Sunday, March 10, 2019, 3pm Hertz Hall Nicolas Hodges, Jennifer Koh, violin Anssi Karttunen, cello

PROGRAM

Esa-Pekka SALONEN (b. 1958) Lachen verlernt for solo violin

Betsy JOLAS (b. 1926) Femme le soir (Woman in the evening ) Eight lieder for cello and piano Lulling Songeries Shall we… Et toi, la bas…? Mots de sable Qui parle? Sing Maria! Bonjour

Kaija SAARIAHO (b. 1952) Light and Matter for violin, cello, and piano

INTERMISSION

JOLAS Toi x 3 (You x 3 ) for solo piano

SAARIAHO Tocar for violin and piano

Magnus LINDBERG (b. 1958) Piano Trio Ljud stort, ljud (Sound big, sound) Som den stilla vi söker (Like the tranquility we seek) Slå, våg, slå (Crash wave, crash)

Cal Performances’ 2018 –19 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo.

15a PROGRAM NOTES

Esa-Pekka Salonen music. Over the years I became interested in the Lachen verlernt for solo violin way this repertoire had notably influenced e title Lachen verlernt (Laughing Unlearnt ) instrumental music and began studying its is a quotation from the ninth movement of favorite form: the cycle. I have thus written, so Schönberg’s Pierrot Lunaire , “Gebet an Pierrot” far, several such sets, featuring various solo in - (“Prayer to Pierrot”). e narrator declares that struments with orchestra or piano. she has unlearned the skill of laughing and begs Following the tradition, my own cycles oen Pierrot, the “Horse-doctor to the soul,” to give it have a general title and I have recently started back to her. to indicate subtitles as well, for their power of I felt that this is a very moving metaphor of suggestion in the absence of a sung text. a performer: a serious clown trying to help the Composed in 2017 –18, Femme le soir was audience to connect with emotions they have premiered at the Reid Hall in Paris on the lost, or believe they have lost. December 3, 2018 by Anssi Karttunen and Lachen verlernt is essentially a chaconne, Nicolas Hodges, to whom the piece is dedicated. which in this case means that there is a har - — monic progression that repeats itself several times. e harmony remains the same through - out the whole piece; only the surface, the top Light and Matter for violin, cello, and piano layer of the music, changes. I have written many trios for different combi - Lachen verlernt starts with a lyrical, expres - nations, but have been hesitant to compose for sive melody (the same melody has an impor - a traditional piano trio, maybe because of its tant role in my orchestral work Insomnia , which long and weighty tradition. I was writing at the same time, during the sum - When I finally decided to approach this in - mer of 2002). Gradually the music becomes strumentation, my first musical ideas were faster and more frenzied until it develops an of light and rapid nature, and I started to imag - almost frantic character, as if the imaginary ine a one-movement perpetual-motion piece. narrator has reached a state of utter despair. During the composition, I developed the form A very short coda closes this mini-drama into three continuous sections, including more peacefully. varied tempi and textures. I wrote Lachen verlernt for Cho-Liang Lin, to e starting point for the music is light ki - whom it is also dedicated. Lachen verlernt was netic energy, which is then developed into more commissioned by the La Jolla Chamber Music dramatic gestures and rapid exchanges among Society’s SummerFest with the generous sup - the three instruments. port of Joan & Irwin Jacobs. e piece advances in spinning motion, —Esa-Pekka Salonen moving from the original luminous fabric into more thematic patterns or towards the inertia Betsy Jolas of slow choral textures, before returning into Femme le soir (Woman in the evening ) the original weightlessness and starting a new Eight lieder for cello and piano flickering spin. e great lied tradition entered my musical life As a result, we hear three musical elements— many years ago thanks to my mother, a native kinetic texture, thematic motives, and slowly of Louisville (KY), who had, among other gis, moving choral material—in constantly chang - a beautiful voice and was sent to Berlin to study ing combinations and orchestrations. singing in 1912. I wrote this piece in New York, while watch - I was myself still in my teens when I started ing from my window the changing light and accompanying her and thus discovered very colors of Morningside Park. Besides providing early the rich lied repertoire, which has since me with the name for the piece, perhaps that nurtured a good part of my thoughts on vocal continuous transformation of light on the glint -

15b PLAYBILL PROGRAM NOTES ing leaves and the immobile trunks of the solid towards the piano writing, culminating in an trees became the inspiration for the musical encounter in unison. Aer this short moment materials in this piece. of symbiosis, the violin line is released from the Light and Matter was commissioned by the measured piano motion, and continues its own Aeolian Chamber Players, Library of Con gress, life outside the laws of gravity. Britten Sinfonia, and Norrbotten NEO. e title, in Spanish, can be translated as “to —Kaija Saariaho touch, to play.” Tocar was commissioned by the Inter na tional Betsy Jolas Jean Sibelius Violin Competition. e work was Toi x 3 (You x 3 ) for solo piano premiered by the 20 semi-finalists in Helsinki is little tryptic, composed during the summer on November 26 –28, 2010. of 2018, may be regarded as the portrait of a —Kaija Saariaho mysterious character named Toi (“you”) pre - sented under three aspects and in three differ - Magnus Lindberg ent situations. I have called him a character Piano Trio rather than a theme because these are not vari - e titles of the movements of this trio are ations on a theme but, perhaps more richly, the taken from the futurist Finnish-Swedish poet evocation from three different angles of an en - Gunnar Björling. Magnus Lindberg has always semble of multiple yet related elements. avoided using titles that could be interpreted in Toi x 3 was written for and is dedicated to any literal way and prefers those that can be Nicolas Hodges, who gave its premiere per - seen to mean multiple things. is was proba - formance at the Reid Hall in Paris on the bly the reason he felt drawn to Björling, whose December 3, 2018. texts are known to be abstract and impossible to —Betsy Jolas explain. At the same time, the words of the titles of each movement can be seen to contain hints Kaija Saariaho to the musical textures. e first movement Tocar for violin and piano clearly deals with the idea of sound and how it One of my first ideas for Tocar , about the en - can grow. e second movement wants to be a counter of two instruments as different as the slow movement, but never quite succeeds. And violin and piano, was a question: How could the last movement can be analysed in many they touch each other? ways, but crashing waves are certainly some - Whilst composing music, I always imagine where among the possible interpretations. the instrumentalist’s fingers and their sensitiv - e Piano Trio started its life as a Clarinet ity. e violin sounds are created by the collab - Trio. Lindberg soon imagined that he could cre - oration between the le hand and the bow, ate a second version (like Brahms), with viola which is controlled by the right hand. On the replacing the clarinet, but he soon realized that, piano, the pianist should be extremely precise, in his case, the piece could only work with vio - in order to control the moment when the fin - lin. While working on the second version he gers touch the keys; aerwards the sounds can also saw that it couldn’t be a simple transcrip - be colored only by the pedals. In spite of such tion; he had to adapt both the cello and violin different mechanisms, both instruments also parts, making this, in fact, a separate piece. have some purely musical things in common— e first performance of the Piano Trio was noticeably, they share some of the same register. given by Magnus Lindberg on piano, Jennifer In Tocar both instruments move forward Koh on violin, and Anssi Karttunen on cello at independently, but they also keep an eye on the Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York on each other. I imagine a magnetism becoming May 10, 2011. stronger and stronger—the piano part becomes —Anssi Karttunen more mobile—which draws the violin texture

15c ABOUT THE ARTISTS d n o m h c i R c i r E

Nicolas Hodges (piano ) commands an active Symphony Orchestra. Hodges will also perform repertoire that encompasses such composers as in the Festival Présences. Beethoven, Berg, Brahms, Debussy, Schubert, In chamber music Hodges collaborates reg - and Stravinsky, all of whom reinforce his spe - ularly with the Arditti Quartet, Adrian Brendel, cial prowess in contemporary music. , Ilya Gringolts, Anssi Karttunen, Born in and now based in Germany, Michael Wendeberg, and Carolin Widmann, where he is a professor at the Musikhochschule and as a member of the . Stuttgart, Hodges approaches the works of Clas - sical, Romantic, 20th-century, and contempo - Recognized for intense, commanding perform - rary composers with the same questing spirit. ances, delivered with dazzling virtuosity and Cooperating closely with major—and very technical assurance, violinist Jennifer Koh different—contemporary composers including is dedicated to exploring a broad and eclectic and Helmut Lachenmann has repertoire, while promoting diversity and inclu- played a central role in Hodges’ work. Many sivity in classical music. She has expanded the of these composers have dedicated works to contemporary violin repertoire through a wide Hodges, including Thomas Adès, George Aper - range of commissioning projects, and has pre - ghis, Gerald Barry, , Elliott miered more than 70 works written specially for Car ter, , Fran cisco Coll, Hugues her. Her quest for the new and unusual, sense of Dufourt, Pascal Dusapin, Luca Francesconi, endless curiosity, and ability to lead and inspire Brice Pauset, Rolf Riehm, Sal vatore Sciarrino, a host of multidisciplinary collaborators, truly and Miroslav Srnka. set her apart. e 2018 –19 season will see Hodges perform During the 2018 –19 season, Koh continues recitals at Wigmore Hall in London, the Lu - critically acclaimed series from past seasons, in - cerne Festival, and Reid Hall in Paris with Anssi cluding the New American Concerto, Limitless, Karttunen. He will perform as a soloist with Bach and Beyond, Shared Madness, and Bridge the BBC Scottish Symphony Or chestra under to Beethoven. e New American Concerto the baton of omas Dausgaard, with the Basel is an ongoing, multi-season commissioning Sinfonietta, and with the Bayerische Rundfunk pro ject that explores the form of the violin con -

16a PLAYBILL ABOUT THE ARTISTS

monia (London) orchestras; and the Atlanta, BBC, Chicago, Houston, Montreal, National, NHK (Tokyo), Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Seattle, and Singapore symphony orchestras, among others. She has worked with such conductors as John Adams, Marin Alsop, James Conlon, Gustavo Dudamel, Christoph Eschenbach, Giancarlo Guerrero, Louis Langrée, Carlos Kalmar, Lorin Maazel, Sakari Oramo, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Juraj Valcuha, Osmo Vänskä, Alexander Veder- nikov, and Edo de Waart.

Anssi Karttunen is one of the most innovative cellists on today’s international music scene. In his repertoire, he takes a fresh look at the well-known masterpieces and brings forgotten works to the public ear, as well as making his g n u

J own original transcriptions. He plays on mod - i l e

m ern, classical, and Baroque cellos, as well as vi - r I oloncello piccolo and electric cello. Anssi Karttunen is a passionate advocate of certo and its potential for artistic engagement contemporary music. He has performed over with contemporary societal concerns and issues 170 world premieres, collaborating with such through commissions from a diverse collective composers as Magnus Lindberg, Kaija Saariaho, of composers. Koh also performs music Pascal Dusapin, Luca Francesconi, and Tan through Limitless, a commissioning project Dun. An astounding 29 concertos have been that engages leading composer-performers to written for him. Karttunen has worked with write duo compositions exploring the artistic renowned orchestras such as the Philadelphia relationship between composer and performer. Orchestra, the BBC Symphony, and the Munich Bach and Beyond is a recital series that traces Philharmonic. He also performs regularly as a the history of the solo violin repertoire from soloist and chamber musician at Europe’s most Bach’s Six Sonatas and Partitas to 20th- and important music festivals, including Edinburgh, 21st-century composers, at the Music Institute Salzburg, and Helsinki. His Zebra Trio, with vi - of Chicago; and Shared Madness comprises olinist Ernst Kovacic and violist Steven Dann, short works for solo violin exploring virtuosity performs concerts on both sides of the Atlantic. in the 21st century, written for the project by Karttunen also enjoys close collaborations with more than 30 of today’s most celebrated com - pianist Nicolas Hodges, choreographer Diana posers, as part of the Music on Main Festival in eo charidis, and the producer, composer, and Vancouver. Koh and her frequent recital part - multi-instrumentalist John Paul Jones. ner also continue Bridge to Bee- Karttunen’s recordings traverse a broad mu - thoven, which pairs Beethoven’s violin sonatas sical spectrum, including Beethoven’s complete with new and recent works inspired by them to works for cello and piano on period instru - explore the composer’s significance and impact ments and 20th-century solo pieces. on a diverse group of musicians, with perform - Born in 1960, Anssi Karttunen studied with ances in Baltimore and Aspen, among others. Erkki Rautio, William Pleeth, Jacqueline du Pré, Koh has been heard with leading orchestras and Tibor de Machula, among others. In the au - around the world including the Los Angeles tumn of 2014, he started teaching at the École and New York philharmonics; the Cleveland, Normale de Musique in Paris. He plays on a Mariinsky eatre, Philadelphia, and Philhar - Francesco Ruggeri cello.

16b