BOSTON SYMPHONY CHAMBER PLAYERS Sunday, April 18, 2004, at 3 p.m. at Jordan Hall

BOSTON SYMPHONY CHAMBER PLAYERS Malcolm Lowe, violin John Ferrillo, oboe Steven Ansell, viola, William R. Hudgins, clarinet Jules Eskin, cello Richard Svoboda, bassoon Edwin Barker, double bass James Sommerville, with JONATHAN BISS, piano ASSISTING BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA MEMBERS Elizabeth Ostling, flute Craig Nordstrom, clarinet

BRAHMS Trio in E-flat for violin, horn, and piano, Opus 40 Andante—Poco piu animato Scherzo: Allegro Adagio mesto Finale: Allegro con brio

Messrs. LOWE, SOMMERVILLE, and BISS

HARBISON Six American Painters (2002), for oboe, violin, viola, and cello

1. Bingham

2. Eakins

3. Heade

4. Inness

5. Hofmann 6. Diebenkorn

Messrs. FERRILLO, LOWE, ANSELL, and ESKIN

INTERMISSION

BRAHMS Serenade No. 1 in D, Opus 1 1 , arranged for chamber ensemble by Alan Boustead Allegro molto Scherzo: Allegro non troppo; Trio: Poco piu mosso Adagio non troppo

Menuetto I; Menuetto II Scherzo: Allegro Rondo: Allegro

Ms. OSTLING; Messrs. HUDGINS, NORDSTROM, SVOBODA, and SOMMERVILLE; Messrs. LOWE, ANSELL, ESKIN, and BARKER

Steinway and Sons Piano

Nonesuch, Deutsche Grammophon, Philips, RCA, and New World records —

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Trio in E-flat for violin, horn, and piano, Opus 40

Brahms composed this striking trio in 1865, at the end of a glorious outpouring of . He had already employed the horn with great effect in his set of choruses for women's voices, two horns, and harp, Opus 17, but it was fairly unusual to include the instrument in a full-scale four-movement chamber work, if only because of the tonal limitations that it necessitated. True, valves had recently been developed for the horn, making possible the performance of chromatic notes that were simply not within the range of the natural, valveless instrument. But Brahms always remained loathe to use the newfangled version, claiming that the natural horn had a much fuller and more satisfying tone than the valved instruments. Part of that difference in tone came from the manner of playing natural horns. In order to get any pitches other than those that were part of the overtone series, the player inserted his hand into the bell to "stop" the instrument, thus lowering the pitch by a half-step or, at most, a whole step. This, of course, had the additional effect of muffling the tone. The player therefore had to be somewhat circumspect in playing the unstopped tones, in order to make them match the stopped tones as closely as possible. Apparently when the valves were first introduced, horn players got carried away in a fine frenzy of chromaticism and vul- gar blowing with all their might and main. Even so revolutionary a composer as Wagner whose Tristan und Isolde cannot be performed without the modern instrument—noted in the score that he had first made sure it was possible to play the valved horn tastefully before scoring his opera for it. Brahms apparently did not want to run the risk, and always wrote as if for the older natural horns, which could be changed from one key to another by the inser- tion of a special crook to lengthen or shorten the tubing—even though, by the end of his life, almost all players were certainly using the valved horn.

Brahms completed the trio, a romantic work redolent of German forests, in the wooded neighborhood of Lichtenthal, near Baden-Baden, in May of 1865, and took part himself

(as pianist) in the first performance that December, in Karlsruhe. When he offered it to his publisher Simrock the following June, he noted that the horn part could, if necessary, be played on a cello, but eighteen years later he had a change of heart, and wrote to Simrock:

"My horn trio should be provided with a viola part instead of the cello! With cello it sounds dreadful, but splendid with viola!" Simrock agreed to print a viola part, too (it could only increase sales), but he refused Brahms's request to suppress the cello part. Of course, any

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site is updated on a regular basis, we invite you to check in frequently. discussion of alternate scorings is purely academic, because horn players, who are not exactly In the original flute and strings version of this piece, Harbison's fourth movement was wallowing in chamber music by the great romantic masters, will never let this piece go. It based on Winslow Homer. The oboe version is based on George Inness (1825-94), a land- gives the player every opportunity for a wide range of expressive and virtuosic performance. scape painter associated with the Hudson River School who lived for some time in Med- Owing to the difficulty of modulating freely and widely with a natural horn, Brahms wrote field, Massachusetts. His "Peace and Plenty" is a brilliantly lit New England landscape.

a first movement that is not in —the only one in his entire chamber music With the two final movements we move into modern art. Hans Hofmann (1880-1966) influential output. It alternates two ideas—the opening Andante in E-flat and a Poco piu animato in a was an German-born abstract expressionist who moved to the U.S. in 1930. related minor key—in a sonata-like tonal plan, but without any rapidly modulating develop- Richard Diebenkorn (1922-1993), born in Portland, Oregon, lived and worked primarily ment section. The scherzo that follows is a lively romp with some surprising harmonic twists, in the Bay Area in California and later in Los Angeles. His "abstract landscape" "Ocean

both in the main section and in the Trio, which comes in the dark key of A-flat minor. The Park" series, No. 30 of which was Harbison's impetus, is from his Los Angeles period. slow movement, identified by its tempo marking as "sad" ("mesto"), is an expressive lament, In Six American Painters, Harbison casts the wind instrument (oboe in these perform- thought by some critics to be a musical response to the death of the composer's mother, ances) in a "concertante" role, much as Mozart had done in his flute quartets and oboe which took place in the year of composition (and to which the soprano solo of the German quartet. The composer's own note for the piece follows: Requiem was another response). The finale conjures up the forest and the hunt, with its Six American Painters was commissioned by radio station WGUC Cincinnati in honor of fanfares and its echoes in a vigorous interplay of good humor. Ann Santen, for performance by Cincinnati Symphony principal flutist Randall Bowman. Bowman gave the first performance on the Linton Music Series, April 14, 2002, with Tim- John Harbison (b.1938) othy Lees, violin, Michael Strauss, viola, and Eric Kim, cello. Six American Painters (2002) Each of the movements was begun as a musical description of six paintings in the Met-

ropolitan Museum of Art. Eventually they ranged further it John Harbison is known as a composer with exquisite taste in and far-ranging knowledge and seemed more helpful to name for the painters rather of poetry. As a student at Harvard in the late 1950s he won acclaim as a poet, and over the them than for the specific paintings. I wanted to evoke the artists' after-images, rather years his song settings have shown a remarkable ability to meld words with music, creating than any of the individual paintings. you look at a picture, you take mood and nuance for poetic images both abstract and concrete. His Requiem, a Boston When away with you a general impression, a mood or color, that dominates the details; in music, on the other hand, one is apt to remember the details, Symphony Orchestra commission premiered last season at Symphony Hall, is a fine example a tune or a harmony. I wanted these movements to be a perceivable whole, an act of seeing. of this. In Six American Painters, Harbison conjures his own overall impressions of six Most of my viewing was done at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Like many artists, having been spurred initially by a single painting from each, as he describes below. musicians, I've always felt that looking at art has been the least alert of the things I do. I George Caleb Bingham (1811-1879) was a Virginia-born Missouri genre painter and hoped to develop my visual sense; I did a lot of research, and I spent many hours looking portraitist and grass-roots politician. Many of his paintings depict scenes from the edge of at paintings. the American frontier. They include the specific initial inspiration for Harbison, "Fur The movements tend toward brevity. I had two intentions: not too slow, and not too long. Traders Descending the Missouri," as well as "The Trappers' Return" and "Canvassing for I also made, for the oboist Peggy Pearson, a version for oboe and strings, replacing one a Vote." The great portraitist and photographer Thomas Eakins (1844-1916) lived in of the movements, adapting others. She gave its first performance on the Winsor Music Philadelphia all his life. Boats and landscapes along the Delaware River figure in many of Series with Bayla Keyes, violin, Mary Ruth Ray, viola, and Rhonda Rider, cello. his early paintings, including "Starting Out After Rail" (1874), the trigger for this Harbison John Harbison movement. (A rail is a kind of bird.) Martin Johnson Heade (1819-1904) was associated — with the Hudson River School and luminism, and is primarily known for his landscapes, marsh paintings, and seascapes of New England. His "Approaching Thunder Storm" (1859) Serenade No. 1 in D, Opus 11, arranged for chamber ensemble by Alan Boustead features a black sea inlet and dark gray, threatening sky with an eerily lit landscape.

It was only in 1876, when he was forty-three, and had finally overcome his fear of following

in Beethoven's footsteps, that Brahms completed his First Symphony, which had its premiere NEXT MONTH AT JORDAN HALL that year on November 4- But Brahms already had several works for orchestra behind him: the Serenade No. 1 in D, Opus 11 (composed 1858-59); the D minor piano concerto, Sunday, May 2, at 3 p.m. TANGLEWOOD FESTIVAL CHORUS Opus 15 (1854-58, and which emerged from an earlier attempt at a symphony); the Sere- JOHN OLIVER, conductor nade No. 2 in A, Opus 16 (1858-59), and that masterwork of orchestral know-how and control, the Variations on a Theme by Haydn, Opus 56a (1873). The Tanglewood Festival Chorus's debut concert at Jordan Hall The two are unfamiliar to most listeners. Running nearly fifty minutes in BRUCKNER Christus foetus est; Virga]esse • MARTIN Mass for double chorus • length, the D major, Opus 11, is a sprawling work modeled after the multi-movement TALLIS Spem in alium, Motet in forty parts • BAX Mater ora filium • BRITTEN serenade form of the Classical era and clearly evocative of airy, wide-open spaces. It is for Five Flower Songs • ELGAR Four Unaccompanied Part-songs, Opus 53 large classical orchestra (two each of flutes, oboes, clarinet, and bassoons, fout horns, Single tickets at $30, $22, and $17 for both of these concerts can be purchased at the two trumpets, timpani, and strings) and has six movements, including a broad central

Symphony Hall box office, by calling SymphonyCharge at (617) 266-1200, or at Adagio that runs as long as the big, brilliantly scored opening Allegro. By way of contrast, www.bso.org. On the day of the concert, tickets are available only at the Jordan Hall the two scherzos and minuet are not just shorter, but strikingly chamber-musical in their box office. scoring. The darker-hued, five-movement A major serenade, Opus 16, runs about half an flutes, oboes, clarinets, and bassoons, two to Janacek, Schoenberg, works contemporary composers. This spring EMI releases hour. This is for a smaller orchestra (two each of and by that entirely omits his debut solo recording and Schumann. Winner of the 2002 Gilmore horns, violas, cellos, and basses, with piccolo added in the last movement) of music by Beethoven Young Artist major orchestras throughout the country. violins leaving the violas to provide the predominant string tone—as well as trumpets and Award, Mr. Biss has performed with Y's Tisch Center drums. Brahms apparently took inspiration for both works from hearings of serenades and He made his New York recital debut at the 92nd Street in April 2000, twenty. divertimentos of Mozart as performed by the Detmold orchestra during his employment in and his New York Philharmonic under Kurt Masur at age He participated in the Lincoln Center, par- that principality as pianist, chorus director, teacher, and general all-round musician in the 2002-03 opening gala of the Chamber Music Society of and he has 2000-01 he performed in 80th late 1850s, as well as from his study of numerous Classical scores in the Detmold library. ticipated frequently at the Marlboro Music Festival. In an has collaborated with the It is doubtless the considerable length of the D major Serenade that works against its birthday celebration for Isaac Stern at the Kennedy Center. He being programmed on orchestral concerts with any frequency. The solution for some con- Borromeo, Mendelssohn, and Vermeer quartets, and was recognized with the Andrew Wolf ductors has simply been to leave out portions of the music. In his years with the New York Memorial Chamber Music Award. This season he appears with Daniel Barenboim and the Philharmonic and NBC Symphony, Toscanini most often programmed, independently, Staatskapelle Berlin in Berlin, Chicago, and New York; makes his Atlanta Symphony debut; either the opening Allegro or the minuet. When Charles Munch played the piece with the performs with the New York Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, the Munich Boston Symphony in the late 1950s, he simply omitted the Adagio and minuet movements! Philharmonic under James Levine, and the Rotterdam Philharmonic under Roger Norring- Though Brahms's early biographer Florence May cites an "octet for winds and strings in ton; gives recitals in Chicago, Philadelphia, Israel, and England, and appears in the gala

three movements," most later commentators have pointed to a nonet for winds and strings opening and two concerts at the Gilmore Festival. He is the first and only American

as the likely original precursor to the final work. Whatever the original form, documentary chosen to participate in the BBC's New Generation Artist program, involving performances

evidence suggests that it was performed privately by and for the composer's friends (includ- and recording sessions with several of the BBC orchestras. Jonathan Biss represents the ing Clara Schumann and the violinist Joseph Joachim) in the summer of 1858. Always third generation in a family of professional musicians that includes his grandmother Raya scrupulous about destroying sketches and music he did not want circulated or preserved, Garbousova, one of the first well-known female cellists (for whom Samuel Barber composed

Brahms left nothing behind of the earliest version, so we can expect no definitive answer. his Cello Concerto), as well as his parents, violinist Miriam Fried and violist/violinist Paul

Nor do we have any way of knowing how much Brahms may have changed the actual music Biss. He began his piano studies at six, and his first musical collaborations were with his

and shape of the piece (as opposed just to the scoring) as he continued to work on it. mother and father. Mr. Biss studied at Indiana University with Evelyne Brancart and at the

In any event, Brahms soon felt that Clara Schumann was right in her suggestion, follow- Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia with Leon Heisher. He was an artist- in-residence ing the 1858 reading, that his musical ideas required orchestral dress. That December he on NPR's "Performance Today" in May 2001 and has been recognized with numerous awards, wrote his friend and adviser Joachim (who had declined comment on whether an orchestral including Wolf Trap's Shouse Debut Artist Award, Lincoln Center's Martin E. Segal Award, version might be preferable) asking for large manuscript sheets of music paper: "I need the an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and, most recently, the 2003 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award. paper to change my first serenade, now and finally, into a symphony. I can see that it is not right to have it in this mongrel state." But Brahms knew that he was still not writing a sym- One of the world's most distinguished chamber music ensembles sponsored by a major sym- phony; though he wrote the heading "Symphony-Serenade" on the manuscript, he retained phony orchestra and made up of that orchestra's principal players, the Boston Symphony only the latter term. In late March of 1859 a Hamburg concert included what Brahms's Chamber Players include the Boston Symphony's first-desk string, woodwind, brass, and recent biographer Jan Swafford calls "the small-orchestra version" of the piece, which may percussion players. Founded in 1964 during Erich Leinsdorf's tenure as BSO music director, already have been heard in a Detmold court concert. The final version for large orchestra the Chamber Players can perform virtually any work within the vast chamber music litera- received its first performance in March 1860, in Hamburg, under Joachim's direction. ture; they can expand their range of repertory by calling upon other BSO members or enlist- In today's concert, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players perform Brahms's D major ing the services of such distinguished guest artists as pianists Emanuel Ax and Andre Serenade as arranged by Alan Boustead for a chamber ensemble of nine wind and string Previn. The Chamber Players' activities include an annual four-concert series in Boston's instruments (flute, two clarinets, bassoon, horn, violin, viola, cello, and double bass). Jordan Hall at the New England Conservatory of Music, regular appearances at Tangle- Ultimately it is impossible to establish the relationship between Brahms's first effort and wood, and a busy schedule of touring and recording. In addition to appearances through- this or other "reconstructions" (there is another nonet version by Jorge Rotter). Based on out the United States, the group has toured Europe and Japan on numerous occasions; what we know, these 20th-century chamber versions are more likely closer to the "small- they have also performed in South America and the Soviet Union. Among the Chamber orchestra version" than to the shadowy "original version." But they at least provide a wel- Players' recordings on Nonesuch are the Beethoven Septet and Schubert Octet; Smetana's come opportunity to hear music of Brahms that is filled with youth and vitality, and rarely G major and Dvorak's string sextet; the Brahms string quintets; John Harbison's played in the definitive form ultimately published by the composer. Words from Paterson with baritone Sanford Sylvan; a Copland album with pianist Gilbert Kalish; and a disc of music by Leon Kirchner. For Philips the ensemble has recorded the —Notes Steven Ledbetter (Brahms Horn Trio), Robert Kirzinger quintets for clarinet Brahms with former (Harbison), and Marc Mandel (Brahms Serenade) and strings by Mozart and BSO principal clar- inet, the late Harold Wright. Deutsche Grammophon has recently reissued, on a single The compact disc, the Chamber Players' recordings of Stravinsky's Octet for Winds, Pastorale, twenty-two-year-old American pianist Jonathan Biss made his acclaimed Boston Sym- phony debut last Ragtime, and Concertino for Twelve Instruments, and Johann Strauss waltzes as arranged week with Beethoven's Emperor Concerto, substituting for the originally scheduled soloist for chamber ensemble by Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern. at extremely short notice. Mr. Biss has established a flourishing interna- tional reputation through his orchestral and recital performances in North America and Europe, performing a diverse repertoire ranging from Mozart, Beethoven, and the Romantics