Boston Symphony Chamber Players 50Th Anniversary Season 2013-2014

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Boston Symphony Chamber Players 50th anniversary season 2013-2014

jordan hall at the new england conservatory october 13 january 12 february 9 april 6 BOSTON SYMPHONY CHAMBER PLAYERS Sunday, January 12, 2014, at Jordan Hall at New England Conservatory

TABLE OF CONTENTS

3 Welcome 4 “The Boston Symphony Chamber Players: For Fifty Years, Champions of Chamber Music,” by Richard Dyer 6 From the Players 10 Today’s Program

Notes on the Program 11 Aaron Copland 13 Irving Fine 14 Wolfgang Amadè Mozart 15 Johannes Brahms

Artists 16 Boston Symphony Chamber Players 17 Gilbert Kalish

19 The Boston Symphony Chamber Players: A Discography

COVER PHOTO (top) Founding members of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, 1964: (seated, left to right) Joseph Silverstein, violin; Burton Fine, viola; Jules Eskin, cello; Doriot Anthony Dwyer, flute; Ralph Gomberg, oboe; Gino Cioffi, clarinet; Sherman Walt, bassoon; (standing, left to right) Georges Moleux, double bass; Everett Firth, timpani; Roger Voisin, trumpet; William Gibson, tombone; James Stagliano, horn (BSO Archives) COVER PHOTO (bottom) The Boston Symphony Chamber Players in 2012 at Jordan Hall: (seated in front, from left): Malcolm Lowe, violin; Haldan Martinson, violin; Jules Eskin, cello; Steven Ansell, viola; (rear, from left) Elizabeth Rowe, flute; John Ferrillo, oboe; William R. Hudgins, clarinet; Richard Svoboda, bassoon; James Sommerville, horn; Edwin Barker, bass (photo by Stu Rosner)

ADDITIONAL PHOTO CREDITS Individual Chamber Players portraits pages 6, 7, 8, and-9 by Tom Kates, except Elizabeth Rowe (page 8) and Richard Svoboda (page 9) by Michael J. Lutch. Boston Symphony Chamber Players photo on page 16 by Michael J. Lutch.

BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Symphony Hall, 301 Massachusetts Avenue Boston, MA 02115-4511 (617) 266-1492 bso.org

2 Welcome It is with great pride and excitement that the Boston Symphony Chamber Players welcome you to the Jordan Hall concerts of their 50th Anniversary Season—programs reflecting the extraordinary diversity of programming and collaborations that have marked the Chamber Players’ offerings for the past half-century. As the season continues, we look forward to an all-American program, in February, of music by Boston-based composers, including the world premieres of newly commissioned works from Kati Agócs, Hannah Lash, Gunther Schuller, and Yehudi Wyner; and an April program featuring the Boston premiere of a BSO co-commission—Parallel Worlds, for flute and string quartet—from the Grawemeyer Award-winning American composer Sebastian Currier. Also as the season continues, the program books for these concerts will continue to look closely at the extraordinary history of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, providing detailed information about repertoire, tours, recordings, and guest artists, and drawing upon the vast variety of photographs, posters, past programs, and press clip- pings preserved in the Boston Symphony Orchestra Archives. It has always given us great pleasure and satisfaction to share our music-making with such a devoted audience. We thank you for your continuing support of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, and we invite you to join us not only for the remainder of this special season, but also in the years ahead.

3 THE BOSTON SYMPHONY CHAMBER PLAYERS For Fifty Years, Champions of Chamber Music by Richard Dyer

BEGINNINGS On November 8, 1964, Joseph Silverstein, Doriot Anthony Dwyer, and Burton Fine—then the concertmaster, principal flute, and principal viola of the Boston Symphony Orchestra— climbed the short wooden staircase to the stage of Sanders Theatre in Cambridge to play Beethoven’s Serenade in D, Opus 25. It was an historic occasion, the formal debut concert of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, who this season celebrate their 50th birthday. The rest of the program, adding additional BSO principals to the mix, included Mozart’s Quartet for Oboe and Strings, K.370, and the Beethoven Septet—the first of 96 performances of the Beethoven work the ensemble would play over the next decades. Eskin was then in his first season as the BSO’s principal cellist; now, at 81, he is still in place as the cellist of the Chamber Players. He has played the Septet so often that he affectionately refers to it as Beethoven’s “Schleptet.” Over the years of its existence, the Chamber Players have performed upwards of 750 concerts in Boston, at Tanglewood, and on tours throughout Ralph Gomberg, Burton Fine, Jules Eskin, and Joseph Silverstein, the United States, Europe, Russia, and Asia; they who performed Mozart’s Oboe Quartet in the Boston Symphony have played more than 400 works by more than Chamber Players’ inaugural concert of November 8, 1964 150 composers and recorded close to fifty LPs and (BSO Archives/photo by Boris and Milton) CDs. They have long represented an important aspect of the parent Boston Symphony’s activities and represent the BSO’s standards to the discriminating public for chamber music worldwide; the Chamber Players have improved the orchestra, and playing in the orchestra has improved the Chamber Players. Their story is remarkable and cannot be told by statistics alone, so in order to celebrate this anniversary season, we spoke with four veterans of the first season and two of the ensemble’s managers. Silverstein was the first violin for the first half of the Chamber Players’ activity; he remains active today as a conductor, soloist, teacher, and coach. He points to some of the factors that converged to create an environment that would support the founding of the Chamber Players. “There was a new music director, Erich Leinsdorf, at a time when many of the other American orchestras were also going to a year-round contract. Traditionally the BSO’s principal players did not play in the Pops season, meaning they were not actually working the full year. So this was a way to use them during the weeks when they were not performing Pops.” Also, Leinsdorf and the administration had decided that the Friday-night concerts at Tangle- wood should begin at 9 p.m. so that people from New York would have time to drive up. This spawned the idea of creating the Prelude Concerts, which would take place earlier in the evening and present chamber music that was related to the weekend’s orchestral programs. In marketing terms, Leinsdorf wanted to package every weekend. So the question became, “Who is going to play the chamber music?” Leonard Burkat, who was the artistic administrator then, suggested the principal players of the orchestra should do it, and Leinsdorf seized on the idea: “If they do that,” he said, “the orchestra is going to sound better.” Silverstein himself saw a problem with the idea—and a solution. The problem was when to

4 rehearse all that chamber music in the middle of the crowded Tanglewood schedule. So at a luncheon in Leinsdorf’s home in Brookline, Silverstein suggested the idea of giving three chamber music concerts in Boston during the winter season that would be repeated as the Prelude Concerts at Tanglewood. “And to substitute for all of us playing in the Pops season, we would tour for three weeks and make recordings; we began with a three-record set for RCA Victor. Violinist Joseph de Pasquale and cellist Samuel Mayes had just left the orchestra to go to Philadelphia, and Burton Fine and Jules Eskin had just come in, so it was a good time to start something new. And after some of us had played with Claude Frank at Marlboro, we invited him to be our pianist.”

COLLABORATIONS The personnel of the Chamber Players has changed as the membership of the parent orchestra has changed. Thus there have been three principal flutists and a couple of acting principals; three oboists; two bassoonists, etc. Today’s ensemble consists of concertmaster Malcolm Lowe, violinist Haldan Martinson, violist Steve Ansell, Eskin, Edwin Barker, double bass, Elizabeth Rowe, flute, John Ferrillo, oboe, William R. Hudgins, clarinet, Richard Svoboda, bassoon, and James Sommerville, horn. Many pianists and keyboard players have appeared with the ensemble, beginning with Frank, who was followed by a young American pianist, Richard Stephen Goode, who later became famous—and lost his middle name. Daniel Pinkham played harpsichord with the ensemble, and former BSO assistant manager Daniel Gustin remembers two young men from Harvard making guest appearances long before they became famous, William Christie and Robert Levin. In the early 1970s, Michael Tilson Thomas, the BSO’s assistant conductor, was catapulted into prominence because of his last-minute replacements for ailing Concertmaster Joseph Silverstein, principal horn music director William Steinberg; he also appeared as pianist with James Stagliano, and pianist Claude Frank, the Chamber Players. c.1964 (BSO Archives) Gilbert Kalish entered the chronicle in 1969 and soon became the pianist of choice for the Chamber Players until 1997, nearly 30 years. “Gil was very important to the ensemble,” Gustin says, “but perhaps not recognized as much as he should have been. Some people wanted to hear the Chamber Players work with different pianists, which is one way of looking at the possibilities, but the other instrumentalists didn’t change except when someone left the orchestra or retired. The other side of the argument is that someone new might not invariably fit in. Gil’s run was remarkable for his breadth of artistry, through all of the classical and romantic repertory; and he was not daunted The Boston Symphony Chamber Players in 1972: (from left) Jules Eskin, at all by any contemporary Doriot Anthony Dwyer, Joseph Silverstein (center front), Charles piece. Whenever the players Kavalovski, Everett Firth, Harold Wright, Ralph Gomberg, Armando took on a new piece, he was a Ghitalla, Henry Portnoi, Burton Fine, and William Gibson (BSO very positive force in making it Archives/photo by Eugene Cook) happen.” Continued on page 22...

5 From the Players...

Malcolm Lowe Concertmaster Charles Munch chair, endowed in perpetuity Playing the violin in an ensemble is a very special and intimate aspect of music-making to me because of my family. My father was a violinist and my first teacher, and my mother is a singer, pianist, and violinist/violist who played the piano for hours with me when I was growing up. We would spend many winter nights on our farm in Manitoba reading music together with my uncles and cousins. Those nights were magical and are some of my best memories. They enriched my musical understanding of ensemble texture and voicing. When I joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra and became a member of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, I was excited to have the opportunity to play the great chamber music literature with these great musicians. The varied instrumen- tal makeup of the Chamber Players allows us to easily program chamber music beyond small ensembles, trios, and quartets, and to play great and significant chamber works— such as the Beethoven Septet, Schubert Octet, and Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du soldat—that are frequently challenging to program because of the number of players and instrumentation involved. An added benefit of the permanent ensemble is that it allows us to perform these works many times, including on tours, with the same group, and develop a deeper relationship with each piece over many years. From my position as concertmaster, this chamber music playing, which includes all of the principal players, fosters a closer working relationship for ensemble playing within the orchestra. The existence of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players enriches a very difficult and demanding orchestral schedule. It helps maintain an individual musical perspective that impacts one’s spirit and inspiration. To be able to leave the controlled environment of conducted music-making allows every player to voice their ideas in the chamber rehearsal, making the time very provocative, confrontational, and focused in a way that develops and builds to a stimulating experience and better performances. Conversely, playing in a great orchestra and being influenced by many of the great musicians of the world—conductors and soloists—leads to a wealth of interpretive and practical experience that everyone brings to our chamber music. I gain much from listening to the ideas and thoughts of my colleagues. I experience moments of the humorously ridiculous and irresistible beauty in rehearsals and

6 performances. As with all worthwhile pursuits, the path is arduous, and my hope is that our audiences are inspired and spiritually uplifted at our performances. Chamber music is a great musical form to immerse oneself in and enjoy.

Haldan Martinson Principal Second Violin Carl Schoenhof Family chair, endowed in perpetuity Performing with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players over the years has been a source of great pleasure as it has afforded me the special opportunity to play chamber music with my principal-player colleagues. Our concerts at Jordan Hall give us the chance to collabo- rate with each other on chamber repertoire involving a fascinating variety of small ensembles. Working “one-on-one” in this way with the BSO’s principal players, out- side the context of the orchestra, has served to further deepen my appreciation of their unsurpassed musicianship. I look forward to many more years of wonderful concerts!

Steven Ansell Principal Viola Charles S. Dana chair, endowed in perpetuity The Chamber Players are not just a chamber music group and an adjunct of the BSO, they are a part of the organization that creates camaraderie both social and musical among the principals. In turn, this leads to a greater respect and mutual understanding that helps the communication and tenor of the orchestra, which inevitably has a positive effect on performance. In addition, by being able to explore many out-of-the-way places in the repertoire because of more extensive and flexible instrumentation, the Chamber Players contribute to the uncovering of little-known gems of the repertoire and also excel in commissioning new major works, a fine contribution indeed to musical life.

Jules Eskin Principal Cello Philip R. Allen chair, endowed in perpetuity It’s amazing to me that I’ve been performing with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players for fifty years—and that I’m the only original member of the Chamber Players still playing in the BSO! There are so many memories it’s impossible to know where to start—the very first performances, private ones, before our official inaugural concert; the recordings we’ve made, so many more than people realize; the incredible tours to the Soviet Union (five-and-a-half weeks in 1967), Japan, Europe, South America, and across the United States; our pianist colleagues Claude Frank, Richard Goode, and Gilbert Kalish, who traveled with us for so many performances throughout the country. And of course my BSO colleagues themselves—among them Sherman Walt, Ralph Gomberg, Gino Cioffi, James Stagliano, Harold Wright—colleagues not only in concert, but in traveling together, sometimes for weeks at a time, sharing meals, jokes, and so many unique and unforgettable experiences. I can’t begin to say how meaningful and gratifying it’s been to be part of all this for so long, and as it continues today.

7 Edwin Barker Principal Bass Harold D. Hodgkinson chair, endowed in perpetuity The musical and artistic resources of the Boston Symphony are significant, and the Boston Symphony Chamber Players have acted over this last half-century as an important musical force for projecting the musical riches of the BSO on a more intimate level to audiences in Boston, North America, and internationally. The repertoire of the group is stimulating and varied. We perform pieces that highlight us as individual performing artists, but also show us in slightly larger ensemble settings that provide listeners with a more full-bodied “orchestral” palette of colors, while continuing to reflect a chamber-music sensibility.

Elizabeth Rowe Principal Flute Walter Piston chair, endowed in perpetuity As the newest member of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, and having spent time in several other professional orchestras before joining the BSO, I have a great appreciation for how truly unusual the Boston Symphony Chamber Players are. Often, orchestral flutists find themselves limited in their opportunities for formal chamber music performances; as a member of the Chamber Players, however, I perform not just the standard chamber music for winds, or the occasional flute-and-strings piece, but am able to explore the entire range of chamber repertoire for all combinations of instruments, and to do this with an established group with an ongoing rapport. This is a singular and truly wonderful experience. The sky is the limit for us in terms of repertoire and creativity; we accept and welcome new and exciting challenges, but at the same time can rely on our history of shared performances to give us a core of artistic stability that grounds all of our explorations into repertoire both new and familiar. This balance of far-reaching repertoire, steeped in the grand and deep traditions of both the BSO and the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, is the ultimate approach to music-making and something that I value tremendously.

John Ferrillo Principal Oboe Mildred B. Remis chair, endowed in perpetuity I did not realize, to be honest, the role that the Chamber Players would play in my BSO experience when I came here from the Metropolitan Opera twelve years ago. As a teacher (and, of course, former student) I had been trained to think of shared chamber experiences as a core to understanding a wind section in the context of the symphony. The long-term effect of the Chamber Players experience has really transformed the way we relate to each other on the stage of Symphony Hall. The pride we have taken in a unified approach to pitch, sound, phrasing, and ensemble was totally born of our experiences playing the great wind chamber repertoire on the stages of Jordan Hall and Ozawa Hall. It has also been just plain fun—there is no wind section in the world that does a better job of playing “floboonette”!

8 William R. Hudgins Principal Clarinet Ann S.M. Banks chair, endowed in perpetuity Beyond the continuing opportunity, as a member of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, to play some of the great clarinet chamber music repertoire, there is also a very real pleasure in the camaraderie of conjointly preparing chamber music with my colleagues. And hearing each other intimately, in chamber music, in a way not always possible in a larger and much louder orchestral setting, is actually a real help in the transition back to the orchestral repertoire. One of my favorite humorous stories comes from a Chamber Players concert we performed in Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood. On that occasion, BSO percussionist Will Hudgins had joined us for some programming that required percussion. Shortly before the concert began, my mother and father, who were in the audience, overheard a couple’s conversation nearby. The lady was saying to the gentleman next to her how it appeared that there was both a William Hudgins playing the clarinet and a William Hudgins playing percussion in this concert—to which the gentleman replied with great assurance, “No, that is just the same player who switches back and forth.”

Richard Svoboda Principal Bassoon Edward A. Taft chair, endowed in perpetuity My position as principal bassoonist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra is perhaps the best bassoon job in the world for three reasons: the BSO is one of the greatest orchestras in the world; we play in a couple of the world’s best concert venues, Symphony Hall and Tanglewood; and, in the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, I get to play chamber music on a regular basis with some of the finest players on the planet. I really see the Chamber Players as just a more intimate version of what we do on a daily basis in the orchestra, but with the added bonus that we, the musicians, are responsible for creating the broader musical interpretation. It is an absolute joy for me, and I wouldn’t give it up for anything.

James Sommerville Principal Horn Helen Sagoff Slosberg/Edna S. Kalman chair, endowed in perpetuity Having been a member of a number of orchestras before coming to the BSO as principal horn, one of the perks that galvanized me to apply for the position was the existence of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players. Many ensembles have informal chamber ensembles assembled from amongst their membership, and many run chamber series under their corporate umbrella. But no orchestra in the world has nurtured a group with the history, the prestige, and of the caliber of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players. And I have to say, with no hyperbole, that my greatest hopes for what the ensemble could mean to me have been exceeded. The opportunities to perform, record, and tour with my principal colleagues, to interact with them musically on such an intimate level, has been incredibly fruitful to my own musical development; and many of the concerts we have played over the past fifteen years live in my memory as among the best in my life. I feel extremely lucky to be able to walk on stage with them, several times a year, and spend a few hours with great masterpieces performed by such great musicians.

9 BOSTON SYMPHONY CHAMBER PLAYERS Sunday, January 12, 2014, at 3 p.m. at Jordan Hall

BOSTON SYMPHONY CHAMBER PLAYERS MALCOLM LOWE, violin JOHN FERRILLO, oboe HALDAN MARTINSON, violin WILLIAM R. HUDGINS, clarinet STEVEN ANSELL, viola RICHARD SVOBODA, bassoon JULES ESKIN, cello JAMES SOMMERVILLE, horn

GILBERT KALISH, piano

Duplicating the program of February 7, 1965, from the inaugural season of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players (see page 12)

COPLAND “Vitebsk,” Study on a Jewish Theme, for piano trio Messrs. KALISH, MARTINSON, and ESKIN

FINE Fantasia for String Trio Adagio ma non troppo Scherzo: Allegro molto ritmico Lento assai tranquillo Messrs. MARTINSON, ANSELL, and ESKIN

MOZART Quintet in E-flat for piano, oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon, K.452 Largo—Allegro moderato Larghetto Rondo: Allegro moderato Messrs. KALISH, FERRILLO, HUDGINS, SOMMERVILLE, and SVOBODA

{Intermission}

The programs and initiatives commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players during the 2013-2014 season are supported by a generous gift from the Ulf B. Heide and Elizabeth C. Heide Foundation.

Today’s performance is supported by a gift from Joyce M. Bowden, who, on her 75th birthday, wishes a happy 50th anniversary to the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, with affection and gratitude for decades of musical pleasure.

10 BRAHMS Quartet in C minor for piano, violin, viola, and cello, Opus 60 Allegro non troppo Scherzo: Allegro Andante Finale: Allegro comodo Messrs. KALISH, LOWE, ANSELL, and ESKIN

BSO Classics, Nonesuch, Deutsche Grammophon, Philips, RCA, and New World records

NOTES ON THE PROGRAM

Aaron Copland (1900-1990) “Vitebsk,” for piano trio Aaron Copland’s first work to employ a folk melody was inspired by hearing a Jewish folk tune in a performance of The Dybbuk, a well-known Yiddish drama by S. Ansky. He was fascinated by the tune and decided to use it as the basis of a composition. Upon learning that Ansky had first heard the tune in the Russian village of Vitebsk, he decided to use the geographical reference as his title. In the intervening years, Vitebsk has changed character, and Copland recalled in his autobiography Copland to 1942, “Years later when I traveled to the Soviet Union, the Russians were amazed that any composer would name a piece of music after the city of Vitebsk, a large industri- al complex resembling Pittsburgh or Cleveland!” He completed the work at the MacDowell Colony in September 1928. It was first performed in New York’s Town Hall on February 16, 1929, by pianist Walter Gieseking and two members of the Pro Arte Quartet. The work is cast in a single movement of rhapsodic character divided into three sections: slow-fast-slow. The opening harshly juxtaposes simultaneous major and minor triads in the piano. This combination seemed to Copland to imply a pitch somewhere in between the major third and the minor third: in other words, quarter-tones, which appear in the violin and cello, emphasizing the Hebraic atmosphere of the piece. They set the scene for the folk tune, played by the cello. The tempo changes to an Allegro vivace for a section that to the composer displays a “Chagall-like grotesquerie.” The unrelenting scherzo is filled with offbeat rhythms and inklings of the folk tune's opening notes. At the return to the opening tempo, Grave, the theme reappears in violin and cello, with the piano again commenting in harsh major/minor chords. The coda resolves the tensions thus established in a solemn hush.

In consideration of the performers and those around you, please turn off all electronic devices during the concert, including tablets, cellular phones, pagers, watch alarms, and texting devices of any kind. Thank you for your cooperation. Please note that the taking of pictures—whether photographs or videos—is prohibited during the performance.

11 Program page of February 7, 1965, from the inaugural season of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players at Sanders Theatre in Cambridge—the program being duplicated today at Jordan Hall (BSO Archives)

12 Irving Fine (1914-1962) Fantasia for String Trio Irving Fine was a Bostonian; he taught at Harvard and, from 1950 until his death, at Brandeis University. He was solidly in the company of a group of mid-century American neoclassicist composers similarly trained: like Arthur Berger, Elliott Carter, and Harold Shapero, he studied with Walter Piston at Harvard and then with the great Nadia Boulanger. For some years—like former Boulanger pupil Virgil Thomson—he was an assistant conductor of the Harvard Glee Club. In Boston he met Koussevitzky at Boston Symphony concerts, studied conducting with him when the Berkshire Music Center was established in 1940, and later became the BSO’s pianist. Koussevitzky led the orchestra in the premiere of Fine’s orchestral work Toccata concertante in 1948 at Symphony Hall; this was followed by a Cambridge performance with Fine himself leading the BSO. In 1951 the composer was an usher at Koussevitzky’s funeral (along with Arthur Fiedler, among others). Fine was also a close colleague of Aaron Copland, who asked Koussevitzky to bring Fine back to Tanglewood as a faculty member beginning in 1946, a post he held for more than a decade. In addition to the Toccata concertante, several others of Fine’s works were performed by the BSO, including his Notturno for strings and harp and his Serious Song: Lament for String Orchestra. In spring 1962 Charles Munch premiered Fine’s Symphony, one of his most important works. The composer led a repeat performance at Tanglewood that August, less than two weeks before his sudden death due to a heart attack. Fine was a fastidious, painstaking, and self-doubting composer, and his output is relatively small. He had a particular affinity for choral music. His music exhibits a balance and clarity in common with his closest colleagues, and influenced, particularly early on, by Stravinsky and Hindemith. In 1950, following Copland, he began using elements of the twelve-tone method in his String Quartet, although he avoided a rigorous application of Schoenberg’s

13 rules, adjusting the system according to his own ear. His Fantasia for string trio and the Symphony developed from this foundation. The Fantasia is twelve-minute work in three movements, two ruminative movements brack- eting a fast movement. Commissioned by the Fromm Foundation and the University of Illinois, it was first performed at Tanglewood in 1957 at one of the first Fromm Concerts, a precursor to Tanglewood’s annual Festival of Contemporary Music. The first movement is introduced by viola, which states a complete twelve-note row that serves as the contrapuntal basis of the movement—imitation and canon-like ideas thrive. The row contains explicitly tonal groupings that Fine uses to leaven the density of the chromatic harmony. (Predictably enough, derivatives of the row inform the entire composition, but its melodic character isn’t always on display.) The fast second movement features textures built up from smaller ideas, with the almost constant presence of a sixteenth-note pulse creating persistent nervous energy. The final movement begins again with the viola, joined in counterpoint by the cello and violin in turn. At the middle of the movement the violin launches into a rhapsodic excursion. The concluding music is timelessly tranquil.

Wolfgang Amadè Mozart (1756-1791) Quintet in E-flat for piano and winds, K.452 On Thursday, April 1, 1784, at the Imperial and Royal National Theatre in Vienna, Wolfgang Mozart presented a “grand musical concert” for his own benefit including, in addition to three of his symphonies and a new piano concerto, “an entirely new grand quintet” (K.452) which he had entered into his own thematic catalogue just two days earlier. Mozart was the pianist for this performance, and in a letter to his father on April 10 he declared the quintet to be “the best thing I have written so far in my life.... I wish you could have heard it—and how beautifully it was performed!” The quintet dates from what may very well have been the busiest and happiest months of Mozart’s career. He had moved to Vienna several years earlier to escape his intolerable employment with the Archbishop Colloredo of Salzburg, and he would soon achieve the height of his popularity as both pianist and composer. His principal works during this time were the extraordinary series of eleven piano con- certos beginning with the E-flat, K.449, in February 1784 and extending through those in A, K.488, and C minor, K.491, both entered into his catalogue in March 1786. He had tri- umphed with his opera Idomeneo in Munich in January 1781. In July 1782, the premiere of his opera The Abduction from the Seraglio at the Burgtheater won over Vienna’s opera-going public, as would The Marriage of Figaro four years later. Soon after the first performance of the quintet, Mozart played it again in a June 1784 concert in which his pupil Babette Ployer introduced the magical new G major piano concerto (K.453) he had written for her and which immediately follows the quintet in Köchel’s chronological catalogue of Mozart’s works. Mozart begins with an introductory Largo—an unusually slow tempo marking—whose weight offsets the brightness of the home key and which portends a degree of seriousness surprising for the choice of instrumentation. At the same time, this slow tempo provides space for each participant to be properly introduced with a regard for balance and individual timbres that remains a principal concern throughout the piece. The Allegro moderato is noteworthy also for the degree of harmonic ingenuity and exploration compressed into its very brief development section. The second movement, a Larghetto in B-flat, is at once deeply involving and yet always forward-moving, offering a poignancy of expression that is heightened by carefully moderated chromaticism. The rondo finale, even with its darkly colored central episode, is more expectedly innocent and includes a necessarily (given the number of players) written-out “cadenza in tempo” for all five participants before the final return of the rondo theme.

14 Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Quartet in C minor for piano, violin, viola, and cello, Opus 60 Although the C minor piano quartet was not published until 1875, Brahms had composed— two decades earlier—a movement in C-sharp minor that contains the essential musical ideas of the later work’s opening movement. The first version was tried out privately in November 1856 with an ensemble including the violinist Joseph Joachim, who suggested several changes in a letter he sent to Brahms the following week, but nothing more seems to have come of the work at that time. In any case, Brahms was not yet prepared to publish it, and when he did return to the quartet nearly two decades later, the finished product took a quite different form. The changes are hard to doc- ument precisely, since the composer, following his usual custom, destroyed the score of the early version, though it is clear that the last two movements were composed in the winter of 1873-74 (Brahms having indicated as much in a manuscript catalogue of his works), while the first two movements are listed as having been composed “earlier.” From the available evidence, it seems that Brahms retained the original exposition of his first movement in all essential details (though transposing it down a semi- tone) but then completely rewrote the remainder of the movement, much as he was later to do in reworking his early trio, Opus 8. The dark turmoil of the opening movement hints at the emotional pressure under which Brahms composed the early version during the terrible last days of his friend Robert Schumann or immediately after Schumann’s death. The intensely personal character of the music is also indicated by the composer’s comment in a letter transmitting the early version to Theodor Billroth: “This quartet is only communicated as a curiosity, say as an illustration to the last chapter of the Man with the Blue Jacket and Yellow Vest.” The reference is to the despairing young man in Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther, in the last chapter of which Werther commits suicide. Whether or not Brahms himself ever seriously contemplated taking his own life, he seems to have found this music too personal for immediate publication, too openly revealing of his hopeless love for Clara Schumann. But distance in time gave him enough objectivity to rework it into the final form. The scherzo is a kind of pendant to the Allegro, continuing in the same key with the same kind of ferocity. Although we know that it was composed “earlier” than the last two movements, it would be sheer conjecture to say whether it formed part of the original C-sharp minor version or came from a different uncompleted composition or was written independ- ently. The Andante, in the surprisingly bright key of E major, was once believed to have been part of the original version of the score and thus probably to represent an avowal of the composer’s love for Clara. But Brahms’s catalogue and Clara’s own response to the music after she had first heard it in 1875 make it clear that this movement—long regarded as one of the highest peaks of Brahmsian melodic writing—was new. The finale is virtually a per- petuo moto, the ending of which, despite the major key and tranquillo marking, does not entirely banish the memory of things past. Perhaps the finest tribute to the composer’s constructive powers in this quartet came from Clara Schumann in 1875: “He had already written the first two movements earlier...and now the last two are also entirely works of genius: an intensification right up to the end that fairly takes your breath away. It is strange how the mood remains unified, despite the quite different dates of the various movements.”

Notes by STEVEN LEDBETTER (Copland, Brahms), ROBERT KIRZINGER (Fine), and MARC MANDEL (Mozart) Steven Ledbetter was program annotator of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1979 to 1998. Composer-annotator Robert Kirzinger is Assistant Director of Program Publications of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Marc Mandel is Director of Program Publications of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

15 ARTISTS

Boston Symphony Chamber Players One of the world’s most distinguished chamber music ensembles sponsored by a major symphony orchestra and made up of principal players from that orchestra, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players include first-chair string and wind players from the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Found- ed in 1964 during Erich Leinsdorf’s tenure as BSO music director, the Chamber Players can perform virtually any work within the vast chamber music literature, expanding their range of repertoire by calling upon other BSO members or enlisting the services of such distinguished artists as pianists Leif Ove Andsnes, Emanuel Ax, and André Previn. The Chamber Players’ activities include an annual four-concert series in Boston’s Jordan Hall at the New England Conservatory, regular appearances at Tanglewood, and a busy touring schedule. In addition to their appearances throughout the United States, they have performed in Europe, Japan, South America, and the Soviet Union. In September 2008, sponsored by Cunard® Line, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players performed on the Queen Mary 2’s transatlantic crossing from New York to Southampton, England. Among their many recordings are the Brahms string quintets and works by John Harbison, Aaron Copland, and Leon Kirchner, all on Nonesuch; and the quintets for clarinet and strings by Mozart and Brahms with former BSO principal clarinet, the late Harold Wright, on Philips. Their most recent recordings, on BSO Classics, include an album of Mozart chamber music for winds and strings (the Clarinet Quintet in A, the Horn Quintet in E-flat, the F major Oboe Quartet, and the Flute Quartet in A, K.298); an album of chamber music by American composers William Bolcom (Serenata Notturna), Lukas Foss (For Aaron), Michael Gandolfi (Plain Song, Fantastic Dances), and Osvaldo Golijov (Lullaby and Doina); and “Profanes et Sacrées,” a disc of 20th-century French chamber music by Ravel, Debussy, Tomasi, Françaix, and Dutilleux recently nominated for a Grammy Award in the category “Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance.”

Gilbert Kalish performing Schubert’s Piano Trio in E-flat, D.929, with Joseph Silverstein and Jules Eskin in the Boston Symphony Chamber Players concert of July 1, 1978, at Tanglewood (BSO Archives/photo by Walter H. Scott) Gilbert Kalish performing Mozart's G minor piano quartet, K.478, with Malcolm Lowe, guest violist Rebecca Young, and Jules Eskin in the Boston Symphony Chamber Players concert of November 13, 1994, at Jordan Hall (BSO Archives/photo by Michael J. Lutch)

16 Gilbert Kalish Gilbert Kalish leads a musical life of unusual variety and breadth; his profound influence on the musical community as educator, and as pianist in myriad performances and recordings, has established him as a major figure in American music making. A native New Yorker and graduate of Columbia College, Mr. Kalish studied with Leonard Shure, Julius Hereford, and Isabelle Vengerova. He was the pianist of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players for thirty years and was a founding member of the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, a group devoted to new music that flourished during the 1960s and ’70s. Mr. Kalish is a frequent guest artist with many of the world’s most distinguished chamber ensembles. His thirty-year partnership with the mezzo-soprano Jan DeGaetani was recognized as one of the most remarkable artistic collaborations of our time. He maintains longstanding duos with the cellists Timothy Eddy and Joel Krosnick, and appears frequently with soprano Dawn Upshaw. As an educator, Gilbert Kalish is professor of piano and director of performance activities at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He was a faculty member at the Tanglewood Music Center from 1969 to 1997, serving as chairman of the Tanglewood faculty from 1985 to 1997. Renowned for his master class presentations, he often serves as guest artist at such distinguished music institutions as The Banff Centre, the Steans Institute at Ravinia, and the Marlboro Festival. His discography of some 100 recordings encompasses classical repertory, 20th-century mas- terworks, and new compositions. Of special note are his solo recordings of Charles Ives’s Concord Sonata, the sonatas of Joseph Haydn, an immense discography of vocal music with Jan DeGaetani, and landmarks of the 20th century by composers such as Carter, Crumb, Shapey, and Schoenberg. In 1995 he was presented with the Paul Fromm Award by the University of Chicago Music Department for distinguished service to the music of our time. In January 2002 he was the recipient of Chamber Music America’s Service Award for his exceptional contributions in the field of chamber music.

A Message from Gilbert Kalish...

When I was approached in the summer of 1969 to perform with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, I was frankly dumbstruck. Some of these very musicians had been mentors of mine when I was a young student at Tanglewood. Naturally I accepted this invitation, and for nearly thirty years I was the pianist of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players. I had the opportunity of performing the greatest works of the chamber music repertoire with this remarkable group of musicians. There were tours in Europe, South America, and Japan. There were three concerts each year in the magnificent setting of Jordan Hall as well as at Tanglewood. There were recordings of the classics, as well as of music of our time by eminent composers such as John Harbison and Leon Kirchner. But above all it was the musicians and the staff that were the highlight of those years. Dan Gustin, who managed the group, became one of my closest friends. The great Al Robison was our stage manager. And the members of the ensemble were both great musicians and larger-than-life characters. Sherman Walt, an incomparable artist, was like a big brother to me. Ed Barker was a pillar of strength and integrity. Then there were Joseph Silverstein, Burton Fine, Doriot Anthony Dwyer, Ralph Gomberg, and Harold Wright—elite performers who took immense pride in their craft. And performing today are, among others, dear colleagues Malcolm Lowe and Jules Eskin. Jules is the only musician on stage today who was there at the beginning. It was a privilege to play with all of these artists, and it is a special honor to be back again today, making music with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players.

THE BOSTON SYMPHONY CHAMBER PLAYERS A Discography

BARBER Summer Music, for wind quintet May 9, 1968 (RCA; unreleased) BARTÓK Contrasts, for violin, clarinet, and piano June 26, 1981 (Boston Records) BEETHOVEN Septet in E-flat for winds and strings, Op. 20 April 14-15, 1980 (Nonesuch) Serenade in D for flute, violin, and viola, October 26, 1964 (RCA) Op. 25 BERG Chamber Concerto: Adagio October 16, 1977 (DG) BOLCOM Serenata Notturna, for two violins, May 3 and 5, 2010 (BSO Classics) viola, cello, and oboe BRAHMS Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115 May 19-20, 1993 (Philips) Piano Quartet No. 3 in C minor, Op. 60 February 8-9, 1965 (RCA) String Quartet No. 1 in F, Op. 88 July 6, 1982 (Nonesuch) String Quintet No. 2 in G, Op. 111 July 5, 1982 (Nonesuch) Clarinet Trio in A minor, Op. 114 July 3-4-5, 1983 (Nonesuch) Horn Trio in E-flat, Op. 40 October 17, 1966 (RCA); July 3-4, 1983 (Nonesuch) Piano Trio No. 1 in B, Op. 8 May 31, 1968 (RCA) CARTER Sonata for flute, oboe, cello, and harpsichord September 28, 1970 (DG) Woodwind Quintet April 26, 1965 (RCA) COKER Concertino for Bassoon and String Trio March 6, 1967 (RCA) COLGRASS Variations for Four Drums and Viola April 19, 1966 (RCA) COPLAND Quartet for Piano and Strings May 5 and 7, 1987 (Elektra Nonesuch) Sextet for Clarinet, Piano, and String Quartet May 4 and 7, 1987 (Elektra Nonesuch) Vitebsk, Study on a Jewish Theme, February 9, 1965 (RCA) for piano trio DAHL Duettino concertante, for flute and percussion May 29, 1968 (RCA) DEBUSSY Prélude à l’Après-midi d’un faune April 27, 1978 (DG) (transcription by Benno Sachs) Sonata No. 1 in D minor, for cello and piano February 3, 1970 (DG) Sonata No. 2, for flute, viola, and harp January 26, 1970 (DG); May 17, 2011 (BSO Classics) Sonata No. 3, for violin and piano February 3, 1970 (DG) Syrinx, for unaccompanied flute February 3, 1970 (DG) DUTILLEUX Les Citations, Diptych for oboe, harpsichord, May 12-13, 2011 (BSO Classics) double bass, and percussion DVORÁKˇ String Quintet in G, Op. 77 June 3-4-5, 1971 (DG) String Sextet in A, Op. 48 July 9 1984 (Nonesuch) FINE Fantasia for String Trio February 9, 1965 (RCA)

19 FOSS For Aaron, for chamber ensemble May 17, 2010 (BSO Classics) FRANÇAIX Dixtuor, for wind quintet and string quintet May 9-10, 2011 (BSO Classics) GANDOLFI Plain Song, Fantastic Dances, for chamber May 17-18-19, 2010 ensemble (BSO Classics) GOLIJOV Lullaby and Doina, for chamber ensemble May 19, 2010 (BSO Classics) HAIEFF Three Bagatelles for Oboe and Bassoon November 14, 1966 (RCA) HARBISON Piano Quintet May 11, 1988 (Elektra Nonesuch) Words from Paterson, for voice and November 12, 1990 chamber ensemble (Elektra Nonesuch) HINDEMITH Kleine Kammermusik, Op. 24, No. 2 November 28, 1966 (RCA) Quartet for Clarinet, Violin, Cello, and Piano July 16, 1996 (Arabesque) IVES Largo for violin, clarinet, and piano October 12, 1970 (DG) KIRCHNER Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Ten Winds February 6-7, 1989 (Elektra Nonesuch) Music for Twelve May 13, 1988 (Elektra Nonesuch) Trio for Violin, Cello, and Piano May 11-12, 1988 (Elektra Nonesuch) LERDAHL Wake, for soprano, string trio, harp, January 31, 1970 and percussion (Acoustic Research, in collaboration with DG) MARTINU˚ Nonet for Strings and Winds May 31, 1968 (RCA) MENDELSSOHN Concert Piece No. 1 in F, Op. 113, April 24, 1983 (Boston Records) for clarinet, basset horn, and piano Concert Piece No. 2 in D minor, Op. 114, April 6, 1986 (Boston Records) for clarinet, basset horn, and piano MILHAUD Pastorale, for oboe, clarinet, and bassoon February 13, 1967 (RCA) MOZART Flute Quartet in D, K.285 October 27, 1964 (RCA) Flute Quartet in A, K.298 May 11, 2006 (BSO Classics) Oboe Quartet in F, K.370 October 26, 1964 (RCA); May 13, 2006 (BSO Classics) Piano Quartet in G minor, K.478 January 19 and 22, 1966 (RCA) Horn Quintet in E-flat, K.407 May 8, 2006 (BSO Classics) Clarinet Quintet in A, K.581 May 20-21, 1993 (Philips); May 9 and 11, 2006 (BSO Classics) Piano Quintet in E-flat, K.452 February 8, 1965 and January 19-20, 1966 (RCA) Clarinet Trio in E-flat, K.498, Kegelstatt June 28, 1991 (Boston Records) PISTON Divertimento for Nine Instruments April 26, 1965 (RCA) PORTER Quintet for Oboe and Strings, Elegiac October 12, 1970 (DG)

20 POULENC Sextet for Piano and Wind Quintet May 8, 1968 (RCA) Sonata for Trumpet, Horn, and Trombone April 20, 1966 (RCA; unreleased) Trio for Oboe, Bassoon, and Piano April 21, 1966 (RCA) RAVEL Chansons madécasses, for voice, flute, November 9-10, 1979 (CBS) piano, and cello Introduction and Allegro for harp, May 11, 2011 (BSO Classics) accompanied by string quartet, flute, and clarinet SCHOENBERG Chamber Symphony No. 1, Op. 9 October 2, 1977 (DG) (arr. Webern) Phantasy for violin and piano, Op. 47 April 27, 1978 (DG) Suite for Chamber Ensemble, Op. 29 February 16, 1979 (DG) SCHUBERT Octet in F, D.803 May 12 and 14, 1981 (Nonesuch) Piano Quintet in A, D.667, Trout May 9 and 27, 1968 (RCA) Piano Trio No. 1 in B-flat, D.898 October 9 and 11, 1967 (RCA) String Trio No. 1 in B-flat, D.471 December 22, 1966 (RCA) SHOSTAKOVICH Piano Quintet, Op. 57 June 23, 1997 (Arabesque) SMETANA Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 15 July 10, 1984 (Nonesuch) SPOHR Nonet in F, Op. 31 February 1-2, 1967 (RCA; unreleased) STRAUSS, Kaiser-Walzer, Op. 437 (arr. Schoenberg) April 8, 1977 (DG) JOHANN, JR. Rosen aus dem Süden, Op. 388 April 8, 1977 (DG) (arr. Schoenberg) Wein, Weib, und Gesang, Op. 333 April 8, 1977 (DG) (arr. Berg) Die Zigeunerbaron: Schatz-Walzer, Op. 418 April 8, 1977 (DG) (arr. Webern) STRAVINSKY Concertino for Twelve Instruments December 9, 1974 (DG) L’Histoire du soldat (complete) May 11-12, 1971 (DG) Octet for Wind Instruments December 9, 1974 (DG) Pastorale, for violin, oboe, English horn, December 7, 1974 (DG) clarinet, and bassoon Ragtime for Eleven Instruments December 9, 1974 (DG) Septet December 7, 1974 (DG) TOMASI Cinq Danses profanes et sacrées, May 16, 2011 (BSO Classics) for wind quintet VILLA-LOBOS Bachianas brasileiras No. 6, for flute and November 14, 1966 (RCA) bassoon WEBERN Concerto for Nine Instruments, Op. 24 May 27, 1968 (RCA) WYNER Serenade for Seven Instruments November 6, 1977 (CRI)

21 For Fifty Years, Champions of Chamber Music (... continued from page 5)

Since Kalish’s long tenure, the Chamber Players have worked with Leif Ove Andsnes, Emanuel Ax, Menahem Pressler, André Previn, Lars Vogt, and others, and they were devel- oping a particularly interesting relationship with James Levine until the music director’s medical problems erupted. Levine played Schubert’s Trout Quintet with the Chamber Players and conducted Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire with Anja Silja as an uncommonly imagi- native reciter; on another program he played Beethoven’s song cycle An die ferne Geliebte for tenor Ben Heppner. The list of vocal soloists with the Chamber Players has been select and distinguished; among them were Bethany Beardslee, Phyllis Curtin, Jan De Gaetani, Frederica von Stade, Sanford Sylvan, and Benita Valente, whose performance of Schubert’s Der Hirt auf dem Felsen (The Shepherd on the Rock), with Kalish and supple clarinetist Harold Wright, left a Jordan Hall audience sigh- The Boston Symphony Chamber Players in 1989: (from left) Jules ing with pleasure. Eskin, Charles Schlueter, Ronald Barron, Charles Kavalovski, Everett Most of the time the Chamber Players have hap- Firth (seated), Malcolm Lowe (seated), Harold Wright, Edwin Barker, pily worked without a conductor, even in chal- Doriot Anthony Dwyer, Burton Fine, Richard Svoboda, and Alfred lenging situations. But over the years several Genovese (BSO Archives/photo by Roger Farrington) BSO assistant conductors have stretched their wings with the group, and a number of prominent composers have also led the ensemble, among them John Harbison, Yehudi Wyner, Gunther Schuller, and Oliver Knussen.

REPERTOIRE Members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra had always played chamber music together for their own pleasure and occasionally for the public; this is something that many musicians enjoy doing in their spare time. At various points, there have been string quartets, a string trio, and other ensembles; but at the time, the concept of the Chamber Players was unique and the first of its kind: the players represented all the principal instruments of the orchestra, and all of them came from the same institution. This made it possible to play a wide and diverse repertory of violin and viola duos, brass quintets, pieces with percussion. “The only music we absolutely ruled out,” Silverstein says, “was string quartets, because all the major full-time quartets were coming into Boston or Tanglewood so often that it would have been redundant for us to play quartets. Also in my time, we had no member who played second violin, although we occasionally invited an additional violinist from the orchestra to join us for pieces like the Schubert Octet that required one. Later on at Tanglewood three members of the Guarneri Quartet joined the Chamber Players for a weekend of playing together; the following year we did it again with members of the Vermeer Quartet, and I count those weekends among the most delicious and delightful weekends of my life.” Over the years, the Chamber Players have had three principal managers—Harry Kraut, who left in 1971 to work for Leonard Bernstein; Dan Gustin, who left in 1999 and became director of the Irving S. Gilmore International Piano Festival; and BSO Artistic Administrator Anthony Fogg, who has supervised the Chamber Players for the last thirteen years. Gustin says that one of the issues that arose almost immediately is “that the bulk of the greatest chamber music is for strings and piano, with the winds involved to some extent, but

22 there is very little chamber music involving brass and percussion until the mid-20th century. The majority of the work always fell on the shoulders of the strings and winds, and it was hard to find comparable repertory that required brass and percussion. We tried to use all of the principals in all of the concerts, so one of the biggest pieces for the Chamber Players was the suite from Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du soldat.” The Chamber Players have played the Stravinsky suite, or the complete work, 104 times to date, and in 1971 made a remarkable recording for Deutsche Grammophon with Sir John Gielgud, Tom Courtenay, and Ron Moody in the speaking parts. The actors were not present during the recording of the music but were dubbed in later, and there were alternate ver- sions recorded in Berlin and Paris with German- speaking and French-speaking actors. Vic Firth, the legendary BSO timpanist who now runs his world-famous drumstick company, says he never got tired of the Stravinsky work: Flyer for the Chamber Players’ concerts of June 8 and 9, 1967, in “It is impossible to get bored when playing that Moscow, during that year’s five-and-a-half-week tour of the Soviet quality of music. I think we could have played Union (BSO Archives) it in the dark with the music upside down.” And Gustin says “To this day I can still hear every note of it in my head, and I have never heard anyone else play it as beautifully—and they did it without a conductor!” It was after Fogg took over the Chamber Players’ management that the decision was made to add a second violinist (the BSO’s principal second violin, Haldan Martinson), and to relieve the trumpet, trombone, and percussionist of Chamber Players responsibilities. “This helped us to focus our repertoire choices a little more easily,” Fogg says. “We still have the flexibility to include brass and percussion players, as needed.” Firth says that he, the trumpeter, the trombon- ist, and the double bass player sometimes felt like Four Stooges. “We had to play a lot of funny music that may have been beneath our station. I remember one new piece—I can’t tell you how many hours we put into it, and it still sounded like grizzly bears giving birth, and I had to sit down for most of it because pedaling the timpani for tuning was like riding a bicycle.”

COMMISSIONS Choice of repertory has always been a guided process, but also a democratic one. There is a repertory committee, and any player is free to suggest something interesting that the group might want to play. Silverstein was clearly the dominant figure in the early days, but Gustin worked closely with him; and in recent years The title page of Leon Kirchner’s “Music for Twelve,” Fogg has worked to synchronize Chamber the first work specifically commissioned for the Boston Players activity with the overall BSO schedule Symphony Chamber Players, premiered by them on and helped organize the expansion of the annual February 17, 1985, at Jordan Hall (BSO Archives) Jordan Hall series from three concerts to four.

23 Curiously the first commission specifically for the Chamber Players did not come until 1985, when the BSO asked Leon Kirchner to compose Music for Twelve. Since then there have been other commissions for works by John Anthony Lennon and, for a tour of Japan in 1987, Krodo Mori; and Fogg has arranged commissions for Yehudi Wyner, Osvaldo Golijov, Michael Gandolfi, and André Previn, as well as five new ones for the current anniversary celebrations. The Chamber Players have performed most of the important chamber music of the 18th and 19th centuries, much of it repeatedly, and have built a remarkable repertory of 20th- and 21st-century works. They have been particularly attentive to composers trained in Boston, or living and teaching here, nearly thirty of them, from Martin Amlin and Arthur Berger through Gunther Schuller—not to mention composers involved with Tanglewood, including Paul Hindemith, Aaron Copland, Lukas Foss, Ned Rorem, Bernard Rands, Oliver Knussen, Peter Lieberson, Sofia Gubaidulina, Hans Werner Henze, Henri Dutilleux, and Alexander Goehr. Many of the works of these composers were scheduled to coincide with performances of additional works of theirs by the Boston Symphony, the Tanglewood Music Center, and various guest ensembles. In this country, probably no other chamber ensembles, apart from a few adventurous string quartets or professional new-music groups, have played more contemporary music. Most recently the Chamber Players have initiated a collaboration with the British composer-pianist-conductor Thomas Adès, who this season appears with them for the second time.

RECORDINGS We asked four of the surviving founding members about their favorite Chamber Players recordings, which have appeared on diverse labels—RCA Victor, Philips, CRI, Deutsche Grammophon, Nonesuch, Arabesque, and, lately, the BSO’s own label, BSO Classics. Too many of these discs have long been unobtainable, but the orchestra is currently negotiating with Sony to make some of those now historic recordings, originally issued by RCA, available as downloads. Jules Eskin mentioned the Brahms Clarinet Trio with Harold Wright, the Schubert B-flat piano trio and Brahms C minor piano quartet with Claude Frank, the B major Brahms trio with Richard Goode: “These are the ones I remember the most, and I believe they can stand up to any other recording of these pieces ever made.” Joseph Siverstein mentioned the recording of Schoenberg’s arrangements of Strauss waltzes for Deutsche Grammophon, which unexpectedly became a huge hit with the players and the public. “Of the early ones, the Brahms B major trio with Jules and Richard Goode, and later, L’Histoire du soldat. We were the first group to play that piece without a conductor, and that recording was a landmark. And I am very proud of the Schoenberg and Webern records.” Burton Fine says that when he hears the recordings of the Brahms quintets, “I can’t believe that was me playing that! When that first came out the critics were not com- plimentary, but they were wrong. The Waltzes by Fred Lerdahl were very good, and so was the Schoenberg Septet, and we did that without a conductor. I also know which recording I do not like, a Debussy Cover of the Chamber Players’ first commercial recording, a record in which there is one conspicuous three-LP set released by RCA in 1966, and which won the Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance (BSO Archives)

24 wrong note which no one noticed at the time.” Vic Firth says, “I was never a big fan of recordings, and I don’t have many of them, but L’Histoire du soldat was very good.”

TOURS The tours by the Chamber Players are not as frequent as they used to be, mostly because of the international classical music market; in this country, the concert series sponsored by uni- versities have to a large extent either closed down or been abandoned for other priorities. But touring was at one time a major part of their work—and the source of countless anecdotes arising from the indignities and inconvenienc- es of touring: missed connections, bad hotels, inedible foods. Firth says, “The size of the group made it easy to move around, and everybody was a good sport when things went wrong—late arrivals, confused bookings, etc. But it was a fun part of the BSO job.” Silver stein adds, “It was a very convivial group and we traveled well together. At the beginning we already knew each other to a certain extent; we were familiar with the personalities involved, and we arrived on the same page musically right away. In terms of travel and the rehearsal schedule it was something of a challenge, but it worked. That it is still going after fifty years tells me we must have done something right from the beginning!” The biggest tour was five-and-a-half weeks in the Soviet Union in 1967, a journey that took the Chamber Players far beyond Moscow and Leningrad to nine other cities, including Tblisi, Odessa, and Baku. In one of those cities Burton Fine managed to lock himself into his hotel room, to the amusement of everybody, including, ulti- mately himself. But he takes pains to correct the legend. “I didn’t Flyer for the Chamber Players’ concerts lock myself into the room; the room itself locked me in. If you had of March 14 and 16, 1987, in Tokyo, an old hotel in the Soviet Union it was likely to be good: it had during their two-week tour of Japan proved its value by standing for 100 years. But in Chernowitz we (BSO Archives) were in a new one; the paint hadn’t even dried yet. The bathroom was separated from the body of the room by a door, and there was an old-fashioned ball joint on the door, and paint had accumulated around the ball joint. There was a glass window on it and after I had made a lot of caged animal sounds against the window on the door, a woman came to let me out instead of calling the police!” Doriot Anthony Dwyer would sometimes misplace her flute or her music, so the management always carried an extra set of music; once in London before a big-deal concert at the Guildhall, she left her flute in a taxi, so management burned up the phone lines calling prominent British flutists seeking an extra flute, when the taxi driver, beaming, showed up to return her flute in the nick of time. Dwyer was the first woman to hold a principal position in an American orchestra, and for many years she was the only woman in the Chamber Players, where she speedily earned the respect and admiration of her colleagues. Vic Firth remembers rehearsing a duet Original Chamber Players members Doriot for flute and percussion by Ingolf Dahl with Dwyer. Anthony Dwyer, flute, and Sherman Walt, “The flute part was like a percussion part and the bassoon, c.1964 (BSO Archives/photo by Boris and Milton)

25 Symphony Shopping

VisitVisit the Symphony ShopShop inin the the Cohen Cohen Wing atat the West Entrance ononHuntington Huntington Avenue. Hours:Open Thursday Tuesday andthrough Saturday, Friday, 3-6pm, 11–4; Saturdayand for all from Symphony 12–6; and Hall from performances one hour beforethrough each intermission. concert through intermission.

26 percussion part was like flute music. We had the percussion battery set up upstairs in Symphony Hall where they used to store the pianos, and if we even had only a ten-minute break, Doriot would grab me to go upstairs and rehearse another few measures. We worked on that piece a lot until it got to the point we could put it into any program with no notice.” “In standard repertory she was exciting, and absolutely the best,” Fine says, and Eskin recalls her “extraordinary gorgeous tone and natural way of phrasing.” Gustin speaks of “her incredible openness to trying anything, her immense curiosity—her brain was on fire because she was so curious about things, and nothing would daunt her. On tour she would go off for walks by herself, scoping out what the interesting things to do in Liberal, Kansas, might turn out to be.” Gino Cioffi was the clarinetist on the Russian tour. He was a great instrumentalist with a reputation for playing out of tune. Firth clarifies: “He was always perfectly in tune with himself, just out of tune with everyone else!” Cioffi spoke English with a heavy Italian accent, which carried over into his attempts to pronounce the single word of Russian that he knew, “spasibo,” which means “thank you.” The Russians he met were invariably surprised to be greeted by Cioffi saying “spasib.” The tours were social experiences as well as musical adventures and learning experiences. Gustin grew close to all the individual musicians and wound up marrying the daughter of far-famed BSO bassoonist Sherman Walt.

STANDARDS Silverstein pauses to speak of Harold Wright, the Boston Symphony’s principal clarinet between 1970 and 1993 and in that period probably the player most admired by his colleagues. “His legato was unique, his ability to spin a long phrase. It was a great lesson to me to hear him practice in a hotel when we were on tour. He would practice connecting long notes, as a singer would vocalize to connect one register to another seamlessly. That was his goal, an ultimate legato, which would be the same whenever he changed dynamic or intensity.” Fine, too, says he learned from “the standard that was set around me. I hear the recordings and still ask myself, ‘Is that me? Wow!’ And I loved the touring—all over the country I went to places I had never seen and found relatives I had never met. It was a tremendous thing. I had been a chemist with a job at NASA, and now I was new to the world of full-time professional music, ostensibly as an equal with people who were far beyond me in achievement and ability. I was on top of the world.” The surviving founding Chamber Players are totally convinced that Erich Leinsdorf was right to believe that creating this group would improve the Boston Symphony. Eskin: “It became a cohesive group, and for the strings to play in this way with the winds so often, it had a good effect on the orchestra.” Silverstein: “When Jules and Burton and I needed to decide on bow- ings in the orchestra, there was an immediate cooperation among the three of us; as colleagues, Jules and Burton were impeccable. And I think that kind of relationship still remains.” One of Gustin’s favorite anecdotes about touring with the Chamber Players sums all of this up delightfully. The concert in question took place in a town in northern Massachusetts where a local politician introduced himself, spoke at great length about how great his city was, and then said, “It is my very great honor to introduce the Boston Symphony Champion Players.” The musicians, making their way onto the stage, sputtered with involuntary laugh- ter, but if they had thought about it for just a moment they would have realized that a politician, for once, was proclaiming nothing but the truth.

RICHARD DYER wrote about music in The Boston Globe for thirty-three years, and since leav- ing the newspaper remains active writing, teaching, and lecturing.