UMS Concert Program, Saturday Mar. 23 To Apr. 11: University Musical Society: 2002 Winter - Saturday Mar. 23 To Apr. 11 --

Season: 2002 Winter
University Of Michigan

University Musical Society
of the University of Michigan 2002 Winter Season
Event Program Book Saturday, March 23 through Thursday, April 11, 2002
General Information
Children of all ages are welcome at UMS Family and Youth Performances. Parents are encouraged not to bring children under the age of three to regular, full-length UMS performances. All children should be able to sit quietly in their own seats throughout any UMS perfor?mance. Children unable to do so, along with the adult accompanying them, will be asked by an usher to leave the auditorium. Please use discretion in choosing to bring a child.
Remember, everyone must have a ticket, regardless of age.
While in the Auditorium
Starting Time Every attempt is made to begin concerts on time. Latecomers are asked to wait in the lobby until seated by ushers at a predetermined time in the program.
Cameras and recording equipment are
prohibited in the auditorium.
If you have a question, ask your usher. They are here to help.
Please take this opportunity to exit the "information superhighway" while you are enjoying a UMS event: electronic-beeping or chiming digital watches, beeping pagers, ringing cellular phones and clicking portable comput?ers should be turned off during perfor?mances. In case of emergency, advise your paging service of auditorium and seat location and ask them to call University Security at 734.763.1131.
In the interests of saving both dollars and the environment, please retain this program book and return with it when you attend other UMS performances included in this edition. Thank you for your help.
Twyla Tharp Dance 5
Saturday, March 23, 8:00pm Power Center
Twyla Tharp Dance 11
Sunday, March 24, 3:00pm Power Center
Brahms' German Requiem 15
Friday, March 29, 8:30pm Hill Auditorium
Emerson String Quartet and 21
Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio
Friday, April 5, 8:00pm Michigan Theater
Wayne Shorter Quartet 27
Thursday, April 11, 8:00pm Michigan Theater
Dear UMS Patrons,
As we move into the final month of our 20012002 season, many of us on the UMS staff have spent time reflecting back on what a memorable season it has been.
I prefer to look ahead.
The 20022003 UMS season will be unlike any we've seen in recent years. With Hill Auditorium closing for renovations, UMS will be presenting our Choral Union Series at Detroit's Orchestra Hall and at the Michigan Theater and Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor. We've been so cheered by the enthusiasm from subscribers since announcing our Choral Union Series in February and by the sense of adventure and excitement everyone has about trying something differ?ent. For many of you, taking luxury coaches into a "new" hall in Detroit is the big draw; for others, it's the opportunity to hear the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra in a fun afternoon in U-M's Crisler Arena, with table service on the main floor and a sense of excitement as people of all ages enjoy the special holiday program.
In mid-April, we'll be announcing the rest of our 20022003 season: the dance, theater, jazz, choral, world music and chamber music artists who have helped make UMS one of the most distinctive performing arts presenters in the coun?try. We hope that our season will inspire you to become even more involved, and that you will try something new in addition to the "tried and true" artists that you know you'll enjoy. UMS subscribers are incredibly adventuresome and open to new experiences. We offer a huge variety of subscription options, from genre-based packages to a "choose-your-own" Monogram series. We hope that you will consider joining our subscription family.
The 20022003 season announcement is bittersweet in that we will be bidding farewell to Michael Gowing, who is retiring as UMS' Box Office Manager for the past 31 years. This subscription renewal process will be his last, and we know that many ticket buyers have fond memories of purchasing tickets from Michael, who has always made a ticket purchase much more than a mere trans?action. Michael's last year at UMS is certain to be one that he will never forget as it included the conversion to a new ticketing system and the UMS Box Office expansion that includes ticketing for University Productions, the Gilbert and Sullivan Society and other area arts events.
Each year we close our season with the Ford Honors Program, designed to pay tribute to an artist who has had a significant impact on our community. American mezzo-soprano Marilyn Home is this year's artistic honoree. In the spirit of the Ford Honors Program, we are also excited to honor Michael Gowing at the Ford Honors Program with the UMS Distinguished Service Award. Michael's impact on the community of arts lovers in southeastern Michigan is immeasurable, and we wish him only the best in his retirement.
Sincerely,
Sara Billmann
Director of Marketing and Communications
MS Education
UMS Educational Events through Thursday, April 11,2002
All UMS educational activities are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted ($). Please visit www.ums.orgor complete details and updates.
Twyla Tharp Dance
Lecture and Demonstration
with Twyla Tharp. Friday, March 22, 4:15 p.m. U-M Dance Buildmg, Studio A.
PREP
"Twyla Tharp: An American Master Choreographer" by Beth Genne, Associate Professor of Dance, U-M School of Music. Saturday, March 23, 7:00 p.m. Michigan League, Michigan Room, 2nd Floor.
In collaboration with the U-M Department of Dance.
'Simply committed to the best in dance for Michigan.'
UMS
and
Pfizer
present
Twyla Tharp Dance
Company Ashley Tuttle Elizabeth Parkinson Keith Roberts John Selya Benjamin Bowman Alexander Brady
Program
Saturday Evening, March 23, 2002 at 8:00 Power Center, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Mozart Clarinet Quintet K. 581
INTERMISSION
Surfer at the River Styx
Fifty-third Performance of the 123rd Season
Eleventh Annual Dance Series
The photographing or sound recording of this concert or possession of any device for such pho?tographing or sound recording is prohibited.
This performance is sponsored by Pfizer Global Research and Development, Ann Arbor Laboratories.
Special thanks to Dr. David Canter of Pfizer Global Research and Development for his generous support of the University Musical Society.
Additional support provided by media sponsors WDET and Metro Times.
Special thanks to Beth Genne and the U-M Department of Dance for their involvement in this residency.
Please visit Twyla Tharp Dance on the Internet at www.rwylatharp.org.
Large print programs are available upon request.
Mozart Clarinet Quintet K. 581
Choreography Twyla Tharp
Music Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,
Mozart Clarinet Quintet, K. 581
Costume Designer Santo Loquasto
Lighting Designer Scott Zielinski
Dancers Elizabeth Parkinson
Ashley Tuttle
Keith Roberts
John Selya
Benjamin Bowman
"Allegro"
Keith Roberts
Benjamin Bowman
John Selya
"Largetto"
Ashley Tuttle
John Selya
Elizabeth Parkinson
? Keith Roberts
"Minuetto"
John Selya
Ashley Tuttle
Benjamin Bowman
Keith Roberts
Elizabeth Parkinson
"Tema Con Variazioni"
Elizabeth Parkinson
Ashley Tuttle
Keith Roberts
John Selya
Benjamin Bowman
Mozart Clarinet Quintet K. 581 premiered at the American Dance Festival on July 6, 2000.
Surfer at the River Styx
Choreography Composer Coda Composer
Sound Design and Production
Costume Designer Lighting Designer Dancers
Twyla Tharp Donald Knaack David Kahne David Kahne
Santo Loquasto Scott Zielinski
John Selya Keith Roberts Elizabeth Parkinson Ashley Tuttle Alexander Brady Benjamin Bowman
Dedicated to the memory of Peggy Evarts Knaack.
Surfer at the River Styx premiered at the American Dance Festival on July 6, 2000.
Surfer at the River Styx has been commissioned by the American Dance Festival and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts through the Doris Duke Millennium Awards for Modern Dance and Jazz Music Collaborations, and the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
All choreography copyright Twyla Tharp.
Ashley Tuttle appears courtesy of American Ballet Theatre.
Twyla Tharp continues to have mul?tiple careers in dance. She is known as a major choreographer in mod?ern dance and ballet, as well as for her Hollywood films, television and stage work. Boldly crisscrossing all bound?aries of dance, she has integrated various styles and forms to create works marked by her indelible signature. Most important is the effect she has had in revolutionizing the integration of ballet, modern and jazz dance in contemporary choreography. Her invigo?rating originality and trailblazing successes have been recognized with major awards and honors both in her own country and abroad. Ms. Tharp's is a career without precedent.
Her first dance, the four minute Tank Dive, premiered 1965 in room 1604 at
Hunter College, two years after her grad?uation from Barnard College. In the ensu?ing thirty-five years she has choreo?graphed over 120 dances, many of which are considered classics. Although the majority of her
work was for her original modern dance troupe, Twyla Tharp Dance, which she directed from the mid-sixties to 1988, she has created numerous ballets for the world's leading companies. These include the Joffrey Ballet, New York City Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, London's Royal Ballet, and American Ballet Theatre (ABT), where she served as Associate Artistic Director from 1988-90 and for which she created over a dozen dances, more than any other choreographer. She is the recipient of countless fellow?ships, honors and awards, most significantly a MacArthur Fellowship (a.k.a. "Genius Award"); the Laurence Olivier Award; and the 1990 American Dance Festival Award.
In 1993 she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 1997 she was made an Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She is the recipient of seventeen honorary doc?torates.
This weekend's performances mark Twyla Tharp Dance's UMS debut. Twyla Tharp's Tharp! made their UMS debut in October
996.
Dancers
Ashley Turtle, a native of Columbia, South Carolina, began her dance training at the age of six under the guidance of Ann Brodie. At twelve, Ms. Tuttle attended the School of American Ballet and was invited to study as a full-time student at age fifteen. Ms. Tuttle was invited by Mikhail Baryshnikov to join American Ballet Theatre (ABT) as a member of the Corps de Ballet, at the age of sixteen. She was promoted to Soloist in 1992 and then to Principal Dancer in 1997.
Ms. Tuttle's artistry has also been seen on the screen, appearing on PBS's American Ballet Theatre Now, Romeo and Juliet, CBS's Sunday Morning, NBC's Today Show, and in Frederick Wiseman's documentary film Ballet.
Elizabeth Parkinson received her training in Florida at the Tampa Ballet Arts School under the direction of Anzia Arsenault and Carol Lee. She also attended the San Antonio Summer Workshops with Robert Joffrey. She has appeared in two PBS Dance in America programs, A Night at the Joffrey, and Najinsky's Right of Spring. Most recently, Ms. Parkinson danced on Broadway in the original cast of Fosse where she won the Outer Critics Circle Nomination for "Best Featured Actress" and a FANY Award for "Best Broadway Debut."
Keith Roberts was born in Denver, Colorado and studied at the North Carolina School of the Arts. At the age of seventeen he was accepted into the School of American Ballet. He joined American Ballet Theatre as a member of the Corps de Ballet in 1987. In 1992, Mr. Roberts was promoted to Soloist, and, in 1997, to Principal Dancer. He made his Broadway debut as the Swan in Matthew Bourne's production of Swan Lake, and was most recently in the Broadway production of Fosse.
John Selya trained at the School of American Ballet from 1980 to 1988 and was awarded the Mae L. Wien prize for "Outstanding Promise" in 1988. He danced with American Ballet Theater from 1988-1999 and began dancing with Twyla Tharp in 1995. Mr. Selya toured nationally with the Stars of the New York City Ballet Tour and on the Stars of the American Ballet International Tour directed by Robert Lafosse. In addition, Mr. Selya has appeared in Woody Allen's Everybody Says I Love You.
Benjamin Bowman was born in Athens, Georgia. He received his dance training from the North Carolina School of the Arts, San Francisco Ballet, School of American Ballet, the Kansas City Ballet, and Eckhart Hiedrich at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. Mr. Bowman has performed in Equity stage productions of On The Town, Fiddler on the Roof, Damn Yankees, Brigadoon, Music Man, My Fair Lady, and Phantom of the Opera. Mr. Bowman began dancing with Twyla Tharp in 2000.
Alexander Brady was born in Boston and began his training at the Boston School of Ballet. At the age of sixteen he entered the School of American Ballet where he trained for three years with Stanley Williams before joining the Joffrey II Dancers. One year later he became a member of the Joffrey Ballet,
dancing soloist roles in Cranko's Romeo and Juliet, Arden Court by Paul Taylor, and numerous ballets by Gerald Arpino. He has choreographed for the past three Miami City Ballet School Student Showcases and recently was a choreographic assistant with Artistic Director Edward Villella in the cre?ation of Villella's ballroom ballet, The Neighborhood. Mr. Brady also appears as a guest artist in Tokyo and Hiroshima, Japan. Mr. Brady began dancing with Twyla Tharp in 2000.
Donald Knaack (ComposerMusician), a.k.a. The Junkman, composes for and performs on junk and materials that have been discarded by others--exclusively. As a classically trained composer and percussionist, Mr. Knaack began his career as a percussionist with the Louisville Orchestra and the Buffalo Philharmonic. He began collecting wonder?ful junk sounds as a member of the Center of the Creative and Performing Arts at SUNY Buffalo. From that point, he began to compose for his solo performances world?wide as well as for dance companies and theatre using junk materials as a prime ingredient. Eleven years ago, he became an environmental purist and made the com?mitment to using these materials exclusively.
Mark O'Connor (ComposerMusician), Grammy-winning violinist and composer, is widely acknowledged as one of the finest musicians of his generation. He tours the country appearing with major symphony orchestras and in solo recital. He has per?formed at the White House for US presidents, for the Centennial Olympic celebration and with musicians including Yo-Yo Ma, Pinchas Zukerman, Wynton Marsalis and the late jazz great Stephane Grappelli. Mark O'Connor has received commissions from the presti?gious Meet the Composer program and from the Library of Congress. He has been
featured on CBS' Sunday Morning, on National Public Radio's Performance Today, as well as in numerous radio and television broadcast specials.
David Kahne (ComposerSound Designer) began his music industry career as an artist signed to Capitol Records. He then concen?trated his energies as an independent pro?ducerengineer in the San Francisco Bay area, working with seminal underground bands. In 1983, he began a long tenure at Columbia Records, serving eight years as a Staff Producer before being named Senior Vice-President of A&R in 1991.
In 1998, David was named Senior Vice-President of A&R for Reprise Records, and in 2000 he was named Executive Vice-President of A&R for Warner Bros. Records. During his tenure there, he has produced Orgy, Chris Isaak, Stevie Nicks, KD Lang, and Kelly Levesque, and is currently working on a new Sugar Ray album and composing a ballet for the J.M. Barrie story Peter Pan.
Twyla Tharp Dance Staff
Meg Kowalski, General Manager Patrice Thomas, Production Stage Manager Lesli Tilly, Lighting Supervisor Russ Vogler, Wardrobe Supervisor Jeffrey Edwards, Director of Education Corey Geremia, Administrative Intern
Twyla Tharp Dance would like to extend a special thank you to:
Jeff and Patsy Tarr
Charles and Stephanie Reinhart
Santo Loquasto
David Kahne
Donald Knaack
Mark O'Connor
Larry DeMann Jr.
Scott Zielinski
Burr and Burton Academy
John Halpern
Robert Batscha
Sound Mark SpringerQuad Recording Studios NYC
Steven G. HorowitzCleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton
The Twyla Tharp Dance Foundation gratefully acknowledges the generous contributions of the following donors:
2wice Arts Foundation, Inc.
Frederick W. Beinecke
Ricki Gail Conway
Robert Conway
Arlene C. Cooper
Valerie and Charles Diker Fund, Inc.
Gregory and Linda Fischbach
The Barry Friedberg and Charlotte Moss Family Foundation
Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Gerschel
Nicholas Goldsborough
Keith R. Gollust
Betty Hess
Marlene Hess
John F. and Joan Hotchkis
The Robert J. Hurst Foundation II
Samuel H. Kress Foundation
Richard S. and Barbara M Lane
Frances and Sydney Lewis
Ninah and Michael Lynne Foundation
James S. Marcus Foundation
Robert and Meryl Meltzer
Robert and Joyce Menschel Family Foundation
Prospect Hill Foundation Inc.
Lloyd E. Rigler--Lawrence E. Deutsch Foundation
Jeffrey A. and Marjorie G. Rosen
James J. Ross
Ellin Jane Salzman
Lowell M. Schulman
Alfred J. and Stephanie J. Schuman
Melville Straus Charitable Trust
Jeff and Patsy Tarr
The Dancing Gourmet
The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust
The Tuft Family Foundation
Allan and Barbara Washkowitz
Stephen and Cathy Weinroth
'Simply committed to the best in dance for Michigan.
UMS
presents
Twyla Tharp Dance
Company Ashley Tuttle Elizabeth Parkinson Keith Roberts John Selya Benjamin Bowman Alexander Brady
Program
Sunday Afternoon, March 24, 2002 at 3:00 Power Center, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Sinatra Suite
PAUSE
Westerly Round
INTERMISSION
Surfer at the River Styx
Fifty-fourth
Performance
of the 123rd Season
Eleventh Annual Dance Series
The photographing or sound recording of this concert or possession of any device for such pho?tographing or sound recording is prohibited.
Support provided by media sponsors WDET and Metro Times.
Special thanks to Beth Genne and the U-M Department of Dance for their involvement in this residency.
Please visit Twyla Tharp Dance on the Internet at www.twylatharp.org.
Large print programs are available upon request.
Sinatra Suite
Choreography
Music
Original Costumes
Lighting
Dancers
Twyla Tharp Frank Sinatra Oscar de la Renta Jennifer Tipton
Ashley Tuttle Keith Roberts
Songs
"Strangers in the Night"
Music and Lyrics by Kaempfert, Singleton and Synder
"All the Way"
Music by Sammy Cahn
Lyrics by James Vanheusen
"That's Life"
Music and lyrics by Dean Kay and Kelly Gordon
"My Way"
Music and lyrics by Anka, Francoise, Revaux
and Thibauit
"One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)" Music by Harold Aden Lyrics by Johnny Mercer
Sinatra Suite premiered at the Kennedy Center on December 12, 1983.
Westerly Round
Choreography Twyla Tharp
Music Mark O'Connor, Call of the Mockingbird
Lighting Jennifer Tipton
Costume Designer Santo Loquasto
Dancers Elizabeth Parkinson
John Selya Benjamin Bowman Alexander Brady
Westerly Round premiered at the Los Angeles Music Center on June 23, 2001.
Surfer at the River Styx
Please seepage 7 for complete program information on Surfer at the River Styx.
All choreography copyright Twyla Tharp.
Ashley Tuttle appears courtesy of American Ballet Theatre.
Please refer to page 8 for complete Twyla Tharp Dance artist biographies.
UMS and
Jim and Millie Irwin
present
Brahms' German Requiem
UMS Choral Union
Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra
Thomas Sheets, Conductor
Janice Chandler, Soprano Stephen Bryant, Bass-baritone
I. Chorus
Selig sind, die da Leid tragen, denn sie solJen getrostet werden. (Matthew 5:4)
Die mit lYanen saen, werden mit Freuden ernten. Sie gehen hin und weinen und tragen edlen Samen, und kommen mit Freuden und bringen ihre Garben. (Psalm 126:5,6)
II. Chorus
Denn alles Fleisch es ist wie Gras und alle Herrlichkeit des Menschen wie des Grases Blumen. Das Gras ist verdorret und die Blume abgefallen. (1 Peter 1:24)
So seid nun geduldig, lieben Bruder, bis auf die Zukunft des Herrn. Siehe ein Ackermann wartet auf die kostliche Frucht der Erde, und ist geduldig dartiber, bis er empfahe den Morgenregen und Abendregen. So seid geduldig. (James 5:7)
Blessed are they that have sorrow, for they shall be comforted.
They that sow in tears,
shall reap in joy.
They go forth and weep
and carry precious seed
and come with joy
and bring their sheaves with them.
For all flesh is as grass and the splendor of humanity is like the flower of the field. The grass withers and the flower falls.
So be patient, dear brethren
until the coming of the Lord
See how the farmer waits
for the precious fruit of the earth
and is patient for it
until he receives the morning rains
and the evening rains.
So be patient
Aber des Herrn Wort bleibet in Ewigkeit. (1 Peter 1:25)
Die Erloesten des Herrn werden wiederkommen, und gen Zion kommen mit Jauchzen; Freude, ewig Freude, wird liber ihrem Haupte sein; Freude und Wonne werden sie ergreifen, und Schmerz und Seufzen wird weg mussen. (Isaiah 35:10)
III. Baritone Solo and Chorus
Herr, lehre doch mich,
dass ein Ende mit mir haben muss,
und mein Leben ein Ziel hat,
und ich davon muss.
Siehe, meine Tage sind
einer Handbreit vor dir,
und mein Leben ist wie nichts vor dir.
Ach, wie gar nichts sind alle Menschen, die doch so sicher leben. Sie gehen daher wie ein Schemen, und machen ihnen viel vergebliche Unruhe; sie sammeln und wissen nicht, know
wer es kriegen wird. Nun Herr, wess soil ich mich tr6sten Ich hoffe auf dich. (Psalm 39:4-7)
Der Gerechten Seelen sind in Gottes Hand und keine Qual ruhret sie an. (Wisdom ofSobmon 3:1)
Yet the word of the Lord stands for evermore.
The redeemed of the Lord
will return
and come to Zion with rejoicing;
Joy, eternal joy
shall be upon their heads,
joy and gladness
will be theirs,
and pain and suffering
will flee away
Lord, let me know
that I must have an end,
that my life has a term,
and that I must pass on.
See, my days are
as a hand's breadth before you,
and my life is as nothing before you.
Truly, everyone is as nothing
who live too sure of themselves.
They go forth
like shadows
and give themselves
great anxiety in vain,
they heap up their wealth but do not
who will inherit it
Now, Lord, how shall I find comfort
I hope in you.
The righteous souls
are in the hand of God
and no torment touches them.
IV. Chorus
Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen, Herr Zebaoth!
Meine Seele verlanget und sehnet sich nach den Vorhofen des Herrn; Mein Leib und Seele freuen sich in dem lebendigen Gott Wohl denen,
die in deinem Hause wohnen, die loben dich immerdar. (Psalm 84:1,2,4)
V. Soprano Solo and Chorus
Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit; aber ich will euch wiedersehen, und euer Herz soil sich freuen, und eure Freude soil niemand von euch nehmen. (John 16:22)
Ich will euch trosten, wie einen seine Mutter trostet (Isaiah 66:13)
Sehet mich an: Ich habe eine kleine Zeit Muhe und Arbeit gehabt und habe grossen Trost funden. (Eccksiasticus 51:27)
VI. Baritone Solo and Chorus
Denn wir haben hie keine bleibende Statt, sondern die zukUnftige suchen wir. (Hebrews 13:14)
How lovely are your dwellings,
Lord of Hosts!
My soul longs and faints
for the courts of the Lord.
My body and soul rejoice
in the living God.
Blessed are
they that dwell in your house,
they praise you evermore.
You now have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy shall no one take from you.
I will comfort you
as one whom his own mother comforts.
Look on me:
For a short time
have had sorrow and labor
and have found great comfort
For we have here
no lasting place to stay,
rather we seek one for the future.
Siehe, ich sage euch ein Geheimnis.
Wir werden nicht alle entschlafen,
wir werden aber alle
verwandelt werden,
und dasselbige plotzlich
in einem Augenblick
zu der Zeit der letzten Posaune.
Denn es wird die Posaune schallen und die Toten
werden auferstehen unverweslich; und wir werden verwandelt werden.
Dann wird erfullet werden das Wort das geschrieben steht:
Der Tod ist verschlungen in den Sieg. Tod, wo ist dein Stachel Holle, wo ist dein Sieg
(1 Corinthians 15:51,52, 54,55)
Herr, du bist wiirdig zu nehmen Preis und Ehre und Kraft, denn du hast alle Dinge erschaffen, und durch deinen Willen haben sie das Wesen und sind geschaffen. (Revelation 4:11)
VII. Chorus
Selig sind die Toten, die in dem Herren sterben, von nun an. Ja, der Geist spricht, dass sie ruhen von ihrer Arbeit, denn ihre Werke folgen ihnen nach. (Revelation 14:13)
Behold, I tell you a mystery;
we shall not all sleep,
but we shall all
be transformed
in a moment
at the sound
of the last trumpet
For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead
shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be transformed.
Then shall be fulfilled the word that is written.
Death is swallowed up in victory. Death, where is your sting Hell, where is your victory
Lord, you are worthy
to receive praise and glory and power,
for you have created all things,
and by your will
they were created
and have their being.
Blessed are the dead,
who die in the Lord
from henceforth.
Yes, says the Spirit,
that they rest from their labors
for their works follow after them.
UMS
and
Jim and Millie Irwin
present
Brahms' German Requiem
UMS Choral Union
Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra
Thomas Sheets, Conductor
Janice Chandler, Soprano Stephen Bryant, Bass-baritone
Program
Friday Evening, March 29,2002 at 8:30 Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Johannes Brahms
Ein Deutsches Requiem, Op. 45
I. Selig sind, die da Leid tragen (Blessed are they
that have sorrow) II. Denn alles Fleisch es ist wie Gras (For all flesh is as grass)
III. Herr, lehre doch mich (Lord, let me know that I must
have an end)
Mr. Bryant
IV. Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen (How lovely are
your dwellings) V. Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit (You now have sorrow)
Ms. Chandler
VI. Denn wir haben hie keine bleibende Statt (For we have here no lasting place to stay)
Mr. Bryant VII. Selig sind die Toten (Blessed are the dead)
Fifty-fifth Performance of the 123rd Season
Seventh Annual Michigan Favorites Series
The photographing or sound recording of this concert or possession of any device for such pho?tographing or sound recording is prohibited.
This performance is presented with the generous support of Jim and Millie Irwin.
Large print programs are available upon request.
Ein Deutsches Requiem
(A German Requiem), Op. 45 Johannes Brahms
Born May 7, 1833 in Hamburg, Germany Died April 3, 1897 in Vienna
11 ucn a great man! Such a great tf soul!"--Antonin Dvorak exclaimed one day, referring to his friend
k Johannes Brahms. Then he added, r reprehensively: "And he believes in nothing!"
It is understandable that Dvorak, a devout Roman Catholic, should have felt this way about Brahms, who came from a North German Protestant background, but did not practice any form of organized reli?gion. Yet we may wonder whether Dvorak completely understood Brahms' personality. We have to remind ourselves that Brahms could be extremely reticent when it came to matters of personal belief.
Brahms had been intimately familiar with Scripture since childhood, and spiritu?ality played an important, if rarely acknowl?edged, part in his life. He turned to sacred texts in many of his choral works and in his final set of songs (Four Serious Songs), prov?ing that he was not indifferent to the ulti?mate questions addressed by religion. Yet his personal religion was less specifically Christian than universally human; he was more interested in morality on earth than in God or afterlife. He may have been an agnostic, but he was far from untouched by religion.
The fact that Brahms was not an ortho?dox believer is apparent from the texts he chose to include in the German Requiem: the passages selected scrupulously avoid any reference to Jesus Christ. The form of the composition is unique, too. The single largest sacred work Brahms ever wrote (indeed, his largest work in any medium), the German Requiem follows no pre-existent
musical genre. Indeed, there were no known precedents for a multi-movement choral work based on Biblical excerpts freely cho?sen by the composer. Despite its title, the work is not, strictly speaking, a Requiem-a setting of the Mass of the Dead, which, in the Latin original, begins with the words "Requiem aeternam" Rather, Brahms' work is a meditation on death and mortality that is both timeless and intensely personal.
The first evidence of Brahms' intention to write the German Requiem is a draft from 1861, listing the Biblical passages the com?poser had selected for movements I through IV. Next to the first two movements, Brahms had written: "F major, 44, Andante" and "B-flat minor, 34, Andante"--the keys, time signatures, and tempos of the first two movements. It has been surmised that the movements had been actually written at this point, but it is more likely that they were merely being planned. At any rate, the theme of the second movement was already extant, having served as the "slow scherzo" of an abortive sonata for two pianos Brahms had been working on as early as 1854. (The first movement of this sonata eventually found its final place in the Piano Concerto No. 1.)
This projected sonata was started in the wake of the Schumann tragedy. Robert Schumann, Brahms' mentor, had thrown himself into the river Rhine and was subse?quently committed to a mental asylum at Endenich, near Bonn, where he died in 1856. Deeply affected by these events, Brahms may have begun to contemplate a Requiem in Schumann's memory in the late 1850s. If he did, however, it was more than a decade before he carried out his plan.
The texts and various musical specifics of parts of the Requiem, written on the backside of an unrelated manuscript, remained the only written documents per?taining to the work until 1865. Brahms' first biographer, Max Kalbeck, wrote that the
composer had left this page in Hamburg when he moved to Vienna in 1862, and did not find it again until January 1866, when he was visiting his hometown. It has been suggested that the page was found when Brahms' father was moving. Be that as it may, Brahms put other plans aside during the 1865-66 season and concentrated on the
Requiem, which was completed (except for the fifth movement) by August 1866. During this
time, Brahms was mourning for his mother, who had died the previous year; 1866 also marked the tenth anniversary of Schumann's
death. These two great losses in Brahms' life were probably both reflected in his decision to complete the Requiem.
As we have seen, the theme
of the second movement, "Denn
alles Fleisch es ist wie Gras" (For all flesh is as grass) was the earliest musical idea to find its way into the Requiem. This theme bears a strong resemblance to the chorale "Wer nur den lieben Gott lasst walten" (They Who Leave All to God), found in several of Bach's cantatas and organ works. In more subtle ways, individual fragments of the chorale and its general melodic outline inform many of the work's movements. It was Brahms himself who pointed this out to the conductor Siegfried Ochs. The text of the chorale amplifies the idea of mortality expressed in Brahms' work. Brahms must have remembered that Schumann had quot?ed the same chorale melody in one of his songs (the shortest he ever wrote), "Anfangs wollt' ich fast verzagen" (I almost despaired at first) on a poem by Heine (No. 8 in Liederkreis, Op. 24). The words of this song are worth remembering: "I almost despaired at first and thought I would never bear it. I have borne it just the same--only ask me
not how." Due to this web of quotations and references, the theme "Derm alles Fleisch" seems strikingly familiar even at first hearing.
Incidentally, Schumann was also the first composer to use the word "Requiem" in compositions that weren't Requiems. He called one of his songs "Requiem after an Old Catholic Poem" (Op. 90, No. 7), and he
also wrote a deeply moving Requiem
for Mignon (Op. 98) on words
from Goethe's Wilhelm Meister. Brahms conducted the
Viennese premiere of the lat?ter work during the 1863-64 season. (Some of the literary
themes in these Schumann works parallel certain pas?sages in Brahms' Requiem.)
Most interestingly, Schumann jotted down the
words "ein deutsches Requiem"
in a notebook where he collected
ideas for future compositions.
Brahms, however, did not know about this jotting until 1888, twenty years after com?pleting his Requiem. He then asked Clara Schumann in a letter whether she had ever heard about this from her husband. She had not.
Brahms' German Requiem had no fewer than three premieres: three movements were introduced in Vienna, six in Bremen, and finally all seven in Leipzig (in 1867, '68, and '69, respectively). All three "firsts," as well as the innumerable repeat performances that followed, were enthusiastically received by critics and audiences alike. Even Leipzig, a city that had been hostile to Brahms ever since it had rejected the Piano Concerto in d-minor, laid down its arms. Before the Requiem, Brahms was still generally consid?ered a "young composer." With it, he was universally recognized as a master.
Program note by Peter Laki.
Thomas Sheets is an accomplished conductor whose work with com?munity choruses, academic institu?tions and opera companies has received widespread acclaim. Mr. Sheets is Music Director of the 150-voice Choral Union, based in Ann Arbor
under the aegis of the University Musical Society (UMS). Following his appointment to that position in 1993, the Choral Union began per?forming on a regular basis with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO).
In the past seven seasons, he has prepared the Choral Union for several notable performances given by the DSO under the direction of Neeme Jarvi, Jerzy Semkow, Gennady Rozhdestvensky and John Adams.
During the 20012002 season, Mr. Sheets conduced the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra and UMS Choral Union in two performances of Handel's Messiah in Hill Auditorium. Additionally, Mr. Sheets prepared the Choral Union for performance of Ives' Symphony No. 4 with Michael Tilson-Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.
Tonight's performance marks Thomas Sheets' twenty-first appearance under UMS auspices. He last appeared under UMS auspices con?ducting the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra and the UMS Choral Union in performances of Handel's Messiah in December 2001.
Among America's foremost lyric sopranos, Janice Chandler is renowned for a beautiful voice deployed with exceptional musi?cianship, artistry and conviction. She achieved international prominence as a favorite of Robert Shaw, performing with
the Cleveland, Minnesota, and Florida Orchestras; and the Baltimore, Atlanta and San Diego Symphonies. Other distinguished conductors with whom she has col?laborated include Marin Alsop, Sergiu Comissiona,
Christoph von Dohnanyi, Charles Dutoit, Jeffrey Kahane, Raymond Leppard, Jahja Ling, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Hugh Wolff.
Ms. Chandler holds a BA in Vocal Performance from Oakwood College and a MM in Vocal Performance from Indiana University. She has studied with Virginia Zeani, Margaret Harshaw and Todd Duncan.
Tonight's performance marks Janice Chandler's UMS debut.
Bass-baritone Stephen Bryant began his professional career at the age of nine with the Columbus Boychoir, now known as the American Boychoir. This season, Mr. Bryant sang the Verdi Requiem with the Pacific Chorale and did his first performances of Sharpless in Madama Butterfly with Ocean State Lyric Opera in Providence, Rhode Island. Additionally, Mr. Bryant's engagements also include perfor?mances of Tan Dun's Orchestra Theater 11 in Lisbon under the auspices of the Gulbenkian Foundation, as well as Tan Dun's Water Passion
and Orchestra Theatre 11 at the Oregon Bach Festival.
A native of Princeton, New Jersey, Stephen Bryant received his Bachelor's degree from Oberlin College and his Master's degree and Doctoral
studies from the University of Michigan. He is a member of the voice faculty of William Paterson University and resides in New Jersey with his wife Caryl, a family physi?cian, and their two sons, Andrew and David.
Tonight's performance marks Stephen Bryant's eleventh appearance under UMS auspices. Mr. Bryant made his UMS debut in October 1974 with the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra in performance of Schubert's Mass in A-flat Major.
Please refer to page 25 in the glossy pages of this program book for biographical infor?mation on the UMS Choral Union.
Tonight's performance marks the UMS Choral Union's 388th appearance under UMS aus?pices. The UMS Choral Union last appeared under UMS auspices in performance of Thomas Tallis' Spem in alium with The Tallis Scholars earlier this season.
The Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra (A2SO) has been a part of Ann Arbor's cultural life for nearly sev?enty-five years. It was founded in 1928 by Joseph Maddy (founder of Interlochen Music Camp) as a "mom and pop" orchestra of committed and talented amateur musicians. Since 1986, the A2SO has been a fully professional orchestra, first under the baton of Carl St. Clair, followed by Sam Wong from 1992-1999. Over 275 individuals applied to succeed Maestro Wong, and through the diligent work of the A2SO Orchestra, board and feedback from our community, five distinguished finalists were selected to conduct the orchestra dur?ing the 19992000 season.
Maestro Arie Lipsky, who conducted three sold-out Youth Concerts and gave the premiere of Michigan's Millennium project Lokananta, was the unanimous choice of orchestra, board and community alike to lead the A2SO.
The A2SO is supported by volunteers, community members, foundations, local businesses and merchants.
Tonight's performance marks the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra's fortieth appearance under UMS auspices. The Orchestra made its UMS debut in Schubert's Mass in A-flat Major under the baton of Donald Bryant, Conductor Emeritus of the UMS Choral Union.
UMS Choral Union
Thomas Sheets, Conductor Andrew KusTER.lssoriafe Conductor Ronald Bemrich, Assistant Conductor Jean Schneider-Clavtor, Accompanist Kathleen Operhall, Chorus Manager Donald Bryant, Conductor Emeritus
Sopranos
Susan Bozell
Debra Joy Brabenec
Ann K. Burke
Susan F. Campbell
Young Cho
Cheryl D. Clarkson
Davia Cox
Marie Ankenbruck Davis
Kathy Neufeld Dunn
Kathryn Elliott-Hudson
Laurie Erickson
Keiko Goto
Darby Grande
Christine Kapusky
Kyoung Kim
Mary Kay Lawless
Carolyn Leyh
Loretta Lovalvo
Melissa Hope Marin
Linda Selig Marshall
Marilyn Meeker
Molly Pachan
Nancy K. Paul
Margaret Dearden Petersen
Sara Peth
Judith A. Premin
Mary A. Schieve Heidi Swann Shriver Marisa Smith Elizabeth Starr Sue Ellen Straub Barbara Hertz
Wallgren Rachelle Barcus
Warren
Margaret Warrick Mary Wigton Linda Kaye Woodman Kathleen Young Denise Rae Zellner
Alto
Paula Allison-England Mary Jo Baynes Wendy Bethune Emily Chan Laura A. Clausen Joan Cooper Deborah Dowson Judy Fettman Marilyn Finkbeiner Carolyn L. Gillespie Danna Gunderson Hilary Haftel Mary Halbeisen Margo Halsted
Sook Han Carol Kraemer
Hohnke Nancy Kee Maren E. Keyt Lisa E. Kunkle lean Marie Leverich Mary Lou Lindquist Cynthia Lunan Beth McNally Carol Milstein Betty Montgomery Holly Ann Muenchow Nancy L. Murphy Lisa Michiko Murray Kathleen Operhall Connie Pagedas Lynn Powell Sophia Raptis Cindy Shindledecker Beverly N. Slater Sonja Srinivason Gayle Beck Stevens Ruth A. Theobald Cheryl Utiger Madeleine A. Vala Mamie Van Weelden Katherine Verdery Elaine Walters Sandra Wiley
Tenor
Ronald Bemrich Adam D. Bonarek Fr. Timothy J. Dombrowski Phil Enns Stephen Erickson John W. Etsweiler III Steven Fudge Roy Glover Matthew P. Gray Arthur Gulick Ryan Gunderson Stephen Heath I. Derek Jackson Bob Klaffke Mark A. Krempski Andrew Kuster A.T. Miller Fred Peterbark G. Thomas Sheffer Scott Silveira Elizabeth Sklar Jim Van Bochove
Bass
William Baxter Donald Billings Daniel Burns Kee Man Chang
Roger Craig Thomas Dent John Dryden Michael Garrahan Jamie Gleason Philip J. Gorman David Hoffman Charles T. Hudson Michael S. Khoury Mark Lindley George Lindquist Rod Little Lawrence Lohr Joseph D. McCadden John Middlebrooks John Pegouske Michael Pratt William Premin Sheldon Sandweiss Robert P. Schikora Marshall S. Schuster Michael Semaan Rodney Smith ' Jeff Spindler Robert Stawski Robert D. Strozier John Joseph Tome Terril O.Tompkins Ralf Wittenberg
Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra
AireLipsky, Music Director
Mary Steffek Blaske, Executive Director
Violin I
Stephen Shipps, Concertmaster Adrienne Jacobs Stephen Miahky Elizabeth Bakalyar Kathryn Stepulla Susan French Joanna Hello Linda Etter Val Jaskiewicz Julia Gish
Bethany Mennemeyer Katie Rowan
Violin II
Barbara Sturgis-
Everett David Lamse Susan Friedman Brian Etter Anne Ogren Lucia Santizo Kern Jennifer Salmon Jackie Livesay Denice Turck Cyril Zilka
Viola
Kathleen Grimes Barbara Zmich Catherine Lynn Eva Stern Carolyn Tarzia Julianne Zinn Catherine Franklin Antione Hackney
Cello
Vladimir Babin Alicia Rowe Eileen Brownell Margot Amrine Eric Amidon Aileen Pagan Stefan Koch
Bass
Gregg Emerson Powell
Jon Luebke
Robert Rohwer
William Johnson
Keith Orr
Michael Brownell
Flute
Penelope Fischer
Lori Newman
Roma Duncan, piccolo
Oboe
Kristen Beene Kristin Reynolds
Clarinet
(. William King G. Jay deVries
Bassoon Eric Varner Roger Maki-Schramm Nora Schankin, contmbassoon
Horn
Willard Zirk Bernice Schwartz Kelly Daniels Tamara Kosinski
Trumpet
David Kuehn
Jean Moorehead-Libs
Trombone Donald Babcock Scott Hartley Greg Lanzi
Tuba
Benjamin Pierce
Timpani
lim Lancioni
Harp
Amy Ley Katryna Tan
UMS
and
Maurice and Linda Binkow
present
Emerson String Quartet
and
Kalichstein-laredo-Robinson Trio
Philip Setzer, Violin Eugene Drucker, Violin Lawrence Dutton, Viola David Finckel, Cello
Joseph Kalichstein, Piano Jaime Laredo, Violin Sharon Robinson, Cello
Program
Friday Evening, April 5, 2002 at 8:00 Michigan Theater, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Ludwig van Beethoven
Hugo Wolf Arnold Schoenberg
Johannes Brahms
Piano Trio in B-flat Major, WoO 39
Allegretto
Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio
Italian Serenade
Emerson String Quartet (Philip Setzer, 1st violin)
Verklarte Nacht (Transfigured Night), Op. 4
Drucker (1st violin), Setzer, Dutton, Laredo, Finckel, Robinson
INTERMISSION
Piano Quartet in g minor, Op. 25
Allegro
Intermezzo: Allegro ma non troppo
Andante con moto
Rondo alia Zingarese: Presto
Kalichstein, Laredo, Dutton, Robinson
Fifty-sixth Performance of the 123rd Season
Thirty-ninth Annual Chamber Arts Series
The photographing or sound recording of this concert or possession of any device for such pho?tographing or sound recording is prohibited.
This performance is presented with the generous support of Maurice and Linda Binkow.
The Steinway piano used in this evening's performance is made possible by Hammell Music, Inc., Livonia, Michigan.
The Emerson String Quartet appears by arrangement with IMG Artists, New York, NY and records exclusively for Deutsche Grammophon.
The Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio appears by arrangement with Frank Salomon Associates and records for Arabesque, Moss, and Koch Records.
Large print programs are available upon request.
Piano Trio in B-flat Major, WoO 39
Ludwig van Beethoven
Born December 15 or 16, 1770 in
Bonn, Germany Died March 26, 1827 in Vienna
For all its simplicity, this little one-movement gem is far from being negligible in Beethoven's output. First of all, the date of its composition--June 1812--places it between Symphony No. 7 and Symphony No. 8, close to the end of his most produc?tive "middle period." Coming a year after the monumental Archduke Trio (also in B-flat Major), it remained Beethoven's last work in the piano-trio genre, in which he had expressed so many of his greatest musi?cal thoughts. But perhaps most revealingly, this piece bears the following dedication: "Vienna, June 26, 1812. To my young friend Maxe Brentano, to encourage her in her piano playing." And Maximiliane Brentano was none other than the ten-year-old daughter of Antonie Brentano, whom Maynard Solomon's research has identified, without the shadow of a doubt, as Beethoven's Immortal Beloved. Beethoven's famous letter to Antonie was written less than two weeks after the dedication of the present trio, on July 6-7.
Simplicity, at any rate, is a relative concept. Certainly, the melodies have a wonderfully unaffected quality to them, and the fairly regular sonata structure reserves few surprises. Yet the voices of the three instruments are combined with sophisticated mastery. The modulation plan is extremely subtle (espe?cially the central shift from B-flat to the rela?tively remote D Major). Upon hearing the final coda--with its wistful minor-mode accents and the extended piano trill in the high register, familiar from so many major Beethoven works--one can't help but won?der who the real dedicatee of the piece might have been: the child or the mother.
Italian Serenade
Hugo Wolf
Born March 13, 1860 in Windischgraz,
Austria (now Slovenjgradec, Slovenia) Died February 22, 1903 in Vienna
Hugo Wolf, the great master of the German art song, wrote only a few works of purely instrumental music during his tragically short life. Among these, the Italian Serenade for string quartet (later arranged for small orchestra) stands out both as the most bril?liant and the best known. Wolf, steeped in the music of Richard Wagner and the German poetic tradition (from Johann Wolfgang Goethe to Eduard Morike), was , also strongly attracted to the Mediterranean region; witness his Italian and Spanish Songbooks. Like those song cycles, the Serenade seeks to capture the sunlit south?ern regions of Europe that Wolf himself never had a chance to visit.
The one-movement work is cast in a modified rondo form in which the contrast between the rondo theme and the two episodes is tempered by strong thematic connections. In his biography of Wolf, Frank Walker gave a vivid description of the work, imagining a romantic story behind the music. The opening of the work clearly evokes the strumming of the guitars with which an enamored young man serenades his beloved. The expressive passage follow?ing the main theme represents the voice of the passionate lover. The cello recitative after the first return of the rondo theme is the man's thrice-repeated plea for the lady's heart, surrounded by the "mocking com?ments" of the other instruments. Another episode--in turn humorous and dance-like--ensues, before the final return of the rondo theme and a coda, which brings back "the twang and the drone of guitars."
Five years after completing the Italian Serenade, Wolf arranged it for small orchestra. At that point, he thought of expanding the
work by composing additional movements, but these never progressed beyond prelimi?nary sketches. So the Serenade remained what it was: a delightful single movement that shows the brightest side of this complex and tormented composer.
Verklarte Nacht (Transfigured Night), Op. 4 Arnold Schoenberg
Born September 13, 1874 in Vienna Died July 13, 1951 in Los Angeles
Arnold Schoenberg was twenty-five years old when he wrote Verklarte Nacht, the work that made him first infamous and, soon afterwards, famous. Growing up in Vienna, the young Schoenberg was naturally a fol?lower of Brahms, who dominated musical life in the city. Through his mentor, Alexander von Zemlinsky, he discovered the music of Wagner, Brahms' antithesis in the eyes of the contemporaries. With Verklarte Nacht, then, he managed to infuriate both the Brahms and the Wagner camps, trans?ferring as he did the idea of program music, associated with Wagner and the "New German School," to the chamber medium, which was Brahms' bailiwick and tradition?ally devoted to "absolute" music only. (The only earlier major chamber work with a program was Bedf ich Smetana's string quar?tet "From My Life.") To add insult to injury, Schoenberg used a particular dissonance that could not be found in the existing harmony textbooks, giving the Vienna Composers' Association the excuse they needed to turn the piece down. Soon thereafter, however, the piece became accepted as one of the great chamber works of the decade.
The title Verklarte Nacht comes from a poem by Richard Dehmel (1863-1920), a German poet very highly regarded at the time. Dehmel's success rested on his individ?ual combination of naturalism and political consciousness with an expressionistic, visionary passion. The poem in question,
printed in Dehmel's 1896 collection Weib und Welt (Woman and World), is a good example: its central event (a woman's admission to her lover that she is bearing another man's child) is a declaration of war on conventional bourgeois morality. (It has to be stressed, though, that she conceived the child before meeting the love of her life.) This shockingly frank confession, which represents the naturalistic layer of the poem, is, however, immediately "transfigured," partly by the man's words of comfort and partly by the background of the magical, moon-lit landscape which elevates the somewhat lurid story to a completely differ?ent, almost cosmic plane.
Schoenberg followed the outline of Dehmel's poem in his string sextet. There are five sections: introduction--the woman speaks--interlude--the man speaks--postlude.
The introduction, interlude and postlude share the same thematic material, a descend?ing scale motif with a dotted rhythm, sug?gestive of the two people walking in the night. At the beginning, this theme is soft and almost neutral. In the middle, it becomes loud and impassioned, with each note heav?ily emphasized. At the end, it is soft again, but surrounded by sensuous chromatic coun-tersubjects and special devices such as arpeg?gios (broken chords), tremolos ("trembling" note repeats), and pizzicatos (plucked strings).
The woman's speech, with d minor as its central tonality, is filled with dramatic passion. Its tension-laden main theme rises from a subdued pianissimo to a desperate outburst. The influence of Wagner and Strauss are evident, though Schoenberg goes consider?ably beyond both in his bold handling of dissonances.
In a total contrast, the man's speech begins in a calm and peaceful D Major with an entirely classical cadence. While the con?tinuation is more adventurous, the lyrical element always prevails. The tenderness of the music is underscored by special playing techniques (harmonics, and sul ponticello, or
playing near the bridge). The tempo, slow at first, gradually speeds up, but returns to its initial state at the end of the section. In the postlude, the protagonists and the lurid details of the story become totally dissolved in Schoenberg's music, and only timeless feelings remain.
Piano Quartet in g minor, Op. 25
Johannes Brahms
Born May 7, 1833 in Hamburg, Germany Died April 3, 1897 in Vienna
In 1861, the year of the Piano Quartet in g minor, Brahms was a young man of twenty-eight, still living in his native city of Hamburg, where he had just given up the directorship of a women's choir to devote more time to composing, teaching and per?forming. Although hailed by Robert Schumann eight years earlier as the next great musical genius, he had suffered a major setback when his Piano Concerto in d minor was poorly received in Leipzig, and Breitkopf & Hartel, the prestigious music publishing firm in that city, turned his works down, except for a single one.
In July, Brahms moved out of the house he had been sharing with his parents, elder sister and younger brother. He rented an apartment from the aunt of two of his former choir members in the Hamburg suburb of Hamm. It was there that he wrote the two piano quartets (Op. 25 and 26), the first products of what his biographers would later call his "first maturity." (The Quartet in g minor may actually have been begun several years earlier, but it wasn't completed until this time.) In these two large works (each lasting about forty minutes) he made spec?tacular advances in terms of harmonic rich?ness and structural complexity. Even more important is the widening of the range of moods expressed by the music, from emo?tional turbulence to boisterous play and all the shades in between.
The Quartet in g minor opens with a melody that lacks both rhythmic variety (it is all quarter-notes) and harmony (it is played by the piano in simple octave doubling, or, to be more exact, tripling). Yet it is only a matter of seconds before the four instruments devel?op this somewhat austere raw material into a passionate Romantic statement. Soon a counter-theme arrives in a warmly lyrical sec?ond theme first announced by the cello. Moments of intense passion and great tender?ness alternate as the movement wends its way through a sonata form of gigantic propor?tions. The ending is dark: the opening theme is surrounded first by an agitated accompani?ment with unsettling syncopations, and final?ly by an ominous crescendo-decrescendo arc ' that leaves us in a state of great suspense.
The expansive and contrast-ridden first movement is followed by an "Intermezzo" in c minor. (Brahms had originally called this movement a "scherzo," but it has little in common with his other scherzos, beyond the use of the A-B-A form. The new name "Intermezzo"--used here for the first time by Brahms--simply means a lyrical middle movement.) Viola and muted violin announce the expressive theme against a throbbing accompaniment in the cello. The trio section is slightly more animated in tempo, though the eighth-note pulsation remains the same. After the recapitulation, the tempo of the trio returns for a short and ethereal coda in C Major.
The "Andante con moto," in E-flat Major, is a lyrical song with echoes of a military march as its middle section. This double-character piece, as Malcolm MacDonald writes in his insightful Brahms monograph, "somehow resolves the expressive tensions that had shadowed the work until this point, making possible the sheer animal vitality of the Finale."
That finale, the celebrated "Rondo alia Zingarese," is in fact the crowning glory of the quartet. It is Brahms' first essay in what was known as the style hongrois, a character-
istic manner in nineteenth-century music imitating the music-making of Hungarian Gypsies. Brahms had been introduced to this style by his two Hungarian violinist friends: first Ede Remenyi, with whom he toured Germany in 1852, and then Joseph Joachim, himself the author of a Concerto in Hungarian Style written the same year as Brahms' quartet. Upon hearing Brahms' "Rondo," Joachim admitted in a letter to his friend: "In the last movement you beat me on my own turf."
Program notes by Peter Laki.
Acclaimed for its insightful performances, brilliant artistry and technical mastery, the Emerson String Quartet is one of the world's foremost chamber ensembles. Currently celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary season, the Quartet has amassed an impressive list of achievements: a brilliant series of recordings exclusively documented by Universal ClassicsDeutsche Grammophon since 1987, six Grammy Awards, including two unprecedented honors for "Best Classical Album," and complete cycles of the Bartok, Beethoven and Shostakovich string quartets in the major concert halls of the world. Today, the ensemble is lauded globally as a string quartet that approaches both classical and contemporary repertoire with equal mastery and enthusiasm.
In 1987, the Emerson signed an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon. The Quartet attracted national attention in 1988 with the presen?tation of the six Bart6k quartets in a single evening for its Carnegie Hall debut; the ensemble's subsequent recording of the cycle received the 1989 Grammy Awards for "Best Classical Album" and "Best Chamber Music Performance" and Gramophone Magazine's 1989 "Record of the Year Award"--the first time in the history of
each award that a chamber music ensemble had ever received the top prize. In 1994, the Emerson won its third Grammy Award for "Best Chamber Music Recording" with a disc of American Originals--quartet reper?toire of Ives and Barber. The Quartet is based in New York City.
Tonight's performance marks the Emerson String Quartets ninth appearance under UMS auspices. The Quartet made their UMS debut in March 1989 and has made annual appearances in the Chamber Arts Series since November 1998.
Since making their debut as the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio at the White House for President Carter's Inauguration in January 1977, pianist Joseph Kalichstein, violinist Jaime Laredo and cellist Sharon Robinson have set the standard for perfor?mance of the piano trio literature for twenty-five consecutive seasons. As one of the only chamber ensembles with all its original members, the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio balances the careers of three interna?tionally-acclaimed soloists while making annual appearances at many of the world's major concert halls, commissioning spectac?ular new works, and maintaining an active recording agenda.
In May 2000, Arabesque Recordings
released the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio's two-disc set of the chamber works of Maurice Ravel. Prior Arabesque releases include the complete sonatas and trios of Shostakovich and a disc entitled Legacies, consisting of works composed for the Trio by Part, Zwilich, Kirchner and Silverman. Future Arabesque releases include the com?plete Beethoven trios.
At Musical Americas Award Ceremony at Carnegie Hall in December 2001, the Trio was named "Ensemble of the Year."
Tonight's performance marks the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio's UMS debut.
UMS
and
Elastizell
present
Wayne Shorter Quartet
Wayne Shorter, Saxophones Danilo Perez, Piano John Patitucci, Bass Brian Blade, Drums
Program
Thursday Evening, April 11, 2002 at 8:00 Michigan Theater, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Tonights program will be announced by the artists from the stage.
Fifty-seventh Performance of the 123rd Season
Eighth Annual Jazz Series
The photographing or sound recording of this concert or possession of any device for such pho?tographing or sound recording is prohibited.
This performance is sponsored by Elastizell Corporation of America.
Presented with support from JazzNet, a program of the Nonprofit Finance Fund, funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Additional support provided by media sponsors WEMU and WDET.
The Steinway piano used in this evening's performance is made possible by Hammell Music, Inc., Livonia, Michigan.
The Wayne Shorter Quartet appears by arrangement with International Music Network.
Large print programs are available upon request.
w
i ayne Shorter's career spans nearly thirty-five years, having crossed paths with many great giants of the jazz industry. Born in 1933 in Newark, New Jersey, Mr. Shorter went to Arts High School and later graduated from New York University. He served in the US Army from 1956 to 1958, after which he joined musicians Horace
Silver and Maynard Ferguson. The turning point in his career came when he joined Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, which clearly established him as a top musician and leading improviser. Mr. Shorter's recording career started in the
early sixties when he recorded nine classic albums for the Blue Note label and in 1964 was asked by Miles Davis to join his band, which included Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams. He stayed with Miles Davis for six years and in 1970 formed his own group, Weather Report, with Joe Zawinul and Miroslav Vitous.
Throughout his solo career and within his work with Weather Report, Mr. Shorter helped to redefine a new hybrid style of music which incorporated a variety of forms, from jazz and rock to classical and electronic. In 1974, he recorded his landmark album Native Dancer featuring musicians of the likes of Brazilian vocalist Milton Nascimento, Airto and Herbie Hancock. He received a Grammy nomination in 1986 for his album Atlantis and two Grammy Awards for Round Midnight and High Life, all of which have reasserted him as one of the world's premiere composers and perform?ers. Most recently, he joined forces with Herbie Hancock in the release of 1+1. His new acoustic quartet, which appears in per?formance tonight, has garnered universal critical acclaim for their recent live concert appearances.
Tonight's performance marks Wayne Shorter's second appearance under UMS auspices. He made his UMS debut in a duet concert with Herbie Hancock in November 2000.
Born in Panama in 1966, Danilo Perez started musical studies at just three years of age with his father, a bandleader and singer. By age ten, he was studying the European classical piano repertoire at the National Conservatory in Panama. Danilo Perez is currently a faculty member at the New England Conservatory of Music, where he teaches improvisation and jazz studies. He recently was presented with a Distinguished Alumnus Award from Berklee.
John Patitucd was surrounded by music from an early age. Patitucci attended San Francisco State and Long Beach State before leaving school to go on the road as a profes?sional musician. John Patitucci has been increasingly busy in recent times, working in a countless number of stimulating pro?jects: a trio with Roy Haynes and Danilo Perez, recording with Wayne Shorter, per?formances with Herbie Hancock and per?forming in a quartet with John Abercrombie, Peter Erskine and Bob Mintzer.
Louisiana-born Brian Blade grew up in Shreveport, then New Orleans, where he distilled the unique drumming styles and musical heritage of the nation's spiritual underbelly into a powerfully swinging per?cussive trademark. Nurtured under the watchful eyes of Ellis Marsalis and New Orleans Dixie-drum masters Johnny Vidacovich and Herlin Riley, Blade learned to find his "knit in the blanket" of sounds and styles. From albums and tours with Joshua Redman and Kenny Garrett, to recent recordings on Bob Dylan's Time Out Of Mind, Emmylou Harris' Wrecking Ball, Daniel Lanois' Sling Blade and with hero Joni Mitchell, Brian has shown deep musical instincts and a phenomenal gift for playing music texturally on the drums.
UMS presents fro-Cuban
Dance
Party
CeliaCruz
Saturday Evening, April 6, 2002 at 9:00 EMU Convocation Center, Ypsilanti, Michigan
Tonight's program will be announced from the stage by the artists.
Fifty-eighth Performance of the 123rd Season
Eighth Annual World Culture Series
UftS presents fro-Cuban
Dance
Party
ICcliaCruz
andAlbita
This performance is presented with the generous support of Sesi Lincoln Mercury Volvo Mazda with additional support from JazzNet, a program of the Nonprofit Finance Fund, funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Additional support provided by media sponsors WDET and WEMU.
The Steinway piano used in this evening's performance is made possible by Hammell Music, Inc., Livonia, Michigan.
Celia Cruz appears by arrangement with Image Management, Inc.
Albita appears by arrangement with IMG Artists, New York, NY.
ith more than seventy albums, a vast number of gold and platinum records, twelve Grammy nominations and one Grammy Award, CELIA CRUZ has the voice, talent and charisma that have conspired to produce one of the most impressive track records in the music industry.
Ms. Cruz was first inspired to go into the music industry in her native Havana in 1947 when she enrolled into the National Music Conservatory, where she studied musical theory, voice and piano. In the early 1950s, she joined the legendary orchestral group La Sonora Matancera and together they wrote some of the most memorable chapters in Afro-Cuban music with the alliance finally growing into a worldwide phenomenon. In 1960, she left Havana for the US, where she continued to make history. That decade, she recorded several albums with Tito Puente, thereby spark?ing a worldwide interest in salsa. These formative years of modern salsa mark the beginning of Ms. Cruz's success, recording with artists such as Dionne Warwick, Patti Labelle, David Byrne, Gloria Estefan and Wyclef Jean. Considered "The Queen of Salsa," Ms. Cruz was honored with a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame in 1987. Shortly thereafter, Miami's Calle Ocho was renamed "Celia Cruz Way," and in 1991 the city also presented her with a star, which she has also received in San Jose, Costa Rica and the Plaza Galeria in Mexico City.
Ms. Cruz's palpable connection to her Cuban roots evokes an authenticity and authority that have made her the dominant female voice in salsa music. Ever the consummate artist, both on and off stage, she maintains an extensive calendar of singing engagements and public appearances. She also continues her forays into acting, which already include roles in The Mambo Kings and The Perez Family as well as with several
soap-opera novellas on Spanish television. Today she continues her mission to bring joy to her fans through music, creating a larger and more dedicated fan base as she moves through her native Cuban population and the growing immigrant culture in the US.
Tonight's Afro-Cuban Dance Party marks Celia Cruz's second appearance under UMS auspices. She made her UMS debut in November 1997,
LBITA began her professional career at the age of fifteen in her native Cuba, with a constant goal to renew traditional forms of Cuban music. In 1993, she defected to the US and settled in Miami, soon attracting the attention of Quincy Jones, Madonna, Angelica Houston, Oprah Winfrey, Rosie O'Donnell and Liza Minelli. Recognizing her talent, Emilio and Gloria Estefan signed her onto their recording label, Crescent Moon. In 1995 Albita released her debut album. No se parece a Nada. The album sold over 100,000 copies, taking her on tour through the US, Spain, Panama, Mexico, Columbia, Venezuela and Puerto Rico. She also performed at the North Sea Jazz Festival in Holland, sharing the billing with Brazilian Gilberto Gil and salsa icon Oscar D'Leon.
In 1997 Albita won a Grammy Award for her second album, Dicen Que, which showcases a variety of original compositions and different Cuban musical styles. The album also received the Billboard Award for "Best Tropical Album of the Year." Newsweek magazine also selected her as one of the Top 100 personalities of the twenty-first century.
Tonight's Afro-Cuban Dance Party marks Albita's UMS debut.