Piano Duo in David Finckel and Wu Han
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130th Anniversary Photo: Jamie Jung January 1 - February 13, 2013 An die Musik The Schubert Club • Saint Paul, Minnesota • schubert.org schubert.org 1 schubert.org 3 4 THE SCHUBERT CLUB Andie Musik Advertising in The Schubert Club program magazines will get you noticed. get noticed. [email protected] www.artsandcustom.com 952.843.4603 An die Musik January 1 – February 13, 2013 The Schubert Club • Saint Paul, Minnesota • schubert.org Dear Friends, Welcome to The Schubert Club! What a thrill it is to present James Valenti in our International Artist Series, a tenor dear to the hearts and ears of many of us due to his long relationship with Minnesota Opera. We’re fortunate too to present the truly exciting duo of cellist Alisa Weilerstein and pianist Inon Barnatan in our fi rst Ordway Table of Contents recital of the New Year. Certainly the International Artist Series is our fl agship series 6 Alisa Weilerstein and Inon Barnatan with over 1200 loyal subscribers. It is however one of several concert series we present throughout the year. The Schubert 12 Artist from the past: Mstislav Rostropovich Club’s Music in the Park Series features another stellar cello and piano duo in David Finckel and Wu Han. The affection that 14 David Finckel and Wu Han audiences have for this husband and wife team was affi rmed last year when they were proclaimed Musical America’s Musicians of the Year. Accolades don’t come much higher 18 Accordo than that. The Schubert Club co-presents a variety of performances by 20 Calendar of Events some of our leading local ensembles, among them Accordo, Artaria String Quartet and the Hill House Chamber Players. 22 Hill House Chamber Players Check out the upcoming concerts listing on page 20 to make sure you don’t miss anything. And if you like to experience 24 James Valenti and Danielle Orlando music in less formal settings, please look out for some new “Live at the Museum” programs including “Cocktails with 26 The Schubert Club Museum: Letter from Beethoven Culture” happy hour events. The next program is in Landmark Center, 5:00-7:00 PM on January 10. It features gamelan music 28 Artaria String Quartet / Courtroom Concerts along with a woodturning demonstration—sponsored by our friends in the AAW Gallery of Wood Art—in and around our Museum on the 2nd fl oor. 31 The Schubert Club Officers, Board of Directors and Staff I wish you all a happy and peaceful New Year, and hope you will come back regularly to enjoy music presented by 32 The Schubert Club Annual Contributors: The Schubert Club. Thank you for your generosity and support Turning back unneeded tickets: If you will be unable to attend a performance, please notify Barry Kempton our box office as soon as possible. Donating unneeded tickets Artistic and Executive Director entitles you to a tax-deductible contribution for their face value. Turnbacks must be received one hour prior to the performance. Thank you! The Schubert Club Box Offi ce: 651.292.3268 or schubert.org/turnback schubert.org 5 The Schubert Club presents GoerneAlisa Weilerstein, Program cello • Inon Barnatan, piano Sonata No. 5 in D Major, Opus 102, No. 2 Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) Allegro con brio Adagio con molto sentimento d’affetto Page Allegro fugato Sonata in C Minor, Opus 6 Samuel Barber (1910–1981) Allegro ma non troppo Adagio—Presto—di nuovo Adagio Allegro appassionato Intermission Suite italienne Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) Introduzione Serenata Aria Tarantella Minuetto e Finale Sonata in G Minor, Opus 19 Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943) Lento—Allegro moderato Allegro scherzando Andante Allegro mosso Please turn off all electronic devices. This evening’s concert is dedicated in memory of Charlotte P. Ordway, by her children. 6 THE SCHUBERT CLUB An die Musik Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser Sanborn International Artist Series Tuesday, January 8, 2013 • 7:30 PM Ordway Center Inon Barnatan, piano Since moving to the United States from Israel in 2006, pianist Inon Barnatan has performed with many of the country’s most noted orchestras and conductors, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the symphony orchestras Photo: Jamie Jung of Dallas, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Houston, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. He has toured with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields as a conductor and soloist, and has Alisa Weilerstein, cello performed in New York at Carnegie Hall, the 92nd Street American cellist Alisa Weilerstein has appeared with Y and at Lincoln Center, and at San Francisco’s Herbst the major orchestras throughout the United States and Theater, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, and Boston’s Jordan Europe with conductors including Marin Alsop, Daniel Hall, among many other venues. In 2009, Mr. Barnatan was Barenboim, Sir Andrew Davis, Gustavo Dudamel, Christoph awarded the Avery Fisher Career Grant, an honor refl ecting Eschenbach, Paavo Järvi, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Osmo the strong impression he has made on the American music Vänskä, and David Zinman. She made her BBC Proms scene in such a short period of time. debut with the Minnesota Orchestra and Osmo Vänskä Born in Tel Aviv in 1979, Inon Barnatan started playing performing Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1. the piano at the age of three after his parents discovered In 2009, Ms. Weilerstein was one of four artists invited by he had perfect pitch, and he made his orchestral debut the First Lady, Michelle Obama, to participate in a widely- at eleven. in 1997 he moved to London to study at the applauded, high-profi le classical music event at the White Royal Academy of Music with Maria Curcio – who was a House. In September 2011, she was named a MacArthur student of the legendary Artur Schnabel. Leon Fleisher has Foundation Fellow, and in 2010, she became an exclusive also been an infl uential teacher and mentor, and in 2004, recording artist for Decca Classics, the fi rst cellist to be he invited Mr. Barnatan to study and perform Schubert signed by that label in over 30 years. sonatas as part of a Carnegie Hall workshop, an experience that has had a lasting resonance for Mr. Barnatan. In 2006 Ms. Weilerstein’s love for the cello began when she was Mr. Barnatan moved to New York City, where he currently just two-and-a-half after her grandmother assembled resides in a converted warehouse in Harlem. a makeshift set of instruments out of cereal boxes to entertain her when she was ill with chicken pox. Alisa, who was born in 1982, was instantly drawn to the Rice Krispies box cello but soon grew frustrated that it didn’t make a sound. After convincing her parents to buy her a real cello when she was four, she showed a natural affi nity for the instrument and performed her fi rst public concert six months later. Ms. Weilerstein is a graduate of the Young Artist Program at the Cleveland Institute of Music. In May 2004, she graduated from Columbia University in New York with a degree in Russian History. In November 2008, Ms. Weilerstein, who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when she was nine, became a Celebrity Advocate for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Borggreve Photo: Marco schubert.org 7 Program Notes lines, the rhythm halting, and there are few familiar accompaniment patterns. The coda forshadows the trend toward Romanticism, as cello and piano, hushed, play leap-frog over a trembling bass. “With a great feeling of affection,” a somber hymn— mezza voce: half-voice—alternates with an expressive dialogue between partners. Beethoven’s early biographer Schindler thought this “among the richest and most deeply sensitive inspirations of Beethoven’s muse.” More than that, it is the discovery of new life. As the movement fl ows on, it sweetens and moves more easily. A quiet third theme—sempre pp—tentatively proposes new keys. When the cello asks a question in the form of a rising scale, the door to the fi nale opens. That Allegro fugato is in fact a rigorous four-voice double Masked ball at the Imperial palace during the Congress of fugue: two principal themes, introduced separately, then Vienna, drawing by Joseph Schuetz combined. In his last decade, Maynard Solomon writes, “Beethoven reinstated the polyphonic principle as a rival Sonata No. 5 in D Major, Opus 102, No. 2 of—and perhaps as the completion of—the sonata Ludwig van Beethoven (b. Bonn, 1770; d. Vienna, 1827) principle.” Beethoven would incorporate fugues into many of his late works; think of the Hammerklavier Beethoven’s career peaked in 1814. The revision and Sonata, the Missa Solemnis and the Ninth Symphony. A revival of his opera, Fidelio, was welcomed in the context compositional solution, perhaps, but one that mystifi ed of the times as a rouser to victory over Napoleon. He audiences at the time. After the premiere of Opus 102, was fêted by dignitaries and even granted honorary Mannheim Kapellmeister Michael Frey wrote: “It is so citizenship of Vienna. But as the Congress of Vienna original that no one can understand it on fi rst hearing.” wrapped up in June 1815, the composer found himself But for today’s listener it’s much easier: just follow at something of a dead end with the “heroic style.” The the question. Heroic age had concluded, and aristocrats were ceding place to Biedermeiers. Program note © 2012 by David Evan Thomas Beethoven’s Opus 102 is a pair of sonatas “for Pianoforte and Violoncello or Violin” in C major and D major respectively. They were completed in August 1815, just before the song cycle, An die ferne Geliebte. Beethoven’s compositional output slowed dramatically at this time, as he searched for new ways of working with the sonata form.