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BOSTON SYMPHONY

Seiji Ozawa, Music Director Bernard Haitink, Principal Guest Conductor One Hundred and Eighteenth Season, 1998-99

PRELUDE CONCERT I Tuesday, October 27, at 6

CHAMBER MUSIC TEA I Friday, October 30, at 2:30

SCOTT ANDREWS, CATHERINE FRENCH, violin KAZUKO MATSUSAKA, viola JOEL MOERSCHEL, cello NINA FERRIGNO, piano

MOZART Trio in E-flat for piano, clarinet, and viola, K.498, Kegelstatt Andante Menuetto; Trio Rondeaux: Allegretto

* * BRESNICK „. for clarinet, violin, and piano

HINDEMITH Quartet for clarinet, violin, cello, an( With moderate movement Very slow With moderate movement—Lively Moving calmly—Very lively

Baldwin piano Weeks 5/6

Wolfgang Amade Mozart Trio in E-flat for clarinet, viola, and piano, K.498, Kegelstatt

Clarinet: the very name of the instrument tells us that its earliest proponents consid- ered it a "little clarino," a substitute in some sense for the brilliant high trumpets (clarini) of the Baroque era; and for most of its early history (extending through vir- tually the entire eighteenth century), players tended to specialize in either the high or low end of the instrument, known as the clarinet and registers respec- tively. No modern instrument owes more to the imagination of a single composer than the clarinet does to Mozart, who wrote for his friend, clarinetist , —

music that exploits both registers of the instrument and at the same time gives it a real personality. From the time he composed Idomeneo in 1780, became an essential and memorable part of his opera orchestra, and they contribute to the spe- cial color of Symphony No. 39. But most of all Mozart wrote three works in which the clarinet is especially featured: the trio in E-flat, K.498, in 1786, the Clarinet Quin- tet, K.581, in 1789, and the Clarinet , K.622, not quite two months before his death in 1791. Mozart entered the opening bars of the E-flat trio into his personal cat- alogue of compositions on August 5, 1786, as the last of three chamber works with piano to be composed that summer following the first production of he nozze di Figaro. The music is small-scaled and intimate, obviously intended for the personal pleasure of the intended performers (including himself on viola), but it is also a remarkably unified score, with basic motives recurring in different movements. There is an old tradition that Mozart composed this trio while playing skittles (a form of bowling), hence the nickname "Kegelstatt" ("skittles-lane" or "bowling alley") by which it is known in German. But there is little evidence to support the tale. The nickname should really be applied to the charming horn duets, K.487, which Mozart had composed about a week earlier: there he actually wrote on the manuscript "untern Kegelscheiben" ("while playing skittles"). When Artaria published the trio in 1788, he was clearly worried that there weren't enough clarinetists around to make it a commercial success, because he listed the scoring on the title page as for piano, violin, and viola, then added the note: "The violin part may also be played by a clarinet"! But the melodic character and the soft accompaniment figures in the low register—for which Stadler was famous—call for the clarinet at every point. And it is, in any case, highly unlikely that clarinetists would ever willingly give up this work.

Martin Bresnick

* * * for clarinet, viola, and piano

Born in New York City in 1946, Martin Bresnick was educated at the High School of Music and Art, the University of Hartford, Stanford University, and the Akademie fur Musik in Vienna. His principal composition teachers included Gyorgy Ligeti, John Chowning, and Gottfried von Einem. Currently Professor of Composition and Coordinator of the Composition Department at the Yale School of Music, he has also taught at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Stanford College and served as the Valentine Professor of Music at Amherst College and the Mary Duke Biddle Professor of Music at Duke University. His compositions cover a wide range of instrumentation, from chamber music to symphonic compositions and computer music. The recipient of numerous prizes, he has received commissions from the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Orchestra New England, the National Endow- ment for the Arts, the Koussevitzky Foundation, the Lincoln Center Chamber Players, the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, and Meet-the-Composer, among other organizations. He has also written music for films, two of which Arthur & Lillie (1975) and The Day After Trinity (1981)—were nominated for Academy Awards * * in the documentary category. * was premiered by musicians of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center—clarinetist , violist Paul Neubauer, and pianist Jon Klibbonoff—on March 3, 1997, at Merkin Hall in New York City. The composer has provided the following program note:

In the recent past when a composer wished to suggest a program or narrative for a composition but not reveal the contents of that program in the title, the .

symbol of three stars might be used instead. Perhaps the most famous example of that practice is found in Robert Schumann's Album for the Young. In his collec- tion of colorful, often frankly programmatic pieces (Traumerei, The Happy Farmer, Sailor Song, etc.) Schumann gives three works the enigmatic three stars in lieu of conventional titles. Most scholars believe those works were written for his wife Clara. Robert, always fond of the world of the hermetic, reckoned that Clara alone could easily divine their meanings. The world would (or would not) sim- ply have to guess. Janacek too, when trying to find an acceptable title for his second string quar-

tet (he first wanted to call it "Love Letters") threatened to give his work the three

stars title, but finally settled on "Intimate Pages" The last three of his compositions for the piano set On an Overgrown Path, however, utilize the three stars—thereby hiding their suggestive program behind the stars' orthographic veil.

And so it is with me. .

Paul Hindemith Quartet for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano

Paul Hindemith's way of relaxing, it seems, was to compose. In 1938, while return- ing to Europe from a concert tour of the United States, Hindemith passed his time on shipboard beginning a new chamber work for clarinet and piano trio. He com- pleted the work in Berlin shortly after his arrival there, and it was premiered the following spring in New York's Town Hall, where it was played by several per- formers from Boston as part of an all-Hindemith program on which the composer, quite naturally, wished to emphasize his most recent compositions. Hindemith was not only an experienced chamber music performer (he was a dis- tinguished violist and played professionally in a as a young man), he was also an immensely practical musician who learned how to play every instrument in the orchestra before composing a sonata, or some other substantial piece, for it. It is not surprising, then, to find each instrument's part written so as to give delight to its player. Sometimes this comes in the cheerful interaction of imitative counterpoints, building tension over an extended arc of intensifying textures, sometimes in the blocks of material for a group of instruments against a soloist traveling a different path. Everyone in the ensemble has plenty of opportunity to interact, but it is above all the clarinet that characterizes this work, and Hindemith revels in such clarinettish passages as the floating melody that opens the slow movement, or the rangy melody with which the clarinet leads off the following movement (though it is, to be sure, picked up soon after by the violin). This quartet is designed as a civilized conversa- tion, not a show-stopping display of virtuosity, but that doesn't prevent Hindemith from creating a vigorous close that offers the pianist a virtual perpetuo moto.

— Notes by Steven Ledbetter and Marc Mandel (Bresnick)

Scott Andrews was appointed second clarinetist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra dur- ing the 1995-96 season. He has also performed with such Boston-area musical organiza- tions as the Cantata Singers & Ensemble, the New England and Gardner Chamber , and the AUROS Group for New Music. He performs frequently in the BSO's Prelude Concert series at Symphony Hall and at Tanglewood and has appeared with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players and on the First Monday concert series in Jordan Hall. Originally from Virginia, Mr. Andrews first played piano and then violin before tak-

ing up the clarinet, studying with F. Edward Knakal of Virginia Beach; later he graduated with distinction from the New England Conservatory of Music, where he studied with for- mer BSO principal clarinetist Harold Wright. He was the Fellowship Artist-in-Residence at the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival in 1992 and was twice awarded fellowships to the Tanglewood Music Center. Mr. Andrews has given recitals and chamber music concerts throughout the United States; he currently teaches at the Tanglewood Music Center.

Violinist Catherine French is a native of Victoria, British Columbia, where she began Suzuki studies on the violin at age four. Ms. French has performed frequently as a recitalist in the United States and Canada. Local chamber music appearances have included concerts with the Boston Artists Ensemble and Prelude Concerts at Symphony Hall. The recipient of numerous study grants, she won the grand prize at the National Competitive Festival of Music in 1986 and was the overall winner of the Canadian Music Competition in 1988. In 1990 she won the concerto competition at Indiana Uni- versity, where she was a pupil of Miriam Fried. Following her graduation from Indiana University she earned a professional studies diploma at Marines College of Music as a student of Felix Galimir. In May 1994 she received her master of music degree from the Juilliard School following studies with Joel Smirnoff. Ms. French joined the Boston Sym- phony Orchestra's violin section in September 1994.

Violist Kazuko Matsusaka joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra in August 1991. From 1987 to 1990 she was a member of the Pittsburgh Opera Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre Orchestra, and the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, and a substitute member with the Pittsburgh Symphony. Ms. Matsusaka studied violin with Josef Gin- gold at the Indiana University School of Music. A Tanglewood Music Center Fellow in 1985, she holds a bachelor of music degree from Hartt College of Music/University of Hartford, where she studied violin with Charles Treger, and a master of music degree from the State University of New York, where she studied viola with John Graham. A prizewinner in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, Ms. Matsusaka has taught at the University of Pittsburgh and at the Westmoreland Suzuki School of Music.

Born in Oak Park, Illinois, Joel Moerschel received his early musical training from Chicago Symphony cellist Nicolai Zedeler and from Karl Fruh, professor of music at the Chicago Musical College. He received his bachelor of music degree with distinction from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Ronald Leonard; he joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1970, following graduation. Besides his BSO com- mitments, Mr. Moerschel has performed as soloist, chamber musician, and contempo- rary music cellist with the Wheaton Trio, the Francesco and Amici string quartets, Boston Musica Viva, and Collage New Music. He is on the faculty at Wellesley College and at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute.

Pianist Nina Ferrigno currently performs with the AUROS Group for New Music in Boston. She has performed at Carnegie Hall and at Jordan Hall at the New England Conservatory. Ms. Ferrigno has been a featured artist in faculty recitals at Brandeis Uni- versity, the Boston Conservatory, and Boston University. She has been heard at the Gardner Museum as part of its Young Artists Showcase Series and has performed "live" on the WGBH-FM programs "Classical Morning" and "Boston Performances." Recent appearances include a Tanglewood Prelude Concert with members of the Boston Sym- phony Orchestra and a recital at the All Newton Music School with flutist Elizabeth Ostling. She performs regularly at the James Library and with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. A faculty member at the Winchester Community Music School, Ms. Ferrigno received degrees with distinction from New England Conservatory of Music, where her principal teachers were Wha Kyung Byun and Randall Hodgkinson.