STEFAN JACKIW VIOLIN ANNA POLONSKY PIANO DENVER DECEMBER 7, 2016 CLARA Three Romances for Violin and Piano, Op. 22 SCHUMANN Andante molto (1819-1896) Allegretto Leidenschaftlich schnell JOHANNES Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108 BRAHMS Allegro (1833-1897) Adagio Un poco presto e con sentimento Presto agitato INTERMISSION DAVID FULMER They Turn Their Channeled Faces to the Sky (b. 1950) BRAHMS Sonata No. 1 in G major, Op. 78 Vivace, ma non troppo Adagio Allegro molto moderato STEFAN JACKIW Making his FCM debut this evening, violinist Stefan Jackiw (pronounced “Jacque-eev”) is recognized as one of his generation’s most significant artists, captivating audiences with playing that combines poetry and purity with an impeccable technique. Hailed for playing of “uncommon musical substance” that is “striking for its intelligence and sensitivity” (Boston Globe), Jackiw has appeared as soloist with the orchestras of Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco, STEFAN JACKIW among others. violin Last season Stefan Jackiw performed Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto at Carnegie Hall with Mikhail Pletnev, before embarking on a multi-city tour with the Russian National Orchestra. In Europe, Stefan returned to Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic. In Asia, he appeared for the first time with the Tokyo Symphony at Suntory Hall, and returned to the Seoul Philharmonic. He also toured Korea, playing chamber music with Gidon Kremer and Kremerata Baltica. This season Stefan will appear on tour throughout North America, including performances with the Vancouver Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Oregon Symphony, and New Jersey Symphony. Tours in Europe will also take Stefan back to the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic with Ludovic Morlot, to the Helsinki Philharmonic and Bern Symphony, and to the Munich Symphony. Further afield, he will appear on tour with the Royal Flemish Philharmonic in Shanghai and Mumbai. This season he will record the Ives violin sonata with Jeremy Denk for Nonesuch Records ahead of their 2017-18 North American tour. Previous recordings include the complete Brahms sonatas for Sony, hailed by Fanfare as “now the recording of the Brahms sonatas to have.” In recent seasons Stefan toured Australia playing Mendelssohn with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, and he gave the world premiere of American composer David Fulmer’s Violin Concerto No. 2 Jubilant Arcs, written for him and commissioned by the Heidelberg Festival. Other recent highlights include performances with the St. Louis Symphony under Nicholas McGegan, the Rotterdam Philharmonic under Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and the Pittsburgh Symphony under Juraj Valcuha. Jackiw is also an active recitalist and chamber musician. He has performed in numerous important festivals and concert series, including the Aspen Music Festival, Ravinia Festival, Caramoor International Music Festival, the Celebrity Series of Boston, New York’s Mostly Mozart Festival, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Washington Performing Arts Society, and the Louvre Recital Series in Paris. As a chamber musician, Jackiw has collaborated with such artists as Steven Isserlis, Yo-Yo Ma, and Gil Shaham. At the opening night of Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall in New York, Jackiw was the only young artist invited to perform, playing alongside such artists as Emanuel Ax, Renée Fleming, Evgeny Kissin, and James Levine. Born in 1985 to physicist parents of Korean and German descent, Stefan Jackiw began playing the violin at the age of four. His teachers have included Zinaida Gilels, Michèle Auclair, and Donald Weilerstein. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University, as well as an Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory, and is the recipient of a prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. He lives in New York City. ANNA POLONSKY Anna Polonsky, making her FCM debut this evening, is widely in demand as a soloist and chamber musician. She has appeared with the Moscow Virtuosi, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, the Memphis Symphony, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, and many others. Ms. Polonsky has collaborated with the Guarneri, Orion, Daedalus, and Shanghai Quartets, and with such musicians as Mitsuko Uchida, Yo-Yo Ma, David Shifrin, Richard Goode, Emanuel Ax, Arnold Steinhardt, Peter Wiley, and Jaime ANNA POLONSKY Laredo. She has performed chamber music at festivals piano such as Marlboro, Chamber Music Northwest, Music@ friendsofchambermusic.com 1 Menlo, and Caramoor, as well as at Bargemusic in New York City. Ms. Polonsky has performed at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Alice Tully Hall, and Carnegie Hall’s Stern, Weill, and Zankel Halls. A frequent guest at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, she was a member of the Chamber Music Society Two from 2002-2004. In 2006 she took part in the European Broadcasting Union’s project to record and broadcast all of Mozart’s keyboard sonatas, and in the spring of 2007 she performed a solo recital at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium to inaugurate the Emerson Quartet’s "Perspectives" series. She is a recipient of a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship and the Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award. Polonsky made her solo piano debut at the age of seven at the Special Central Music School in Moscow, Russia. She emigrated to the United States in 1990 and attended high school at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan. She received her Bachelor of Music diploma from The Curtis Institute of Music under the tutelage of the renowned pianist Peter Serkin, with whom this season she is playing the concertos for two keyboards by Bach. She continued her studies with Jerome Lowenthal, earning her Master’s Degree from the Juilliard School. In addition to performing, she serves on the piano faculty of Vassar College, and in the summer at the Marlboro and Kneisel Hall chamber music festivals. She is married to pianist Orion Weiss who appeared last month with FCM. Together they perform as the Polonsky-Weiss Piano Duo. They have a three-year-old daughter. Ms. Polonsky is a Steinway Artist. LEGACY GIFTS For those who want to leave a musical legacy, a planned or deferred gift to Friends of Chamber Music is a meaningful way for you to help insure our future artistic excellence and stability while providing enhanced tax benefits to you. Visit our website for more information. 2 friendsofchambermusic.com NOTES Program Notes © Elizabeth Bergman IN BRIEF CLARA BORN: September 13, 1819 in Leipzig, Germany SCHUMANN: DIED: May 20, 1896 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany THREE ROMANCES WORK COMPOSED: Written in 1853, dedicated to violinist, FOR VIOLIN AND Joseph Joachim PIANO FIRST PERFORMED: Not clear, but performed by Schumann and Joachim on tour. MOST RECENT FRIENDS OF CHAMBER MUSIC PERFORMANCE: Tonight marks the first performance of this work on our series. ESTIMATED DURATION: 10 minutes The career of Clara Schumann is intertwined with that of her husband Robert, yet she was also an artist in her own right. As a renowned concert pianist, she set the standard for playing from memory, and as a composer her works reveal not only a well trained sense of harmony and form but also an expressive independence, a real genius. Clara and Robert met in Leipzig in 1834, married six years later, and had eight children together. Their relationship, and the initial resistance on the part of Clara’s dictatorial father to their marriage, inspired them to compose songs for one another. Their amorous exchange in music was sometimes melancholic, other times bitter, but always deeply loving. A central concern is loss, likewise an essential preoccupation of the Romantic aesthetic. Despite Clara’s creative talent, women in the 19th century could not promote themselves as composers. “Women,” she lamented in a letter, “are not born to compose,” meaning not that they couldn’t, but that they were allowed only to play music penned by men. Thus Robert ultimately accomplished more than she did, producing four symphonies and a musical treatment of Johann von Goethe’s Faust, even though her works showed more initial promise. In addition to salon songs, she composed chamber pieces and an influential piano concerto that attracted the attention of, among other European composers, Johannes Brahms. friendsofchambermusic.com 3 Program Notes Inspiration for her Three Romances for Violin and Piano Continued came from the violinist Joseph Joachim, with whom Clara performed on tour. The pieces reached the court of Hannover, where the monarch declared her music to be a “marvelous, heavenly pleasure.” That pleasure, however, has dark hues. Each of the romances is in three parts, the middles contrasting the frames. The harmonies in the core of the second Romance darken, and some of the long-breathed melodies falter as if threatened. These are character pieces, of contrasting moods and affects. The first is more about the violin than the piano, and the third more about the piano than the violin. The second strikes a balance. The content ranges from Roma (“gypsy”) pathos to merriment, festive exultation, to a final piece marked “Leidenschaftlich schnell” (passionate quickness). BRAHMS: IN BRIEF SONATA NO. 3 IN BORN: May 7, 1833 in Hamburg, Germany D MINOR, OP. 108 DIED: April 3, 1897 in Vienna, Austria WORK COMPOSED: between 1878 and 1888; dedicated to Brahms's friend and colleague, Hans Von Bülow. FIRST PERFORMED: 1888 in Budapest with Jeño Hubay on violin and the composer on the piano. MOST RECENT FRIENDS OF CHAMBER MUSIC PERFORMANCE: October 15, 2014 with Erin Keefe, violin, and Shai Wosner, piano. ESTIMATED DURATION: 21 minutes Clara nurtured her husband’s talent, devoting herself to his career and to raising their family. She performed the same service for Brahms, both professionally—she was his muse—and personally, as he was a member of the Schumann household for many years.