concert program viii: Delighted: music for the fun of it

Paul Schoenfield (b. 1947) August 10 and 11 Trio for Clarinet, Violin, and (1990) Freylakh Friday, August 10, 8:00 p.m., Stent Family Hall, Menlo School March Nigun ams Saturday, August 11, 6:00 p.m., The Center for Performing Koztzke Arts at Menlo-Atherton Jose Franch-Ballester, clarinet; Arnaud Sussmann, violin; Gloria Chien, piano

Program Overview (1809–1847) Music is universally able to delight and bring joy. The final Allegro brillant in A Major for Piano, Four Hands, op. 92 (1841) Concert Program of Music@Menlo’s tenth-anniversary sea- Inon Barnatan, Wu Han, piano son explores music that conjures these feelings of festivity. Paul Schoenfield’s desire to compose a work that would be Moritz Moszkowski (1854–1925) appropriate for celebratory Hassidic gatherings as well as the Suite for Two Violins and Piano, op. 71 (1909) concert hall was the impetus for his rollicking Clarinet Trio. Allegro energico Allegro moderato Mendelssohn’s exuberant Allegro brillant and Moszkowski’s Lento assai spirited Suite for Two Violins and Piano demonstrate the cel- Molto vivace ebratory emotions that music has the power to convey. The Sean Lee, Kristin Lee, violins; Wu Han, piano season fittingly concludes with Chausson’s rousing, colorful,

concert Progr concert Intermission and evocative Concerto for Violin, Piano, and String Quartet. Ernest Chausson (1855–1899) Fête the Festival: Concerto in D Major for Violin, Piano, and String Quartet, op. 21 (1889–1891) Decidé – Calme – Animé Tenth-Anniversary Celebration Dinner Sicilienne Saturday, August 11, 8:30 p.m., Menlo Park’s Arrillaga Grave Recreation Center Très animé Ani Kavafian, solo violin; Inon Barnatan, piano; Sean Lee, Kristin Lee, violins; Arnaud Sussmann, Tickets are $50, and space is limited. Please see the patron ser- viola; Dmitri Atapine, cello vices team for availability.

SPECIAL THANKS Music@Menlo dedicates these performances to the following individuals and organizations with gratitude for their generous support: August 10: The David B. and Edward C. Goodstein Foundation August 11: Marcia and Hap Wagner and also to the Fleishhacker Foundation

36 Music@Menlo 2012 Program Notes: Delighted

Paul Schoenfield father over their courtship and subsequent marriage, were engaged by (Born January 24, 1947, Detroit) Mendelssohn to appear at a special fundraiser for the pension fund of Trio for Clarinet, Violin, and Piano the Gewandhaus Orchestra. The event served a dual purpose as both a fundraiser and a public show of support for Robert and Clara Schumann. Composed: 1990 In addition to a performance of ’s First Symphony, the Other works from this period: Café Music (1986); Tales from Chelm (1991) concert included Mendelssohn’s newly composed Allegro brillant in A Approximate duration: 20 minutes Major, which he performed with Clara Schumann. The Allegro brillant begins with a rush of scales before launching Born in Detroit in 1947, Paul Schoenfield began studying piano at the age into a light and virtuosic scherzo, evoking the spirit of Mendelssohn’s of six and wrote his first compositions one year later. Early in his career, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The second theme features a lyrical, Schoenfield enjoyed considerable success as a concert but he even- song-like melody. It is followed by a return of the exuberant opening tually turned his full attention to composition. A man of diverse influences, material. After a moment of quiet reflection, the work concludes with a he draws upon his life experiences for his work, from living on a kibbutz in fleeting coda, full of exuberance and celebration. Israel to moonlighting as a lounge pianist at a steakhouse in Minneapo- —Isaac Thompson lis. When he received the Cleveland Arts Prize in 1994, Paul Schoenfield’s music was aptly described by the author Dennis Dooley as follows: Moritz Moszkowski Echoes of Mozart, Brahms, Bartók, and Shostakovich and a (Born August 23, 1854, Breslau [now Wrocław]; died March 4, 1925, host of other ingredients impart an infectious zest, and dis- ) tinctive flavor, to Paul Schoenfield’s music. He moves with Suite for Two Violins and Piano, op. 71 what has been called “wizardly ease” from jazz to popular styles, from vaudeville to klezmer (an Eastern European Jew- Composed: 1909 ish music that features a quirky clarinet), to folk music and Dedication: Isabelle Levallois dances from different cultures. Other works from this period: Zwei Concertstücke for Violin and Piano

(1909); Drei Stücke for Cello and Piano (1909) ams In 1986, clarinetist David Shifrin approached Paul Schoenfield Approximate duration: 20 minutes about writing a trio for clarinet, violin, and piano. Inundated with various other projects at that time, Schoenfield was not able to begin sketching Moritz Moszkowski was a German pianist, conductor, and composer of Pol- out the trio until 1990. Fascinated for much of his career with the music ish descent. He lived from 1854 to 1925 and, though not a household name of Hassidic gatherings and festivals, he tackled the challenge of meld- today, was celebrated in his time as one of Europe’s great virtuosos and, ing artistic and entertainment aesthetics. The first movement, Freylakh, later, piano pedagogues. He was also a sufficiently able violinist to occasion- evokes a traditional Eastern European dance that is often heard at Has- ally sit first violin with the academy orchestra. A nervous disorder Moszkowski sidic courts during festive holidays. The movement’s frenetic energy suffered from while he was in his early thirties prematurely ended his days as features virtuosic writing for each of the instruments. Schoenfield a touring musician, after which point he focused more intently on composi- described the March as “bizarre and somewhat diabolical.” The move- tion. He was also active as a conductor and scored some early compositional ment begins with a short piano introduction before launching into the success with his orchestral scores, but his reputation as a composer was built main tune, a duet with the clarinet in a high register with the violin sup- almost entirely on the strength of his solo piano and chamber music. The lan- porting in the instrument’s lowest register. The third movement, Nigun, guage of these pieces is marked by brilliant virtuosity and, usually, a lightness is an introspective meditation, evoking the deeply mystical and spiritual Progr concert of character that qualify them as salon music. The irresistible charm of much aspects of the Hassidic tradition. The exuberance of the first movement of this music made it widely popular among the day’s flourishing amateur returns in the Koztzke, a Russian Jewish wedding dance, seamlessly music-making community. incorporating elements of jazz and traditional folk music. The Opus 71 Suite for Two Violins and Piano is a case in point: the lack of gravitas in this and Moszkowski’s other scores has, in all likelihood, been a major cause of the scant amount of attention paid to his music. But Felix Mendelssohn in its glorification of the two instruments with which Moszkowski was most (Born February 3, 1809, ; died November 4, 1847, Leipzig) intimately familiar, the violin and piano, the Opus 71 Suite reveals him to be Allegro brillant in A Major, op. 92 a composer of great imagination. Composed: 1841 The suite comprises four movements. The opening Allegro energico begins with a hot-blooded descending theme in the violins. One impressive Published: 1851 trait of the suite is made evident right away: despite the absence of a viola or Other works from this period: Symphony no. 2 (1840); Variations séri- cello, Moszkowski’s treatment of the violins and piano is such that the music euses, op. 54 (1841); Symphony no. 3, Scottish (1842) never feels texturally thin. The piano offers quick, staccato chords, which the Approximate duration: 9 minutes violins answer with fragments of the opening theme. The second theme is more lyrical but no less impassioned than the first. As Music Director of Leipzig’s famed Gewandhaus, Felix Mendelssohn The second movement is built on deeply affecting melodies, betraying regularly came in contact with the greatest musicians and composers Moszkowski’s penchant for the music of Schumann and Mendelssohn. The of the day, including the composer Robert Schumann and his young nostalgic air of the slow movement likewise bespeaks the deep Romantic wife, the piano virtuoso Clara Schumann. In March of 1841, Robert influence on Moszkowski’s language. and Clara Schumann, still embroiled in a bitter legal battle with Clara’s The final movement proceeds with a rhythmic vitality that suggests the tarantella, an energetic Italian dance popularly thought to counter the poi- *Bolded terms are defined in the glossary, which begins on page 107. son of a spider bite. A contrasting middle section is marked by a mellifluous www.musicatmenlo.org 37 lyricism, but the élan of the main theme returns; Moszkowski even steps it and his contemporary Vincent d’Indy compared the wistfulness of this music up a notch for the finale’s coda, which brings the suite to an exuberant close. to “the charming fanciful gardens of Gabriel Fauré.” Chausson biographer Ralph Grover praises the concerto’s third move- ment as “a tremendous outpouring of despair and pessimism, one of the really remarkable slow movements in all chamber music.” The movement Ernest Chausson begins with a humorless chromatic figure in the piano, over which appears (Born January 20, 1855, Paris; died June 10, 1899, Limay, near Mantes, a desolate theme, played in unison by the piano and violin. The entrance of Yvelines) the quartet heralds a new section. Rather than offering a contrast in mood, Concerto in D Major for Violin, Piano, and String Quartet, op. 21 however, this passage only deepens the sense of anguish. The featherweight Composed: 1889–1891 texture of a passage midway through the movement, built on hushed chords Published: 1892 in the piano and whispered arpeggios in the strings, makes for a seem- Other works from this period: Symphony in B-flat Major (1889–1890); ing moment of respite—but even this music turns out to be simply another Poème for Violin and Orchestra (1896) perspective on the movement’s essential despair. The music arrives at a piano-and-violin duet of exquisite delicacy; the chromatic melody and syn- Approximate duration: 40 minutes copated rhythms sustain a feeling of unease. The desolate theme from the opening returns, but now in a state of great agitation, bringing the move- The composer Ernest Chausson represents one of the essential voices of ment to an arresting climax. French in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Chausson The final movement answers the gravity of the slow movement with studied first with the French operatic composer Jules Massenet and then, renewed vigor. Structurally, the finale combines elements of rondo form—in more significantly, with César Franck, and his early compositional output, which a recurring theme alternates with contrasting episodes—and variations from roughly 1878 to 1886, bears the hallmarks of his training. The music form, meaning that the recurrences of the theme are steadily transformed of this period shows an ear for attractively spun melodies and elegant har- throughout the movement. Using this technique, Chausson takes the move- monies as well as a reserved melancholy that marks Chausson’s language ment through a variety of expressive characters. throughout his career. In the late 1880s, Chausson’s music became even Chausson also calls on an innovation of his teacher César Franck, who bolder, and the French sensibility of his earlier work gained in dramatic depth. developed the use of cyclic form, a technique by which material from pre- The scholar Jean Gallois observes that this period coincided with Chausson’s ceding movements returns later in the work, thereby drawing a narrative arc appointment as Secretary of the Société Nationale de Musique, which “led over the entirety of the piece. Indeed, this device lends a dramatic effect to to his closer involvement in Parisian intellectual and musical circles, and, as one of the finale’s episodes, which recalls the anguished slow movement. a consequence, to a more elaborate, more intensely dramatic style, as if —Patrick Castillo ams the musician, brought face to face with other composers, was experiencing either new self-doubts or greater difficulty in expressing his original ideas.” Gallois continues, “Not surprisingly…this whole period is dominated by large-scale, essentially dramatic works.” Though not a work intended for a dramatic setting, the Opus 21 Con- certo for Violin, Piano, and String Quartet, composed between 1889 and 1891, does nevertheless illustrate the dramatic character of Chausson’s music during this time. It is also, in its design, a unique work: it is a hybrid between chamber music and a double concerto for violin and piano, with Weir & Associates the string quartet serving as a kind of pseudo-orchestra but with each indi- vidual player distinctly involved, as befits a chamber work. catering and event planning The concerto begins with an emphatic three-note motif, introduced by the piano and then repeated with the viola and cello.

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The string quartet expands on this motif in hushed tones. After further www.weircatering.com build-up, the solo violin makes a dramatic entrance, spinning the exultant main theme from the three-note motif. The solo violin and cello issue a pleading melody, built on plaintive half steps, and the music gradually melts Tel: (650) 595-3058 into the deeply felt second theme. Building on the exposition’s thematic material, Chausson crafts a Fax: (888) 595-3856 development section of magnificent power. The three-note motif returns, [email protected] but now tempered by a gentle response from the piano. Over a shimmer- ing piano accompaniment, Chausson revisits the poignant second theme, slowed down to create a feeling of time suspended. At the movement’s 975 Industrial Road, Ste. D climactic point, the plaintive second theme cries out a final time, but the turbulence subsides, and the movement ends on a note of serene repose. San Carlos, CA 94070 The second movement is a Sicilienne, an instrumental form that dates back to the Baroque period, normally in a slow 6/8 or 12/8 tempo. Chausson 38 Music@Menlo 2012