the friends of chamber music | the intimate voice of classical music

Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Centerwith Jeremy Denk, piano

BRUCH Selections from Eight Pieces for Clarinet, Viola, and Piano, Op. 83 Allegro agitato Nachtgesang: Andante con moto Rumanian Melody: Andante Allegro vivace, ma non troppo

BRAHMS Trio in E-flat Major for Horn, Violin, and Piano, Op. 40 Andante Scherzo: Allegro Adagio mesto Finale: Allegro con brio

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

DOHNÁNYI Sextet in C Major for Clarinet, Horn, Violin, Viola, Cello, and Piano, Op. 37 Allegro appassionato Intermezzo: Adagio Allegro con sentiment Finale: Allegro vivace, giocoso

Jeremy Denk pianoJose Franch-Ballester clarinetJohn Zirbel hornErin Keefe violinPaul Newbauer violaNicholas Canellakis cello

T h e W i l l i a m T. K e m p e r I n t e r n at i o n a l c h a m b e r M u s i c s e r i e s

This concert is supported, in part, by the ArtsKC Fund.

Financial assistance for this project has been provided, in part, by The Missouri Arts Council, a state agency.

The Folly Theater8 pm Saturday, October 13

This concert is underwritten, in part, by the Board of Directors of The Friends of Chamber Music

The International Chamber Music Series is underwritten, in part, by the William T. Kemper Foundation

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Selections from Eight Pieces for Clarinet, Viola, & Piano, Op. 83 Max Bruch (1838-1920)

Max Bruch, widely known and respected in his day as a composer, conductor, and teacher, received his earliest music instruction from his mother, a noted singer and pianist. He began composing at 11, and by 14 had produced a symphony and a string quartet, the latter garnering a prize that allowed him to study with Karl Reinecke and Ferdinand Hiller in Cologne. His opera “Die Loreley” (1862) and the choral work “Frithjof” (1864) brought him his first public acclaim. For the next 25 years, Bruch held various posts as a choral and orchestral conductor in Cologne, Coblenz, Sondershausen, Berlin, Liverpool, and Breslau. In 1883, he visited the United States to conduct concerts of his own choral compositions. From 1890 to 1910, he taught composition at the Berlin Academy and received numerous awards for his work, including an honorary doctorate from Cambridge University. Though Bruch is known mainly for three famous concertos (the G minor Concerto and the “Scottish Fantasy” for violin, and the “Kol Nidrei” for cello), he also composed two other violin concertos, three symphonies, a concerto for two pianos, various chamber pieces, songs, three operas, and numerous choral works. Bruch composed his Eight Pieces for Clarinet, Viola, and Piano, Op. 83 in 1909, in his 70th year, for his son Max Felix, a talented clarinetist who also inspired a Double Concerto (Op. 88) for his instrument and viola from his father two years later. When the younger Bruch played the works in Cologne and Hamburg, Fritz Steinbach reported favorably on the event to the composer, comparing Max Felix’s ability with that of Richard Mühlfeld, the clarinetist who had inspired two sonatas, a quintet, and a trio from Johannes Brahms two decades before. This was indeed sweet praise to Bruch, since Steinbach had been Music Director at Meiningen before moving to Cologne and knew Mühlfeld’s playing intimately. Like other late Brahms works for clarinet, the Eight Pieces favor rich, mellow instrumental hues in the alto range of the instrument and an autumnal maturity of expression, deeply felt but purged of excess. In Bruch’s Op. 83, the clarinet and viola are evenly matched, singing together in duet or conversing in dialogue, while the piano serves as an accompanimental partner. Bruch intended that the Eight Pieces be regarded as a set of independent miniatures of various styles rather than as an integrated cycle, and advised against playing all of them together in concert (tonight’s selections are Nos. 4, 6, 5, and 7). The Pieces range three to six minutes in length. The

first of the six miniatures are straightforward in structure: in either a binary structure (A–B) or a ternary structure (A–B–A). The last two miniatures are in a compact sonata form. And with the exception of the 7th miniature, all of the others are in thoughtful, minor keys. Though Bruch was fond of incorporating folk music into his concert works, only the 5th movement entitled “Rumanian Melody” incorporates a folk tune, in this case suggested to him by “the delightful young princess zu Wied” at one of his Sunday open-houses, and to whom he dedicated the work. “The Eight Pieces are the product of one aspect of the 19th-century cultural climate,” wrote Gordana Lazarevich. “In their display of lyrical effusiveness where each piece is based on an extensive melody, and in their rhapsodic treatment of the material, the compositions epitomize those aspects of Romantic thought which glorified the sensual, the emotive, and the sentimental.”

Trio in E-flat Major for Horn, Violin, and Piano, Op. 40 Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

For many years, Brahms followed the sensible practice of the Viennese gentry by abandoning the city when the weather got hot. The periods away from Vienna were not merely times of relaxation for him, however, but were actually working holidays, and some of his greatest scores were largely realized during his various summer trips. Late in the spring of 1865, Brahms took comfortable rooms in Baden, which, he wrote to a friend, “Look out on three sides at the dark, wooded mountains, the roads winding up and down them, and the pleasant houses.” It was while walking upon the sylvan hillsides above the town that the idea for the Horn Trio occurred to him. He began the work that summer and continued it after his return to Vienna in the fall, finishing the score in November. The Trio’s opening movement, written in a leisurely Andante tempo (perhaps the speed of Brahms’ walk upon the Baden hills), is disposed in an unusual form: rather than the traditional sonata-allegro, it employs two alternating strains (A–B–A–B–A) whose relaxed structure is the perfect vessel for this amiable music. The energetic Scherzo is countered by the lyrical melody of the central trio section marked Adagio mesto (mournfully). In the finale marked Allegro con brio, this theme is transformed becoming the echo of a folk song that Brahms sang as a child, In der Weiden steht ein Haus (In the meadow stands a house) is woven, almost imperceptibly, into the horn and violin lines soon after the return of its opening strain is, which, transformed, becomes the principal theme of the finale, a joyous and life-affirming answer to the sad plaint of the preceding music.

the friends of chamber music | the intimate voice of classical music

Sextet in C Major for Clarinet, Horn, Violin, Viola, Cello, and Piano, Op. 37 Ernő Dohnányi (1877 - 1960)

Ernő Dohnányi was among the 20th-century’s foremost composers, pianists, teachers, and music administrators. Born on July 27, 1877 in Pozsony, Hungary (now Bratislava, Slovakia), he inherited his interest in music from his father, a talented amateur cellist, who gave him his first lessons in piano and theory. At 17, he entered the newly established Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, the first Hungarian of significant talent to do so. The young composer was honored with the Hungarian Millennium Prize for his Symphony No. 1 in 1895, and two years later, the Bösendorfer Prize for his First Piano Concerto. Dohnányi graduated from the Academy in 1897, and toured extensively for the next several years, appearing throughout Europe, Russia, the United States, and

South America. From 1905 to 1915, he taught at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik, a position he assumed at the invitation of his friend, the eminent violinist Joseph Joachim (to whom Brahms dedicated his violin concerto). He returned to Budapest in 1915, becoming director of the Academy in 1919 and music director of the Hungarian Radio in 1931. He served as conductor of the Budapest Philharmonic for the 25 years after 1919 while continuing to concertize at home and abroad while remaining active as a composer. In addition to his work as a performer and composer, Dohnányi made immense contributions to the musical life of his homeland. He encouraged and performed the works of younger composers, most notably Bartók and Kodály, reformed the Budapest Academy’s music curriculum, guided the development of such talented pupils as Georg Solti, Géza Anda, and Annie Fischer, expanded the repertory of the nation’s performing groups, and served as a model in the music world through his strength of personality and the high standards of his musicianship. In 1944, Dohnányi left Hungary, a victim of the raging political and militaristic tides that swept the country during World War II. He moved first to Austria, then Argentina, and finally settled in Tallahassee in 1949 where he served as pianist and composer-in-residence at Florida State University. His students included the prominent American composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich and his grandson, conductor Christoph von Dohnányi. Dohnányi continued an active career throughout his seventies appearing regularly on campus and in guest engagements. His last public performance was as conductor of the FSU Symphony just three weeks before his death. He died in New York on February 9, 1960 during a recording session. The Sextet for Clarinet, Horn, Violin, Viola, Cello, and Piano is a work of intense lyricism in Dohnányi’s heightened Romantic style. It draws its structural strength from the music of Brahms and its sense of continual motivic development from Liszt. The opening movement is based on two themes: the first, a broadly arched melody presented by the horn; the other, a more tender strain initiated by the viola. The second movement (Intermezzo) begins and ends with soft, chorale passages, but uses as its extended central section music of a more dramatic character, marked in the score “in the manner of a march.” The following movement is a series of free variations on the folk-inflected melody first given by the clarinet. A transition based on the first movement’s arching main theme acts as a bridge to the spirited finale.

Dr. Richard E. Rodda ©2011

A focus on the third MovementThe slow third movement begins with rolled chords deep in the bass of the piano, like some infinite sigh of regret. There is an autobiographical explanation for the music’s profound air of melancholy: Brahms’s mother had died at the beginning of the year in which he composed the Trio, and it is not for nothing that the word “mesto” (“sorrowful”) appears in the tempo indication for this slow movement. The atmosphere of mourning is heightened by the sustained, winding theme introduced at the first entrance of the violin and horn. The piano’s rolled chords return, to be followed by another sinuous theme, played this time in dialogue by horn and violin alone.

This second theme, closely related to the first, is to weave its way through the remainder of the piece (at the reprise, Brahms shows that it can effortlessly be combined with the piano’s lugubrious chords), until a more consolatory version of the same idea provides an unmistakable pre-echo—albeit in slow motion—of the finale’s bucolic main theme.

Such thematic anticipations can be found on occasion in Schumann (the link between the close of the slow movement and the start of the finale in the Op. 47 Piano Quartet furnishes an example which Brahms can hardly fail to have known), though they invariably occur in the closing moments of the relevant piece. Brahms, on the other hand, allows his harbinger of the finale to be followed by the passionate climax of his slow movement, before the music slowly sinks towards its subdued close.

– R.R. ©2012

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CMS of Lincoln CenterJeremy DenkThe Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS) is one of

eleven constituents of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the largest performing arts complex in the world. Along with other constituents such as the New York Philharmonic, New York City Ballet, Lincoln Center Theater, and The Metropolitan Opera, the Chamber Music Society has its home at Lincoln Center, in Alice Tully Hall. Through its performance, education, and recording/broadcast activities, it draws more people to chamber music than any other organization of its kind.

CMS presents an annual series of concerts and educational events for listeners ranging from connoisseurs to chamber music newcomers of all ages. Performing repertoire from over three centuries, and numerous premieres by living composers, CMS offers programs curated to provide listeners with a comprehensive perspective on the art of chamber music. The performing artists of CMS, a multi-generational selection of expert chamber musicians, constitute an evolving repertory company capable of presenting chamber music of every instrumentation, style, and historical period (see Artists of the Society and Guests). Its annual activities include a full season of concerts and events, national and international tours, nationally televised broadcasts on Live From Lincoln Center, a radio show broadcast nationwide, and regular appearances on American Public Media’s Performance Today.

In 2004, CMS appointed cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han artistic directors. They succeed founding director Charles Wadsworth (1969-89), Fred Sherry (1989-93), and David Shifrin (1993-2004).

For more information visit www.chambermusicsociety.org The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center appears courtesy of Opus 3 Artists

American pianist Jeremy Denk has steadily built a reputation as one of today’s most compelling and persuasive artists with an

unusually broad repertoire.

Denk is an avid chamber musician. He has collaborated with many of the world’s finest chamber musicians appearing at the Italian and American Spoleto Festivals, the Santa Fe and Seattle Chamber Music Festivals, the Verbier and Mostly Mozart Festivals, and the Bravo!-Vail Valley and Bard Music Festivals. He has spent several summers at the Marlboro Music School and Festival in Vermont and been part of “Musicians from Marlboro” national tours. He regularly collaborates with cellist Stephen Isserlis at New York’s 92nd Street Y. Known for his numerous lectures and master classes, he is a member of the Bard Conservatory Faculty.

The artist’s widely-read blog, “Think Denk”, is highly praised and frequently referenced by many in the music press and industry. Denk’s blog comments on touring, practicing, and otherwise unrelated experiences, as well as delving into fairly detailed musical analyses and essays. Denk’s website and blog are at www.jeremydenk.net.

After graduating from Oberlin College and Conservatory in piano and chemistry, Denk earned a master’s degree in music from Indiana University as a pupil of György Sebök, and a doctorate in piano performance from the Juilliard School, where he worked with Herbert Stessin. He lives in New York City.

Jeremy Denk appears courtesy of Opus 3 Artists

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