Matthew Lipman Henry Kramer

MATTHEW LIPMAN VIOLA

HENRY KRAMER PIANO MATTHEW LIPMAN VIOLA HENRY KRAMER PIANO

YORK BOWEN (1884–1961) 1 Phantasy for Viola and Piano, Op. 54 (14:36) CLARICE ASSAD (b. 1978) Metamorfose* (11:56) 2 I. Crisálidas (5:07) 3 II. Dança das Borboletas (6:47) ROBERT SCHUMANN (1810–1856) Märchenbilder, Op. 113 (14:57) 4 I. Nicht Schnell (3:20) 5 II. Lebhaft (3:51) 6 III. Rasch (2:34) 7 IV. Langsam, mit melancholischem Ausdruck (5:01) GARTH KNOX (b. 1956) 8 Fuga libre (8:40) DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH (1906–1975) 9 Impromptu for Viola and Piano, Op. 33* (1:56) FRANZ WAXMAN (1906–1967) 10 Carmen Fantasie** (12:00)

TT: (64:37)

*World Premiere Recording **First recording on viola PERSONAL NOTE MATTHEW LIPMAN This album was made as an homage composed impetuously in one sitting, to my mother, Robin Lipman and the virtuosic Waxman Carmen (12/21/1949 – 7/17/2014). She was Fantasie, originally a college project one of the most generous, selfless, of mine, that embraces its larger and empathetic people I have known. than life personality. I wanted to title She had the innate ability to make this personally meaningful album everyone around her feel comfortable Ascent not only to describe the music and valued, and she could light up the it contains, but to allude generally to room in any situation with her larger the upward movement that happens than life personality. She was my throughout life and after. best friend. There are many complex moving The creative process behind the parts to making an album, and I am music started when I asked the so grateful for everyone who has wonderful Clarice Assad to compose been involved and supportive, a fantasy piece for viola and piano especially Henry, Jim, Judy, Patrick, as a tribute to my mother. The Julia, and Jeanne. resulting Metamorfose is a poignant commentary on the grief process (part I) and letting go (part II — Dance of the Butterflies). It seemed fitting, therefore, to pair this musical focal point with other music enraptured by flights of fantasy: the Schumann Fairy Tale Pictures and Bowen Phantasy as heart-on-sleeve fantasias with deft character changes, the Knox Fuga Libre as a piece that literally flies free, the Shostakovich Impromptu that was PROGRAM NOTES Notes by Patrick Castillo YORK BOWEN: PHANTASY FOR Bowen, like Rachmaninov, was VIOLA AND PIANO, OP. 54 equally accomplished as a pianist and composer. He gave the British Known as “the English Rachmaninov,” premiere of Mozart’s Concerto in F York Bowen (1884–1961) ranked Major for Three Pianos, K. 242, and the among the most celebrated English world premiere of William Walton’s pianists and composers of his Sinfonia concertante, and made the generation. As with Rachmaninov, first recording of Beethoven’s Fourth Bowen’s compositional style was Piano Concerto. (He was, moreover, an unapologetic vestige of the proficient in numerous orchestral Romantic era (and, indeed, indebted instruments, particularly the viola particularly to the Russian tradition); and horn — a facility evident in also like his Russian contemporary, the idiomatic writing throughout his Bowen’s posthumous legacy suffered instrumental scores.) Bowen performed from the datedness of his language his own compositions with leading against the backdrop of 20th-century virtuosi of the day, including violinists modernism. Yet no less than Camille Fritz Kreisler and Joseph Szigeti, and Saint-Saëns regarded Bowen as “the formed a duo with Lionel Tertis, widely most remarkable of the young British hailed as the “father of modern viola.” composers,” and many of his works Tertis inspired Bowen’s two Viola (notably his Third Symphony and Fourth Sonatas, in C minor, Op. 18, and F Piano Concerto) received frequent major, Op. 22, both composed in 1905, performances during his lifetime. and Viola Concerto in C minor, Op. 25, But while Rachmaninov’s reputation composed in 1908. has been rehabilitated, Bowen, Alongside these, Bowen’s contributions half a century hence, has yet to be to the viola literature include the recognized as among the early 20th- Phantasy, Op. 54, composed in century’s master composers. 1918 for a competition established by the amateur violinist and patron

4 Walter Willson Cobbett. The Cobbett juxtaposes the slow music of the competition, begun in 1905, invited introductory measures with its Più “phantasies” — single-movement works allegro transformation. comprising three or four sections of This music yields to the romantic Poco distinct rhythms and characters — adagio middle section, in warm D-flat for different instrumentations. Its major. The viola, pianississimo, con winners over the years have included sordino, croons a debonair melody, Frank Bridge (for his Phantasie Piano descendent from the work’s opening Trio of 1907), Herbert Howells, and theme, and underpinned by a gently John Ireland. pulsating accompaniment in the Bowen’s Phantasy obliges, condensing piano. The Phantasy concludes with a a three-movement sonata-like arc into well-caffeinated Allegro vivo section. one movement; at fifteen minutes, it is about half as long as each of his Viola Sonatas, but lacks nothing of those larger works’ textural variety and expressive dimension. Following a ruminative introduction in which the opening section’s primary thematic material is introduced — uttered first by viola alone, piano, dolce e poco espressivo, then paced by soft, mysterious chords in the piano — the Phantasy quickly takes flight. The proceeding music bubbles with effervescent melody, dancing gleefully from the viola’s singing high range to its sonorous low register. As it unfolds, the Phantasy’s first section

5 PROGRAM NOTES

mentioned how much he missed her, CLARICE ASSAD: and the long journey of recovery into the person he is today. METAMORFOSE NOTE BY THE COMPOSER In my mind, the metaphor became clear in the beautiful When Matthew approached me to and unexpectedly gruesome collaborate on a project, I immediately metamorphosis of a butterfly. When fell in love with him. There was compared to the grieving process, something incredibly genuine about in all its stages, it made so much his personality, and I was mesmerized sense to me. The story of emotional, by his flawless virtuoso playing, besides physical loss and pain; the transition being swept away by his musicality as from something so excruciatingly a whole. He asked me if I could write a difficult into the freedom that perhaps piece in memory of his mother; while I only acceptance can provide to so was beyond touched by the request, much of the suffering that takes place I also became really nervous at the in the world. thought that I might not do it justice, so I lived with this idea for a long time So this is an homage to Matt and before writing down a single note. his mom, a musical portrait of two I wanted to learn more about him different people, in two different worlds and their special relationship, and only and instances, bound by the passage time could afford me the opportunity of time and love. Thank you, Matt, from to do this. the bottom of my heart: for trusting me, and for the gorgeous rendition of the By the time I started writing piece that you carefully elaborated Metamorfose, I had a good idea of with Henry Kramer. the relationship between Matt and his mother: the sweet and bittersweet moments, the lingerings of pain still present in his voice when he

6 ROBERT SCHUMANN: children, Schumann entered a mental MÄRCHENBILDER, OP. 113 asylum near Bonn. He never saw his children again, and Clara was not When he was 18 years old, Robert permitted to see her husband until the Schumann (1810–1856) traveled to day before he died in 1856. Leipzig to study with pianist Friedrich Just as the hallmarks of Schumann’s life Wieck. He lodged in his teacher’s thus encapsulate the popular notion home and developed a close of Romanticism — the embattled friendship with Wieck’s nine-year- artist as hero of his own mythos — so old daughter, Clara, herself a gifted does the essence of his compositional pianist. The friendship blossomed output. And while correlating art and years later into Western classical biography generally makes for tenuous music’s most storied love affair. scholarship, in the case of Schumann, After a protracted legal battle with one feels that the tenderest melodies Clara’s forbidding father, the two must indeed be heard as love songs were married in 1840. to Clara, his muse; that contrasting Within a few years of their marriage, humors are a dialogue between his Robert Schumann’s physical and alter egos, the extroverted Florestan mental health began steadily to and the introspective Eusebius; and deteriorate. He battled bouts of that the ecstatic highs, piercing depression, insomnia, and, eventually, aches, and inconsolable despair that psychosis. In February 1854, mark his greatest creative triumphs Schumann’s mental state reached represent experiences felt in the its nadir: after weeks of unbearable depths of his soul. psychotic episodes, he threw himself Schumann originally envisioned into the Rhine, but was saved by a literary career, and maintained passing fishermen. Following his a second profession as a critic suicide attempt, fearing he would throughout his compositional life. His inadvertently harm his wife and Märchenbilder (Fairy Tale Pictures),

7 PROGRAM NOTES

Op. 113, composed in 1851, reflect his The third movement begins with literary bent. A set of four miniatures restless triplet figurations in the viola, scored for viola and piano (with an accompanied by decisive chords in arrangement for violin and piano the piano. An elegant middle passage, as well), the Märchenbilder likewise although less agitated, sacrifices capture an essential part of the nothing of the previous music’s ardor. Romantic zeitgeist: its penchant for the Schumann assigns the finale the dreamlike and fanciful. Its individual expressive tempo marking Langsam, movements bear no specific titles mit melancholischem Ausdruck or programs. Although Schumann (Slowly, with a melancholy expression). toyed with other titles for the set, This deeply felt conclusion to the such as Märchengeschichten and Märchenbilder features melodic Märchenlieder (“Fairy Tale Stories” or writing of heart-stopping beauty, “Fairy Tale Songs”), “Fairy Tale Pictures” one of Schumann’s greatest assets. ultimately won out, suggesting that Here again (the composer’s alternate Schumann considered these pieces version for violin notwithstanding) evocative, rather than narrative, the viola’s shadowy hue seems the in character. ideal medium for the music’s quietly The first of the Märchenbilder, set penetrating beauty. ruminatively in D minor, is brooding and evocative, its keening melody finding perfect voice in the viola’s dusky timbre. The character changes dramatically in the second movement, marked Lebhaft (lively). A galloping dotted rhythm lends the movement its vitality; double-stopped chords in the viola further infuse the music with a sonic fieriness.

8 GARTH KNOX: FUGA LIBRE material through modern techniques: sul ponticello, harmonic glissandi, and As violist of the Paris-based Ensemble other coloristic effects. Amplifying this InterContemporain from 1983 to 1990, duality between old and new, Knox and subsequently of the Arditti Quartet included his Fuga libre on his album from 1990 to 1997, Garth Knox (b. 1956) Saltarello (ECM, 2012) alongside has built a reputation as one of his arrangements of music for viola instrument’s leading proponents in the d’amore by Purcell, Vivaldi, John realm of contemporary music. Knox has Dowland, and Hildegard von Bingen. collaborated with many of the 20th and early-21st centuries’ leading composers, including Pierre Boulez, György Kurtág, György Ligeti, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and others. DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH: IMPROMPTU, OP. 33 Knox is likewise an accomplished composer in his own right. He is the The Impromptu for viola and piano, Op. author of Viola Spaces, a series 33, by Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975) of etudes that explore extended dates from 1931. Previously lost, the instrumental techniques; and his Fuga work was discovered in 2017 in the libre, composed in 2008 for the Tokyo Moscow State Archives among the International Viola Competition, effects of Vadim Borisovsky, violist of reflects his dual interests in early and the Beethoven Quartet, with whom contemporary musical expression. Shostakovich enjoyed a fruitful It begins with chromatic, pseudo- partnership throughout his career. The Bachian fragments (indeed, the very manuscript, dated May 2, 1931, bears a endeavour of creating fugal music dedication to “Alexander Mikhailovich” for a solo string instrument inevitably — presumably Alexander Mikhailovich evokes Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas Ryvkin, violist of the Glazunov Quartet. for Solo Violin and Suites for Solo Experts surmise that Shostakovich Cello), but promptly transfigures this penned the Impromptu in one sitting. 9 PROGRAM NOTES It joins Shostakovich’s final work, the FRANZ WAXMAN: considerably more substantial Viola CARMEN FANTASIE Sonata, Op. 147 (1975), as the composer’s only works for viola and piano. In 1929, the German film composer Friedrich Holländer happened upon Although petite, spanning just two the 23-year-old Franz Waxman minutes, the Impromptu nevertheless (1906–1967) playing piano in a Berlin bears Shostakovich’s unmistakable nightclub to support himself through voice, from the plaintive opening his musical studies. The following year, melody, which takes a sardonic turn in Holländer invited Waxman to arrange just the fourth measure, to the devilish and conduct his score to The Blue spiccato strokes of the brief concluding Angel, the film that launched Marlene Allegro section. Dietrich to international celebrity.

Waxman found his calling in film music. In 1934, he immigrated to the United States and settled in Los Angeles, where he rose to prominence as one of the quintessential composers of Hollywood’s Golden Age. His first original film score, for The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), established a new standard for the horror movie genre, and his oeuvre of 144 film scores, including Captains Courageous (1937), The Philadelphia Story, Rebecca (1940), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941), The Nun’s Story (1959), and Taras Bulba (1962), defined the sound of a

10 cinematic era. He received twelve old Isaac Stern was engaged instead. Academy Award nominations and won (In the film, Stern’s hands can be seen twice, for Sunset Boulevard in 1950 and in close-up shots.) A Place in the Sun in 1951. Waxman later reworked the Carmen Waxman was also active as a Fantasie into a virtuoso showpiece for composer of concert music. His oeuvre Heifetz, whose recording stands as one includes Joshua, an oratorio composed of the most beloved documents of in 1959, and the song cycle The Song the great virtuoso’s art. It also remains of Terezin, his final work, composed in Waxman’s most beloved concert 1965. At the time of his death in 1967, work, rife with irresistible melodies, Waxman had begun sketching an animated by stunning instrumental opera on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. pyrotechnics, and frequently appears in arrangements for various instruments, His work of most enduring popularity, as on the present recording, adapted the Carmen Fantasie, unites these for viola and piano — a particularly two facets of Waxman’s musical appropriate adaptation given that the profile. A virtuoso showpiece for violin main role in the opera is sung by an and orchestra based on themes “alto” voice. from Bizet’s Carmen, the work was originally composed for the 1947 film Humoreske (which garnered one of © 2018 Patrick Castillo Waxman’s dozen Oscar nominations), starring John Garfield and Joan Patrick Castillo is the founding Crawford, respectively, as a struggling composer and Director of Third young violinist and his older, wealthy Sound and Executive Director of patroness, who become romantically the contemporary music ensemble entangled. Jascha Heifetz was Hotel Elefant. meant to play on the soundtrack, but when Warner Brothers balked at his contractual requirements, the 26-year-

11 BIOGRAPHIES MATTHEW LIPMAN One of the world’s leading young featured on WFMT Chicago’s list of “30 violists, 26-year-old American Matthew Under 30” of the world’s top classical Lipman has been hailed by The New musicians and has been profiled by York Times for his “rich tone and The Strad and BBC Music magazines. elegant phrasing” and by the Chicago Mr. Lipman performs internationally as Tribune for his “splendid technique and a chamber musician with the Chamber musical sensitivity.” The recipient of a Music Society of Lincoln Center, prestigious 2015 Avery Fisher Career and regularly at the Music@Menlo, Grant, he has appeared as soloist with Marlboro, Ravinia, Bridgehampton, the Minnesota, Illinois Philharmonic, Seattle, Cleveland, and White Nights Grand Rapids Symphony, Wisconsin festivals. A top prizewinner of the Chamber, Juilliard, Ars Viva Symphony, Primrose, Tertis, Washington, Johansen, and Montgomery Symphony and Stulberg International Viola orchestras; with the Chamber Music Competitions, Lipman received his Society of Lincoln Center in Alice Tully bachelor’s and master’s degrees Hall; and in recital in Lincoln Center’s as an inaugural Kovner fellow from Rose Studio, the WQXR Greene Space The Juilliard School as a student of in New York City, and at the Phillips Heidi Castleman, and was further Collection in Washington, DC. mentored by Tabea Zimmermann at the Kronberg Academy. A native of Ascent is Matthew Lipman’s debut solo Chicago, Lipman is on faculty at Stony album. The Telegraph praised Lipman Brook University and performs on a as “gifted with poise and a warmth of fine 1700 Matteo Goffriller viola loaned timbre” for his recording of Mozart’s through the generous support of the Sinfonia Concertante with violinist Rachel Barton Pine Foundation. Rachel Barton Pine, the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, and Sir Neville www.matthew-lipman.com Marriner (Avie), which topped the Billboard charts. He was the only violist

12 HENRY KRAMER Winner of the Second Prize at the 2016 Queen Elisabeth Competition and of the 2015 William Petschek Recital Debut Award from The Juilliard School, pianist Henry Kramer is establishing himself as one of the most exciting American musicians of his generation. His performances have been praised as “triumphant” and “thrilling” (The New York Times), and “technically effortless” (La Presse, Montreal). A Maine native, Mr. Kramer has also earned top prizes in the 2015 Honens International Piano Competition, 2011 Montreal International Music Competition, and 6th China Shanghai International Piano Competition. He was a laureate of the 2017 American Pianist Association Awards, a prizewinner in Photo: Kaupo Kikkas the 8th National Chopin Competition in Miami, and received the 2014 Harvard Calgary Philharmonic, Shanghai Musical Association Arthur Foote Philharmonic, Bilkent Symphony Award. He is also a winner of Astral’s Orchestra in Ankara, Turkey, the 2014 National Auditions. Portland (Maine) Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Kramer has been invited to play the Orchestre Métropolitain du with orchestras across the globe Montreal, and the Yale Philharmonia. including the National Belgian He has soloed under the batons of Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, preeminent conductors Marin Alsop,

13 Jan Pascal Tortelier, and Stéphane Mr. Kramer holds both a Master’s and Dénève. Mr. Kramer has been a guest Bachelor’s degree from The Juilliard performer in recitals at Portland Piano School and an Artist Diploma from International (Oregon), The Cliburn the Yale School of Music, where he Foundation, and the National Chopin received the Charles S. Miller Prize Foundation in Miami and prominent for the most outstanding first-year venues such as Carnegie’s Zankel pianist. He currently holds the L. and Weill Halls, the Amsterdam Rex Whiddon Distinguished Chair in Concertgebouw, Queen Elizabeth Piano at Columbus State University Hall in Antwerp (Belgium), and BOZAR Schwob School of Music in Georgia. in Brussels. Deeply committed to the His musical mentors have included chamber music repertoire, he has Julian Martin, Robert McDonald, and been featured in performances at Boris Berman. His first commercial Lincoln Center and participated in the recording, dedicated to Liszt oratorio Steans Institute at the Ravinia Festival, transcriptions, was recently released La Jolla Music Society Summerfest, on the NAXOS label. Music@Menlo’s International Program, www.henrykramerpiano.com and the Verbier Festival Academy, where he was awarded the Tabor Prize in piano.

14 PRODUCER AND ENGINEER Judith Sherman ENGINEERING AND EDITING ASSISTANT Jeanne Velonis ENGINEER Charles Mueller (Shostakovich) MASTERING Bill Maylone STEINWAY PIANO TECHNICIANS Michael Talley (Oct. 2017); Li Li Dong (Apr. 2018); Daniel Jesse (July 2018) COVER PHOTO Jiyang Chen GRAPHIC DESIGN Bark Design RECORDED American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, NY, October 1–3, 2017, and April 25–26, 2018 (Assad) July 7, 2018 at Oktaven Audio, Mount Vernon, NY (Shostakovich)

PUBLISHERS Marchenbilder © 2000 Henle Verlag Phantasy © 1997 Josef Weinberger Ltd. Metamorfose © 2018 Virtual Arts Collective Impromptu © 2018 DSCH Fuga Libre © 2008 Schott Music Carmen Fantasie © 1947 Harms

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15 CEDILLE PRODUCERS CIRCLE Honoring the generosity and loyalty of those individuals and foundations who have supported our recordings through their repeated, major annual gifts to Cedille Chicago

Anonymous Sandy and Jack Levin Beech Street Foundation Nancy Loeb and Jeffrey Colman Steven C. Calicchio Foundation The MacArthur Fund for Arts Kristina Entner and Edward Malone and Culture at Prince Marian and M. Carr Ferguson Graci and Dennis McGillicuddy Frances and Henry Fogel Mesirow Financial Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation Lori and Steven Mesirow Jane Ginsburg and George Spera Sara and Richard Mesirow Ruth Bader Ginsburg The Negaunee Foundation Susan and Sanford Greenberg Kathleen Peratis Irving Harris Foundation Rachel Barton Pine and Gregory Pine Barbara Haws and William Josephson Pumpkin Foundation / Carol & Joe Reich Andrew and Irma Hilton Foundation Beverly and Bill Rosoff The Julian Family Foundation Sage Foundation Christine and Bill Landuyt Barbara Julius and Marc Silberberg Claire and Edward Stiepleman