquin, with Stadler on clarinet and Mozart playing viola (his preferred instrument for chamber music). Though the trio is small in scope when compared with other Mozart chamber works from the same period, it has a warm intimacy and showcases particularly tender writing for the clarinet and viola, two instruments Mozart was especially fond of. The opening movement, marked Andante, always raises questions about tempo and character. The three-movement trio has no slow movement (Andante is a very moderate marking), and the first is cast in Sonata Allegro form. Ultimately it is the performer’s decision as to how ‘fast’ or ‘slow’ the movement’s tempo marking is - and interpretations have been widely varied. The opening motto, stated by all three instruments, can be heard throughout the movement as a ‘tag’. The second theme is five notes of the motto theme, transformed rhythmically. After a short development comes the recapitulation and coda. The middle movement is marked Menuetto, but it is a long and serious movement, much more intense than a typical 18th century minuet. It features a strong bass line and extreme dynamic contrasts. In the trio, a conflict between clarinet, which plays a short legato phrase, and viola, which responds overeagerly with gruff triplets, arises. These gestures continue to bicker and are never really resolved; only the return of the Minuet causes the conflict to subside. The Rondo third movement features a delightfully singing melody. It follows a form of A-B-A-C-A-D-A with each A being a repetition of the principal theme and the other being contrasting interludes. The C interlude, featuring an impassioned cry from the viola, is especially effective. After this episode, the music returns to a positive and upbeat flow until the movement’s happy conclusion. Adolphe: Triskelion This Quintet originated from a commission by the Music Library Association for the American Brass Quintet, who premiered Triskelion on February 15, 1991. The title hints at the work’s form: according to the American Heritage Dictionary, triskelion is “a figure consisting of three curved lines or branches, or three stylized human arms or legs, radiating from a common center.” Adolphe himself said, “The fast-paced outer movements draw power from the more contained, almost still, central movement.” The musical vernacular is quite accessible, with tonal intervals, jazzy influences, and an attractive slow movement contributing to this work’s popularity in the brass quintet repertoire. Notes by Jacob Adams chamber music society at yale Schubert: Quartet in D minor, d. 801, “Death and the Maiden” “I feel myself the most unfortunate, the most miserable being in the world. Think of a man whose health will never be tight again, and who from despair over that fact makes it worse instead of better; think of a man, I say, whose splendid hopes have come to naught, to whom the happiness of love and friendship offer nothing but acutest pain, whose enthusiasm (at least, the inspiring kind) for the beautiful threatens to disappear; and ask yourself whether he isn’t a miserable, unfortunate fellow!” So wrote Schubert to his dear friend Leopold Kupelweiser during the unhappy spring of 1824. During the previous year, the young composer had been diagnosed with a case of syphilis, an illness which at that time was a mortal one. Schubert was stunned into a compositional silence for a long period, and when he returned to music in late 1823, his music took on a more somber tone. It is to this turbulent time, March of 1824, that the “Death and the Maiden” Quartet dates. The Quartet, written in the key of D minor, derives its subtitle from its second movement, a series of variations on Schubert’s own song “Der Tod und das Madchen.” (This kind of artistic self-cannibalism − to borrow Harris Goldsmith’s phrase − was not unusual for Schubert: consider the “Trout” Quintet, the “Wanderer” Fantasy for piano, or the “Trockne Blumen” Variations for flute.) It is debatable whether the song’s text, in which the character of Death comes as a figure of soothing peace to a fevered young girl, can be read programatically into the music of the rest of the work. There is much grace, charm, and even vivacity throughout the piece, and rarely do we encounter music of such exalted nobility as Schubert gives us in the D minor quartet. The opening Allegro is propelled forward by triplet rhythms that figure prominently in both melody and accompaniment, giving unity and motoric energy to its two contrasting themes. The “Death and the Maiden” theme serves as the basis for the somber, poignant second movement‚s variations. Painted in simple, vertical strokes, the theme allows Schubert to add complexity or explore new emotional content in the ensuing variations. Five in number, the variations build up to a truly awe-inspiring climax. The gloomy, pensive coda shifrs to the major mode only in its last moments, giving us at last a sense of consolatory transfiguration. The fierce, slashing grimness of the Allegro molto scherzo is alleviated by a warm, tranquil trio − only to return again in a literal repeat. The whirlwind finale takes its rhythm from the tarantella, an antique Italian dance which was said to counteract the effect of the tarantula‚s bite. Fighting frantically till the very end, Schubert spins us forward to a breathless conclusion. Performer Biographies Born in Montreal, clarinetist Romie de Guise-Langlois is currently in the Artist Diploma Program at Yale School of Music, where she recently won first prize in the Woolsey Hall Competition and obtained the Nyfenger Memorial Prize for excellence in woodwind playing. Having completed a Bachelor of Music at McGill University in Montreal, studying with Michael Dumouchel, she holds a Master of Music from Yale School of Music under David Shifrin. Ms. de Guise-Langlois won first place at the Ca- 2 0 0 6- 2 0 0 7 s e a s o n nadian Music Competition and received the Orford Arts Center Prize at the Montreal Symphony Orchestra Competition in 2002. In 2003, she was the first prize winner of the McGill University Classical Concerto Competition and received the Canadian Broadcasting Company award. She is pursuing her studies at Yale on grants from the Canada Council for the Arts. In 2006, Ms. de Guise-Langlois recorded a recital program for Radio-Canada, les Jeunes Artistes d’Espace Musique and gave recitals and master classes in China. Romie has participated in many summer festivals, studying with Andre Moisan, Karl Leister, James Cambell, Robert Riseling, Fan Lei, Charles Niedich and Fanklin Cohen. She has appeared at the Banff Festival of Music, the Orford Arts Centre and Marlboro Music Festival. Ms. de Guise-Langlois will also be part of The Academy—A Program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and The Weill Music Institute starting this September. Margot Schwartz has appeared as soloist with the Berkeley Symphony, Oakland EastBay Symphony, Northwestern University Chamber and Music Academy of the West Festival Orchestras. She was a prizewinner in the Midland-Odessa Symphony and Woolsey Hall Concerto Competitions, and a finalist in the Kingsville International Competition. Additionally, she was the recipient of the Pierre Mayer Award from the Tanglewood Music Center. Margot has studied chamber music with David Shifrin, Wil- liam Purvis, Claude Frank, Joseph Silverstein, members of the Pacifica, Juilliard, Tokyo, Brentano, Vermeer, and Concord String Quartets, and has performed at Bargemusic and the Kennedy Center. As an orchestral musician, Margot has been concertmaster of the Yale Philharmonia, Tanglewood Music Center, Oberlin Chamber and Music Academy of the West Festival Orchestras. She has performed in over twenty countries and worked with conductors Daniel Barenboim, Kurt Masur, Bernard Haitink, James Levine, Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos, Herbert Bloomstedt, Sir Neville Marriner, David Robertson, and Lorin Maazel. Margot is finishing her final year as a graduate violin student of Ani Ka- vafian at the Yale School of Music, having previously studied with Roland and Almita Vamos at the Northwestern University School of Music, where she graduated cum laude and was inducted into the music honor society Pi Kappa Lambda.

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