MARCH 24 7:30 PM TUESDAY

MEMORIAL HALL BEASLEY-CURTISAUDITORIUM

APPROXIMATELY 100 MINUTES, INCLUDING INTERMISSION

PRESENTING SPONSOR THE WILLIAM R. KENAN JR. CHARITABLE TRUST

STUDENT TICKET ANGEL FUND BENEFACTORS BETSY BLACKWELL & JOHN WATSON

MITSUKO UCHIDA AND MAHLER CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

MITSUKO UCHIDA, PIANO AND DIRECTOR PROGRAM MEESUN HONG COLEMAN, MOZART CONCERTMASTER AND LEADER (1756–1791) No. 17 in G Major, K. 453 Allegro Andante Allegretto

JÖRG String Quartet No. 2 WIDMANN “Choralquartett” (b.1973) Sehr langsam, tastend suchend (arr. Jörg Widmann for Chamber Orchestra)

INTERMISSION

MOZART Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat Major, K. 482 Allegro Andante Allegro PHOTO OF MITSUKO UCHIDA BY JUSTIN PUMFREY; PHOTO OF MEESUN HONG COLEMAN BY GIORGIA BERTAZZI GIORGIA BY COLEMAN HONG MEESUN OF PHOTO PUMFREY; JUSTIN BY UCHIDA MITSUKO OF PHOTO MITSUKO UCHIDA has built up In 2001, she went to Berlin as PROGRAM NOTES a reputation as a superlative a Fulbright scholar to study performer of the works of with Thomas Brandis where Mozart, Schubert, Schumann, and she planned to stay for one MOZART Beethoven. Her devotion to Alban year. Almost two decades later, PIANO CONCERTO NO. 17 Berg and has she is still in Europe. Today, IN G MAJOR, K.453 illuminated the piano music of these she is a professor of violin and Practically every discussion two composers and their place chamber music at the Bruckner of Mozart’s seventeenth piano within the central repertoire. Universität Linz, concertmaster of the Kammerakademie Potsdam concerto begins with his Uchida has a long history of and the Haydn Philharmonie, and purchase of a European starling performing with the world’s most member of the Camerata Bern, on May 27, 1784. The bird would respected orchestras—Chicago where she regularly guest directs become a beloved pet of the Symphony, , and solos. composer, in part because it Royal Concertgebouw, Bayerischer could sing the opening five Rundfunk, London Symphony, MAHLER CHAMBER measures of the finale from this and London Philharmonic, and ORCHESTRA (MCO) piano concerto. Nobody knows recently celebrated her 100th was founded in 1997 based on for sure when or how the bird concert with the Cleveland the shared vision of being a free learned to sing the tune (though Orchestra. Since 2016, Uchida and international ensemble, it was probably trained by has been an Artistic Partner of the dedicated to creating and sharing Mozart himself), but its rendition Mahler Chamber Orchestra, with exceptional experiences in was nearly perfect, save for its whom she has embarked on classical music. With 45 members tendency to hold onto one note a five-year touring project taking spanning 20 different countries for too long and sing another in venues across Europe and at its core, the MCO is known for a bit sharp. Mozart wrote of North America. their incomparable chamber music its rendition, “Das war schön!” style of ensemble playing. The (“This was lovely!”) When the Uchida, a multiple Grammy award- MCO works closely with a network bird died in 1787, Mozart gave winner, was also awarded the Gold of Artistic Partners who inspire it an elaborate funeral in his Medal of the Royal Philharmonic and shape the orchestra in long- garden and wrote a poem to Society in 2012 and received term collaborations. With pianist commemorate the occasion. an Honorary Degree from the Leif Ove Andses, the orchestra is University of Cambridge in 2014. exploring two remarkable years The concerto itself was written She was made a Dame Commander in Mozart’s life through Mozart at the peak of Mozart’s fame. of the Order of the British Empire Momentum 1785/1786, a four-year That year, the twenty-eight- in 2009. performing and recording project. year-old composer wrote six With Pekka Kuusisto, the MCO is piano concerti and performed MEESUN HONG COLEMAN’S developing new concert formats in dozens of concerts around life and education started in involving multiple musical styles. , often featuring new Spartanburg, South Carolina. The MCO’s current partnership works. Unlike most of his One of three daughters of Korean with Mitsuko Uchida, centered keyboard output, though, Mozart immigrants, she studied at the on Mozart’s piano concertos, did not write this piece to Cincinnati Conservatory of Music includes multi-year residences at perform himself. Instead, it was Pre-college program before Salzburg’s Mozartwoche, London’s commissioned by his student completing her Bachelor’s in Southbank Centre, and New York’s Barbara Ployel, who gave the Music Composition at Princeton Carnegie Hall. premiere on June 13, 1784, with University, followed by a Masters an orchestra hired by her father. from the Juilliard School. Mozart would play other pieces

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on that concert, including a double JÖRG WIDMANN Widmann is obsessed with the way sonata with Ployel. STRING QUARTET NO. 2 Haydn illustrates the march toward, “CHORALQUARTETT” (ARRANGED and acceptance of, death. “My work This G-major concerto is one of his FOR CHAMBER ORCHESTRA) begins at the end of the path,” most sophisticated. On the surface, Widmann writes. “These are all final It has been said that the five string it has all the typical Mozartian tones, phrases from the past which quartets by German composer, hallmarks: billowing melodies, originate from nowhere and do conductor, and clarinetist Jörg an overabundance of themes, a not lead anywhere. The horrifying Widmann combine to form one seemingly endless forward drive, friction and abrasion of skin on giant meta-quartet. If that’s the and dramatic flair to spare. But wood forms a central theme and case, then this (the second) is his a deeper look reveals a work is associated through silence with abstracted gloss on the concept of a constantly pulling itself apart tonal choral elements.” slow movement. However, instead harmonically: Mozart glides of treating the concept of slowness through vaguely related key At the same time, Widmann’s as a tempo marking, a space for areas seemingly at will, using chamber orchestra arrangement majestically unspooling melodies, the resultant chromatic tension of the work pushes against that or an excuse to ruminate of some to power the work. In the first abrasive slowness. “Even more finer aspect of the human condition, movement, Mozart moves decisively extreme than the arrangement of Widmann uses slowness to explore to both E-flat and B-flat at crucial my fifth string quartet,” he writes, the materiality of space and time moments, and the development “the orchestral version of the and the ways in which sounds exist section brims with high-wire Choralquartett adds completely (or not) within them. In its original modulations. Then, in the second new voices to the previous string quartet form, the piece movement, it sometimes feels like structure. The double basses have uses an encyclopedia of extended he is showing off: he constantly an autonomous function, and the techniques—scratches, grinds, introduces strange dissonances three added wind instruments (flute, gleaming glass, hushed brushing, and cross-relations as a way of oboe, bassoon) create new sound notes that contort unexpectedly or moving further and further afield of mixtures and perspectives through dissolve into a shadowy gleam of the movement’s C-major starting their figurations and counterpoint color without hue, and on and on. point, allowing him to shift abruptly to the original material. Again These are intertwined with bursts of between contrasting moods. and again, the brass acts against pseudo-Baroque harmony, creating the strings, energetically pushing drama on the edge of silence. But At one point, we find ourselves in them towards a faster, more fluid over the course of the work, the the utterly preposterous key of tempo.” Even amid all this new valence of these sounds change, G-sharp major, which contains eight turmoil, Widmann’s vision of the with the tonal becoming disquieting sharps (noteworthy, considering metaphysical slowness at the edge and the dissonant almost peaceful. that a major scale only has seven of the void still prevails. pitches). In a burst of pure, brazen Part of that drama comes from audacity, Mozart somehow manages MOZART the piece’s (unspoken) source to modulate back to C major in four PIANO CONCERTO NO. 22 material, Haydn’s magnificentThe measures of largely unperturbed IN E-FLAT MAJOR K.482 Seven Last Words of Christ. Even harmonic motion. After all the though he never directly quotes Mozart was hard at work on The drama of the first two movements, Haydn, Widmann writes that his Marriage of Figaro in the winter of the finale’s cheerful theme and piece “would be inconceivable 1785 when he wrote his third piano variations sounds, appropriately without prior knowledge of concerto of the year. It had been enough, like a songbird aflutter. this composition.” In particular, a good year for the composer—he

44 TICKET SERVICES 919.843.3333 played at least twenty concerts trumpet here is also notable. E-flat built around a rollicking hunting as a soloist and had a short slate was about the most extreme key theme that takes a few equally of performances lined up for the in which the instrument could be operatic turns. But it is the middle following spring—but leaner times played at the time, though the sound movement (one of the only ones were approaching. That November, it made in that key was particularly he would write in a minor key) that he sent a letter to Franz Anton warm. Perhaps inspired by this, truly stands out. Starting with the Hoffmeister begging for a little Mozart made lavish use of the winds strings’ tragic, hushed melody at extra money to get him through. throughout this piece, including the beginning, through the soloist’s This would become an increasingly many delightful stretches where the equally foreboding first statement, frequent occurrence. melody lingers among the flutes, and the wonderfully bright response clarinets, and bassoons. from the winds, the movement Few of those brewing troubles pushes through a seemingly endless found their way into the glowing That warmth extends to just about range of emotional registers and music he wrote in this concerto. every aspect of the music. The first orchestral colors. At its second Completed on December 16, it movement’s thematic material performance in early 1786, the is one of his most richly scored is stately yet reserved, replete audience cheered so much after this works in the genre. It is the first with ornate gestures and filigrees movement that they demanded that to feature clarinets instead of the and exquisitely placed dramatic a surprised Mozart play it again. He more traditional oboe; Mozart is turns. The soloist flies around happily obliged. • said to have been so pleased with the keyboard, but in a way that the results that he rescored his next never seems overly ostentatious. Notes for this evening's program concerto to include them. His use of The finale has a similar mood, were written by Dan Ruccia.

MAHLER CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

FLUTE TRUMPET VIOLIN II CELLO Chiara Tonelli (Italy) Christopher Dicken Irina Simon-Renes Frank-Michael Guthmann (Great Britain) (Germany)* (Germany)* OBOE Andreas Weltzer (Germany) Stephanie Baubin Stefan Faludi (Germany) Mizuho Yoshii-Smith () Christophe Morin (France) () TIMPANI Michiel Commandeur Philipp von Steinaecker Julian Scott Martin Piechotta (Germany) (Netherlands) (Germany) (Great Britain) VIOLIN I Christian Heubes DOUBLE BASS CLARINET Meesun Hong Coleman (Germany) Christine Felsch Vicente Alberola (Spain) (USA)** Paulien Holthuis (Germany)* Mariafrancesca Latella Kirsty Hilton (Australia) (Netherlands) Jon Mikel Martínez (Italy) May Kunstovny (Austria) Naomi Peters Valgañón (Spain) Anna Matz (Germany) (Netherlands) BASSOON Piotr Zimnik (Poland) Hildegard Niebuhr Mette Tjaerby Korneliusen Higinio Arrue Fortea (Germany) (Denmark) (Spain) **Concertmaster Fjodor Selzer (Germany) Chiara Santi (Italy) VIOLA *Principal Timothy Summers (USA) Béatrice Muthelet Hayley Wolfe (USA) HORN (France)* José Miguel Asensi Yannick Dondelinger Martí (Spain) (Great Britain) Javier Molina Parra Tony Nys (Belgium) (Spain) Anna Puig Torne (Spain) Delphine Tissot (France)

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