BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

James Levine, Music Director Bernard Haitink, Conductor Emeritus

Seiji Ozawa, Music Director Laureate 126th Season, 2006-2007

CHAMBER PRELUDE II Saturday, March 10, at 6 COMMUNITY CONCERT V Sunday, March 11, at 3, at Peabody City Hall, Peabody, MA This free concert is generously supported by the State Street Foundation.

XIN DING, violin (1st violin in Bridge) CATHERINE FRENCH, violin (1st violin in Tchaikovsky) KAZUKO MATSUSAKA, viola (1st viola in Bridge) EDWARD GAZOULEAS (1st viola in Tchaikovsky) MIHAIL JOJATU (1st cello in Bridge) OWEN YOUNG (1st cello in Tchaikovsky)

BRIDGE String Sextet in E-flat, for two violins, two violas, and two cellos Allegro moderato Andante con moto Allegro ben moderato

TCHAIKOVSKY Souvenir de Florence, Opus 70, for string sextet

Allegro con spirito Adagio cantabile e con moto Allegretto moderato Allegro vivace

Week 20

Frank Bridge (1879-1941) Sextet in E-flat, for two violins, two violas, and two cellos

In the United States, if not in his home country of England, Frank Bridge (1879- 1941) is perhaps best known as Benjamin Britten's most important teacher, and the author of a tune that Britten borrowed for his Variations on a Theme by Frank Bridge. Bridge was part of the boundary generation of English composers that also included Vaughan Williams and Hoist, a generation that revitalized classical music in Britain at the start of the twentieth century Bridge had studied composition at the Royal College of Music, most importantly with Charles Villiers Stanford. He was an excellent all-around musician. He trained as a violinist, and performed as violist with both the Joachim String Quartet and the English String Quartet; in addition, his conducting abilities were greatly admired. Although he also wrote for larger forces, his most important pieces are probably to be found in the chamber music genres. He wrote many works for string quartet (four numbered, and several by other titles), several piano trios, and other substantial works. Many of these, and many of his songs, draw on a kind of English Impression- ist or pastoral tradition. His later works are considered to be of a more personal and questing style, with increasing chromaticism and formal breadth. His Piano Sonata seems to have marked a new direction, revealing his awareness of contemporary tendencies in the music of Berg and other progressive composers. Bridge worked on the String Sextet over the course of several years between 1906 and 1912. Any composer writing a string sextet will likely first think of Brahms, whose two sextets are the zenith of the genre. The lush textures of Bridge's piece hint at more than a passing familiarity with those precedents. The piece is in three movements, fast-slow-fast. The first begins with a soaring 3/4 melody in the first violin doubled by first viola, with rich counterpoint in the rest of the ensemble. This is interrupted by a strongly accented passage—brief but just enough to establish a contrast balancing the predominant lyricism of the main material. The narrative of the movement is complex, passing through several subsidiary episodes, related but of varying character—a falling, quiet, sequenced melody; a short, staccato figure introduced by the second cello; a dotted-note figure, perhaps growing out of the latter, again introduced by the second cello, with a reminder of our opening theme in the other cello (this last in a strange, minor-tinged D major, or vice versa—unusual for a movement in E-flat). A much slower, "largamente" pronouncement of the theme concludes the movement. In the second movement, an Andante con moto in 6/8 time (C-sharp minor), the sighing dotted-note figure taken by the higher strings is heard virtually throughout the first part of the movement in combination with other figures in beautifully changing patterns. A scherzo-like Allegro giusto in A minor intervenes at twice the speed (and in a new meter, 12/16 written as 2/4). The return to the original Andante tempo begins in E major, now with a much more forward melodic element; the close is ppp and back in C-sharp minor. The finale is strongly related to the opening movement in much of its musical material. The opening thirty-one bars (note the asymmetry of the number) are a precursor to the main part of the movement, and return toward the end. The falling chromatic accompaniment, pianissimo, lends a mysterious quality. In the quick main body of the movement, marked "animato" we hear frequent references to material from the earlier movements. The Sextet was premiered on June 19, 1913, in what was to become Wigmore Hall in London. Bridge's own quartet, the English String Quartet, in which he played viola, was joined by violist Ernest Tomlinson and cellist Felix Salmond. —Robert Kirzinger

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) Souvenir de Florence, Opus 70, for string sextet

The first time Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky visited Florence with his brother Anatoly in the fall of 1877 he found it depressing. Nonetheless, something drew him back again and again, and he did some of his best work there—the Fourth Symphony, Eugene Onegin, the Suite No. 1 for Orchestra, part of The Maid of Orleans, and, much later, The Queen of Spades. He owed the city what he thought of as "the happiest months of my life." It was an escape from Moscow and at the same time it always made him nostalgic for home, marveling that as he basked in Tuscan sunshine it was winter in Moscow, with "Muscovites, men and women, walking by. . . wrapped "

. in furs, the quiet undisturbed by the noise of carriages, sleighs sliding silently by. . And once at least, to get to something more like home without actually returning, he left Florence for the colder March of Switzerland. In January 1890, Tchaikovsky, soon to be fifty, journeyed to Florence for what turned out to be the last time. On the last day of the month he began the score of The Queen of Spades, and he had made immense progress by the time he left at the end of March. As relaxation he returned to chamber music. The sketch of what was to be called Souvenir de Florence was completed in July and the full score in August:

"I wrote it with the utmost pleasure and enthusiasm, and with no effort whatsoever," he reported to Mme. von Meek (actually while work was still in progress). He arranged for a private hearing in November during the rehearsals for The Queen of * Spades, and on the basis of that he resolved to rework the third and fourth move- ments. He was also busy with his opera Yolanta, with The Nutcracker, and the sym- phonic ballad The Voyevode, with the result that work on Souvenir de Florence was not finished until January 1892. The first public performance was given at a concert of the St. Petersburg Chamber Music Society on December 6, 1892, the players being Leopold Auer, Emmanuel Kriiger, Franz Hildebrandt, Sergei Korguyev, Alexander Verzhbilovich, and Alexander Kuznetsov. Three string quartets, the A minor piano trio, and Souvenir de Florence comprise

Tchaikovsky's major works for chamber ensemble. The Florentine sextet is the last and the finest, rich in expansive and often subtly harmonized melody, gorgeously scored, and aglow with vitality and love. —Michael Steinberg

A former faculty member of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, violinist Xin Ding was concertmaster of both the China Youth Symphony Orchestra and the China Chamber Orchestra. After receiving her bachelor of arts degree from the Central Con- servatory of Music in 1995, she won the Gold Prize of the National String Quartet Com- petition in China. She has appeared as soloist and in chamber music throughout China, England, France, and Japan. Since 1997, her performances in New England have included appearances with the New Hampshire Symphony, the Boston Philharmonic, and other ensembles. Xin Ding joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra in January 1999.

A native of Victoria, British Columbia, violinist Catherine French has performed fre- quently as a recitalist in the United States and Canada. Recent chamber music appear- ances have included concerts with the Boston Artists Ensemble and Prelude Concerts at Symphony Hall and Tanglewood. The recipient of numerous Canadian study grants, she won the grand prize at the National Competitive Festival of Music in 1986, was overall winner of the Canadian Music Competition in 1988, and won first prize in the CBC Young Artists Competition in 1989. In 1990 she won the concerto competition at Indiana University, where she was a pupil of Miriam Fried. Following 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 BSO'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, Pittsburgh Bal- let Theater, and Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble. Ms. Matsusaka studied violin with Josef Gingold at the Indiana University School of Music. A Tanglewood Music Center fellow in 1985, she holds a bachelor's degree from Hartt College of Music /University of Hartford, where she studied violin with Charles Terger, and a master's degree from the State University of New York, where she studied viola with John Graham. In 1988 she was awarded a special jury prize at the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition. Ms. Matsusaka has been a soloist with the Central Massachusetts Symphony, the New- ton Symphony Orchestra, and the Boston Pops Orchestra. A prizewinner in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, she has also participated in the Norfolk Music Festival and the Yellow Barn Music Festival.

Violist Edward Gazouleas joined the Boston Symphony at the beginning of the 1990-91 season. After viola studies with Raphael Hillyer and Steven Ansell at Yale University, he received his bachelor's degree in 1984 from the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied viola with Michael Tree and Karen Tuttle. Before joining the BSO he was a member of the Pittsburgh Symphony viola section from 1985 to 1990, performing prior to that with the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia, the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of New England, and as first-desk player with the New York String Orchestra under Alexander Schneider. An avid chamber musician, Mr. Gazouleas was winner of the Eighth International String Quartet Competition in Evian, France, as a member of the Nisaika Quartet in 1984 and made his Carnegie Hall recital debut as a member of the Cezanne Quartet in 1982. He also performed at the Norfolk Festival and the Pensacola Chamber Music Festival. He has taught viola as an instructor at Temple University and privately at Swarthmore College. He has performed locally with the Boston Artists Ensemble and Collage New Music.

Romanian-born cellist Mihail Jojatu joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 2001 and became fourth chair of the orchestra's cello section at the start of the 2003-04 season. Mr. Jojatu studied at the Bucharest Academy of Music before coming to the United States in 1996. He then attended the Boston Conservatory of Music, where he studied with former BSO cellist Ronald Feldman, and worked privately with Bernard Greenhouse of the Beaux Arts Trio. Through Boston University, he also studied with BSO principal cellist Jules Eskin. Mr. Jojatu has collaborated with such prestigious artists as Gil Shaham, Sarah Chang, Peter Serkin, Glenn Dicterow, members of the Juilliard and Muir string quartets, and Seiji Ozawa, who asked him to substitute for Mstislav Rostropovich in rehearsing the Dvorak Cello Concerto with the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra. A winner of the concerto competition at Boston University School for the Arts (subsequently appearing as soloist with Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops Orchestra), he also won first prize in the Aria Concerto Competition at the Boston Conservatory and was awarded the Carl Zeise Memorial Prize in his second year as a Tanglewood Music Center Fellow. He has per- formed as guest soloist with the Radio Symphony Orchestra of Bucharest and has won numerous awards in Romania for solo and chamber music performance. Mihail Jojatu is also a member of the Triptych String Trio, which recently released its first compact disc.

Cellist Owen Young joined the BSO in August 1991. A frequent collaborator in chamber music concerts and festivals, he has also appeared as concerto soloist with numerous orchestras. Mr. Young has performed frequently with singer /songwriter James Taylor, including the nationally televised recorded concert "James Taylor Live at the Beacon

Theatre" in New York City. He is on the faculties of the Boston Conservatory, the New England Conservatory Extension Division, and the Longy School of Music, and is active in Project STEP (String Training and Education Program for students of color) and the BSO's Boston Music Education Collaborative. From 1991 to 1996 he was a Harvard- appointed resident tutor and director of concerts in Dunster House at Harvard University. A cum laude graduate of Yale University with both bachelor's and master's degrees from Yale, Mr. Young was a Tanglewood Music Center Fellow in 1986 and 1987. After winning an Orchestra Fellowship in 1987, he played with the Atlanta Symphony in 1988 and with the Boston Symphony in 1988-89. He was a member of the New Haven Symphony in 1986-87 and of the Pittsburgh Symphony from 1989 until he joined the BSO in 1991.