BOSTON SYMPHONY CHAMBER PLAYERS Sunday, October 29, at 3:00 p.m. at Jordan Hall BOSTON SYMPHONY CHAMBER PLAYERS Malcolm Lowe, violin Harold Wright, clarinet Burton Fine, viola Richard Svoboda, bassoon Jules Eskin, cello Charles Kavalovski, horn Edwin Barker, double bass Charles Schlueter, trumpet Doriot Anthony Dwyer, flute Ronald Barron, trombone Alfred Genovese, oboe Everett Firth, percussion with GILBERT KALISH, piano LAURENCE THORSTENBERG, English horn MAX HOBART, violin MICHAEL ZARETSKY, viola C.P.E. BACH Quartet in A minor for piano, flute, viola, and cello, Wq 93 Andantino Largo e sostenuto Allegro assai Mr. KALISH; Ms. DWYER; Messrs. FINE and ESKIN PERLE Sextet for Piano and Winds (1988) Allegro Allegretto Andante tranquillo Allegro Mr. KALISH; Ms. DWYER; Messrs. GENOVESE, THORSTENBERG, WRIGHT, SVOBODA, and KAVALOVSKI INTERMISSION BART6K Contrasts, for violin, clarinet, and piano Verbunkos (Recruiting Dance): Moderato, ben ritmato Pineho (Relaxation): Lento Sebes (Fast Dance): Allegro vivace Messrs. LOWE, WRIGHT, and KALISH BRAHMS String Quintet No. 1 in F, Opus 88 Allegro non troppo ma con brio Grave ed appassionato — Allegretto vivace — Tempo primo — Presto Allegro energico Messrs. LOWE, HOBART, FINE, ZARETSKY, and ESKIN Baldwin piano Nonesuch, DG, RCA, and New World records . C.P.E. Bach Quartet in A minor, Wq 93, for flute, viola, cello, and piano Of all the talented offspring of Johann Sebastian Bach, the second son, Carl Philipp Emanuel, was perhaps the most gifted, certainly the most imaginative. He attended the University of Leipzig, recognizing that a full liberal education was an essential part of a musician's training, especially in an age that regarded the average musician as an ignorant servant. Emanuel enjoyed the company of literary people and earned a reputation as a wit throughout his life. Soon after his graduation, he was called into the employment of the crown prince of Prussia, the future Frederick the Great, whom he served for three decades. Yet in all that time, the conservative king never truly appreciated Emanuel's musical importance or musicianship. Yet during those years Emanuel became the most famous keyboard player and teacher in Europe, partly through the publication of his book Essay on the True Manner of Playing the Clavier (1753). In 1767 he was named to fill the position vacated by the death of Telemann and moved from Berlin to Hamburg, remaining there until his death some twenty years later. There he was suddenly heavily involved in church music as well as many civic events that required music. Emanuel Bach received his first tutelage from his father, and naturally his early music reflected the Baroque style in which he grew up. But over his large output of solo keyboard music — numbering some four hundred pieces — he passed far beyond the singleminded motivic character of the inherited tradition, creating music of abrupt changes and departures, a wholly new kind of expression on the keyboard. He Coming Concerts . Sunday, February 18, 1990, at 3:00 with DAWN UPSHAW, soprano Debussy Sonata No. 2, for flute, viola, and harp Stravinsky Three Japanese Lyrics Two Poems of Konstantin Balmont Ravel Three Poems of Stephane Mallarme Falla Psyche Ravel Introduction and Allegro for harp, string quartet, flute, and clarinet Sunday, March 25, 1990, at 3:00 Mozart Quartet in D for flute and strings, K.285 Lerdahl Waltzes, for violin, viola, cello, and double bass Volkmann Trio in B-flat for violin, cello, and piano, Op. 6 Mozart Quintet in E-flat for piano and winds, K.452 Tickets at $15, $11.50, and $8.50 are available at the Symphony Hall box office, or by calling Symphony-Charge at (617) 266-1200. The Boston Symphony Orchestra gratefully acknowledges the support of the National Endowment for the Arts, and o{ the Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities, a state agency. individual composed in the larger forms too — quantities of chamber music, concertos, and personalities a stimulating source of textural and coloristic possibilities. When symphonies, and many choral works. Charles Wadsworth, as part of a project to enlarge the repertory of unreasonably neglected chamber music ensembles, invited me to compose a work for wind quintet is one of a group of three written in 1788, the The quartet to be performed here plus piano, my secret, unspoken thought was that I would rather compose a fifth wind last year of Emanuel's life. They were not published at the time and were presumed quintet, without the piano. The piano is not a mere sixth instrument in such an ensem- lost until manuscript copies turned up in 1929. The manuscript score is laid out for ble. Phrase proportions are in no way limited by the pianist's breathing requirements; three instruments only — flute, viola, and keyboard — but it is clear that Bach assumed he can play twice as many notes at a time as all the other instruments combined, and the presence of a cello doubling the bottom line of the piano part. Early composi- his range exceeds their total compass by about an octave at either end. There is one instruments, keyboard, and cello would have been tions calling for two melody thing they can all do that he cannot, which is to increase the volume of a sustained filling in a called "trio sonatas," since the keyboard only improvised a harmonic note. How do you keep such an ensemble from turning into a quasi piano concerto, three-part texture dominated by the two melody instruments on top, and the cello with the five winds taking the place of the orchestra? However, Charles' enthusiasm for on the bottom. The piano in these last C.P.E. Bach quartets, though, has completely this project induced me to keep my reservations to myself, and — as always seems to broken away from the continuo tradition of the Baroque and plays its own very indi- happen in such instances — once I began to work on it, my apprehensions and reserva- vidual role. With these last works, Emanuel Bach marks the end of a long musical tions became a challenging source of ideas, and the composing of it turned out to be an career that took him from the high Baroque to the full Classical chamber music exceptionally enjoyable experience. style. Whether or not the phrases themselves are "classically proportioned," the four move- ments seem to be. The outer movements are in the same tempo, allegro, and intimately related in other ways as well. The second movement is a rather quiet and sober George Perle scherzo. The slow third movement is a set of variations on a theme from my recent Sextet for Piano and Winds (1988) Sinfonietta for chamber orchestra. The last movement begins with and makes much use of a striking figure in the piano that had made a single brief appearance in the closing George Perle (b.1915) is one of our most honored composers. Three times section of the first movement, and eventually that same figure brings back the same composer-in-residence at the Tanglewood Music Center, he received almost simulta- closing section, to which a few cadential bars are added to bring the work as a whole to neously in 1986 the Pulitzer Prize in composition and a MacArthur Fellowship. a conclusion. Without question he has arrived at the level of a senior master among American The Sextet for Piano and Winds is dedicated to and "Pick" Heller, in apprecia- composers. All his life he has confronted directly the basic problem of twentieth- "Red" tion for "your work," which I've always seen perhaps from a selfish point of view as century music: how to bring order out of the chaotic welter of harmonic possibilities — one who has benefitted from it so often — as bound up with the most creative aspects of available to a composer today, and how to use the expanded language to achieve the the musical community here in New York in a way that has enriched us all; as giving, kind of expressiveness that music has always aimed at. Perle has attacked the prob- for example, me and other composers your encouragement and support, not only lem both in his compositions and in some of the most illuminating analyses of through the financial assistance you regularly give to the organizations that perform and twentieth-century music ever written, analyses that have in turn opened up ideas to sponsor our work, but more importantly, by always being there, always being inter- be pursued in new compositions. A youthful chance encounter with the score of ested, always making us feel that what we are doing is important. This is something Alban Berg's Lyric Suite changed the young composer's life, for it revealed some that has been part of the scene for me throughout the twenty-seven years that I've been clues to a consistent treatment of chromatic harmony in a way that could be more living in New York, and I've never said "thank you" before, so I'll say it now. broadly applied than was recognized by either the disciples or the opponents of Berg's teacher Arnold Schoenberg. Perle demonstrated that Berg's music had an intellectual consistency of a very high order, even as it moved many listeners gener- Bela Bartok ally unsympathetic to twelve-tone techniques. Ideas learned from these studies clarinet, formed the basis of his own composition. Contrasts, for violin, and piano In recent years, Perle's output of creative work has increased remarkably. It is as if With one exception, all of Bartok' s chamber music is for stringed instruments, with he has fully absorbed all the lessons of his lifelong study and composition into a new or without the addition of a piano.