UMS Concert Program, Thursday Jan. 22 To Feb. 06: University Musical Society: 1997-1998 Winter - Thursday Jan. 22 To Feb. 06 --

Season: 1997-1998 Winter
University Of Michigan

University Musical Society
of the University of Michigan 1997-1998 Winter Season
ivent Program Book Thursday, January 22, 1998 through Friday, February 6, 1998
General Information
Children of ail ages are welcome to JMS Family and Youth performances. Parents are encouraged not to bring hildren under the age of three to egular, full-length UMS performances. Ml children should be able to sit quietly n their own seats throughout any JMS performance. Children unable to do so, along with the adult accompa-lying them, will be asked by an usher to leave the auditorium. Please use iiscretion in choosing to bring a child.
temember, everyone must have a ncket, regardless of age.
While in the Auditorium
Itarting Time Every attempt is made 0 begin concerts on time. Latecomers ire asked to wait in the lobby until sated by ushers at a predetermined iime in the program.
Cameras and recording equipment
are not allowed in the auditorium.
f you have a question, ask your usher. They are here to help.
Tokyo String Quartet
Thursday, January 22,8:00pm Rackham Auditorium
American String Quartet
Friday, January 30, 8:00pm Rackham Auditorium
Ursula Oppens
Saturday, January 31, 8:00pm Rackham Auditorium
The Dale Warland Singers
Thursday, February 5, 8:00pm
St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church
St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and The Dale Warland Singers
Friday, February 6, 8:00pm Hill Auditorium
17
25
31
University Musical Society presents
Thursday, February 19,
8 p.m.
Rackham Auditorium
ensational ... I have never heard these works played more provocatively, or with more heat nd nervous energy . . . incredible virtuosity." {Hamburg) Comprised of former principal players in the leading orchestras in Berlin and Leipzig, the Berlin-based Petersen Quartet is widely acclaimed as one of the most exciting young quartets to have emerged from Europe in recent years with numerous awards and a sterling international reputation from their extensive tours and recordings.
Program
Haydn String Quartet Op. 1, No. 3
Mozart String Quartet No. 22 in B-flat Major, K.589
Janacek String Quartet No. 2 ("Intimate Letters")
Wednesday, April 29,
8 p.m.
Rackham Auditorium
The Hagen Quartet began attracting attention while its members were still students at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. Today, it belongs to the elite of international string quartets, having developed a reputation for bold interpretation and challenging programming, and for its flawless technique and ensemble work.
Program
Schoenberg String Quartet No. 3, Op. 30
Shostakovich String Quartet No. 3 in F Major, Op. 73
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University
Musical
Society
presents
Tokyo String Quartet
Mikhail Kopelman, Violin Kikuei Ikeda, Violin Kazuhide Isomura, Viola Sadao Harada, Cello
Program
Thursday Evening, January 22, 1998 at S:00 Rackham Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Quartet in d minor, K. 421
Allegro Moderato Andante
Menuetto: Allegretto Allegretto ma non troppo
Anton Webern
Five Movements for String Quartet, Op. 5
Heftig bewegt Sehr langsam Sehr bewegt Sehr langsam In zarter Bewegung
INTERMISSION
Piotr Illvich Tchaikovskv
Quartet No. 3 in e-flat minor, Op. 30
Andante sostenuto
Allegretto vivo e scherzando
Andante funebre e doloroso. ma con moto
Finale: Allegro non troppo e risoluto
Thirty-fourth Concert of the 119th Season
Thirty-fifth Annual Chamber Arts Series
Large print programs are available upon request.
Quartet in d minor, K.421
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Born on January 27, 1756 in Salzburg Died on December 5, 1791 in Vienna
Mozart did not always compose with the ease and speed one usually associates with his name. Even he had to struggle with some of his compo?sitions. The six string quartets dedicated to Franz Joseph Haydn are a case in point. In paying homage to his older colleague and friend, Mozart subjected himself to an enormous challenge. Haydn had turned the string quartet into one of the most highly developed instrumental genres of his time, and, especially after his epoch-making set of six quartets, Op. 33 (1781), he became the undisputed master of the form with an interna?tional reputation. Mozart, eager to live up to these high standards, took three years to complete his set of six quartets which he dedicated to Haydn. This was music for the connoisseur, sophisticated in technique and complex in elaboration -the work of a genius making a conscious effort to surpass himself (if that is possible at all). For the publication of the quartets, Mozart wrote a beau?tiful dedicatory letter to Haydn (in Italian, the international language of music) in which he acknowledged the "long and hard work" the quartets had cost him, and asked Haydn to be a loving "father, guide and friend" to these "children" which the composer, as a father, sent out into the world to live their own lives.
The d-minor quartet was the second in the set of six. Mozart followed Haydn's custom of including one quartet in a minor key in the group; such works were usually darker, more tragic in tone and more innovative in harmonic language than their "siblings" in major tonalities. The d-minor quartet is no exception: it has a cer?tain dramatic quality that, despite a few areas of respite, prevails from the beginning to the end. One area of relative calm is the second theme of the first movement, in which the tonality switches to the major; yet when it returns in the recapitu?lation (after a rather stormy development), it, too, becomes tense and agitated. Not only is the
theme transposed to the minor (this much is to be expected according to the conventions), but it undergoes additional, very striking motivic transformations to enhance the change of mood.
The second movement is a (mostly) calm "Andante" in F Major. The third is a "Menuetto," but without the usual gracefulness of the dance; Mozart wrote a minuetto serio (serious minuet) in d minor, with chromatic harmonies and imita?tive textures, following, and expanding upon, the example of some of Haydn's dramatic, minor-key minuets. The stern atmosphere of the minuet constrasts with the Trio, in which the first violin plays a tune reminiscent of yodeling (a kind of folk singing in the mountainous regions of Austria, characterized by wide melodic leaps).
The last movement is a set of variations on a theme. Contrary to what happens in many minor-key works where the tensions are eased by a final modulation to the major, this movement has only one variation in the major and the work ends on a rather disconsolate note.
Five Movements for String Quartet, Op.5
Anton Webern
Born on December 3, 1883 in Vienna
Died on September 15, 1945 in Mittersill, Austria
Much of the new music written in the German-speaking lands during the first decade of the twentieth century involved a constant increase in size and performing forces. The symphonic poems of Richard Strauss, the symphonies of Gustav Mahler, or Arnold Schoenberg's gigantic oratorio Gurrclieder were all still "new music" in 1909 when the young Anton Webern. who had completed fin?ishing his composition studies with Schoenberg only the previous year, embarked on a series of musical miniatures of unprecedented concentra?tion. The world wasn't ready for such an abrupt change of directions. With the exception of his more traditional Passacaglia for orchestra (Op. 1), not one of Webern's works written during the period starting in 1909 was premiered before the 1920s.
This new period was inaugurated in the Five Movements for String Quartet, which Webern himself regarded as one of his most important works. (In 1929, he arranged it for string orches?tra.) In this piece, some traditional formal elements of classical music were subjected to a highly unusual process of compression. The five move?ments run a total of eight minutes in performance; the third movement lasts a mere thirty-five seconds. Themes and developments are reduced to a few measures and sometimes a few notes or gestures (sighs, exclamations, or pulsations). The structural boundaries are often marked by frequent changes in playing techniques ("by the bridge," "with the wood of the bow," "plucked strings," "with mute," etc.). The introduction of such unusual playing techniques and their frequent alternation serve to isolate the various musical events (each important in and of itself), creating an entirely new sound world that has been frequently imitated, though seldom matched, by later composers.
The dramatic opening movement, a com?pressed sonata form, is the only section of the work to incorporate striking contrasts in tempo and dynamics. All the other movements are more stable in character. The slow second movement is soft and plainitve throughout. The third move?ment is a vibrant scherzo. The fourth movement is again slow, but replaces the tender atmosphere of the second piece with an aura of mystery. In the last movement, finally, a gentle, lilting rhythm evolves into suspenseful tremolos and then melts away in a lyrical and expressive conclusion.
Quartet No. 3 in e-flat minor. Op. 30
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Born on May 7, 1840 in Kamsko-Votkinsk, Russia
Died on November 6, 1893 in St. Petersburg
Tchaikovsky wrote three string quartets, all between 1871 and 1876. Along with the two quartets of Borodin, these were the first impor?tant contribution to the quartet genre in Russia. Tchaikovsky's first two quartets were premiered
by the Moscow String Quartet, led by the Prague-born Ferdinand Laub, the composer's colleague on the faculty of the Moscow Conservatory. After Laub's premature death in 1875, Tchaikovsky wrote his third quartet in his friend's memory.
The elegiac tone of the Quartet No. 3 anticipates that of the famous piano trio of 1882, written to commemorate another friend and colleague, the pianist and conductor Nikolai Rubinstein. Tchaikovsky chose a most unusual key, e-flat minor, for the main tonality of the quartet, whose six flats (lowered notes) produce a dark sound quality throughout most of the work.
The first movement opens with an extended slow introduction whose gloomy tone continues in the "Allegro moderato." After an extensive development and a dramatic high point where all four instruments reach triple forte in their highest registers, the slow introduction unexpect?edly returns for a soft and wistful conclusion.
The second movement is a quick scherzo in the much brighter key of B-flat Major, but notes borrowed from the minor mode frequentlv cast a dark shadow over the lively rhythmic patterns. The middle section is dominated by a viola melody of a wide range and great emotional intensity; the elfin scherzo material subsequently returns.
The third movement is a funeral march in a somber e-flat minor in which the muted strings play stark chordal progressions followed by a chant-like section that, according to some com?mentators, suggests an Orthodox funeral service, A second idea, more lyrical in nature, is juxtaposed with the funeral music. A return of the chant-like theme concludes the movement.
The finale, in a bright E-flat Major, seems to be inspired by Ukrainian folk music, similarly to the Symphony No.2 (1873). It is a brisk, dance-like movement in which the earlier tragedy gives way to happier feelings in accordance with expeaations. There is only one moment of hesitancy after which the music bounces back with renewed energy, and the work ends with an exuberant coda.
Program notes by Peter hiki
The Tokyo String Quartet is one of the supreme chamber ensembles of the world. Praised for its exceptional tech?nical command and elegant performance style, the Quartet has received extraor?dinary acclaim since its founding in 1969. The ensemble performs over 100 concerts each year across the United States, Canada, Europe, South America and the Far East.
This season, the Quartet will continue to per?form in the leading concert halls throughout the world. The ensemble continues its annual three-concert series at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall and is scheduled to give concerts in Japan, Great Britain, Germany, Austria, Italy, and the Netherlands. North American venues include this Ann Arbor concert as well as concerts in Detroit, Philadelphia, Houston, Seattle, Pittsburgh, Portland, Sarasota, West Palm Beach, Toronto, Newark and Princeton. They will perform two concerts in Chicago as part of a Beethoven series featuring the Tokyo, Emerson, Guarneri and Juilliard String Quartets. In March, the ensemble will join James Galway, performing chamber music of Mozart and Reicha in Chicago, Los
Angeles, San Francisco, Escondido, Dallas, Austin, and Orono. The members of the Quartet serve on the faculty of the Yale School of Music and continue as Artists-in-Residence at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. The Tokyo Quartet will continue to perform this season on the renowned Stradivarius instruments known as "The Paganini Quartet," on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation since 1995.
The Tokyo String Quartet traces its origins to the Toho School in Tokyo, where several of the founding members were profoundly influenced by Professor Hideo Saito. Instilled with a deep commitment to chamber music, the original members of the Tokyo String Quartet came to America for study with Robert Mann, Raphael Hilluer and Claus Adam. In 1969, the ensemble was officially created and scholarships were awarded to The Juilliard School. Soon after, the Quartet won prizes at the Munich Competition and the Young Concert .Artists International Auditions, which brought the group worldwide attention. Violist Kazuhide Isomura and cellist Sadao Harada are founding members of the Quartet, and, in 1974, were joined by violinist
The Tokyo String Quartet
Kikuei Ikeda who also studied at the Toho School. Born in the Ukraine, Mikhail Kopelman studied at the Moscow Conservatory, and was the first violinist of the Borodin Quartet for rwo decades. Mr. Kopelman joined the Tokyo as its first violinist in November 1996, replacing Peter Oundiian, who stepped down from the post after playing with the ensemble for fifteen years.
The Tokyo String Quartet has been featured on numerous maior television programs including PBS' Great Performances, National Arts, Sesame Street, CBS Sunday Morning and a taped concert from the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, broadcast nationally on public television.
r115 evening's performance marks the Tokyo String Quartet's seventh appearance under UMS auspices.
Mikhail Kopelman joined the Tokyo String Quartet in November 1996 as its new first violin?ist. He replaced Peter Oundiian, who stepped down from the post after playing with the ensem?ble for fifteen years. Mr. Kopelman was born in the Ukrainian city of Uzhgorod, and began violin studies at the age of six. He was a student of Professors Maia Glezarova and Yury Yankelevich at the Moscow Conservatory. In 1973, he won ' second prize in the Jacques Thibaud International Competition in Paris. A former member of the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra and Concertmaster of the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Mr. Kopelman was named first violin of the Borodin String Quartet in 1976 and played with the ensemble for two decades. From 1980-90 Mr. Kopelman was on the faculty at the Moscow Conservatory. Mikhail Kopelman and his family immigrated to the United States in 1993.
Kikuei Ikeda, violinist, was born in Tokyo and studied violin at the Toho Academy of Music with Saburo Sumi, and Josef Gingold, and cham?ber music with Hideo Saito. While still living in Japan, he performed as soloist with the Yomiuri Symphony and Tokyo Metropolitan and Tokyo Symphony orchestras and toured Europe as con?certmaster of the Toho String Orchestra. Mr. Ikeda came to the United States in 1971. He studied with
Dorothy DeLay and members of the Julliarci String Quartet at The lulliard School of Music, where he was a scholarship student. Mr. Ikeda was a prize winner in the Mainichi, NHK and Haken Competitions in lapan, the Washington International Competition for Strings in Washington, DC and the Vienna da Motta in Portugal. He has played the Mozart Violin Concerto with the Aspen Chamber Orchestra, given many recitals in Italy, Xew York and Tokyo, and has performed chamber music with numerous ensembles.
Kazuhide Isomura. violist, is a graduate of the Toho Academy, where he studied with Jeanne Isnard, Kenii Kibayashi and Hideo Saito. L'ron his arrival in this country, he became assistant concertmaster of the N'ashville Symphony, but his love for chamber music and the violin led him to The Juillard School where, on full scholar?ship, he studied violin with Ivan Galamian and Paul Makanowitzky, chamber music with Robert Mann and Raphael Hillyer and viola with Walter Trampler. Mr. Isomura is a founding member of the Tokyo String Quartet. He also records solo viola repertoire for MusicMasterMusical Heritage Society.
Sadao Harada, cellist and founding member of the Tokyo String Quartet, began his studies with his father and continued them with Hideo Saito when he was eleven. A graduate of the Toho School of Music, Mr. Harada won First Prize at the Mainichi and NHK Cello Competitions, which led to solo performances throughout Japan. He also received the prestigious Mainichi Grand Arts Prize for chamber music, awarded each year for excellence in select fields. He was the youngest principal cellist of the Tokyo Symphony prior to coming to the United States, where he became cellist of both the Aspen Chamber Orchestra and the Nashville Symphony. Making a decision to persue a career in chamber music, Mr. Harada entered The Juilliard School on full scholarshop and studied there with Claus Adam, Robert Mann and Raphael Hillyer.
University
Musical
Society
and
The Edward
Surovell Co.
Realtors
present
Beethoven the Contemporary
American String Quartet
Peter Winograd, Violin Laurie Carney, Violin Daniel Avshalomov, Viola David Geber, Cello
'rogram
Ludwig van Beethoven
George Tsontakis
Friday Evening, January 30, 1998 at 8:00 Rackham Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Quartet in G Major, Op. 18, No. 2, "Compliments"
Allegro
Adagio cantabile
Scherzo: Allegro
Allegro molto quasi presto
Quartet No. 4, "Beneath Thy Tenderness of Heart"
Part One: Introduction (Chorale and Meditations i
Part Two: Scherzo
Part Three: Postlude (The Madonna Weeps)
Beethoven
INTERMISSION
Quartet in F Major, Op. 135
Allegretto
Vivace
Lento assai, cantante e tranquillo
Der schwer gefasste Entschluss: Muss es sein Es muss sein:
Es muss sein! (The difficult resolution: Must it be
It must be! It must be!) Grave, ma non troppo tratto;
Allegro
Thirty-fifth Concert ot' the 119th Season
Beethoven the Contemporary Series
Special thanks to Ed Surovell for his continued support through the Edward Surovell Co. Realtors.
Thank you to Mark Stryker, Andrew Jennings, Paul Kantor, Kim Mobley, George Tsontakis and Steven Whiting for there involvement in this residency.
The Beethoven the Contemporary Series is made possible in part by a grant rrom the Li':.i Wallace-reader's Digest Arts Partners Program which is administered bv the Association o Performing Arts Presenters.
The University Musical Society is a grant recipient of Chamber Music America's Presenter-Community Residency Program funded by the Lila Wallace-Reader s Digest Fund.
This project is supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Art-. Additional support is provided by media partner Michigan Radio.
Immediately following the performance you are invited to remain in the concert hall for a brief question and answer session with the American String Quartet.
Large print programs are available upon request.
Quartet in G Major, Op. 18, No. 2, "Compliments"
Ludwig van Beethoven
Born on December 15 or 16,1770 in Bonn, Germany
Died on March 26, 1827 in Vienna
Beethoven's Op. 18 string quartets, published in 1801, show two contrasting sides of the composer's musical personality. The "revolutionary" Beethoven pulls aside the curtain of classical decorum in the sixth and final quartet, for example, to reveal glimpses of a passionate artist exploring the relative freedom offered by nineteenth-century Romantic sensibilities. Meanwhile, the second quartet retains all the sparkle and objective refinement of eighteenth-century Rococo chamber music. It is the briefest and least ambitious quartet of Op. 18, a charming and witty work. But despite its light and happy character, many musicians consider it one of the most difficult of all Beethoven's quartets to perform. The composer's sketches for the quartet show that he, too, struggled with it. The apparent lightness was achieved only after considerable effort (amounting to thirty-two pages of sketches in his notebooks) was expended to blend the disparate elements into a coherent unit.
Sometimes referred to as the "Compliments" or "Curtsey" quartet (especially among German musicians), the G Major quartet opens with a series of elegantly balanced phrases, conjuring up an "eighteenth-century salon, with all the cere?monious display and flourish of courtesy typical of the period ... with bows and gracious words of greeting." The first movement then proceeds to unfold according to the traditional sonata-allegro model, without surprise or radical invention; in Donald Tovey's words it is the "gentlest" of Beethoven's "early comedies." The development section is devoted exclusively to melodic motifs from the first subject and the bridge passage, and includes a somewhat mysterious rugato passage. The original themes return in the recapitulation, where they are treated with even greater original?ity and freshness. Beethoven dispenses with a lengthy coda -soon to become a hallmark of
his sonata-allegro movements -and ends instead with a simple restatement of the principal theme.
The "Adagio cantabile" features a solo violin at the beginning, with the other instruments play?ing an accompanimental role; a texture that Haydn had used occasionally in some of his quartets (Op. 64, No. 6, for example) but still a relatively rare feature in works from this period. Before long, Beethoven takes the closing caden-tial figure of this section, accelerates it, and trans?forms it into a sprightly "Allegro" that interrupts the tranquility of the "Adagio" movement. The slow and gentle "Adagio" returns, but this time in variation, shared by all the players.
The "Scherzo" has some affinities with Beethoven's Op. 2, No. 2 Piano Sonata in A, in its thematic material and good-humored, rustic character. It opens with the violins exchanging melodic flourishes, while the other instruments enter on a more somber note. In the Trio that follows, the contrasting moods, playful and serious, are expanded but it is clear all along that the seri?ousness is only superficial. In the transition back to the Scherzo, the violins, unable to contain their enthusiasm, jump in early and anticipate the repeat of the first section.
The last movement is neither a rondo, nor a sonata-allegro, but combines features of both these classical models into a finale brimming with rollicking humor and merriment. Beethoven often referred to this movement with one of his favorite adjectives,"Aufgeknopft" (unbuttoned), referring to its uninhibited and carefree character. Starting with perfectly symmetrical phrases that are nearer to Haydn than anything else in the Op. 18 quartets, it proceeds to a teasing second theme with a syncopated opening and a delightful counter-melody, building to a sparklingly brilliant conclu?sion.
Quartet No. 4, "Beneath Thy Tenderness of Heart"
George Tsontakis
The mid-1980s proved to be a turning point for New York composer George Tsontakis, in musical
style as well as personal philosophy. He described his String Quartet No. 2 (1983) as an intensely chromatic and atonal work, "severely introverted ... submerged in the seemingly inescapable malaise of our time." But the String Quartet No. 3, composed only two years later, appeared with the sub-title "Coraggio" (Courage) which, as noted in a preface to the score, "offers a certain exuberance and brightness." It embodies an optimism that arises either out of blindness to the reality around us or a recognition of the human spirit's tenacity, "where even in the worst of times there is a tak?ing of heart and a welling up of courage." These philosophical underpinnings are not merely inci?dental to Tsontakis's music. They are the enliven?ing elements of it. But as with all good music, it must function on its own terms as well, and Tsontakis's quartets are simply enriched by the extra-musical connotations that so readily emerge while listening to them.
As fellow-composer George Rochberg has noted, the "courage" in the Quartet No. 3 also referred to Tsontakis's courage to set aside mod?ernism and modernity, to be reconciled with the traditions ot tonality, diatonic triadic harmony, and the classical models of the string quartet genre. The Quartet No. 4, commissioned by the American String Quartet and completed in 1988, shows Tsontakis becoming even more sure in his musical (and philosophical) convictions. The subtitle for the Quartet No. 4, "Beneath Thy Tenderness of Heart," comes from a traditional Russian hymn quoted at the start of the piece. The text of the original hymn is a plea to the Virgin Mother to "deliver us from perils," and Rochberg interprets this musical quotation as a kind of prayer -not in the religious sense, but rather in the artistic sense of an act that requires a purity of spirit. In fact, the listener need not know the text at all to understand the attitude expressed: "its genuineness of heart speaks for itself."
The first part of the quartet, though labeled "Introduction (Chorale and Meditations)", lasts for almost half the quartet's total length in per?formance. Alter the chordal hvmn tune has been
stated at the outset, the writing becomes more contrapuntal, occasionally interrupted by vigorous unison growls. These "meditations" are remarkably diverse in character, vet the transitions between them are effected with such smoothness that they seem organically connected. After a return of the chorale tune, accompanied by bird-like chirps on the violin, the music wavers between manic energy and calm repose. It never strays too far from a perceptible tonal center, though there are chromatic inflections. With echoes of the harmonized hymn recurring, along with snippets of a fugato theme, chirping violins (reminiscent of George Crumb's Black Angeb), and refracted tonal harmony, the effect is decidedly post-modernist.
Part Two -a lively "Scherzo" with all the rustic swagger, cross accents and syncopations one expects in a Beethoven quartet -follows without a pause. As with the first part, it is con?structed from denselv-packed modules and jux?taposed layers. Eventually all gives way to a simple rising motif on three pitches, obsessively repeated and fading almost to nothing. The character of the scherzo returns, but the last two chords are "looped" to produce a repeating two-chord progression that gradually metamorphoses into a mysteriously chromatic recollection of the Russian hymn tune.
Part Three, titled "Postiude (The Madonna Weeps)", is dominated by a recurring refrain, "a grand ritornello ... carved out of sounding granite" which begins with a B-tlat Major triad, but quickly turns into a passage of increasingly angular dissonance with each repetition. This, in turn, leads into a high, sustained violin solo over a questioning and hesitant chorda] accompaniment. The despair in these passages is heightened by each successive return of the "optimistic" major triad. As Rochberg has remarked, this music "reminds us that Tsontakis is unable to forget what it is he took up the courage to fight against and why he finds it necessary to pray." The Quartet concludes with another ethereally plaintive violin solo. Vet the violin's last notes are a high B-tlat, sustained pianissimo (a tranquil fulfillment of the
fortissimo B-flat triads of the ritornello, perhaps) which then gently rises to a B-natural. Whether in resignation, supplication, or gratitude, the Quartet's final gesture is toward heaven.
Quartet in F Major, Op. 135
Ludwig van Beethoven
Beethoven's late string quartets have attracted a reputation as archetypes of all that is deep, diffi?cult, and esoteric in the classical repertoire. For many aficionados, a listener's ability to compre?hend that Late Quartets acts a kind of litmus test for devotion to "serious" music. Yet the very last quartet Beethoven ever composed, the Op. 135 in F Major (completed in 1826), is so different in scope and character from its immediate prede?cessors that it neither warrants nor deserves this reputation as a "Late Quartet." It occupies a sim?ilar position in Beethoven's chamber works as his Symphony No. S (also in F Major) does in the symphonic repertoire; a conscious harking back to earlier styles, and a more mature reconsidera?tion of the Classical legacy the composer inherit?ed at the turn of the century.
The similarities between the Op. 135 quartet and the Op. 18, No. 2 heard earlier this evening are significant, not the least being their brevity. Together they are the two shortest quartets Beethoven ever composed. Given the massive proportions of many of Beethoven's last works, the brevity of Op. 135 is a little surprising. A possible explanation is supplied by the com?poser's friend Karl Holz, who reported that Beethoven, believing his publisher had not paid him enough for the work, had said: "If he sends me circumcised ducats he shall have a circumcised quartet. That's why it's so short." But economy is not the only point of contact between Op. 135 and Op. 18, No. 2. Beethoven scholar Joseph Kerman has suggested that Op. 135 is also a kind of "Compliments" quartet, "another retrospective evocation of classical symmetry and grace", though, of course, from a very different view?point and circumstance. With the composer's
added maturity and the benefit of hindsight, this later example is more of a self-conscious act of neo-classicism, rather than a salute to turn-of-the century classicism.
The almost total disarray in Beethoven's per?sonal life during the latter months of 1826 is not borne out in the quartet's musical materials at all. Composed during a period of extreme illness, financial hardship, and the ongoing troubles with his nephew, Karl, the Op. 135 quartet is nevertheless full of charm, grace, and relaxed humor, with a touch o("Biedemeier" familiarity (a clear departure from the intense spirituality and profundity of the Op. 131 quartet and the Grosse Fuge). Beethoven dedicated this F Major quartet to Johann Wolfmeier -a cloth merchant, not an aristocrat -lending credence to the per?ception that the work's brevity, accessibility, and more traditional compositional techniques were designed to appeal specifically to a bourgeois sensibility, instead of a high-cultured aristocracy.
The first movement's warm, conversational tone derives in part from the five separate motifs, each with its own inflection and character, that are tossed from instrument to instrument. The dotted rhythms and Haydn-esque phrase pairings also readily recall Op. 18, No. 2. The second sub?ject returns to the world of Beethoven's "Pastoral" Symphony, with its staccato arpeggios and light-hearted passagework. The vaguely fugal development section centers on another homage to Haydn: a false recapitulation which, as Kerman notes, is a considerable rarity in Beethoven's work. When the real recapitulation finally arrives, "it is quite smug about the tease." The coda begins in the same manner as the development section, and even incorporates a reference to this false recapitulation.
The scherzo, marked simply "Vivace" and still in the tonic key of F, is also humorous, but with a dark, sardonic undertone. Mainly rhythmic in interest, it is propelled forward by pointed syn?copations and cross accents. The scintillating opening is periodically disturbed by a reiterated unison E-tlat that serves no musical purpose other than to intrude a note of insistent mvstery
into the passage. A rising scale in the viola and cello and a repeated-note accompaniment intro?duce a furious Trio section, in which the first violin engages in a wild, acrobatic dance, set off by a doggedly repeated motif in the other instruments that lasts a full fifty measures. The scarcely-concealed frenzy in this movement was recycled many decades later by Ralph Vaughan Williams, who deliberately and consciously "cribbed" from it for the triumphal dance of Satan in his ballet Job.
The tonic note of the scherzo becomes the mediant of the following movement, a tranquil "Lento assai" in D-flat Major. This movement was added as an afterthought; the original con?ception was for a three-movement quartet with?out a slow movement. Over sketches for the sim?ple melody, Beethoven wrote: Susser Ruhegesang, Friedengesang (sweet restful, peaceful song.) This melody then proceeds through four variations, played without pause and never rising above a piano dynamic level. Variation technique is one of the crucial aspects of Beethoven's late style, yet this set is remarkable for its unity rather than its variety--a unity achieved through constant dynamic levels and a pervasive, gentle lyricism (Beethoven marks it "cantantc" or "singing," rather than the more usual "cantabile," meaning "song-like"). The result is one of the most sub?lime examples of the composer's "interior music."
The final movement has given rise to much philosophical speculation, as commentators attempt to assign to this work some of the pro?fundity of its predecessors. Beethoven appended a text to the opening melodic motives in the score: under the first three notes (marked "Grave") he poses the question, "Muss es sein" (Must it be), which is later answered by an allegro motif, "Es nniss sein! Es muss sein!" (It must be! It must be!) Originally this text arose from an exchange between one of Beethoven's usual subscribers, Ignaz Dembscher, and the composer's friend Karl Holz. Dembscher had failed to subscribe to the premiere performance of Beethoven's Op. 130 string quartet, and when he later asked for a loan of the parts, Beethoven refused. Holz suggested
that he solve this predicament by paying the sub?scription fee retroactively. Dembscher asked, "Must it be so" to which Holz replied, "It must be." When Beethoven heard a report of this con?versation he burst into laughter, and immediately composed a canon based on the dialogue: this canon theme was then reworked into the finale of Op. 135. In this final movement the two con?trasting themes are presented respectivelv as a slow introduction and as the exposition first theme of a sonata-allegro form. The rest of the movement then proceeds according to the con?ventional classical model. The motifs reappear periodically, but by then "question" has been asked, and the gesture is more musical than rhetorical.
Though the origins of the text appended to this movement may have been comical, there is no doubt that Beethoven interpreted it with some seriousness. But whatever deeper connotations can be assigned to the universal question--a question of "being" similar to Hamlet's famous soliloquy--the finale itself is full of laughter, spontaneity, and verve. Whatever Beethoven felt he was triumphing over in this movement, he did it exultantly.
Program notes bv Luke Howard
In the seasons since its inception, the American String Quartet has reached a position of rare esteem in the world of chamber msuic. Annual tours have brought the American to virtually every important concert hall in eight European countries and across North America. Renowned for fluent and definitive interpretations of a diverse repertory, the Quartet has received critical acclaim for its presentation of the complete quartets of Beethoven, Schubert, Schoenberg and Mozart, and for collaborations with a host of distinguished artists.
Persuasive advocates for their art, the mem?bers of the Quartet are credited with broadening public awareness and enjoyment of chamber music across North America through their edu-
cational programs, seminars, broadcast perfor?mances, and published articles.
They have enjoyed a long association with the Aspen Festival, the Taos School of Music, and Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival, to which they frequently return as featured artists. Among the first to receive a National Arts Endowment grant for their activites on college campuses, the members of the American String Quartet have also maintained a commitment to contemporary music, resulting in numerous commissions and awards, among them three prize-winners at the Kennedy Centery Friedheim Awards. After ten years on the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory (where they initiated the program of quartet studies), they accepted the position of Quartet-in-Residence at the Manhattan School of Music in 1984, and in 1992 were invited
to become the resident ensemble for the Van Cliburn Internationl Piano Competition. Their Mozart Year performances were rewarded with an invitation to record the complete Mozart quartets on a set of matched Stradivarius instru?ments; Volumes I, II, and III have been released by . lusicMastersMusical Heritage. The four musicians studied at The Juilliard School, where the Quartet was formed in 1974, win-
ning the Colemna Competition and the Naumburg Award that same year. Outside the Quartet, each finds time for solo appearances, recitals, and teaching.
The American String Quartet continues to reach a broader audience through recordings of more than a dozen works, numerous radio and television broadcasts in thirteen countries, tours to Japan and the Far East, and recent perfor?mances with the Montreal Symphony, the New York City Ballet and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Entering its third decade, the Quartet embodies the challenges and satisfactions of more than twenty years of music making.
This performance marks the American String Quartet's second appearance under UMS auspices.
The American String Quartet
University
Musical
Society
and
The Edward Surovell Co.Realtors
present
Beethoven the Contemporary
Ursula Oppens
Piano
Saturday Evening, January 31, 1998 at 8:00 Rackham Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Ludwig van Beethoven
Sonata in F-sharp Major, Op. 78
Adagio cantabile; Allegro ma non troppo Allegro vivace
Sonata in e minor, Op. 90
Mit lebhaftigkeit und durchaus mit Empfindung
und Ausdruck Nicht zu geshwind und sehr singbar vorzutragen.
Sonata in d minor. Op. 31, No. 2 ("Tempest")
Largo-Allegro
Adagio
Allegretto
INTERMISSION
Amnon Wohnan New York for Two Interactive Disklaviers
Beethoven Sonata in A Major, Op. 101
Etwas lebhaft, und mit der innigsten Empfindung
(Allegro, ma non troppo) Lebhaft, marschmaessig (Vivace, all marcia) Langsam und sehnsuchtsvoll (Adagio, ma non troppo,
con affetto) Geschwind, doch nicht zu sehr, und mit
Entschlossenheit (Allegro)
Thirty-sixth Concert of the 119th Season
Beethoven the ContemporarY Series
Special thanks to Ed Surovell for his continued support through the Edward Surovell Co.Realtors.
Thank you to Mark Stryker, Andrew Jennings, Paul Kantor, Kim Mobley, George Tsontakis and Steven Whiting for there involvement in this residency.
The Beethoven the Contemporary Series is made possible in part by a grant from the Lila Wallace-reader's Digest Arts Partners Program which is administered by the Association of Performing Arts Presenters.
This project is supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Additional support is provided by media partner Michigan Radio.
Immediately following the performance you are invited to remain in the concert hall lor a brief question and answer session with Ursula Oppens.
Thank you to Steven Whiting, Amnon Wolman, Gail Davis Barnes. Deanna Relyea for their involvement in this residency.
Large print programs are available upon request.
Sonata in F-sharp Major, Op. 78
Ludwig van Beethoven
Born on December 15 or 16, 1770 in Bonn, Germany
Died on March 26, 1827 in Vienna
Op. 78 was one of Beethoven's special favorites, perhaps because in its subtlety and modest dimensions it was easily overlooked, much as he explained the lesser popularity of Symphony No. 8 compared to the Symphony No. 7 by saying that it was because the Symphony No. 8 was so much better. Another reason was its dedication to and association with Therese von Brunsvik, a woman of whom Beethoven was deeply fond and who greatly valued him as man and artist. Beethoven composed Op. 78 in 1809, the year of the Emperor Concerto, the String Quartet in E-flat, Op. 74, and of two more amazingly divergent piano sonatas, the little Sonata in C Major, Op. 79, and the famous "Farewell," Op. 81a. It was written while Napoleon's armies were attempting to take over Vienna. Beethoven found refuge in his brother's cellar, after which he slipped into a depression, but he was able to work through his emotional turmoil with this composition.
Op. 78, a two movement work that takes less than ten minutes to play, is an example of an originality that is breathtaking, and the more so for seeming so off-hand. The Beethoven who reveled in gigantic dimensions gives us an "Adagio" introduction that is just four bars long. But how these few seconds of utterly simple music bare the soul, and how mercilessly they reveal what the pianist has -or lacks -in spir?ituality and singing tone! The gentle "Allegro" that follows is no less compact. At the same time it is full of adventure, and Beethoven's sweet dis?memberment of the main theme in the coda pro?duces mysteries of the kind we associate with the music of his last years. The finale is quick, capri?cious, virtuosic, witty.
Program note by Michael Steinberg
Sonata in e minor. Op. 90
Ludwig van Beethoven
It is not all that difficult to identify some extra-musical inspiration for Beethoven's Sonata in e minor, Op. 90 trrom 1814). The work was dedi?cated to Count Moritz von Lichnowsky, a friend of Beethoven's who was at the time engaged to be married. The composer referred to this sonata as "a contest between head and heart" (or in the words of Beethoven scholar Kenneth Drake, "between brawn and tenderness"), perhaps ques?tioning, in jest, the suitability of Lichnowsky's betrothed, or maybe simply representing in music how such contrasts can be successfully resolved (thus bestowing a similar hope for his friend's upcoming marriage). Whatever interpre?tations one chooses to follow, it is clear that the two movements of this sonata connote disparate emotions: restlessness, passion, and agitation in the first; peaceful calm and satisfaction in the second.
Beethoven had by this stage of his career begun to reject what he perceived as the too-per?vasive influence of Italian terminology in music, and chose to use German movement markings instead in this sonata. Not long after he com?posed it, he began to refer to the instrument itself by its German name. Hammerklavier (first used in connection with his next work in this genre, the Op. 101 sonata in A Major, and adopted as the nick-name for his Op. 106). The movement markings for this work translate as "Lively, with feeling and expression throughout" for the first movement, and "Not too fast, and to be played very songfully" for the second.
The first movement begins with a quick suc?cession of four short phrases, each in a different key. As Eric Blom has observed, "the impatience with which Beethoven leaves the tonic key of e minor is characteristic of his later style." The har?monic flexibility of this first theme group centers on a series of third-relations between the tonic, the relative major, and the dominant minor. Each of these triads shares at least one common pitch with the others, and the role of common-tone
modulations in this section is particularly signifi?cant (as opposed to the traditional method of modulating via a secondary dominant). The sec?ond theme group in this sonata-allegro movement -a section normally reserved for the appearance of a contrasting lyrical passage -introduces instead an agitated theme that is in keeping with Beethoven's larger "program." The conventional sonata-allegro form is itself a microcosm of con?flict and resolution, but since Beethoven has expanded this notion so that it applies to the entire sonata, he minimizes the affective contrast between first and second themes in this movement. After a development section of far-flung modula?tions, a gradual transformation of a simple six?teenth-note flourish leads imperceptibly back to the recapitulation and concluding coda.
The agitation and unrest that was so prevalent in the first movement finds almost immediate consolation at the start of the second. As with the Op. 14, No. 1 and Op. 78 sonatas, where harmon?ic contrast between movements is effected simply by a mode change instead of a modulation, the e minor of the first movement in this sonata shifts into E Major for the second. By using a rondo form, the composer allows this gentle theme to return regularly throughout the move?ment, as if it were a soothing balm repeatedly applied to the harshness of the first movement. The second movement is also much longer than the first, not just in the number of measures but in the breadth of its phrasing, its linear lyricism, and harmonic stability. There is no hint of the wide-ranging modulations, rapid motivic and textural changes, or impetuosity of the opening movement. Vet the sonata as a whole retains a remarkable sense of unity. It is a one-way journey; from the first measure to the final chord, the path from turmoil to composure is complete.
Program note by Luke Howard
Sonata in d minor. Op. 31, No. 2 ("Tempest")
Ludvvig van Beethoven
Beethoven's suggestion that in order to compre?hend his d minor Sonata I completed in 1802) one should "read Shakespeare's Tempest" has, in subsequent years, opened the floodgates of con?jecture and fanciful interpretation. Some claim to have identified particular leitmotifs for each of the major characters in Shakespeare's drama, or point to specific passages in the work as "scene-painting" for the story. While Beethoven's own words should not be totally disregarded, the effort to find such direct and literal correlations with the play seems misguided; the drama in the "Tempest" Sonata does not hinge on Shakespeare's story at all, but is inherent in Beethoven's own music. The tragic power, bitter conflict, and mastery of pacing evident in the sonata shows that Beethoven's sense of drama, even at this early stage of his career, was every bit as keen as the Bard's. Perhaps the composer meant to suggest that reading Shakespeare would help illustrate his sonata, rather man intending the sonata to illustrate the play.
The relatively intimate genre of the piano sonata provided Beethoven with a testing ground for many of his musical experiments. In that regard, the formal elements of Beethoven's mature style -cyclic references between movements, extended motivic development, the expanded role of the coda -generally appear in the piano sonatas before being incorporated into more public works such as a symphony or concerto. While this d-minor sonata theoretically belongs to Beethoven's "early" period, the ingenuity of its formal structure, and the skill with which the composer manipulates the materials to suit his dramatic ends, will find expressive fruition in later works such as the Eroiai and the Symphony No.5.
The first three measures of the first Movement already establish the elements of conflict in both formal expectation and dramatic concept. Beginning with a gentle A-Maior arpeggio, marked "Lento," the first-time listener would expect that this is the start of a slow introduction. But already
in the second measure Beethoven introduces one of the most agitated motifs in his entire oeuvrc. Before this motif has much chance to develop, it brakes suddenly to an "Adagio" half-cadence. At this point classical formal structure has given way to pure theater, and the audience (as is true with any well-conceived drama) is left in suspense, not knowing what to expect next. What does follow is a sonata-form movement, but one in which the dramatic premise supercedes all other considera?tions. The exaggerated emotion, stark contrasts of effect, even the inclusion of several passages that sound like unaccompanied recitative, make this movement almost operatic in its conception.
For the slow movement (in the key of the submediant, B-flat), Beethoven again resorts to a sonata form, but one without a development sec?tion: a fairly common practice among composers of the time. Not only would a development sec?tion make a slow movement unwieldy in length, it would be redundant since the slow tempo allows a composer to elaborate on the themes while they are being presented in the exposition. Some writers have suggested that the second subject of this exposition is supposed to represent Miranda (from Shakespeare's play). As Donald Tovey has remarked, there is no harm in making this asso?ciation, but whether it contributes anything to the musical experience is questionable.
The moto perpetuo finale returns to the tonic d minor. With a continuous flow of sixteenth-notes, the composer liberally insokes irregular accents and rhythmic ambiguity to propel the music forward. Though written in a 38 time sig?nature, numerous passages include cross-rhythms that give the momentary impression of 28 (Haydn had earlier used this same rhythmic device to represent an earthquake in the conclusion of his Seven Last Words from the Cross, setting a ready precedent for its disruptive associations). In both of the main motifs of this movement the harmonic emphasis is on the dominant rather than the tonic, perpetually delaying the sense of resolution. But once the themes are recapitulated in the tonic at the end of the movement, the harmony remains firmly entrenched there, providing a sense of struc-
tural finality even if the dramatic element of the sonata as a whole remains tantalizingly unresolved.
Program note by Luke Howard
New York for Two Interactive Disklaviers
Amnon Wolman
Although there is only one live musician required for a performance of Amnon Wolman's recent composition, New York (1995), the work is scored for multiple instruments, and is based, according to the composer, on the traditional chamber music model of mutual listening and interaction between players. While this may be chamber music of a sort, it is certainly not traditional, as the interaction is not between performing musi?cians (at least in the conventional sense) but between a live pianist and a computer, both of which "perform" on Disklaviers: Yamaha's com?puter controlled player pianos.
Wolman conceived the relationship between the two Disklaviers as an equal one; the computer is not subservient to the live performer, but has the ability to make its own musical "decisions." The live pianist is then able to react to the com?puter's musical contribution in the same manner that the computer can "listen" to the live performer and adjust its music accordingly. This relationship requires significant advance preparation. The pianist is required to "prepare" the computer by pre-recording six short snippets of music (the composer directs that "these may be original music or quotations from this or any other piece"). In the subsequent performance, the computer uses these snippets to inform the pianist of its location within the piece, the style of playing, and other musical information. These fragments act as a kind of symbolic shorthand communica?tion, functioning in the way that facial expressions, body movements, and gestures are used to com?municate similar information between players in a more traditional ensemble. Once these prepara?tions are in place, the performance of New York is
able to proceed as a partially-improvised duet between equal partners, one of which simply happens to be a piece of inanimate technology. The musical interaction between keyboards occurs mainly in the realms of pitch and duration (rhythm and tempo). Wolman has said regarding this interaction:
The computer follows the pianist's performance and changes its accompaniment according to the pitches and tempo changes it "hears," and since it "knows" in advance the score that the pianist should be playing, it can refer to what will follow. It also has the ability to generate its own changes, asking the live musician to listen to it and change, if necessary, her perfor?mance accordingly.
This kind of interaction, and the music that results from it, cannot happen without an enthu?siastic and knowledgeable live pianist to help realize it, and Wolman is effusive in his praise of Ursula Oppens, the pianist for whom the work was commissioned. He has said that Oppens' "open mind," her excitement about being involved in the whole process, and her "amazing musical and pianistic abilities" were the most important influences on the piece.
The title of this composition was bestowed by accident (or, as the composer suggests, perhaps it was providence). When the piece was first announced, it was supposed to be listed simply as "new work," but a typographical error crept in and it appeared as "New York." The work was still in progress at the time, so Wolman allowed this newly-coined title to influence the music, letting it partially reflect some of his notions about the city of New York. Many of Wolman's other works, such as his Andy Warhol Diaries, Dead End, and No-U-Turn, attempt to deal with the political issues of "high" and "low" art through the juxta?position of musical ideas. In New York, the title serves to reconfigure these concepts into the con?trast between "uptown" and "downtown" music. It is only appropriate, then, that Ursula Oppens, a New Yorker herself, should be so integrally involved in this realization of Wolman's composition.
Program note by Luke Howard
Sonata in A Major, Op. 101
Ludwig van Beethoven
It was while composing the Op. 101 Sonata in A Major (1816), that Beethoven first considered referring to the piano using a German name. Still under the impression that it was either Silbermann or Schroeter (and not Cristofori) that had invented the instrument, Beethoven believed that honor should be given where honor is due, and set about inventing a German word to replace "piano." Eventually he decided on 'Hammerklavier" and insisted that this word appear on the title page of the Op. 101 sonata when it (and all subsequent works for the instrument I was published. In the end, only two of his sonatas use this terminology, and it is the later work -the Sonata in B-flat, Op. 106 -that bears this title as a nick-name. Beethoven's flirtation with German nomenclature was short-lived, and it certainly had no direct bearing on the kind of music he composed. Whatever language he chose to describe his music, the notes on the staff continued to speak Beethoven's own unique dialect.
In many respects the Op. 101 is as much a sonata quasi ima fantasia as the earlier works that specifically bear that title. The only difference is that by this time, the freedom of treatment in Beethoven's music was taken for granted, and didn't need to be spelled out on the front page. The liberties he takes in the first movement, for example, involve bold short-cuts, so that the expected sonata-form is presented in a signifi?cantly truncated and concise version. Indeed, if the tempo were a true Allegro, instead of the indicated "Allegretto," it would end before it had barely begun. The first and second subiects are telescoped, formal markers are dissolved so that the second subject flows seamlessly into the development section, and the recapitulation is even more brief than the exposition. Why does Beethoven do this It seems to be part of a larger rhetorical plan, designed to shift the formal emphasis to the finale: the real, crucial sonata movement in this work.
For the second movement, Beethoven replaces
the expected scherzo with a march, but it fulfills much the same function. Impatient, jagged, and full of restless energy, it is in uncompromising 1 contrast to the "heartfelt expression" of the first movement. The trio section is marked "dolce," but there is little that is "sweet" about it. Mostly it is simple two-part canonic writing, sometimes at a measure's distance, sometimes at a half-measure's. As it concludes it leads directly back into a repeat iif the march.
The slow third section (not really a self-con?tained movement, but more of an introduction to the finale) is filled with the quiet and profound passion normally associated with Beethoven's blow movements. Two short strains, enriched with much use of the damper pedal, soon lead into an expressive cadenza that recalls material from the sonata's first movement. But where these motifs were previously carefree and agreeable, here they are hesitant, interrupted by pauses that seem to suggest the apparent contentment of the first movement cannot be completely recaptured. Gradually a repeated motif borrowed from the first movement begins to gather strength, becom?ing more emphatic with each repetition, setting up both the key and attitude for the last movement.
Eric Blom writes that in the finale "we find [Beethoven] in one of his defiant frames of mind.... There is much happiness here, but it is not the soft abandonment to bliss of the first movement: it is gladness won by grim determi?nation." By shirting the formal and emotional weight to this final movement, the composer completes the rhetorical gesture established by the first. The formal freedom implied by the sonata's opening was not a rejection of the classi?cal model, as much as it was a demonstration of reverence for it. The fully-developed sonata-form movement at the end of this composition (complete with an exposition repeat) acts as the capstone for the work's architecture, and points forward to Beethoven's later piano sonatas where the levels of emotional gravity are similarly end-weighted. As with the later sonatas, much of this movement is conceived contrapuntally, with themes invert?ed, a second subject consisting primarily ot inii-
tative phrases, and a development section that includes a lengthy four-part fugue. Perhaps these contrapuntal passages are what Blom was refer?ring to when he spoke of "grim determination," as the mood lightens somewhat toward the con?clusion. After the recapitulation is complete and the coda begins, Beethoven makes reference again to the fugal passages from the development, but cuts it short to introduce a more cheerful theme, and the sonata ends in a playful vein.
Program note by Luke Howard
1 rrsula Oppens has won equal acclaim as an interpreter of the established repertoire and as a champion of contemporarv music. Her performances are marked by a powerful grasp of the composer's musi?cal intentions and an equally powerful t command of the keyboard. This season, Ursula Oppens begins an unprecedented three-year project with the University Musical Society in which she plays the complete Beethoven piano sonatas coupled with notable compositions by American composers in a series of nine recitals, which will also be performed at Columbia University's Miller Theatre in New York and at Northwestern University in Illinois. In concert, Ms. Oppens presents concertos by Beethoven, Mozart, Ravel, MacDowell, Elliot Carter, and Joan Tower with orchestra, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra and the .American Symphony Orchestra. She performs also with the American, Vermeer and Mendelssohn string quartets. In recital, Ms. Oppens appears at the National Gallery in Washington DC, Purdue University, the University of Notre Dame, the University of Washington in Seattle, and Brandeis University.
Last season, Ms. Oppens returned to Carnegie Hall to perform on its distinguished Keyboard Virtuoso Series in a program of works by Beethoven, Tobias Picker and Rachmaninoff. Highlights of the program included her interpre?tation of Beethoven's monumental Hammerklavier
Sonata and a world premiere performance of Tobias Picker's Etudes. Other engagements included performances of Lou Harrison's Piano Concerto with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra and Dennis Russell Davies at Lincoln Center; Mozart's Concerto No. 14, K. 449 and Alvin Singleton's BhtesKonzert with the Detroit Symphony; Mozart's Rondo in ?, K. 382 and Ligeti's Piano Concerto with Maestro Davies and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra; Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini, Op. 43 with the Syracuse Symphony and in Europe, Ms. Oppens played the Lou Harrison Concerto with the ORF Symphony in Vienna.
This past summer, she performed a recital at the Tanglewood Music Festival and performed Brahms and Dvorak at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. In Europe, Ms. Oppens played concerts in Germany and appearaed at the Kuhmo and Aldeburgh festivals in works by Beethoven and contemporary American composers.
Ursula Oppens has appeared as a soloist with the leading orchestras of the US including the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philhar?monic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Boston Symphony, the Chicago Symphony, the Baltimore, Seattle, Atlanta, San Francisco, Milwaukee and Cincinnati symphonies, the American Composers Orchestra and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. With the Houston Symphony, she premiered BhicsKonzert which was co-commissioned by the Houston, Kansas City and Detroit symphonies.
Her commitment to contemporary repertoire has led Ms. Oppens to premiere and commission many compositions. In 1971, she co-founded Speculum Musicae, an ensemble dedicated to bringing contemporary music to modern audi?ences. Ms. Oppens has premiered works by Carla Bley, Anthony Braxton, Elliott Carter, Anthony Davis, John Harbison, Julius Hemphill, Bun-Ching Lam, Tania Leon, VVitold Lutoslawski, Gyorgi Ligeti, Conlon Nancarrow, Tobias Picker, Frederick Rzewski, Alvin Singleton, Francis Thome, Joan Tower, Lois V Vierk, Christian Wolff, Amnon Wolman and Charles Wuorinen.
Ursula Oppens has received several awards
including first prize at the 1969 Busoni Inter?national Piano Conpetition, the 1970 Diploma d'Honore of the Accademia Chigiana, an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1976 and the 1979 Record World Award for her recording of Rzewski's The People United Will Never Be Defeated, which was re-released on CD in 1993 by Vanguard Classics and also received a Grammy nomination.
A native New Yorker, Ursula Oppens studied piano with her mother, Edith Oppens, as well as with Leonard Shure and Guido Agosti, and received her Master of Music degree at The Juilliard School, where she studied with FelLx Galimir and Rosina Lhevinne. A prominent graduate of Radcliffe, where she studied English literature and economics, Ms. Oppens went on to become the first woman Chief Marshal at Harvard's 1990 commencement exercises. Under the auspices of Young Concert Artists, she made her New York debut in 1969 at Carnegie Recital Hall.
Ursula Oppens currently holds the position of the John Evans Distinguished Professor of Music at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
This performance marks Ursula Oppens' tliird appearance under UMS auspices.
Ursula Oppens
University
Musical
Society
presents
The Dale Warland Singers
Dale Warland, Conductor and Music Director
Program
S. Bucat Dulpa
Thursday Evening, February 5, 1998 at 8pm
St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Cathedral Classics
Processional Doxa Patri
Sergei Rachmaninoff Frank Ferko Alberto Ginastera
I. Two Prayers and a Lamentation
Choral Concerto
O vis aeternitatis
O vos omnes qui transitis per viam
(from Tlie Lamentations of the Propliet Jeremiah)
Herbert Howells
II. A Father's Grief Requiem
INTERMISSION
Samuel Barber
III. Supplication Agnus Dei
IV. Canticles and a Benediction
JanSandstrBm Es ist ein ros entsprungen
FrancisPoulenc Hodie Christus natus est
Nikolai Golovanov Otche Nash (Our Father)
StephenPaulus Pilgrim Hymn
John Tavener
Recessional
Song for Athene
Thirty-seventh Concert of the 119th Season
Divine Expressions Series
Thank you to Jerry Blackstone, Theo Morrison, Jerry Rubino and Ken Westerman for their involvement in this residency.
Large print programs are available upon request.
The 1997-98 concert season marks founder Dale Warland's twenty-sixth season as Music Director of the Dale Warland Singers. Warland has devoted his professional life to attaining the highest artistic level in choral singing. His musicianship and attention to detail have been his tools in building one of the finest choral ensembles in the United States. Under Warland's leadership, the ensemble has thrilled choral music lovers, not just in its Twin Cities home, but throughout North America and Europe.
Warland's outstanding achievements in the field of choral music were recognized in June 1995, when he received
the Michael Korn Founder's Award at the annual Chorus America Conference in Seattle. This award, which ranks as the "Grammy" of choral music in the United States, has previ?ously been given to luminaries such as Robert Shaw, Margaret
Hillis and Roger Wagner.
Beyond his active schedule as Music Director of The Dale Warland Singers, Warland is in demand as a guest conductor, lecturer and com?poser. He has conducted such prestigious choirs as the Swedish Radio Choir, the Danish Radio Choir, the Oregon Bach Festival Chorus, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Viginia Chorale, and Israel's Cameran Singers. He has prepared major choruses around the world for performances, including Penderecki's Polish Requiem in 1990 -the culminating event of the Second World Symposium on Choral Music in Finland.
Warland is an active composer and a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). He has served as co-chair of the choral and recording panels of the National Endowment for the Arts and has
received maior grants from the Ford Foundation, the Bush Foundation and the Minnesota State Arts Board.
Before devoting himself full time to the Singers, Dr. Warland maintained a demanding academic career which included nineteen years as Director of Choral Music at Macalester College, St. Paul. He holds degrees from St. Olaf College, the University of Minnesota and the University of Southern California, and has received two dis?tinguished alumni awards as well as an honorary doctorate from Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
This performance marks Dale Warland's debut under UMS auspices.
Now in its twenty-sixth season of sub?scription concerts, tour and festival appearances, radio broadcasts and crit?ically acclaimed recordings the Dale Warland Singers are recognized as one of the world's foremost a cappella choral ensembles.
Based in Minneapolis, Saint Paul, The Dale Warland Singers have earned a reputation for their commitment to commissioning and per?forming twentieth-century choral music. This pioneering effort fosters a greater awareness and appreciation of contemporary choral literature and helps develop emerging and established composers, especially American composers. The Singers have helped keep the choral genre fresh and alive with new musical ideas by commission?ing such composers as Dominick Argento. Stephen Paulus, Carol Barnett, Brent Michael Davids, Mary Ellen Childs. Anthony Davis. Edwin London, George Shearing, Peter Schickele and Bernard Rands, among others. The Dale Warland Singers' New Choral Music Program commissions works from emerging composers, and through this program, commissions have been awarded to ten talented musicians, with an eleventh to be awarded in 1998.
In 1992, the Dale Warland Singers became the
Dale Warland
first-ever recipient of the Margaret Hillis Achievement Award for Choral Excellence. Their extraordinary efforts on behalf of composers and new music also resulted in ASCAP Awards for Adventuresome Programming in 1992, 1993 and 1996.
In addition to performances in the Twin Cities, the Dale Warland Singers tour throughout the United States and have concertized abroad. In 1990, the ensemble traveled to Stockholm and Helsinki to represent North .America at the Second World Symposium on Choral Music. The group has been heard on Garrison Keillor's origi?nal A Prairie Home Companion and has regularly been featured on Public Radio International's Saint Paul Sunday. The annual Echoes of Christmas holiday broadcast and Cathedral Classics broadcast reaches millions of listeners nationwide. The First Art radio series and Performance Today, featured the Dale Warland Singers on one program in honor of their twen?ty-fifth anniversary year.
Expanding their audience at home are perfor?mances of major choral symphonic works by the larger Warland Symphonic Chorus in collabora?tion with renowned orchestras and such artists as Edo de Waart, Robert Shaw, David Zinman and Roger Norrington.
The Singers' most recent release, titled Blue Vv7iir, is a collection of American folk music. Also among the Singers' acclaimed recordings is December Stillness, which BBC Music Magazine gave its highest rating for performance and
sound and which The Seattle Times placed at the top of its list of best holiday releases. Earlier recordings by the Singers include Cathedral Classics, Fancie, A Rose in Winter which was re-released in October, Christmas Echoes and Carols For Christmas as well as Americana: A Bit of Folk, Choral Currents, and twelve others.
Jerry Rubino, Associate Conductor of the Dale Warland Singers and Music Director of Warland Cabaret Singers has contributed many of his tal?ents to the Dale Warland Singers during his twenty-year relationship with the ensemble. His past and present efforts include singer, pianist and arranger for the Dale Warland Singers, music director for the Warland Cabaret Singers, and music coordinator of the Singers' education pro?grams. Recently, he was appointed associate con?ductor of the Singers.
Rubino is a versatile musician, giving solo and chamber performances; serving as organist and choir director of Spirit of Hope United Methodist Church; and appearing with the Twin Cities-based New Music Theater Ensemble and The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. He frequent?ly serves as a choral clinician and adjudicator. Rubino began his professional studies as a cellist at the Curtis Institute of Music and went on to earn degrees in piano, music education and con?ducting from Temple University and the University of Minnesota. A published arranger with Jenson, Word and Hinshaw, he was named in International Who's Wlw in 1995.
Dale Warland Singers
Soprano Beth Althof lane Andersen Marie Spar Dymit Catherine McCord
Larsen
Rebecca Lowe Julie Olson Eeva Savolainen Monica Stratton Ruth Thompson Teresa Tierney Jeanne B. Wegener Jane Wilson
Alto
Devjani Banerjee-
Stevens
Joanne Halvorsen Lynette Johnson Linda Kachelmeier Shelley Kline Marita J. Link Laura Nichols Susan Hodges Ramlet Teresa Woollums
Tenor
Larry Bach Jeff Douma Jerome Elsbernd Bryan Fisher Steven Knight David Meissner Rob Pontious Randall Speer
Bass
Bruce Broquist Dave Jacobson Patrick McDonough Brian Newhouse Bob Peskin ' Jim Ramlet Jerry Rubino Brian L. Steele Michael Winikoff Woody Woodward
Section Leader
Board of Directors
Ginger Sisco, President
Arlene Williams, Vice President
Donald M. Davies, Treasurer
Glenna Dibrell, Secretary
Mark Addicks
Margie Ankeny
Arland D. Brusven
Susan Federbusch
Steve Fox
Robin M. Keyworth
Frances A. Nelson
Jim Ramlet
Judy Ranheim
Michael Reeslund
Cherie Doyle Riesenberg
Jim Smart
Robert S. Spong
Mary Steinke
Dale Warland
Teresa Woollums
Artistic Staff
Dale Warland, FounderArtistic Director Jerry Rubino, Associate Conductor Carol Barnett, Composer-In-Residence
Administrative Staff
Susan Federbusch, Interim Executive Director
Sandra Guilfoyle, Director of Marketing
and Education
Julie Stroud, Director of Development Julie Handberg, Office Manager Robert Peskin, Personnel Manager David Sherman, Operations Manager Jim Ramlet, Librarian Kevin McNamara, Chorus American Intern Brian Newhouse, Program Annotator Ruth Anderson, Office Volunteer Ellen Saul, Office Volunteer
Dale Warland Singers
119 North Fourth Street, Suite 510
Minneapolis, MN 55401-1792
(612) 339-9707
Fax:(612)339-9826
dwsinger@aol.com
www.dalewarlandsingers.org
Performances by The Dale Warland Singers are made possible in part by funding from the Minnesota State Arts Board and the National Endowment for the Arts. The Dale Warland Singers is a member of Chorus America.
New York City Opera national Company
Donizetti's DaughtBr of the
Regiment
Thursday, March 12, 8 p.m. Friday, March 13, 8 p.m. Saturday, March 14, 2 p.m.
(75-minute Family Performance) .
Saturday, March 14, 8 p.m.
Power Center
Marie is the product of a loving, if decidedly nontraditional, family. Abandoned on the battlefield as a baby, she is raised by members of the French 21st regiment, who thinks of her as their "daugh?ter" and are reluctant to give her up when she falls in love with a young enlisted man, Tonio. But the real obstacle to their love is the resistance of the Marquise de Birkenfeld, who whisks Marie off to her estate and attempts to turn her into a refined woman of society. A fully-staged production with live orches?tra, performed in French with English supertitles.
These performances are supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and TriMas Corporation.
Uniuersity Musical Society
313.764.2538
iuiuui.iiins.org
University
Musical
Society
and NBD
present
T C.
tie Saint lamber
D
aid Orchestra
Hugh Wolff, Conductor
Emanuel Ax, Piano
The Dale Warland Singers
Program
Friday Evening, February 6, 1998 at S:00 Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Aaron lay Kernis
Too Hot Toccata
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat, K. 482
Allegro
Andante
Allegro
Emancel Ax
INTERMISSION
Arvo Piirt
Franz Joseph Haydn
Berliner Messe
The Dale Warland Singers
Symphony No. 104 in D, "London"
Adagio--Allegro Andante Menuet: Allegro Finale: Spiritoso
Thirty-eighth Concert of the 119th Season
119th Annual Choral Union Scries
.Special thanks to Jorge Soiis, Ken Marblestone, Pauline Skinner, and Marge Malicke for their continued support through N'BD.
The Steinway piano used in this evening's performance is made possible by Mary and William Palmer and Hammell Music, Inc., Livonia, Michigan.
Dr. Erven Thoma, staff member of the U-M Physics Department performed this evening's pre-performance carillon recital.
Large print programs are available upon request.
Too Hot Toccata
Aaron Jay Kernis Born in I960
Kernis completed the Too Hot Toccata in 1996. The work is scored for flute (doubling on piccolo); two each of oboes, clarinets (2nd clarinet doubling on bass clarinet), bassoons, horns and trumpets; timpani and percussion; piano; and strings. The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, commissioned the work with funds provided by Susan Musser Halby, in honor of her father, John M. Musser.
Aaron Jay Kernis was composer-in-residence for The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (SPCO) from 1993 to 1996, during which time the SPCO com?missioned him to compose Goblin Market, Too Hot Toccata, and the Concerto for Violin and Guitar, as well as to arrange several Debussy Etudes. Too Hot Toccata, for chamber orchestra, is a reworking of the final movement of the Double Concerto.
Translating music originally designed to showcase two solo instruments, Kernis decided to showcase the orchestra itself. Too Hot Toccata ful?fills the responsibilities of an upbeat concert opener with a personal twist. "I considered it a farewell piece of my residency, but not a farewell to the orchestra," explained Kernis. "This work features just about all the principal players and sections of the orchestra as soloists." Noting that working closely with SPCO musicians for the past three years has given him an appreciation of the particular sound and abilities of each member, Kernis views his new work as both a tribute and a challenge to the performers. "There is a terrifi?cally difficult honky-tonk piano solo, as well as a fiendish clarinet solo and a big piccolo trumpet part," he says, not forgetting to mention the vir?tuoso percussion writing and almost constant streams of sixteenth notes that demand the utmost clarity from the strings.
Kernis characterizes the music as "a little hyperactive -high energy and slightly out of control." Highly syncopated, the music moves in and out of comfortable diatonic harmonics to more colorful chromatic regions. Musical material
is tossed among the various soloists in the manner of "trading fours' in jazz, although the four-measure motives traded in jazz are fore?shortened to frenetic four-beat units in Too Hot Toccata. The five-minute work has a slower central section that contrasts with the surrounding per?petual-motion music.
Program note by Christine Dahl
Piano Concerto No. 22 in E flat Major, K.482
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Born on January 27, 1756 in Salzburg Died on December 5, 1791 in Vienna
Mozart composed the Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat, K. 482, in 1785. It is scored for flute; two each of clarinets, bassoons, horns and trumpets; timpani; strings; and solo piano.
Mozart had a way with the piano concerto like no other composer before or after him. Building upon the achievements of two of J.S. Bach's sons, Carl Philipp Emanuel and lohann Christian, he gave the word concerto an entirely new meaning. He took over the idea of alternating orchestral and solo passages as well as a few other structural elements; however, he considerably expanded on the earlier form, making it both more complex and more flexible. In his hands, the piano con?certo became capable of expressing the most diverse moods and feelings, from grandiose and festive to lyrical and intimate, with innumerable shadings in between.
Concerto No. 22 was written during one of the most successful periods of Mozart's life. He was at the height of his popularity in Vienna, where he gave about a dozen concerts in 1785 alone. His opera The Abduction from the Seraglio was receiving performances in many German cities; in October, Mozart began work on The Marriage of Figaro. A concert review in the Wiener Zeitung said Mozart was "universally valued" and referred to his "deserved fame.
Concerto No. 22 shows especially well how
Mozart expanded upon earlier concerto types. In this work, Mozart incorporated some typical gestures from what was known as style galant, and carried them as far as they would go. (The style galant was characterized by a combination of simplicity and elegance, lightness of tone and a great structural clarity. Johann Christian Bach was one of the main proponents of this style.)
For instance, the E-flat Major fanfares heard in the first two measures of the concerto, are something of a cliche -Mozart opened several of his works this way. Yet the third measure already brings something unexpected: a series of harmonic suspensions (dissonances followed by resolutions) scored for bassoons and horns alone. The fanfare is repeated and so are the suspensions; but this time they are played by the clarinets and the violins. Such details of orchestration -never to be found in Johann Christian Bach -greatly enhance the impact of Mozart's concerto. The use of clarinets instead of oboes is particularly noteworthy, since this is one or only two Mozart concertos with this instrumentation (the other is No. 23; No. 24, in c minor, has both oboes and clarinets). The remarkable opening of Concerto No. 22 is followed by a movement rich in lyrical ideas and with plenty of virtuosic piano passages.
The heart of the concerto is its second-movement "Andante" in c minor. Its theme, a highly emotional instrumental aria, is played by the violins con sordino (with mutes). This theme (varied at each repeat) alternates with major-key episodes in which the piano is silent and the orchestral woodwinds become soloists. The movement ends with a coda (for piano with prominent woodwind solos), in which one melody from the first major-key episode is heard in the minor, to magical effect.
The last movement, "Rondo," like the opening "Allegro," starts with a stock melodic formula. Like before, however, the continuation is com?pletely individual, with a wealth of themes and one big surprise: the appearance of an "Andantino cantabile" in a different key (a-flat minor) and a new meter (34). Mozart had included a similar episode in his early E-tlat
Major concerto (No. 9, K.271) in 1777. The episode in Concerto No. 22 is another dialog between the piano and the woodwind instruments; its tone anticipates the moment in Cost fan tune, where, shortly before the end of the opera. Ferrando and Fiordiligi drink to their love. The Rondo theme then returns and the cheerful mood continues. The piano's very last phrase, however, is one of Mozart's incomparable smile-through-tears moments, interrupted by six mea?sures of forte music for orchestra that seems to say: "Enough of that; it is time to go."
Program note by Peter Laki
Berliner Messe
Arvo Part
Born on September 11, 1935 in Paide, Estonia
How remarkable those newspaper headlines were in the fall of 1989: "Czechoslovakia Allows Immigration;" "Communism Ends in Poland;" and the ultimate stunner, "Berlin Wall Falls." Even half a world away here in the States, the excitement and expectation were palpable when one after another the Soviet Union's satellites declared independence. For Arvo Part, an Estonian composer who grew up under Soviet repression, the Wall's collapse opened a floodgate of expression that became this beautiful creation, Berliner Messe (Berlin Mass).
We might expect Messe to be exuberant, celebratory. That is not Part's style. His music is restrained, simple, dignified. Much of it sounds as if it could have been written centuries ago. One unique element of this score is its absence of direction: there are virtually no indications how fast or slow, how loud or soft, it should go. This is music of possibility and it is up to the singer to explore, experience, then communicate those possibilities to the listener. The heart of the Berliner Messe is its lovely sixth movement, "Credo." Here Part states the church's core beliefs in (for him) a;i uncommonly tuneful way, a musical smile upon those tumultuous days in 1989.
Program note by Brian Newhouse
Symphony No. 104 in D Major, "London"
Franz Joseph Haydn
Born on March 31, 1732 in Rohrau. Lower Austria
Died on May 31, 1S09 in Vienna
Haydn composed the Symphony No. 104 in 1795. It is scored for two each of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns and trumpets; timpani; and strings.
Haydn's Symphony No. 104 is generally known as the "London," a designation that could apply equally well to any of the twelve symphonies he wrote for his two extended visits to London in 179192 and 179495. But since the present work is the last of the twelve to be written, it is not unjustified to see it as the crowning work in the set, and the epitome of Haydn's London style.
By the time No. 104 was premiered, the London audience had heard eleven other Haydn symphonies specifically written for them, plus No. 92, known as the "Oxford," also performed in London although not written specifically for that city. The audience, whose majority had at least some musical training, was familiar with Haydn's style. They understood the conventions of sym?phonic form, and relished the subtle games Haydn played with those conventions.
Many audience members felt that the new D-Major symphony (or "Overture," as it was then billed) was the greatest Haydn had ever written. The reviewer of the London Morning Chronicle wrote on May 6, 1795: "(Haydn) rewarded the good intentions of his friends by writing a new Overture for the occasion, which for fullness, richness, and majesty, in all its parts, is thought by some of the best judges to surpass all his other compositions." Charles Burney, one of the first modern music historians, considered Haydn's lat?est works "such as were never heard before, of any mortal's production; of what Apollo & the Muses compose or perform we can only judge by Mich productions as these." An anonymous lis?tener, however, wrote on his (or her) copy of the program the words "very noisy" next to the list?ing of the "new Overture."
What is it in Mo. 104 that placed it above all
the other London symphonies both in the eyes of the contemporaries and in the judgment of sub?sequent generations who have persisted in calling it the London Symphony For an answer, we need to look no further than the sixteen-measure "Adagio" that opens the work. Haydn had earlier experimented with the idea of starting in the minor and saving the major mode for the fast tempo (see Symphonies No. 98 and 101). In No. 104, however, the introduction has a solemn majesty not found in the corresponding sections of the earlier works. The lapidary unison motif at the beginning emphasizes the keynote and the fifth; its rhythm remains present throughout the introduction, as the loud unison statements alternate with softer ones with harmonies added (very subtle ones at that). In a word, Haydn's introduction achieved a maximum of variety and expressivity with a minimum of musical elements.
The same is true of the "Allegro." It is one of Haydn's "monothematic" sonata movements, in which the composer leads his musically alert lis?teners through a transition section after which a second theme is expected to follow. But there is no second theme; instead, the first theme is re-introduced in a new key instead. As in the "Adagio," everything is derived from one initial idea.
In the development section, Haydn reduced his musical material even further: he isolated measures three and four from the eight-measure opening phrase and used them as the starting point of an exciting series of transformations. The recapitulation, preceded by a general rest, presented Haydn with a special problem to solve: with the entire movement based on transforma?tions of a single theme, how to avoid monotony in the last section, where that theme was to be repeated yet another time Haydn's solution is extremely ingenious. First of all, he re-orchestrated the beginning of the recapitulation, introducing a delicious trio for flute and rwo oboes in a passage previouslv played by the strings. Second, he did not repeat his trick from the exposition where he re-introduced his first theme in lieu of the second. Instead, he contented himself with hinting at selected parts of the theme. The two measures used in the development section make a brief
re-appearance, followed by a much-abbreviated recall of the entire theme, which in turn leads straight to the ending of the movement.
Several of the slow movements from Haydn's twelve "London" symphonies contain alternating sections in major and minor including Xo. 104, with the difference that the monothematic prin?ciple is still at work. Surprisingly, the stormy minor passage the audience had come to expect brings no new theme but uses the same melody as the gentle major section at the beginning. What is more, the "stormy" passage does not start with a stormy tutti but with a delicate woodwind quartet (flute, two oboes, and bassoon; compared with the woodwind trio episode in the first movement, mentioned above). It is after four measures that the "storm" breaks out, only j to be suddenly interrupted by a general rest. After the rest, we hear a short development based on -what else -the main theme of the movement. The recapitulation brings many more surprises, particularly in the areas of orchestration and har-! mony, before the music settles down for the final cadence.
The minuet's opening theme emphasizes the I same ascending perfect fifth we heard in the l "Adagio" introduction to the first movement -probably not a coincidence. Further special features in the minuet include numerous off-beat accents, I a brief visit to the minor mode, and, finally, the dramatic silence shortly before the end. The Trio ! is in a relatively remote key (B-tlat, as opposed to ) the minuet's D Major). Each of its phrases starts in a somewhat hesitant way, as if Haydn hadn't quite decided how to proceed. This is, of course, another joke of the composer that was certainly appreciated by the audience.
The last movement, marked "Spiritoso," begins jin a most remarkable way. Over a drone played ' the horns and the cellos, the first violins play i tune that has no underlying harmonies until it repeated with other instruments joining in. 'roatian musicologist Franjo Kuhac showed in he ninteenth century that this melody was Troatian in origin. He went even further and uggested that Haydn was of Croatian ancestry, hile this claim has not been accepted by scholars.
Haydn could in fact hear Croatian melodies in the Austro-Hungarian regions where he lived; there were manv ethnic Croatian villages in the area. (Others have claimed that the tune in ques?tion comes from a London street cry.)
This one melody sustains the entire finale, another monothematic movement. Like the music that opens the first and third movements, it is based on the interval of the perfect fifth. In the course of the theme's development, contrapuntal episodes alternate with unison passages, scales wildly rushing up and down are interrupted by sudden rests, and slower-moving music (using whole and half notes) intervenes where one would expect the momentum to keep increasing. The flute and two oboes, by now an established com?bination, have another chance to shine just before an ending that was the probable origin of the comment "very noisy" in the anonymous concert-goer's program copy.
Program note by Peter Laki
Acclaimed for his poetic lyricism and brilliant technique, pianist Emanuel Ax is today one of the best known and most highly regarded musicians in the world. His distinguished career has encompassed many prestigious prizes, performances with every major svm-phony orchestra, countless recitals in the greatest concert halls and a catalogue of highly successful recordings. In addition, he appears regularly at the festivals of Aspen, the BBC Proms, Blossom, Edinburgh, the Hollywood Bowl, Mostly Mozart, Ravinia and Tanglewood.
Mr. Ax captured public attention in 1974 when, at age twenty-five, he won the first Arthur Rubenstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv. In 1975 he won the Michaels Award of Young Concert Artists and, four years later, took the coveted Avery Fisher Prize. An RCA recording contract followed, and many of his more than twenty albums became best-sellers and won top honors. In 1987 he became an exclusive Sony
Classical recording artist, making his debut on that label with a collection of Chopin scherzos and mazurkas.
Last summer, Mr. Ax served as Music Director for the Ojai Festival in California, overseeing the programming in addition to playing in several concerts. He also toured Australia for the first time, making both recital and concerto appearances in Sydney and Melbourne. His 1997-98 season is highlighted by several orchestra tours. He joins Bernard Haitink and the European Community
Youth Orchestra for pro?grams in Berlin and at the London Proms and gives concerts with Pierre Boulez and the London Symphony Orchestra in Madrid, Paris and London. He is also the soloist for an extensive European tour by the National
Symphony Orchestra under Leonard Slatkin. In North America, Mr. Ax tours with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, including this Ann Arbor concert and a Carnegie Hall concert, and also appears with the Dallas Symphony, the Houston Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony and the Toronto Symphony, among others.
Born in Lvov, Poland, Emanuel Ax moved to Winnipeg, Canada, with his family when he was a young boy. His studies in the Pre-College Division of luilliard were greatly supported by the sponsorship of the Epstein Scholarship Program of the Boys Clubs of America and he subsequently won the Young Artists Concert Award. His piano teacher was Mieczylaw Munz.
Mr. Ax, a graduate of Columbia University where he majored in French, resides in New York City with his wife, pianist Yoko Kozaki, their son, Joseph, and their daughter, Sarah.
This performance marks Emanuel Ax's third appearance under UMS auspices.
The 1997-98 season marks American conductor Hugh Wolff's sixth as music director of The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (SPCO). He conducts ten weeks of subscription concerts in the Twin Cities during the Chamber Orchestra's thirty-ninth season, plus special holiday programming, a two-week tour of Europe, and an East Coast tour.
Since his appointment to the SPCO in 1988 as principal conductor, Wolff has led the Chamber Orchestra on its first tour of Japan, on a widely acclaimed tour of Europe in 1993, and on annual national tours that have included appearances at New York's Carnegie and Avery Fisher halls, Boston's Symphony Hall, Chicago's Orchestra Hall and San Francisco's Davies Symphony Hall. An enthusiastic proponent of new music, Mr. Wolff has conducted dozens of world premieres including Stephen Albert's Symphony No. 2 with the New York Philharmonic, Ned Rorem's Swords and Plowshares with the Boston Symphony, and works by Michael Colgrass. John Corigliano, John Harbison, Aaron Jay Kernis, Tod Machover, Andrzej Panufnik, Joan Tower and George Walker.
Mr. Wolff has recorded prolifically with the SPCO -a total of nineteen discs, more than any other conductor in the orchestra's history. Most recently, Teldec Classics International released an all-Stravinsky disc and a recording of Baroque concerti with Russian trumpet virtuoso Sergei Nakariakov. A critically acclaimed recording of Copland songs with Dawn Upshaw and Thomas Hampson, scaled the Billboard classical charts in the summer of 1994.
The 1997-98 season marks the first year of Mr. Wolff's three-year appointment as chief conduc?tor of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, one of Germany's most renowned orchestras. During the season he will also appear with the San Francisco Symphony, the New Jersey Symphony, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the Orchestra of St. Luke's at Carnegie Hall.
Over the course of his career, Mr. Woltt has led many of the world's finest orchestras, includ?ing the Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony,
New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, and the San Francisco Symphony, as well as the London Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic, Orchestre de France, Toronto and Montreal Symphonies and orchestras in Australia, Japan and Europe.
Hugh Wolff launched his conducting career with the National Symphony in 1979 and quickly made his mark, leading two weeks of subscription concerts as a last-minute substitute for Antal Dorati. In 1981, he made his Carnegie Hall debut conducting the National Symphony with his mentor, Mstislav Rostropovich, as soloist. He went on to make his professional operatic con?ducting debut with the Washington Opera, and has since led the New York City Opera and the Minnesota Opera.
Mr. Wolff served as music director of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic from 1981 through 1986. In 1985, he was appointed music director of the New Jersey Symphony, where for seven seasons he presided over a peri?od of exceptional artistic growth, making that orchestra's first recording and taking it on its first overseas tour. In 1993, he was artistic director of the American-Russian Youth Orchestra, conduct?ing performances in both the United States and Russia. Mr. Wolff has been principal conductor of Chicago's renowned Grant Park Music Festival since 1994.
Hugh Wolff's television appearances have included two national broadcasts: A Capitol Fourtli Independence Day concert with the National Symphony in 1992, and a 1990 Live from Lincoln Center Christmas program with James Galway, Frederica von Stade and the Vienna Choir Boys.
Hugh Wolff was born in 1953 in Paris of American parents. After graduating from Harvard, he was awarded a fellowship to Paris where he studied conducting with Charles Bruck and composition with Olivier Messiaen. Mr. Wolff then did three years of graduate study with Leon Fleisher at the Peabody Conservatory. In 1985, he was one of two musicians chosen to
receive the first SeaverNEA Conductors Award. Hugh Wolff and his wife, Judith Kogan. live in Minneapolis with their three sons, Alexander, Matthew and Aaron.
77ii5 performance marks Hugh Wolff's debut under UMS auspices.
The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (SPCO) held its inaugural concert on November 18, 1959, under the baton of Music Director Leopold Sipe. As stated in its first concert program, the SPCO's artistic goal was to "devote the major portion of its programs to the wonder?ful literature, both classic and contemporary, that is not ordinarily played by large symphonies."
Dennis Russell Davies, considered one of the country's leading proponents of contemporary music, became SPCO music director in 1972. Under Davies, the SPCO was soon recognized by critics as America's premier chamber orchestra and one of the nation's most adventurous musi?cal ensembles, winning a Grammy Award in 1980 for its recording of Copland's Appalachian Spring. Pinchas Zukerman succeeded Davies in 1980, bringing a new level of international prominence to the SPCO. During the Zukerman years, the SPCO's subscription base tripled and the concert season was significantly expanded.
Zukerman stepped down as music director in 1987, and Stanislaw Skrowaczewski was named music advisor while a search for a successor was undertaken. In September 1987 the SPCO announced the creation of an innovative three-member Artistic Commission, which brought together the positions of director of music (Christopher Hogwood), principal con?ductor (Hugh Wolff), and creative chair (lohn Adams, succeeded in 1990 by John Harbison).
Hugh Wolff assumed the role of SPCO music director in the 1992-93 season, a position he will retain at least until 2000. Christopher Hogwood has continued his affiliation with the SPCO as principal guest conductor. In the spring of 1996
Aaron Jay Kernis completed a three-year appointment as composer-in-residence. In the 1994-95 season Bobby McFerrin joined the SPCO artistic team in the position of creative chair.
In contrast to its modest four-concert inau?gural season in 1959, the SPCO now presents more than 150 concerts in a thirty-eight-week season, is heard on 160 radio stations nationwide and boasts an impressive discography of more
nearly sixty albums. In 1995, the SPCO launched CONNECT, a multi-year education program in partnership with Minneapolis and St. Paul public schools to enhance music learning in the schools. In the spring of 1996 Hugh Wolff led the SPCO on its first concert tour of Japan.
r15 performance marks The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra's second appearance under UMS aus?pices.
Hugh Wolff with The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra
The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
Hugh Wolff, Music Director
Christopher Hogwood, Principal Guest Conductor
Bobbv McFerrin, Creative Chair
Violins
Romuald Tecco, Concenmastcr
John AJ. and Elizabeth W. Musser
Chair Leslie Shank, Assistant Concermaster
MAHADH FoundationHillings
Chair
'? Hanley Daws, Associate Concertmaster Elsa Xilsson lohn Kennedy Brenda Manuel Mickens Thomas Kornacker, Principal Second
lolin Carolyn Daws, Assistant Principal
second violin Michal Sobieski Daria Tedeschi Frieda Fan
Violas
Sabina Thatcher, Principal Evelina Chao, Assistant Principal Tamas Strasser, Co-principal Alice Preves
Cellos
] Peter Howard. Principal , Joshua Koestenbaum, Associate Principal
(Ruth and John Huts Chair Susannah Chapman Daryl Skobba
Basses
Christopher Brown, Principal
Fred Bretschger. Assistant Principal
Flutes
lulia Bogorad. Principal Cynthia Stokes t
Oboes
Kathryn Greenbank, Principal Thomas Tempel
Clarinets
Timothy Paradise, Principal
Philip H. S'ason Chair Marlene Pauley t
Bassoons
Charles Ullery, Principal Carole Mason Smith
Horns
Herbert Window, Principal
Paul Straka
Trumpets
Gary Bordner. Principal Lynn Erickson
Harpsicord & Piano Layton lames. Principal
Timpani & Percussion
Earl Vovvell, Principal
On Ira?
t Reguljr additional musicians Additional musicians iiho performing: W'illijm Polk, violin; Sarah Lewis, cello: Caroline Lemen, horn: Michael Petruconis. horn; Thomas Ashworth, trombone
Tour Management
Bjrry Kempion. General Manager
Virginia Hecker, Operations
Manager
Daryl Skobba. Personnel Manager Ion Kjarum. Stage Manager Patrick Quinn. Assistant Stage
Manager
Chair of the Board
Terrv T. Saario
President and Managing Director Brent Assink
The biography and roster tor "he Dale Warland Singers can be round on page 28 of this book.
University Musical Society presents
Mendelddohn 'd
Elijah
UMS Choral Union
Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra Thomas Sheets, conductor
with
Gary Relyea, bass, as Elijah Katherine Larson, soprano Jayne Sleder, mezzo-soprano Richard Fracker, tenor
Sunday, February 22, 4 p.m. Hill Auditorium
Immerse yourself in the glorious sounds of Mendelssohn's epic oratorio Elijah, a moving musical tribute to the prophet who was drawn up to Heaven in a whirl?wind. Hear this rarely-performed masterwork--with its four soloists, boy soprano and double quartet of angels--brought vividly to life.
This performance is presented with the generous support of Carl and Isabelle Brauer.
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