Cal Performances Presents

Tuesday, January , , pm Zellerbach Hall Itzhak Perlman, violin Rohan De Silva, piano

PROGRAM

Franz Schubert (–) Rondeau Brillant for Violin and Piano in B minor, Op.  (D. ) () Andante Allegro—Più mosso

César Franck (–) Sonata for Violin and Piano in A major, M. () Allegretto ben moderato Allegro Recitativo—Fantasia: Ben moderato— Molto lento Allegretto poco mosso

INTERMISSION

Lukas Foss (b.) Th ree American Pieces for Violin and Piano () Early Song Dedication Composer’s Holiday

Other works to be announced from the stage.

Mr. Perlman records for EMI/Angel, Sony Classical/Sony BMG Masterworks, Deutsche Grammophon, London/Decca, Erato/Elektra International Classics and Telarc.

Mr. Perlman appears by arrangement with IMG Artists. Carnegie Hall Tower  West th Street, Fifth Floor New York, New York 

Cal Performances’ – Season is sponsored by Wells Fargo.

16 CAL PERFORMANCES Program Notes

Franz Schubert (–) momentarily obscuring the bright sunlight—is Rondeau Brillant for Violin and Piano in one of Schubert’s most remarkable and charac- B minor, Op.  (D. ) teristic achievements, and touches indelibly the incomparable series of works—Winterreise, the Composed in . “Great” C major Symphony, the last three Piano Sonatas, the String Quintet, the two Piano On January , , Franz Schubert turned Trios, the Impromptus, the Rondeau Brillant and thirty. He had been following a bohemian ex- the Fantasy for Violin and Piano—that he cre- istence in Vienna for over a decade, making ated during the last months of his brief life. barely more than a pittance from the sale and Th e Rondeau Brillant in B minor (D. ), performance of his works and living largely by one of the small handful of compositions that the generosity of his friends, a devoted band of Schubert wrote for violin, was composed in music-lovers who rallied around his convivial October  for the -year-old Czech vir- personality and exceptional talent. Th e pattern tuoso Josef Slavík, whom Chopin described as of Schubert’s daily life was fi rmly established “the second Paganini.” Slavík arrived in Vienna by that time: composition in the morning; long early in  after having established an excel- walks or visits in the afternoon; companionship lent reputation in Prague, and inspired from for wine and song in the evening. Th e routine Schubert both this Rondeau and the Fantasy in was broken by occasional trips into the country- C major the following year. A performance of side to stay with friends or families of friends. A the Rondeau by Slavík and pianist Carl Maria curious dichotomy marked Schubert’s personal- von Bocklet (to whom Schubert had dedicated ity during those fi nal years of his life, one that the D major Piano Sonata, D.  of ) suited well the Romantic image of the inspired was arranged early in  in the Viennese of- artist, rapt out of quotidian experience to carry fi ce of the publisher Domenico Artaria, who back to benighted humanity some transcendent thought highly enough of the new work to vision. “Anyone who had seen him only in the publish it in April as Schubert’s Op. . “Th e morning, in the throes of composition, his eyes whole piece is brilliant,” stated a review in the shining, speaking, even, another language, will Wiener Zeitschrift. “Th e spirit of invention has never forget it—though in the afternoon, to be here often beaten its wings mightily indeed and sure, he became another person,” recorded one has borne us aloft with it. Both the pianoforte friend. Th e duality in Schubert’s character was and violin require accomplished performers who refl ected in the sharp swings of mood marking must be equal to passages…which reveal a new both his psychological makeup and his creative and inspired succession of ideas.” work. “If there were times, both in his social re- Schubert’s Rondeau Brillant opens with a lationships and his art, when the Austrian char- dignifi ed introduction before launching into the acter appeared all too violently in the vigorous principal theme, a melody of Hungarian fl avor and pleasure-loving Schubert,” wrote his friend probably modeled on the songs and dances that the dramatist Eduard von Bauernfeld, “there the composer heard when he served as music were also times when a black-winged demon of master to the Johann Esterházy family at their sorrow and melancholy forced its way into his villa in Zelesz during the summer of . Th e vicinity; not altogether an evil spirit, it is true, main theme returns twice to frame one episode since, in the dark concentrated hours, it often given to some showy violin fi gurations and an- brought out songs of the most agonizing beauty.” other one of more lyrical character. A dashing Th e ability to mirror his own fl uctuating feel- coda in the bright key of B major closes this ings in his compositions—the darkening cloud handsome work.

CAL PERFORMANCES 17 Program Notes

César Franck (–) was already growing dark as the Sonata began. Sonata for Violin and Piano in A major After the fi rst Allegretto, the players could hardly read their music. Unfortunately, museum regu- Composed in . lations forbade any artifi cial light whatever in Premiered on December ,  in Brussels rooms containing paintings; the mere striking by violinist Eugène Ysaÿe and pianist of a match would have been an off ense. Th e au- Léontine Bordes-Pène. dience was about to be asked to leave but, brim- ful of enthusiasm, they refused to budge. At Franck fi rst considered writing a violin sonata this point, Ysaÿe struck his music stand with his in , when he off ered to compose such a bow, demanding, ‘Let’s go on!’ Th en, wonder of piece for Cosima von Bülow (née Liszt, later wonders, amid darkness that now rendered them Wagner) in appreciation for some kind things virtually invisible, the two artists played the last she had said about his vocal music. He was, three movements from memory with a fi re and however, just then thoroughly absorbed with passion the more astonishing in that there was a his new position as organist at Ste.-Clotilde, and total lack of the usual visible externals that en- was able to compose nothing that year except a hance a concert performance. Music, wondrous short organ piece and a hymn. (His application and alone, held sovereign sway in the blackness to his duties had its reward—he occupied the of night. Th e miracle will never be forgotten by prestigious post at Ste.-Clotilde until his death those present.”  years later.) No evidence of any work on Th e Sonata excited the enthusiasm not only the proposed sonata for Cosima has ever come of musicians, but also inspired other artists to light, and it was not until twenty years later to capture its essence in their particular me- that he fi rst entered the realm of chamber music dia. Under the work’s infl uence, the sculptor with his Piano Quintet of . Franck’s next Victor Rousseau created a statue titled Ecstasy, foray into the chamber genres came seven years in which two fi gures reach upwards in thank- after the Quintet with his Sonata for Violin and fulness for the divine music issuing from the Piano, which was composed as a wedding gift heavens. Camille Mauclair’s novel Th e City of for his friend and Belgian compatriot, the daz- Light contains a vivid description of Ysaÿe and zling virtuoso Eugène Ysaÿe, who had been liv- Chausson performing the Sonata in Rodin’s stu- ing in Paris since  and befriending most of dio. Th e most famous literary passage prompted the leading French musicians; Ysaÿe fi rst played by Franck’s Sonata, however, appears in the the piece privately at the wedding ceremony on fi rst volume of Marcel Proust’s Remembrance of September , . (Chausson and Debussy Th ings Past. Of the interplay of the instruments also composed pieces for Ysaÿe.) In tailoring the at the work’s beginning, Proust wrote, “At fi rst, Sonata to the warm lyricism for which Ysaÿe’s vi- the piano complained alone, like a bird deserted olin playing was known, Franck created a work by its mate; the violin heard and answered it, that won immediate and enduring approval, as from a neighboring tree. It was as at the fi rst and which was instrumental in spreading the beginning of the world, as if there were not yet appreciation for his music beyond his formerly but these twain upon the earth, or rather in this limited coterie of students and local devotees. world closed against all the rest, so fashioned Th e formal premiere, given by Ysaÿe and pianist by the logic of its creator that in it there should Léontine Bordes-Pène at the Musée Moderne de never be any but themselves, the world of this Peinture in Brussels on December , , was Sonata.” an extraordinary event, of which Franck’s pupil Th e quality of verdant lyricism that domi- Vincent d’Indy left the following account: “It nates Franck’s Sonata is broken only by the an-

18 CAL PERFORMANCES Program Notes ticipatory music of the second movement and the reiterations of its main theme in a variety of the heroic passion that erupts near the end of keys. Th e Sonata is brought to a stirring climax the fi nale. Th e work opens in a mood of twilit by a grand motive that strides across the closing tenderness with a main theme built largely from measures in heroic step-wise motion. rising and falling thirds, an intervallic germ from which later thematic material is derived to help unify the overall structure of the Sonata. Lukas Foss (b.) Th e piano alone plays the second theme, a broad Th ree American Pieces for Violin and Piano melody given above an arpeggiated accompani- ment never shared with the violin. Th e move- Composed in . ment’s short central section, hardly a true devel- Premiered in  in New York City by vio- opment at all, consists only of a modifi ed version linist Roman Totenberg and the composer. of the main theme played in dialogue between violin and piano. Th e recapitulation of the prin- Lukas Foss was born in Berlin in , and cipal and secondary subjects (dolcissima…semper moved with his family to Paris when the politi- dolcissima…molto dolcissima—“sweetly…always cal situation began to deteriorate in Germany a sweetly…very sweetly,” cautions the score repeat- decade later. His parents encouraged his musi- edly) rounds out the form of the lovely opening cal talents by providing lessons for him in piano, movement. Th e quick-tempo second movement fl ute, composition and orchestration at the Paris fulfi lls the function of a scherzo in the Sonata, Conservatoire from  to . Th e Fosses ar- though its music is more in the nature of an rived in the United States in , and Lukas impetuous intermezzo. Two strains alternate to continued his studies at the Curtis Institute in produce the movement’s form. One (“scherzo”) Philadelphia, where he was a pupil of Rosario is anxious and unsettled, though it is more trou- Scalero and Randall Th ompson (composition), bled than tragic; the other (“trio”) is subdued Isabelle Vengerova (piano) and Fritz Reiner and rhapsodic. Th ey are disposed in a pattern (conducting). Upon his graduation in , that yields a fi ne balance of styles and emotions: Foss attended the Berkshire Music Center at scherzo—trio—scherzo—trio—scherzo. Th e Tanglewood, where he was a student of Serge third movement (Recitativo—Fantasia) begins Koussevitzky and Paul Hindemith; he spent with a cyclical reference to the third-based germ the following year studying with Hindemith at motive that opened the Sonata. Th e violin’s Yale. Foss became an American citizen in . long, winding line in the Recitativo section is By the early s, Foss had established a dual succeeded by the Grecian purity of the following reputation as composer and performer, receiv- Fantasia, one of the most chaste and moving pas- ing the Pulitzer Prize in  for his inciden- sages in the entire instrumental duet literature. tal music to a production of Th e Tempest, and Th e main theme of the fi nale is so richly lyri- being named pianist of the Boston Symphony cal that its rigorous treatment as a precise canon by Koussevitzky two years later. In , he at the octave is charming rather than pedantic. became the youngest composer ever to win a When the piano and violin do eventually take Guggenheim Fellowship; his other distinctions off on their own paths, it is so that the keyboard include fellowship in the American Academy may recall the chaste melody of the preceding of Rome, a Fulbright grant, membership in Fantasia. Other reminiscences are woven into the American Academy and Institute of Arts the movement—a hint of the third-based germ and Letters, and three New York Music Critics’ motive in one episode, another phrase from the Circle Awards. Foss is also known as a teacher Fantasia—which unfolds as a free rondo around (he followed Schoenberg as professor of compo-

CAL PERFORMANCES 19 Program Notes sition at UCLA in , founded and directed distinct “Americana” idiom pioneered a decade the Center for Creative and Performing Arts earlier by Copland, Th omson, Harris and other at the State University of New York at Buff alo, native-born composers. In , he wrote Th ree and has taught at Boston University since ) American Pieces for Violin and Piano that he de- and as a conductor (as music director of the scribed as “melodious and virtuosic,” and pre- Buff alo Philharmonic [–], the Kol miered them in Carnegie Hall before the end of Israel Orchestra of Jerusalem [–], the the year with the Polish-born violinist Roman Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra [–], Totenberg, also a recently naturalized United and the Brooklyn Philharmonic [–]). States citizen; Foss orchestrated the work in Lukas Foss is one the great champions of mod-  for Itzhak Perlman. Early Song alternates a ern music, in his own daring and eclectic com- simple melody of open intervals and sweet nos- positions, in his innovative programming as a talgia with a dance-like theme of buoyant opti- conductor, and as a pianist of the highest cali- mism. Th e touching, bittersweet outer sections ber. Virgil Th omson wrote of him, “A musician of Dedication, whose title suggests a memorial of perfect gifts and training, a fi rst-class con- associated with the war, are balanced by the ner- ductor, as a composer…highly ingenious and vous, animated music at the movement’s center. venturesome.” Th e closing Composer’s Holiday was apparently During the early s, recently granted spent at a western hoe-down. citizenship and with his patriotic fervor stirred by the war, Foss enthusiastically embraced the ©  Dr. Richard E. Rodda

20 CAL PERFORMANCES About the Artists

through this medium he is further delighting his audiences. He has performed as conduc- tor with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony, National Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the symphony orchestras of San Francisco, Dallas, Houston, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Montreal and Toronto, as well as at the Ravinia and OK Mozart festivals. He was Music Advisor of the St. Louis Symphony from  to , where he made regular conducting appearances, and he was Principal Guest Conductor of the Detroit Symphony from  to . In the summer of , he conducted the National Symphony and the Chicago Symphony. In the – season, he conducts the Toronto Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Houston Symphony and the Oregon Symphony. Undeniably the reigning virtuoso of the violin, Internationally, Mr. Perlman has conducted Itzhak Perlman enjoys superstar status rarely the Berlin Philharmonic, Concertgebouw aff orded a classical musician. Beloved for his Orchestra, London Philharmonic, English charm and humanity as well as his talent, he Chamber Orchestra, Tonhalle Orchestra and is treasured by audiences throughout the world the Israel Philharmonic. who respond not only to his remarkable artistry, As soloist, Mr. Perlman continues to visit but also to the irrepressible joy of making music, major centers throughout the world. In the which he communicates. In December , the – season, he toured the West Coast John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as soloist with the National Symphony and per- granted Mr. Perlman a Kennedy Center Honor, formed recitals throughout the United States celebrating his distinguished achievements and and Japan. He closed the season with a duo contributions to the cultural and educational recital tour with Pinchas Zukerman. Th is sea- life of our nation. son, he appeared as soloist with the New York Born in Israel in , Mr. Perlman com- Philharmonic and many other orchestras, and is pleted his initial training at the Academy of playing recitals across the United States. Music in Tel Aviv. He came to New York and A major presence in the performing arts on was soon propelled into the international arena television, Itzhak Perlman has been honored with an appearance on Th e Ed Sullivan Show with four Emmy Awards, most recently for the in . Following his studies at Th e Juilliard PBS documentary Fiddling for the Future, a fi lm School with Ivan Galamian and Dorothy DeLay, about the Perlman Music Program and his work Mr. Perlman won the prestigious Leventritt as a teacher and conductor there. In July , Competition in , which led to a burgeoning PBS aired a special entitled Perlman in Shanghai, worldwide career. Since then, Itzhak Perlman which chronicled a historic and unforgettable has appeared with every major orchestra and in visit of the Perlman Music Program to China, recitals and festivals around the world. featuring interaction between American and During the past  years, Mr. Perlman has Chinese students and culminating in a concert at also appeared on the conductor’s podium, and the Shanghai Grand Th eater and a performance

CAL PERFORMANCES 21 About the Artists with , young violinists, led by Mr. Perlman Mr. Perlman has a long association with the and broadcast throughout China. Mr. Perlman’s Israel Philharmonic, and he has participated in third Emmy Award recognized his dedication to many groundbreaking tours with this orches- Klezmer music, as profi led in the  PBS tele- tra from his homeland. In November , he vision special In the Fiddler’s House, which was joined the IPO for history-making concerts in fi lmed in Poland and featured him performing Warsaw and Budapest, representing the fi rst with four of the world’s fi nest Klezmer bands. performances by this orchestra and soloist in Mr. Perlman has entertained and enlight- Eastern bloc countries. He again made history ened millions of TV viewers of all ages on as he joined the orchestra for its fi rst visit to the popular shows as diverse as Th e Late Show with Soviet Union in April and May , and was David Letterman, Sesame Street, the PBS series cheered by audiences in Moscow and Leningrad Th e Frugal Gourmet, Th e Tonight Show, the who thronged to hear his recital and orchestral Grammy Awards telecasts and numerous Live performances. Th is visit was captured on a PBS from Lincoln Center broadcasts, including Th e documentary entitled Perlman in Russia, which Juilliard School: Celebrating  Years in April won an Emmy. In December , Mr. Perlman , and PBS specials, including A Musical joined the Israel Philharmonic for their fi rst vis- Toast and Mozart by the Masters, in which he its to China and India. served both as host and featured performer. In Over the past decade, Mr. Perlman has be- July , Mr. Perlman hosted the US broadcast come more actively involved in educational ac- of the Th ree Tenors’ Encore! live from Dodger tivities. He has taught full time at the Perlman Stadium in Los Angeles. In March , a Music Program each summer since it was found- worldwide audience in the hundreds of mil- ed and currently holds the Dorothy Richard lions saw Mr. Perlman perform live on the th Starling Foundation Chair at Th e Juilliard Annual Academy Awards telecast, as he played School. a medley from the fi ve fi lm scores nominated Numerous publications and institutions in the category of Best Original Score. One have paid tribute to Itzhak Perlman for the of Mr. Perlman’s proudest achievements is his unique place he occupies in the artistic and hu- collaboration with fi lm score composer John manitarian fabric of our times. Harvard, Yale, Williams in Steven Spielberg’s Academy Award- Brandeis, Roosevelt, Yeshiva and Hebrew uni- winning fi lm Schindler’s List, in which he per- versities are among the institutions that have formed the violin solos. He can also be heard awarded him honorary degrees. He was awarded as the violin soloist on the soundtrack of Zhang an honorary doctorate and a centennial medal Yimou’s fi lm Hero (music by Tan Dun) and Rob on the occasion of Juilliard’s th commence- Marshall’s Memoirs of a Geisha (music by John ment ceremony in May . President Reagan Williams). honored Mr. Perlman with a Medal of Liberty Itzhak Perlman’s recordings regularly ap- in  and, in December , President pear on the best-seller charts and have gar- Clinton awarded Mr. Perlman the National nered  Grammy Awards. His most recent Medal of Arts. His presence on stage, on cam- releases include an all-Mozart recording with era and in personal appearances of all kinds the Berlin Philharmonic (EMI), both as solo- speaks eloquently on behalf of the disabled, and ist and conductor, and a recording for Deutsche his devotion to their cause is an integral part of Grammophon with Mr. Perlman conducting Mr. Perlman’s life. the Israel Philharmonic. In , EMI released Th e Perlman Edition, a limited-edition -CD box set featuring many of his fi nest EMI record- ings as well as newly compiled material.

22 CAL PERFORMANCES About the Artists

Pinchas Zukerman, including stops in Chicago, Boston, New York and Washington, DC. In the – season, Mr. De Silva appears in re- cital with Mr. Perlman across the United States. As of July , Rohan De Silva has been a fac- ulty member at the Perlman Music Program on Long Island. Mr. De Silva, a native of Sri Lanka, began his piano studies with his mother, the late Primrose De Silva, and with the late Mary Billimoria. He spent six years at the Royal Academy of Music in London as a student of Hamish Milne, Sydney Griller and Wilfred Parry. While in London, he received many awards, including the Grover Bennett Scholarship, the Christian Carpenter Prize, the Martin Music Scholarship, the Harold Craxton Award for advanced study in England and, upon his graduation, the Chappell Gold Medal for best overall performance at the Royal

© John Beebe Academy. Mr. De Silva was the fi rst recipient Rohan De Silva’s partnerships with violin of a special Scholarship in the arts from the virtuosos Itzhak Perlman, Cho-Liang Lin, Presidents Fund of Sri Lanka. Th is enabled him Midori, Vadim Repin, Joshua Bell, Gil Shaham, to enter Th e Juilliard School, where he received Kyoko Takezawa, Benny Kim, Nadja Salerno- both his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees, Sonnenberg and Julian Rachlin have led to studying piano with Martin Canin, chamber highly acclaimed performances at recital venues music with Felix Galimir, and working closely all over the world. With these and other artists, with violin pedagogue Dorothy DeLay. He was he has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln awarded a special prize as Best Accompanist Center’s Avery Fisher Hall and Alice Tully at the  Ninth International Tchaikovsky Hall, the Kennedy Center, Library of Congress, Competition in Moscow. He recently received Philadelphia Academy of Music, Ambassador the Samuel Sanders Collaborative Artist Award, Th eater in Los Angeles, the Concertgebouw in presented to him by Itzhak Perlman at the Amsterdam, Wigmore Hall in London, Suntory  Classical Recording Foundation Awards Hall in Tokyo, the Mozarteum in Salzburg and Ceremony at Carnegie Hall. La Scala in Milan and Tel-Aviv. His festival Mr. De Silva joined the collaborative arts appearances include the Aspen, Interlochen, and chamber music faculty of Th e Juilliard Manchester, Ravinia and Schleswig-Holstein School in , and in  was awarded honor- festivals, the Pacifi c Music Festival in Sapporo, ary Associate of the Royal Academy of Music. Japan, and the Wellington Arts Festival in New In , he joined the faculty at the Ishikawa Zealand. He performs frequently with Itzhak Music Academy in Japan, where he gives mas- Perlman, and was seen with Mr. Perlman on ter classes in collaborative piano. His radio and PBS’s Live from Lincoln Center broadcast in television credits include Th e Tonight Show with early January . Recently, Mr. De Silva Midori, CNN’s Showbiz Today, NHK Television toured Japan with Mr. Perlman, and in August in Japan, National Public Radio, WQXR and  they toured the Far East, including per- WNYC in New York and Berlin Radio. He has formances in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, CBS/Sony Last spring, he toured with Mr. Perlman and Classical, Collins Classics and RCA Victor.

CAL PERFORMANCES 23