Schumann l Dohnányi Earl Wild, Pianist Isaiah Jackson, Conductor l American String Orchestra

l l l l l l l l

Robert Schumann (1810-1856): Piano Quintet in E flat Major, Opus 44 1 I. Allegro brillante 2 II. In modo d’una marcia: Un poco largamente 3 III. Scherzo: Molto vivace 4 IV. Allegro ma non troppo It seems curious that among the wide variety of chamber music combinations created by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, there is not a single work originally written for piano and the standard string quartet. There are a number of compositions for two or three strings and piano by these masters, but apparently nobody ever thought of commissioning a piano quintet. Although there are some minor early works for string quartet with a piano continuo part, it remained for Robert Schumann to pioneer the form of the quintet for piano, two violins, viola, and cello. His single model for that combination inspired the notable examples of piano quintets by nineteenth century composers, such as Johannes Brahms, Antonin Dvorak, César Franck and Gabriel Fauré. According to musicologist Alfred R. Neuman, “The early piano quintet form (as repre- sented by Louis Spohr and other early Romantic composers) suffered from the fact that it was primarily a piano virtuoso piece with string accompaniment. The balance between the instruments, especially in the opening Schumann Quintet in E flat Major, was by no means meant to be equal. The piano part does not represent one-fifth of the tonal factors, but rather balances the four strings as one unit. Though the nature of the string parts is inde- pendent, they are really no more independent than the orchestral part of a concerto. Where Schubert, in his Trout Quintet, seemed to divide a second piano part into four string parts (including a double bass instead of the second violin), Schumann condensed an orchestral accompaniment of a piano concerto into the string parts of this quintet.” This is why the Schumann work sounds so rich and wonderful with an expanded string section. – 2 – Prior to 1840, piano pieces formed the bulk of Robert Schumann’s compositional out- put. But early in 1840 he started composing lieder, and before the year was out he had written nearly half of his 250 songs, among them such important cycles as Dichterliebe, Myrthen, Frauenliebe und leben and both the Heine and Eichendorf Liederkreis. The songs, however did nothing to dispel Schumann’s reputation as a miniaturist. His wife, Clara, concerned that her well-established career as a pianist was beginning to over- shadow her husband’s efforts as a composer, encouraged him to broaden his scope by tackling larger forms. In 1841, he pro- duced two symphonies (Nos. 1 and 4) and the “Fantasia,” which he later expanded into the Piano Concerto in A Minor, Opus 54. Next he set to study- ing the quartets of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. The Quintet in E flat Major, Opus 44, was written in Schu- mann’s most fertile chamber Manuscript of the opening of Schumann’s Quintet, Opus 44

– 3 – music year: 1842. Six of his ten compositions in that field were written in that year: the three string quartets, Opus 41, the Piano Quartet, Opus 47, Fantasiestücke for piano trio, Opus 88, and the Piano Quintet on this recording. It was a period of greatest happiness for Schumann. Just two years earli- er he had finally been able to marry his beloved of many years, the pianist, Clara Wieck. As Clara Schumann she performed the piano part of this quintet at its pre- mière on January 8, 1843. The opening movement, Allegro brillante, begins with a heroic theme, harmonized in plain chords, which recurs again in later movements. After travelling through several keys, the opening theme gives way to a second melody, a statement and answer by celli and violas of unforgettable Robert Schumann tenderness, providing the main material of the whole movement. The mood changes completely with the second movement, a funeral march, character- ized by a melancholy, rhythmic pattern in the low register strings, with the violas taking an important role. With a sudden key change, the violins take over with a contemplative song in C major, accompanied by exceedingly pianistic passage work. The heartbeat-type rhythm then returns to close the movement. The scherzo is based on rapidly ascending and descending scale passages, testing the – 4 – performers’ technical skill, without, however, sacrificing melodiousness. The finale, Allegro ma non troppo, presents a great wealth of tonal beauty and ideas. Schumann provides enough musical material for two average movements, arranging the ideas into a kind of double sonata form. The careful listener will be able to discern even without a score the sequence of exposition (two themes), development, and recapitula- tion, here followed by a new exposition (a third theme), a second development (including elements of the first theme), and a second recapitulation, capped by a brief coda, re-presenting the first theme. The originality of the Quintet in E flat Major thus extends into the areas of instrumentation, form, and melody.

Ernst von Dohnányi (1877-1960): Piano Quintet in C Minor, Opus 1 5 I. Allegro 6 II. Scherzo: Allegro vivace 7 III. Adagio: quasi andante 8 IV. Finale: Allegro animato

Dohnányi was born in 1877 in a town located thirty five miles east of Vienna, the cap- ital of Austria. The town of Dohnányi’s birth was Hungary’s capital for hundreds of years. In Hungarian its name was Pozsony. In German, when Hungary was part of the Austro- Hungarian Empire (1867-1918), its name was Pressburg. Now this town’s name is Bratislava, and today it is the capital of the Slovakia. Ernö Dohnányi’s own name has a German version, Ernst von Dohnanyi. Political turmoils in Europe, of course, affected citizens of many countries of that con- tinent, not just the Hungarians. The two world wars and the frequent rearrangements of national borders were, however, far more severe in European lands east of . Many eastern European classical instrumentalists and composers born at the end of the 19th cen- tury found themselves displaced and forced to seek safe havens all over the world. The fate of Dohnányi is especially ironic, because he was for a long time Hungary’s preeminent musical force. He was an internationally acclaimed pianist, world renowned composer, and conductor of the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra for a quarter of a cen- tury with whom he performed more than one hundred programs each season. Dohnányi – 5 – championed younger composers, such as Bartók and Kodály. He was also the musical director of the Hungarian Radio, concertized all over the world promoting Hungarian music, and presided over the Budapest Academy, where he taught piano and composition for many years. In short, from 1915 to 1944 Dohnányi had a powerful influence on the musical development of his native country. Yet by 1948 he was hounded out of Hungary and, after brief stopovers in Austria and in England, he found a temporary respite in Argentina, where he chaired the piano department at the University of Tucumán, some 800 miles northwest of Buenos Aires. From 1949 until his death in 1960, Dohnányi lived in the United States, thanks in great part to the foresight and largess of Florida State University in Tallahassee, which provided him with a faculty position in its music department. His appointment by a U.S. institution of higher learning does not appear to be an unusual event until one realizes that in 1949 Dohnányi was already 72 years old, seven years older than the then standard mandatory retirement age for employees, including professors. The musical journey that ended with a heart attack and a fatal bout with influenza in early February 1960 in began when, at age 8, Dohnányi started his piano and harmony lessons with Karóly Forstner, the Pressburg Cathedral’s organist. In 1893 Dohnányi entered the Royal Hungarian Academy of Music in Budapest, where he was taught piano by Stephan Thomen and composition by Hans Koessler. He also received a few master lessons from Eugen d’Albert (1864-1932), a Franz Liszt pupil. Dohnányi’s musical career started very auspiciously. His Opus 1, the Piano Quintet No.1 in C Minor, was warmly praised by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897). In 1896, Dohnányi was awarded the King’s Prize in composition by the Hungarian government. In 1899, his Piano Concerto, Opus 5, won the von Bülow (Bösendorfer) Prize in Vienna, beating more than sixty competing compositions by others. Dohnányi’s 1898 pianistic debut in London, where he performed his favorite Beethoven Piano Concerto No.4 in G major, Opus 58, was also a tremendous success. In 1954, Ohio State University awarded Dohnányi an honorary doctorate. In his wan- ing years, he composed and performed much less. His last live recital was in Tallahassee in 1959. He continued to record, however; at the time of his death, Dohnányi was in New York City making studio recordings of Beethoven’s music for Everest Records. In the summer of 1895 the composer, only eighteen years old and still a student at the – 6 – Royal Academy, visited Johannes Brahms at his summer retreat at Ischl, a popular gathering place for musi- cians and writers in the Austrian Tyrol. Brahms was highly enthusiastic over Dohnányi’s newly created Piano Quintet in C Minor, and arranged an immediate performance of the work, with Dohnányi playing the piano part. It achieved an immediate success. Without a doubt it is one of the most noteworthy examples of an Opus 1 in the entire history of music. The Quintet in C Minor was published in 1902. It comprises four traditional movements, the Scherzo being placed before the slow movement. Because of the strong influence of Brahms pervading this work, many historians have often referred to it as “Brahms’ Second Piano Quintet.” Apart from anything else, the piano part reminds us that Dohnányi was a virtuoso and pupil of one of Liszt’s Ernst von Dohnányi disciples. Indeed, it is the piano which at the start of the initial Allegro, expresses the first theme whose first bar constitutes a rhythmic cell which generates several of the work’s important elements. The theme is both energetic and painful. The piano, already agitated, calms down briefly before the very beautiful song of the second motif is heard in the first violins and the violas – a theme whose lyricism is accentuated by broad arpeggios on the piano. The development is a true conflict between two themes, a juxtaposition of the light and the shade, the violence and the softness. The tempo is accentuated and becomes more marked and oppressive. – 7 – The first theme reappears again, but adagio, before the crescendo and coda in C major. The Scherzo is an allegro vivace in A minor which uses a sober motif exposed on the first violins; the trio in A major, a beautiful theme of prayer, played pianis- simo, brings a mysterious calm to this ebullient movement. It is the violas which sing the initial motif of the Adagio quasi andante immediately taken up by the violins around the backing of the celli and the syncopated chords of the keyboard. As soon as the piano becomes involved, a rapid modulation leads to a lyrical theme sung by the strings that the piano backs with sextuplets and a beautiful bass motif. This move- ment, which is in song form, ends Isaiah Jackson and Earl Wild poco piu adagio. The initial theme of the finale, Allegro animato, is very rhythmic. The celli sing a serene phrase which the piano takes time to adopt as well. We then hear a very Brahmsian and somewhat contrapuntal “inter- mezzo” in F minor. Shortly before the end of the movement, the first-movement theme itself enters briefly, however it is the metrically asymmetrical first theme of the finale which brings the Quintet to a close, prompting one contemporary critic to state that Dohnányi “reveals himself often in this work a dreamer, but, above all, it is his ardent and dominating musical personality that leaves us wanting to hear more!” – Notes by Marina and Victor Ledin, ©2000 – 8 – l l l l l l l l

In the 1930’s, I heard the extraordinary Dutch pianist Egon Petri (also a teacher of mine), play the Brahms Piano Quintet with the N.B.C. String Orchestra with added basses. It was one of my most thrilling musical experiences – hearing this composition played with the full sound and drama that Brahms must have assuredly heard in his head during the creation of this masterpiece. Since that profound experience, I’ve always wished I could hear other composers’ piano quintets that same way. I believe most of these works were written with a larger con- cept in mind. I am convinced that Schumann heard this full sound when he wrote his Quintet – Dohnányi as well. One summer in the late 1970’s, I organized and conducted a chamber program at Wolftrap Farm Park for the Performing Arts (outside Washington, DC), that included a performance of the Chausson Concerto for Piano, Violin and String Quartet. In that per- formance I used a full compliment of strings and added a bass part. The result was phe- nomenal and provided a wonderfully emotional and dramatic sound. The music literally jumped off of the page – the emotional impact on the audience was tremendous. By augmenting the strings and adding a bass part, I have tried to create that same effect on this disc. Isaiah Jackson conducts our American String Orchestra ensemble. We have performed together on numerous occasions over the past 20 years and I greatly admire his abilities.

– 9 – Earl Wild “When Earl Wild performs, the Golden Age of the keyboard suddenly reappears.” TIME Magazine (1995)

l l l l l l l l

Earl Wild is a pianist in the grand Romantic tradition. His legendary career, so distin- guished and long, has continued for well over 70 years. Born in 1915, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Earl Wild’s technical accomplishments are often likened to what those of Liszt himself must have had. Born with absolute pitch he started playing the piano at three. Having studied with great pianists such as Egon Petri, his lineage can be traced back to Scharwenka, Busoni, Ravel, d’Albert and Liszt himself. Earl Wild’s career is dotted with musical legends. As a young pianist he was soloist with Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony. Since then he has performed with virtu- ally every major conductor and symphony orchestra in the world. Rachmaninov was an important idol in his life. It’s been said of Earl Wild, “He’s the incarnation of Rach- maninov, Lhevinne and Rosenthal rolled into one!” In 1986 after hearing him play three sold-out Carnegie Hall concerts, devoted to Liszt, honoring the centenary of that com- poser’s death, one critic said, “I find it impossible to believe that he played those millions of notes with 70-year-old fingers, so fresh-sounding and precise were they. Perhaps he has a worn-out set up in his attic, a la Oscar Wilde’s Picture of Dorian Gray.” He’s one of the few American pianists to have achieved international as well as domes- tic celebrity. He has performed for six Presidents of the United States, beginning with Herbert Hoover, and in 1939, was the first classical pianist to give a recital on the new medium of Television. At fourteen he was performing in the Pittsburgh Symphony with Otto Klemperer as well as working at radio station KDKA, where he played many of his own compositions. As a virtuoso pianist, composer, transcriber, conductor, editor and teacher, Mr. Wild continues in the style of the legendary great artists of the past. In addition to his distinguished concert career, which encompasses performances with conductors such as Stokowski, Reiner, Maazel, Solti and Mitropoulos, and artists like Callas, Tourel, Pons, Melchior, Peerce and Bumbry, Wild successfully shines as both a – 10 – conductor and composer. His Easter oratorio, Revelations, was broadcast by the ABC net- work in 1962 and again in 1964. Wild’s recent composition, Variations on a Theme of Stephen Foster for piano and orchestra (“Doo-Dah” Variations), premiered with Wild as soloist with the Des Moines Symphony Orchestra in 1992. Earl Wild has been called “the finest transcriber of our time,” and his many piano transcriptions are widely known and respected. This eminent pianist has built an extensive repertoire over the years, which includes both the standard and modern literature. He has become world renown in particular for his brilliant performances of the virtuoso Romantic works. Today at 84, Mr. Wild con- tinues to record and perform concerts throughout the world. In 1997, he won a Grammy® Award for his disc, “The Romantic Master” – Virtuoso Piano Tran- scriptions. Praised by critics and music lovers around the world as a “stunning document of musical sensitivity and virtuosity” and “a tribute to America’s greatest pianistic trea- sure” – this CD is once again available in its original HDCD state-of-the-art audiophile sound on Ivory Classics® (70907). Along with the release of over 20 other CDs in the last 10 years, when he was 79, he recorded a well received Beethoven disc which included the monumental Hammerklavier Sonata, as well as another disc composed of Rachmaninov’s Preludes and the Second Piano Sonata. As an Ivory Classics® artist, he has just recorded three 20th century piano sonatas by Barber, Hindemith and Stravinsky as well as a sonata of his own, which will be released in celebration of his 85th birthday, in the year 2000.

Isaiah Jackson l l l l l l l l

American conductor Isaiah Jackson is now in his fourth season as Music Director of the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra. As guest conductor, he has led many distinguished North American orchestras, including the , the , the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the symphony orchestras of Houston, Dallas, Toronto, San Francisco, Detroit, Baltimore and Indianapolis, as well as the Pops, – 11 – Grant Park Festival Orchestra, Calgary Philharmonic, Rochester Philharmonic, Louisville Orchestra and National Symphony (Washington, DC). While still a student at the of Music, Jackson was engaged as ’s assistant with the American Symphony Orchestra and named music director of the New York Youth Symphony. He later held posts with the Baltimore Symphony and the Rochester Philharmonic and most recently was music director of the Dayton Philharmonic for eight seasons. Highlights of 1999 and 2000 include the inaugural concert at Cafaro Field as well as debuts in Israel and in South Africa, where Jackson becomes the first person of color to conduct the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra. Jackson made his European orchestral debut with the Vienna Symphony in July 1973. During that summer he served at ’s suggestion as artistic director of Vienna’s Youth Music Festival. He became the first American to hold a major post at Covent Garden when he was appointed principal conductor and, later, music director of . In Europe, he has conducted the Orchestre de la Suisse-Romande, the BBC Concert Orchestra, the Helsinki Philharmonic at the Helsinki Festival, the Gaevleborg Symphony, and the R.A.I. Orchestra in Rome. He has appeared at the Spoleto Festival in Italy and during the 1994-1995 season made debuts with the Czech Symphonic Orchestra at the opening of the Prague Autumn International Music Festival, the Stockholm Symphonic Wind Orchestra and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. He has conducted before mem- bers of Britain’s Royal Family on several occasions, including the 90th birthday gala for Royal Ballet founder Dame Ninette de Valois which was attended by Her Majesty the Queen, and at the memorial service for Sir Frederick Ashton in Westminster Abbey. Active in the world’s recording studios, Isaiah Jackson has made three recordings with the Symphony: string music by the film composers , Miklos Rozsa and , and dance music by William Grant Still, both for Koch, and a live performance CD is devoted to the music of Australian composer Nigel Butterley, recorded for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s ABC Classics label with the Melbourne Symphony. Jackson’s concerts with various Australian orchestras have been beamed nationwide by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. His Boston Pops appearances have been heard on the Pops network in the United States. His performances with the Gaevleborg – 12 – Symphony were broadcast throughout Sweden. He has been seen and heard throughout Great Britain with the BBC Concert Orchestra. Jackson also conducts on the Royal Ballet video, “Still Life at the Penguin Cafe,” on the London/Decca label. Born in 1945, Jackson is a cum laude graduate of Harvard, where he majored in Russian history and literature. He holds graduate degrees from and the Juilliard School of Music, and he studied at Fontainebleau, Aspen, and Tanglewood. Jackson is married to Helen Tuntland Jackson, a consultant in the field of music edu- cation. The couple have three children, Benjamin, Katharine and Caroline.

AMERICAN STRING ORCHESTRA – Personnel l l l l l l l l

First Violins Second Violins Stacey Woolley – Concert Master Scott Mozlin Mauricio Aguiar Hye-Sun Park Sylvia Mitchell John McLaughlin Williams Mari Thomas Manami White Paul Patterson Julia Stoltie Denise Doolan Dorothy Han Elizabeth Shelton Tamara Meinecke Harvey Thurmer Anne Horvath Karen Lord

Violas Celli Bassi Steven Rosen Norman Johns Matthew Zory Paul Frankenfeld Thomas Guth Boris Astafiev Catharine Carroll Katrina Aguiar Rick Vizachero Denisse Rodriguez Susan Marshall Petersen Heidi Yenney Paul Gronquist Lucille Firlie – 13 – Earl Wild and Chief Recording Engineer Ed Thompson – 14 – CREDITS l l l l l l l l Recorded in Corbett Auditorium, Cincinnati, Ohio, March 13-14, 2000 Original 24-Bit Master Producer: Michael Rolland Davis Recording Engineer: Ed Thompson Assistants to the Engineer: Larry Reynolds and Jeremy Boeckman Piano Technician: Edd Kolakowski Generous assistance came from the Michael Palm Foundation and Ivory Classics Foundation Special thanks to Concert Master and contractor Stacey Woolley Liner Notes: Marina and Victor Ledin Design: Communication Graphics Inside Tray Photo: Earl Wild, Isaiah Jackson and the American String Orchestra (Photo by Edd Kolakowski)

To place an order or to be included on mailing list: Ivory Classics® • P.O. Box 341068 • Columbus, Ohio 43234-1068 Phone: 888-40-IVORY or 614-761-8709 • Fax: 614-761-9799 [email protected] • Website: http://www.IvoryClassics.com – 15 – American String Orchestra Schumann IsaiahIsaiah Jackson,Jackson, Conductor dohnÁnyi Earl Wild, Pianist

Schumann: Piano Quintet in E flat Major, Opus 44 30:26 1 I. Allegro brillante 8:35 2 II. In modo d’una marcia: Un poco largamente 9:50 3 III. Scherzo: Molto vivace 4:49 4 IV. Allegro ma non troppo 7:12

Dohnányi: Piano Quintet in C Minor, Opus 1 30:14 5 I. Allegro 8:59 6 II. Scherzo: Allegro vivace 5:11 7 III. Adagio: quasi andante 7:46 8 IV. Finale: Allegro animato 8:18 Total Playing Time : 61:06 Producer: Michael Rolland Davis • Engineer: Ed Thompson Original 24-Bit Master

2000 Ivory Classics® • All Rights Reserved. 64405-71003 STEREO Ivory Classics® • P.O. Box 341068 Columbus, Ohio 43234-1068 U.S.A. Phone: 888-40-IVORY or 614-761-8709 • Fax: 614-761-9799 ® [email protected] • Website: www.IvoryClassics.com