PROGRAM: SUNDAYS WITH THE ST. LAWRENCE

Sunday, April 27, 2014 / 2:30 pm / Bing Concert Hall

ST. LAWRENCE STRING

ARTISTS PROGRAM St. Lawrence Joseph Haydn: Quartet in E-flat Major, op. 20, no. 1, Hob. III:31 (1772) Geoff Nuttall, Allegro moderato Mark Fewer, Violin Minuet: Un poco allegretto Lesley Robertson, Affetuoso e sostenuto Christopher Costanza, Finale: Presto

Jessica Rivera, Soprano George Tsontakis: String Quartet No. 7 for String Quartet and Soprano (2014) I. Prelude II. The Swallows Sundays with the St. Lawrence is presented in III. Coffin of Snow (Rossetti) partnership with Music at Stanford and generously IV. Whitman supported by Paul and Iris Brest. *INTERMISSION*

Giuseppe Verdi: String Quartet in E Minor, op. 68 (1873) Allegro Andantino Prestissimo Scherzo fuga: Allegro assai mosso

PROGRAM SUBJECT TO CHANGE. Please be considerate of others and turn off all phones, pagers, and watch alarms, and unwrap all lozenges prior to the performance. Photography and recording of any kind are not permitted. Thank you

40 Stanford Live Magazine April/May 2014 JOSEPH HAYDN (1732–1809) remained fascinated by the tranquil abstractions into complexities of maturity QUARTET IN E-FLAT MAJOR, OP. 20, strength of purpose that Haydn draws out is part of a human “gift package.” NO. 1, HOB. III:31 (1772) of the four instruments and paid tribute to its composer in the slow movement of In Going Forth by Day, there is Mozart greatly admired Joseph Haydn’s his own E-flat quartet, K. 428, a work storytelling, but the underlying collection of six string , Op. over which he labored long and hard and abstractions that jettison each “story” 20. Beethoven copied them by hand to that he dedicated to Haydn. In the finale, are allowed to separate and telescope better understand their inner workings. Haydn uncorks the bottle and releases outward into mystical realms. Truths In 1885, Brahms became the proud sparkling contents that are succinctly and are “let go,” contradictions reconciled, owner of Haydn’s original manuscript playfully developed in three-bar phrases complexities are explained, and simply copy of the quartets, which he kept until from the movement’s opening ideas. and elegantly so. the end of his life. Haydn broke new ground with his Op. 20, and publishers —© 2013, Keith Horner When Amy Anderson kindly sent me could not get copies to print fast enough. the carol of the bird of death from Walt An unauthorized printing by a Berlin Whitman’s “When Lilacs Last in the publisher gave the collection its opus GEORGE TSONTAKIS (B. 1951) Dooryard Bloom’d” as a possible text number and nickname, Sun Quartets, STRING QUARTET NO. 7 FOR STRING to set, the focus on the course I would from the rising sun on the cover of the QUARTET AND SOPRANO (2014) take became clear. “Lilacs,” like Four publication. In another edition, issued Quartets had come very much alive for toward the end of Haydn’s life, his I am finding it not easy, if uneasy, to write me through the setting of the Whitman official Viennese publisher, Artaria, words about a piece of music that is in work by my teacher Roger Sessions. The acknowledged that it was with these sympathy with and inspired by something seed was replanted; all seemed to fall into quartets that “Haydn so decisively found visual. It is, as they say, a bit “beyond my place. The parallel universe I would seek his fame.” This is music designed to move pay grade,” but here are some thoughts I to create was now defined—of birds, of and stir the emotions, rather than merely have been conjuring up, perhaps more or death’s gentle power and dominance, and please and entertain. less abstract, in note form. They may be of transcendence and rebirth. helpful to some. Each quartet has a distinctive character. The choice of Herman Melville’s haunting The urbane, unhurried opening I set out to express sentiments parallel to Civil War poem “Shiloh: A ” movement of this E-flat quartet allows those I sensed in Bill Viola’s Going Forth came on the heels of my decision to use each instrument a role within the whole, by Day, not so much as a reaction to his “Lilacs” and has swallows creating a whether taking the lead, partnering in beautiful and lyrical work but to touch huge and seemingly depleted space where a duo texture, bringing a musical line upon a common tangent and move away soldiers died. The image reminded me to a three-part discussion, or—mostly in a mirrored direction. Stasis verses immediately of Viola’s walking humanity, in the central development section— motion, transformation, transcendence, pacing horizontally, through a spacious contributing to the four-part texture. The and a strata of warm mysticism versus forest of trees and light, brown and green musical ideas evolve incrementally from detachment are the principles that I nature. They glide forward, like Melville’s the opening phrases with an economy take away, “hear,” and translate into swallows, but with no sense of returning, that increasingly became a hallmark of music. Searching for and finding, and like Melville’s soldiers. The forest walkers Haydn’s quartet writing. Though cast then letting go, in sequence but at the only “progress,” to somewhere, but in regular four-bar phrases, the minuet same time, all at once. Perhaps there is seemingly, anywhere. keeps harmonic surprises in store, while a residue of my closeness to T. S. Eliot’s its central trio section deliberately avoids Four Quartets and my reactive work Nothing to me has explained the anything remotely predictable. Four Symphonic Quartets that imbues loneliness of what death might at first this work as well. One does not lose deliver more than Christina Rossetti’s The heart and soul of the quartet lies in such poignant residues but brings them four short lines in “Dead in the Cold”; its slow movement, Affetuoso e sostenuto forth as a kind of creative “fertilizer” here, death’s victim a song-singing thrush. (“Tender and sustained”). Its solemn, to inform the next work—or, actually, It reminds me that truth need not be four-part chorale-like texture is inward one may not be able to help it from lengthy and that a microscopic world looking and elusive. Certainly, Mozart happening. The piling up and colliding of may be as enormous as a cosmos.

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The movement that contains the whether it is good or bad,” he wrote, and teamwork and great respect to Rossetti as its inner seed begins “only that it is a quartet.” the composer. Since winning both the and ends in a “deluge,” and here Banff International String Quartet conscious pictures of Viola’s panel This was 1873. In the same summer, the Competition and Young Concert by the same name are at work. 40-year-old Brahms was also arranging Artists International Auditions in 1992, private performances of his two earliest the quartet has delighted audiences Whitman’s “gray-brown bird” carols quartets. Brahms felt the weight of with its spontaneous, passionate, and to us the wonders and lyrical beauty the Austro-German tradition on his dynamic performances. Alex Ross of death as if there is no other way shoulders, and it shows in his writing. of the New Yorker magazine writes, to reconcile with it. To me, this is In Italy, the land of , Verdi was “The St. Lawrence are remarkable not not so unlike Viola’s “resurrection” free from a similar legacy of quartet simply for the quality of their music of his man from a river as rescue and symphonic writing. With a career making, exalted as it is, but for the joy “witnesses” look on or his depiction built on a tradition of writing for the they take in the act of connection.” of a parent’s final boat ride, a human voice, he was, at heart, a lyrical peaceful voyage on a calm lake or composer with a genius for singing lines Whether playing Haydn or premiering river. The soul just floats away, as in and dialogue between parts. Melodies a new work, SLSQ has a rare ability Whitman’s words, “I float this carol abound in his quartet. The opening to bring audiences to rapt attention. It with joy, with joy to thee O death.” movement is based on five melodic ideas, reveals surprising nuances in familiar the first drawn from some of Amneris’s repertoire and illuminates the works As it happens, Melville, Rossetti, and music in . A later melody, high in of some of today’s most celebrated Whitman all lived in essentially the the first violin, has a Mendelssohn-like composers, often all in the course of one same time period and were mature airiness. All the ideas and motifs are evening. John Adams has written two during the course of the Civil War, developed with a genuine seriousness of critically acclaimed works expressly for although Rossetti was English born. purpose. Verdi knew the string quartet the quartet, including String Quartet repertoire thoroughly and kept copies (2009) and Absolute Jest (2012), which —© 2014, George Tsontakis of the quartets of Haydn, Mozart, and it premiered with the San Francisco Beethoven by his bedside. An elegant, Symphony in 2012. In 2011, SLSQ beautifully structured slow movement premiered Qohelet, a work by Osvaldo (1813–1901) follows, again full of melodic writing. Golijov, also composed for the group. STRING QUARTET IN E MINOR, OP. 68 There’s more from the opera house in (1873) the third movement, beginning with SLSQ maintains a busy touring schedule. a sparkling opening chorus that is Some 2013–14 season highlights include With more than two dozen in his complemented by a heroic serenade visits to Vancouver, Princeton, Portland, catalog, Giuseppe Verdi waited until he sung by the cello. The busy, fugal finale Toronto, Philadelphia, Ann Arbor, was 59 to write his only chamber music both honors tradition in its use of a range Palm Beach, and Washington, D.C. composition and a further three years of academic techniques and offers a The quartet also will premiere a new before publishing it. He wrote the quartet preview of the masterly fugue that closes work by George Tsontakis in Carmel, in Naples during a production delay Verdi’s operatic masterpiece , California. It will perform Absolute Jest while supervising rehearsals of his operas which was to follow two decades later. with the Toronto Symphony and on a Aida and . The premiere European tour with the San Francisco of the musically rewarding, technically —© 2013, Keith Horner Symphony. During the summer season, demanding quartet was a modest enough SLSQ is proud to continue its long occasion, given for invited friends in association with Spoleto Festival USA Verdi’s hotel. Like Wagner’s only chamber ST. LAWRENCE STRING QUARTET in Charleston, South Carolina. work, the Siegfried Idyll, Verdi’s quartet The St. Lawrence String Quartet was initially not for public consumption. (SLSQ) has established itself among Since 1998, SLSQ has held the position Although a music critic from the the world-class chamber ensembles of of ensemble-in-residence at Stanford Gazetta musicale felt that Verdi had its generation. Its mission: bring every University. This residency includes “given the world a new masterpiece,” piece of music to the audience in vivid working with music students as well Verdi was nonplussed. “I don’t know color, with pronounced communication as extensive collaborations with other

42 Stanford Live Magazine April/May 2014 faculty and departments using music Ms. Rivera’s 2013–14 season features of Kitty Oppenheimer was captured in to explore myriad topics. Recent performances of Donnacha Dennehy’s Amsterdam and is commercially available collaborations have involved the School That the Night Come with Miguel on DVD on the BBC/Opus Arte label. of Medicine, the School of Education, Harth-Bedoya and the Fort Worth and the Law School. In addition to Symphony Orchestra; Rachmaninoff’s Ms. Rivera made her critically acclaimed their appointment at Stanford, the The Bells with Matthew Halls and the Santa Fe Opera debut in the summer musicians of SLSQ are visiting artists- Houston Symphony; Golijov’s La pasión of 2005 as Nuria in the world premiere in-residence at Arizona State University. según San Marcos with Spano and the of the revised edition of Golijov’s The foursome’s passion for opening up Boston Symphony Orchestra; Mark Ainadamar. She reprised the role for the musical arenas to players and listeners Grey’s Fire Angels, Mahler’s Fourth 2007 Grammy Award–winning Deutsche alike is evident in its annual summer Symphony, and Vaughan Williams’s Grammophon recording of the work chamber music seminar at Stanford Dona nobis pacem with Spano and the with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and its many forays into the depths Atlanta Symphony Orchestra; Philip under Spano, and she bowed in the of musical meaning with preeminent Glass’s The Civil Wars’ “The Rome Sellars staging at Lincoln Center and music educator Robert Kapilow. Section” with Grant Gershon and the Opera Boston as well as in performances Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra; and at the Barbican Centre, the Adelaide Lesley Robertson and Geoff Nuttall are Mozart’s Requiem with David Robertson Festival of Arts, the Cincinnati Opera, founding members of the group and hail conducting the Cleveland Orchestra. The and the Ojai and Ravinia Festivals. The from Edmonton, Alberta, and London, artist reprises her acclaimed portrayal artist’s first performances of Margarita Ontario, respectively. Christopher of Micaëla in Carmen for the Cincinnati Xirgu in Ainadamar, a role created Costanza is from Utica, New York, Opera, and in a national recital tour, by Dawn Upshaw, occurred in the and joined the group in 2003. Mark Ms. Rivera is joined by mezzo-soprano summer of 2007 at the Colorado Music Fewer, a native of Newfoundland, Kelley O’Connor and Spano on the Festival under the baton of Michael begins his first season with the quartet piano for concerts at Carnegie Hall, Christie, and she reprised the part in 2014, succeeding violinist Scott the University of California at Berkeley, recently for Madrid’s Teatro Real. St. John. All four members of the Kennesaw State University, Pepperdine quartet live in and teach at Stanford. University, and Cincinnati’s Constella Committed to the art of recital, Festival. Ms. Rivera continues her Ms. Rivera has performed in concert artist residency program with San halls in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco Performances, where she Francisco, and Santa Fe. In past seasons, Possessing a voice praised by the San conducts workshops in classroom and to support a recital disc on the Urtext Francisco Chronicle for its “effortless community settings throughout the label that examines works for soprano, precision and tonal luster,” soprano Bay Area, encouraging young people , and piano, Ms. Rivera toured Jessica Rivera is established as one of to open their minds to the beauty and North America with concerts in Los the most creatively inspired vocal artists power of music as well as to the poetry Angeles, New York (Carnegie Hall), Las before the public today. The intelligence, and spirit behind the art of song. Vegas, Oklahoma City, and Chicago dimension, and spirituality with which (Ravinia Festival). She also has given she infuses her performances on the The artist made her European operatic a recital program at the Amelia Island great international concert and opera debut as Kitty Oppenheimer in Peter Chamber Music Festival accompanied stages has garnered the Grammy Award Sellars’s acclaimed production of Adams’s at the piano by Spano. She was deeply winner unique artistic collaborations Doctor Atomic with the Netherlands honored to receive a commission from with many of today’s most celebrated Opera, a role that also served for her Carnegie Hall for the world premiere composers, including John Adams, debuts at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and of a song cycle by Muhly called The Gabriela Lena Frank, , Finnish National Opera, and she joined Adulteress on the occasion of her Jonathan Leshnoff, and Nico Muhly, and the roster of the Metropolitan Opera for Weill Hall recital performance. has brought her together in collaboration its new production of Doctor Atomic with such esteemed conductors as under the direction of Alan Gilbert. She Bernard Haitink, Sir Simon Rattle, gave concert performances of Doctor Esa-Pekka Salonen, , and Atomic with Spano and the Atlanta Michael Tilson Thomas. Symphony Orchestra, and her portrayal

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