Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center



The following program notes may only be used in conjunction with the one-time streaming term for the corresponding Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS) Front Row National program, with the following credit(s):???Program notes by Laura Keller, CMS Editorial Manager??? 2021 Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center???Any other use of these materials in connection with non-CMS concerts or events is prohibited.??Roaring Twenties MasterworksPROGRAM?Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)Sonata for Violin and Piano (1923-27)AllegrettoBlues: ModeratoPerpetuum mobile: AllegroBenjamin Beilman, violin; Alessio Bax, piano?--INTERMISSION (Discussion with artists)--?Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957)Suite for Piano Left Hand, Two Violins, and Cello, Op. 23 (1930)Pr?ludium: Kr?ftig und bestimmt—Fuge: RuhigWalzer: Nicht schnell, anmutigGroteske: M?glichst rasch—Trio: Sehr m?ssigLied: Schlicht und innig. Nicht zu langsamRondo—Finale (Variationen): Schnell, heftigWu Qian, piano; Dani Um, Sean Lee, violin; Mihai Marica, celloNOTES ON THE PROGRAMSonata for Violin and Piano (1923-27)Maurice Ravel (Ciboure, France, 1875 – Paris, 1937)Ravel’s Violin Sonata was a long time in the making. Composed with many stops and starts, the sonata confounded the composer for four years as he labored to synthesize the many influences revolutionizing French music in the 1920s: American jazz, a stark neo-classicism, and metric ambiguity from Stravinsky. Ravel took so long writing the sonata that the violinist who inspired the piece couldn’t premiere it. He originally wrote it for Hélène Jourdan-Morhange, who premiered the composer’s Sonata for Violin and Cello in 1922 and gave the French premiere of Berceuse sur le nom de Fauré the same year. By the time Ravel finished this sonata, however, Jourdan-Morhange had retired from playing due to arthritis. George Enescu (the violinist and composer) gave the premiere with Ravel in Paris. The sonata is short, concise, and full of effortless-sounding melodies. There’s nothing in it to suggest its long and drawn-out origin. In discussing this sonata, Ravel described the violin and piano as naturally incompatible. Perhaps for that reason, the first movement begins with the piano playing a simple unaccompanied melody, anticipating and almost imitating the violin. The economy of means continues after the violin entrance and soon another theme sneaks in the piano’s left hand: cheeky grace notes ending in repeated staccato figures. The mischievous counter-melody makes many brief appearances in the first movement only to return as the main theme of the high-energy perpetuum mobile finale. The most surprising movement is the second—Blues. Ravel matches a quarter-note accompaniment with an improvisatory-sounding melody, capturing the sound of the blues while keeping it cool, calm, and never too serious.A year after the premiere, Ravel made his first and only visit to the United States. He played his own works (including this sonata with violinist Joseph Szigeti) and conducted orchestras around the US and Canada. Between engagements he learned all he could about jazz and blues, meeting George Gershwin and Duke Ellington, among others. Ravel was fascinated by jazz and equally frustrated that Americans treated it as a passing fad. To vent his frustration, he wrote an article called “Take Jazz Seriously!” that largely fell on deaf ears. Americans did take Ravel seriously, though. The critic Olin Downes wrote in the New York Times, “Mr. Ravel has pursued his way as an artist quietly and very well. He has disdained superficial or meretricious success. He has been his own most unsparing critic.”JAZZ IN PARIS:Ravel wasn’t the only French person who loved jazz. African-American music was imported to Paris going back to the turn of the 20th century, when ragtime was popular. Starting in the late teens, jazz began to arrive. Louis Mitchell’s Jazz Kings played at the Casino de Paris and members of Will Marion Cook’s Southern Syncopated Orchestra played in Paris in spring 1921. But the break-out even that brought jazz to the Paris elite was a concert on December 6, 1921 that featured Billy Arnold’s American Novelty Jazz Band on the same program as Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring on player piano and a sonata by Milhaud. Copland was there. Ravel called Arnold’s band “wonderful.” Milhaud summed up the evening, “At the end of the concert, the audience in the Salle des Agriculteurs seemed dizzy: they felt a new force. If the quality of the music was sometimes questionable, it at least had the same resonance as an element of folklore: through it the voice of America was revealed as fresh, lively, vibrant, as heavy and melancholic; sometimes peaceful, slightly sentimental, but fully imbued with an almost desperate poetry.”Billy Arnold's Novelty Jazz Band - Runnin Wild - 1923 Suite for Piano Left Hand, Two Violins, and Cello, Op. 23 (1930)Erich Wolfgang Korngold (Brno, Moravia, 1897 – Hollywood, 1957)Korngold was best known early on for his German operas and later, after a move to Hollywood in the 1930s, for his film scores. After bursting on the scene as a child prodigy, he reached the height of his fame in Weimar Germany with the stunning success of his opera Die tote Stadt. Though composing, conducting, and teaching engagements poured in, he agreed to take on two unusual projects—pieces for left hand for pianist Paul Wittgenstein, a member of a wealthy family (his brother was the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein) who self-funded the commissions. Wittgenstein made a critically acclaimed debut in 1913 but lost his right arm while serving in World War I. He directed his formidable technique toward playing with his left hand alone and returned to the concert stage with a variety of arrangements and newly commissioned works for piano left hand. In addition to inspiring this suite and a piano concerto from Korngold, he commissioned a handful of the leading composers of the day—Ravel, Britten, Strauss, and Prokofiev.The scope of Korngold’s suite is wide-ranging and sweepingly epic. He reaches back in music history to appropriate well-known forms and reference famous composers, creating music that remains consistently unique and surprising. When Korngold finished the suite in 1930, his musical language was already a bit dated, his fiery expressionism the opposite of the cool neo-classicism that was in vogue after World War I. Still, the suite is a unique look at the various artistic movements in Korngold’s Germany. The first movement is a reimagining of a Bach prelude and fugue—the improvisatory prelude section for piano alone takes the form of a sort-of bravura cadenza. The second movement, a nostalgic waltz, reflects Korngold’s fascination with Viennese waltz king Johann Strauss II, who had died shortly after Korngold was born. The third movement is a scherzo called “Groteske,” the composer’s unsettled tribute to a visual art form that was having a renaissance in 1920s Germany. After a Lied that features his expansive song Was du mir bist, Korngold unleashes an intricate theme and variation movement that recalls the song again near the end.Notes by Laura Keller, CMS Editorial Manager? Chamber Music Society of Lincoln CenterABOUT THE ARTISTSPianist?Alessio Bax—a First Prize winner at both the?Leeds and Hamamatsu International Piano Competitions, and the recipient of a 2009 Avery Fisher Career Grant—has appeared with more than 100 orchestras, including the London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Houston Symphony, Japan’s NHK Symphony, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, and City of Birmingham Symphony.?In summer 2017 he launched a three-season appointment as artistic director of Tuscany’s Incontri in Terra di Siena festival, having also appeared at such festivals as Music@Menlo, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Switzerland’s Verbier Festival, Norway’s Ris?r Festival, Germany’s Klavier-Festival Ruhr and Beethovenfest, and England’s Aldeburgh Festival, Bath Festival, and International Piano Series.?An accomplished chamber musician, he regularly collaborates with his wife, pianist Lucille Chung, superstar violinist Joshua Bell, Berlin Philharmonic principals Daishin Kashimoto and Emmanuel Pahud, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, where he is an alum of The Bowers Program. Last season brought the release of Italian Inspirations, his 11th recording for Signum Classics, whose program was also the vehicle for his solo recital debut at New York’s 92nd Street Y. Last season, he undertook Beethoven’s complete works for cello and piano at CMS and on a forthcoming Signum Classics release with Paul Watkins of the Emerson String Quartet. At age 14,?Mr. Bax graduated with top honors from the conservatory of Bari, his hometown in Italy, and after further studies in Europe, he moved to the US in 1994.Violinist Benjamin Beilman has won praise both for his passionate performances and deep, rich tone which the?Washington Post?called “mightily impressive,” and?the New York Times?described as “muscular with a glint of violence.”?Highlights of recent seasons include debuts with the Budapest Festival Orchestra, return engagements with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and his return to the London Chamber Orchestra to play-direct. He has also performed with the Chicago Symphony, Antwerp Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Zurich Tonhalle, Sydney Symphony, Houston Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, and Minnesota Orchestra. In recital and chamber music, he performs regularly at major halls across the world, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, K?lner Philharmonie, Berlin Philharmonie, Wigmore Hall, Louvre (Paris), and Bunka Kaikan (Tokyo). In 2018 he premiered a new work dedicated to the political activist Angela Davis written by Frederic Rzewski and commissioned by Music Accord. An alum of CMS’s Bowers Program, Mr. Beilman studied with Almita and Roland Vamos at the Music Institute of Chicago, Ida Kavafian and Pamela Frank at the Curtis Institute, and Christian Tetzlaff at the Kronberg Academy, and has received many prestigious accolades including a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and a London Music Masters Award. He has an exclusive recording contract with Warner Classics and released his first disc?Spectrum for the label in 2016. He plays the “Engleman” Stradivarius from 1709 generously on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation.Violinist Sean Lee has captured the attention of audiences around the world with his lively performances of the classics. A recipient of a 2016 Avery Fisher Career Grant, he is one of few violinists who dares to perform Niccolò Paganini’s 24 Caprices in concert, and his YouTube series, Paganini POV, continues to draw praise for its use of technology in sharing unique perspectives and insight into violin playing. He has performed as a soloist with orchestras including the San Francisco Symphony, Israel Camerata Jerusalem, and Orchestra del Teatro Carlo Felice; and his recital appearances have taken him to Vienna's Konzerthaus, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, and Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall. As a season artist at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and an alum of CMS’s Bowers Program, he continues to perform regularly at Lincoln Center, as well as on tour. Originally from Los Angeles, Mr. Lee studied with Robert Lipsett of the Colburn Conservatory and legendary violinist Ruggiero Ricci before moving at the age of 17 to study at The Juilliard School with his longtime mentor, violinist Itzhak Perlman. He currently teaches at The Juilliard School’s Pre-College Division, as well as the Perlman Music Program. He performs on a violin originally made for violinist Ruggiero Ricci in 1999 by David Bague.Romanian-born cellist?Mihai?Marica?is a first prize winner of the Dr. Luis Sigall International Competition in Vi?a del Mar, Chile and the Irving M. Klein International Competition, and is a recipient of Charlotte White’s Salon de Virtuosi Fellowship Grant. He has performed with orchestras such as the Symphony Orchestra of Chile, Xalapa Symphony in Mexico, the Hermitage State Orchestra of St. Petersburg in Russia, the Jardins Musicaux Festival Orchestra in Switzerland, the Louisville Orchestra, and the Santa Cruz Symphony in the US. He has also appeared in recital performances in Austria, Hungary, Germany, Spain, Holland, South Korea, Japan, Chile, the United States, and Canada. A dedicated chamber musician, he has performed at the Chamber Music Northwest, Norfolk, and Aspen music festivals where he has collaborated with such artists as Ani Kavafian, Ida Kavafian, David Shifrin, André Watts, and Edgar Meyer. He is a founding member of the award-winning Amphion String Quartet.?A recent collaboration with dancer Lil Buck brought forth new pieces for solo cello written by Yevgeniy Sharlat and Patrick Castillo. Last season he joined the acclaimed Apollo Trio.?Mr. Marica studied with Gabriela Todor in his native Romania and with Aldo Parisot at the Yale School of Music where he was awarded master's and artist diploma degrees. He is an alum of CMS's Bowers Program.Praised as an “utterly dazzling” artist (The Strad),?with “a marvelous show of superb technique” and “mesmerizing grace”?(New York Classical Review), violinist?Danbi Um?captivates audiences with her virtuosity, individual sound, and interpretive sensitivity. A Menuhin International Violin Competition Silver Medalist,?she?showcases her artistry in concertos, chamber music, and recitals. After?winning the Music Academy of the West Competition in 2014, she made her concerto debut performing the Walton Violin Concerto with the Festival Orchestra,?conducted by Joshua Weilerstein.?Highlights of her 2019-20 season included solo appearances with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia (Kimmel Center) and Brevard Philharmonic, a national tour with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and debut performances at premier national series including Wolf Trap, Cincinnati’s Linton Chamber Series, and Chicago’s Dame Myra Hess Concerts.?An avid chamber musician, she is an alum of CMS's Bowers Program. Her festival appearances have included those at Marlboro, Ravinia, Yellow Barn, Moab, Seattle, Caramoor, Moritzburg, and North Shore.?Her chamber music?collaborators have included Vadim Gluzman, Pamela Frank, Frans Helmerson, Jan Vogler, David Shifrin, and Gilbert Kalish.?Admitted to the Curtis?Institute of Music at the age of ten, Ms. Um graduated with a bachelor’s degree. Her teachers have included Shmuel Ashkenasi, Joseph Silverstein,?Jaime Laredo, and Hagai Shaham.?She is a winner of?Astral’s?2015?National Auditions and plays on a 1683 “ex-Petschek”?Nicolò Amati?violin, on loan from a private collection.Winner of a 2016 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, as well as classical music’s bright young star award for 2007 by?The Independent,?pianist?Wu Qian?has maintained a busy international career for over a decade. She has appeared as soloist in many international venues including the Wigmore, Royal Festival, and Bridgewater halls in the UK, City Hall in Hong Kong, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. As a soloist she has appeared with the Konzerthaus Orchester in Berlin, the Brussels Philharmonic, the London Mozart Players, I Virtuosi Italiani, the European Union Chamber Orchestra, and the Munich Symphoniker. She won first prize in the Trio di Trieste Duo Competition and the Kommerzbank Piano Trio competition in Frankfurt, and has received numerous other awards. Recent appearances include performances in the UK, Germany, USA, Korea, Australia, Spain, and The Netherlands and collaborations with Alexander Sitkovetsky, Leticia Moreno, Cho-Liang Lin, Clive Greensmith, and Wu Han.?Her debut recording of Schumann, Liszt, and Alexander Prior was met with universal critical acclaim.?She is a founding member of the Sitkovetsky Piano Trio with which, in addition to performing in major concert halls and series around the world, she has released two recordings on the BIS label and also a disc of Brahms and Schubert on the Wigmore Live Label. Wu Qian is an alum of CMS's Bowers Program. ................
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