BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

James Levine, Music Director Bernard Haitink, Conductor Emeritus Seiji Ozawa, Music Director Laureate 129th Season, 2009-2010

CHAMBER TEA IV Friday, February 12, at 2:30

COMMUNITY CONCERT VII

Sunday, February 14, at 3, Twelfth Baptist Church, Roxbury

The free Community Concerts are made possible by a generous grant from The Lowell Institute.

HAWTHORNE RONAN LEFKOWITZ, violin (1st violin in Haydn) SI-JING HUANG, violin (1st violin in Klein, Krommer, and Gershwin) MARK LUDWIG, SATO KNUDSEN, cello

THOMAS MARTIN, clarinet

KROMMER Quartet in B-flat for clarinet, violin, viola, and cello, Opus 21, No. 2 Allegro Romanza Minuetto: Allegretto Rondo

HAYDN String Quartet in D minor, Opus 76, No. 2 Allegro Andante o piu tosto allegretto Menuetto; Trio Finale. Vivace assai

KLEIN Trio for violin, viola, and cello (1944) Allegro Variations on a theme from a Moravian folk song Molto vivace

GERSHWIN Three Preludes for piano solo (1926), arranged for clarinet, violin, viola, and piano by Thomas Martin

(Selection to be announced from the stage)

Prelude No. 1. Allegro ben ritmato e deciso Prelude No. 2. Andante con moto e poco rubato Prelude No. 3. Allegro ben ritmato e deciso

Week 15 Franz Krommer (1759-1831) Quartet in B-flat for Clarinet and Strings, Opus 21, No. 2

Franz Krommer (Frantisek Kramaf ) was a Moravian composer of Mozart's genera- tion (he was three years younger than Mozart) born in Kamenice, a small village between and and about 100 miles from . He studied violin and organ when young. Not as precocious as Mozart (who was?), he held various positions as music director and violinist in Vienna and in the 1780s and '90s. As a composer he was quite prolific but only began publishing works in the early 1790s. His career, at least initially, followed the tradition of Haydn or Bach of employment as Kapellmeister for courts and cathedrals. He was based in Vienna from 1795 and, among other posts, was Ballet-Kapellmeister to the Vienna Hofthe-

ater and director of chamber music and court composer to Emperor Francis I.

Krommer 's works include most of the instrumental genres, plus two Masses and a few other works for chorus. In addition to a handful of symphonies, he was especially active as a composer of concertos, including nine for violin and orchestra, and several for winds or mixed small groups of soloists. He also wrote a great deal of wind ensemble ("Harmonie") music. Chamber music by far dominates his output; he wrote more than two dozen string quintets, for example, some six dozen string quartets (a genre in which, in his time, he was said to rival Haydn), nine for flute and string trio, and much else, including five in the present genre of clarinet with string trio. His Opus 21, a pair of such quartets, was published in 1802. The delightful Quartet in B-flat for clarinet, violin, viola, and cello, Opus 21,

No. 2, is a four-movement work solidly in the style of Viennese classicism, which is to say, the style familiar from Mozart's and Haydn's music. Although the clarinet is not exclusively in the foreground, it is essentially the focus of the texture, its occa- sional brilliant runs indicating the technical skill of Krommer's original soloist. The strings frequently play chordal accompaniment, now and then stepping out to shadow or imitate the clarinet. As a whole, the piece is very much on the lighter end of the mood spectrum; even the second movement Romance admits hardly a shadow. The two outer movements are quick and carefree. The first is in clear sonata

form, the finale a rondo. After the Romance is a very brief minuet with a Trio, the shortest movement of the four, weighing in at under three minutes. The Trio has the rustic sweetness of a Landler (an Austrian folk-dance popular with Haydn).

Upcoming Community Concerts CHAMBER MUSIC PERFORMED BY MEMBERS OF THE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Sunday, March 14, at 3 p.m. • Endicott College for the Arts, Beverly Sunday, April 25, at 3 p.m. • Villa Victoria Center for the Arts, Boston

Free admission with reservation. To reserve tickets, please call SymphonyCharge at (617) 266-1200 or 888-266-1200.

For more information, log onto bso.org. music can change course. It is from this motif that the quartet earned its nickname, Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) "Quinten" ("Fifths"). The second movement, in D major, is in a basic ABA song form, String Quartet in D minor, Opus 76, No. 2 with inventive embellishments to the main material when it returns following the By the time Haydn completed his Opus 76 string quartets in 1797 (they were published harmonic detours of the B section. For the minuet, once more in D minor, Haydn two years later), he had already consolidated his reputation as the greatest of living writes a canon, the viola and cello following hard upon the heels of the two violins. composers, and he was living comfortably in Gumpendorf, a rural suburb of Vienna. In the contrasting, major-mode Trio section, a repeated-note motif and sudden off-the- His career as a symphonist was behind him, the twelve London symphonies having beat accents not only move the music forward, but also serve to throw the listener's been presented to audiences there between 1791 and 1795. The works of the present rhythmic sense by obscuring the downbeat. This movement is sometimes called the period would include several important Masses, among them the Missa in tempore Hexenmenuett ("Witches' Minuet"). Offbeat rhythms and accents serve also to ener-

belli, the so-called Nelson Mass (Missa in angustiis), and the Theresienmesse; his orato- gize Haydn's impish finale, which, having begun in the minor, heads jauntily to a rio The Creation; the oratorio version of The Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross, and bustling D major close. the first section, "Spring," of The Seasons. The Opus 76 quartets were dedicated to Count Joseph Erdody, one of those prominent aristocrats who maintained "house (1919-71945) quartets" for just such musical entertainment, and who was also an important sup- Trio for violin, viola, and cello (1944) porter of Beethoven. The Moravian composer and pianist Gideon Klein was a prodigy, recognized early As much "the father of the string quartet" as he was "of the symphony," Haydn for his musical potential. He moved from his birthplace of Pferov (near Brno) to produced more than eighty string quartets during his lifetime, establishing the genre Prague at age twelve to study piano, and later attended the Prague Conservatory, (together with Mozart) in a way that informs not only our understanding of the where he achieved notable success. He also took courses in musicology at the Charles Classical style, but our expectations of it. Haydn must have enjoyed composing for University in Prague, and, although he had little formal compositional training, the medium of the quartet: the ease and fluidity of the writing are everywhere appar- worked briefly with the Czech composer Alois Haba. Because of his Jewish roots, he ent, and it is noteworthy that the string quartet was the only instrumental genre that was forbidden to continue his formal education after 1940, and although he hoped to he pursued during his last years as a composer. emigrate and attend the Royal College of Music in London, his visa was denied. He The D minor quartet, Opus 76, No. 2, begins with two descending fifths in the first continued to perform as a pianist under pseudonyms until he was deported to the violin (A to D, E to A). This descending-fifth motif pervades the first movement not Theresienstadt concentration camp in December 1941. only as a melodic element, but also as the basis for harmonic axes around which the As a prisoner at Theresienstadt, Klein and others were convinced that maintaining a sense of community and individual freedom within the camp environment was their best chance for healthy survival. To that end, concerts and theatrical productions were organized among the prisoners, and Klein, one of the youngest of the established com- posers there, encouraged the older artists including Hans Krasa and Viktor Ullmann to continue to write music. The Nazi authorities manipulated the situation in order THE BSO ONLINE to present to the world a false picture of the camps, via press and film footage such as the film "The Fiihrer Presents the Jews with a City." Klein's small body of works establishes a strong and consistent compositional voice. He was evidently influenced by Bartok and Berg; the latter's Violin Concerto may have an echo in Klein's Piano Sonata. The cabaret-influenced avant-garde theater works of watch listen explore using alternative fift 4)) # Kurt Weill probably also had their effect. We find the composer tonalities, picking and choosing from whole-tone, chromatic, and modal scales in a way that seems to blend folk-music sources with modernism. The music is highly • BUYTICKETS SUBSCRIBE • DONATE motivic and, in faster movements, sharply rhythmic. Klein composed his Trio, the last work he ever wrote, while at Theresienstadt. A PROGRAM LISTINGS • SPECIAL EVENTS fourteen-minute work in three movements, the Trio has a strong folk-music quality, made explicit in the slow middle movement, a set of variations on a plaintive Mora- DOWNLOAD PODCASTS • BIOGRAPHIES vian folk tune, evidently one the composer's grandmother used to sing to him. The outer movements are both quick and relatively brief, featuring pulsing ostinatos over free lines, made up of small motifs, unfold. HISTORICAL FACTS • NEW AMENITIES which alternately syncopated or melodic Imitative counterpoint underlines the high points of the finale. The middle movement, longer than the outer ones together, begins lugubriously with a chorale version of the theme, which broadens, with little change of mood, into a contrapuntal texture. VISIT US AT The variations tend generally to the mood of the original, with a few excursions into faster, brighter territory, and each of the instruments is featured in a solo role from —

the violin, trick the ear Hawthorne String Quartet time to time. Use of multi-stops, particularly octaves in may Named for novelist , the Hawthorne String into hearing a quartet rather than a trio. and Quartet includes Boston Symphony members Ronan Lefkowitz and Si-Jing Huang, Klein was moved from the Theresienstadt camp to Auschwitz in October 1944, at Fiirsten- violins, Mark Ludwig, viola, and Sato Knudsen, cello. Since its inception in 1986, from there, as an able body, was transferred to the coal mining camp the ensemble has performed extensively throughout Europe, South America, Japan, grube some twenty miles north. He is presumed to have been murdered there by 1945. and the United States, including appearances at such major festivals as Tanglewood, the SS in a final purge of more than two hundred prisoners on January 27, Ravinia, and Aspen. The group's expansive repertoire ranges from 18th- and 19th- to contemporary works. It has distinguished itself internationally George Gershwin (1898-1937) century classics championing the works of composers persecuted during the Nazi regime, with Three Preludes, arranged for clarinet, violin, viola, and cello by Thomas Martin by an emphasis on the Czech composers incarcerated in the Theresienstadt concentra- professional musician, beginning in 1914, as a George Gershwin got his start as a tion camp (Terezm). In October 1991, the quartet performed in Terezin and Prague Remick's—day after day for ten or song-plugger for the Tin Pan Alley publisher in ceremonies hosted by President Vaclav Havel to mark the opening of the Terezin for performers and producers looking for new ma- more hours banging out tunes Ghetto Museum and to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first transports to get his songs accepted into a Broadway terial. Meanwhile he was trying own to Terezin. In November 2002 they performed additional concerts at the invitation a of his own, but composers some- show; it was as yet far-fetched to expect show of President Havel and under the sponsorship of the U.S. State Department, to help into extant or developing productions. He left times wedged individual songs raise funds for Czech flood relief and restoration efforts at Pamatruk Terezin. The as a pianist, and in 1918 several of his Remick's in 1917 to work on Broadway quartet has returned repeatedly to the , for performances, master In 1919, remarkably he was not yet twenty-one songs were in Broadway shows. — classes at the Prague Conservatory, and film projects. The Hawthorne Quartet's appeared Broadway, and in 1920 he had his first complete show, La-La-Lucille!, on recordings include chamber music by the American composers Arthur Foote, recorded the great Al Jolson. his first megahit with Swanee, by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, , and David Post, as well as several mo- a further splash with a series of revues, the "George White Scan- He made tion picture and documentary soundtracks. The group has also performed in radio intended by White as a competitor to Ziegfeld's Follies, and in dals," which were and television programs worldwide, and in documentaries. Their CD "Chamber his most famous concert work, Rhapsody in Blue. 1923—at twenty-four—wrote Music from Theresienstadt" won the Preis der Schallplattenkritik in 1991. Other straddled the line between concert music and From that point he successfully recordings include "Silenced Voices" (Northeastern Records), with newly recov- Broadway as deftly as anyone in history His concert works included the Piano ered music of composers persecuted during World War II; string quartets by Pavel Concerto in F, An American in Paris, the Cuban Overture, and other orchestral works, Haas and Hans Krasa (part of London /Decca's "Entartete Musik" project), and as well as many Broadway shows and the opera Porgy and Bess, written in collabo- Ervin Schulhoff's Concerto for Solo String Quartet and Chamber Orchestra (also in ration with his brother Ira. His biggest shows—there were quite a few—included the "Entartete Musik" series). The quartet gave the American premiere of Schulhoff's Girl Crazy and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Thee I Sing. Of concerto with Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Appointed quar- Gershwin's Three Preludes were a natural extension of his piano performance, a tet-in-residence at in 1998, the Hawthorne String Quartet has col- major aspect of his fame since his solo appearance in the Rhapsody in Blue premiere. laborated with Christopher Hogwood, Ned Rorem, Andre Previn, Sir Simon Rattle, He introduced these three short, contrasting, and jazz-steeped pieces on a New York Yo-Yo Ma, Joshua Bell, Lynn Harrell, Martha Argerich, and the Pilobolus Dance recital in which he also accompanied the operatic contralto Marguerite d'Alvarez. Company, and has made solo appearances with the Boston Symphony, National The three are identified as Nos. 1, 2, and 3, with nothing in the way of character Symphony, Juilliard Orchestra, and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie. Among hints except in the music itself; the Italian tempo markings are more cryptic than the quartet's latest projects is "Remembrance & Beyond," a collaboration with illuminating in this case. Prelude No. 1 is syncopated, with a rumba-like rhythmic artist Jim Schantz and the Terezin Chamber Music Foundation. For more informa- ostinato in the left hand. Flattened third and seventh degrees of the scale give the tion about the Hawthorne String Quartet, please contact [email protected]. melody a jazzy touch as well. The second prelude is bluesier and in four distinct sections (AABA). The first part features a circular chord progression in the left Thomas Martin served as principal clarinet of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra hand and a free melody. The second part speeds up a little, with the melody moving before joining the Boston Symphony in the fall of 1984. Born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, to the bass. The third prelude is again rumba-like and fast, in a minor key. Thomas Mr. Martin graduated from the Eastman School of Music, where he was a student Martin's arrangements of the three pieces tend to place the melody in the clarinet of Stanley Hasty and Peter Hadcock. He participated in master classes with Guy and accompaniment in the strings, but the tune will now and then move into the Deplus of the Paris Conservatory. Mr. Martin performs frequently as a recitalist strings as well. and chamber musician and has been heard on "Morning Pro Musica" on WGBH —Notes by Robert Kirzinger (Krommer, Klein, Gershwin) radio. He has appeared in the Chamber Prelude series at Symphony Hall, on the and Marc Mandel (Haydn) Friday Preludes at Tanglewood, at the Longy School of Music, and at the Gardner Museum.