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RENO CHAMBER ORCHESTRA2

W E L C O M E P A G E

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INSIDEWHAT’S

Welcome To The Sixteenth Annual

December 26, 2019 - January 1, 2020

Sponsored by:

Renaissance Reno Hotel

Steinway Piano Gallery

Stuart Murtland Photography

Tanglewood Productions

Bill Pearce Motors

BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND STAFF | 4NCMF FOUNDING MEMBERS | 52019 NCMF MUSICIANS | 62019 NCMF MUSICIAN BIOGRAPHIES | 7DECEMBER 26 THE CALIDORE QUARTET WITH CLIVE GREENSMITH | 16DECEMBER 27 BASICALLY BAROQUE | 18SOARING STRINGS | 22DECEMBER 28 THREE’S COMPANY | 26CLASSICAL CONNECTIONS | 28DECEMBER 29 A FRENCH FEAST FOR THE SENSES— DINNER & CONCERT | 30DECEMBER 30 NCMF PRESENTS: WINDSYNC IN RECITAL | 34CHAMBER RARITIES | 36DECEMBER 31 NEW YEAR’S SAMPLER | 38JANUARY 1 FESTIVAL FINALE | 42

RENO CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 3

B O A R D O F D I R E C T O R S A N D S T A F F

Reno Chamber Orchestra925 Riverside Drive, Suite 5Reno, NV 89503Phone (775) 348-9413Email: [email protected]

Member of the

This project is funded, in part, by a grant from

the Nevada Arts Council, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

These concerts have been made possible, in part, by the support of

The mission of the Reno Chamber Orchestra is to create intimate, inspirational musical experiences by engaging the community through vibrant music-making by the Chamber Orchestra and chamber ensembles.

Superb Music. Shared Experience. Enriched Lives.

BOARD OF DIRECTORSJennifer SmithPresident

John TozziVice President

Cleta DillardSecond Vice President

Fred JakolatSecretary

Tasha ReiszTreasurer

Mark MacDonaldPast President

Amy BoothKay DeanWilliam DouglassGail McAllister Jane NicholsLloyd RogersJudith SimpsonKaren Stout-GardnerHolly Walton-Buchanan

MUSICIAN REPRESENTATIVESPeter AdlishCaryn NeidholdCarol Laube

STAFFThom Mayes,Executive Director

Erica Schmitt,Director of Administration

Joseph Peterson,Artistic Planning & Operations Manager

Dustin Budish, Personnel Manager

Sophie Ralston,Marketing & Graphic Design

Korona Phelps,Bookkeeper

Stuart Murtland,Audio/Visual & Operations Support


N C M F F O U N D I N G M E M B E R S

Edna and Bruno BennaPeggy and Bruce BossieYvonne and Allan BradyJill Brandin and Durian PingreeMadeleine ChiapperoDavidson Institute for Talent

DevelopmentGail and Bill DawsonNancy and Barry DownsEstiponaVialpando PartnersGreat Basin Internet Services

Marilyn HadleyInternational Game TechnologyJeane JonesWalter KataiKUNRBobbi and Dale LazzaroneThe Mary Bremer FoundationMeadowood MallReno Gazette-JournalReno HiltonHeidemarie Rochlin

Nancy and Jack RoseSt. Rose of Lima ChurchVera SternTimkin-Sturgis FoundationUniversity of Nevada, RenoSue and Dieter von HennigWashoe Medical CenterWells FargoJill M. WinterChristine and John Worthington


F E S T I V A L A R T I S T S & E N S E M B L E S

CLIVE GREENSMITHArtistic DirectorFormer Cellist, Tokyo String Quartet;Faculty, The Colburn School

DMITRI ATAPINECellist, Artistic Director, Ribadesella Chamber Music Festival and Apex Concerts

DUSTIN BUDISHPrincipal Violist,Reno Chamber Orchestra,Reno Philharmonic

BRIAN (CHE-YEN) CHENViolist,Founding Member of theFormosa Quartet

YA-FEI CHUANGInternationally-acclaimed Pianist;Faculty member,Boston University;Steinway Artist

SCOTT FAULKNERPrincipal Bassist,Reno Chamber Orchestra,Reno Philharmonic

CALIDORE STRING QUARTETAvery Fischer Career Grant recipientQuartet in Residence at Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Bowers ProgramGrand Prize: M-Prize Competition, Fischoff Competition

MARTIN CHALIFOURConcertmaster, Los Angeles Philharmonic

OLIVER HERBERTInternationally acclaimed soloist and chamber musicianPrize winner at the Witold Lutoslawski International Cello Competition

CHAD HOOPESAvery Fisher Career Grant recipient1st Prize at the Yehudi Menuhin Violin Competition (Junior Division)

CHIZUKO ISHIKAWASoloist and Chamber Musician Los Angeles and London

KRISTIN LEEAvery Fisher Career Grant recipientPrize winner at the Walter Naumberg Competition

PETER LENZPrincipal Cello,Reno Chamber Orchestra,Reno Philharmonic

RUTH LENZConcertmaster,Reno Chamber Orchestra,Reno Philharmonic

MARINA ROZNITOVSKY OSTERHarp Professor UNR and TMCCPrinciple Harpist, Reno Chamber OrchestraPrinciple Harpist, Reno Philharmonic

BLAKE POULIOTInternationally acclaimed soloistJuno Award nominee

IAN PRITCHARDInternationally renowned harpsichordist and early music specialistFaculty at the Colburn School, Los Angeles

STEVEN VANHAUWAERTPianist,Felici Piano Trio, Chamber Music Unbound WINDSYNCFirst Prize, Fischoff CompetitionPrize winner, M Prize Competition

JAMES WINNProfessor and Argenta Trio member, UNRFormer Solo Pianist, New York City Ballet


2 0 1 9 A R T I S T B I O G R A P H I E S

CLIVE GREENSMITH (ARTISITC DIRECTOR AND CELLO)

From 1999 until its final season in 2013, Clive Greensmith was a member of the world-renowned

Tokyo String Quartet, with performances including Carnegie Hall, Sydney Opera House, London’s South Bank, Paris Chatelet, Berlin Philharmonie, Vienna Musikverein, and Suntory Hall in Tokyo. He has collaborated with Andras Schiff, Pinchas Zukerman, Leon Fleisher, Lynn Harrell, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Alicia de Larrocha, and Emanuel Ax.

Mr. Greensmith has given guest performances at North American festivals including Aspen, Marlboro, Music@Menlo, La Jolla SummerFest, Santa Fe, Cleveland Chamber Fest, and Ravinia and is a regular guest of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Internationally he has appeared at the Salzburg, Edinburgh, Pacific and the Hong Kong Arts Festivals. As a soloist, Clive has performed with the London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic, and the RAI Orchestra of Rome among others.

Mr. Greensmith has built up a catalog of landmark recordings, most notably The Complete Beethoven Quartets for Harmonia Mundi and Mozart’s ‘Prussian’ Quartets with the Tokyo String Quartet, Brahms Cello Sonatas with Boris Berman for Biddulph Recordings, and Clarinet Trios of Beethoven and Brahms with Jon Nakamatsu and Jon Manasse for Harmonia Mundi. Toccata Classics will soon release a live recording of his world premiere performance of the Pal Hermann Cello Concerto with Theodore Kuchar and the Lviv International Symphony Orchestra.

Formerly the principal cellist of London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Mr. Greensmith is a founding member of the Montrose Trio with Jon Kimura Parker, and Martin Beaver. In 2013, Mr. Greensmith joined the faculty at the Colburn School. In July, he succeeded Günther Pichler as director of string chamber music at the Accademia Chigiana International Festival and Summer Academy in Siena.

Mr. Greensmith’s appearance is made possible by a generous donation from Bill Douglass.

DMITRI ATAPINE (CELLO)

Dmitri Atapine has been described as a cellist with “brilliant technical chops” (Gramophone), whose playing is

“highly impressive throughout” (The Strad ). He has appeared on some of the world’s foremost stages, including Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing, the National Auditorium of Spain, and many more. An avid chamber musician, he frequently performs with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and is an alum of The Bowers Program. He is an habitual guest at leading festivals, including Music@Menlo, Chamber Music Northwest, La Musica Sarasota, Pacific, Aldeburgh, Aix-en-Provence, to name but a few. His performances have been broadcast nationally in the U.S., Europe, and Asia, including a PBS television special. His many awards include the first prize at the Carlos Prieto Cello Competition, as well as top honors at the Premio Vittorio Gui and Plowman chamber competitions. He has collaborated with such distinguished musicians as Cho-Liang Lin, Paul Neubauer, Ani and Ida Kavafian, Wu Han, Bruno Giuranna, and David Shifrin. His recordings, among them a critically acclaimed world premiere of Lowell Liebermann’s complete works for cello and piano, can be found on the Naxos, Albany, MSR, Urtext Digital, Blue Griffin, and Bridge record labels. Mr. Atapine holds a doctorate from the Yale School of Music, where he was a student of Aldo Parisot. Professor of cello and Department of Music Chair at the University of Nevada, Reno, Mr. Atapine is the artistic co-director of Apex Concerts and Ribadesella Chamber Music Festival, and the co-director of Young Performers Program at Music@Menlo.

Mr. Atapine’s appearance is made possible by a generous donation from Pat & Mark MacDonald.

DUSTIN BUDISH (VIOLA)

Dustin Budish is the Acting Principal Violist of the Reno Chamber Orchestra, where he also serves as Personnel Manager,

and Principal Violist of the Reno Philharmonic.


2 0 1 9 N C M F M U S I C I A N B I O G R A P H I E S

A native of Reno, after graduating from the Washoe County School District, he went on to study at Oberlin College and the Cleveland Institute with Jeffrey Irvine for which he received his Bachelor of Music degree in viola performance and then received his MM with honors at the New England Conservatory with Martha Katz. While in school, Mr. Budish was a founding member of the Mephisto Quartet, which worked with and performed alongside members of the Cavani, Tokyo, Vermeer, and Cleveland Quartets, and received the Russell Award at the Coleman Chamber Music Competition in 2001. He has performed at the Ravinia, Norfolk, and Cactus Pear Music Festivals, and in 2005 was invited to Israel to perform with Maxim Vengerov’s Mozart Project with the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra. As a member of the New World Symphony, Mr. Budish was featured as soloist with the orchestra as a winner of the annual concerto competition. He is a member of the Sun Valley Summer Symphony, and is also a regular substitute with the San Francisco Symphony.

Mr. Budish’s appearance is made possible by a generous donation from Cecilia Lee.

CHE-YEN CHEN (VIOLA)

Award-winning violist Che-Yen Chen is a founding member of the Formosa Quartet. Upon winning the First-Prize in the

2003 Primrose International Viola Competition, Chen and his quartet won the Grand-Prize of the 2006 London International String Quartet Competition. San Diego Union-Tribune described him as an artist who finds “not just the subtle emotion, but the humanity hidden in the music.” Chen has recorded on EMI, Delos, New World Records, and Aeolian Classics. His recording with the Formosa Quartet, From Hungary to Taiwan, released by Bridge Records, was named “The Best Classical Releases of January 2019” by New York Public Radio WQXR. As an orchestral musician, Chen served as principal violist of the San Diego Symphony and Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra. He has appeared as guest principal with Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra, and Toronto Symphony Orchestra. As an active performer of solo, chamber and orchestral repertoire,

combined with his passion in education, Chen’s expertise in these areas has led him to embark on Formosa Quartet’s cofounding of the Formosa Chamber Music Festival in Taiwan. It is the first intensive chamber music training program of its kind in this island country. Currently, Formosa Quartet serves as the quartet-in-residence with the National Youth Orchestra Canada and the newly inaugurated Taipei Music Academy and Festival. As a former member of Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society’s Bowers Program and a participant of the Marlboro Festival, Chen’s other chamber music projects include Camera Lucida and The Myriad Trio. He has given masterclass across North America and Asia and had served on the faculty of the University of Southern California until 2019. Chen joined UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music as the professor of viola in 2018 as the school celebrates its formal establishment as UCLA’s 12th professional school.

Mr. Chen’s appearance is made possible by a generous donation from Mary & John Tozzi.

YA-FEI CHUANG (PIANO)

Alfred Brendel has praised Ya-Fei Chuang as “a pianist of extraordinary ability, intelligence, sensitivity and

command…approaching the height of her powers.” Commenting on her newly released Chopin/Liszt double CD, he stated, “If you want to listen to Chopin and Liszt with different ears, Ya-Fei Chuang’s ecstatic performances cannot leave you cold, and her pianism is staggering;” and Remy Franck called it “...masterful...thrilling...phenomenal” (Classical Music Journal, Luxembourg).

Ms. Chuang has performed with orchestras in Berlin, Boston, Birmingham, Israel, Malaysia, and Tokyo; at the Berlin Philharmonie and Schauspielhaus, the Gewandhaus (Leipzig), Queen Elisabeth Hall (London), Boston’s Symphony Hall, the National Concert Hall (Taipei), and Suntory Hall (Tokyo). More recent appearances include New York, San Francisco, Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and at the International Grieg Piano Competition in Norway. She has performed at the Verbier, Shannon and Oregon Bach Festivals, the Mozartwoche (Salzburg), the Mozart Festival (Romania), Beethoven Festival (Warsaw), European Music Festival



(Stuttgart), Bach Festival (Leipzig), Schleswig-Holstein, Gilmore, Newport, Ravinia, Sarasota, Tanglewood, the Taiwan Maestro Piano Festival, and the Taipei International Music Festival. She has performed in the Celebrity Series in Boston, the Fromm Foundation concerts at Harvard, the Harvard Musical Association, the International Music Sessions in Prussia Cove, England, and with the New York Philomusica.

Ya-Fei Chuang has recorded for ECM, Harmonia Mundi, Le Palais des Dégustateurs, Naxos, and New York Philomusica Records. Fanfare Magazine hailed her live recording of the Mendelssohn First Concerto for its “delicacy and fluidity of touch ...this version now sits at the top of the pile of Mendelssohn Firsts, alongside Perahia, [Rudolf ] Serkin, and John Ogdon.”; and her recording of Hindemith chamber works was awarded a special prize by the International Record Review. Upcoming CD releases include the complete piano solo works by Ravel for Le Palais des Dégustateurs.

Ms. Chuang’s appearance is made possible by a generous donation from Barbara and Robert Fox.

SCOTT FAULKNER (BASS)

Scott Faulkner is principal bassist of the Reno Philharmonic, and acting principal bassist of the Reno

Chamber Orchestra. In addition to playing in the Nevada Chamber Music Festival, he performs regularly at La Musica Chamber Music Festival in Sarasota (FL) and Unbound Chamber Music Festival in Mammoth (CA). He has worked with the likes of Bruno Giuranna, Antonio Meneses, Edgar Meyer, Leonard Nimoy, Luciano Pavarotti, and Itzhak Perlman. From 2001 to 2015 he was executive director of the Reno Chamber Orchestra, and in that capacity, helped found the Nevada Chamber Music Festival. Faulkner is very active in the League of American Orchestras. A past League board member, he currently is associate director of the League’s Essentials of Orchestra Management seminar, and teaches on behalf of the League around the country. He authored the entry on Reno for the Grove Dictionary of American Music, writes a monthly column for the Reno Gazette-Journal, and has been

named a National Arts Associate by Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity. Faulkner plays a 1735 Hornsteiner-Mittenwald bass, and is married to Reno musical legend Andrea Lenz.

Mr. Faulkner’s appearance is made possible by a generous donation from Trudy Larson & Ron Luschar and Jim & Mary Ann Kidder.

CALIDORE STRING QUARTET

The Calidore String Quartet has been praised by The New York Times for its

“deep reserves of virtuosity and irrepressible dramatic instinct” and the Los Angeles Times for its balance of “intellect and expression.” The Washington Post has said that “Four more individual musicians are unimaginable, yet these speak, breathe, think and feel as one.” Gramophone called the quartet “the epitome of confidence and finesse.”

Recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and a Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists, the Calidore String Quartet are winners of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship, and a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist. Founded at the Colburn School, The quartet has won grand prizes in the M-Prize Chamber, Fischoff, Coleman, Chesapeake, and Yellow Springs competitions, and it captured top prizes at the ARD International Music Competition and the International Chamber Music Competition Hamburg.

Highlights have included Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, the Kennedy Center, Konzerthaus Berlin, Seoul’s Kumho Art Hall, and at the BBC Proms, Verbier, Ravinia, Mostly Mozart, and Music@Menlo festivals. Their performances have been broadcast on NPR, BBC, CBC, Korean Broadcasting System, and German national television.

They have given world premieres of by Caroline Shaw, Anna Clyne, Hannah Lash, Mark-Anthony Turnage, and Benjamin Dean Taylor. Its collaborations include Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Joshua Bell, David Shifrin, Inon Barnatan, David Finckel, Wu Han, Paul Neubauer, and Paul Watkins, Emerson Quartet and Quatuor Ébène.



The Calidore is in Residence at the Universities of Delaware and Toronto and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Bowers Program. It has conducted master classes at Princeton, Stanford, the University of Michigan, Stony Brook University, and UCLA.

(Dec 26-28) Calidore String Quartet’s appearance is made possible by a generous donation from Gail & Jack McAllister and Jennifer Smith & John Thayer.

MARTIN CHALIFOUR (VIOLIN)

Martin Chalifour has held the prestigious post of Principal Concertmaster of the Los Angeles Philharmonic since 1995. He

also is currently a professor at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music. The recipient of various grants and awards in his native Canada, he graduated with honors from the Montreal Conservatory at the age of 18, and then moved to Philadelphia to pursue studies at the Curtis Institute of Music. In 1986, Mr. Chalifour received a Certificate of Honor at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and was a laureate of the Montreal International Competition the following year. Since then he has concertized extensively, playing hundreds of concerto performances in a repertoire of more than fifty works under conductors such as Pierre Boulez, Charles Dutoit and Christoph Eschenbach. Mr. Chalifour is a frequent guest at other music festivals, including the Mainly Mozart Festival in San Diego, the Sarasota Music Festival, and the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival. Mr. Chalifour began his orchestral career as Associate Concertmaster of the Atlanta Symphony in 1984. Subsequently he occupied the same position for five years in The Cleveland Orchestra where he also served as Acting Concertmaster.

(Dec 27-28) Mr. Chalifour’s appearance is made possible by a generous donation from Lillian & Stephen Frank.

OLIVER HERBERT (CELLO)

Cellist Oliver Herbert is quickly building a reputation as an artist with a distinct voice and individual style—“From his

opening notes it was immediately apparent that Herbert has a very vocal approach to his playing and regardless of the technical demands he makes his cello sing.” Oliver’s recent appearances include debuts with the San Francisco Symphony, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic, Dame Myra Hess Concert Series, and the San Francisco Symphony Soundbox, among others. Oliver has worked with renowned conductors such as Michael Tilson Thomas, Juanjo Mena, and Yannick Nézet-Séguin. As a chamber musician, Oliver has performed with Shmuel Ashkenasi, Franklin Cohen, Pamela Frank, Miriam Fried, Nobuko Imai, Meng-Chieh Liu and frequently collaborates with pianist Xiaohui Yang. Oliver has been invited to participate in the Caramoor Festival, ChamberFest Cleveland, Krzyżowa Music, Music in the Vineyards, and the Open Chamber Music at IMS Prussia Cove. As a fellow at the Ravinia Festival, Oliver was also invited to perform on a tour with renowned violinist Miriam Fried, the festival’s director. He has also appeared on NPR’s From the Top. Oliver’s competition awards include a top prize and special prize in the XI Witold Lutoslawski International Cello Competition in 2018, first prize and Pablo Casals prize in the 2015 Irving M. Klein International String Competition, top prize in the 2015 Stulberg International String Competition and the Prix Jean-Nicolas Firmenich at the Verbier Festival. Oliver is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music. His teachers include Carter Brey, Peter Wiley and Clive Greensmith.

Mr. Herbert’s appearance is made possible by a generous donation from Judith Strasser & Les Cohen.

CHAD HOOPES (VIOLIN)

Acclaimed by critics worldwide for his “jaw-dropping virtuosity” and magnificent tone, American violinist Chad Hoopes

remains one of the most consistent and versatile



violinists of his generation. The Washington Post has praised his wide-ranging repertoire and projects as “assured and vivid [… with a] gift for dramatic pacing and a distinctive, convincing sense of poetry [...] [A] sense of lyricism, gripping dramatic flow and intellectual depth…”

As part of the Beethoven 250-year celebrations in the 2019-2020 Season, Hoopes will collaborate with Carnegie Hall in a performance and lecture of a Beethoven Sonata at Columbia University. Other highlights of the present season include a tour of China with performances with the China Philharmonic and the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra. He will additionally make his Chinese recital debut in Chongqing at Philharmonic Hall. Other recent debuts include with The Philadelphia Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, and l’Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse. He has performed with leading orchestras including the San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Houston and National Symphony, as well as Minnesota Orchestra, Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra. Hoopes frequently performs with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center both on their national and international tours and at Alice Tully Hall. Hooes has performed recitals at the Ravinia Festival, the Tonhalle Zürich, the Louvre, the Kennedy Center, and at Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series in New York City.

His debut recording with the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra under Kristjan Järvi featured the Mendelssohn and Adams concertos and was enthusiastically received by both press and public. His recording of Bernstein’s Violin Sonata with pianist Wayne Marshall was released last autumn.

Born in Florida, Hoopes began his violin studies at the age of three in Minneapolis, and continued his training at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He studied at the Kronberg Academy under the guidance of Professor Ana Chumachenco, who remains his mentor. Hoopes is a 2017 recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant and won first prize at the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition.

He plays the 1991 Samuel Zygmuntowicz, ex Isaac Stern violin.

Mr. Hoopes’ appearance is made possible by a generous donation from Jill Winter and Nancy Rose, in memory of Jack Rose.

CHIZUKO ISHIKAWA (VIOLA)

Chizuko Ishikawa began her musical studies at the age of 3 and graduated from the Toho Gakuen School of Music

in Tokyo. She went on to pursue graduate studies at the University of Massachusetts and the Royal College of Music in London. During her time in London, Ms Ishikawa enjoyed diverse and successful career as a soloist, chamber musician and educator. She has worked with an extensive array of orchestras and ensembles such as the English Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Classical Players, the New London Consort, and the King's Consort.

(Dec 27) Ms. Ishikawa’s appearance is made possible by a generous donation from a friend of the RCO.

KRISTIN LEE (VIOLIN)

A recipient of the 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant, as well as a top prizewinner of the 2012 Walter W. Naumburg

Competition and the Astral Artists’ 2010 National Auditions, Kristin Lee is a violinist of remarkable versatility and impeccable technique who enjoys a vibrant career as a soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, and educator. The Strad reports, “She seems entirely comfortable with stylistic diversity, which is one criterion that separates the run-of-the-mill instrumentalists from true artists.” Lee has appeared as soloist with The Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Ural Philharmonic of Russia, Korean Broadcasting Symphony, Guiyang Symphony Orchestra of China, Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional of Dominican Republic, and many others. She has performed at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, the Kennedy Center, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Ravinia Festival, the Louvre Museum in Paris, Washington, D.C.’s Phillips Collection, and Korea’s Kumho Art Gallery. An accomplished chamber musician, Kristin Lee is a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, performing at Lincoln Center in New York



and on tour with CMS throughout each season. Lee holds a Master’s degree from The Juilliard School. She is a member of the faculty of the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College and the co- founder and artistic director of Emerald City Music in Seattle, Washington. For more information, visit www.violinistkristinlee.com.

Ms. Lee’s appearance is made possible by a generous donation from Judith Simpson.

PETER LENZ (CELLO)

A native of Reno, Nevada, Peter Lenz began his musical studies at the age of 6 with a course in piano performance and

musical notation. He began playing cello at the age of 10. Peter studied with Geoff Rutkowski, Louis Richmond, Bill Konney, and his brother, John Lenz.

Peter began his professional music career at the age of 13, when he became a member of the cello section of the Nevada Opera Orchestra. He joined the Reno Chamber Orchestra in 1976, and became principal cellist in 1983. He also was awarded the principal cello position with the Reno Philharmonic Orchestra in 1982. In addition, Peter has performed as principal cellist with the Las Vegas Philharmonic, and as a soloist with the Reno Chamber Orchestra, Reno Philharmonic and other regional orchestras.

Hailing from an extensive family of musicians, Peter frequently performs as a chamber musician in public and private with family members and others. He has performed with Bella Hristova, James Buswell, Phillip Ruder, Molly Carr, Dustin Budish, Wendy Warner, and James Winn. Peter has shared the stage with Leonard Nimoy, Frank Sinatra, Natalie Cole, Neil Sedaka, Loretta Lynn, The Captain and Tennille, Dean Martin, Edgar Meyer, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Luciano Pavarotti, and Itzhak Perlman.

In addition to his pursuit of music, Peter holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mining Engineering from the Mackay School of Mines, University of Nevada - Reno, and is a Licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Nevada. He is senior research consultant with US Silica.

(Dec 31-Jan 1) Mr. Lenz’s appearance is made possible by a generous donation from Cleta Dillard and Jim Mitchell.

RUTH LENZ (VIOLIN)

Ruth Lenz is concertmaster of the Reno Chamber Orchestra and the Reno Philharmonic. She performs as recitalist,

chamber musician, soloist and concertmaster in venues throughout the United States. She has shared the stage with such notable performers as Itzhak Perlman, Edgar Meyer, Luciano Pavarotti and Natalie Cole. In addition to the Nevada Chamber Music Festival, Ruth has participated in the Telluride Chamber Music Festival, CO; Kammermusiktage (Germany); Mayshad Festival (Morocco); La Musica, FL; Sunriver, OR; Classical Tahoe, NV; Festival Napa, CA; and Spoleto Festival USA, SC. Ruth began her violin studies with her mother at age 2, earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University of Nevada, Reno studying with Phillip Ruder, and her Doctorate from the University of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana where she studied with Sherban Lupu and Danwen Jiang. In addition to performing, Dr. Lenz has a passion for teaching and maintains a large studio of violin and chamber music students. In her free time, she is an avid equestrian and outdoor enthusiast. Ruth Lenz plays a Simone Fernando Sacconi violin.

Dr. Lenz’s appearance is made possible by a generous donation from Heidemarie Rochlin.

MARINA ROZNITOVSKY OSTER (HARP)

A native of Ukraine and raised in Israel, Marina started musical training at the age of 5. She focused on the harp at the age

of 12, giving her first concerto performance just a year later. She has performed with professional orchestras in Europe and in the U.S., and some of her performances were broadcast on national Israeli and U.S. television and radio. She studied with several world-known harpists and received her three degrees in Harp Performance from Indiana University, under distinguished professor Susann McDonald. She is currently teaching at


http://www.violinistkristinlee.com


the University of Nevada Reno and operates a large private studio. Marina is the principal harpist with the Reno Chamber Orchestra and the Reno Philharmonic.

(Dec 27, Jan 1) Ms. Oster’s appearance is made possible by a generous donation from Steve and Kathie Jenkins.

BLAKE POULIOT (VIOLIN)

Violinist Blake Pouliot has been praised by the Toronto Star as, “one of those special talents that comes along once in a lifetime.”

Highlights of the 2019-20 season include debuts with the Atlanta, Sarasota and Madison symphonies and as soloist for the tour of the European Union Youth Orchestra and National Youth Orchestra of Canada.

The 2018-19 season included his debuts with the Detroit, Dallas, Milwaukee, San Francisco, and Seattle symphonies, dazzling audiences by “[surging] onstage in rock star pants…[presenting] Brahms as a composer of great passion. It was compellingly – indeed, irresistibly – done.” (The Dallas Morning News) Pouliot’s debut album (Analekta Records) earned a five-star rating from BBC Music Magazine and a 2019 Juno Award nomination. In addition, Pouliot won both the Career Development Award from the Women’s Club of Toronto and the Virginia Parker Prize from the Canada Arts Council.

Pouliot has twice been featured on CBC’s “30 Hot Canadian Classical Musicians under 30.” He’s also hosted CBC’s This is my Music, was featured on Rob Kapilow’s What Makes it Great? series, and was the 2017-2018 NPR’s Performance Today Artist-in-Residence.

Pouliot has regularly performed with the orchestras of Calgary, Edmonton, Pacific, Toronto, Vancouver, National Arts Center and internationally, with the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, and Orchestra of the Americas. He has collaborated with conductors such as Sir Neville Marriner, Pablo Heras Casado, Nicolas McGegan, Brett Mitchell, Vasily Petrenko, Alexander Shelley, and Hugh Wolff.

Pouliot performs on the 1729 Guarneri del Gesù, on generous loan from the Canada Council for the Arts Musical Instrument Bank as First Laureate of both their 2018 and 2015 Competition.

Mr. Pouliot’s appearance is made possible by a generous donation from Holly Walton-Buchanan & Kel Buchanan.

IAN PRITCHARD (HARPSICHORD)

Ian Pritchard is a specialist in historical keyboard practices. As a continuo player he has performed with many leading

early music ensembles, such as the Academy of Ancient Music, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and Florilegium. He has collaborated with leading figures in early music, including Monica Huggett, Elizabeth Blumenstock, Christopher Hogwood, and Rachel Podger, among others. Ian has won prizes in the Broadwood Harpsichord Competition, London (first prize), the P. Bernardi Competition in Bologna, and in the Bruges Competition. Earning his Bachelor’s in Music from the Oberlin Conservatory, Ohio in 1999, from 2000-2002 he studied at the Royal Academy of Music, London, earning the prestigious DipRam award; in 2007 he returned to Los Angeles, where he appears frequently with many of the leading local ensembles. He has also performed as a concerto soloist with the L.A. Chamber Orchestra. Ian recently received his PhD in musicology from USC; his interests include keyboard music of the late Renaissance and early Baroque improvisation, notation, compositional process, and performance practice. In 2003-2004 Ian was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to Italy, where he conducted research on early Italian keyboard music. He is a founding member and current music director of the ensemble Tesserae, and is a full-time faculty member of the Colburn Conservatory of Music. In 2015 Ian was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music.

(Dec 27) Mr. Pritchard’s appearance is made possible by a generous donation from Marilyn and Darrell Craig.



STEVEN VANHAUWAERT (PIANO)

Hailed by the Los Angeles Times for his ‘impressive clarity, sense of structure and monster technique’, Steven Vanhauwaert

has garnered a wide array of accolades, amongst which was the First Prize at the Los Angeles International Liszt Competition. Mr. Vanhauwaert has made his solo debut at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles performing the world premiere of Fratello, by Magnus Lindberg. He appeared as a soloist at the National Center of the Performing Arts in Beijing, the Shanghai Oriental Arts Center, the Concertgebouw in Brugge, the Great Hall of the Budapest Liszt Conservatory, the Forbidden City Theatre in Beijing, Segerstrom Hall, and the National Philharmonic Hall in Kiev. He has appeared with orchestras including the Pacific Symphony, the Lviv Philharmonic, the Sofia Sinfonietta, the Flemish Symphony and the Kyiv Kamerata.

Recent albums such as Joseph Woelfl: The Paris Years (Sonarti Records) and Pensées Intimes (Hortus Records) were included in the Top 10 award on the Belgian radio and received a 5 diapasons rating in France. His album Dispersion (Hortus Records) featuring works by Hindemith, Vierne, Casella, Schulhoff and a world premiere recording by Belgian composer Raymond Moulaert, received rave reviews in Germany, France, Holland, the UK and the U.S.

Mr. Vanhauwaert is a Steinway Artist. More info at www.stevenpiano.com.

Mr. Vanhauwaert’s appearance is made possible by a generous donation from Jim and Jane Nichols.

WINDSYNC

WindSync is a wind quintet featuring young soloists from across North America. The group eliminates the “fourth wall”

between musicians and audience by performing from memory, creating an intimate connection. In 2018, they were named finalists in the prestigious M-Prize Chamber Arts Competition, and are recent winners of the Concert Artists Guild and Fischoff national competitions. WindSync has appeared in recital at the Met Museum, the Library of Congress, Shanghai Oriental Arts Center, and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. During 2019, they were named to the touring roster of the Texas Commission on the Arts. WindSync’s 2019-2020 season features performances at Ravinia, the Cliburn Sessions, and Zilkha Hall as well as residencies at the University of Texas and the Eastman School of Music. Their themes include space travel, Puerto Rican folklife, and indie rock, with the world premiere of a new work by Erberk Eryılmaz leading to the creation of an ambisonic virtual reality performance video.

WindSync’s educational programming includes concerts for children in partnership with the Hobby Center’s sensory friendly series and with the Rice University Boniuk Institute for Religious Tolerance. They have been featured in educational concerts presented by the Seattle Symphony, Midland Symphony, and Orli Shaham’s “Baby Got Bach”. The members of WindSync have led master classes at New World Symphony, Texas Music Festival, and Northwestern University, and has also served as ensemble-in-residence for Adelphi University, the Chamber Music Festival of Lexington (KY), and the Grand Teton Music Festival.

(Dec 30-Jan 1) WindSync’s appearance is made possible by a generous donation from Ann Wood and Kay & Randall Dean.


http://www.stevenpiano.com/


JAMES WINN (PIANO)

James Winn, piano and composition professor at the University of Nevada, Reno since 1997, made his professional

debut with the Denver Symphony at the age of thirteen, and has been performing widely in North America, Europe, and Asia ever since. With his duo-piano partner, Cameron Grant, he was a recipient of the top prize given in the two-piano category of the 1980 Munich Competition (Musical America wrote about the team, “Not since Josef and Rosina Lhevinne regaled us in the thirties have we heard such technical prowess paired with such genuine musical values”). Dr. Winn has been a solo pianist with the New York City Ballet, a member of the New York New Music Ensemble, of Hexagon (woodwind quintet plus piano), and the pianist and resident composer of the Telluride Chamber Music Festival, as well as a frequent guest with

the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Speculum, the Group for Contemporary Music, Cactus Pear Chamber Music Festival, La Musica International Chamber Music Festival, and Bargemusic. Well-known as a specialist in new music, he has been involved in numerous world premieres and premiere recordings by many renowned composers, among them 13 Pulitzer Prize winners. He is currently a member of Argenta, UNR’s resident piano trio, a founding member and regular participant in the Nevada Chamber Music Festival, and performs regularly in recital with internationally acclaimed New York based violinist Rolf Schulte. An active recording artist, Winn is featured in more than four dozen CDs as soloist, chamber musician, and composer. He has received numerous career recognitions including an Artist Fellowship from the Nevada State Council of the Arts and the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts.

Mr. Winn’s appearance is made possible by a generous donation from Fred & Kathy Jakolat and CJ Walters.


PROGRAMTHURSDAY, DECEMBER 26, 20197:00 P.M.

ST. JOHN’S PRESBYTERIAN

JEFFREY MYERS, violinRYAN MEEHAN, violinJEREMY BERRY, violaESTELLE CHOI, celloCLIVE GREENSMITH, cello

NCMF Presents: The Calidore Quartet with Clive Greensmith

SHAWThree Essays

BEETHOVENString Quartet No. 4 in C min. Op. 18/4

Allegro ma non tantoAndante scherzoso quasi allegrettoMenuetto: AllegrettoAllegro – Prestissimo

I N T E R M I S S I O N

SCHUBERTString Quintet in C maj., Op. posth. 163

Allegro ma non troppoAdagioScherzo. Presto – Trio. Andante sostenutoAllegretto


SHAWThree Essays (2016/2018, 20 minutes)

Along with being the youngest composer ever to receive a Pulitzer Prize (at thirty, for her Partita for 8 Voices), Caroline Shaw is a violinist and singer. Her works have been performed by the American Contemporary Music Ensemble and Roomful of Teeth (with whom she regularly performs) as well as So Percussion and the Brentano String Quartet. She has collaborated with Kanye West, and appeared in the series Mozart in the Jungle.

In 2018, a number of institutions, including the BBC and Chamber Music Northwest, co-commissioned Shaw to write two works, Second Essay: Echo and Third Essay: Ruby. They have since been grouped with the First Essay: Nimrod she wrote two years earlier for the Calidore Quartet. The three have been described as “meditations on communication: written and spoken language, social media and political discourse, even computer programming language.” Echo refers to the “echo” function in the PHP programming language, and Ruby is named both for the gemstone and the programming language. Nimrod began, according to Shaw, with the voice of “one of my favorite authors, Marilynne Robinson…The piece begins with a gentle lilt, like Robinson herself speaking, but soon begins to fray as the familiar harmony unravels into tumbling fragments and unexpected repetitive tunnels.”

BEETHOVENString Quartet in C minor, Op. 18/4 (1798-1800, 24 minutes)

Having moved to Vienna in 1792, Beethoven spent his first years there becoming acquainted with the city’s musical establishment. This included performing at the home of Prince Joseph František Maximilian Lobkowicz, who commissioned the Op. 18 Quartets. Before starting them, Beethoven made a study of the music of Mozart and Haydn, and the six Op. 18 quartets were particularly influenced by Haydn’s works in the genre. The C minor Quartet, the last of Op. 18 to be written, possibly includes material from sketches Beethoven made years earlier in Bonn.

The opening movement contains more than a hint of the tragic and dramatic qualities that the key of C minor often brought out in Beethoven’s music. A restless opening theme sets the tone, even when the music turns lyrical with the related second theme. Oddly, the second movement, although moderate in tempo, is marked “scherzoso” and feels like a minuet, with a polyphonic, fugue-like development of the

main melodic material. More scherzo-like, in fact, is the third movement, actually called Minuet, the darkest, most brooding and intense music in the work. For the finale, Beethoven borrows a little of the Hungarian character of some of his teacher Franz Josef Haydn’s final movements. There is constant movement between major and minor keys, and only toward the end does the music make a true move toward the major.

SCHUBERTString Quintet in C major, D. 956 (1828, 50 minutes)

Schubert’s final chamber work, the String Quintet, was completed just two months before his death. Benjamin Britten has written that “the richest and most productive eighteen months in music history” were Schubert’s last eighteen, during which he composed, along with the Quintet, the “Great” C major Symphony, the last three piano sonatas, the songs of Die Winterreise and Schwanengesang, and more. Mozart and Beethoven, two of Schubert’s favorite composers, had also written string quintets in the key of C major. But they added, as most composers have, a second viola to the standard string quartet. Schubert chose instead to add a second cello, giving the work a unique richness of texture.

Large in scale, accounting for nearly 40% of the work’s total length, the first movement opens with a long crescendo on a C major chord. Then, as Martin Chusig writes, Schubert “presents his harmonies—rather than a memorable, well-contoured melody—without a regular rhythmic pulse,” in music of great beauty. The music gains momentum, leading to a second theme, a duet for the two cellos. That latter theme also opens the central development section, which moves through diverse keys and harmonies. In a ternary ABA form, the slow second movement opens and closes tranquilly as the second violin, viola, and first cello play a lovely, lyrical theme. In between, the music grows stormy.

The rollicking third movement Scherzo, almost orchestral in breadth, employs the low open strings of the instruments to create a rich sound. The energetic outer sections frame a more restrained Trio, introduced by the viola and second cello. Alternating major and minor modes, the final movement has a lively Hungarian flavor. As James Nicholas has written of the String Quintet, “Mystical, visionary, unfathomable, it is intoxicatingly, sensuously beautiful and frighteningly grim, with one foot in Hades and the other in Paradise.”

Program Notes by Chris Morrison


P R O G R A M N O T E S

PROGRAMFRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 20193:00 P.M.

TRINITY EPISCOPAL CATHEDRAL Basically Baroque

CORELLIChristmas Concerto (Concerto Grosso in G min.), Op. 6/8

Vivace-GraveAllegroAdagio – Allegro – AdagioVivaceAllegroLargo (Pastorale)

BACHIch ruf ’ zu Dir, Herr Jesu Christ

BACHSonata for Viola da Gamba No. 2 in D maj.


HANDELHarp Concerto in B♭ maj., Op. 4/6

Andante-AllegroLarghettoAllegro moderato

BACHViolin Partita No. 3 in E maj.

PreludioGavotte en RondeauMenuets (I and II)Gigue

VIVALDIConcerto for Four Violins in B min., Op. 3/10

MARTIN CHALIFOUR, violinRUTH LENZ, violinOLIVER HERBERT, celloIAN PRITCHARD, harpsichordCLIVE GREENSMITH, celloESTELLE CHOI, celloMARINA ROZNITOVSKY OSTER, harpJEFFREY MYERS, violinRYAN MEEHAN, violinDUSTIN BUDISH, violaKRISTIN LEE, violinCHAD HOOPES, violinBLAKE POULIOT, violin

CORELLIConcerto Grosso in G minor, Op. 6/8 “Christmas Concerto” (1714, 14 minutes)

Arcangelo Corelli was born near Bologna, in a region of many great instrument makers like Stradivarius. By 1675 he had moved to Rome, where he spent the rest of his life as a famous teacher, violinist, and composer of sonatas and concertos. His twelve Concerti Grossi, Op. 6 were published in 1714, the year after his death. For the G minor Concerto from that set, inscribed “Fatto per la notte di Natale” (Made for the night of Christmas), Corelli’s starting point is the sonata da chiesa or church sonata, with movements in the sequence slow-fast-slow-fast. After aggressive opening chords, the first movement proceeds solemnly. The more aggressive second movement highlights the contrast of the concertante group, two violins and cello, and the orchestra. The third movement frames a more energetic central section with slow music, and the fourth has a gentle lilt. To these four movements, Corelli adds a fifth, opening with faster music that introduces a slow, lovely Pastorale that evokes the Christmas music of the Italian pifferari, shepherds who played the bagpipe and reed pipe (piffero) at nativity scenes.

BACHIch ruf ’ zu Dir, Herr Jesu Christ BWV 639 (1708-17, 3 minutes)

This short chorale prelude, drawn from the Orgelbüchlein (Little Organ Book), BWV 599−644, a collection of 45 pieces composed by Bach during his years serving as organist in the court at Weimar, shares its name with one of Bach’s church cantatas (BWV 177). The title translates as “I call to You, Lord Jesus Christ,” and the text, by Johann Agricola (1494-1566), is a prayer calling on Jesus to “hear my complaint” and “let me not despair!”

BACHViola da gamba Sonata in D major, BWV 1028 (c. 1740, 14 minutes)

Although the date of their composition is still argued, Bach’s three sonatas for viola da gamba, a six-stringed instrument not unlike the modern cello, were likely composed in the late 1730s or early 1740s, while Bach served as Cantor of the School of St. Thomas in Leipzig. They may have been written for performance at the concerts of the Collegium Musicum that Bach led weekly at the Café Zimmermann. The D major Sonata’s slow first movement opens with the viola da gamba introducing a song-like phrase that is repeated by the harpsichord. After opening the lively second movement together, the two instruments continue to echo one another in the later half of the movement. The third movement has the gentle rhythm of a siciliano, and it is followed by a joyful, virtuoso finale in 6/8 time.

BACHPartita No. 3 in E major for Solo Violin, BWV 1006, mvts. 1, 3, 4, 6 (c. 1720, 12 minutes)

Bach’s six Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin are generally regarded as among the greatest music ever written for the instrument, exploiting a dazzling range of tone colors, textures, and moods, frequently creating the illusion of two, three, even four simultaneous melodic lines. As one critic has written, “To the violinist they are a complete world of beauty, and a training ground whereon his powers may always be proved and tested.” Perhaps the most famous section of the Partita No. 3 is the opening Preludio, a stream of sixteenth notes that provides an exciting showcase for the violinist. The tuneful Gavotte en Rondeau third movement alternates a folk music-like tune with other episodes. Although they both make use of double and triple stops (playing two or three strings at once), the two Minuets of the fourth movement are quite different: the first courtly and stately, the second, with its drone, more rustic in flavor. A sprightly Gigue brings the work to a lively conclusion.



VIVALDI Concerto for 4 violins in B minor, RV 580, Op. 3/10 (1711, 10 minutes)

Vivaldi’s first set of concertos, the twelve of Op. 3 titled “L’estro armonico” (The Inspiration of Harmony), were probably composed for performance in the Ospedale della Pietà, the school for orphaned and abandoned girls where Vivaldi taught. They proved to be so popular that within months of their appearance they were published in Amsterdam and elsewhere, becoming Vivaldi’s first music to be printed outside of Italy. One of the composer’s few

concertos for four violins, the Concerto in B minor —which also has a prominent role for solo cello—opens with a lively movement setting off the soloists, who unusually open the work, and the orchestra. In the second movement, the arpeggios of the soloists contrast with chords from the orchestra. An agitated central section brings to mind the “Winter” Concerto from Vivaldi’s famous Four Seasons. A dance-like triple meter propels the final Allegro forward, as do some virtuoso gymnastics from the soloists.




PROGRAMFRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 20197:00 P.M.

TRINITY EPISCOPAL CATHEDRAL Soaring Strings

BIBERBattalia à 10

PROKOFIEVSonata for Two Violins in C maj., Op. 56

CLARKEMorpheus

RAVELViolin Sonata No. 2 in G maj.

AllegrettoBlues: ModeratoPerpetuum mobile: Allegro


DVOŘÁKPiano Quintet No. 2, Op. 81

Allegro, ma non tantoDumka: Andante con motoScherzo (Furiant): molto vivaceFinale: Allegro.

MARTIN CHALIFOUR, violinRUTH LENZ, violinKRISTIN LEE, violinBRIAN CHEN, violaDUSTIN BUDISH, violaJEREMY BERRY, violaCHIZUKO ISHIKAWA, violaCLIVE GREENSMITH, celloSCOTT FAULKNER, bassIAN PRITCHARD, harpsichordJEFFREY MYERS, violinRYAN MEEHAN, violinYAFEI CHUANG, pianoCHAD HOOPES, violinJAMES WINN, pianoSTEVEN VANHAUWAERT, pianoBLAKE POULIOT, violin

BIBERBattalia à 10, C. 61 (1673, 12 minutes)

Well before famous musical depictions of warfare by Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, and Prokofiev came Biber’s Battalia, possibly composed for a carnival pantomime. The opening Sonata employs pizzicati and col legno (using the wood rather than string side of the bow) to imitate soldiers’ footsteps. In “The Lusty Society of Common Humor,” troops have gathered in their campsites. Eight different songs—Czech, German, Slovak, Italian—are heard at once, in seven different keys. After a short Presto comes “Mars,” where a drum-like rattle from the low strings (produced by placing a piece of paper within the strings) accompanies a violin suggestive of a military fife. The galloping Presto is followed by an Aria, a prayer by the soldiers before the fight. Then comes the “Battle,” in which cannon fire is imitated by “Bartók pizzicati,” where the string is plucked forcefully enough to snap against the finger board. Battalia concludes with the “Lament of the Wounded Musketeers.”

PROKOFIEVSonata for 2 Violins in C major, Op. 56 (1932, 15 minutes)

Written during a working vacation near St. Tropez, the Sonata for 2 Violins is laid out in the form of a Baroque sonata da chiesa, with four movements in alternating slow-fast-slow-fast tempos. The first movement is lyrical but occasionally dissonant, with one violin introducing a theme similar to the one that opens the composer’s Violin Concerto No. 1. The second violin picks it up, and the two develop it and a second theme contrapuntally. More angular is the second movement, in which both violins expand on an urgent theme with dramatic pizzicati. In the lyrical third movement, mutes are optional. The lively Finale has an almost frenetic edge. After a short reminiscence of the first movement’s main theme, the work ends in a blaze of virtuosity.

CLARKEMorpheus (1917, 7 minutes)

Composer and violist Rebecca Clarke was the first female member of the Queen’s Hall Orchestra, and one of Britain’s first female professional orchestral players. Subsequently she performed as a solo violist and in chamber ensembles. Clarke gave the premiere of Morpheus in New York City in early 1918; self-conscious about the sexism with which her career had been met, she initially identified its composer as Anthony Trent. Clarke’s piece is ethereal and gentle, creating an atmosphere appropriate to Morpheus, a Greek god associated with sleep and dreams.

RAVELViolin Sonata in G major (1923-27, 18 minutes)

Ravel apparently believed that the violin and piano aren’t particularly compatible, and one can sense this tension in the first movement of his Sonata: the music is mostly lyrical, but there is an edge to some of the melodies, and an independence in the paths the two instruments take. The jazz influence that underlies much of this work comes to the fore in the second movement, “Blues.” The year after he completed this Sonata, Ravel visited America, where he commented “To my mind, the ‘blues’ is one of your greatest musical assets, truly American despite earlier contributory influences from Africa and Spain…While I adopted this popular form of your music, I venture to say that nevertheless it is French music, Ravel’s music, that I have written.” The Sonata concludes with a brilliant Perpetuum mobile.



DVOŘÁKPiano Quintet in A major, Op. 81 (1887, 40 minutes)

Early in his career, Dvořák composed a Piano Quintet in A major, Op. 5. Unhappy with it, Dvořák didn’t bother to have it published. But by the late 1880s, when he was one of the best-known composers of the day and there was a considerable demand for his music, he thought about revisiting Op. 5 and getting it published. In the end, rather than revising the old work, he set about writing an entirely new Quintet in the same key, completing it in October 1887.

The cello opens the Quintet with a well-known melody over piano arpeggios. After this, the composer moves quickly into the minor mode, and the tension between the charming major

key music and the darker minor key explorations continues throughout the first movement. The second movement is a Dumka, a ballad or lament featuring several sections with clearly contrasting moods. Czech folk music also provides the basis for the third movement Furiant, a dance in which the rhythm changes quickly. Opening with a string of eighth notes over syncopation from the piano, the Finale is lively and exuberant, with a contrapuntal passage at its center, and a chorale at its end. Paul Stefan sums up: “Several of his best friends have maintained that this Quintet provides a virtually lifelike portrait of Dvořák: his joy in nature and his love of melody, his feeling of communion with the world, his quickly changing moods.”




PROGRAMSATURDAY, DECEMBER 28, 20193:00 P.M.

UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST Three’s Company

RACHMANINOVTrio élégiaque No. 1 in G min.

SHOSTAKOVICHPiano Trio No. 2 in E min. Op. 67 I. Andante II. Allegro con brio III. Largo IV. Allegretto

BRAHMSPiano Trio No. 2 in C maj., Op. 87

Allegro moderatoAndante con motoScherzo: PrestoFinale: Allegro giocoso

CHAD HOOPES, violinOLIVER HERBERT, celloYAFEI CHUANG, pianoKRISTIN LEE, violinDMITRI ATAPINE, celloSTEVEN VANHAUWAERT, pianoMARTIN CHALIFOUR, violinCLIVE GREENSMITH, celloJAMES WINN, piano


RACHMANINOVTrio élégiaque No. 1 in G minor (1892, 15 minutes)

Rachmaninov wrote his Trio élégiaque No. 1 in just four days in January 1892—the nineteen-year-old had just graduated in the piano class at the Moscow Conservatory, and was in the midst of completing the opera Aleko that would be his graduation assignment and which would win him the Conservatory’s Gold Medal. A second Trio élégiaque emerged the following year, Rachmaninov’s response to the death of Tchaikovsky.

In a single movement sonata form, the Trio No. 1 begins with a melody played by the piano, with quiet, spare accompaniment from the strings. Later, the other two instruments take up the theme before the piano introduces a second subject. Like the Trio élégiaque No. 2, the first Trio has a connection with Tchaikovsky, particularly in its opening theme, which alludes to the famous opening of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 (the first four notes of the theme are, in reverse and in minor, the same as those of Tchaikovsky’s concerto), and in its conclusion, a funeral march like the one that closes Tchaikovsky’s Trio in A minor. Rachmaninov’s funeral march is a variation of the Trio’s opening theme, in octaves on the strings, leading to the piano chords that bring the work to a close.

SHOSTAKOVICH Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67 (1943-44, 28 minutes)

World War II provides the context for Shostakovich’s Trio No. 2, which the composer started in December 1943 and completed the following year. The work is in part a lament for Shostakovich’s musicologist friend Ivan Sollertinsky, who had been shown many of the early sketches for the Trio and who was killed by the Nazis in February 1944. Also mourned in the Trio are the victims of the Holocaust —in the fourth and final movement, Shostakovich makes one of his many uses of the scales and sounds of Jewish music. Audience members at the Trio’s premiere on November 14, 1944 (with the composer at the piano, along with members of the Beethoven Quartet, violinist Dmitri Tsyganov and cellist Sergei Shirinsky) wept openly, and the closing movement had to be played a second time.

A canon—with the cello playing harmonics at the top of its range, echoed by the violin, then the piano in its lowest register—opens the first movement, and this imitative writing continues throughout the movement. The second movement is a bitter, waltz-like episode, its humor clearly of an ironic variety. Chords from the piano open the third movement Largo, a lament which develops into a passacaglia, the chords acting as the basis for a set of six variations. In the dark, sometimes macabre fourth movement, the dance-like Jewish melodic idea mentioned above is contrasted with a march and a third, scale-like theme. The work ends with a return of the chordal theme from the third movement, in an only slightly more comforting major key. In this work, Dmitri Rabinovich writes, “the mocking executioner and the defenseless victim merge into one musical image.”

BRAHMS Piano Trio in C major, Op. 87 (1880-82, 30 minutes)

As was the case with his first piano trio (Op. 8), Brahms had trouble in bringing the Trio, Op. 87 to final form. The first movement was done in early 1880, but the rest of the work came slowly and was not completed until the summer of 1882. Whatever problems he may have encountered in its composition, he was quite pleased with the result, writing his publisher, “You have not yet had such a beautiful trio from me and very likely have not published its equal in the last ten years.” His friend Clara Schumann also found Op. 87 to be “a splendid work” and “a great musical treat.”

Interestingly, all four movements begin with the violin and cello playing in octaves. The noble stride of the first movement’s opening theme contrasts with the warm, lyrical second theme. Stormy, passionate music dominates as the main themes are developed, leading to a muscular coda. The passionate main theme of the second movement, which becomes the basis of five variations, evinces Brahms’s great love of Hungarian music. The agitation of a couple of its variations returns in the third movement; fancifully described by one critic as representing “the troubled dreams of one who…has sought distraction in Grimm’s German Mythology, and nodding asleep, is attacked by imps, trolls, nixies, and all the minute genii who infest fire, air, earth and water.” The work ends with a playful but purposeful Finale which, save for one songful interlude, maintains its momentum to the end.




PROGRAMSATURDAY, DECEMBER 28, 20197:00 P.M.

UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST Classical Connections

HAYDNString Quartet in F maj. Op. 50/5 “The Dream”

Allegro moderatoPoco adagioTempo di Menuetto: AllegrettoFinale: Vivace

BEETHOVENCello Sonata No. 3 in A maj., Op. 69

Allegro ma non tantoScherzo. Allegro moltoAdagio cantabile – Allegro vivace


SCHUBERTMoments musicaux, D. 780

MOZARTString Quintet No. 6 in E♭ maj.

Allegro di moltoAndanteMenuetto: AllegrettoAllegro

RUTH LENZ, violinBLAKE POULIOT, violinBRIAN CHEN, violaDMITRI ATAPINE, celloOLIVER HERBERT, celloJAMES WINN, pianoYAFEI CHUANG, pianoCHAD HOOPES, violinDUSTIN BUDISH, violaCLIVE GREENSMITH, cello


HAYDN String Quartet in F major, Op. 50/5, Hob. III/48 “The Dream” (1787, 22 minutes)

The Opus 50 Quartets were dedicated to King Frederick William II of Prussia, an amateur cellist, hence the set’s nickname of “Prussian” Quartets. The first movement of Op. 50/5 begins with a duet for the violins. Viola and cello soon join the conversation, as all four share in the energetic passagework. First violin takes the lead in the slow second movement. The music’s full textures and gentle, undulating motion later gave the Quartet its nickname, “Der Traum” or “The Dream.” In the Minuet, the same basic melody is used for the outer sections and for the central trio, which moves briefly into a minor key and features all four instruments playing in unison. Near the end, some imitative passages between the two violins disrupts the dance rhythm. The jubilant Finale is in 6/8 time and employs una corda effects, sliding between notes on a single string.

BEETHOVEN Cello Sonata in A major, Op. 69 (1808, 27 minutes)

The A major Cello Sonata was dedicated to Baron Ignaz von Gleichenstein, a cellist friend who handled Beethoven’s business matters. The dedication copy of the score carries a curious motto, “Inter Lacrimas et Luctum” (Amid Tears and Sorrow). These words don’t particularly apply to the contents of the Sonata, a lyrical but not especially melancholy work. Perhaps we are getting a glimpse into Beethoven’s own state of mind at the time, or perhaps there is some hidden meaning to the motto known only to the composer and the Baron.

The first movement opens with a thoughtful cello melody that moves quickly into more assertive music. The second theme is structured like the first, a lyrical opening that turn energetic. These ideas, broken into parts, are developed further as the music proceeds. In the second movement, cello and piano trade parts of a syncopated melody. The music relaxes as it proceeds, with a songlike central section featuring a drone in the bass and some of Beethoven’s typically dramatic dynamic contrasts. What passes for the Sonata’s slow movement is a gentle Adagio cantabile that continues for but eighteen bars before the music picks up steam. The remainder of the movement is outgoing and energetic, a workout for both instrumentalists, closing the work on what one commentator calls “a note of noble jubilation.”

SCHUBERT Moments musicaux, D. 780 (1823-28, 2-7 minutes each)

These six short piano pieces were designed to meet the ever-growing need among Vienna’s musical public for music that could be played at home. Schubert’s publisher gave the works their collective title, misspelling it as “Momens musicals” when they appeared in 1828, the year of Schubert’s death. Each of the six is a dance. No. 1 is a minuet with harmonic changes that for some calls Chopin to mind. No. 2 is slower and intense, with the rolling rhythm of a sicilienne. The publisher titled the short, playful third piece “Air Russe.” It shares a minor key with No. 4, with its moderate tempo and restless, syncopated rhythms. By contrast, No. 5 is lively and emphatic. With No. 6, Schubert returns to the minuet rhythm of No. 1, but this time in a minor key.

MOZART String Quintet in E-flat major, K. 614 (1791, 28 minutes)

As with his other five string quintets, Mozart adds an extra viola to the standard string quartet in K. 614, his last major chamber work. The first edition of K. 614, published the year after Mozart’s death along with its companion quintet, K. 593, was inscribed “Composto per un Amatore Ongharese” (Composed for a Hungarian Enthusiast). Who this “Amatore” was is still an open question, although a leading candidate would seem to be Johann Tost, a violinist-turned-businessman who had played in Franz Josef Haydn’s orchestra in Esterháza.

The first movement opens with a hunting horn-like phrase in the violas, answered by a descending idea in the violins. These ideas and a quiet, intimate third are elaborated on in music that is mostly contrapuntal in texture and extroverted in character. The slow second movement, a graceful, courtly dance, focuses on the opening theme, which subsequently appears in four variations encompassing a variety of styles. In the Menuetto, the merry outer music frames a central section with an E-flat drone in the bass, in the manner of a folk dance. Lively and boisterous, the fourth movement is full of humorous turns. In the middle, a sort of contrapuntal argument breaks out among the five instruments, but this is just a brief interlude before the music flies forward to its witty conclusion.




PROGRAMSUNDAY, DECEMBER 29, 20195:00 P.M.

RENAISSANCE HOTEL A French Feast for the Senses— Dinner & Concert

RAVELTzigane

RAVELSonata for Violin & Cello

AllegroTrès vifLentVif

SAINT-SAËNSPiano Trio No. 1 in F maj., Op. 18

Allegro vivaceAndanteScherzoAllegro

FAURÉPiano Quartet No. 1 in C min. Op. 15

Allegro molto moderatoScherzo, Allegro vivoAdagioAllegro molto

BLAKE POULIOT, violinSTEVEN VANHAUWAERT, pianoCLIVE GREENSMITH, celloRUTH LENZ, violinDMITRI ATAPINE, celloJAMES WINN, pianoKRISTIN LEE, violinDUSTIN BUDISH, violaOLIVER HERBERT, celloYAFEI CHUANG, piano


RAVELTzigane (1922-24, 10 minutes)The concert rhapsody Tzigane was inspired by the fiery playing of Hungarian violinist Jelly d’Aranyi, great-niece of the legendary Joseph Joachim. The name of the piece is derived from the French-European term for “gypsy,” although Ravel doesn’t incorporate any authentic gypsy melodies in his composition. Ravel later orchestrated the piano part (the latter, by the way, included an optional luthéal, an attachment that allowed the piano to produce unusual tone colors, including one reminiscent of the Hungarian cimbalom). Tzigane opens with an extended violin solo, which incorporates a tune that becomes the work’s main theme. Eventually the piano enters with its own brief solo. Some fiery phrases from the violin, and a short transition of tremolos and trills, leads into the main body of the work. That main theme makes several further appearances. Eventually a wild moto perpetuo breaks out, featuring left hand pizzicato notes from the violin. The tempo speeds and slows and speeds again for the whirlwind finale.

RAVEL Sonata for Violin and Cello (1920-22, 20 minutes)At the time of this composition, Ravel had recently undergone a number of trials, including the death of his mother and health problems associated with his work as a truck driver during World War I. By this time his music, much of which is known for its lushness of sound and its innovative, often modal harmonies, was becoming more austere. Of this Sonata, Ravel wrote that “the music is stripped down to the bone; the allure of harmony is rejected and increasingly there is a return of emphasis on melody.” Much of the Sonata is based on two melodies that appear early in the flowing first movement: the first alternates between major and minor modes, and the second, which appears even more often throughout the work’s four movements, is based on the interval of the seventh. Pizzicati, or plucked strings, announce the short, fiery second movement. The funereal tone of the Lent third movement builds to an intense climax, but its dark mood is energetically dispelled in the assertive finale.

SAINT-SAËNS Trio No. 1 in F major, Op. 18 (1863, 26 minutes)Saint-Saëns wrote his Trio No. 1 at a time when opera was the rage in France and few French composers were writing instrumental music. But Saint-Saëns

was a well-traveled piano and organ virtuoso, and he took inspiration from contemporaries like Berlioz and Liszt and earlier composers like Mendelssohn and Schumann in writing symphonies and chamber works. The lively first movement of the Trio No. 1 is based on two themes: the first a dance-like idea heard first in the cello, then in the violin and piano —this tune and its rhythm become the basis of the central development section—and the second a more lyrical melody. The subsequent Andante begins mysteriously and moves into a more flowing theme played by the strings over the restrained piano. After the cello takes over and the music becomes more animated, the piano has a short solo before a reprise of the movement’s opening. The lively, rhythmically intricate Scherzo moves into a sparkling Finale full of virtuoso writing for all three instruments, particularly the piano.

FAURÉPiano Quartet in C minor, Op. 15 (1876-79, 32 minutes)The creation in 1871 of the Société Nationale du Musique (National Music Society) to perform works by young French composers encouraged Fauré to write some of his first masterpieces. These included the First Violin Sonata, the Ballade for solo piano, and the first of his two Piano Quartets, which was given its premiere at a National Music Society concert on February 11, 1880. Despite its public success, Fauré decided that he wasn’t quite satisfied with the Quartet and revisited it in 1883, making several smaller changes in scoring and entirely rewriting the final movement.

The first movement combines robust forward momentum and a relaxed lyricism, with the harmonic and textural richness familiar from later Fauré compositions. With its swirling motion and frequent string pizzicati, the second movement, a kind of perpetuum mobile that combines elements of waltz and march, evokes the great eighteenth century French harpsichord masters like Rameau and the Couperins, François and Louis (whose music was starting to emerge from decades of obscurity during this time). Many feel the slow third movement—at times solemn, at others serene, always underlain by deep emotion—to be the highlight of the Quartet. The passion that is constantly threatening to erupt there actually does so in the grand final movement, with its swells of dynamics and colors, which brings the Quartet to a powerful close.




PROGRAMMONDAY, DECEMBER 30, 20193:00 P.M.

UNR’S HALL RECITAL HALL NCMF Presents: Windsync in Recital

BEETHOVENQuintet in E♭ maj. Op. 4 (arr. Rechtman)

MELLITSApollo

OFFENBACHBallet of the Snowflakes from Le Voyage dans la lune

GARRETT HUDSON, fluteEMILY TSAI, oboeJULIAN HERNANDEZ, clarinetKARA LAMOURE, bassoonANNI HOCHHALTER, horn


BEETHOVEN String Quintet in E-flat major, Op. 4 (1795, 30 minutes)

This arrangement for winds of Beethoven’s early String Quintet in E-flat major brings the work full circle, in that the Quintet started life as a work for winds. Beethoven completed his Octet in E-flat major, Op. 103 (for pairs of oboes, clarinets, bassoons and French horns) in 1792, right before he moved to Vienna from his hometown of Bonn. A couple of years later, Beethoven returned to the Octet and rearranged it for string quintet—pairs of violins and violas with a single cello. Pieces for wind ensemble in those days tended to be lighthearted, designed to accompany entertainments or meals. In executing this new arrangement for strings, Beethoven made several changes, adding new melodies and expansions of the existing ones, resulting in a somewhat more substantial composition.

The first movement is in sonata form; the exposition and recapitulation of the melodies were both expanded slightly when Beethoven made the move from winds to strings. The same happened in the second movement, a slow movement in 6/8 time that plays the instruments off of one another. After a Menuetto with some humorous passages and flirtations with minor keys, the fast-paced Finale alternates solo passages with some for the full ensemble.

MELLITS Apollo (2019, 19 minutes)

Marc Mellits is one of the most-performed living composers in the United States. His official biography describes his musical style as “an eclectic combination of driving rhythms, soaring lyricism, and colorful orchestrations that all combine to communicate directly with the listener.” His music has been commissioned and played by major ensembles around the world, and over fifty of his works have been recorded. He is currently Associate Professor of Music at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

His woodwind quintet Apollo was commissioned by WindSync to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing in July 1969. The work received its premiere at Ravinia in Chicago in February 2019. Apollo takes the form of a series of seven short movements, culminating in the “Moonwalk” itself. In an interview with the New Orleans Advocate, WindSync’s bassoonist Kara LaMoure described the work: “It’s minimalistic, cinematic and the tonality is very accessible. There’s even some moments that are kind of funky, kind of fun. We can’t help but dance when we play it.”

OFFENBACH Ballet of the Snowflakes from Le voyage dans la lune (1875, 20 minutes)

Jacques Offenbach was a German-French composer and cellist who is mostly remembered today for his nearly 100 operas and operettas, written at a rapid pace from the 1850s through the 1870s. His first full-length operetta, Orphée aux enfers (Orpheus in the Underworld), continues to be among his most oft-heard works, but works like La belle Hélène (1864) and La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein (1867) are still performed.

One of his stranger works is Le voyage dans la lune (A Trip to the Moon), based loosely on Jules Verne’s novel From the Earth to the Moon. It was a huge, expensive stage spectacle that included a massive gun to send the characters to the moon and a volcanic eruption in the fourth act. At the Boston Public Library’s website, Rebecca Hunt summarizes the unusual plot: “The story involves Prince Caprice, a young man who wishes to go to the moon. The kingdom’s greatest scholar, Microscope, devises a way for an artillery shell holding the prince, his father King V’lan, and Microscope to be shot from a cannon and land on the moon. When there, the prince falls in love with the Princess Fantasia, a sélénite (moon person). The princess is unable to return his love, for love does not exist on the moon except as a disease. This all changes when Prince Fantasia tastes the apple that Prince Caprice is eating, and she falls immediately in love with him. Hijinks ensue.”

At the end of the opera’s fourteenth scene, winter quickly descends on the Moon and the temperature falls to fifty below zero. This sets the stage for the fifteenth scene, the Ballet of the Snowflakes, which takes place in a snowstorm and features, along with an Overture and dances like a Polka and Mazurka, pieces with titles like “The Snowman” and “The Lively Snowflakes.”




PROGRAMMONDAY, DECEMBER 30, 20197:00 P.M.

UNR’S HALL RECITAL HALLChamber Rarities

MOZARTOboe Quartet in F maj.

AllegroAdagioRondeau: Allegro

BRAHMSClarinet Trio in A min., Op. 114

AllegroAdagioAndantino grazioso — TrioAllegro


THUILLESextet in B♭ maj., Op. 6

Allegro moderatoLarghetto (E♭ major)Gavotte. Andante, quasi Allegretto (G minor)Finale. Molto vivace

EMILY TSAI, oboeCHAD HOOPES, violinBRIAN CHEN, violinDMITRI ATAPINE, celloJULIAN HERNANDEZ, clarinetOLIVER HERBERT, celloYAFEI CHUANG, pianoGARRETT HUDSON, fluteKARA LAMOURE, bassoonANNI HOCHHALTER, hornSTEVEN VANHAUWAERT, piano


MOZART Oboe Quartet in F major, K. 370/368b (1781, 15 minutes)

In 1780, Mozart traveled to Munich for a visit with Elector Karl Theodor, who had commissioned Mozart’s opera Idomeneo. While there, Mozart renewed his friendship with Friedrich Ramm, the oboist in Munich’s orchestra. Ramm was a celebrated virtuoso, and Mozart wrote his Quartet for oboe, violin, viola, and cello as a showpiece for him.

The oboe presents the main theme in the opening Allegro, a lovely, decorative idea that the strings soon imitate. This leads to a second melody in which the violin takes the lead, with the oboe circling around its tune. Contrapuntal textures dominate as the music progresses, focusing on the opening theme but also introducing other ideas. D minor is the key for the intense Adagio, in which the plaintive qualities of the oboe’s tone are highlighted. More lighthearted is the concluding Rondo, in which a playful melody from the oboe, in a dance-like 6/8 meter, repeats amid other music. In a famous interlude toward the end, the oboe moves to 4/4 time while the strings carry on in 6/8. Eventually, they get things straightened out, and good cheer is maintained.

BRAHMS Clarinet Trio in A minor, Op. 114 (1891, 24 minutes)

Like Mozart before him with Anton Stadler, the artistry of a particular clarinetist led Brahms to compose some of his last masterworks. Richard Mühlfeld (1856-1907) was the principal clarinetist of the Meiningen Court Orchestra. Brahms had known of Mühlfeld since the 1880s, when the Meiningen Orchestra performed several of Brahms’s works, including the premiere of the Symphony No. 4. But by late 1890, after the completion of his String Quintet No. 2, Brahms felt that he had retired from composing. In March 1891, he spent a week at the Meiningen court and was moved and inspired by Mühlfeld’s playing. By November Brahms had completed the Clarinet Trio and the Clarinet Quintet, Op. 115, and three years later came the two Op. 120 Clarinet Sonatas.

Brahms had great affection for Mühlfeld, sometimes referring to him as “Fraülein Klarinette” or “Fraülein Nachtigall” (Nightingale). And while there is often a feeling of melancholy in the Clarinet Trio, there is also pervasive warmth: as Brahms’s friend Eusebius Mandyczewski wrote, “It is as though the instruments were in love with each other.” Practically the entirety

of the Trio’s first movement arises out of a rising arpeggio and complementary descending scale, out of which some complex counterpoint develops. The feeling is largely elegiac, sometimes restless. Switching to a brighter D major, the peaceful second movement is based on two main themes but is really a continuous outpouring of melody. The outer portions of the third movement are a nostalgic waltz, framing another dance, a Ländler, which includes a clarinet line that might remind some of yodeling. The fourth movement is short and exciting, alternating 2/4 and 6/8 time signatures in one of Brahms’s virtuoso Hungarian-flavored finales.

THUILLE Sextet for piano and winds in B-flat major, Op.6 (1886-88, 26 minutes)

Ludwig Thuille was born in the Italian town of Bolzano. Showing an early talent for music, Thuille was sent to Innsbruck for further instruction. There he met the young Richard Strauss, and the two remained lifelong friends. Thuille later studied at the Bavarian Royal Conservatory in Munich, and eventually settled in the city as a composer—largely of operas and chamber music, although he also wrote a symphony and many songs and choral works—and teacher at the Royal Music School. Among his many pupils were composer Ernest Bloch and conductor Hermann Abendroth. Thuille was also known for founding what came to be known as the Munich School of composing.

Richard Strauss helped to arrange the premiere performance of the Sextet for piano and wind quintet, and thought highly of the piece. Despite the Strauss connection, one might well think more of Brahms in listening to Thuille’s work. The first movement begins quietly, with solo horn presenting a noble theme, accompanied gently by the piano, then echoed by the other winds. Clarinet, followed by flute and oboe, take up another theme. Both are meditated on in music that remains laid back and bucolic. The horn also opens the sober, melancholy slow movement. Titled a Gavotte, the third movement is a dance, with an extroverted central section. Those high spirits carry into the Finale, in which the piano leads things off over repeated notes from the winds. The horn introduces a new tune, and both are developed in the work’s lively conclusion.




PROGRAMTUESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 20195:00 P.M.

UNR’S HALL RECITAL HALL New Year’s Sampler

CONNESSONTechno-parade

SCHULHOFFFive Pieces for String Quartet

Piece 1: Viennese WaltzPiece 2: SerenadePiece 3: Czech folk musicPiece 4: TangoPiece 5: Tarantella

PROKOFIEVOverture on Hebrew Themes, Op. 34


ROSSINIDuo in D maj. for Cello and Bass

VILLA-LOBOSBachianas Brasileiras No. 6–Ária (chôro)

PIATTICapriccio on a Theme from Pacini’s Niobe, Op. 22

MIRANDARecuerdos de Borinquen (arr. WindSync)

GARRETT HUDSON, fluteJULIAN HERNANDEZ, clarinetSTEVEN VANHAUWAERT, pianoBLAKE POULIOT, violinRUTH LENZ, violinBRIAN CHEN, violaOLIVER HERBERT, celloYAFEI CHUANG, pianoCHAD HOOPES, violinKRISTIN LEE, violinDUSTIN BUDISH, violaPETER LENZ, celloCLIVE GREENSMITH, celloSCOTT FAULKNER, bassKARA LAMOURE, bassoonDMITRI ATAPINE, celloEMILY TSAI, oboeANNI HOCHHALTER, horn

CONNESSON Techno-parade (2002, 5 minutes)

Guillaume Connesson writes of his Techno-parade: “Two incisive motifs swirl and clink together giving the piece a festive, but also disturbing character. The wails of the clarinet and the obsessive patterns of the piano try to replicate the raw energy of techno music. In the middle of the piece, the pianist and his page-turner chase after the piano rhythms with a brush and sheets of paper (placed on the strings inside the piano), accompanied by the distorted sounds of the flute (rather like the tone of a side drum) and the glissandi of the clarinet. After this percussive ‘pause,’ the three instruments are pulled into a rhythmic trance and the piece ends in a frenzied tempo.”

SCHULHOFF Five Pieces for String Quartet (1923, 14 minutes)

After completing studies at the Prague Conservatory and following his service in World War I, Erwin Schulhoff quickly absorbed most of the important musical trends of his day. He found inspiration in the Second Viennese School, was attracted to Dada, and wrote a few absurd, anti-establishment works. Then, in the early 1920s, Schulhoff encountered jazz, and the rhythms of jazz and more popular dance styles started creeping into his music. In the midst of this musical foment, Schulhoff composed his Five Pieces. Opening with a faintly ironic Viennese Waltz, Schulhoff proceeds to a Serenata, an equally ironic love song in quintuple meter. Then comes a wild Czech Dance, followed by a languid Tango and a rousing concluding Tarantella.

PROKOFIEV Overture on Hebrew Themes, Op. 34 (1919, 9 minutes)

In 1919, while touring in the United States as a pianist-composer, Prokofiev was asked by clarinetist Simeon Bellison to write a chamber work based on Jewish folk themes. He worked quickly, completing an initial sketch of the Overture in a single day and completing the entire work in less than two weeks. Prokofiev admitted that “I had not attached much importance to the Hebrew Overture, but it was quite a success.” Based on two main melodies—one lively and rhythmic, introduced by the clarinet, and the other more melancholy and songful, first heard in the cello—the Overture evokes the music of the Klezmorim, the itinerant Jewish musicians of Eastern Europe.

ROSSINI Duo in D major for cello and bass (1824, 15 minutes)

Rossini was at the height of his fame as an opera composer when he composed this Duo, one of his rare forays into chamber music. Amateur cellist Sir David Salomons commissioned the work for a party at which he would perform with the legendary bass virtuoso Domenico Dragonetti. The Duo’s first movement begins in a mock-dramatic fashion before settling into a lively rhythm, with playful exchanges between the two instruments. The cello opens the Andante with an aria-like melody that is taken up by the bass. Over a rocking rhythm, the cello opens the third movement with a jaunty theme. Soon the roles are reversed, and both instruments have a chance to shine as the music proceeds on its merry way.

VILLA-LOBOS Ária (Chôro) from Bachianas Brasileiras No. 6 (1938, 3 minutes)

Heitor Villa-Lobos was the most important Brazilian composer of the twentieth century, and one of the most prolific composers of all time, with over 2,000 works to his credit. He composed his nine Bachianas Brasileiras between 1930 and 1945, seeking to combine the style of the popular music of Brazil with the harmonies and counterpoint of composers like Bach. The sixth of the series, for flute and bassoon, opens with the �

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