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Joaquin Valdepeñas
The clarinettist Joaquin Valdepeñas was winner of the 2003 Juno award for best classical recording (the Jacques Hetu Concertos) and is considered one of the most distinguished clarinettists of his generation. He is principal of D’INDY the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, makes international appearances as soloist, chamber musician and conductor, and has performed at festivals throughout the world including those of Aspen, Banff, Casals, Edinburgh, Marlboro, Mostly Mozart, Nagano Japan, and Vancouver. He has collaborated with musicians such as Barbara Bonney, Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano Joshua Bell, Vladimir Feltsman, Glenn Gould, Steven Isserlis, Yo-Yo Ma, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and Pinchas Zukerman, and also with the American, Emmerson, Muir, St. Lawrence, Orford, and Ying string quartets and the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the International Sejong BRUCH Soloists. Commissioning many works by Canadian composers, he gave the American première of Arias for clarinet and orchestra by Michael Colgrass with the Buffalo Philharmonic. Joaquin Valdepeñas made his European début Eight Pieces, Op. 83 with the BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra on BBC television with Sir Andrew Davis, and has recorded the Mozart Clarinet Concerto with the English Chamber Orchestra. He has also recorded extensively for CBC, Centrediscs, Naxos, Sony and Summit and was featured in a PBS documentary about the Aspen Music Festival both as Amici Ensemble clarinettist and conductor. He is currently on the faculty of the Glenn Gould Professional School at the Royal Conservatory of Music.
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Max Bruch (1838-1920): Eight Pieces, Op. 83 Amici Chamber Ensemble Vincent d’Indy (1851-1931): Trio in B flat major, Op. 29 Patricia Parr, pianist, Joaquin Valdepeñas, clarinettist, and David Hetherington, cellist, formed Amici in 1985, with their first concert at Harbourfront in Toronto. They launched a three-concert season in 1988-89 and since Max Bruch was a child prodigy who grew into a gifted Vincent d’Indy came from an aristocratic military moving to the critically acclaimed Glenn Gould Studio in the Canadian Broadcasting Centre in 1995, have composer of extraordinary taste and refinement. family in the Ardèche region in southern France. expanded the series to four concerts. There being a limited repertoire for their combination of instruments, the Throughout his career he consistently produced works Although he received piano lessons and showed Artistic Directors have commissioned new works and, just as the name of the organization implies, invited friends of professional finish and great beauty. Although today musical promise as a boy, he remained more interested to perform with them. Among the Canadian performers are Russell Braun, Measha Brueggergosman, Barbara he is remembered primarily for his concertos, in military matters and his hero, Napoleon. Only during Hannigan, Michael Schade, Steven Dann, Susan Hoeppner, Andre Laplante, Erika Raum and Scott St. John. Amici particularly his Violin Concerto in G minor, he an extended trip to Italy at the age of eighteen did he also attracts international artists to perform with them as well. Some of these have included Shmuel Ashkenazy, composed successfully in virtually every medium. become aware of his potential as a composer rather than Ida Kavafian, Cho Liang Lin, Jaime Laredo, Arnold Steinhardt and the Orion String Quartet. The artistic control Critical of the innovations brought about by Liszt and an army officer. On the recommendation of his friend that Amici members have in determining their programming and guest artists, translates into a pleasant atmosphere Wagner, Bruch preferred instead the more conservative Henri Duparc, d’Indy entered César Franck’s organ and for performers and audience alike. Amici has toured the Maritimes, the United States, Eastern Europe and Mexico; styles of Mendelssohn and Schumann. His resistance to composition classes at the Paris Conservatoire, devoting they also continue to perform locally, in Ontario and in Quebec. In all, Amici has released nine CDs on the Naxos, change and a firm belief in traditional forms and himself thereafter entirely to music. Franck had an Summit, and CBC labels. They won a Juno Award in 1993 and received nominations for their 1995 Messiaen and harmonies meant that works written at the end of his life important influence on d’Indy’s musical style, as did 1998 Brahms recordings. sound much the same as compositions written sixty Beethoven and Wagner, but his devout Catholic years earlier. Despite his deft skills of orchestration and upbringing also led to an interest in Gregorian chant an almost unequalled talent for melodic invention, he that, coupled with his love of folk-song, can be heard in was, at his death, an honoured yet lonely and neglected many of his compositions. composer. Many of his compositions remain unjustly The Trio in B flat major dates from 1888 and is the Patricia Parr forgotten. first important work in d’Indy’s mature style. Although The Eight Pieces, Op. 83, for clarinet, cello (or it does not follow a specific model, it owes much to Since her début with the Toronto Symphony at the age of nine, the Canadian pianist Patricia Parr has been soloist viola), and piano, were composed in Berlin in 1910. Franck’s emphasis on structural unity. Several ideas with major orchestras including Toronto, Cleveland, New York, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh under such Despite being written at a time when many composers recur throughout the work, but the first theme in conductors as Eugene Ormandy, William Steinberg and Walter Susskind. She is internationally renowned for the were experimenting with modernism, they are particular plays an important structural rôle. It is used in sensitivity and integrity of her playing, and her outstanding qualities as a chamber musician have resulted in thoroughly Romantic in style. The instrumentation all four movements, appearing as both melody and invitations to numerous festivals including the prestigious Marlboro Music Festival and collaborations with many allows for the production of a luscious sound, and accompaniment and in combination with the other ensembles among them the Guarneri, Orford and Vermeer String Quartets. She has toured Europe, Australia, Bruch responded with melodies and harmonies that are thematic material. As a pianist who occasionally played Mexico, the United States and Canada, and frequently performs as a duo recitalist. Her recordings appear on the correspondingly rich and glowing. Although only both the cello and the clarinet, d’Indy understood and CBC, Centrediscs and Summit labels. Patricia Parr is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied Rumanian Melody and Night Song carry descriptive wrote effectively for all three instruments. It is a highly with Isabelle Vengerova and Rudolf Serkin. Since 1974 she has been a professor at the University of Toronto’s titles, all eight are programmatic in the sense of polished work that remained one of his particular Faculty of Music, teaching piano and chamber music. presenting a characteristic mood or idea. The melodies favourites; he not only used it as an example in his are nobly inspired and Bruch’s handling of the composition classes, but also continued to perform it in David Hetherington individual instruments is masterful and effective. public, playing the piano part, throughout his long life. A native of St Catharines, Ontario, David Hetherington is currently the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s Assistant Amici Ensemble Principal cellist. He received his musical training at the Royal Conservatory of Music and the University of Toronto, where he now teaches the cello and chamber music, and furthered his studies in New York, Italy, and Germany with Claus Adam, André Navarra and Paul Tortelier. As a soloist he has performed with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Niagara Symphony and at the Elora Festival. With his own string quartet, Accordes, he performs regularly for New Music Concerts and other contemporary music organizations. In addition to his recording activities with Amici, he has recorded for the CBC and for Centrediscs, with whom he made the Canadian première recording of Talivaldis Kenin’s prize-winning cello sonata. He plays a 1695 cello made by Giovanni Grancino of Milan. 8.557347 2 3 8.557347 557347 bk Bruch US 13/7/05 12:05 pm Page 2
Max Bruch (1838-1920): Eight Pieces, Op. 83 Amici Chamber Ensemble Vincent d’Indy (1851-1931): Trio in B flat major, Op. 29 Patricia Parr, pianist, Joaquin Valdepeñas, clarinettist, and David Hetherington, cellist, formed Amici in 1985, with their first concert at Harbourfront in Toronto. They launched a three-concert season in 1988-89 and since Max Bruch was a child prodigy who grew into a gifted Vincent d’Indy came from an aristocratic military moving to the critically acclaimed Glenn Gould Studio in the Canadian Broadcasting Centre in 1995, have composer of extraordinary taste and refinement. family in the Ardèche region in southern France. expanded the series to four concerts. There being a limited repertoire for their combination of instruments, the Throughout his career he consistently produced works Although he received piano lessons and showed Artistic Directors have commissioned new works and, just as the name of the organization implies, invited friends of professional finish and great beauty. Although today musical promise as a boy, he remained more interested to perform with them. Among the Canadian performers are Russell Braun, Measha Brueggergosman, Barbara he is remembered primarily for his concertos, in military matters and his hero, Napoleon. Only during Hannigan, Michael Schade, Steven Dann, Susan Hoeppner, Andre Laplante, Erika Raum and Scott St. John. Amici particularly his Violin Concerto in G minor, he an extended trip to Italy at the age of eighteen did he also attracts international artists to perform with them as well. Some of these have included Shmuel Ashkenazy, composed successfully in virtually every medium. become aware of his potential as a composer rather than Ida Kavafian, Cho Liang Lin, Jaime Laredo, Arnold Steinhardt and the Orion String Quartet. The artistic control Critical of the innovations brought about by Liszt and an army officer. On the recommendation of his friend that Amici members have in determining their programming and guest artists, translates into a pleasant atmosphere Wagner, Bruch preferred instead the more conservative Henri Duparc, d’Indy entered César Franck’s organ and for performers and audience alike. Amici has toured the Maritimes, the United States, Eastern Europe and Mexico; styles of Mendelssohn and Schumann. His resistance to composition classes at the Paris Conservatoire, devoting they also continue to perform locally, in Ontario and in Quebec. In all, Amici has released nine CDs on the Naxos, change and a firm belief in traditional forms and himself thereafter entirely to music. Franck had an Summit, and CBC labels. They won a Juno Award in 1993 and received nominations for their 1995 Messiaen and harmonies meant that works written at the end of his life important influence on d’Indy’s musical style, as did 1998 Brahms recordings. sound much the same as compositions written sixty Beethoven and Wagner, but his devout Catholic years earlier. Despite his deft skills of orchestration and upbringing also led to an interest in Gregorian chant an almost unequalled talent for melodic invention, he that, coupled with his love of folk-song, can be heard in was, at his death, an honoured yet lonely and neglected many of his compositions. composer. Many of his compositions remain unjustly The Trio in B flat major dates from 1888 and is the Patricia Parr forgotten. first important work in d’Indy’s mature style. Although The Eight Pieces, Op. 83, for clarinet, cello (or it does not follow a specific model, it owes much to Since her début with the Toronto Symphony at the age of nine, the Canadian pianist Patricia Parr has been soloist viola), and piano, were composed in Berlin in 1910. Franck’s emphasis on structural unity. Several ideas with major orchestras including Toronto, Cleveland, New York, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh under such Despite being written at a time when many composers recur throughout the work, but the first theme in conductors as Eugene Ormandy, William Steinberg and Walter Susskind. She is internationally renowned for the were experimenting with modernism, they are particular plays an important structural rôle. It is used in sensitivity and integrity of her playing, and her outstanding qualities as a chamber musician have resulted in thoroughly Romantic in style. The instrumentation all four movements, appearing as both melody and invitations to numerous festivals including the prestigious Marlboro Music Festival and collaborations with many allows for the production of a luscious sound, and accompaniment and in combination with the other ensembles among them the Guarneri, Orford and Vermeer String Quartets. She has toured Europe, Australia, Bruch responded with melodies and harmonies that are thematic material. As a pianist who occasionally played Mexico, the United States and Canada, and frequently performs as a duo recitalist. Her recordings appear on the correspondingly rich and glowing. Although only both the cello and the clarinet, d’Indy understood and CBC, Centrediscs and Summit labels. Patricia Parr is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied Rumanian Melody and Night Song carry descriptive wrote effectively for all three instruments. It is a highly with Isabelle Vengerova and Rudolf Serkin. Since 1974 she has been a professor at the University of Toronto’s titles, all eight are programmatic in the sense of polished work that remained one of his particular Faculty of Music, teaching piano and chamber music. presenting a characteristic mood or idea. The melodies favourites; he not only used it as an example in his are nobly inspired and Bruch’s handling of the composition classes, but also continued to perform it in David Hetherington individual instruments is masterful and effective. public, playing the piano part, throughout his long life. A native of St Catharines, Ontario, David Hetherington is currently the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s Assistant Amici Ensemble Principal cellist. He received his musical training at the Royal Conservatory of Music and the University of Toronto, where he now teaches the cello and chamber music, and furthered his studies in New York, Italy, and Germany with Claus Adam, André Navarra and Paul Tortelier. As a soloist he has performed with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Niagara Symphony and at the Elora Festival. With his own string quartet, Accordes, he performs regularly for New Music Concerts and other contemporary music organizations. In addition to his recording activities with Amici, he has recorded for the CBC and for Centrediscs, with whom he made the Canadian première recording of Talivaldis Kenin’s prize-winning cello sonata. He plays a 1695 cello made by Giovanni Grancino of Milan. 8.557347 2 3 8.557347 557347 bk Bruch US 13/7/05 12:05 pm Page 4
Joaquin Valdepeñas
The clarinettist Joaquin Valdepeñas was winner of the 2003 Juno award for best classical recording (the Jacques Hetu Concertos) and is considered one of the most distinguished clarinettists of his generation. He is principal of D’INDY the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, makes international appearances as soloist, chamber musician and conductor, and has performed at festivals throughout the world including those of Aspen, Banff, Casals, Edinburgh, Marlboro, Mostly Mozart, Nagano Japan, and Vancouver. He has collaborated with musicians such as Barbara Bonney, Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano Joshua Bell, Vladimir Feltsman, Glenn Gould, Steven Isserlis, Yo-Yo Ma, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and Pinchas Zukerman, and also with the American, Emmerson, Muir, St. Lawrence, Orford, and Ying string quartets and the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the International Sejong BRUCH Soloists. Commissioning many works by Canadian composers, he gave the American première of Arias for clarinet and orchestra by Michael Colgrass with the Buffalo Philharmonic. Joaquin Valdepeñas made his European début Eight Pieces, Op. 83 with the BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra on BBC television with Sir Andrew Davis, and has recorded the Mozart Clarinet Concerto with the English Chamber Orchestra. He has also recorded extensively for CBC, Centrediscs, Naxos, Sony and Summit and was featured in a PBS documentary about the Aspen Music Festival both as Amici Ensemble clarinettist and conductor. He is currently on the faculty of the Glenn Gould Professional School at the Royal Conservatory of Music.
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CMYK NAXOS NAXOS This recording presents two works for the unusual combination of clarinet, cello and piano. Written at a time when many of Bruch’s contemporaries were experimenting with modernism, the Eight Pieces are thoroughly Romantic in style with glowing melodies and harmonies. As a pianist who occasionally played both the cello and the clarinet, d’Indy understood and wrote effectively for all three instruments. His Trio is a highly polished work that remained one of his DDD ’NY•BRUCH: D’INDY ’NY•BRUCH: D’INDY particular favourites. 8.557347 Max BRUCH Playing Time (1838-1920) 72:03 Eight Pieces, Op. 83 36:10 1 Andante 3:49 2 Allegro con moto 2:35 3 Andante con moto 6:41 4 Allegro agitato 3:48 5 Clarinet Trios Clarinet Trios Rumänische Melodie: Andante 5:12 6 Nachtgesang (Nocturne): Andante con moto 6:10 7 Allegro vivace, ma non troppo 3:22 8 Moderato 4:34 Naxos RightsInternationalLtd. Made inCanada Booklet notesinEnglish Vincent www.naxos.com
D’INDY & (1851-1931)
Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano, Op. 29 35:53 2005 9 I Overture: Modéré 14:11 0 II Divertissement: Vif et animé 6:00 ! III Chant élégiaque: Lent 6:00 @ IV Finale: Animé 9:43 Amici Ensemble Joaquin Valdepeñas, Clarinet • David Hetherington, Cello • Patricia Parr, Piano
Recorded at Humbercrest United Church, Toronto, Canada, 14th-15th May 2003 and 5th-6th February 2004 8.557347 8.557347 Producers: Bonnie Silver & Norbert Kraft • Engineer: Norbert Kraft Editor: Bonnie Silver • Booklet Notes: Amici Ensemble The Amici Chamber Ensemble wishes to thank their Board of Directors for their assistance in making this recording possible. Cover Image: Port en Bessin, Avant Port 1888 by Georges Seurat (1859-91) [The Art Archive / Musée d’Orsay Paris / Eileen Tweedy]