CONCERT #11 - Released AUGUST 10, 2021

Johannes Brahms Sonata for Cello and Piano in F Major, Op. 99 Allegro vivace Adagio affettuoso Allegro passionato Allegro molto Efe Baltacıgil cello / Anton Nel piano

Florence Price String Quartet in G Major Allegro Andante Moderato-Allegretto James Ehnes violin / Stephen Rose violin / Beth Guterman Chu viola / Ronald Thomas cello

Franz Schubert Fantasia for Piano, Four Hands in F minor, Op. 103, D. 940 Allegro molto moderato Largo Scherzo. Allegro vivace Finale. Allegro molto moderato Andrew Armstrong and Orion Weiss piano Johannes Brahms quaking is heightened by the harmonic shift from F (1833-1897) to the remote tonality of F-sharp minor at the start of Sonata for Cello and Piano in the development. F Major, Op. 99 (1886) Most recent SCMS performance: Summer 2019 An imaginative dollop of color emerges in the second movement, Adagio affetuoso. A spooky, even By the early years of his sixth decade, Brahms had ominous, pizzicato cello theme floats eerily above achieved iconic status in Vienna, not merely as a sustained chords from the piano as the music unfolds composer, but as a performer/conductor, editor, and mysteriously. After this arresting introduction, the advocate for younger composers (the last-mentioned mood changes toward effusive sentiment for much of including anonymous donations from his bank the movement, as once again Brahms moves furtively account). In need of a well-earned vacation from into distant tonal centers, this time from F-sharp his multiple activities, the composer fled the city for Major to F minor. three successive summers to the lakeside resort of Thun, nestled in the majestic Swiss Alps. The ensuing Allegro passionato, a scherzo in all but name, marks an apparent return to the turbulent Absorbing the life-enhancing beauties of the atmosphere of the opening movement, yet despite area’s scenic splendor, Brahms enjoyed frequent the energy and bustle of its 6/8 tempo, there is conversations with his friend, the writer Joseph unmistakable good-natured parody while romping Widmann, and gave free rein to his rejuvenated along in the minor mode; one thinks fleetingly of an creative energies. The first of these summer jaunts in elfin scherzo by Mendelssohn, herein populated by 1886 gave birth to three important chamber works: dancing bears! Yet there are tinges of menace—they the Op. 100 Violin Sonata, the Op. 101 Piano Trio, and are “bears” after all—and the tension is enhanced by his big-boned Sonata No. 2 in F Major for Cello and the skillful ambiguity of its conflicting moods. Piano, Op. 99. The concluding energetic finale, Allegro molto, Annotators often describe many of Brahms’ late-life maintains lightness of feeling, though not texture, works as “autumnal,” a reasonable characterization if and finds Brahms in an unbuttoned mood, availing not pressed too strenuously. Such a description does himself of a folk-like theme that weaves through the not, however, do justice to the Op. 99 Sonata; it is, rondo to an emphatic and concise close. indeed, a work of considerable ardor and rhapsodic passion. Twenty years had elapsed since his Florence Price earlier cello/piano sonata, a composition far more (1888-1953) restrained emotionally, one that could be termed String Quartet in G Major (1929) “autumnal” except for its relatively early genesis. SCMS premiere

As if buoyed by the verdant radiance of his temporary Underrepresented composers are receiving overdue surroundings, the F-Major Sonata expresses youthful attention throughout American concert venues and vigor. Strong and propulsive, its moods are varied on recordings. Among these neglected creators is and maximal in contrast. The first movement, Allegro Florence Price, the first African-American to have a vivace, abounds in tremolos and massive broken composition performed by a major U.S. orchestra, the chords in the piano’s lower realm, providing a stormy Chicago Symphony. She graduated high school at the atmospheric backdrop against which the cello age of 14—as valedictorian—in Little Rock, Arkansas. successfully maintains equal footing. Brahms cannily In 1906, she graduated with honors from Boston’s sets the cello’s declamatory utterances high in that New England Conservatory where she studied instrument’s range, assuring its audibility in the midst piano and organ and composed her first symphony. of dense, “orchestral” sonorities on the piano. Uneasy Composer George Whitefield Chadwick served as her

summer festival // mentor for many years after she graduated from the imposing virtuoso like an ever-expanding roster of conservatory. No doubt influenced by Chadwick (who keyboard lions that roamed the musical savannahs had studied in Europe), she adopted an essential throughout the 19th century and beyond. In addition tonal harmony that infused most of her music. to nearly two dozen solo piano sonatas, brilliant accompaniments to his 600-plus songs, and She returned to Arkansas, married (and eventually countless solo miniatures, Schubert wrote reams divorced), taught college, and in 1927 joined throngs of music for piano-four hands, the bulk of it for the of other Black Americans during the Great Migration delectation of his friends who participated in and/or from the Jim Crow South to Chicago, which offered attended numerous popular musical soirées known much greater employment opportunities. After she as “Schubertiads” in 1820s Vienna. died, that Mid-American cultural Mecca belatedly named an elementary school after her. In contrast to the gemütlich nature of such duets, the Fantasy in F minor from his final year commands Much of her music disappeared after Price’s death, attention by virtue of its range of emotion and but in 2009 a family moved into a house long mature compositional style. Cast in four strikingly abandoned by the composer. The new inhabitants dissimilar sections—reminiscent of his virtuosic found a box of music swathed in half-a-century of Wanderer Fantasy of 1822—this dark-hued work dust. This treasure trove included scores for two belies the canard that Schubert was deficient in violin concertos and her Fourth Symphony, which contrapuntal skills and matters of overall structure. inspired new appreciation of Price’s music and what Imaginative polyphony and a masterly consolidation she had accomplished in her life. of a four-movement sonata-like design into one imposing structure demonstrate the composer’s The opening Allegro of her String Quartet in G thorough grounding in technical matters. Major ingratiates the ear with a sweet rising theme soon joined with a gently unfolding tremolo The Fantasy is especially satisfying in giving vent accompaniment. Pizzicatos enhance the serene and to the composer’s haunted ultimate year of his comfortably rocking demeanor of the music. The terribly short life. The opening section, Allegro writing is clear and well-balanced and fluent. A brief molto moderato, begins darkly in F minor, though a halt seems to initiate the close of the movement. window opens to a sunnier F-major tonality where Schubert’s much-heralded melodic gifts are manifest. Marked Andante moderato the second movement An Italianate Largo in remote F-sharp minor follows delights in evoking a winsome folk-inspired feeling. immediately, possibly reflecting Schubert’s recent A central Allegretto section adds energy interrupted attendance at a dazzling Paganini concert in Vienna. by brief hesitations while continuing to evoke a (Virtually everybody was wowed by the mysterious folkish feeling, at times enhanced by gently prodding violinist’s genius, most noticeably a bewitched pizzicatos in the lower strings. The finale restores Chopin.) unruffled calm. The final sections of the Fantasy, Scherzo and Allegro Franz Schubert vivace, are especially rich in polyphony. The fugal (1797–1828) development in the Allegro vivace uses an important Fantasia for Piano, Four Hands in F minor, figure first heard near the beginning of the work Op. 103, D. 940 (1828) as a countersubject, while the reappearance in the Most recent SCMS performance: Summer 2011 coda of the very opening motive imparts a sense of cyclical unity to the whole piece. Those who heard him play agreed that Schubert performed on the piano with compelling musical insight, adding that he was, however, not an Program Notes by Steven Lowe

August 10, 2021 // program notes