The 2004
Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival CD
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Francois Poulenc (1899-1963)
Sonata for Clarinet and Piano
Allegro tristamente
Romanza
Allegro con fuoco
Christina Dahl, Piano
Richard Hawkins, Clarinet
Early in his career, Francois Poulenc
gained notoriety as the most impudent member of "Les Six," a revolutionary
group of French composers strongly opposed to the old guard romantics. Influenced
by the musical and literary irreverence of Eric Satie, the group sought the
breezy freedom found in jazz and the popular culture. As the years progressed,
Poulenc retained his outrageous wit but also taught himself to compose highly
refined works that stand in the older French tradition of Saint-Saens. The French
author Colette, Poulenc's close friend, described the mellowed composer at the
end of his career: "Up a chalky hill, Poulenc lives in a large, airy house
with vineyards all around, and there he makes his wine, and he drinks it. He
is a big countrified fellow, bony and jovial, a poet of the soil."
Poulenc wrote his late Sonata for Clarinet and Piano (1962) for clarinetist
Benny Goodman, who premiered the work with Leonard Bernstein as pianist at Carnegie
Hall (1963). Classically structured in a fast-slow-fast format, the sonata offers
an homage to Sergei Prokofiev (d.1953), whom Poulenc greatly admired. The final
Allegro con fuoco contains echoes of Prokofiev's violin concerto as well as
his Overture on Hebrew Themes, also written for clarinet. The themes of the
gently melancholy opening movement, Allegro tristamente, suggest the motifs
of the Domine Deus and Agnus Dei movements from the Gloria, which Poulenc had
recently completed. The Romanza, which opens with a quasi-liturgical chant in
the clarinet, also projects a religious atmosphere.
Frank Bridge (1879-1941)
Lament for Two Violas
Roger Chase, Viola
Nicole Divall, Viola
Although the music of British composer
Frank Bridge fell into neglect following his death, his masterfully crafted
and poetic works are now undergoing a revival. For years, Bridge was best known
as the composition teacher of Benjamin Britten, who honored him by incorporating
Bridge themes into his own works. Bridge was widely respected during his lifetime
as a "musician's musician" because of his outstanding competence as
a violist, conductor, and composer with a subtle understanding of instrumental
color.
A warmly romantic, three-part instrumental song, the Lament for Two Violas is
the second of two works that Bridge composed for Lionel Tertis and himself to
perform at a March, 1912 Wigmore Hall concert. (The first composition, Caprice,
has been irretrievably lost.) Existing only as a fragile pencilled draft, the
C minor Lament languished until 1980 when it was edited and performed by composer
and violist Paul Hindemith.
Ralph Vaughn Williams (1872-1958)
Phantasy Quintet for Two Violins, Two Violas, and Cello
Prelude: Lento ma non troppo
Scherzo: Prestissimo
Alla Sarabanda: Lento
Burlesca: Allegro moderato
Benny Kim, Violin
Soovin Kim, Violin
Roger Chase, Viola
Nicole Divall, Viola
Peter Rejto, Cello
Ralph Vaughn Williams, both a traditionalist
and a rebel, produced music much admired for its "Englishness," a
quality derived from his assimilation of both British Isles folk songs and the
modalities heard in ancient British music. Yet he objected vehemently to the
stifled quality he detected in much English music: "Away with good taste!
What we want in England is real music, even if it be only a music-hall song.
Provided it possess real feeling and real life, it will be worth all the classics
in the world."
Completed in 1912, the Phantasy Quintet was commissioned by Walter Cobbett (1847-1937),
the wealthy businessman and music lover who edited the Cyclopedia for Chamber
Music. Cobbett especially admired Elizabethan fantasies, rhapsodic one-movement
works that appear to improvise on a principal motive. Vaughn Williams took as
his model the viol fantasias of Henry Purcell, sectionalized works that unfold
with maximum contrast of tempo and mood. To suggest the sound of ancient viols,
Vaughn Williams scored his work heavily for two violas. Written in four sections
played without pause, all the movements are connected by the recurrent motto
heard initially in the solo viola. His Phantasy (the old spelling) develops
with clearly defined, seamless melodies that appear improvisatory, like folk
music.
The first movement opens with a sinuous viola theme outlining the pentatonic
scale. A meditative prelude, the movement ends with a return of the thematic
statement in the solo viola. The vigorous Scherzo (Prestissimo) is propelled
by an asymmetric meter, seven pulses to the bar. A legato figure in the cello
leads into the poetic Alla Sarabanda. In a return to the meditative mood of
the opening movement, the violins and violas engage in mystical dialogue while
the cello rests. The lively Burlesca suggests folk dance. A quotation of the
theme from the opening Prelude, again in the solo viola, leads to the ethereal
Andante section.
Edward Elgar (1857-1934)
Piano Quintet in A minor, Opus 84
I. Moderato; Allegro
II. Adagio
III. Andante; Allegro
Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio
Benny Kim, Violin
Roger Chase, Viola
England's most celebrated romantic
composer, Edward Elgar produced three important contributions to chamber music-a
violin sonata, a string quartet, and the Opus 84 Quintet for Piano and Strings.
The Quintet was written simultaneously with the two other chamber works beginning
in 1918. Elgar's wife Alice had recently relocated the couple to a quiet cottage
in Sussex, and Elgar, convalescing from a throat operation, was delighted. Alice
heard a new sounds in the works created there, the first chamber music Elgar
had written in 30 years-greater harmonic simplicity and an autumnal mood which
she described poetically as "wood magic."
Elgar's property encompassed an eerily twisted group of white dead trees, a
continual source of fascination for him. Local legend held that the trees were
ghosts of Spanish monks who had practiced black magic in the area. Literary
interests at this time, as well as a visit from gothic writer Algernon Blackwood,
fueled his imagination further. Elgar had requested that several novels of Edward
Bulwer-Lytton (notorious for his opener "It was a dark and stormy night...")
be sent to his remote cottage. Both Elgar and Alice were enchanted by Bulwer-Lytton's
"Strange Story," in which true love and witchcraft collide in an English
village. Alice suggested the source of the Quintet's brooding atmosphere in
her diary: "E. wrote more of the wonderful Quintet. Sad dispossessed trees
and their dance and unstilled regret for their evil fate... Lytton's 'Strange
Story' seems to sound through it, too."
The Quintet opens with an aura of mystery as the piano quietly intones the main
theme in octaves ("serioso") and the strings utter a hesitant accompaniment.
The stark modality of this theme, which recurs throughout the work, suggests
monastic plainchant. A modulation to A major leads to a new theme based on the
accompaniment figure. Played in thirds in the upper strings, this theme moves
with a dancelike Spanish rhythm. The movement develops with subtle recastings
of these two themes. The hushed ending, the piano articulating the accompaniment
figure in its lowest register, conjures a mood of awe.
The warmly expressive Adagio (E major) at moments suggests the cello concerto,
which Elgar contemplated at this time. The main theme, heard at the outset in
the viola, emerges from the string quartet texture. At the movement's more agitated
center, marked "ever faster and louder," the key modulates to F major.
The E major key soon returns and the movement concludes with quiet radiance.
The compelling finale (A major) expands ideas heard in the opening movement.
After the Andante introduction, the strings develop a sustained melody (marked
"with dignity"), then a new theme reminiscent of the dancelike motif
heard in the first movement. After a frenzied climax, the motivic threads are
drawn together in a more tranquil atmosphere. The texture grows denser until
the climactic passage, marked grandioso, played at the highest dynamic level.
The movement accelerates to a triumphant conclusion.
Festival Musicians
Roger Chase, Viola, was born in London and studied at the Royal College of Music with Bernard Shore and in Canada with Steven Staryk. He also worked with the legendary Lionel Tertis. Mr. Chase made his debut with the English Chamber Orchestra in 1979. He has performed around the world and has been a member of many ensembles, including the Nash Ensemble, the London Sinfonietta, the Quartet of London, Hausmusik of London and the London Chamber Orchestra. Currently a member of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music faculty, he taught at the Guildhall School of Music in London and the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. Mr. Chase has recorded for EMI, CDR, Hyperion, Cala, Virgin, and Floating Earth Records.
Christina Dahl, Piano is active as a soloist, chamber musician and teacher. As a young artist, she was a prize winner in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. Ms. Dahl is a two-time winner of the USIA Cultural Ambassadors Competition, and has presented State Department-sponsored tours in South America and Africa. A frequent soloist on faculty artist recitals, she has been featured in radio broadcasts on NPR's "Performance Today" and on public radio stations in Los Angeles, Madison, and New York. In addition to teaching at SUNY Stony Brook, Christina Dahl is chair of the piano faculty at the Eastern Music Festival.
Nicole Divall, Viola, was a prize winner in the 1997 Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition, and has since performed at many festivals, including Aspen, Taos, Park City, BRAVO! Colorado, Casalmaggiors Italy, Steamboat Springs, Grand Canyon, Ann Arbor Spring, Tucson, Skaneateles Festivals, and at Kneisel Hall. Recently Ms. Divall performed as guest artist with the Los Angeles Piano Quartet, the American String Quartet, and the St. Petersburg Quartet, and participated in a chamber music tour of Alaska. She is currently principal violist of the Cleveland Chamber Symphony and Cleveland's baroque group Apollo's Fire.
Richard Hawkins, Clarinet, made his 1992 solo debut at the Kennedy Center with Mstislav Rostropovich and the National Symphony Orchestra. He has since appeared as soloist in concerto performances with such orchestras as the Pennsylvania Ballet Orchestra, the Kennedy Center Opera Orchestra, Colombia Philharmonic, Corpus Christi Symphony and others. He is also an active contemporary, chamber and orchestral musician, performing frequently with the Cleveland Orchestra. Since 1997, Mr. Hawkins has been an artist representative, clinician and woodwind design technician with the G. LeBlanc Corporation in addition to crafting custom clarinet mouthpieces. He is currently Assistant Professor of Clarinet at the Oberlin Conservatory.
Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio features Joseph Kalichstein, piano, Jaime Laredo, violin and Sharon Robinson, cello. The group made its debut at the White House in 1977, and since then they have set the standard for performance of piano trio literature for 26 consecutive seasons. As one of the only chamber ensembles with all its original members, the Trio balances the careers of three internationally acclaimed soloists with annual appearances at many of the world's major concert halls, commissioning spectacular new works, and maintaining an active recording agenda. Memorable moments over the years include a performance on Carnegie Hall's Centennial Series; several tours of Europe, Japan, New Zealand and Australia; a Brahms series with the Guarneri Quartet; the Beethoven cycle on Lincoln Center's "Great Performers" Series; and performances of new works with orchestras across America and Europe. Recent solo and Trio recordings can be found on Koch International and Arabesque labels. The Trio is also the inspiration for the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson International Trio Award (KLRITA) an initiative of the Chamber Music Society of Detroit (with participation by the Arizona Friends of Chamber Music) to encourage and enhance the careers of promising young piano trios. The Award will be presented to a new ensemble every two years.
Benny Kim, Violin, is the winner of several prestigious awards, including the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in 1983. The Washington Post writes that his "technique was dazzling; his is a style that touches the peak of romantic violin playing." In addition to performing with many leading American orchestras, including the Chicago and St. Louis Symphonies, he maintains a busy solo, recital, and chamber music career across the U.S. Mr. Kim has participated in international music festivals, such as Interlochen, Aspen, Marlboro, BRAVO! Colorado, Cape Cod, the Grand Canyon, Santa Fe, and Vancouver. He is a graduate of Juilliard and teaches violin at the University of Missouri/Kansas City Conservatory of Music.
Soovin Kim, Violin, burst onto the music scene in 1996 at age 20 when he captured a spectacular first at the Niccoló Paganini International Violin Competition. As a result, he was given the honor of performing on "Il Cannone," Paganini's rarely played violin. In October of 1997, he received the prestigious Henryk Szeryng Foundation Career Award, and was again honored in 1998 with the Avery Fisher Career Grant. Since then he has appeared with orchestras and in recitals throughout North America and Europe. He has collaborated with leading chamber musicians, such as Richard Goode, Mitsuko Uchida, Pamela Frank, and members of the Guarneri Quartet and Beaux Arts Trio. He is a regular participant in the Marlboro Festival in Vermont and tours as part of "Musicians from Marlboro." Mr. Kim graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied with Victor Danchecnko and Jaime Laredo.
Peter Rejto, Cello, has appeared
throughout the US and abroad in hundreds of performances as soloist and with
the Los Angeles Piano Quartet of which he is a founding member. Mr. Rejto has
appeared at the summer festivals of Aspen, La Jolla, Round Top, Carmel Bach,
Marlboro, Fairbanks, Sitka, Santa Fe, Grand Canyon, and BRAVO! Colorado. His
many honors include winning the Young Concert Artists International competition
and the Debut Award of the Young Musicians Foundation, Los Angeles. Currently
Professor of Music at the Oberlin Conservatory, Mr. Rejto performs on a Dominicus
Montagnana, made in Venice in 1721. He has recorded for Sony Classical, Silva
Classics, Summit, Music Masters, and Pickwick.
Cover art: Brenda Semanick
Program notes: Nancy Monsman
Design and art direction: GroundZero
Producer and Recording Engineer: Matthew Snyder