The Eleventh Season: From Bach July 18–August 10, 2013 WELCOME TO MUSIC@MENLO Dear Friends, The most transformative musical experiences of our own lives inevitably surface at Music@Menlo. Whether they inspire a single concert or provide context for an entire festival, we bring you these musical revelations with tremendous excitement. This we promise you: if you find it at Music@Menlo, it has a story deeply rooted in our personal history. Such an experience occurred for us during Music@Menlo’s ninth festival, which illustrated Brahms’s wide range of musical sources and influences. A program opened with an eloquent performance of Bach’s Second Suite for Solo Cello and then moved to works by composers indebted to both Bach and Brahms. Bach is a composer we had long revered, and we spoke excitedly of this concert’s extraordinary effect. Had the music of Bach—which unquestionably laid the foundations for the flow- ering of classical music through the present day—transformed the works which followed it, by composers including Schoenberg and Harbison? Or had Bach’s music, through its cosmic logic, simply opened our ears to hearing everything that followed it more clearly and vividly? These questions blossomed into our dream of an entire Music@Menlo season programmed in this special way, and in due time From Bach was born. Once again, Music@Menlo is proud to offer a rich festival experience to be found nowhere else. What better way to inaugurate our second decade than with con- certs that begin with works by a composer without equal, created at the glorious dawn of great music? Please join us, David Finckel and Wu Han Artistic Directors The Martin Family Artistic Directorship 2 subscribe at www.musicatmenlo.org CONTENTS Welcome 2 Welcome from the Artistic Directors 4 Festival Introduction Concerts 6 Concert Programs 14 Carte Blanche Concerts 19 Prelude Performances and Koret Young Performers Concerts 22 2013–2014 Winter Series 36 Festival Calendar Discovery and Engagement 16 Michael Steinberg Encounter Series 18 Chamber Music Institute 19 Prelude Performances and Koret Young Performers Concerts 20 Café Conversations and Master Classes 20 Open House 20 Listening Room 21 AudioNotes 21 Music@Menlo LIVE 21 Recording and Broadcasting Artists 5 2013 Artist Roster 24 Visual Artist 25 Performer Biographies Ticket and Patron Information 30 Join Music@Menlo 32 Reserving Your Summer Festival Tickets 32 Summer Festival Subscriber Information 34 The Festival Campus and Performance Venues 35 Map, Locations, and Parking 35 For Visitors to Our Area 36 Festival Calendar subscribe at www.musicatmenlo.org 3 FROM BACH 4 subscribe at www.musicatmenlo.org Music@Menlo’s 2013 season, From Bach, celebrates the timeless work of Johann Sebastian Bach, the composer whose profound legacy has shaped Western music over the two and a half centuries since his death. To the ears of many modern listeners, the canon begins with Bach, and arguably every major musi- cal innovation has borne his influence. Whether in the craftsmanship of composers from Haydn to Mendelssohn, the sonic magnitude of Brahms, Bartók, and Shostakovich, or even the sensual allure of Debussy, Richard Strauss, and George Gershwin, Bach’s legacy endures. This season, Music@Menlo examines that legacy, mining the depths of Bach’s art from the perspective of the generations of great composers who followed. ARTISTS Piano Cello Vocalist Gloria Chien Dmitri Atapine Elizabeth Futral, soprano* Derek Han Carter Brey Jeffrey Kahane Colin Carr Percussion Gilbert Kalish David Finckel Christopher Froh Hyeyeon Park Laurence Lesser Ayano Kataoka Gilles Vonsattel* Ian Rosenbaum* Wu Han Bass Charles Chandler Woodwinds Violin Scott Pingel Tara Helen O’Connor, flute Benjamin Beilman Alan Kay, clarinet* Sunmi Chang* Harp James Austin Smith, oboe Jorja Fleezanis Bridget Kibbey Marc Goldberg, bassoon Soovin Kim* Kristin Lee Danish String Quartet* Brass Sean Lee Frederik Øland, violin Nicole Cash, French horn* Arnaud Sussmann Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen, violin Kevin Rivard, French horn* Ian Swensen Asbjørn Nørgaard, viola David Washburn, trumpet Joseph Swensen Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin, cello Encounter Leaders Viola Orion String Quartet Patrick Castillo Sunmi Chang* Daniel Phillips, violin Ara Guzelimian Mark Holloway* Todd Phillips, violin Stuart Isacoff Paul Neubauer Steven Tenenbom, viola Michael Parloff Richard O’Neill Timothy Eddy, cello Ingo Bracke (b. 1972). Arnaud Sussmann Inversus F, 2008. *Music@Menlo debut Light installation, Bachhaus Eisenach, Germany. Photo: Studiokybra subscribe at www.musicatmenlo.org 5 CONCERT PROGRAM I PIANO/PIANO Johann Sebastian Bach was lauded in his own lifetime as a virtuoso organist, and his impeccable writing for keyboard distinguishes such masterpieces as his Concerto for Two Harpsichords. The sonic breadth that Bach imagined, afforded by two modern Steinway pianos, is given voice in this explosive piano-centric performance—an anachronistic testament to the timeless resonance of Bach’s art. Schubert’s Rondo in A Major for Piano, Four Hands, coaxes orches- tral immensity from one keyboard, and Schumann’s Andante and Variations likewise exploits an alchemical ensemble of two pianos, two cellos, and horn to ravishing effect. The program concludes with the pathbreaking Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion of Béla Bartók, one of the towering geniuses of early twentieth-century mod- ernism, and who counted Bach among his essential influences. JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685–1750) Concerto for Two Pianos in C Major, BWV 1061 (1732–1735) FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797–1828) Rondo in A Major for Piano, Four Hands, op. 107, D. 951 (1828) ROBERT SCHUMANN (1810–1856) Andante and Variations for Two Pianos, Two Cellos, and Horn, op. 46 (1843) BÉLA BARTÓK (1881–1945) Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, BB 115 (1937) ARTISTS Kevin Rivard, French horn; Gloria Chien, Derek Han, Gilbert Kalish, Hyeyeon Park, Wu Han, pianos; Soovin Kim, Kristin Lee, Sean Lee, Arnaud Sussmann, violins; Sunmi Chang, Mark Holloway, violas; David Finckel, Laurence Lesser, cellos; Scott Pingel, bass; CONCERT PROGRAM II Christopher Froh, Ian Rosenbaum, percussion FRIDAY, JULY 19 QUARTET DIMENSIONS 8:00 p.m., The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton The string quartet medium, arguably the spinal column of the Tickets: $65/$55 full price; $30/$20 under age thirty chamber music literature, did not exist in Bach’s lifetime. Yet even Prelude Performance* here, Bach’s legacy is inescapable. The fugues of his seminal The 5:30 p.m., The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton Well-Tempered Clavier inspired no less a genius than Mozart, who arranged a set of them for string quartet. The influence of Bach’s * Prelude Performances feature young artists from the Chamber Music architectural mastery permeates the ingenious Quinten Quartet of Institute. Admission is free. For more information, see pp. 18–19. Joseph Haydn, the father of the modern string quartet, and even Dmitry Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet, composed nearly two hundred years after Bach’s death. The centerpiece of Beethoven’s Opus 132—the Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit (“A Convalescent’s Holy Song of Thanksgiving to the Divinity”)—recalls Ann Sperry (1934–2008). another Bachian signature: the Baroque master’s sacred chorales. My Piano 10. Made from parts of the artist’s childhood Sohmer spinet. Courtesy of Paul Sperry 6 subscribe at www.musicatmenlo.org Kai Rösler (b. 1957). St. Thomas Church, Leipzig, 2010, where Bach was Music Director from 1723 to 1750 CONCERT PROGRAM II JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685–1750)/ ARTISTS WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756–1791) Gilbert Kalish, piano; Danish String Quartet: Frederik Øland, QUARTET DIMENSIONS Fugue in E-flat Major, BWV 876, and Fugue in d minor, BWV 877, from Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen, violins; Asbjørn Nørgaard, viola; Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin, cello The string quartet medium, arguably the spinal column of the Das wohltemperierte Klavier; arr. String Quartets nos. 7 and 8, K. 405 chamber music literature, did not exist in Bach’s lifetime. Yet even JOSEPH HAYDN (1732–1809) SUNDAY, JULY 21 here, Bach’s legacy is inescapable. The fugues of his seminal The String Quartet in d minor, op. 76, no. 2, Quinten (1796) 6:00 p.m., The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton Well-Tempered Clavier inspired no less a genius than Mozart, who DMITRY SHOSTAKOVICH (1906–1975) Tickets: $65/$55 full price; $30/$20 under age thirty arranged a set of them for string quartet. The influence of Bach’s Piano Quintet in g minor, op. 57 (1940) architectural mastery permeates the ingenious Quinten Quartet of LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) Joseph Haydn, the father of the modern string quartet, and even String Quartet no. 15 in a minor, op. 132 (1825) Dmitry Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet, composed nearly two hundred years after Bach’s death. The centerpiece of Beethoven’s Opus 132—the Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit (“A Convalescent’s Holy Song of Thanksgiving to the Divinity”)—recalls another Bachian signature: the Baroque master’s sacred chorales. subscribe at www.musicatmenlo.org 7 CONCERT PROGRAM IV PRELUDES AND FUGUES Bach elevated the simple construct of prelude and fugue to profound heights. More than an academic two-part structure, the prelude and fugue, in Bach’s hands, spoke to something deeply human. The prelude is an invitation into Bach’s fantastical imagination, and the fugue is an extension of the prelude’s expression into the formal complexity of Bach’s contrapuntal mindscape. That Bach’s preludes and fugues capti- vated Haydn and Mozart is evident in their writing; two centuries later, Britten and Shostakovich, too, would call on the same Bachian tradition to give voice to a wholly distinct worldview. JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685–1750) Selections from The Well-Tempered Clavier (1722) WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756–1791) Adagio and Fugue in c minor, K. 546 (1788) JOSEPH HAYDN (1732–1809) String Quartet in f minor, op. 20, no.