MUSIK An die 2021-2022 SEASON - December 16, 2021-January 27, 2022 - Schubert Club
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An die 2021–2022 SEASON
December 16, 2021—January 27, 2022
MUSIK
COVID-19 INFORMATION
GUIDELINES & POLICIES
As guidance regarding COVID-19 continues to develop, Schubert Club is monitoring
updates from health organizations, local and state government, and the performing
arts community.
TICKET POLICIES FOR 2021-2022
In light of the current uncertainties, we’ve made temporary changes to our ticket
policies for the 2021-22 season to give our ticket holders more flexible options.
You can read more about our updated ticket policies at:
www.schubert.org/buy-tickets/ticket-info-and-policies/
CURRENT SAFETY POLICIES
Vaccination policy:
In light of the highly transmissible Delta variant and increasing case numbers in
Minnesota, we require all guests to present proof of either full COVID-19 vaccination
or a negative COVID-19 test result taken within 72 hours prior to attending a ticketed
Schubert Club concert or event. Being fully vaccinated means completing your final
dose of a COVID-19 vaccine at least 14 days before the performance date. Proof of
vaccination or a negative test result must be shown when entering the venue. Proof
of vaccination includes bringing a physical card or showing a digital photo of your
vaccination card. Proof of a negative test result includes bringing a printed or digital
copy of your test results.
Mask policy:
All guests and staff will be required to wear masks inside our concert venues, except
while eating or drinking in the lobbies. This follows the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention’s recent recommendation that everyone should wear a mask indoors
regardless of vaccination status.
Capacity Restrictions:
Schubert Club performances through January 2022 will be reduced to 50% capacity
to allow for social distancing.
You can read more on our commitment to safety at:
www.schubert.org/covid
2 SCHUBERT CLUB An die Musik
AN DIE MUSIK • TABLE OF CONTENTS
An die Musik
December 16, 2021 – January 27, 2022 WELCOME TO THE 2021–2022 SEASON!
TABLE OF CONTENTS For the most up to date concert and event
schedule, as well as general information about
2 Covid-19 Guidelines and Policies Schubert Club and our programs and policies,
please visit our website at schubert.org
4 Artistic & Executive Director and
President's Welcome Schubert Club Ticket Office:
6 IAS: Víkingur Ólafsson, piano 651.292.3268 • schubert.org
10 Schubert Club Mix: Víkingur Ólafsson, piano Schubert Club
12 Susie Park, violin; Benjamin Hochman, piano 75 West 5th Street, Suite 302
Saint Paul, Minnesota 55102
18 Gerald Finley, bass-baritone; Julius Drake, piano schubert.org
26 Courtroom Concerts
On the cover:
28 Schubert Club Annual Contributors: Víkingur Ólafsson, piano; Photo: Ari Magg
Thank you for your generosity and support Garald Finley, bass-baritone; photo provided
35 Schubert Club Officers, Board, Staff,
and Advisory Circle
December 2021 – February 2022 Event Schedule
For more details,
please visit
schubert.org/events
schubert.org 3GREETINGS FROM BARRY KEMPTON AND CATHERINE FURRY
A Happy New Year to you all!
Welcome to the Schubert Club
Welcoming so many of you back to in-person
Schubert Club concerts has been delightful. We are
Schubert Club’s programming in January
grateful to you all for adhering to the necessary health
includes recitals in the International Artist Series,
requirements to make these concerts possible.
Music in the Park Series, and Schubert Club Mix.
Unfortunately, these precautions appear to be
We also have three free Thursday lunchtime
necessary for the foreseeable future. As always, we
concerts at Landmark Center.
will keep you informed as changes occur.
Early in January, we welcome the remarkable
The next time you see Barry, be sure to congratulate
Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson to Schubert
him on his ten-year anniversary with the Schubert
Club as our Featured Artist of the season.
Club. He is an extraordinary leader in the music
Víkingur’s program for the International Artist
community, and we are incredibly fortunate to have
Series focuses on repertoire from his most recent
him steering the Schubert Club ship. In addition to
recording on the Deutsche Grammophon label
Barry, our entire staff has been working phenomenally
“Mozart and Contemporaries;” his approach to
hard during the pandemic times, envisioning where
the repertoire, both familiar and unfamiliar, is
and how to make the countless changes necessary
illuminating. Two days later he revisits repertoire
to keep the ship sailing smoothly. They deserve your
from popular earlier recordings of Bach and
thanks as well.
Glass in a Schubert Club Mix concert at Aria in
Minneapolis. Between the concerts, he gives a
Our exceptionally talented Board of Directors
masterclass at the MacPhail Center for Music.
deserve an appreciative shout out for their dedication
and work in moving the Schubert Club forward through
Later in January, the fabled bass-baritone
these turbulent waters. We’ve recently embarked on
Gerald Finley brings a recital to the Ordway
a strategic planning effort to envision the Schubert
with his long-time musical collaborator, Julius
Club over the next several years. Take a gander at the
Drake. Between those two International Artist
photos and names of the Board members on our web
Series performances, the amazing Susie Park,
site so you can greet them at upcoming concerts.
first associate concertmaster of the Minnesota
Orchestra, appears on Music in the Park Series
Schubert Club is thankful for the support you
with collaborative pianist Benjamin Hochman.
have demonstrated during these difficult times
through ticket purchases, turn backs, and generous
In addition to those four concerts, we have
donations. We can continue to provide the highest
vocal and piano programs at Landmark Center.
quality programs both in person and via streaming
Currently these “Courtroom” concerts are being
due in large part to your patronage.
presented in Landmark Center’s main Cortile
area on the first floor to allow for more spaced-
out seating. Still Thursdays at noon. And if you
missed the remarkable piano duo ZOFO late
last year, it’s possible to see their imaginatively
compiled program of music and contemporary
artworks in our digital concert series (premiers
January 20 and available to view for 1 week).
Whenever we see you next, you will be
warmly welcome!
Barry Kempton Catherine Furry
Artistic & Executive Director PresidentNOW OPEN
schubert.org/museum
schubert.org 5Sunday, January 9, 2022 • 3:00 PM
Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser Sanborn International Artist Series Ordway Music Theater
Pre-concert conversation one hour before the performance with David Evan Thomas
VÍKINGUR ÓLAFSSON, PIANO
This concert is dedicated in honor of Catherine and John Neimeyer
by Nancy and Ted Weyerhaeuser
“Mozart and his Contemporaries”
Sonata No. 9 in F minor, Andante spiritoso (1756-59)
Baldassare Galuppi (1706–1785)
Rondo in F major, K. 494 (1786) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)
Rondo No. 2 in D minor, Wq. 61/4 (1787) Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714–1788)
Sonata No. 42 in D minor (abt 1787) Domenico Cimarosa (1749–1801), arr. Ólafsson
Fantasy No. 3 in D minor, K. 397 (1782) Mozart
Rondo in D major, K. 485 (1786) Mozart
Sonata No. 55 in A minor, Largo (abt 1787) Cimarosa, arr. Ólafsson
Sonata No. 47 in B minor, Hob XVI:32 (1774–76) Joseph Haydn (1732–1809)
Allegro moderato • Menuetto—Trio • Finale: Presto
Little Gigue in G major K. 574 (1789) Mozart
Sonata No. 16 in C major, K. 545 (1788) Mozart
Allegro • Andante • Rondo: Allegretto
Intermission
Adagio ma non troppo, from Quintet in G minor, K. 516 (1787) Mozart, arr. Ólafsson
Sonata No. 34 in C minor, Larghetto (1756-59) Galuppi
Sonata No. 14 in C minor, K. 457 (1784) Mozart
Molto allegro • Adagio • Allegro assai
Adagio in B minor, K. 540 (1788) Mozart
Ave verum corpus, K. 618 (1791, 1871) Mozart (Trans. Liszt)
PLEASE SILENCE ALL ELECTRONIC DEVICESVÍKINGUR ÓLAFSSON • INTERNATIONAL ARTIST SERIES
Mozart and his Contemporaries
composed at least 100 operas, serious and comic. He
Listening to this rich program, one might focus pioneered the ensemble finale. And there are well
on any one of many themes: the roots of piano over 100 sonatas, many of them single-movement
music in opera; the triumph of the piano over the works in the manner of Domenico Scarlatti, published
harpsichord and clavichord; and the rise of the galant beginning in 1756, the year Mozart was born. Two of
values of melody and easy brilliance. One might Galuppi’s opera subjects, Idomeneo and La clemenza
observe the emergence of one highly directional di Tito, were remade by Mozart.
musical form called “sonata” and a more circular one
called “rondo.” The influence of rhetoric on music Cimarosa’s story echoes Galuppi’s a generation
would be an interesting digression: what to make later: poor family—operatic glory—Catherine the
of all the irregularities and silences in the music of Great. It was in St. Petersburg that Cimarosa began
C.P.E. Bach and Haydn? Or one could stick to Mozart: to write short, melodic sonatas, and as with Galuppi,
his nearly ten years in Vienna; his relationship to Scarlatti was the model. In 1791, the year Mozart died,
the other composers on the program; notably, the Cimarosa was appointed Kapellmeister to Leopold II.
development of his unique voice in what would be his The premiere of the opera buffa Il matrimonio segreto
unexpectedly final years. (The Secret Marriage) the following year was such
a hit, Leopold ordered an immediate encore in his
The Instrument private chambers. The opera invites comparison with
Mozart, especially in its ensembles. As the French
In the seventeenth century, players of a keyboard novelist Stendhal put it: “On cheerful days you will
instrument (or Clavier) had to choose between prefer Cimarosa; on melancholy ones, Mozart.“
sensitivity and volume. The louder instruments—
organ and harpsichord (variously called cembalo in Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was five years older
Germany and clavecin in France and Spain)—were not than Mozart’s father, so Mozart would have looked
touch-sensitive, but they were ideal for polyphonic upon him as a father figure. The second surviving
music. The clavichord’s simple mechanism, in which son of Johann Sebastian and Maria Barbara,
a string is touched with a metal tangent rather than Emanuel Bach (as C.P.E. was known) was a leading
plucked, was exquisitely sensitive and effective for musician of his day, first at the court of Frederick
practice, but too soft for performance. Around 1700, the Great from 1740-1757, then as music director of
that changed with the invention by Cristofori of the the five principal Hamburg churches. Not only did
gravicembalo col pian’ e forte, the “harpsichord Emanuel Bach compose over a thousand musical
with soft and loud,” which soon enough was called works, he authored a key treatise of the day, the
pianoforte or fortepiano. Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard
Opera and Sensibility
Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser Sanborn
Galuppi and Cimarosa are just names to us now, International Artist Series
but in their day they were celebrities in an age when
opera was the red carpet. Galuppi is remembered for M a u d M o o n We y e r h a e u s e r
the poem Robert Browning wrote about him in 1855: Sanborn (1876-1965) was born in
Rochester, Minnesota. She married
. . . . “Oh, they praised you, I dare say! Charles Weyerhaeuser in 1898 and
‘Brave Galuppi! that was music! lived most of her life in Saint Paul.
good alike at grave and gay! A talented singer always active in
I can always leave off talking the musical community, she supported Schubert
when I hear a master play!’” Club and the Minneapolis Symphony. She had a
special affection for Salzburg and Tanglewood
Galuppi was the son of a barber from the island of where she spent summers. She developed close
Burano, northeast of Venice. But in 1748 he began a friendships with important musicians of her day
collaboration with the celebrated librettist Goldoni, such as Dmitri Mitropoulos and Serge Koussevitsky.
and by the mid 1750s, Galuppi was the toast of Europe. The International Artist Series is dedicated to her
He was named maestro di coro at St. Mark’s. He memory by her grandchildren.
was lured to Russia by Catherine the Great. Galuppi
schubert.org 7VÍKINGUR ÓLAFSSON • INTERNATIONAL ARTIST SERIES
Instruments. He was at first a devotee of the at which Mozart, in 1782-83 the new kid in town,
clavichord, and his mercurial style is ideally was introduced to the music of those venerable
suited to that instrument. But by the publication composers. Later, Mozart made arrangements of
of the second volume of his Essay in 1762, he Handel’s oratorios for the “Associierten.” Contact
recommended the fortepiano in addition to with the notes themselves must have seeped into
the clavichord as “the best accompaniments his marrow. Mozart’s rich relationship with Haydn—a
in performances that require the most elegant deep mutual love and respect—also began in 1781.
taste . . . because of the many ways in which
their volume can be gradually changed.” With the death in November 1787 of Gluck, there
Emanuel Bach is the leading exponent of was a reshuffling of Emperor Joseph II’s music staff.
Empfindsamkeit, the “sensibility style,” which Mozart was appointed as Court Chamber Composer
prized feeling and expression in charge of a band of twelve crack musicians. Antonio
Salieri was named Kapellmeister, a better-paid but not
C.P.E. Bach’s Rondo in D minor, the first of more attractive post, for it came with administrative
five rondos on this program, is one of the many duties. For Mozart, it was an ideal appointment,
rondos contained in the six volumes “für Kenner leaving him free to compose and perform.
und Liebhaber (for connoisseurs and amateurs)
issued almost yearly from 1779–87. Bach’s “A good future may be predicted for anyone
unique approach to the form involves fully who can improvise,” writes C.P.E. Bach in his
developed pieces of considerable depth, with Essay. Mozart’s Fantasy No. 3 in D minor, K. 397,
the theme reappearing in different keys and composed likely in Vienna in 1782, is a teaching
varied, often alternating with agitated passages model as well as an effective performing vehicle.
and punctuated by silence. What he doesn’t say An arpeggiated prelude is followed by a little aria.
is as important as what he does say. Emphatic declarations are broken up by flourishes.
Mozart left the bright closing Allegro unfinished.
Haydn’s Sonata in B minor was composed in
the mid 1770s during Haydn’s service to Nikolaus The Rondo in F major, K. 494 has a complicated
I (the Magnificent), who in 1766 had built his provenance. Mozart dated the first version June 10,
family palace in a bog near the Neusiedler See, 1786, giving it an Andante tempo marking. When
now in Hungary. It’s the only one of Haydn’s 62 it was published two years by Hoffmeister, it was
piano sonatas in this key. All three movements appended to the Allegro and Andante of K. 533, the
are in the tonic minor or major. tempo was changed to Allegretto and a written-out
cadenza was inserted. Carl Schachter calls these
The opening Allegro displays a tremendous 27 cadenza measures “some of Mozart’s boldest
flexibility of mood and texture, from stiff and writing for piano.” It includes an amazing stretto—a
starched to fleet and flexible. With its stern monumental piling up of some nine voices—from
subject and eager response, one could hear it the bottom through nearly f ive octaves to the
as a dialogue between a lord and his vassal. The top of Mozart’s piano. But what follows is equally
Menuetto is in parallel major, with a Trio thrumming impressive, as Mozart discovers the husky whisper
in the minor. Haydn introduces a spinning, four- of his piano below middle C.
note, right-hand figure which will become an
obsession in the Finale, where repeated notes The Rondo in D, K. 485 was composed the same
chase each other in a lean texture. year. The title is misleading; rather, it shows how
confusing the terms rondo and sonata can be. There
is only theme in this movement, and it’s heard on
Mozart’s Last Decade every pitch level, including a late shocking deceptive
move. It’s a sonata in form, but a C.P.E. Bach-style
Baron Gottfried van Swieten (1733–1803) rondo in the way that the theme keeps coming back.
was a key figure in Mozart’s maturity. Swieten
was devoted to “old music,” the music of J.S. Between the triumphant Prague premiere of Don
Bach and Handel in particular, and he also Giovanni and its less successful Vienna run in 1788,
commissioned six symphonies from C.P.E. Mozart explored an unusual key in the Adagio in B
Bach in 1773. As Prefect of the Imperial Library, minor. It begins with a gently arching triadic theme,
the Baron hosted informal Sunday meetings but the first diminished chord is a shock. Throbbing
8 SCHUBERT CLUB An die MusikVÍKINGUR ÓLAFSSON • INTERNATIONAL ARTIST SERIES
chords support sighs heavy and light. Often the sweeping, the contrasts deeper, the material dramatic.
right hand dips below the left, forcing the ear to Even the tempo markings—molto allegro and allegro
reinterpret the harmony. On Mozart’s five-octave assai—point to the extreme. This sonata and this key
piano, these bass notes would have been dark and made a great impression on Beethoven, who may
brooding, while the late, drooping chromatics would have used it as a model for his Pathétique Sonata
have sounded tender and vulnerable, legacies of fifteen years later. Mozart dated the work October
the Empfindsamer Stil. But the ending in major mode 14, 1784. It is dedicated to his student Therese von
comes as a surprise and a relief. Trattner, but it’s certain that he would have played it
himself. Pianist Paul Badura-Skoda notes that Mozart
In the spring of 1789, Mozart and his student played more than twenty concerts in Vienna that
Karl Lichnowsky (later to be Beethoven’s patron) year. He calls it “the first truly monumental work in
under took a journey to Prague, Dresden and the sonata repertory, designed for acoustics more
Leipzig , w here M ozar t imp rov ise d an organ spacious than those of drawing rooms.”
recital at J.S. Bach’s Thomaskirche, and heard
the choir sing Bach’s “Singet dem Herrn.” Then Unlike the sonatas by Cimarosa and Galuppi, the
it was on to Potsdam, before returning to Leipzig hands participate equally in this drama. Note the
for a Gewandhaus concert of Mozart’s music on extreme hand crossings in the outer movements that
May 12 that included the “Prague” and “Jupiter” delve into the lowest register, a physical contortion
symphonies. As a souvenir of “true friendship and appropriate to the emotional wrenching that goes on in
brotherly love,” Mozart entered the Little Gigue in the music. The Adagio is a rondo, and each return of the
G major, K. 574, in the album of his Leipzig host, theme is richly decorated. An impatient, syncopated
Carl Immanuel Engel. This clever little piece, which theme opens the dramatic final rondo—C.P.E. Bach
foreshadows the character-piece tradition, sounds recalled. Mozart compensates for an anxious ending in
in its crossed accents and chromaticism like a game the minor mode with regular phrasing.
of pinball. There is even a fleeting reference to the
master of Leipzig: the pitches B-A-C-H. With Liszt’s arrangement of Mozart’s motet, Ave
verum corpus, we observe the veneration of Mozart
The Sonata in C, K. 545, dated June 26 1788, in the nineteenth century. Abbé Liszt writes the words
may be the most familiar music on the program. Its of the thirteenth-century prayer above the music.
theme has come to stand in—misleadingly—for the And he lifts the music of this choral gem from D to
Classical style as a whole. While many of Mozart’s the more ethereal B major, taking advantage of the
keyboard works were written for his own use, this modern piano’s sparkling upper register. Mozart is
is a “facile” sonata. But it still holds surprises. The installed in the firmament. Víkingur Ólafsson modifies
main theme reappears in the wrong key in the first Liszt’s opening ever so slightly, to incorporate the
movement and there is a similar digression toward ethos of an American classic.
the end of the graceful and ample slow movement.
Perhaps because of this, it is the only sonata of the When Mozart is viewed with his contemporaries,
four Mozart wrote in C major with a slow movement what emerges is a composer in full command of the
in G, rather than the expected F. galant style, but one who has the technique, inherited
from Bach, Handel, and Haydn, to deploy the age-
Víkingur Olafsson’s arrangement of the Adagio old resources of polyphony and chromaticism for
from the Quintet in G minor, K. 516 clearly follows expressive and dramatic effect, sounding the mystic
the original, which is scored for two violins, two chords of all that is human. Mozart’s music is as old
violas, and cello. Pianist Charles Rosen calls this as it is new, as tragic as it is joyful, as simple as it is
movement “rhythmically the most complex point complex. Mozart unites the polarities.
of the entire quintet.” But the form is clear: ABA’B’.
A four-note cluster-motive is passed between the Program notes © 2021 by David Evan Thomas
voices, creating a subtle variety of textures and www.davidevanthomas.com
metric variations. It’s not the motive itself that’s
distinctive; it’s what Mozart does with it. And in a
sense, it is emblematic of this program as a whole.
If K. 545 is childlike, the Sonata in C minor, K. 457
is a very adult realm of experience. The gestures are
schubert.org 9a new generation of clatssical music
Víkingur Ólafsson, piano This concert is dedicated to the memory
Tuesday, January 11, 7:30 pm of Stephen G. Hunter
Aria, Minneapolis
Pianist Víkingur Ólafsson has made a profound impact with his remarkable combination of
highest level musicianship and visionary programmes. His recordings for Deutsche Grammophon
- Philip Glass Piano Works (2017), Johann Sebastian Bach (2018), Debussy Rameau (2020) and
Mozart & Contemporaries (2021) - captured the public and critical imagination and led to album
streams of over 260 million. The Daily Telegraph called him “The new superstar of classical
piano” while the New York Times dubbed him “Iceland’s Glenn Gould.”
Now one of the most sought-after artists of today, Ólafsson’s multiple awards include
Gramophone magazine’s 2019 Artist of the Year, Opus Klassik Solo Recording Instrumental
(twice) and Album of the Year at the 2019 BBC Music Magazine Awards.
Ólafsson continues to perform with the world’s leading orchestras and as artist in residence
at the top concert halls and festivals. He also works with some of today’s greatest composers.
A captivating communicator both on and off stage, Ólafsson’s significant talent extends
to broadcast, having presented several of his own series for television and radio. He was
artist in residence for three months on BBC Radio 4’s flagship arts programme, Front Row.
Broadcasting live during lockdown from an empty Harpa concert hall in Reykjavík, he reached
millions of listeners around the world.
10 SCHUBERT CLUB An die MusikPROGRAM
This program is presented without intermission.
The artist asks that there be no applause between the works.
Opening
Philip Glass
Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ
Bach / Busoni
Etude No. 9
Philip Glass
Aria from Widerstehe doch der Sünde (Cantata 54)
Bach / Ólafsson
Etude No. 2
Philip Glass
Etude No. 5
Philip Glass
Etude No. 6
Philip Glass
Adagio from Concerto in D minor, BWV 974
Marcello / Bach
Etude No 13
Philip Glass
Adagio from Organ Sonata No. 4
Bach / Stradal
Prelude in B minor
Bach / Siloti
Etude No. 20
Philip Glass
schubert.org 11Sunday, January 23, 2022, 4:00 PM
Saint Anthony Park United Church of Christ
Julie Himmelstrup Music in the Park Series
SUSIE PARK, VIOLIN
BENJAMIN HOCHMAN, PIANO
Duo Sonata in A major, D. 574 (1817) Franz Schubert (1797–1828)
Allegro moderato
Scherzo: Presto
Andantino
Allegro vivace
Sonata in G major, M. 77 (1923–27) Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)
Allegretto
Blues: Moderato
Perpetuum mobile: Allegro
Intermission
Rhapsody No. 1 for solo violin (2014) Jessie Montgomery (b. 1981)
Theme and Variations (1932) Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992)
Tzigane: Rapsodie de concert (1924) Ravel
PLEASE SILENCE ALL ELECTRONIC DEVICES
Duo Sonata in A major, D. 574 (1817) the entire exposition without repeating himself,”
Franz Schubert observes violinist Abram Loft. “By the time the
(b. Vienna, 1797; d. Vienna, 1828) double bar is reached, the opening idea has
been followed by four others.”
Much of Schubert’s energy was poured into
song-writing in 1817, but the young composer still The second-movement Scherzo begins with
managed to write the Symphony No. 6 and four piano arpeggios in E major and dashes about
piano sonatas that year. The Duo is a bright, trim like a squirrel in spring. In contrast, the Trio is
piece. Elements of Schubert’s compositional all sinuous violin, approached by a chromatic
personality are emerging: sweet melodies, slither. The Andantino is in C major, and each
often wilting at the corners; bursts of virtuosity: instrument sings the theme. A five-note idea
occasional harmonic adventures. leads to the gemütlich, A-flat center.
Piano sets off in ambling fashion, melody in Where the Scherzo left off, the Allegro vivace
the left hand. It seems like an odd start for a picks up; even the earlier chromatic run is
violin sonata, but it’s a companionable way to recalled. The third theme is delightfully bucolic. If
begin a duo. The way violin leisurely expands the movement ends abruptly, think of Polonius’s
into the heights conveys a sense of confidence, quip about brevity and the soul of wit.
of possibility. “Schubert makes his way throughSUSIE PARK & BENJAMIN HOCHMAN • MUSIC IN THE PARK SERIES
Jessie Montgomery
© Jiyang Chen
Sonata for Violin and Piano, M. 77 (1923–27)
Maurice Ravel Rhapsody No. 1 for solo violin (2014)
(b. Ciboure, Basses-Pyrénées, 1875; d. Paris, 1937) Jessie Montgomery
(b. New York City, 1981)
The Violin Sonata—with Tzigane nestled
within—occupied Ravel from 1923 to 1927. Unlike Jessie Montgomery is an acclaimed composer,
Schubert, Ravel found violin and piano essentially violinist, and educator. She is the recipient of the
incompatible. “Far from minimizing their contrasts,” Leonard Bernstein Award from the ASCAP Foundation,
he said, “the work emphasizes that incompatibility.” the Sphinx Medal of Excellence, and her works are
Two styles vie for prominence in Ravel’s post-war performed frequently around the world by leading
music: his characteristic diatonic, modal, lyric voice, musicians and ensembles. Her music interweaves
which dominates the first movement, and a new classical music with elements of vernacular music,
style in which harmony and melody take a back improvisation, poetry, and social consciousness,
seat to propulsive rhythms. making her an acute interpreter of 21st century
American sound and experience.
The Allegretto begins in flexible compound
meter with an ever-translucent texture. The sonata Her growing body of work includes solo, chamber,
is often said to be “in G,” but Ravel avoids saying vocal, and orchestral works. Some recent highlights
that in his title, and the second note is C-sharp, include Shift, Change, Turn (2019) for the Orpheus
which conveys a feeling of Lydian mode. Piano Chamber Orchestra and the Saint Paul Chamber
responds with an ironic drumming comment which Orchestra, Coincident Dances (2018) for the Chicago
is answered by a whole-tone “sun dog” high in Sinfonietta, Banner (2014)—written to mark the 200th
the piano. A second theme is accompanied by anniversary of “The Star-Spangled Banner”—for The
open fifths, leaving the violin melody to sweeten Sphinx Organization and the Joyce Foundation, and
the thirds. Ravel used this very texture in a 1924 Five Freedom Songs (2021), a song cycle written for
song, a setting by the poet Ronsard, that speaks Soprano Julia Bullock, which premiered at the Sun
of the “cold kingdom of the dead.” In particular, Valley Music Festival.
notice how Ravel sets up the expectation of a rich
climax, only to dash our hopes in a long, rustling Since 1999, Jessie has been affiliated with The
tremolando. Sphinx Organization and has served as composer-in-
residence for the Sphinx Virtuosi. A founding member
The second movement is called “Blues,” but this of PUBLIQuartet and a former member of the Catalyst
is not The Blues, that twelve-bar strain that Blind Quartet, Jessie holds degrees from the Juilliard
Willie McTell made famous. There are certainly School and New York University and is currently a
“blue” elements, like the flatted third and seventh, PhD Candidate in Music Composition at Princeton
a mixing of major and minor mode, a persistent, University. She is Professor of violin and composition
strummed accompaniment that suggests guitar. at The New School. In May 2021, she began her
Perhaps, as Mr. Loft suggests, the effect should be appointment as the Mead Composer-in-Residence
“improvisation on a known melody.” Think of other with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
jazz-inspired works at this time, like Gershwin’s
Rhapsody in Blue, which premiered on February Rhapsody No. 1 for solo violin was composed in
12, 1924. 2014 for Montgomery’s debut album, Strum: Music for
Strings (Azica Records). In clear arch form, two melodic
The perpetual-motion finale starts by recalling lines build to a vigorous display of string technique,
the ironic drumming, then by diminutions arrives ending with a poignant pivot on the common tone
at scurrying violin sixteenths. Obsessive rhythm between E-flat and G major.
drives us—pedal to the metal—to the finish line.
schubert.org 13SUSIE PARK & BENJAMIN HOCHMAN • MUSIC IN THE PARK SERIES
Maurice Ravel, c. 1930
Tzigane: Rapsodie de Concert (1924)
Olivier Messiaen about 1940 at the console of the Maurice Ravel
Cavaillé-Coll-organ, Church of Sainte-Trinité in Paris (b. Ciboure, Basses-Pyrénées, 1875; d. Paris, 1937)
In July 1922, Ravel traveled to England for the
Thème et Variations (1932) first British performance of the Sonata for Violin
Olivier Messiaen and Cello. The violinist was Jelly D’Arányi, a grand-
(b. Avignon, 1908; d. Paris, 1992) niece of Joseph Joachim and the inspiration for the
sonatas of Béla Bartók. Pianist Gaby Casadesus
Olivier Messiaen wrote few chamber works, but recalled a party at which Ravel and d’Arányi were
he may claim perhaps the most famous one of also guests: “[Ravel] took us into the study and
the last century: the Quartet for the End of Time, asked d’Aranyi to play him some gypsy folk music.
written in a German Stalag in 1940. The glowing d’Arányi, being Hungarian, didn’t need to be asked
Thème et Variations, a wedding present for his twice and played passionately for at least two
first wife, violinist Claire Delbos, was written in hours without stopping. She was sensational and
1932, when Messiaen was fresh out of the Paris Ravel was mad with joy. . . . very shortly afterwards
Conservatoire. There he had taken first prizes in Tzigane was born.”
practically every subject, including composition,
improvisation and fugue. He had assumed the Like Liszt, Ravel adopts the lassú—friss structure
post of titular organist at the Church of Sainte- so often associated with Romani music. The
Trinité in Paris, where he would play for over sixty lassú (slow) is an extended solo for violin that
years. Messiaen’s staunch Catholic faith, love of affords ample opportunity for double-stops and
birdsong and openness to Eastern philosophy acrobatics high on the G-string. The magical
gives his music a unity of purpose and sonority. entrance of the piano imitates the hammered
You may not say: “That’s a nine-note mode of dulcimer called cimbalom, and the friss (fast) strings
limited transposition!” but you’ll surely recognize themes together, as left-hand pizzicato and high
the voice of this composer. harmonics dazzle the ear and the work comes to
an spectacular—or is it cataclysmic?—finish, not
Messiaen avoids four-square phrases. The unlike La valse and Bolero. No wonder Ravel later
theme comprises two identical arching phrases of orchestrated Tzigane.
seven measures, a shorter climactic phrase, and
a longer expiring one. There are five variations, Program notes © 2021 by David Evan Thomas
the last a reprise of the theme, fortissississimo! www.davidevanthomas.com
14 SCHUBERT CLUB An die MusikSUSIE PARK & BENJAMIN HOCHMAN • MUSIC IN THE PARK SERIES
ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES founding member. She joins the Enso String Quartet as
first violinist for their final season. Susie performed with
the Twin Cities own Accordo as guest violinist this fall.
Other recent highlights include judging the Michael Hill
international violin competition in New Zealand; serving
on the faculty of the Bowdoin International Music
Festival; touring her home country as guest first violinist
of the Australian String Quartet, which prompted the
The Australian to publish a review headlined “Australian
Susie Park
String Quartet proof Susie Park’s one we let get away;”
© Joel Larson
and touring India with the Australian World Orchestra
under the baton of Zubin Mehta.
SUSIE PARK, violin
Park was formerly the violinist of the Eroica Trio
Sydney native Susie Park first picked up a violin at from 2006 to 2012, with which she recorded the
age three, made her solo debut at five, and, by 16, had ensemble’s eighth CD, an all-American disc nominated
performed with every major orchestra in her country. for a Grammy, and toured internationally. She was also
Susie has grown into a musician distinguished by a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln
unusual passion and versatility, and today performs Center Two, collaborating with Wu Han, Gary Hoffman
internationally as an orchestral, chamber, and solo artist. and Ida Kavafian. For three consecutive summers she
was in residence at the Marlboro Music Festival, and
Park’s international career was launched at age she has been seen on numerous tours with Musicians
16, when she took first place in the Yehudi Menuhin from Marlboro. Susie has performed chamber music
International Competition in France. This led to with members of the Guarneri, Juilliard, Emerson,
performances and reengagements throughout the and Cleveland Quartets, as well as Kim Kashkashian,
US, Europe, and her native Australia, where highlights Pamela Frank, Jason Vieaux, Cho-Liang Lin, and Jaime
included performances for crowds of over 120,000. Laredo. Among her festival engagements have been
Susie went on to receive additional top honors at the performances at Music from Angel Fire, the Caramoor,
International Violin Competition of Indianapolis and the Skaneatles, Aspen, Ravinia and Bowdoin festivals in the
Wieniawski Competition in Poland. US; Open Chamber Music at Prussia Cove in England;
Bermuda Festival; the Mozarteum Sommerakademie in
Park has since concertized around the world, soloing Austria; and Keshet Eilon in Israel.
and touring with European orchestras including the
Vienna Symphony, Orchestre National de Lille, and the Park’s diverse musical interests have also led to
Royal Philharmonic; American orchestras including the collaborations with artists such as trumpeter Chris Botti,
Pittsburgh Symphony and San Francisco Symphony; which whom she performed 41 consecutive shows at the
Korea’s KBS Orchestra; Orchestra Wellington in New Blue Note jazz club in New York.
Zealand; and all major symphony orchestras in Australia.
Working with conductors including Simon Rattle, Hans Park holds degrees from the Curtis Institute and the
Vonk, Alan Gilbert, Fabio Luisi and Yehudi Menuhin, New England Conservatory; her principal teachers include
Susie has been heard in venues ranging from New York’s Jaime Laredo, Ida Kavafian, Donald Weilerstein, Miriam
Carnegie and Alice Tully Halls, Boston’s Symphony Fried, Shi-Xiang (Peter) Zhang, and Christopher Kimber.
Hall, Chicago’s Millenium Park, Philadelphia’s Kimmel
Center, Washington’s Smithsonian Institute, Vienna’s She performs on a J.B. Guadagnini violin made in 1740,
Musikverein, Cologne’s Philharmonie, Düsseldorf’s once featured in a documentary of which Susie herself
Tonhalle, and Sydney’s Opera House. was a subject.
Park was recently appointed first associate Park enjoys a variety of creative arts, including
concertmaster of the Minnesota Orchestra, and can cooking, sewing, clothing design, and carpentry. Recent
be seen this season both leading and soloing with the creations include several purses, a dining table, and
ensemble. Susie will also tour with the conductorless bespoke muppets.
East Coast Chamber Orchestra, of which she aSUSIE PARK & BENJAMIN HOCHMAN • ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES
music festival in Tel Aviv. He will complete his cycle
of the complete Mozart Piano Sonatas at the Israel
Conservatory in Tel Aviv and present a World Premiere
by Tamar Muskal alongside works by Brahms and
Schubert at Portland State University in Oregon.
Benjamin
Hochman
He returns to Santa Fe Pro Musica to open their 2021-
© Jennifer Taylor
22 season, conducting Beethoven Symphony No. 5 and
playing Mozart Concerto for Two Pianos with Anne-Marie
McDermott. He rejoins the Orlando Philharmonic and
BENJAMIN HOCHMAN, piano Eric Jacobsen to perform one of his favorite concertos,
the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1.
Benjamin Hochman is a musician of exceptional
versatility who regularly appears in multiple guises as Chamber music collaborations in 2021-22 include
orchestral soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. Berlin performances with Noah Bendix-Balgley, Viviane
In recent years he has ventured into the orchestral Hagner, and Yuval Herz, and collaborations with Amihai
repertoire as a conductor. His wide range of partners Grosz in Erfurt and Utrecht. Upcoming chamber music
and projects is matched by his curiosity, focus, and concerts in the US include a recital with Susie Park for
ability to communicate deeply with audiences. the Schubert Club in Minnesota, with principal players
from several major American orchestras at Strings Music
Since his Carnegie Hall debut as soloist with the Israel Festival in Colorado, and with the Rolston Quartet at
Philharmonic under the baton of Pinchas Zukerman, Music Mountain in Connecticut.
Hochman has enjoyed an international performing
career, appearing as soloist with the New York, Los Hochman began conducting in 2015 as a result of
Angeles, and Prague Philharmonic Orchestras, and his fascination with the orchestral repertoire and his
the Chicago, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and Jerusalem collaborative approach to musicmaking. A graduate of The
Symphony Orchestras under conductors including Juilliard School’s conducting program, where he received
Gianandrea Noseda, Trevor Pinnock, John Storgårds, the Bruno Walter Scholarship and the Charles Schiff
and Joshua Weilerstein. Award, Hochman trained under Alan Gilbert from 2016-
2018. He served as musical assistant to Louis Langrée,
A winner of Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Career Paavo Järvi, Thierry Fischer, and Jeffrey Kahane at the
Grant, he performs at venues including Konzerthaus Mostly Mozart festival in 2016. In 2018 he participated
Wien, Berlin Konzerthaus, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, in the Tanglewood Conducting Seminar, where he
the Louvre in Paris, Liszt Academy in Budapest, worked with Stefan Asbury, and he has also participated
Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, New York’s 92nd in masterclasses with Fabio Luisi and David Zinman. In
Street Y, and Suntory Hall in Tokyo. Festival highlights recent years he has conducted the English Chamber
include IMS Prussia Cove, Israel Festival, Klavierfestival Orchestra, the Orlando Philharmonic, The Orchestra Now
Ruhr, Lucerne, Marlboro, Santa Fe, Spoleto, and Verbier. at Bard Music Festival, and the Juilliard Orchestra.
Hochman’s recent and upcoming projects reflect Hochman’s discography reflects his wide-ranging musical
the breadth of his musical activities, his imaginative interests. In 2019, he recorded Mozart Piano Concertos No.
approach to programming, and his ongoing relationships 17 and No. 24, playing and directing the English Chamber
with several orchestras and festivals. He performed Orchestra. It was released on Avie Records and received
four Beethoven Piano Sonatas for Daniel Barenboim critical acclaim from Anthony Tommasini of The New York
in December 2020 at the Pierre Boulez Saal as part Times, among others. Hochman’s first two recordings
of a filmed workshop and will return to the Santa Fe for Avie Records were Homage to Schubert (works by
Chamber Music Festival in July 2022. He played Bach, Schubert, Kurtág, and Widmann) and Variations (works
George Benjamin, and Christopher Trapani (a world by Knussen, Berio, Lieberson, Benjamin, and Brahms).
premiere) for an online edition of the Charlottesville Variations was selected by The New York Times as one of
Chamber Music Festival. The Trapani and Benjamin the best recordings of 2015 and was also praised by The
were featured alongside works by Rebecca Saunders New Yorker.
and Tristan Murail in a recital at Tzlil Meudcan, a new-SUSIE PARK & BENJAMIN HOCHMAN • ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES
Chamber music has been a vital part of Hochman’s Born in Jerusalem in 1980, Hochman began his
life, from his early life in Israel and his formative piano studies with Esther Narkiss at the Conservatory
years at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music to of the Rubin Academy in Jerusalem and continued with
regular appearances at the Marlboro Music Festival in private studies with Emanuel Krasovsky in Tel Aviv. He
Vermont and as a member of The Bowers Program is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where he
(formerly CMS Two) at the Chamber Music Society studied from 1997-2001 with Claude Frank, and the
of Lincoln Center. His chamber music partners have Mannes College of Music, where he studied from 2001-
included the Casals, Jerusalem, and Tokyo quartets, 2003 with Richard Goode. His studies were supported
Lisa Batishvili, Jonathan Biss, Jaime Laredo, Miklós by the America-Israel Cultural Foundation. He serves
Perényi, and David Soyer. on the piano faculty of Bard College Conservatory of
Music and is currently a Research Associate at Bard
Hochman is the recipient of numerous awards and College Berlin. He is a Steinway Artist and his website is
prizes, among them the Partosh Prize awarded by www.benjaminhochman.com.
the Israeli Minister of Culture, the Outstanding Pianist
citation at the Verbier Academy, and the Festorazzi
Award from the Curtis Institute of Music.
A special thanks to the donors who designated their gift to MUSIC IN THE PARK SERIES:
INSTITUTIONAL Rolf and Lisa Bjornson Joan Hershbell and Gary Johnson Rebecca and John Shockley
Arts Midwest Touring Fund Dorothy Boen Nancy P. Jones Marie and Darrol Skilling
Boss Foundation Linda L. Boss Ann Juergens and Jay Weiner Katherine and Douglas Skor
Greystone Foundation Marge and Ted Bowman Frederick Langendorf and Harvey Smith
and Walt McCarthy and Clara Ueland Jean † and Carl Brookins Marian Rubenfeld Robert Solotaroff
Minnesota State Arts Board Richard and Judith Brownlee Chris and Marion Levy Eileen V. Stack
Saint Anthony Park Ruth and Alan Carp Richard † and Finette Magnuson Cynthia Stokes
Community Foundation Joan and Allen Carrier Deborah McKnight and James Alt John † and Joyce Tester
Saint Anthony Park Home Penny and Cecil Chally James and Carol Moller Keith and Mary Thompson
Saint Olaf College William † and Mary Cunningham Marjorie Moody and Michael Zaccardi Marilyn and Bruce Thompson
Thrivent Financial Matching Rita and David † Docter Jack and Jane Moran Linda and Mike Thompson
Gift Program Donald and Inger Dahlin † Eva Neubeck Mary Tingerthal and Conrad Soderholm
Trillium Family Foundation Nancy and John Garland Kathleen Newell Timothy Thorson
Michael and Dawn Georgieff Gerald Nolte Elizabeth Villaume
INDIVIDUALS Richard Geyerman † Vivian Orey Susan and Robert Warde
Janet Albers Sue Gibson and Neill Merck James and Donna Peter Judy and Paul Woodword
Arlene Alm Mary, Peg and Liz Glynn Marcia Raley Ann Wynia
Beverly S. Anderson Sandra and Richard Haines Elizabeth and Roger Ricketts
†
Martha and Renner Anderson Melissa Harl Richard and Mary Rogers in remembrance
Anonymous Don and Sandy Henry Peter Romig
Nina Archabal Curt and Helen Hillstrom Michael and Tamara Root
Adrienne Banks Anders and Julie Himmelstrup Juliana Rupert
Carol E. Barnett Mary Abbe Hintz Michael and Shirley Santoro
Thank you to all those who gave
Marilyn Benson and Thomas Wulling Warren and Marian Hoffman Jon Schumacher and Mary Briggs
Gladys Howell Sylvia Schwendiman
to the Music in the Park Series
Lynne and Bruce Beck
Jay and Gloria Hutchinson Dan and Emily Shapiro Endowment Fund.
Kit Bingham
schubert.org 17Thursday, January 27, 2022 • 7:30 PM
Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser Sanborn International Artist Series Ordway Music Theater
Pre-concert talk one hour before the performance with Mark Bilyeu
GERALD FINLEY, BASS-BARITONE
JULIUS DRAKE, PIANO
This concert is dedicated to the memory of Virginia and Edward Brooks, Jr.
by their daughters, Katherine Brooks and Julie Zelle
Five Songs Franz Schubert (1797–1828)
An Sylvia (To Sylvia), D. 891
Liebesbotschaft (Love’s message), D. 957, No. 1
Wandrers Nachtlied II (Wanderer’s nightsong II), D. 768
Der Winterabend (The winter evening), D. 938
Bei dir allein (With you alone!), D. 866
Mörike Songs Hugo Wolf (1860–1903)
Gesang Weyla’s (Weyla’s song)
Fussreise (A journey on foot)
Heimweh (Longing for home)
Begegnung (Encounter)
Verborgenheit (Seclusion)
Der Feuerreiter (Fire-rider)
Um Mitternacht (At midnight)
Abschied (Goodbye)
Intermission
Without Ceremony (Thomas Hardy) Mark Anthony Turnage (b. 1960)
The Voice
The Walk
I found her out there U.S. Premiere
The Going Commissioned by Wiener Konzerthaus, Wigmore Hall,
Czech Philharmonic and the Czech Chamber Music Society,
Without Ceremony Royal Conservatory of Music Toronto, Schubert Club
Your Last Drive with funds provided by the Mary Ann Feldman Estate,
Epilogue The Vancouver Recital Society, and Stanford Live.
Shakespeare in Love
O mistress mine (Twelfth Night) Thomas Morley (1557/58–1602)
Under the Greenwood (As You Like It) Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897–1957)
Hey Robin (Twelfth Night) Korngold
Full fathom five (The Tempest) Michael Tippett (1905–1998)
Take O take those lips away (Measure for Measure) Madeleine Dring (1923–1977)
Shall I compare thee (Sonnet 18) Einojuhani Rautavaara (1928–2016)
Where is the life (Petruchio–Taming of the Shrew) Cole Porter (1891–1964)
PLEASE SILENCE ALL ELECTRONIC DEVICESGERALD FINLEY & JULIUS DRAKE • INTERNATIONAL ARTIST SERIES
Five Songs
Franz Schubert (b. Vienna, 1797; d. Vienna, 1828)
An Sylvia (To Sylvia) (1826), D. 891
Our program begins and ends with Shakespeare.
Schubert turned to the poet-playwright briefly in
July 1826, setting three songs from the plays and
dedicating “An Sylvia” to Marie Pachler (more to Der Winterabend (The winter evening) (1828),
follow). The not-quite-accurate German translation D. 938
is by Edward Bauernfeld, a skilled writer of comedies Schubert traveled to Graz in September 1827 as
and farces and one of Schubert’s closest friends. This the guest of Karl and Marie Pachler, describing the
Sylvia is the beloved of Valentine in Shakespeare’s visit as “the happiest days I have had for a long time.”
early comedy, The Two Gentleman of Verona. In the Marie sent Schubert a copy of the poems of K. G.
play, the song is sung beneath her balcony by a false Ritter von Leitner (1800–90), a local teacher. “Der
suitor. For baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, the Winterabend,” one of eleven Schubert songs to
song’s effect is achieved “by the charming contrast Leitner texts, reflects the coziness of those days. But
between the emotional legato of the song and the it’s also a song of first love recalled, indeed echoed
pizzicato of the accompaniment.” But you may also by the piano. The final rhyme of sinne and Minne—
be tickled by the little bells that answer each phrase. an archaic word implying courtly love—is repeated
many times. The song contains the only mention of a
Liebesbotschaft (Love’s message) (1828), plumber (Klempner) in Schubert’s work!
D. 957, No. 1
“Liebesbotschaft” is the first song in Bei dir allein (With you alone!) (1827), D. 866
Schwanengesang, a collection made by the publisher Johann Gabriel Seidl (1804-1875), a schoolmaster
Haslinger shortly after Schubert’s death. Poems by and book-censor, was another close friend of
Ludwig Rellstab (1799–1860) make up half the songs Schubert. Seidl memorialized the composer in an
in the volume. Rellstab had circulated his poems to elegy: “The gentle sounds have ceased. / The wings
Beethoven shortly before the composer’s death. “A are quiet once more. / Yet in the spirit, still aching, /
few had been marked with pencil, in Beethoven’s sweet songs echo.” In the course of “Bei dir allein!”
own hand,” the poet writes in his memoirs, “those the excited singer covers no fewer than six keys.
which he liked best and had then passed on to
Schubert to set, since he himself felt too ill.” The
brook in “Liebesbotschaft” is a clever thing, quick to Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser Sanborn
echo the speaker’s words, and ready to offer a few International Artist Series
turns of its own.
M a u d M o o n We y e r h a e u s e r
Wandrers Nachtlied II (Wanderer’s nightsong) (1822), Sanborn (1876-1965) was born in
D. 768 Rochester, Minnesota. She married
While director of silver mines in service to the Charles Weyerhaeuser in 1898 and
Duke of Saxe-Weimar, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe lived most of her life in Saint Paul.
(1749–1832) climbed the highest hill near Ilmenau, A talented singer always active in
the Kickelhahn, on September 6, 1780. He spent the musical community, she supported Schubert
the night in a hunter’s cabin, leaving an eight-line Club and the Minneapolis Symphony. She had a
poem in pencil on the wall as a token. Months before special affection for Salzburg and Tanglewood
his death, he returned to the cabin and was deeply where she spent summers. She developed close
moved. The poem, a sequel to “Wandrers Nachtlied” friendships with important musicians of her day
which Goethe called simply “Ein Gleiches” (A similar such as Dmitri Mitropoulos and Serge Koussevitsky.
one), had in the meantime become one of the most The International Artist Series is dedicated to her
beloved German lyrics. memory by her grandchildren.
schubert.org 19GERALD FINLEY & JULIUS DRAKE • INTERNATIONAL ARTIST SERIES
Mörike Songs Heimweh (Longing for home)
Hugo Wolf (b. Windischgraz, Styria [now Sloven Gently falling chords suggest a downward journey.
Gradec, Slovenia], 1860; d. Vienna, 1903) The cold sun brings a new barren texture. A brook
murmurs to the youth, but it’s not the brook of
Hugo Wolf’s reputation rests on the 300 songs “Liebesbotschaft” but the seductive stream of Die
he composed in a creative torrent from 1888 to schöne Müllerin.
1896. Continuing the Schubert–Schumann line,
Wolf added Wagnerian harmonic language, Begegnung (Encounter)
a delicate pianism, and his own exquisite A n agitated accompaniment set s a mood of
sensitivity to the poems of German Romantics. excitement and bewilderment, for the girl’s blush is
He had high literary standards, preferring “like roses scattered by the wind.” No two phrases of
Goethe, Eichendor f f, and Eduard Mörike this song are alike—note that the girl and the boy are
(1804–1875). A short, highly-strung man, Wolf’s given different tonalities—but the song has the unity
psychology was stretched tighter by the syphilis of an instant, like a hummingbird glimpsed then gone.
he contracted on his first experience in a brothel.
The disease led to insanity, confinement, and an Verborgenheit (Seclusion)
early death at age 43. But in his short life, Wolf “Verborgenheit” has always been one of Wolf’s
created a body of work considered by many the most popular songs. It was composed on Wolf’s 28th
high summer of the Lieder tradition. birthday, and its lyric “exactly describes his own cyclic
creative experience and temperament,” writes Eric
The poems of Eduard Mörike had not been Sams. The music is marked innig—intimate, and the
set much by Brahms or Schumann. Mörike introduction shimmers like water, as foreign tones
was a Lutheran pastor in the little village of swim uneasily inside the major triad. The vocal
Cleversulzbach. He wrote fairy tales and novels line occasionally dives below the piano melody,
like Maler Nolten, but it is his lyric poems that illustrating literally the concealment of the speaker.
raise him above Biedermeier status and mark
him as one of the finest poets of his time. Der Feuerreiter (Fire-rider)
A legendary tale told in terms a cinematographer
A f te r h i s f a t h e r ’s d e a t h i n 1 8 8 7, Wo l f would love, “Der Feuerreiter” is dated October 10
retreated to Perchtoldsdorf, a suburb on the 1888. A red-capped rider on a skinny mount galops
edge of a forest outside Vienna. “The Mörike through thick smoke, running wild and setting a mill
poems unleashed within him a period of on fire… or is he putting the fire out? “No normal
creativity comparable to Schubert’s in 1815 and human emotion is involved in this extraordinary
Schumann’s in 1840,” translator Richard Stokes gallimaufry of fire, crowds, bells, hoofbeats, madness
tells us.” Wolf composed 53 songs between and annihilation,” writes Sams. And only the most
February and November 1888. intrepid performers dare essay this song.
Gesang Weylas (Weyla’s song) Um Mitternacht (At midnight)
In Mörike’s personal mythology, Orplid is a Night itself is the main character here, and she holds
mythical island in the Pacific under the special the “golden balance of time” in perfect equipoise.
protection of the goddess Weyla. Miracles Approaching two-note waves are revealed by the voice
once took place there, before sensible people to be slower triplets, evoking a timeless landscape.
moved in. Wolf imagined Weyla sittting on a
reef, playing the harp in the moonlight. Abschied (Goodbye)
Mörike’s “Abschied” is a peremptory strike at would-
Fussreise (A journey on foot) be critics. The door opens on an uninvited guest, a
One of the great wandering songs in the spirit of critic who evaluates the poet in the worst light and
Schubert’s “Ganymed” and Mahler’s “Wayfarer,” berates him. The poet’s response: a kick in the pants
Wolf’s “Fussreise” conveys the pantheistic joy of down the stairs. There’s a double irony, for Wolf held
walking—you feel the spring in the step—told in an appointment as the music critic for the Wiener
the words of a country parson. “When you have Salonblatt from 1884–87. How appropriate that the
heard this song, you have one wish: to die,” wrote piano, the speechless character in this scene, has the
Wolf to his friend Edmund Lang. last word.
20 SCHUBERT CLUB An die MusikGERALD FINLEY & JULIUS DRAKE • INTERNATIONAL ARTIST SERIES
Hardy’s first
wife, Emma,
Portrait of about whom
Thomas Hardy the poems
by London of Without
Stereoscopic Co Ceremony
c. 1915 were written
Without Ceremony (Thomas Hardy)
Mark Anthony Turnage (b. Essex, United Kingdom,
1960)
Mark-Anthony Turnage is one of the most Thomas Hardy is famous as the author of Far
admired and widely-performed composers of his from the Madding Crowd (1874), The Return of the
generation, skillfully blending classical and jazz Native (1878), and Tess of the D’Urbervilles (1891),
idioms, modernism, and tradition. He studied with novels which brought Hardy’s fictional Wessex to
Oliver Knussen and John Lambert in London, and life. It was the priggish response to Jude the Obscure
Gunther Schuller at Tanglewood and has served (1895)—one critic called ‘the most indecent book ever
residencies with the City of Birmingham Symphony written’—that convinced him to stop writing fiction and
Orchestra, English National Opera, BBC Symphony focus on poetry. Hardy became England’s keenest
Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, and poet of loneliness and loss.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Yet the poetry involved creating a fiction to some
Turnage’s s t age work s include t he op era extent. Hardy and Emma Gifford married in 1874, but
Anna Nicole for The Royal Opera and dance the relationship frayed over time. After Emma’s death
collaborations Trespass and Strapless with in 1911, Hardy wrote Poems of 1912–13, a series which
Christopher Wheeldon and UNDANCE with Wayne Hardy biographer Michael Millgate calls “imaginative
McGregor. He has collaborated with jazz musicians re-creation.” Hardy confided to a friend: “In spite of the
John Scof ield and Joe Lovano, and classical differences between us, which it would be affectation
soloists Håkan Hardenberger, Christian Tetzlaff, to deny . . . my life is intensely sad to me now without
and Marc-André Hamelin. Ensemble Modern, her.” In 1914 Hardy married his secretary, Florence
London Sinfonietta and the Nash Ensemble have Dugdale, who was 39 years his junior. Florence must
all played Turnage works, and his music has been have been unsettled by a poem that began: “Woman
conducted by Simon Rattle, Andrew Davis, Vladimir much missed, how you call to me, call to me.”
Jurowski, Daniel Harding, Antonio Pappano,
Vassily Petrenko, and Leonard Slatkin. His music is Without Ceremony was co-commissioned by Wiener
recorded on DGG and other labels. Konzerthaus, Wigmore Hall, Czech Philharmonic
and the Czech Chamber Music Societ y, Royal
Mark-Anthony Turnage was awarded a CBE in Conser vator y of Music Toronto, Schuber t Club
the 2015 Queen’s Birthday honors. (with funds provided by the Mary Ann Feldman Estate),
The Vancouver Recital Society, and Stanford Live.
schubert.org 21You can also read
