th SEASON PROGRAM NOTES 46 Week 3 July 29 – August 4, 2018 Sunday, July 29, 6 pm two violins. Elegant, graceful, and melodic, had simultaneous premieres in Hamburg and Monday, July 30, 6 pm they are at some moments very difficult (in Cologne on December 4, 1920, when the fact, Leclair’s violin music is in many places composer was all of 23, and in the 1920s JEAN-MARIE LECLAIR (1697 – 1764) so difficult that there is an old legend in Korngold was one of the most admired Sonata in E Minor for Two Violins, musical circles that his real murderer was composers in Europe. Op. 3, No. 5 (1730) a violinist who had become enraged by his And then his career took an unexpected inability to play Leclair’s music). turn. Invited to Hollywood to help score a Jean-Marie Leclair was one of those Writing for two unaccompanied violins film, Korngold found his Romantic idiom endlessly fascinating figures whose lives brings particular challenges for a composer, ideally suited to film music, and when stand apart from the generally quiet who must do without the harmonic Hitler came to power Korngold moved his accounts of composers’ careers. Born in resources of the keyboard. Leclair treats family to Hollywood, where he achieved his Lyon, France, to a family of musicians and the two violins as equals and as melodic greatest success with swashbuckling music lacemakers, Jean-Marie was one of the most instruments here, though occasionally he for Errol Flynn movies like Captain Blood, talented members of that impressive family. will have one supply a double-stopped Robin Hood, and The Sea Hawk. As soon as As a young man, he mastered the art of accompaniment as the other takes the the war was over, Korngold put films behind lacemaking and also became a dancer and a melodic line. The Sonata in E Minor is in him to return to “serious” music but could ballet master, but he found his true calling three movements, all of them in binary never escape his Hollywood reputation, as a violinist and composer. At age 26, he form. The opening Allegro ma poco is full particularly since he used themes from many moved to Paris and made his career there, of complex counterpoint (the violins are of his film scores in his classical works. The though he found time to make tours of Italy, often in close canon), and it bristles with most successful of these is the 1945 Violin Germany, England, and the Netherlands, energetic trills, swirls of triplets, and dense Concerto, championed by Jascha Heifetz. where his playing was much admired for chording. By contrast, the second movement Korngold composed his String Sextet the beauty of his sound and his impressive is all grace (Leclair’s marking is, in fact, between 1914 and 1916, and it was first technique. Leclair’s career in Paris remains, Andante grazioso). The first violin sings the performed in Vienna on May 2, 1917, a few to some extent, shrouded in mystery. He was, disarmingly lovely melodic line of this gentle weeks before his 20th birthday. The string for a time, in service to the royal family (the gavotte as the second violin provides steady sextet (two violins, two violas, and two king at this time was Louis XV), but while accompaniment. The last movement is cellos) is a challenging form for composers, he was said to have played “like an angel,” brilliant. Marked Presto, it goes like a rocket, who must balance six instruments of Leclair was also a difficult man—he had a with the violins racing along a breathless uneven strength, keep textures clear, treat quick temper and a sour disposition—and his rush of 16th-notes, sometimes in thirds, all six instruments as equals, and avoid career was marked by a number of disputes. sometimes taking the lead, and sometimes writing music that becomes “symphonic” If his life was spectacular, its end was accompanying each other. It makes a in its power. Korngold had great examples fully worthy of it: Leclair is one of the few satisfying conclusion to a very engaging before him, both by Viennese composers— composers to have been murdered. Late one piece of music. Brahms’s two sextets and Schoenberg’s evening, he stepped through the door of his —Eric Bromberger Verklärte Nacht—yet his Sextet in D Major home in what has been described as “a seedy does not sound at all like the work of those part of Paris” and was stabbed to death. The ERICH WOLFGANG KORNGOLD earlier masters, and the teenaged composer murder was never solved, though Leclair’s (1897 – 1957) manages to speak in a voice all his own. estranged wife, nephew, and gardener were String Sextet in D Major, Op. 10 (1916) His Sextet is in a late-Romantic idiom. all suspects (modern musicologists favor Harmonies are chromatic to the point where the nephew). Few child composers have been as any sense of a home key is often obscured, Leclair composed chamber music, some precocious as Erich Wolfgang Korngold. His tempos are fluid, the meter sometimes ballet and stage works, and one opera, but cantata Gold, composed when he was 10, changes by the measure, and the writing can he is remembered today for his 49 sonatas amazed Mahler, who pronounced the boy be dramatic and virtuosic: only the very best for violin and keyboard. In addition to these a “genius.” Those impressed by his talents ensembles should consider attempting to accompanied sonatas, Leclair published a set included Richard Strauss and Puccini, who perform this music. of six sonatas for two unaccompanied violins said: “That boy’s talent is so great, he could The Sextet is a large-scale work in four in 1730, and these sonatas have remained easily give us half and still have enough left movements. Korngold builds the opening one of the cornerstones of the literature for for himself!” Korngold’s opera Die tote Stadt movement on three separate theme-groups,

Program notes for Music at Noon Concerts are sponsored by Barbara & Ronald Balser with thanks to the gifted Festival musicians who inspire us all. each at a different tempo, and the music This is an unusual composition, in many an entire movement on one theme was glides smoothly between these sharply ways representative of the increasingly nothing new–Haydn had written many such contrasted ideas. Moments of calm alternate rarefied musical language of Mozart’s final movements—but what makes this movement with dramatic episodes that feature thick years. Unlike his earlier viola quintets, the remarkable is the concentrated polyphonic chording and double-stroked notes: at Quintet in E-flat Major does not play groups writing. Mozart treats his amiable opening one moment the music can be subdued of different instruments off against each theme to some complex fugal development, (Korngold asks the players to bow out over other, nor does it exploit the characteristic and—pushed along by more brilliant writing the fingerboard here to dampen their sound) “middle” sonority of the viola quintet. Rather, for the first violin—his final piece of chamber and the next can erupt in full-throated this music is remarkable for the brilliance of music flies to its energetic close. climaxes. The first violin’s opening melody the first violin part in its outer movements, —Eric Bromberger dominates this movement and finally helps where that instrument sails above the other propel it to a near-symphonic close. four with a concerto-like virtuosity. And as The slow movement brings little relief. The we shall see, it incorporates some unusual cello’s jagged opening statement sets the formal features. unsettled mood, and its melodic line quickly The Allegro di molto opens with a passage moves among the various instruments. for the two violas that sounds exactly like Korngold writes long passages here where a pair of hunting horns. That effect was the meter changes from 3/4 to 4/4 to 5/4 by clearly intentional, and that fanfare returns the measure. The Intermezzo has proven the throughout the movement, giving the movement most immediately attractive to music a somewhat festive air and thrusting audiences. It has a distinctly Viennese flavor, it forward on the energy of its trills. These and while the basic meter is 6/8 rather than “horn calls” dominate the opening measures, 3/4, this music waltzes throughout. To be but quickly the first violin breaks free with a sure, this is an unusual waltz, with the violin series of runs, difficult string crossings, and singing a most angular waltz tune and writing high in the instrument’s register (at the whole ensemble participating in great one point Mozart sends the first violin up to swooping glissandos. a high D, almost at the upper extreme of its The finale is a lot of fun. Korngold fingerboard). At the end, the horn fanfare specifies that it should be “As fast as and its trills drive this movement to its possible” and also that it should be played energetic close. “With fire and humor.” It goes like a rocket, The real glory of this Quintet is the and as the Sextet nears its conclusion Andante. Its form is simple enough on Korngold recalls the first violin’s melody the surface—a theme with variations— from the beginning of the first movement. but what is unusual here is what Mozart Now that theme—gentle then but powerful does in the course of varying his opening now—helps propel the Sextet to its melody. That melody, sung initially by the emphatic conclusion. first violin, sounds like an aria, and in fact —Eric Bromberger it has been compared to Belmonte’s aria, “Wenn der Freude Thränen fliessen” from WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Die Entführung aus dem Serail. Mozart (1756 – 1791) does some astonishing things with this String Quintet in E-flat Major, K. 614 (1791) gentle little theme. The development is a series of repetitions, each becoming more In the manuscript of the Quintet in complex and more chromatic until strange E-flat Major Mozart noted the location dissonances come stinging out of the music. and date of its completion—Vienna, The effect over two centuries later is still April 12, 1791—placing this Quintet at the surprising, and it is a movement like this that beginning of the final creative burst of his helps us understand what a Viennese critic brief life. Over the next eight months he meant when he complained that Mozart’s would write two operas—Die Zauberflöte music was “too highly spiced.” Spiced it may and La clemenza di Tito—and the Clarinet be, but it is also extraordinarily beautiful Concerto, and he would begin the Requiem, and expressive. left unfinished at his death on December 5. The minuet is more conventional, though Though he did not know it as he set aside the outer sections proceed on canonic the manuscript on that spring day, this phrases, while the trio is a ländler that Quintet would be his final chamber work. dances comfortably along its easy swing. The final movement, a rondo marked Allegro, is built entirely on one theme, announced immediately by the first violin. Building

2 2018 Program Notes Week Three Tuesday, July 31, noon Janáˇcek continued his artistic therapy with opening up in front of him. One of the first Book I of , a set of 10 works Boulez composed under the powerful LEOŠ JANÁˇCEK (1854 – 1928) piano works that concludes with “The Barn attraction of serial music was his Piano V mlhách (In the Mists) (1912-13) Owl Has Not Flown Away!”—a reference to Sonata No. 1, completed in 1946. a Czech legend that the owl visits the place The composition of this Sonata brought To hear even a portion of any of Janáˇcek’s where someone is about to die. one of the defining moments in the life best-known works is to grapple with the Janáˇcek incorporated a portion of that of the young Boulez—and a famous story. paradox of reconciling the clear modernity in the finale ofIn the Mists. Even earlier in Boulez took the manuscript of the Sonata of his style with his birth and death dates. the work, with its quasi-Impressionistic soft to Leibowitz, planning to dedicate it to After all, when he was in his early 20s edges, there is little sense of solace or peace. him. Leibowitz promptly took out a red pen, Wagner’s Ring cycle had its premiere, The Czech musician Jaroslav Vogel wrote intending to “correct” the work of his young Tchaikovsky and Dvorák˘ were just hitting in 1962 that the work “does not contain protégé. Boulez exploded. He denounced their stride, and Richard Strauss was merely a single moment of respite. It is one long Leibowitz in an obscenity-laden tirade, a precocious pre-adolescent. The key is in struggle of resignation and recurring pain stormed out, and broke off all relations simply realizing that Janáˇcek’s greatest which predominates even at the end.” Much with Leibowitz (young Boulez could be works were all written after the age of 50, of the work is played on the black keys, with very difficult). The first performance of the and his music, while unmistakably modern both the major and minor modes of D-flat Sonata was given later in 1946 by (in the sense of not being overtly Romantic), and G-flat holding sway much of the time. Yvette Grimaud, who was another of was the long-gestated product of disparate Pianists should feel confident in making Messiaen’s students. influences and patient study. bold interpretive statements in Janáˇcek’s While this Sonata was written during the Some of that study took the form of music, if the recollections of the great Czech period of Boulez’s first discovery of serial collecting and studying folk songs of his pianist Rudolf Firkušný are to be trusted. music, it is not built on the sort of 12-tone native Moravia. His formal studies took place Firkušný, whose studies with Janáˇcek began row introduced by Schoenberg. Instead, in and in Prague, and his early fame in 1917, recalled: “I studied most of his piano Boulez constructs it around a series of short rested on his leading the Czech Philharmonic works with him. He was a very impulsive germinal cells, all of which are introduced from 1881 to 1888. Begun in 1894 but man. I remember him as being markedly in the slow introduction to the first revised extensively through 1916, it was his inconsistent, altering the printed text and movement, which spans only 10 measures. opera Jen˚ufa (the German title by which changing his ideas quite often. I would come The tempo leaps ahead at the Beaucoup it is best known) that first gained Janáˇcek one day and he wanted something a certain plus allant as the young composer explores international attention. He made several way, and then the next time he would say, the possibilities and recombinations of the trips to Russia and set operas based on that ‘Ah, maybe not.’” intervals within those cells. Listeners will do country’s literature, e.g., From the House As to In the Mists, Firkušný said, “The well not to attempt to make out these cells of the Dead. His liturgical work set to old enigmatic quality of the pieces, the harsh but instead to experience the Sonata as the Slavonic texts, , also garnered tempo changes, the chopped-up harmonies, brilliant keyboard piece that it is. We think widespread attention. and the fragmented melodies all mirror the of Boulez as a supremely cerebral composer Though Janáˇcek’s overall body of piano composer’s uncertainties.” or as a conductor of extraordinary precision works is relatively small it is endlessly —Greg Hettmansberger and clarity, so it is easy to overlook the fact compelling, for while he wrote no concertos that he was also a superb pianist. Boulez or large-scale sonatas, each work has a PIERRE BOULEZ (1925 – 2016) learned to play the piano as a boy, and he fascination and uniqueness all its own. In Piano Sonata No. 1 (1946) continued to perform publicly until he was the Mists, by its title, dates of composition in his 50s. His Piano Sonata No. 1 gives some and premiere, and even occasionally in its Pierre Boulez—18 years old, supremely indication of just how good a pianist the sound, suggests the possible of influence of talented, and supremely confident—arrived young Boulez must have been, for it requires Debussy. It is unlikely though that Janáˇcek in Paris in the fall of 1943 to study at the a pianist of the most formidable technique. was even familiar with Debussy’s music at Paris Conservatory. Over the next two years The Sonata—in two brief movements— that time. his musical world would be transformed. lasts only about 12 minutes. Both For that matter, Janáˇcek himself barely Instantly, young Boulez found himself at movements begin with a slow introduction, had a reputation outside his native odds with the tradition-bound Conservatory, and both then speed ahead, though tempos Czechoslovakia. Jen˚ufa would not have its and so he leapt at the opportunity when can be extremely fluid, holding back and Prague premiere until 1916, a success that Olivier Messiaen offered to take him as then rushing forward. Some sense of finally put Janáˇcek and his music on the a private pupil. Their close relationship Boulez’s conception of this music is evident map. The original 1904 premiere in Brno would last—on and off—for nearly 50 years. in his many performance markings in the was only a regional success, and the Prague In February 1945 came an entirely new score: très violent, incisif, brusque, violent Opera would not consider staging it for more direction when Boulez met the composer/ et rapide, presque percuté (“struck”). This than a decade. conductor René Leibowitz, who introduced music has a particular sonority—glittering The salient point here is that Jen˚ufa him to the music of Arnold Schoenberg. and pointillistic—and it can move instantly became a cathartic creation for the Schoenberg and serial music were far from across the range of the keyboard, alternate composer, whose daughter had died in 1903 the aesthetic of Messiaen, and now Boulez— the most delicate sounds with the most after a stay in Russia. Even after the opera, still only 19—felt an entirely new world violent attacks, and challenge the performer

3 2018 Program Notes Week Three with unbelievable complexities of rhythm. If he didn’t, and certainly his peers were not at last on B Major. the first movement explores the possibilities particularly understanding. Schumann had The work was almost universally panned: within its germinal cells, the second—fast dedicated his Fantasy in C Major to Liszt, but Clara Schumann never performed it, and and brilliant—has been compared to a by the time Liszt reciprocated in the 1854 Brahms reputedly fell asleep at a private toccata or a perpetual-motion movement. publication of the Sonata Schumann was performance. It did not have its official Some have noted that it seems strange in an asylum, and when Clara Schumann premiere until 1857, when Hans von Bülow that the iconoclastic young Boulez, already oversaw the next edition of the Fantasy played it. The critic Eduard Hanslick wrote intent on annihilating the past, would write she struck out the dedication. Mendelssohn “anyone that has had heard it and found in so “traditional” a form as the sonata (and was certainly no fan, and even Chopin was it beautiful is beyond help.” Only toward he would go on to write two more piano uneasy with the bigness of the playing and the end of the century was it championed sonatas over the next 12 years). Yet this is the over-reaching of the music. by Ferruccio Busoni and then in the 20th not the classical keyboard sonata of Mozart, None of the protean Romantics were century by Vladimir Horowitz. It has been Beethoven, Brahms, or Prokofiev, based on comfortable or particularly fluent in the years since anyone underwent treatment the conflict and resolution of sonata form. Classical sonata form, even after the for admitting they admire this Rather, Boulez takes the conception of the expansions that Beethoven illustrated. unique masterpiece! sonata—a work that “sounds”—and uses it to Therefore, when they decided to tackle one —Greg Hettmansberger project an entirely new conception of what genre or another they typically were accused music might be. of flaccid structural discipline or, as in the —Eric Bromberger case of Liszt’s Piano Sonata in B Minor, pioneered new ground. But as is the case FRANZ LISZT (1811 – 1886) with most great inventors, they still build Piano Sonata in B Minor, S. 178 (1853) upon those who came before them. Liszt intimately knew the Beethoven symphonies Perhaps no greater succinct description (he arranged all nine of them for solo piano). of Liszt exists than the title of the chapter He was a particularly avid student of the devoted to him in Harold Schonberg’s Ninth, with its thematic reunions in the Lives of the Great Composers: “Virtuoso, finale; even more telling is Liszt’s study of Charlatan—and Prophet.” Like Berlioz, Schubert’s “Wanderer” Fantasy. This, too, was he was the prototypical Romantic in his a single-movement work writ large, and Liszt art and in his personal life, but he outdid knew it inside and out, as he had arranged Berlioz on both counts. The virtuoso of the the solo version for piano and orchestra century, showman supreme, his life including in 1851. everything from the fathering of illegitimate Thus, he set out to plant a new flag in the children with nobility and taking minor Romantic treatment of style in his Sonata. orders as a priest, Liszt was an irresistible Over the course of a half-hour or so, we force on colleagues and public alike. traverse the four major sections of a sonata After a startling early career, Liszt nearly within a sprawling and dazzling structure checked out from sheer boredom—until of thematic transformation. Most analysts he witnessed a recital of Paganini and was identify no fewer than six significant themes, equally impressed with the pioneering the first three of which are presented quickly virtuosity of the violin playing and the enough that they might be considered superstar adulation he received of a a distinct group. The first iteration is magnitude that had previously been mysterious, full of unexpected rests and accorded only to opera stars. Liszt retreated harmonic ambiguity. The second enters in to rethink everything about his pianism, the 10th bar, clearly a type of protagonist’s and when he emerged, he took Paganini’s music and the first hint that the key of achievements to an even higher level. B Minor will be central to the work. The Chopin complained that Liszt, after only third is an agitated rhythmic counter to the two weeks, played Chopin’s Études even most recent melody. When the fourth theme better than he himself, and later, Liszt played appears it is marked Grandioso and emerges Grieg’s Piano Concerto by sight. Liszt left his in a radiant D Major. The penultimate tune own keyboard legacy in the Transcendental is almost a lyrical reworking of the third (the Etudes, but these were not all miniatures as pianist Alfred Brendel goes so far as to call Chopin’s had been; several were virtual tone the third theme a “Mephisto” theme and poems for piano. the fifth “Gretchen”—alluding to characters Virtuosity was both the early and, to the in Goethe’s Faust). The sixth theme is more composer’s later regret, lasting hallmark abstractly lyrical than a personage; its of much of his music. But when you can first appearance is in F-sharp Major, and do things most others have never even it will play a key role in the closing pages, conceived how do you temper it? Early on dominating a peaceful coda that has settled 4 2018 Program Notes Week Three Wednesday, August 1, 6 pm Joseph Joachim and cellist Alfredo Piatti, PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY Thursday, August 2, 7:30 pm took place in London’s St. James Hall on (1840 – 1893) February 15, 1869. Piano Trio in A Minor, Op. 50, FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797 – 1828) Schubert may have written this Trio at a “In Memory of a Great Artist” String Trio in B-flat Major, D. 581 (1817) moment of personal disappointment, but (1881-82) there is no trace of that in the music itself. Schubert came from an exceptionally The Trio is relaxed and attractive music, and Nikolai Rubinstein, brother of the pianist musical family. His father played the cello, many have felt that it is in the manner of Anton Rubinstein, hired Tchaikovsky to teach his brothers played violin, and he played the 18th-century serenade or divertimento: composition at the Moscow Conservatory the viola. As a young man Schubert wrote music intended for enjoyment or as and later encouraged him as a composer, a number of string quartets for the four of background for a social occasion. conducting and championing his music. them to play together. But if the Schubert Schubert was evolving quickly as a When Nikolai died on March 23, 1881, at family was musical, it was also poor. The composer when he wrote this Trio. He was the age of 46, Tchaikovsky resolved to write father—an elementary-school teacher— already a master composer of songs—earlier a work in his memory, but it was difficult naturally assumed that his sons would assist that year he had composed both “Die Forelle” for him to choose the form for such a piece. him in the classroom to help support the (“The Trout”) and “Der Tod und das Mädchen” Nikolai had been a pianist, but a piano family, but Franz, desperate to compose, (“Death and the Maiden”), but as a composer concerto did not seem a proper memorial tried to escape the constrictions of that of symphonic music he was still struggling piece. household. In the fall of 1816 he seemed to to find his own voice. His Sixth Symphony, Tchaikovsky disliked the combination of have succeeded—the mother of one of his with its many echoes of Beethoven and piano and strings in chamber music but wealthy friends offered him rooms— and Rossini, would follow in October 1817. The eventually overcame this aversion to write Schubert moved away from his family and String Trio is made attractive by its easy flow the Trio in A Minor as the memorial to tried to support himself as a composer. That of melody and its relaxed spirits. This may Rubinstein; it was the only time Tchaikovsky experiment lasted only one year, and then, be the work of a 20-year-old struggling to used a piano in his chamber music. He in the summer of 1817 when he was 20, find his way as a composer, but already there began work on the Trio in December 1881 Schubert was forced to move back in with are those magical modulations by which while living in Rome and completed the his family and resume his duties correcting Schubert can let music flicker between score on February 9, 1882. The manuscript is exercises and keeping classroom discipline. different keys and different emotional states. inscribed: “In memory of a Great Artist.” And it was just at this point, in The violin part, which is sometimes quite A particular memory came back to September 1817, that Schubert composed brilliant, is the dominant voice here. Tchaikovsky as he worked on this music: in his String Trio in B-flat Major. The string The four movements may be briefly 1873, after the premiere of his opera The trio is an unusual form, and it presents described, but with music this pleasing Snow Maiden (which had been conducted a composer with specific problems. This one should sit back and enjoy rather than by Rubinstein), faculty members from the ensemble does without the second violin analyze too deeply. The opening Allegro Moscow Conservatory had gone on a picnic of the string quartet that would complete moderato is in sonata form. Its character in the sunny, blossom-covered countryside. the harmony, and the resulting texture is is established by the violin’s initial melody, Here they were surrounded by curious quite transparent. Further, there are balance though the development turns briefly peasants, and the gregarious Rubinstein problems when trying to combine three turbulent. The Andante moves gracefully quickly made friends and had the peasants instruments of differing range and power. (and ornately) along its 6/8 meter, offering singing and dancing. As he set to work on Schubert had attempted to write a string a series of variations on the violin’s first the Trio, Tchaikovsky remembered how much trio exactly a year earlier but managed to theme. The minuet offers some of the most Rubinstein had liked one of these songs. complete only one movement. Now he attractive modulations in this music, gliding The Trio, as completed, has a very unusual returned to the form and wrote a full four- effortlessly between different keys; the viola form: it is in two massive movements that movement work. It would be his final work assumes the spotlight in the trio section. together last a total of almost 50 minutes. for this combination of instruments. The finale is a rondo marked Allegretto and The first movement in particular has proven No one is quite sure why Schubert should is based on the violin’s opening theme. This baffling to critics, who have been unable to write a string trio at the point he returned tune has a music box-like innocence, and decide whether it is in sonata or rondo form. glumly to resume his classroom duties. some of the episodes along the way are full It is built on two sharply contrasted themes: Perhaps one of the brothers was away and of energy and adventurousness that seem at the cello’s somber opening melody—which Schubert was writing just for the family odds with the chirping good nature of that Tchaikovsky marks molto espressivo—and a members on hand, but the String Trio in rondo tune. Finally, though, it is that graceful vigorous falling theme for solo piano marked B-flat Major is at moments quite difficult little tune that leads this music to its close. allegro giusto. Tchaikovsky alternates these music, probably well beyond the abilities of —Eric Bromberger themes throughout this dramatic movement, the Schubert family members. In any case, which closes with a quiet restatement of the Schubert did not publish this music. It may cello’s opening theme, now played in octaves have been tried out at home, but it then by the piano. went on the shelf, and the first known public The second movement is a huge set of performance did not take place until more variations. The theme for these variations than 40 years after the composer’s death. is the peasant melody Rubinstein had That performance, which featured violinist liked so much at the picnic in 1873, and 5 2018 Program Notes Week Three Tchaikovsky puts this simple tune through Thursday, August 2, noon In whole or in part, the Octet is music that 11 quite different variations. Particularly is infectious to the ear and stimulating to striking are the fifth, in which the piano’s IGOR STRAVINSKY (1882 – 1971) the mind, but Stravinsky insisted that, “This high notes seem to echo the sound of Octet for Winds (1923) sort of music has no other aim than to be sleigh bells; the sixth, a waltz introduced sufficient in itself. In general, I consider that by the cello; the eighth, a powerful fugue; Much has been made of Stravinsky’s music is only able to solve musical problems, and the tenth, a mazurka introduced by “Neoclassical” period, the time in the 1920s and nothing else, neither the literary nor the piano. So individual and dramatic are and the early 1930s that saw the creation picturesque, can be in music of any interest.” these variations that several critics instantly of works such as Pulcinella, the Concerto in —Greg Hettmansberger assumed that each must depict an incident D, the Violin Concerto, and the Symphony from Rubinstein’s life and set about guessing of Psalms. He, however, dismissed the term ERNST VON DOHNÁNYI (1877 – 1960) what each variation was “about.” Tchaikovsky as meaning “absolutely nothing”—but did Serenade in C Major for Violin, was dumbfounded when this was reported admit that his style at this time was drawn Viola & Cello, Op. 10 (1902) to him. To a friend he wrote: “How amusing! to “Apollonian principles.” Some writers have To compose music without the slightest suggested that his artistic search for order Music for string trio—violin, viola, and desire to represent something and suddenly and clarity, following on the heels of the cello—is rare. Taking one violin away from to discover that it represents this or that; it great trio of early ballets that culminated in the string quartet presents the composer is what Molière’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme The Rite of Spring, was a creative response with a number of problems, especially must have felt when he learnt that he had to the chaos and uncertainty he faced with harmony, and it is no surprise that been speaking in prose all his life.” in the aftermath of World War I and the many have shied away from such complex The Trio concludes with a final variation rise of Communism in his homeland. But challenges. Late in his brief life, Mozart so huge that many have considered it a whether his point of departure was the wrote one great string trio; Beethoven separate movement. It comes to a somber music of Pergolesi, as in Pulcinella, or, as wrote three as a young man but never came end. Tchaikovsky marks the final page the composer wrote in an article about the back to the form. Hindemith wrote two and Lugubre (Lugubrious), and over a funeral Octet in 1924, “that luminous idea of pure Schoenberg one, but string trios remain march in the piano come fragments of the counterpoint, which already existed long extremely rare. cello’s theme from the very beginning of before Bach,” everyone agrees that this is Dohnányi’s Serenade in C Major dates the first movement, now marked piangendo music of spare, sometimes angular, lines from 1902 when the 25-year-old composer (weeping). This theme gradually dissolves, spiced by vibrant syncopation and piquant was touring the world as a virtuoso pianist. and the piano marches into silence. blends of instrumental color. He did not play a stringed instrument, —Eric Bromberger Despite his protestations regarding any which makes the beautifully idiomatic identification of his music as derivative or writing for strings in his Serenade all the evocative of the 18th century, Stravinsky more remarkable. He balances the three himself compared the first movement’s slow instruments carefully, emphasizes their introduction, Sinfonia: Lento, to Haydn’s lyric possibilities, and achieves harmonic late symphonies. The brief Allegro moderato interest in a variety of ways, often using the that follows is a free treatment of sonata pizzicato cello as a foundation for the two form. The bulk of the work lies in its second higher voices. movement, a fascinating set of variations, The term serenade was originally used noteworthy at the very least because solely for vocal music but by Mozart’s time Stravinsky composed what would become had come to refer to lighter instrumental the waltz-like variation before then, distilling music intended for enjoyment or diversion; the actual theme from it. A prominent it is in this sense that Dohnányi employs the characteristic that would be easy to discern term. However, such a title should not keep even if it didn’t reappear in the first variation us from taking this music seriously. Good- is referred to as “ribbons of scales.” Against spirited and carefully crafted, the Serenade these cascades the first trombone calls out has become one of Dohnányi’s most a motif reminiscent of the Gregorian chant popular works. Dies irae. This is followed by a 180-degree The brief opening movement is a stirring turn to a variation that would not be out of march propelled along by the dotted figures place as a march in a light opera. Next comes that give the main theme its energy. The the aforementioned waltz variation, with trio section belongs to the cello before a the fourth go-round featuring a melody on very brief reprise of the opening march. A trumpets against the feverish conversation lovely viola cantilena opens the Romanza, of clarinets and bassoons. Stravinsky averred and here the soaring violin dominates the that the last variation, a fugato, was his middle section; the return of the opening favorite. The brief Finale follows without material—with violin and viola singing above pause and is closer in formal relation to a pizzicato cello accompaniment—is especially rondo with extensive counterpoint than effective. The Scherzo: Vivace is a fugue, the anything else. three voices making swirling entrances and 6 2018 Program Notes Week Three the music pressing forward constantly. A full of wide skips and string-crossings, is Friday, August 3, 6 pm lyric trio section gives way to the return of particularly difficult. the fugue, which now uses the trio theme as The third section, marked Andantino, is GIACINTO SCELSI (1905 – 1988) a countermelody. a set of variations. The piano alone plays String Quartet No. 2 (1961); Longest of the five movements, the the melody, which comes from Schubert’s String Quartet No. 4 (1964); Andante con moto is a theme with song “Sei mir gegrüsst” (“Greetings to String Quartet No. 5 (1974/85) variations. The wistful main theme is heard Thee”), written in 1821. Some of Schubert’s immediately, followed by five brief variations best-known compositions—the “Death Giacinto Scelsi has been dubbed “the Italian all within the subdued character of the and the Maiden” Quartet and the “Trout” Charles Ives,” but as is so often the case, theme. The buoyant finale is a Rondo based Quintet—also build a movement out of even an apt description robs us of the on its energetic opening theme. Near the variations on one of the composer’s own opportunity to explore the many layers of close, themes from the opening Marcia songs, and in the Fantasy Schubert offers this enigmatic figure. Born in Spezia, the are briefly reprised before the single four variations on “Sei mir gegrüsst.” These family’s aristocratic roots freed Scelsi from concluding chord. variations grow extremely complex—some financial burdens. His included some —Eric Bromberger have felt that they grow too complex—and years in Rome and then studies in Vienna. once again the music makes great demands He became familiar with Schoenberg and his FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797 – 1828) on its performers. At the conclusion of the early development of the 12-tone system of Fantasy in C Major for Violin & variations, the shimmering music from composition. Indeed, Scelsi can be said to be Piano, D. 934 (1827) the beginning returns briefly before the the first exponent of dodecaphony in Italy, vigorous final section, marked Allegro vivace. though he soon abandoned the technique. Schubert wrote the Fantasy for Violin & Schubert brings the Fantasy to a close with During the 1920s, Scelsi developed Piano in December 1827, only 11 months a Presto coda, both instruments straining relationships with writers like Jean Cocteau before his death at age 31. The music was forward before the violin suddenly flashes and Virginia Woolf and had his first first performed in public on January 20, 1828, upward to strike the concluding high C. exposure to non-Western music in Egypt. by violinist Joseph Slavík and pianist Carl —Eric Bromberger The following decade saw him at the Maria von Bocklet, one of Schubert’s close forefront of presenting composers such as friends. That premiere was a failure. The Hindemith, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and others. audience is reported to have begun to drift Running afoul of Mussolini’s policies against out during the performance, reviewers promoting the works of Jews, Scelsi found professed mystification, and the Fantasy his way to Switzerland by 1940 and stayed was not published until 1850, 22 years after there for the duration of World War II. Schubert’s death. A nervous breakdown following the end Hearing this lovely music today, it is hard of his marriage eventually led Scelsi to to imagine how anyone could have had extensive travels in Nepal and India, and his trouble with it, for the only thing unusual exposure to Eastern philosophy had a major about the Fantasy is its structure. About 20 impact on his own aesthetics. He prohibited minutes long, it falls into four clear sections the use of his photograph in conjunction that are played without pause. Though it with any of his music, refused to offer any seems to have some of the shape of a violin explanations for his music or philosophy sonata, the movements do not develop in of composition, and developed a passion the expected sonata form—that may have for expressing himself in poetry—in French. been what confused the first audience—and A major turning point in his work was the Schubert was quite correct to call this piece 1959 composition Quattro pezzi su una nota a “fantasy,” with that term’s implication of sola (Four Pieces Each on a Single Note) for freedom from formal restraint. chamber orchestra; the title is not whimsical, Melodic and appealing as the Fantasy but the work exhaustively explores the may be to hear, it is, nevertheless, extremely microtonal possibilities, not to mention difficult to perform, and it demands players timbral ones. of the greatest skill. The first section, marked Not surprisingly, the String Quartet No. 2, Andante molto, opens with shimmering which dates from two years later, shares ripples of sound from the piano, and the much of that same fixation. Central to the lovely violin line enters almost unnoticed. five movements of the Quartet is Scelsi’s Soon, though, it rises to soar high above addition of a custom metallic mute, giving the accompaniment before brief cadenza- the instruments an almost electronic like passages for violin and then piano lead timbre at times. The short first movement abruptly to the Allegretto. Here the violin is centered on the pitch G, with the second has the dance-like opening idea, but the exploring unsuspected small intervals piano immediately picks this up, and quickly between B-flat and A. The third movement the instruments are imitating and answering features an aggressive pizzicato section, each other. The violin writing in this section, while the fourth restores calm with a 7 2018 Program Notes Week Three meditation again on the note G. The longer BINNA KIM (b. 1983) Saturday, August 4, 5 pm finale hints at an association with the key of Stacked Emotions F Minor, although the faithful G reasserts its (2018 Festival Commission; world premiere) JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH dominance at the end. (1685 – 1750) It was Scelsi’s 1964 String Quartet No. 4 MICHAEL SELTENREICH (b. 1988) Italian Concerto in F Major, that both unveiled the composer’s ultimate Stalactite and Stalagmite BWV 971 (1735) distillation of discrete elements and presaged (2018 Festival Commission; world premiere) his fourth and final stylistic period, which It is thanks to Béla Bartók that concertgoers fully blossomed in the 1970s. It was not Please see “Young Composers String have warmed to the idea of a concerto enough anymore to treat instruments and Quartet Project” in the program book for for orchestra—lacking a true soloist—in their narrow focus within pitch intervals information about our Young Composers. his masterpiece from the 1940s. But J.S. as priceless resources; now the genesis Bach gave us the opposite—a keyboard came from each string of each instrument. work dubbed a concerto but lacking an Thus, we have a work scarcely more than accompanying ensemble—more than two 10 minutes in an average performance centuries earlier. The composer was very that requires a score of some 44 pages— specific on the title page: “Second part of because each string is given its own staff. the Keyboard Practice (“Clavier-Übung”), Scelsi would use this technique again later, consisting of a Concerto after the Italian notably in the work for cello titled Ygghur, taste and an Overture after the French and the Natura Renovatur for 11 stringed Manner, for a harpsichord with two manuals. instruments. Structurally the Quartet No. 4 Composed for music lovers, to refresh climbs ever so gradually from the note C their spirits, by Johann Sebastian Bach, to A, descends a bit to F, and then back to Kapellmeister to His Highness the Prince A. All of the instruments play from their of Saxe-Weissenfels and Director of the mid-range upwards, which dispenses entirely Choristers of Leipzig.” with any notion of the cello as the bass voice The Keyboard Practice referred to were of the ensemble. relatively slender volumes of pieces designed The String Quartet No. 5 proved to with a greater emphasis on the development be Scelsi’s final work, although by all of the “amateur” keyboard player as appearances he had already stopped opposed to the no-holds-barred works for composing. In 1974 Scelsi wrote Aitsi, Bach’s own use. Yet as we listen, we can a short work for electronically prepared well imagine the thousands of despairing piano. By 1976 it appeared he was finished amateurs yearning to master this music! composing, but the death of the French poet The key to understanding the work and its Henri Michaux jolted Scelsi to rework Aitsi imitation of concerto form is to note the into this final, brief Quartet. There are no specification for the work to be played on bar lines and no meter but rather a series an instrument with separate keyboards. The of numbered “events,” as it were. Nearly music for the principal manual represents all of them explode with a quick pizzicato the accompanying ensemble, the “soloist” note that launches a sustained pitch, most being heard on the lesser manual. Those who often F. The cello does not even make an perform it on a modern piano must draw appearance until about halfway through the this distinction even more clearly. nearly seven-minute work, but the intensity The “Italian” reference is to the three- of the sequence is undeniable. Each event movement structure that Bach had learned has its own unique blend of dynamics so thoroughly from Vivaldi principally, with crossing over the players, each time a central Andante movement bracketed dissolving into near silence. It is a fitting by fast movements (although the opening farewell to a composer who spent much movement in this work contains no tempo of his life exploring—and believing—that a marking). The assertive opening bars of the single pitch is enough to create an entire work are repeated at once in the key of sonic world. C Major, and the underlying energy is made —Greg Hettmansberger all the more urgent by Bach’s well-placed rests. The central Andante is dominated by a highly ornamented soaring melody—but Bach is careful to notate each decoration, not trusting performers the license to decorate his beguiling melody with their own flights of fancy. The concluding Presto is one of those non-stop affairs which caused the Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt to issue 8 2018 Program Notes Week Three this caution to would-be practitioners: “In certainly apt for his First Harpsichord Sonata. of his life there. the episodes the melodic material jumps The first movement devotes nearly half its The musical result was, at last count, 555 from one hand to the other, allowing no length to a slow section, dominated initially sonatas but not of the type that would let-up whatsoever. Pianists especially tend by the interval of fifths; these gradually emerge in Haydn’s and Mozart’s lifetimes. to let this movement run away completely, widen as melodic material is woven above. These are single-movement works, and, forgetting that even in a Presto Bach is agile The Allegro portion is driven almost although simple in overall design, how enough to dance!” relentlessly by a restless alternation of 3/8 varied they are in tone and expression. Ralph —Greg Hettmansberger and 4/8 meters. Kirkpatrick is credited with gathering the The Adagio deftly blends a sense of seminal research on Scarlatti and his music VINCENT PERSICHETTI (1915 – 1987) Baroque ornamentation with a thoroughly and thereby helping change the landscape Harpsichord Sonata No. 1, Op. 52 (1951) mid-20th-century harmonic freedom, of keyboard repertoire in the second half the working its way into increasing complexity last century. In his great biography of the A lifelong Philadelphian (although he over its short three-minute span. The finale composer, Kirkpatrick reveals the previously eventually enjoyed a distinguished career is a brief sonata form, with Persichetti underappreciated influence Scarlatti at the Juilliard School), Persichetti exhibited taking full advantage of a double- continued to have long after his death. He major musical talents at a young age, keyboard instrument. quotes none other than Chopin: “Those of despite the fact that neither his German- —Greg Hettmansberger my dear colleagues who teach the piano are born mother nor Italian father possessed unhappy that I make my own pupils work such gifts. Multiple degrees from the Combs DOMENICO SCARLATTI (1685 – 1757) on Scarlatti. But I am surprised they are so College of Music and the Philadelphia Sonata in E Major, K. 380 (1754) blinkered. His music contains finger exercises Conservatory followed after youthful aplenty and more than a touch of the most years of premieres and studies on various Was there ever a better year for bringing elevated spirituality. Sometimes he is even instruments. Persichetti composed from an prodigious musical talent into the world a match for Mozart. If I were not afraid of early age and later studied conducting with than 1685? Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg incurring the disapprobation of numerous Fritz Reiner at the Curtis Institute. Frideric Handel, and Domenico Scarlatti all fools, I would play Scarlatti at my concerts. William Schuman offered Persichetti a entered the world in that year, and while I maintain that the day will come when professorship at Juilliard in 1947, and it was the first two became twin pillars of the late Scarlatti’s music will often be played at there that Persichetti’s legacy of teaching Baroque, Scarlatti played a quieter role for concerts and that audiences will appreciate and composition was firmly established. He much of his life but eventually had more it and enjoy it.” rose to the chairmanship of the composition to do with the early evolution of Classicism The Sonata, K. 380 has emerged as one department by 1963, and his pupils were as than did his great contemporaries. of the most popular of all and was first disparate as Peter Schickele (aka P.D.Q. Bach) He certainly had the bloodlines for it. preserved in the fourth of a set of volumes and Philip Glass. It was also during this time His father Alessandro was a composer of compiled in Venice in 1754. The tempo that Persichetti pursued a passion for writing major stature, indeed considered nothing indication of Andante commodo misleads for wind ensemble, writing 14 works in all, less than the founder of the Neapolitan us as to the underlying energy of the music, several of which became repertory school of opera. But the family was still which is full of a courtly stateliness that standards for high school and college new to Naples when Domenico was born, at times seems barely contained. Though band programs everywhere. and his father’s greatest fame lay ahead. the work may have been written at the Persichetti’s overall style eludes easy Undoubtedly, Domenico’s first lessons came time of the onset of an illness which would classification; his works prior to 1950 from his father, and the son went on to eventually claim Scarlatti’s life just a few betray the almost inescapable influences of minor posts in Naples and then studies in years later, these last years proved among Stravinsky, Bartók, Copland, and Hindemith. Venice. Sometime after his arrival in Rome in the most fruitful of his compositional life. But his later works run a gamut that 1709 there was a “battle of the keyboardists” —Greg Hettmansberger includes polytonality, pandiatonicism, and pitting Scarlatti against none other than occasional serial techniques—but he was also Handel. Held at the palace of Cardinal Pietro BÉLA BARTÓK (1881 – 1945) influenced on occasion by Big Band-style. Ottoboni, Scarlatti was judged the greater Seven Pieces from Mikrokosmos (1939) Certainly such an eclectic composer was on harpsichord, while Handel was accorded a good candidate to aid in the 20th-century an unofficial victory at the organ. It was said Few composers of any era became as revival of the harpsichord, the once- that for the rest of his life Scarlatti crossed influential—and remained uniquely dominant keyboard driven to near-extinction himself in humility when the subject of uninfluenced by their contemporaries—as in the 19th century by the modern piano. Handel’s skill was raised. Béla Bartók. Yes, his early works betray any Persichetti first turned his attention to the The turning point of his life was Scarlatti’s number of initial nods to men such as Liszt instrument in 1951 with his Opus 52, and move to Lisbon in 1719, where he began and Richard Strauss and, to a lesser extent although it would be 30 years before he giving lessons to the princess Maria in the early 20th century, Debussy. But once returned to it, Persichetti would compose no Magdalena Barbara. He left in 1727, married his interest had turned to the folk traditions fewer than nine sonatas and his Serenade the following year in Rome, and returned of his native Hungary and he had begun No. 15 for the instrument. to the Iberian Peninsula via Seville in 1729. his travels through the hinterlands with In describing his music in general terms, In 1733 he moved to Madrid, where by this countryman Zoltán Kodály beginning in 1908, Persichetti often referred to it as going time the princess had married into the ruling Bartók’s work became a thoroughly unique “from gracious to gritty,” and the phrase is family of Spain. Thus, Scarlatti spent the rest amalgam of folk, classic, and modern strains. 9 2018 Program Notes Week Three Much of this can be heard (or for the dances, and inexorably concludes with a expression, but a number of them did find adventurous amateur, experienced) in the flourish. their way into the operas Rameau multi-layered collection of 153 pieces in six When asked near the end of his life eventually wrote. volumes that became Mikrokosmos. Three about the meaning of his chosen title, Rameau himself did not designate these of that eventual number (81, 137, and 146) Bartók explained that “Mikrokosmos may seven movements as a suite, but simply were composed in 1926; that was a year of be interpreted as a series of pieces in many grouped them by the key they shared, tremendous achievement in piano writing. different styles, representing a small world. A Minor, in the Nouvelles Suite (one writer Bartók needed more works to program, and Or it may be interpreted as ‘world of the points out that Rameau may have intended that year saw the creation of his First Piano little ones, the children’.” Most listeners a double meaning in the title of the overall Concerto, Out of Doors, and Nine Little might add “and so much more.” collection: “new” perhaps in the sense of Piano Pieces. But it was a perceived need —Greg Hettmansberger style and certainly indicating that these were for music for his son Peter that spurred all previously unpublished works). This was Bartók to take on the creation of pieces JEAN-PHILIPPE RAMEAU (1683 – 1764) the third such collection of keyboard works that would progress from the simplest Suite in A Minor (1729) published by Rameau, totaling some 60 teaching examples (albeit with a decidedly works in all. modern cast) to the final two volumes that While it seems a safe assumption that The opening three movements adhere to were considered concert-worthy pieces. creative artists believe that they have more the practice of setting stylized dance forms, Thus, Bartók managed to satisfy thousands left to say at the time of their passing, it with the expansive Allemande made notable of students over the past 80 years who is endlessly intriguing to muse upon how by a phrase of sprightly flourish that appears have wearied of Czerny, et al., along with disparate creators must have had some sort at the end of each section. The Courante was concertgoers and recording enthusiasts of inner clock: Mozart, dead at the age of 36, a dance with late 16th-century origins, with who find his brand of bracing pianism and Schubert, leaving this earth at 31. Each an interesting distinction between the Italian nowhere else. left hundreds of works despite the short time model and the French version. The former Ultimately, only the first two volumes given them. favors a brisk triple meter with continuous were dedicated to Peter (who was not the Rameau, on the other hand, could not running sequences; the French believed prodigy his father had been), and the final have been more deliberate. There can be little theirs to be the more civilized, unfolding in two were dedicated to Harriet Cohen. The debate that he showed his talent early (both a moderate 3/2 or 6/4 time. Rameau and his bulk of the work was written between 1932 his father and brother probably gave him his contemporaries liked to shift between the and 1938. Bartók himself was the first to first organ lessons), but there is no evidence two, temporarily displacing a duple feel for a play a group of 17 pieces in London in 1937, that he wrote anything of import in his early triple or vice versa. and he later recorded more than 30 of life. Indeed, his wife averred that she knew The brief Sarabande is followed by “The them. He also indicated that they could be next to nothing about her husband’s early Three Hands”: a gentle right-hand melody played on other instruments (harpsichordist life. Apparently, there was little to know; is more and more frequently leapt over by Huguette Dreyfus wasted no time in that Rameau spent years studying theory and the left hand, eventually creating the effect regard), and he also arranged seven of them harmony, and as for original compositions, of a three-handed work. The Fanfarinette for two pianos that he performed with his there was only a relatively scant number of was given the expressly feminine version of wife Ditta Pásztory-Bartók. motets and cantatas and two volumes of the title—more flirtatious in its energy than Of the selections for today’s program, harpsichord music. overtly aggressive—and “The Triumphant the four which are not part of that last But when Rameau moved to Paris in the One” is a clear answer to it. Six Dances in Bulgarian Rhythm are early 1720s, he felt he had everything in The Suite comes to a magnificent close fairly literal. Allegro pesante gives us the place to take his career to an entirely new with the Gavotte avec six Doubles, the heaviness implied in its title, while Boating level. In what may be the most famous letter phrase referring to ever-more-elaborate is gently undulating, the Perpetuum Mobile never answered, Rameau wrote in 1727 to variations. The final pair of variations shows thoroughly energetic (this was one of the the famous librettist Antoine Houdart de off each hand, with the final statement of works Bartók played with Ditta), and the la Motte, laying out his case as a composer the theme given to the right, while the left Bagpipe is given the prerequisite ready to write great operas. Alluding to executes some joyful virtuosity. drone imitation. his lack of finished work, he spoke of his —Greg Hettmansberger The Six Dances in Bulgarian Rhythms belief that one should “study nature before refers to the mixed meters that Bartók painting it,” but he also cited his harpsichord discovered in those folk originals, often pieces of 1724 as worthy examples of his something like a 4+2+3 pattern, but not ability to portray emotion. exclusively. Dance No. 3 is in a five-pattern De la Motte did not respond to the eager (2+3) and alternates a dance line with a would-be opera composer, but Rameau second melody—the whole very high-energy wasted no time in completing a set of delivered with force. Dance No. 4 unfolds harpsichord pieces that, in some respects, in a 3+2+3 pattern, an almost stumbling, give us a classic “chicken or the egg” if joyful, hopping that is taken through scenario. For the Nouvelles Suites de Pièces five variations that culminate in a feeling de Clavecin not only have been cited as of stomping. The final dance is 3+3+2, quasi-orchestral in their timbral breadth combines subtle references to the previous and dramatic in their range of emotional 10 2018 Program Notes Week Three ERIC BROMBERGER earned his doctorate in American Literature at UCLA and taught for 10 years before quitting to devote himself to his first love, music. A violinist, Bromberger writes program notes for the Minnesota Orchestra, Washington Performing Arts at The Kennedy Center, San Francisco Performances, University of Chicago Presents, La Jolla Music Society, San Diego Symphony, and many other organizations. He has been a pre-concert lecturer for the Los Angeles Philharmonic since 1999.

GREG HETTMANSBERGER has contributed criticism and features to the Los Angeles Times, L.A. Weekly, Los Angeles Daily News, Performing Arts, and the Santa Barbara News-Press and was a staff writer for Los Angeles Opera, for which he has written two yearbooks. This is his 23rd season of writing program notes for the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. He currently contributes articles to Madison Magazine and writes the blog WhatGregSays at www.whatgregsays.wordpress.com, co-hosts the radio program “Sacred Choral Classics,” and provides annotations for the New Mexico Symphonic Chorus.

HANNELORE N. ROGERS has been the editor of the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival’s program book for 11 years. A writer/editor based in Omaha, Nebraska, her current and past clients also include the New York Philharmonic, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Arts Centre Orchestra (Canada), the National Arts Centre English Theatre (Canada), Handel and Haydn Society, Choral Arts Philadelphia, and Omaha Chamber Music Society, among others. Prior to her work as a freelance writer she was the marketing director of the Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, and New Mexico symphony orchestras.

11 2018 Program Notes Week Three 12 2018 Program Notes Week Three