The Cellists of Lincoln Center

THE CELLISTS OF LINCOLN CENTERSaturday, April 20, 2013 at 5:00 PMDaniel and Joanna S. Rose Studio

www.ChamberMusicSociety.org

David Finckel and Wu Han, Artistic Directors

Sunday Afternoon, April 21, 2013, at 5:00 3,211th Concert

ALICE TULLY HALL, STARR THEATER, ADRIENNE ARSHT STAGEHOME OF THE CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER

Threnos for Cello (1990)FINCKEL

“Canzon septimi toni a 8” from Sacrae Symphoniae (1597)

BREY, FIGUEROA, ZLOTKIN, SHERRY, MOON, ALTSTAEDT, GROSSMAN, FINCKEL

Figment No. 2—Remembering Mr. Ives forCello (2001)

SHERRY

Two Movements for Four Cellos (1935)Adagio cantabile—Allegro molto risolutoFINCKEL, BREY, GROSSMAN, FIGUEROA

(Continued)

JOHN TAVENER(b. 1944)

GIOVANNIGABRIELI

(c. 1554–1612)

ELLIOTT CARTER(1908–2012)

ALEXANDRETANSMAN

(1897–1986)

NICOLAS ALTSTAEDT, celloCARTER BREY, celloDOROTHEA FIGUEROA, celloDAVID FINCKEL, celloJERRY GROSSMAN, celloEILEEN MOON, celloFRED SHERRY, celloFREDERICK ZLOTKIN, cello

Please turn off cell phones, beepers, and other electronic devices.Photographing, sound recording, or videotaping this performance is prohibited.

This concert is made possible, in part, by The Florence Gould Foundation, the Grand Marnier Foundation, and The Aaron Copland Fund for Music.

This season is supported by public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council,

and the New York State Council on the Arts.

David Finckel Wu Han

Dear Listener,

Ask any cellist how people react when they learn whatinstrument is in their case: The response is, withoutfail, “Oh, I love the cello!”

There are plenty of reasons to love the cello, among them: 1. It naturally covers the entire range of the voice,

male and female.2. Its tone color is naturally mellow and soothing.3. The cello is essential for almost every chamber

ensemble.4. It’s big enough that you can see how it’s played from a distance.5. The greatest composers wrote great music for it, both solo and chamber.6. Cellists are accessible, fun-loving, non-neurotic musicians. 7. The cello can play many roles, from basso continuo to concerto solo.8. The cello solo is always the best part of the concert.9. Real-life humanitarian heroes like Casals and Rostropovich were cellists.

10. It has a really nice shape.

The incomparable voice of the solo cello has inspired groundbreaking works by greatcomposers, from Bach to Britten. The sonority of combined cellos adds extraordinarydimension to music from the Renaissance all the way to the 21st century. Our programtonight celebrates the cello by demonstrating its incredibly wide range of capabilities,in a virtual parade of styles, timbres, tonalities, and ensembles.

The Cellists of Lincoln Center is the brainchild of Metropolitan Opera Orchestra principalcellist Jerry Grossman, who simply dreamed of the joy of working together, andproducing the sounds that only cellos can make. We are proud to have made that dreama reality, and we are thrilled to collaborate with the distinguished and charismaticprincipal cellists from all across the Lincoln Center campus. And on behalf of tonight’sperformers, we thank you for your overwhelming support of this new venture.

Enjoy the concert,

ABOUT TONIGHT’S PROGRAM

David Finckel and Wu Han

Trois strophes sur le nom de Sacher for Cello(1976, 1982)

Un poco indecisoAndante sostenutoVivaceALTSTAEDT

Fratres for Four Cellos (1977, arr. 1983)MOON, ZLOTKIN, SHERRY, FINCKEL

Sardana for Eight Cellos (1927)ZLOTKIN, SHERRY, BREY, ALTSTAEDT, FINCKEL, FIGUEROA, GROSSMAN, MOON

INTERMISSION

Sonata in G major for Two Cellos (1739)AndanteAdagioAllegro prestissimoGROSSMAN, ZLOTKIN

Tango for Four Cellos (1940)ALTSTAEDT, FIGUEROA, MOON, SHERRY

Last Tango in Bayreuth for Four Cellos (1973)ALTSTAEDT, FIGUEROA, MOON, SHERRY

Bachianas brasileiras No. 1 for Eight Cellos(1930–32)

Introduction: EmboladaPreludio: ModinhaFugue: ConversaBREY, ZLOTKIN, SHERRY, MOON, ALTSTAEDT, FINCKEL, FIGUEROA, GROSSMAN

HENRI DUTILLEUX(b. 1916)

ARVO PÄRT(b. 1935)

PABLO CASALS(1876–1973)

JEAN BARRIÈRE(1707–1747)

IGOR STRAVINSKY(1882–1971)

PETER SCHICKELE(b. 1935)

HEITOR VILLA–LOBOS

(1887–1959)

David Finckel Wu Han

Dear Listener,

Ask any cellist how people react when they learn whatinstrument is in their case: The response is, withoutfail, “Oh, I love the cello!”

There are plenty of reasons to love the cello, among them: 1. It naturally covers the entire range of the voice,

male and female.2. Its tone color is naturally mellow and soothing.3. The cello is essential for almost every chamber

ensemble.4. It’s big enough that you can see how it’s played from a distance.5. The greatest composers wrote great music for it, both solo and chamber.6. Cellists are accessible, fun-loving, non-neurotic musicians. 7. The cello can play many roles, from basso continuo to concerto solo.8. The cello solo is always the best part of the concert.9. Real-life humanitarian heroes like Casals and Rostropovich were cellists.

10. It has a really nice shape.

The incomparable voice of the solo cello has inspired groundbreaking works by greatcomposers, from Bach to Britten. The sonority of combined cellos adds extraordinarydimension to music from the Renaissance all the way to the 21st century. Our programtonight celebrates the cello by demonstrating its incredibly wide range of capabilities,in a virtual parade of styles, timbres, tonalities, and ensembles.

The Cellists of Lincoln Center is the brainchild of Metropolitan Opera Orchestra principalcellist Jerry Grossman, who simply dreamed of the joy of working together, andproducing the sounds that only cellos can make. We are proud to have made that dreama reality, and we are thrilled to collaborate with the distinguished and charismaticprincipal cellists from all across the Lincoln Center campus. And on behalf of tonight’sperformers, we thank you for your overwhelming support of this new venture.

Enjoy the concert,

ABOUT TONIGHT’S PROGRAM

David Finckel and Wu Han

Trois strophes sur le nom de Sacher for Cello(1976, 1982)

Un poco indecisoAndante sostenutoVivaceALTSTAEDT

Fratres for Four Cellos (1977, arr. 1983)MOON, ZLOTKIN, SHERRY, FINCKEL

Sardana for Eight Cellos (1927)ZLOTKIN, SHERRY, BREY, ALTSTAEDT, FINCKEL, FIGUEROA, GROSSMAN, MOON

INTERMISSION

Sonata in G major for Two Cellos (1739)AndanteAdagioAllegro prestissimoGROSSMAN, ZLOTKIN

Tango for Four Cellos (1940)ALTSTAEDT, FIGUEROA, MOON, SHERRY

Last Tango in Bayreuth for Four Cellos (1973)ALTSTAEDT, FIGUEROA, MOON, SHERRY

Bachianas brasileiras No. 1 for Eight Cellos(1930–32)

Introduction: EmboladaPreludio: ModinhaFugue: ConversaBREY, ZLOTKIN, SHERRY, MOON, ALTSTAEDT, FINCKEL, FIGUEROA, GROSSMAN

HENRI DUTILLEUX(b. 1916)

ARVO PÄRT(b. 1935)

PABLO CASALS(1876–1973)

JEAN BARRIÈRE(1707–1747)

IGOR STRAVINSKY(1882–1971)

PETER SCHICKELE(b. 1935)

HEITOR VILLA–LOBOS

(1887–1959)

Threnos for Cello

John TAVENERBorn January 28, 1944, in London.

Composed in 1990.Premiered on August 24, 1991 at the Edinburgh Festival by Steven Isserlis.

Tonight is the first CMS performance of this piece.

Duration: 6 minutes

John Tavener, born in London and trainedunder Lennox Berkeley at the RoyalAcademy of Music, ranks (with Estoniancomposer Arvo Pärt) as the great musicalmystic of his generation. After passingthrough periods as organist in a Presbyterianchurch in Kensington and an adherent of areactionary species of Roman Catholicism,he joined the Russian Orthodox Church in1977, less for its dogma than for what heperceives as its ties to an elemental life forcethat he believes, with Olivier Messiaen, was

banished from Western music by 17th-century rationalism. Tavener’s convictionabout the mystical powers of music hasinspired a large number of works onreligious themes with sung texts—cantatas,requiems, introits, canticles, lamentations,prayers, vigils, rites, and operas on St.Thérèse of Lisieux and Mary of Egypt—aswell as a growing body of chamber andorchestral compositions, many with soloists.The essential qualities of Tavener’s music—austerity and transcendence—create afloating quietude that evokes a mysticalrealm which only music can reveal.

Tavener wrote, “The title Threnos [threnody]has both liturgical and folk significance in Greece—the Threnos of the Mother ofGod sung at the Epitaphios on Good Fridayand the Threnos of mourning that ischanted over the dead body in the house ofa close friend. I wrote my short Threnosfor solo cello in memory of my dear friendDr. Costas Marangopoulos.”

“Canzon septimi toni a 8” from Sacrae Symphoniae

Giovanni GABRIELIBorn between 1554 and 1557 in Venice.Died there August 12, 1612.

Published in 1597.

Duration: 3 minutes

Giovanni Gabrieli, one of the greatestcomposers of the era in which thecontrapuntal complexities of the Renaissancewere giving way to the florid drama of theBaroque, was long associated with theglorious musical establishment of St. Mark’sin Venice. Eschewing the involved polyphonyof earlier composers, he wrote in a chordal,often dance-like style that not only took fulladvantage of the acoustical properties of theancient basilica, but also embodied a

grandeur of religious and civic pageantrythat has never been surpassed.

In 1597, Gabrieli published a large collectionof his own music in two volumes titledSacrae Symphoniae (Sacred Symphonies),which contained motets for one to fourchoirs of voices and instruments, sonatas,and instrumental canzoni, whose sectionalconstruction, chordal textures, and dance-like rhythms were derived from the French

vocal chanson. Among the importantinnovations in the Sacrae Symphoniae wasthe specification of exact instruments forsome of the canzoni, one of the earliestoccurrences of precise orchestration in musichistory. The canzoni were written for four tofifteen players disposed variously into choirs,and were designated simply by the churchmode in which they were written (i.e.,“septimi toni”—“seventh tone”—denotes theMixolydian mode, based on the note G).

NOTES ON THE PROGRAM

Figment No. 2—Remembering Mr. Ives for Cello

Elliott CARTERBorn December 11, 1908, in New York City.Died there November 5, 2012.

Composed in 2001.Premiered on December 2, 2001 at Alice Tully Hallin New York City by Fred Sherry.

First CMS performance on December 2, 2001.

Duration: 4 minutes

Elliott Carter composed short works inhonor of friends and colleagues throughouthis life: birthday pieces for Pierre Boulez,Witold Lutosławski, Swiss conductor PaulSacher, Italian composer Goffredo Petrassi,and British critic William Glock; memorialtributes to Igor Stravinsky, Aaron Copland,Roger Sessions, publishing executive DavidHuntley, and music patron Paul Fromm;even an Anniversary for orchestra to markthe 50 years of his own marriage. In 2001,Carter wrote Figment No. 2—RememberingMr. Ives for cellist Fred Sherry, whose

“outstanding instrumental and organizationalabilities and boundless enthusiasms,” thecomposer noted in a preface to the score,“have done so much for music. This shortFigment recalls fragmentarily bits of theThoreau movement of the Concord Sonataand Hallowe’en by my late friend CharlesIves, whose music I have known since 1924.I have loved these works in particular.”Carter was introduced to Ives when theyoung musician was a student at New York’sHorace Mann High School by his teacherClifton Furness, who guided him throughrecent works by Stravinsky, Poulenc,Milhaud, Casella, Hindemith, and otherleading progressive composers, took him toconcerts of such avant-gardists as Cowelland Varèse, and explored Indian andBalinese music. Ives and Carter saw eachother often to play four-hand piano music,attend concerts together, and evaluateCarter’s early creative efforts. It was Iveswho encouraged his young friend to pursuemusic as a profession and wrote a letter ofrecommendation to support his applicationto Harvard. Carter was admitted.

Threnos for Cello

John TAVENERBorn January 28, 1944, in London.

Composed in 1990.Premiered on August 24, 1991 at the Edinburgh Festival by Steven Isserlis.

Duration: 6 minutes

John Tavener, born in London and trainedunder Lennox Berkeley at the RoyalAcademy of Music, ranks (with Estoniancomposer Arvo Pärt) as the great musicalmystic of his generation. After passingthrough periods as organist in a Presbyterianchurch in Kensington and an adherent of areactionary species of Roman Catholicism,he joined the Russian Orthodox Church in1977, less for its dogma than for what heperceives as its ties to an elemental life forcethat he believes, with Olivier Messiaen, was

banished from Western music by 17th-century rationalism. Tavener’s convictionabout the mystical powers of music hasinspired a large number of works onreligious themes with sung texts—cantatas,requiems, introits, canticles, lamentations,prayers, vigils, rites, and operas on St.Thérèse of Lisieux and Mary of Egypt—aswell as a growing body of chamber andorchestral compositions, many with soloists.The essential qualities of Tavener’s music—austerity and transcendence—create afloating quietude that evokes a mysticalrealm which only music can reveal.

Tavener wrote, “The title Threnos [threnody]has both liturgical and folk significance in Greece—the Threnos of the Mother ofGod sung at the Epitaphios on Good Fridayand the Threnos of mourning that ischanted over the dead body in the house ofa close friend. I wrote my short Threnosfor solo cello in memory of my dear friendDr. Costas Marangopoulos.”

“Canzon septimi toni a 8” from Sacrae Symphoniae

Giovanni GABRIELIBorn between 1554 and 1557 in Venice.Died there August 12, 1612.

Published in 1597.

Duration: 3 minutes

Giovanni Gabrieli, one of the greatestcomposers of the era in which thecontrapuntal complexities of the Renaissancewere giving way to the florid drama of theBaroque, was long associated with theglorious musical establishment of St. Mark’sin Venice. Eschewing the involved polyphonyof earlier composers, he wrote in a chordal,often dance-like style that not only took fulladvantage of the acoustical properties of theancient basilica, but also embodied a

grandeur of religious and civic pageantrythat has never been surpassed.

In 1597, Gabrieli published a large collectionof his own music in two volumes titledSacrae Symphoniae (Sacred Symphonies),which contained motets for one to fourchoirs of voices and instruments, sonatas,and instrumental canzoni, whose sectionalconstruction, chordal textures, and dance-like rhythms were derived from the French

vocal chanson. Among the importantinnovations in the Sacrae Symphoniae wasthe specification of exact instruments forsome of the canzoni, one of the earliestoccurrences of precise orchestration in musichistory. The canzoni were written for four tofifteen players disposed variously into choirs,and were designated simply by the churchmode in which they were written (i.e.,“septimi toni”—“seventh tone”—denotes theMixolydian mode, based on the note G).

NOTES ON THE PROGRAM

Figment No. 2—Remembering Mr. Ives for Cello

Elliott CARTERBorn December 11, 1908, in New York City.Died there November 5, 2012.

Composed in 2001.Premiered on December 2, 2001 at Alice Tully Hallin New York City by Fred Sherry.

First CMS performance on December 2, 2001.

Duration: 4 minutes

Elliott Carter composed short works inhonor of friends and colleagues throughouthis life: birthday pieces for Pierre Boulez,Witold Lutosławski, Swiss conductor PaulSacher, Italian composer Goffredo Petrassi,and British critic William Glock; memorialtributes to Igor Stravinsky, Aaron Copland,Roger Sessions, publishing executive DavidHuntley, and music patron Paul Fromm;even an Anniversary for orchestra to markthe 50 years of his own marriage. In 2001,Carter wrote Figment No. 2—RememberingMr. Ives for cellist Fred Sherry, whose

“outstanding instrumental and organizationalabilities and boundless enthusiasms,” thecomposer noted in a preface to the score,“have done so much for music. This shortFigment recalls fragmentarily bits of theThoreau movement of the Concord Sonataand Hallowe’en by my late friend CharlesIves, whose music I have known since 1924.I have loved these works in particular.”Carter was introduced to Ives when theyoung musician was a student at New York’sHorace Mann High School by his teacherClifton Furness, who guided him throughrecent works by Stravinsky, Poulenc,Milhaud, Casella, Hindemith, and otherleading progressive composers, took him toconcerts of such avant-gardists as Cowelland Varèse, and explored Indian andBalinese music. Ives and Carter saw eachother often to play four-hand piano music,attend concerts together, and evaluateCarter’s early creative efforts. It was Iveswho encouraged his young friend to pursuemusic as a profession and wrote a letter ofrecommendation to support his applicationto Harvard. Carter was admitted.

Two Movements for Four Cellos

Alexandre TANSMANBorn June 12, 1897, in Lodz, Poland.Died November 15, 1986, in Paris.

Composed in 1935.

Duration: 8 minutes

Though composer, pianist, and conductorAlexandre Tansman was born in Poland and lived for an extended period in theUnited States, his music, temperament, andresidence were primarily French. Born inLódz on June 12, 1897, he began to composeat the age of eight, took piano and harmonylessons at the local conservatory as a boy,and studied law and philosophy at WarsawUniversity while continuing his musicaleducation privately. After Poland declaredits political independence following theFirst World War, Tansman enlisted in thePolish army but continued to compose. In1919, he submitted a pair of works undertwo different pseudonyms to the PolishNational Music Competition; he won bothfirst and second prizes. The publicity from

that coup enabled him to give a pair ofhighly successful concerts, the proceeds ofwhich financed his move to France. Tansmanmade his American debut as a pianist withKoussevitzky and the Boston Symphony in1927 in the premiere of his Second PianoConcerto, and thereafter appeared widely asa keyboard virtuoso in Europe, Canada, andPalestine. During the 1930s, he alsofrequently conducted his own works ontours that took him around the world. In1941, Tansman fled the Nazi invasion ofParis, and for the next five years lived in the United States, where his friendship withthe recently arrived Igor Stravinsky openedimportant professional opportunities forhim, including writing the scores for anumber of Hollywood films. After the war,Tansman returned to Europe, where hecontinued to compose and to tour as apianist and conductor. He lived in Parisuntil his death in 1986.

Tansman’s Two Movements for Four Cellosof 1935—an expressive, richly chromaticAdagio and a jauntily rhythmic Allegro witha fugal central episode—show his attractivemelodic invention, clarity of form andsurety of instrumental writing.

Trois strophes sur le nom de Sacher for Cello

Henri DUTILLEUXBorn January 22, 1916, in Angers, France.

Composed in 1976 and 1982.Movement I premiered on May 2, 1976, in Zurichand the complete work premiered on April 28,1982, in Basel by Mstislav Rostropovich.

Duration: 10 minutes

Henri Dutilleux, the descendant of a long lineof French artists and musicians, was bornon January 22, 1916, in Angers, in the Loireregion, and grew up in Douai, where heattended the local conservatory as a studentof piano, harmony, and counterpoint whilestill in secondary school. In 1933, he enteredthe Paris Conservatoire to study with thebrothers Noël and Jean Gallon (fugue andharmony) and Henri Büsser (composition).Dutilleux won the Prix de Rome in 1938, buthis residency in Italy was cut short by theoutbreak of World War II the following year; he enlisted as a stretcher-bearer inSeptember 1939. In 1942–43, he was chorusmaster at the Paris Opéra. He held a similarpost with the French Radio in 1943–44, and from 1945 to 1963, served as thatorganization’s chief conductor. He taughtcomposition at the École Normale de Musiquein Paris from 1961 until 1970, and was guestprofessor at the Paris Conservatoire in 1970–71;he has also taught at leading European and American summer schools, includingTanglewood. His work has been recognizedwith the Grand Prix National de la Musique,Praemium Imperiale (from the government ofJapan), Grand-Croix de la Légion d’Honneur,Gold Medal of London’s Royal Philharmonic

Society, and honorary memberships in theAcadémie Royale de Belgique and AmericanAcademy of Arts and Letters.

Paul Sacher was one of the driving forces of 20th-century music. Born in Basel,Switzerland in 1906, he studied conductingwith Felix Weingartner at the BaselConservatory and musicology at theUniversity of Basel with Karl Nef. In 1926, he founded the Basel Chamber Orchestra,and over the next seven decades, until hisdeath in May 1999, Sacher commissionedmore than 200 works from dozens of leadingcomposers, from Bartók to Stravinsky, fromStrauss to Tippett. In 1933, he established theSchola Cantorum Basiliensis for the study ofMedieval music, and eight years later becameconductor of the newly founded CollegiumMusicum Zurich. A foundation that heestablished in 1973 is one of the mostimportant repositories of modern manuscriptscores—it holds the estates of Stravinsky,Webern, Boulez, Lutoslawski, Martin,Dutilleux, Honegger, and some 60 othereminent composers.

For a concert at Zurich’s Tonhalle on May 2,1976 celebrating Sacher’s 70th birthday, thefamed cellist Mstislav Rostropovich solicitedfrom 12 composers associated over the yearswith the conductor-patron new works forunaccompanied cello based on pitches thatspell out Sacher’s name: E-flat (S [ess] inGerman notation = E-flat)—A—C—B (H inGerman notation = B-natural)—E—D (R [re]in the European solfeggio system = D).Rostropovich premiered ten of them thatevening (by Britten, Ginastera, Fortner,Beck, Dutilleux, Lutoslawski, Berio, Halffter,Huber, and Holliger); Boulez and Henze lateradded their pieces to complete the set.

Two Movements for Four Cellos

Alexandre TANSMANBorn June 12, 1897, in Lodz, Poland.Died November 15, 1986, in Paris.

Composed in 1935.

Duration: 8 minutes

Though composer, pianist, and conductorAlexandre Tansman was born in Poland and lived for an extended period in theUnited States, his music, temperament, andresidence were primarily French. Born inLódz on June 12, 1897, he began to composeat the age of eight, took piano and harmonylessons at the local conservatory as a boy,and studied law and philosophy at WarsawUniversity while continuing his musicaleducation privately. After Poland declaredits political independence following theFirst World War, Tansman enlisted in thePolish army but continued to compose. In1919, he submitted a pair of works undertwo different pseudonyms to the PolishNational Music Competition; he won bothfirst and second prizes. The publicity from

that coup enabled him to give a pair ofhighly successful concerts, the proceeds ofwhich financed his move to France. Tansmanmade his American debut as a pianist withKoussevitzky and the Boston Symphony in1927 in the premiere of his Second PianoConcerto, and thereafter appeared widely asa keyboard virtuoso in Europe, Canada, andPalestine. During the 1930s, he alsofrequently conducted his own works ontours that took him around the world. In1941, Tansman fled the Nazi invasion ofParis, and for the next five years lived in the United States, where his friendship withthe recently arrived Igor Stravinsky openedimportant professional opportunities forhim, including writing the scores for anumber of Hollywood films. After the war,Tansman returned to Europe, where hecontinued to compose and to tour as apianist and conductor. He lived in Parisuntil his death in 1986.

Tansman’s Two Movements for Four Cellosof 1935—an expressive, richly chromaticAdagio and a jauntily rhythmic Allegro witha fugal central episode—show his attractivemelodic invention, clarity of form andsurety of instrumental writing.

Trois strophes sur le nom de Sacher for Cello

Henri DUTILLEUXBorn January 22, 1916, in Angers, France.

Composed in 1976 and 1982.Movement I premiered on May 2, 1976, in Zurichand the complete work premiered on April 28,1982, in Basel by Mstislav Rostropovich.

Henri Dutilleux, the descendant of a long lineof French artists and musicians, was bornon January 22, 1916, in Angers, in the Loireregion, and grew up in Douai, where heattended the local conservatory as a studentof piano, harmony, and counterpoint whilestill in secondary school. In 1933, he enteredthe Paris Conservatoire to study with thebrothers Noël and Jean Gallon (fugue andharmony) and Henri Büsser (composition).Dutilleux won the Prix de Rome in 1938, buthis residency in Italy was cut short by theoutbreak of World War II the following year; he enlisted as a stretcher-bearer inSeptember 1939. In 1942–43, he was chorusmaster at the Paris Opéra. He held a similarpost with the French Radio in 1943–44, and from 1945 to 1963, served as thatorganization’s chief conductor. He taughtcomposition at the École Normale de Musiquein Paris from 1961 until 1970, and was guestprofessor at the Paris Conservatoire in 1970–71;he has also taught at leading European and American summer schools, includingTanglewood. His work has been recognizedwith the Grand Prix National de la Musique,Praemium Imperiale (from the government ofJapan), Grand-Croix de la Légion d’Honneur,Gold Medal of London’s Royal Philharmonic

Society, and honorary memberships in theAcadémie Royale de Belgique and AmericanAcademy of Arts and Letters.

Paul Sacher was one of the driving forces of 20th-century music. Born in Basel,Switzerland in 1906, he studied conductingwith Felix Weingartner at the BaselConservatory and musicology at theUniversity of Basel with Karl Nef. In 1926, he founded the Basel Chamber Orchestra,and over the next seven decades, until hisdeath in May 1999, Sacher commissionedmore than 200 works from dozens of leadingcomposers, from Bartók to Stravinsky, fromStrauss to Tippett. In 1933, he established theSchola Cantorum Basiliensis for the study ofMedieval music, and eight years later becameconductor of the newly founded CollegiumMusicum Zurich. A foundation that heestablished in 1973 is one of the mostimportant repositories of modern manuscriptscores—it holds the estates of Stravinsky,Webern, Boulez, Lutoslawski, Martin,Dutilleux, Honegger, and some 60 othereminent composers.

For a concert at Zurich’s Tonhalle on May 2,1976 celebrating Sacher’s 70th birthday, thefamed cellist Mstislav Rostropovich solicitedfrom 12 composers associated over the yearswith the conductor-patron new works forunaccompanied cello based on pitches thatspell out Sacher’s name: E-flat (S [ess] inGerman notation = E-flat)—A—C—B (H inGerman notation = B-natural)—E—D (R [re]in the European solfeggio system = D).Rostropovich premiered ten of them thatevening (by Britten, Ginastera, Fortner,Beck, Dutilleux, Lutoslawski, Berio, Halffter,Huber, and Holliger); Boulez and Henze lateradded their pieces to complete the set.

Dutilleux contributed a rhapsodic movement(Un poco indeciso—“A little indecisive”)titled Hommage à Paul Sacher to thefestivities in Zurich and six years later addedto it two pieces, one slow and sustained, theother fast and virtuosic, to create the Troisstrophes sur le nom de Sacher, whichRostropovich premiered in Basel on April 28,1982. Dutilleux called the Trois strophes “a

short suite referring to the idea of returningbut also of ‘being put into rhyme.’ Thecello’s lower strings have to be re-tunedfrom G to F-sharp and from C to B-flat. Atthe end of the first stanza there is a briefquote [in tremolo double stops] from BélaBartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion, andCelesta, commissioned by Sacher and firstperformed in Basel in January 1937.”

Fratres for Four Cellos

Arvo PÄRTBorn September 11, 1935, in Paide, Estonia.

Composed in 1977; arranged for cellos in 1983.

Arvo Pärt, born in 1935 in Paide, Estonia, 50miles southeast of Tallinn, graduated from theTallinn Conservatory in 1963 while workingas a recording director in the music divisionof the Estonian Radio. A year before leavingthe Conservatory, he won first prize in theAll-Union Young Composers’ Competitionfor a children’s cantata and an oratorio. In1980, he emigrated to Vienna, where he tookAustrian citizenship; he moved to Berlin in1982 and has recently returned to Tallinn.Pärt’s many distinctions include the ArtisticAward of the Estonian Society in Stockholm,honorary memberships in the Royal SwedishAcademy of Music, American Academy ofArts and Letters, and Belgium’s RoyalAcademy of Arts, five Grammy nominations,and recognition as a Commandeur de l’Ordredes Arts et des Lettres de la RépubliqueFrançaise. In his early works, Pärt explored

the influences of the Soviet music ofProkofiev and Shostakovich, the serialprinciples of Schoenberg, and the techniquesof collage and quotation, but in the late 1960she abandoned creative work for several yearsand devoted himself to the study of suchMedieval and Renaissance composers asMachaut, Ockeghem, Obrecht, and Josquin.Guided by the spirit and method of thoseancient masters, Pärt developed a distinctiveidiom that utilizes quiet dynamics, rhythmicstasis, and open-interval and triadicharmonies to create a thoughtful mood ofmystical introspection reflecting thecomposer’s personal piety.

Fratres was composed in 1977 for stringquintet and wind quintet, and first performedby the Estonian early music ensemble“Hortus musicus.” Pärt has subsequentlyadapted the work for many other solo andensemble combinations of strings, winds,and percussion; the cello arrangement datesfrom 1983. Fratres is based on the repetitionsof an austere, hymnal theme played above acontinuous drone on the interval of an openfifth. The repetitions, separated by notessimulating drum taps, are transposeddownward a minor or major third on eachappearance, so that the sonority grows

lower and richer as Fratres unfolds. Thedynamic peak is reached in the middle ofthe work, after which the music is graduallyovertaken by silence to end in a state ofhushed spirituality. The work’s title—Brothers—seems to indicate that this music

was inspired by the vision of a solemnprocession of Medieval monks, wendingtheir way by flickering candlelight along theambulatory to the abbey’s chapels foranother of the endless succession of servicesthat regulated their monastic lives.

Sardana for Eight Cellos

Pablo CASALSBorn December 29, 1876, in Vendrell, Catalonia, Spain.Died October 22, 1973, in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Composed in 1927.

Duration: 7 minutes

The sardana originated in the 16th centuryin the Empordà, in Spain’s northeast corner,and became one of the most characteristicmusical emblems of Catalonian nationalism.The dance is performed by men and womenin a circle and usually consists of anintroduction played by fife and drumfollowed by two contrasting sections, aquick one with the arms extended from theshoulders and a slower one with the armsheld at the sides. The traditional sardanaband includes a fife, two shawms (rusticoboes whose piercing sound suits themparticularly well to outdoor performance),various brass instruments, string bass, anddrums. The sardana is an integral part ofthe elaborate festa major staged annuallyfrom August 29 to September 2 in honor ofSt. Felix in Vilafranca del Penedès, whoseSanta Maria Basilica houses relics of thethird-century holy man, and includes asolemn Mass, music, dances, processions,shows, fireworks, and a remarkable humanpyramid, eight men high.

Pablo Casals, the 20th-century’s foremostcellist, a talented composer, and an ardentCatalonian throughout his life, was born inVendrell, just 20 miles from Vilafranca, andhe was familiar with the town’s festival fromboyhood. (A square in the town is named forhim.) In 1927, Casals composed a Sardana foreight cellos inspired by the Vilafranca festivalthat captures not just the contrasting rhythmicand melodic elements of the dance, but in onepassage even imitates the accompanyingdrum cadences and, with quick parallelharmonies in the melody, the nasal sound ofthe “Grallas Tcine” (one of the shawms), andthen layers these ideas with a phrase ofplainchant in the lowest voice as a reminderof the festival’s religious significance; anotherepisode suggests an Ivesian overlapping oftwo competing sardanas. The work waswritten for Herbert Walenn’s London CelloSchool, whose students included Zara Nelsovaand Jacqueline du Pré, and recorded in March1928 by an ensemble led by John Barbirolli,another of the school’s pupils. The Sardanabecame a celebration piece for Casals—33cellists performed it in 1929 at the “OrquestraPau Casals” series he founded in Barcelona;102 cellists recorded it at a concert in theSorbonne in Paris in honor of his 80thbirthday in 1956; he conducted the piece aspart of the opening of the Pablo CasalsInternational Cello Library at Arizona StateUniversity in Phoenix in 1966 (the Arizonagovernor presented him with a cowboy hat);and he led 80 cellists in the work at LincolnCenter in 1972, when he was 96.

Dutilleux contributed a rhapsodic movement(Un poco indeciso—“A little indecisive”)titled Hommage à Paul Sacher to thefestivities in Zurich and six years later addedto it two pieces, one slow and sustained, theother fast and virtuosic, to create the Troisstrophes sur le nom de Sacher, whichRostropovich premiered in Basel on April 28,1982. Dutilleux called the Trois strophes “a

short suite referring to the idea of returningbut also of ‘being put into rhyme.’ Thecello’s lower strings have to be re-tunedfrom G to F-sharp and from C to B-flat. Atthe end of the first stanza there is a briefquote [in tremolo double stops] from BélaBartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion, andCelesta, commissioned by Sacher and firstperformed in Basel in January 1937.”

Fratres for Four Cellos

Arvo PÄRTBorn September 11, 1935, in Paide, Estonia.

Composed in 1977; arranged for cellos in 1983.

Arvo Pärt, born in 1935 in Paide, Estonia, 50miles southeast of Tallinn, graduated from theTallinn Conservatory in 1963 while workingas a recording director in the music divisionof the Estonian Radio. A year before leavingthe Conservatory, he won first prize in theAll-Union Young Composers’ Competitionfor a children’s cantata and an oratorio. In1980, he emigrated to Vienna, where he tookAustrian citizenship; he moved to Berlin in1982 and has recently returned to Tallinn.Pärt’s many distinctions include the ArtisticAward of the Estonian Society in Stockholm,honorary memberships in the Royal SwedishAcademy of Music, American Academy ofArts and Letters, and Belgium’s RoyalAcademy of Arts, five Grammy nominations,and recognition as a Commandeur de l’Ordredes Arts et des Lettres de la RépubliqueFrançaise. In his early works, Pärt explored

the influences of the Soviet music ofProkofiev and Shostakovich, the serialprinciples of Schoenberg, and the techniquesof collage and quotation, but in the late 1960she abandoned creative work for several yearsand devoted himself to the study of suchMedieval and Renaissance composers asMachaut, Ockeghem, Obrecht, and Josquin.Guided by the spirit and method of thoseancient masters, Pärt developed a distinctiveidiom that utilizes quiet dynamics, rhythmicstasis, and open-interval and triadicharmonies to create a thoughtful mood ofmystical introspection reflecting thecomposer’s personal piety.

Fratres was composed in 1977 for stringquintet and wind quintet, and first performedby the Estonian early music ensemble“Hortus musicus.” Pärt has subsequentlyadapted the work for many other solo andensemble combinations of strings, winds,and percussion; the cello arrangement datesfrom 1983. Fratres is based on the repetitionsof an austere, hymnal theme played above acontinuous drone on the interval of an openfifth. The repetitions, separated by notessimulating drum taps, are transposeddownward a minor or major third on eachappearance, so that the sonority grows

lower and richer as Fratres unfolds. Thedynamic peak is reached in the middle ofthe work, after which the music is graduallyovertaken by silence to end in a state ofhushed spirituality. The work’s title—Brothers—seems to indicate that this music

was inspired by the vision of a solemnprocession of Medieval monks, wendingtheir way by flickering candlelight along theambulatory to the abbey’s chapels foranother of the endless succession of servicesthat regulated their monastic lives.

Sardana for Eight Cellos

Pablo CASALSBorn December 29, 1876, in Vendrell, Catalonia, Spain.Died October 22, 1973, in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Composed in 1927.

Duration: 7 minutes

The sardana originated in the 16th centuryin the Empordà, in Spain’s northeast corner,and became one of the most characteristicmusical emblems of Catalonian nationalism.The dance is performed by men and womenin a circle and usually consists of anintroduction played by fife and drumfollowed by two contrasting sections, aquick one with the arms extended from theshoulders and a slower one with the armsheld at the sides. The traditional sardanaband includes a fife, two shawms (rusticoboes whose piercing sound suits themparticularly well to outdoor performance),various brass instruments, string bass, anddrums. The sardana is an integral part ofthe elaborate festa major staged annuallyfrom August 29 to September 2 in honor ofSt. Felix in Vilafranca del Penedès, whoseSanta Maria Basilica houses relics of thethird-century holy man, and includes asolemn Mass, music, dances, processions,shows, fireworks, and a remarkable humanpyramid, eight men high.

Pablo Casals, the 20th-century’s foremostcellist, a talented composer, and an ardentCatalonian throughout his life, was born inVendrell, just 20 miles from Vilafranca, andhe was familiar with the town’s festival fromboyhood. (A square in the town is named forhim.) In 1927, Casals composed a Sardana foreight cellos inspired by the Vilafranca festivalthat captures not just the contrasting rhythmicand melodic elements of the dance, but in onepassage even imitates the accompanyingdrum cadences and, with quick parallelharmonies in the melody, the nasal sound ofthe “Grallas Tcine” (one of the shawms), andthen layers these ideas with a phrase ofplainchant in the lowest voice as a reminderof the festival’s religious significance; anotherepisode suggests an Ivesian overlapping oftwo competing sardanas. The work waswritten for Herbert Walenn’s London CelloSchool, whose students included Zara Nelsovaand Jacqueline du Pré, and recorded in March1928 by an ensemble led by John Barbirolli,another of the school’s pupils. The Sardanabecame a celebration piece for Casals—33cellists performed it in 1929 at the “OrquestraPau Casals” series he founded in Barcelona;102 cellists recorded it at a concert in theSorbonne in Paris in honor of his 80thbirthday in 1956; he conducted the piece aspart of the opening of the Pablo CasalsInternational Cello Library at Arizona StateUniversity in Phoenix in 1966 (the Arizonagovernor presented him with a cowboy hat);and he led 80 cellists in the work at LincolnCenter in 1972, when he was 96.

Sonata in G major for Two Cellos

Jean BARRIÈREBorn May 2, 1707, in Bordeaux.Died June 6, 1747, in Paris.

Composed in 1739.

Cellist and composer Jean Barrière was born in 1707 in Bordeaux and began hismusical career playing viola da gamba,which had then been out of fashion in Italyfor at least two decades and was rapidlygiving way in France to the modern cello.Nothing more is known of Barrière’s earlylife until he arrived in Paris in 1730 to join, asa cellist, the Académie Royale de Musique,the orchestra of the royal opera and ballet.He quickly built a reputation not only as aperformer but also as a composer, and in1733 King Louis granted him a six-yearprivilege to publish “Sonates et autresouvrages [other works] de musiqueinstrumentale”; his first book of sonatas forcello and continuo appeared later that yearand his second in 1735. From 1736 to 1739,Barrière was in Rome, becoming acquaintedat first hand with that country’s fashionablemusical styles and perhaps studying withthe celebrated cellist Francesco Alborea.

Barrière returned to Paris in 1739, becomingknown as a soloist at the ConcertsSpirituels, the city’s foremost concertseries, and having his publication privilegerenewed for another 12 years. He composedduring the following years in a styleinfluenced by his musical experiences inItaly and issued two more books of sonatasfor cello and continuo (1739, 1740), one forPardessus de Viole (a treble viol, 1739), andone for harpsichord (1740). Barrière died inParis in 1747.

Barrière’s cello sonatas, which date fromthe decades when an idiomatic style wasfirst being defined for the instrument, oftenpresent such pioneering technical challengesas double stops, arpeggios, and extremerange. The Sonata in G major for Two Cellos(Bk. 4, No. 4) is characteristic of his music inits elegance, polish, and emotional reserve.In the work’s opening Andante, the cellosalternate between providing backgroundfor each other’s graceful melodic flights andplaying together in euphonious harmonies.The Adagio is a melancholy, elaboratelydecorated aria for the first cello. The closingAllegro prestissimo, with its flying scales,close harmonies, cross-string figurations,and reminiscence of the preceding Adagiounexpectedly inserted into the secondsection as a sort-of cadenza, is a displaypiece for paired cellos.

Tango for Four Cellos

Igor STRAVINSKYBorn June 17, 1882, in Oranienbaum, near St. Petersburg.Died April 6, 1971, in New York City.

Composed in 1940.

Duration: 4 minutes

On September 30, 1939, Stravinsky arrivedin the United States, seeking refuge fromWorld War II and solace for his spiritfollowing the death of his daughter and hiswife during the first three months of theyear. He went immediately to Boston,

where he delivered six talks on The Poeticsof Music for Harvard University’s NortonLectures series, then traveled to SanFrancisco for some concerts in December.He was back in New York the followingmonth for the arrival of Vera de Bosset, aclose acquaintance of many years; thecouple were married in Boston on March 9,1940. After travelling extensively, theysettled in Los Angeles that summer, and inAugust he completed the Symphony in C,which had frequently been interrupted by the recent changes in his life. Twomonths later he finished his first piececomposed completely in America, a Tangoinspired by the seductive Latin dance stylethen very much in vogue in his newlyadopted country.

Last Tango in Bayreuth for Four Cellos

Peter SCHICKELEBorn July 17, 1935, in Ames, Iowa.

Composed in 1973.

First CMS performance on May 16, 1988.

Duration: 3 minutes

Peter Schickele is most infamous as theperpetrator of the person and music ofP.D.Q. Bach (1807–1742?), the profligate,only forgotten son of Johann Sebastian. Inatonement, Schickele has also composed inexcess of a hundred concert works, forwhich he has the following qualifications:bassoonist in the Fargo-Moorhead Symphonywhile a youth; a B.A. degree in music fromSwarthmore (where he was the only musicmajor); private study with Roy Harris inPittsburgh; a graduate degree from Juilliard,

where he studied with Vincent Persichettiand William Bergsma; and lessons withDarius Milhaud at the Aspen Music School.Schickele has taught at Swarthmore,Juilliard, and Aspen, and spent a year(1960–61) as Composer-in-Residence to the Los Angeles public schools under a Ford Foundation grant. He was also afounder of the contemporary music groupsComposers’ Circle and The Open Window,and from 1992 to 2007, produced and hosteda wide-ranging weekly radio program,heard nationwide, called Schickele Mix,which won ASCAP’s prestigious DeemsTaylor Award.

The Last Tango in Bayreuth for four lowinstruments was issued in 1973 by BubonicPublishing. The outer sections of this Latin-beat send-up of Richard Wagner arebased on two tasty motives and a harmonicprogression from the Prelude to Tristan und

Sonata in G major for Two Cellos

Jean BARRIÈREBorn May 2, 1707, in Bordeaux.Died June 6, 1747, in Paris.

Composed in 1739.

Cellist and composer Jean Barrière was born in 1707 in Bordeaux and began hismusical career playing viola da gamba,which had then been out of fashion in Italyfor at least two decades and was rapidlygiving way in France to the modern cello.Nothing more is known of Barrière’s earlylife until he arrived in Paris in 1730 to join, asa cellist, the Académie Royale de Musique,the orchestra of the royal opera and ballet.He quickly built a reputation not only as aperformer but also as a composer, and in1733 King Louis granted him a six-yearprivilege to publish “Sonates et autresouvrages [other works] de musiqueinstrumentale”; his first book of sonatas forcello and continuo appeared later that yearand his second in 1735. From 1736 to 1739,Barrière was in Rome, becoming acquaintedat first hand with that country’s fashionablemusical styles and perhaps studying withthe celebrated cellist Francesco Alborea.

Barrière returned to Paris in 1739, becomingknown as a soloist at the ConcertsSpirituels, the city’s foremost concertseries, and having his publication privilegerenewed for another 12 years. He composedduring the following years in a styleinfluenced by his musical experiences inItaly and issued two more books of sonatasfor cello and continuo (1739, 1740), one forPardessus de Viole (a treble viol, 1739), andone for harpsichord (1740). Barrière died inParis in 1747.

Barrière’s cello sonatas, which date fromthe decades when an idiomatic style wasfirst being defined for the instrument, oftenpresent such pioneering technical challengesas double stops, arpeggios, and extremerange. The Sonata in G major for Two Cellos(Bk. 4, No. 4) is characteristic of his music inits elegance, polish, and emotional reserve.In the work’s opening Andante, the cellosalternate between providing backgroundfor each other’s graceful melodic flights andplaying together in euphonious harmonies.The Adagio is a melancholy, elaboratelydecorated aria for the first cello. The closingAllegro prestissimo, with its flying scales,close harmonies, cross-string figurations,and reminiscence of the preceding Adagiounexpectedly inserted into the secondsection as a sort-of cadenza, is a displaypiece for paired cellos.

Tango for Four Cellos

Igor STRAVINSKYBorn June 17, 1882, in Oranienbaum, near St. Petersburg.Died April 6, 1971, in New York City.

Composed in 1940.

Duration: 4 minutes

On September 30, 1939, Stravinsky arrivedin the United States, seeking refuge fromWorld War II and solace for his spiritfollowing the death of his daughter and hiswife during the first three months of theyear. He went immediately to Boston,

where he delivered six talks on The Poeticsof Music for Harvard University’s NortonLectures series, then traveled to SanFrancisco for some concerts in December.He was back in New York the followingmonth for the arrival of Vera de Bosset, aclose acquaintance of many years; thecouple were married in Boston on March 9,1940. After travelling extensively, theysettled in Los Angeles that summer, and inAugust he completed the Symphony in C,which had frequently been interrupted by the recent changes in his life. Twomonths later he finished his first piececomposed completely in America, a Tangoinspired by the seductive Latin dance stylethen very much in vogue in his newlyadopted country.

Last Tango in Bayreuth for Four Cellos

Peter SCHICKELEBorn July 17, 1935, in Ames, Iowa.

Composed in 1973.

First CMS performance on May 16, 1988.

Duration: 3 minutes

Peter Schickele is most infamous as theperpetrator of the person and music ofP.D.Q. Bach (1807–1742?), the profligate,only forgotten son of Johann Sebastian. Inatonement, Schickele has also composed inexcess of a hundred concert works, forwhich he has the following qualifications:bassoonist in the Fargo-Moorhead Symphonywhile a youth; a B.A. degree in music fromSwarthmore (where he was the only musicmajor); private study with Roy Harris inPittsburgh; a graduate degree from Juilliard,

where he studied with Vincent Persichettiand William Bergsma; and lessons withDarius Milhaud at the Aspen Music School.Schickele has taught at Swarthmore,Juilliard, and Aspen, and spent a year(1960–61) as Composer-in-Residence to the Los Angeles public schools under a Ford Foundation grant. He was also afounder of the contemporary music groupsComposers’ Circle and The Open Window,and from 1992 to 2007, produced and hosteda wide-ranging weekly radio program,heard nationwide, called Schickele Mix,which won ASCAP’s prestigious DeemsTaylor Award.

The Last Tango in Bayreuth for four lowinstruments was issued in 1973 by BubonicPublishing. The outer sections of this Latin-beat send-up of Richard Wagner arebased on two tasty motives and a harmonicprogression from the Prelude to Tristan und

Isolde. The center part transmogrifies thetheme of the Act III Prelude to Lohengrin. The

Tango’s tiny coda borrows just a smidgen ofthe “Love-Death” from Tristan.

Bachianas brasileiras No. 1 for Eight Cellos

Heitor VILLA-LOBOSBorn March 5, 1887, in Rio de Janeiro.Died there December 17, 1959.

Composed in 1930–32.Premiered on September 12, 1932 in Rio de Janeiro.

The set of nine Bachianas brasileirasholds a special place in Heitor Villa-Lobos’enormous output of more than 2,000works. These compositions, which ArthurCohn called “less a musical form than a typeof creative principle,” combine the melodicand rhythmic characteristics of Brazilianmusic with the texture and style of Bach.The Bachianas brasileiras No. 1 for EightCellos hews closely to Baroque techniques inthe last two of its three movements, but forits Introduction, Villa-Lobos followed thestyle and form of the Brazilian folk genre,the embolada. The embolada is a type ofvery fast singing using alliteration and

onomatopoeias, and Villa-Lobos borrowedthe term to indicate the quick, toccata-likenature of this music. The work begins witha jazzy accompaniment rhythm over whichblossoms a broad, sweeping theme. Othermelodies follow—a close-range strain thattwists around a central note; a swaying,dance-like motive embellished with arepeated note accompaniment; and a peasantsong above a pizzicato background—beforethe opening theme returns in a full settingto round out the movement. The modinhawas a 19th-century Brazilian song typemarked by lyricism and sentiment that wasmuch influenced by the bel canto style ofItalian opera. As the center piece of thisBachianas brasileiras, Villa-Lobos createda Modinha that is richly nostalgic in moodand elegiac in tone, qualities especiallysuited to the plaintive sound of massedcellos. The finale is a Fugue (appropriatelysubtitled Conversa) based on a stronglysyncopated subject that is brought forth fordiscussion four successive times before themovement proceeds to all the episodes andreprises appropriate to this most exacting ofmusical genres. The work closes in a gloriouswelter of contrapuntal conversation.

Cellist Nicolas Altstaedt won the Borletti Buitoni Trust Fellowship andthe Credit Suisse Young Artist Award 2010, as part of which heperformed Schumann’s Cello Concerto with the Vienna Philharmonicunder the baton of Gustavo Dudamel at the Lucerne Festival. This yearGidon Kremer chose him as his successor as artistic director of theLockenhaus Chamber Music Festival. An Artist of the Chamber MusicSociety and a former member of CMS Two, he is a BBC New GenerationArtist, which enables him to perform with all BBC orchestras, as well asat the United Kingdom’s most prestigious festivals and concert halls.

Highlights of past and upcoming seasons include concerts with the Tonhalle Orchestra; theVienna Symphony Orchestra; the Tapiola Sinfonietta and Kremerata Baltica; the SimonBolivar Orchestra; the Munich, Zurich, and Stuttgart Chamber Orchestras; the CzechPhilharmonic; the Melbourne and New Zealand Symphony Orchestras; the Radio SymphonyOrchestras of Berlin, Stuttgart, and Helsinki as well as the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestraunder the batons of Sir Neville Marriner, Neeme Järvi, Sir Roger Norrington, VladimirFedosseev, Vladimir Ashkenazy, and David Zinman. His two most recent recordings—of theHaydn concertos with the Potsdamer Kammerakademie and concertos by Schumann,Tchaikovsky, and Gulda—were highly acclaimed worldwide. Born into a family of Germanand French descent, Mr. Altstaedt was one of Boris Pergamenschikow’s last students inBerlin, where he has continued his studies with Eberhard Feltz. He plays a cello by NicolasLupot (Paris, 1821) loaned to him by the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben.

Carter Brey was appointed principal cellist of the New YorkPhilharmonic in 1996, and made his subscription debut as soloist withthe orchestra in May 1997, performing Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variationsled by then-Music Director Kurt Masur. He has performed as soloist insubsequent seasons in the Elgar Cello Concerto with André Previnconducting; in Richard Strauss’s Don Quixote with Music DirectorLorin Maazel and with former Music Director Zubin Mehta; and in theBrahms Double Concerto with Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow andconductor Christoph Eschenbach. His chamber music career is equally

distinguished. He has made regular appearances with the Tokyo and Emerson string quartetsas well as at the Spoleto Festival in the United States and Italy, and the Santa Fe and La Jollachamber music festivals. He presents an ongoing series of recitals with pianist ChristopherO’Riley and together they have recorded The Latin American Album for Helicon Records. Herose to international attention in 1981 as a prizewinner in the Rostropovich International CelloCompetition and he was the first musician to win the Arts Council of America’s PerformingArts Prize. A faculty member of the Curtis Institute, he appeared as soloist with the CurtisOrchestra at Verizon Hall and Carnegie Hall in April of 2009. Mr. Brey was educated at thePeabody Institute, where he studied with Laurence Lesser and Stephen Kates, and at YaleUniversity, where he studied with Aldo Parisot.

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