kavafian-schub-shifrin trio

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Kavafian-Schub-Shifrin Trio chamber music society at yale March 1, 2011 david shifrin Artistic Director music of Milhaud Mozart Schumann Stravinsky Robert Blocker, Dean

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Ani Kavafian, violin and viola; David Shifrin, clarinet; and Andre-Michel Schub, piano. Mozart: "Kegelstatt" Trio, K. 498; Schumann: Märchenerzälungen (Fairy Tales); Milhaud: Suite for violin, clarinet; and piano; Stravinsky: Suite from Histoire du Soldat.

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Page 1: Kavafian-Schub-Shifrin Trio

Kavafian-Schub-Shifrin Trio

chamber music society at yaleMarch 1, 2011

david shifrin Artistic Director

music ofMilhaud MozartSchumannStravinsky

Robert Blocker, Dean

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As a courtesy to the performers and audience members, turn off cell phones and pagers. Please do not

leave the theater during selections. Photography or recording of any kind is not permitted.

march 1, 2011 · 8 pmMorse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall

Trio for clarinet, viola, and piano, K. 498, “Kegelstatt” AndanteMenuettoRondeaux: Allegretto Märchenerzälungen (Fairy Tales), Op. 132Lebhaft, nicht zu schnellLebhaft und sehr markiertRuhiges Tempo, mit zartem AusdruckLebhaft, sehr markiert

intermission

Suite for violin, clarinet, and piano, Op. 157bOuverture: Vif et gaiDivertissement: AniméJeu: VifIntroduction et Finale: Modéré. Vif Suite from Histoire du SoldatI. Marche du SoldatII. Le Violon du SoldatIII. Un Petit ConcertIV. Tango – Valse – RagtimeV. Danse du Soldat

Kavafian-Schub -Shifrin Trio

ani kavafian, violin and violadavid shifrin, clarinetandré-michel schub, piano

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart(1756–1791)

Robert Schumann(1810–1856)

Darius Milhaud(1892–1974)

Igor Stravinsky(1882–1971)

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After 25 years of friendship and music-making, Ani Kavafian, André-Michel Schub, and David Shifrin – each a true virtuoso and a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center– came together as a trio with undeniable chemistry. “The spontaneity, the excitement and the fun we have playing together is beyond what we ever anticipated,” they have said. Combined, they have performed with nearly every major orchestra around the world and in recital at the major concert halls.

Ani Kavafian

violin and viola

Ani Kavafian has performed with virtually all of America’s leading orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, Los Angeles Chamber, St. Louis, Delaware, Detroit, San Francisco, Atlanta, Seattle, Minneapolis, Utah, and Rochester or- chestras. Among the many premieres she has given are Henri Lazarof ’s Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra and Tod Machover’s Concerto for Hyper Violin and Orchestra, both of which she has recorded, as well as premieres of Aaron Kernis’ Double Concerto for Violin and Guitar and Michelle Ekizian’s Red Harvest Concerto. Her numerous recital engagements include perfor-

mances at New York’s Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully as well as in venues across the country.

Born in Istanbul, Turkey of Armenian decent, Ani Kavafian began her musical studies with piano lessons at the age of three. At age nine, shortly after her family moved to the United States, she began the study of the violin with Ara Zerounian and, at 16, won the first prize in both the piano and violin competitions at the National Music Camp in Interlochen, Michigan. Two years later, she began violin studies at the Juilliard School with Ivan Galamian, eventually receiving a master’s degree with top honors. She is a pro-fessor in the practice of violin at the Yale School of Music. Ms. Kavafian resides in northern Westchester, New York with her husband, artist Bernard Mindich, and their son, Matthew. She plays a 1736 Muir McKenzie Stradivarius violin.

andré-michel schub

piano

As a recitalist, orchestral soloist and chamber musician, André-Michel Schub has been praised by critics and audiences around the world since his career began almost three decades ago. He has performed with many of the world’s most prestigious orchestras, among them the Boston

(left to right)

David Shifrin, clarinet · Ani Kavafian, violin and viola André-Michel Schub, piano

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and Chicago symphonies, Los Angeles and New York philharmonics, and the Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestras. The list of conductors with whom he has colla- borated is equally impressive, including James Levine, Edo de Waart, JoAnn Falletta, Seiji Ozawa, Sergiu Comissiona, Eugene Ormandy, and Mstislav Rostropovich, who invited him to join the National Symphony Orchestra for a nationally televised Fourth of July concert. His annual schedule includes recitals in major con-cert halls as well as appearances at the foremost music festivals, among them Mostly Mozart, Tanglewood, Ravinia, the Mann Music Center, the Blossom Festival, Wolf Trap, and the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico.

Born in France, André-Michel Schub came to the U.S. with his family when he was eight months old; New York City has been his home ever since. He began his piano studies with his mo-ther when he was 4 and later continued his work with Jascha Zayde. Mr. Schub first attended Princeton University, and then transferred to the Curtis Institute, where he studied with Rudolf Serkin from 1970 to 1973.

david shifrin

clarinet

The San Francisco Chronicle calls David Shifrin’s playing “a revelation in just how beautifully the clarinet can be played.” One of only two wind players to have been awarded the Avery Fisher Prize since the award’s inception in 1974, Mr. Shifrin is in constant demand as an orchestral soloist, recitalist and chamber music collaborator.

Orchestras with whom he has performed in-clude the Dallas, Seattle, Houston, Milwaukee, Denver, and Memphis symphonies, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and the Philadel-phia and Minnesota orchestras. Internationally, he has performed with orchestras in Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Korea and Taiwan. In addition, he has served as principal clarinetist with the Cleveland Orchestra and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, as well as the American (under Stokowski), Honolulu, New York Chamber and Dallas symphonies.

David Shifrin has received critical acclaim as a recitalist, appearing at such a venues as Alice Tully Hall, Weill Recital Hall and Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, and the 92nd Street Y in New York City, the Library of Congress in Washington D.C, and throughout Germany. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with artists such as the Guarneri, Tokyo, and Emerson String Quartets, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, and pianists Emanuel Ax and André Watts. At Yale, he is the artistic director of the Yale in New York concert series and the Chamber Music Society at Yale.

kavafian-schub-shifrin trioArtist Profiles

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Trio in E-flat major, K. 498, “Kegelstatt”Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Though the clarinet was invented at the turn of the eighteenth century, it was not until the 1780s that the instrument became an equal of the other principal woodwinds. More than any other composer, Mozart was responsible for this elevation in status. With the composition of three famous works that feature the instrument (the Trio in E-flat, K. 498; the Quintet in A, K. 581; and the Concerto in A, K. 622), Mozart created the first body of clarinet repertoire that has maintained a place in the hearts of perfor-mers and audiences alike. As the earliest of these works (the manuscript is dated 1786), the Trio may be considered the first masterpiece written for the clarinet. Employing an unusual combi- nation of clarinet, viola, and piano, Mozart eschewed facile virtuosity in favor of rich lyricism. The work was dedicated to a piano student of Mozart’s named Franziska von Jaquin, and was premiered by Jaquin with Mozart on viola and Anton Stadler playing clarinet. Stadler was a frequent collaborator with Mozart: both the Clarinet Quintet and the Clarinet Concerto were written for him. The musicologist Alfred Einstein has argued that the key of E-flat repre- sents friendship in Mozart’s late chamber works, and it is easy to imagine the subtle, witty interplay of the three instruments as a genial conversation between close friends.The title of the work, “Kegelstatt,” is the German word for a sort of bowling alley where the game skittles was played. Although Mozart had scribbled “Vienna, 27 July 1786 while playing skittles” on the autograph of the Twelve Duos for Basset-horns, K. 487, there is no evidence to suggest that Mozart was likewise diverted while composing this intricate

work. It seems that the evocative title was merely a flight of fancy of later publishers.

Märchenerzälungen (Fairy Tales), Op. 132Robert Schumann

The waning months of 1853 represented the last happy period of creative productivity in Robert Schumann’s life. Though symptoms of the insanity that would consume his life were growing stronger, Schumann was buoyed by the arrival of a twenty year-old composer who provided him with companionship and inspiration: Johannes Brahms arrived unan- nounced at Schumann’s door on September 30th and stayed with the Schumanns for several weeks. It was around this time that Schumann composed the Märchenerzählungen (Fairy Tales), one of his last surviving chamber works.

The four movements of Märchenerzählungen are linked through the extensive use of two motivic ideas: one lyrical and moving upward, the other detached and moving downward. These are played out in music that moves from jollity to wistful melancholy and back. The final move-ment is particularly boisterous and cheerful. Though he titled them “Fairy Tales,” Schumann did not specify extra-musical programs for these pieces. Instead, by marrying meticulous motivic development with free rhapsodic forms, Schumann suggested narratives that could take on any number of interpretations.

Sadly, the relative calm of the fall of 1853 would not last. Soon after Brahms’ departure, Schumann was forced to resign his conducting post in Dusseldorf. After a successful tour of the

notes on the programby Jordan Kuspa

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Netherlands, the Schumanns spent Christmas at home in Germany. Scarcely two months later, Schumann would be institutionalized until the end of his life in July 1856.

Suite for clarinet, violin, and piano, Op. 157bDarius Milhaud

Darius Milhaud was one of the most prolific composers of the twentieth century, with an oeuvre that contained works in every major genre and for almost every western instrument. His influences were wide-ranging, from French na-tionalism (he was one of Les Six), to his Jewish heritage, to his experiences with jazz in the 1910s and 1920s, to his two-year visit to Brazil (1917-18). These varied inspirations melded with Milhaud’s exhaustive appetite for musical innovation to create a distinctly personal musi- cal idiom. Milhaud quietly became a pioneer of many major developments in twentieth-century music, including the use of unpitched percussion, polytonality, and film music. As a professor at both Mills College and the Paris Conservatoire, he taught such diverse musical figures as Iannis Xenakis, Steve Reich, Dave Brubeck, William Bolcom, and Burt Bacharach. His Suite, Op. 157b (his catalogue ultimately listed 443 opus numbers!), was written in 1936. Derived from incidental music for the play Le voyageur sans bagage (The Traveler Without Luggage) by Jean Anouilh, the Suite is full of characteristic Milhaud touches such as the Latin syncopations in the Ouverture, the imitative and polytonal counterpoint of the Divertissement, and the wild country fiddling of Jeu.

Suite from Histoire du SoldatIgor Stravinsky

When war broke out in Europe in 1914, Stravin- sky was fresh from the succès de scandale of The Rite of Spring. After the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 (in which the relatively well-to-do composer lost all of his Russian estate), a return to Russia was impossible. Stravinsky was forced into permanent exile in Switzerland, and was in serious need of financial support.

The theatrical work L’Histoire du Soldat (The Soldier’s Tale) developed as a response to these pressures. Hoping for a piece that could be toured with minimal cost, Stravinsky scored the hour-long work for a consort of violin, double bass, clarinet, bassoon, cornet, trombone, and percussion. The story tells of a soldier who sells his fiddle to the devil for a book that tells the future. Stravinsky called upon three actors to play the soldier, devil, and narrator, with a dancer in the silent role of the princess. Despite the relative economy of forces, the premiere (Lausanne, 28 September 1918) was a financial disaster, and had to be underwritten by the Swiss philanthropist Werner Reinhart. In gratitude, Stravinsky dedicated the work to him. Stravinsky may have been thinking of Reinhart (an excellent amateur clarinetist) when he arranged the present Suite from this large work. Cast in five movements, the work highlights the virtuosic writing for the clarinet and especially the violin, while the piano picks up much of the music for the other members of the original ensemble. Like Milhaud’s Suite, this work is brimming with varied musical influences: Russian folk tunes, peasant fiddling, jazz, tango, and ragtime, all combined with Stravinsky’s unique sense of formal construction and rhythmic energy.

notes on the programby Jordan Kuspa

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upcoming

Robert Blocker, pianoMarch 23 | 8 pm | Wed | Sprague Hall

Horowitz Piano Series. Scarlatti: Four Sonatas; Chopin: Two Nocturnes, Op. 27, and Fantaisie in F minor, Op. 49; Schwantner: Palindromes; Ravel: Sonatine; Ginastera: Sonata No. 1.Tickets $12–22 • Students $6

Kyung Yu and Elizabeth Parisot March 25 | 8 pm | Fri | Sprague Hall

The Faculty Artist Series presents a recital by Kyung Yu, violin, and Elizabeth Parisot, piano.

Bach: Mass in B minor March 26 | 8 pm | Sat | Woolsey Hall

Bach Collegium Japan performs J.S. Bach’s Mass in B minor. Masaaki Suzuki, director. Presented by the Yale Institute of Sacred Music.Tickets $15 • Students $8 (General Admission)

Miró String Quartet March 29 | 8 pm | Tue | Sprague Hall

The Chamber Music Society presents Gunther Schuller’s Horn Quintet, with Julie Landsman, horn; plus Haydn’s Quartet in E-flat major, Op. 33, No. 2, “The Joke,” and Brahms’s Quartet No. 1 in E-flat major, Op. 51, No. 1.Tickets $20–30 • Students $10

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