Mitsuko Uchida and Mahler ChaMber OrChestra WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 7:30 PM BEASLEY CURTIS AUDITORIUM, MEMORIAL HALL PRESENTING SPONSOR The William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust CAMPUS PARTNER Carolina Asia Center mahler chamber orchestra Piano and Director Mitsuko Uchida Timpani Martin Piechotta (Germany) Viola Béatrice Muthelet* (France), Florent Brémond (France), Yannick Concertmaster and Leader Violin I Matthew Truscott** (Great Matthew Truscott Britain), Annette zu Castell (Germany), Dondelinger (Great Britain), Julia May Kunstovny (Austria), Anna Neher (Germany), Delphine Tissot Flute Chiara Tonelli (Italy) Matz (Germany), Hildegard Niebuhr (France) Oboe Clement Noël (France), (Germany), Geoffroy Schied (France), Violoncello Frank-Michael Julian Scott (Great Britain) Sonja Starke (Germany), Hayley Guthmann* (Germany), Stefan Faludi Bassoon Fredrik Ekdahl (Sweden), Wolfe (USA) (Germany), Christophe Morin (France), Chiara Santi (Italy) Philipp von Steinaecker (Germany) Violin II Irina Simon-Renes* Horn José Miguel Asensi Martí (Germany), Stephanie Baubin Double Bass Christine Felsch* (Spain), Anais Romero Blanquez (Austria), Michiel Commandeur (Germany), Jon Mikel Martínez (Spain) (Netherlands), Christian Heubes Valgañón (Spain), Piotr Zimnik Trumpet Ingrid Eliassen (Norway), (Germany), Paulien Holthuis (Poland) Florian Kirner (Germany) (Netherlands), Nanni Malm (Austria), **Concertmaster *Principal Naomi Peters (Netherlands) 22 ticket services 919.843.3333 carolinaperformingarts.org 23 MITSUKO UCHIDA AND MAHLER CHAMBER ORCHESTRA first with an orchestra, is one of only two stops in the United States of her PROGRAM 2019 tour with the Mahler Chamber MOZART Piano Concerto No. 19 in F Major, K.459 Orchestra, pairing two Mozart piano (1756-1791) I. Allegro concertos with excerpts from Alban II. Allegretto Berg’s Lyric Suite. III. Allegro assai Matthew Truscott is a versatile BERG Three Pieces from Lyric Suite violinist who shares his time between (1885-1935) (arranged for string orchestra) period instrument and ‘modern’ I. Andante amoroso performance, appearing with some II. Allegro misterioso of the finest musicians in both fields. III. Adagio appassionato He is the concertmaster of the Mahler INTERMISSION Chamber Orchestra, and also one of the leaders of the Orchestra of MOZART Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K.466 the Age of Enlightenment. His past (1756-1791) I. Allegro II. Romance work includes projects with English III. Allegro assai National Opera, the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, Budapest Festival Orchestra, The English Concert, Le Concert d’Astrée, and EGENDARY PIANIST music, she collaborates closely others. He is also the leader of Mitsuko Uchida brings a with the world’s finest musicians. Classical Opera, St James’s Baroque, deep insight into the music She recently partnered with Jörg L and the Magdalena Consort. Matthew she plays through her own quest for Widmann for a series of concerts at also teaches baroque violin at the truth and beauty. Renowned for her the Wigmore Hall, Elbphilharmonie, Royal Academy of Music in London. interpretations of Mozart, Schubert, and Carnegie Hall and has Schumann, and Beethoven, she has collaborated with Magdalena Mahler Chamber Orchestra (MCO) also illuminated the music of Berg, Kožená, Dorothea Röschmann, was founded in 1997 based on the Schoenberg, Webern, and Boulez for and the Ebène Quartet. shared vision of being a free and a new generation of listeners. She international ensemble, dedicated regularly performs with the world’s Uchida records exclusively for Decca, to creating and sharing exceptional most respected orchestras—including and her extensive discography experiences in classical music. the Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago includes the complete Mozart and With 45 members spanning 20 Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic, Schubert piano sonatas. She received different countries at its core, MCO Royal Concertgebouw, Bayerischer a Grammy in 2011 for her recording works as a nomadic collective of Rundfunk, and London Symphony— of Mozart concerti directing the passionate musicians uniting for and conductors Mariss Jansons, Cleveland Orchestra and in 2017 for specific tours in Europe and across Riccardo Muti, Sir Simon Rattle, Esa- an album of Schumann and Berg the world. It has, to date, performed Pekka Salonen, Vladimir Jurowski, lieder with Dorothea Röschmann. Her in over 40 countries across five and Andris Nelsons. recording of the Schoenberg Piano continents. The MCO is governed Concerto with Pierre Boulez and collectively by its management Since 2016, Uchida has been an the Cleveland Orchestra won four team and orchestra board; decisions artistic partner of the Mahler Chamber awards, including The Gramophone are made democratically with the Orchestra, directing Mozart concerti Award for Best Concerto. participation of all musicians. from the keyboard in tours of major European and Japanese venues. With This concert, her fourth appearance The MCO’s sound is characterized by a strong commitment to chamber with Carolina Performing Arts and the chamber music style of ensemble 24 ticket services 919.843.3333 MITSUKO UCHIDA AND MAHLER CHAMBER ORCHESTRA playing among its alert PROGRAM NOTES and independent musical personalities. The orchestra received WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART its most significant artistic impulses Piano Concerto No. 19 in F Major, K.459 from its founding mentor, Claudio The year 1784 was a good one for the 28-year-old Mozart. He had moved Abbado, and from Conductor to Vienna in 1781 and quickly discovered that the city, as he wrote to his Laureate Daniel Harding. Pianist father, was “certainly the land of the clavier.” The fortepianos he found Mitsuko Uchida, violinist Pekka there, with their lighter touch and more delicate articulation, were well- Kuusisto, and conductor Teodor suited to his playing style. He started a regular series of subscription Currentzis are current artistic concerts throughout the city and, to sustain audience interest, wrote partners who inspire and shape new keyboard music at a fevered pitch. Between 1782 and 1786, he the orchestra. Concertmaster churned out 15 of his 28 keyboard concertos. Matthew Truscott leads and directs the orchestra regularly in its Even within that prodigious period, 1784 was different, marking an performances of chamber orchestra apex of Mozart’s writing for keyboard. Most of his compositions that repertoire. year featured piano, including a quintet for piano and winds, sonatas for violin and piano, and six full piano concertos. This concerto, The MCO’s Education & Outreach his nineteenth, was the last of the year, completed in December projects include Feel the Music, which and premiered in early 1785. It was one of two concertos Mozart opens the world of music to deaf would perform for the coronation of Leopold II in 1790. Strangely, and hard of hearing children through Mozart noted in his catalog of works that the ensemble for this workshops in schools and concerts concerto included two trumpets and timpani (perhaps as part of the halls, and the MCO Academy, through coronation?), but no score with those instruments has ever been found. which the emsemble works with the next generation of musicians The piece sees Mozart in a cheerful mood. It positively bursts with to provide a high quality orchestral material: the opening movement contains no fewer than six distinct experience and platform for themes, and the other two movements present a similar proliferation, international exchange. all of which Mozart manipulates with his usual confidence. ALBAN BERG The MCO’s major projects in recent Three Pieces from Lyric Suite (arranged for string orchestra) years include the award-winning Upon its premiere at the Baden-Baden Festival in 1927, Alban Berg’s Beethoven Journey with pianist Leif Lyric Suite for string quartet was an immediate hit. The audience Ove Andsnes, who led the complete loved it so much that they forced the Kolisch Quartet to perform it Beethoven concerto cycle from the again, and composer Aaron Copland raved that it was “one of the keyboard in international residences. best works written for string quartet in recent years.” The work’s six In 2012, the ensemble premiered movements are a masterclass in the wide expressive capacity of Arnold the opera Written on Skin at the Schoenberg’s twelve-tone technique (in which all twelve pitches in an Festival d’Aix-en-Provence under octave are given equal weight harmonically and melodically). Equally the baton of composer George emphasized are the expansive sonic possibilities of the string quartet— Benjamin, with whom the orchestra setting the stage for Béla Bartók’s equally explosive Third and Fourth shares a close musical friendship. Quartets, which he would write shortly after Berg’s work premiered. The MCO’s current partnership Throughout the Suite, Berg juggles those twelve tones to create aching with Mitsuko Uchida, centred on lines and impenetrable dissonances with equal ease. To this day, Mozart’s piano concertos, includes there is even some lively debate about whether the work is actually multi-year residences at Salzburg’s meant to recount the affair between Berg and his longtime mistress, Mozartwoche, London’s Southbank Hanna Fuchs-Robettin, with different pitch combinations and numeric Centre and New York’s Carnegie Hall. carolinaperformingarts.org 25 MITSUKO UCHIDA AND MAHLER CHAMBER ORCHESTRA groupings relating to episodes between them. Whether 11, 1785, at Vienna’s Mehlgrube Casino, Mozart wanted that theory is real or fictitious is up for