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Simple GiftsSimple GiftsThe Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
at Shaker VillageThe Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
at Shaker VillageThe Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
at Shaker Village
Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869)
1 The Union, Concert Paraphrase on National Airs for Piano, Op. 48 (1862) 7:20
Antonín Dvorák (1841-1904)
Sonatina in G major for Violin and Piano, Op. 100 (1893)
2 Allegro risoluto 6:10
3 Larghetto 4:11
4 Scherzo: Molto vivace 3:07
5 Finale: Allegro 6:33
Samuel Barber (1910-1981) Souvenirs for Piano, Four Hands, Op. 28 (1951-52)
6 Waltz 3:40
7 Schottische 2:07
8 Pas de deux 3:35
9 Two-Step 1:51
10 Hesitation Tango 3:27
11 Galop 2:37
Gilles Vonsattel, PiAno
Arnaud Sussmann, VioLin Wu Han, PiAno
Gilles Vonsattel, PiAno
Wu Han, PiAno
Mark O’Connor (b. 1961)
12 F.C.’s Jig for Violin and Viola (1992-93) 3:48
Aaron Copland (1900-1990)
13 Appalachian Spring Suite for Ensemble (1944) 24:41
Stephen Foster (1826-1864)
Selections from The Social Orchestra for Ensemble (arr. Tara Helen O’Connor) (1854)
14 Village Quadrille no. 1 1:29
15 Jeannie’s own Schottisch 1:31
16 Village Quadrille no. 4 1:13
Arnaud Sussmann, VioLin
Paul neubauer, VioLA
Kristin Lee, Arnaud Sussmann, Adam Barnett-Hart, Aaron Boyd, VioLin • Paul neubauer, Pierre Lapointe, VioLA • David Finckel, Brook Speltz, CELLo Daxun Zhang, DouBLE BASS Tara Helen o’Connor, FLuTE David Shifrin, CLARinET Peter Kolkay, BASSoon Gilles Vonsattel, PiAno
Gilles Vonsattel, Wu Han, PiAno
Adam Barnett-Hart, Arnaud Sussmann, Aaron Boyd, Kristin Lee, VioLin • Pierre Lapointe, Paul neubauer, VioLA • Brook Speltz, David Finckel, CELLo Daxun Zhang, DouBLE BASS Tara Helen o’Connor, FLuTE David Shifrin, CLARinET
Peter Kolkay, BASSoon
This recording captures a historic moment in
American history: the first performance of
Aaron Copland’s iconic ballet score Appalachian
Spring in the heart of an authentic Shaker
village. Why historic? Because Copland adapt-
ed the famous Shaker song “Simple Gifts”
as the centerpiece of his moving depiction of
an Appalachian wedding, and The Chamber
Music Society of Lincoln Center proudly
brought Copland’s masterful realization of the
tune “home” for the first time since its original
composition by Elder Joseph Brackett in 1848.
When that tune—containing music and a mes-
sage which have become universal—sounded
introduction
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in the hushed tobacco barn of the village, the
communal emotional intensity hit a peak rarely
experienced in a concert hall, a moment here
captured for eternity, for all to share. These
performances of Copland’s original score and
the accompanying American-inspired works
speak for themselves, but we would be remiss
without acknowledging the supreme skill of
our musicians, the state-of-the-art engineering
and producing of Da-Hong Seetoo, and the
wholehearted support of Shaker Village of
Pleasant Hill, Kentucky, without which this
extraordinary project would not have reached
a pinnacle of artistic achievement.
David Finckel and Wu Han
ARTiSTiC DiRECToRS
The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
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program notes
Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869)
1 The Union, Concert Paraphrase on National Airs for Piano, Op. 48 (1862) 7:20
Though little-known today, and unfairly
relegated by history to the status of a parlor
pianist, Louis Moreau Gottschalk was arguably
America’s first nationalistic composer, as well
as a virtuoso pianist of considerable talent.
Born and raised in new orleans, Gottschalk
was exposed to a wide variety of cultural and
musical influences from Europe, north America,
South America, and the Caribbean—influences
that he would later assimilate in his own com-
positions, and that in turn would lead to the
development of ragtime, jazz, and blues in the
late 1890s and early 1910s.
Gottschalk played a tremendous role in
the development of an authentic American
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musical voice. Long before Charles ives or
Aaron Copland ever put pen to paper, Gott-
schalk was consciously incorporating echoes
of daily life and culture in America during
the 19th century into his compositions: from
popular American folk songs, Afro-Caribbean
tunes, rhythms, and Creole melodies, to the
sounds of circus bands, horse races, banjos,
and drums. He managed to fuse together
these varied and multi-cultural musical influ-
ences in compositions written idiomatically
for the piano with the skill of a true virtuoso,
making his the most important pianistic out-
put by an American of the mid-19th century.
Composed in 1862, The Union: Concert
Paraphrase on National Airs is nothing if
not the greatest patriotic celebration in all
of music: a triumphant, virtuosic musical
firework display that celebrates the American
spirit like no other. in it, Gottschalk weaves
together several traditional tunes including
“Yankee Doodle,” “Hail, Columbia,” and
“The Star-Spangled Banner” (which at the
time of The Union’s composition was not yet
the official anthem of the united States) to
tremendous and dazzling effect.
Antonín Dvorák (1841-1904)
Sonatina in G major for Violin and Piano, Op. 100 (1893)
2 Allegro risoluto 6:10
3 Larghetto 4:11
4 Scherzo: Molto vivace 3:07
5 Finale: Allegro 6:33
on September 26, 1892, Czech composer
Antonín Dvořák arrived in new York City to
take up the post of Director at the newly
founded national Conservatory of Music.
The hope was that Dvořák would not only lead
the conservatory, but also guide a new genera-
tion of American composers in establishing a
national musical identity.
in contemplating the new American
musical idiom that he had been tasked with
fostering, Dvořák found exciting potential
in native and African American melodies,
rhythms, and harmonies. As a result, we find
in Dvořák’s American-inspired chamber music
(including the sonatina) the use of pentatonic
scales and driving ostinati or syncopated
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rhythms reminiscent of native American drum
beats. And while these features were already
present in Dvořák’s earlier music (the use of
the pentatonic scale, for example, is common
to other forms of music worldwide, including
music from Dvořák’s homeland of Bohemia),
they acquired greater prominence in Dvořák’s
music during his stay in the new World.
Dvořák certainly also drew inspiration from
the natural beauty he found in the new World,
especially around the town of Spillville, iowa,
an area with a large Czech population, where
Dvořák vacationed during the summer of 1893.
it was around this time that Dvořák also visited
Minnehaha Falls in St. Paul, Minnesota. Accord-
ing to Dvořák: “We went to the valley and
saw little Minnehaha Falls, a place that Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow celebrated in his famous
poem 'The Song of Hiawatha.' it is not possible
to express how bewitching it was.” it was while
standing amidst the spray of the waterfall that
Dvořák was suddenly struck with inspiration,
and where he hurriedly scribbled a musical
theme on his shirt sleeve. That melody was to
become the theme of the slow movement (Lar-
ghetto) of his Sonatina in G major, op. 100.
The sonatina was the last chamber music
composition Dvořák wrote during his sojourn
in America, and was intended as a gift for two
of his children, his 15-year-old daughter otilie
and 10-year-old son Toník. in a letter to his
publisher, Fritz Simrock, on January 2, 1894,
Dvořák conceived the piece in the following
terms: “it is intended for youths (dedicated to
my two children), but even grown-ups, adults,
should be able to converse with it...” indeed,
while the relative simplicity of the writing has
made the work a favorite for performance by
young musicians, the invigorating freshness,
delicacy, and delightful joy of the sonatina has
captured the inspiration and imagination of
musicians and listeners of all ages.
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Samuel Barber (1910-1981) Souvenirs for Piano, Four Hands, Op. 28 (1951-52)
6 Waltz 3:40
7 Schottische 2:07
8 Pas de deux 3:35
9 Two-Step 1:51
10 Hesitation Tango 3:27
11 Galop 2:37
Perhaps more than any other composer of his
time, Samuel Barber was the face of American
music to the world, winning two Pulitzer Prizes,
representing the united States in the first
post-World War ii international music festival,
serving as vice-president of the international
Music Council, attending the biennial Congress
of Soviet Composers in Moscow in 1962, and
being one of a select group of composers
commissioned to write music for the opening
of Lincoln Center.
ironically, this most “American” of American
composers did not fall into the Americana mode
of an ives, Gershwin, or Copland. Barber was
in spirit a neo-romantic, a quality that we
immediately associate with his “blockbuster” hit,
the Adagio for Strings, his Violin Concerto, or the
evocative Knoxville: Summer of 1915. Souvenirs,
however, shows us a different (and more per-
sonal) side of Barber—light-hearted nostalgia—
and reflects, in the words of music critic Wilfrid
Mellers, an “awareness of adolescence [that]
strikes deep into the American experience.”
According to biographer Barbara Heyman,
Barber and his mother used to visit the Palm
Court of the Plaza Hotel for tea while visiting
new York City—a fond memory from his youth
that the composer tapped into when in 1951 he
started a suite of six duets for piano, four hands,
at the encouragement of his friend and student
Charles Turner. Further inspiration came in the
form of Barber and Turner’s frequent visits to
the chic Blue Angel Club, where they would
listen to the piano duo of Edie and Rack play
arrangements of Broadway show tunes and
other popular music. Turner persuaded Barber to
write something in a similarly light vein, and the
result was Souvenirs, which they often played
to great effect at parties and social gatherings.
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Souvenirs stylishly surveys the following
dance types: the waltz, schottische, pas de
deux, two-step, "hesitation tango" (Barber's
phrase), and galop. in the preface to the pub-
lished score Barber wrote: “one might imagine
a divertissement in the setting of the Palm Court
of the Hotel Plaza in new York, the year about
1914, epoch of the first tangos; ‘Souvenirs’—
remembered with affection, not in irony or with
tongue in cheek, but in amused tenderness.”
Mark O’Connor (b. 1961) 12 F.C.’s Jig for Violin and
Viola (1992-93) 3:48
From the plush setting of the Plaza Hotel in
new York City circa 1914, we would have to go
back some three hundred years to the arrival
of the first settlers in the new World in order
to trace the history of fiddle-playing and the
origins of Mark o’Connor’s F.C.’s Jig.
in 1620, when the Francis Bonaventure
sailed up the James River to Jamestown,
Virginia, its precious cargo included a fiddle
belonging to one John utie, who had played
“a Violl at sea” during the long journey west.
utie, as far as we know, holds the special dis-
tinction of being the first known fiddler to set
foot on American soil.
For years the fiddle was virtually the only
instrument found on the frontier, and in the
Appalachian hills of West Virginia and Kentucky
it became a fixture in the homes of farmers and
plantation owners. in the South it was used so
widely that as early as 1736 we find written
accounts of fiddle contests. The fiddle also took
center-stage in dance bands, with the jig (which
originated in Scotland and northern England in
the 16th and 17th centuries), proving one of the
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more popular dance forms of the day.
in 1995, Mark o’Connor, one of today’s
foremost fiddle virtuosos, teamed up with
cellist Yo-Yo Ma and double bassist Edgar
Meyer for the album Appalachia Waltz, which
featured, among others, his composition,
F.C.’s Jig, for violin and cello, based on the
third movement of his earlier Fiddle Concerto
(hence “F.C.”). o’Connor himself explained:
“i retained the violin line from the score and
adapted the entire symphonic orchestration
into the second line.”
o’Connor later arranged F.C.’s Jig for violin
and viola. The result is thrilling: a virtuoso duet
filled with infectious energy and joy that remains
true to o’Connor’s belief that “American music
sounds so optimistic… because people actually
do believe that tomorrow could be better here.”
Aaron Copland (1900-1990) 13 Appalachian Spring Suite for
Ensemble (1944) 24:41
The pioneering path Dvořák forged in
developing an American musical identity
enabled Aaron Copland, perhaps more than
any other composer, to succeed in creating
a distinctly American style of classical music
by incorporating elements of American
popular music such as jazz, folksong, cow-
boy songs, spiritual hymns, dance rhythms,
“big-city sounds,” and Latin American ele-
ments into his compositions, most notably
in works such as El Salón Mexico, Billy the
Kid, and Rodeo.
Copland’s masterpiece, however, is
Appalachian Spring, which perfectly cap-
tures the essence of an ideal America, one
of vast landscapes and endless possibilities.
in 1942, the influential dancer Martha
Graham commissioned Copland to write a
ballet with “an American theme.” Copland
responded with a work simply titled Ballet
for Martha, based on an abstract plot that
describes “a pioneer celebration in spring
around a newly-built farmhouse in the
Pennsylvania hills in the early part of the
last century.”
Graham chose the title “Appalachian
Spring” shortly before the work’s premiere
from a phrase that struck her in Hart Crane’s
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poem, “The Dance.” Following its premiere,
Copland was amused that people would
compliment his music as brilliantly evok-
ing the pastoral beauty of Appalachia, even
though he readily admitted that was not
his intention. “i gave voice to that region
without knowing i was giving voice to it,”
he later noted.
While Billy the Kid and Rodeo made
explicit reference to American myth and
incorporated actual folk songs, Copland's
musical treatment in Appalachian Spring, as
music writer Peter Gutmann points out, is
far more subtle, and yet sounds completely
“American.” Musically the score is made up
of a wealth of diverse influences, including
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open intervals, long melodic lines that seem
to stretch time, wide spacing of instrumen-
tal parts, sections of great rhythmic energy
contrasted by sections of great simplicity,
and diatonic (and sometimes modal) har-
monies reminiscent of the traditional songs
and fiddle tunes inherited from Scotland
and England. Appalachian Spring is also
comprised of distinct sections, in contrast
to the through-composed music of many
German Romantic and early twentieth-
century composers, and other American
composers trained in that tradition.
The most famous extraneous musical
influence in Appalachian Spring, however,
and the emotional climax of the work, is
Copland’s use of a melody based on a
traditional Shaker song, “Simple Gifts,” that
was composed by Elder Joseph Brackett Jr.
in the Shaker community at Alfred, Maine
in 1848. The song wonderfully evokes the
“earnest, but good-natured piety” of
Shaker culture:
'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to
be free,
'Tis the gift to come down where we ought
to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place
just right,
'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gain'd,
To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd,
To turn, turn will be our delight
'Till by turning, turning we come round
right.
in Appalachian Spring, Copland and
Graham succeeded in distilling the essence
of human aspiration by evoking an idealized
image of the frontier and its eternal sense
of opportunity, promise, and hope. unlike
The Union, Appalachian Spring contains no
explicit patriotic content, yet at the time of
its premiere and in the years following, it
served to underscore the core values of the
American people during the Second World
War. Decades later, it still has, as Gutmann
observed, the power to reaffirm established
ideals of hope and optimism, and to speak
straight to the hearts of listeners, regardless
of nationality or religion.
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Stephen Foster (1826-1864)Selections from The Social Orchestra for Ensemble (arr. Tara Helen O’Connor)
(1854)
14 Village Quadrille no. 1 1:29
15 Jeannie’s own Schottisch 1:31
16 Village Quadrille no. 4 1:13
American musical nostalgia found its greatest
voice in the songs of Stephen Collins Foster,
known as “the father of American music.”
His output of more than 200 songs, includ-
ing such well-known tunes as “oh! Susanna,”
“Camptown Races,” “old Folks at Home,”
“My old Kentucky Home” (Kentucky’s official
state song), “Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair,”
“old Black Joe,” and “Beautiful Dreamer,” have
become an integral part of America’s collective
cultural conscience.
As a composer, Foster, like Gottschalk,
drew from the various music and cultural influ-
ences circulating in the immigrant populations
of the new united States (his first hit, “oh,
Susanna,” for example, has a rhythmic profile
similar to that of the polka, which originated in
the middle of the 19th century in Dvořák’s be-
loved Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic,
and which swept the united States in popularity
when it was introduced by immigrants to the
united States in the 1840s). His intention was
to write the people's music, using images and a
musical vocabulary that would be widely under-
stood by all groups. “i think that Stephen Foster
really did create popular music as we still recog-
nize it today, and he did it because he took
together all these strands of the American ex-
perience,” noted writer Ken Emerson. “He effec-
tively merged other ethnic genres into a single
music, and i think he merged them in a way that
appeals to the multicultural mongrel experience
of America in its history and culture.”
in addition to writing songs, Foster also
wrote a half-dozen instrumental pieces in
popular dance styles of the day, most probably
with a view toward bringing his music before a
wider public. The Social Orchestra, published in
1854, was a compendium of 73 arrangements
for flute, violin, piano, and other instruments.
The selections ranged from operatic—including
13 melodies by Donizetti—and classical—Mozart
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and Schubert—to popular airs and dances,
including his own (such as the three selections
included here, arranged by fl utist Tara Helen
o’Connor). The collection was ideal for informal
entertainment at home and the arrangements
lent themselves to various combinations and
numbers of instruments. While The Social
Orchestra proved to be very popular, it was
not a money-maker for Foster. He received a
fl at fee of only $150 from the publisher, which
may explain why this was his only venture into
instrumental arranging.
Program notes by: Adriaan Fuchs
DiRECToR oF ARTiSTiC PLAnninG AnD TouRinG
The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
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The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS) is one of eleven constitu-ents of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the largest performing arts complex in the world. Along with other constitu-ents such as the new York Philharmonic, new York City Ballet, Lincoln Center Theater, and The Metropolitan op-era, the Chamber Music Society has its home at Lincoln Center, in Alice Tully Hall—the finest hall in the world for chamber music. Called “A jewel in this nation’s musical crown,” CMS, through its performance of chamber music of every instrumen-tation and style, unparalleled national and international touring, multifaceted education programs, broad commission-ing program, and recording/broadcast/streaming/radio activities, draws more
people to chamber music than any other organization of its kind.
The artistic core of CMS is a multi-generational, dynamic repertory company of expert chamber musicians who form an evolving, international musical com-
munity. As part of that community, the CMS Two program discovers and weaves into the artistic fabric a select number of highly gifted young artists—individuals and ensembles—whose pairing with world-renowned senior musicians creates
the electrifying performances that are the signature of CMS.
CMS recordings are available on a number of labels, including the CMS Studio Recordings label, CMS Live! downloads, Deutsche Grammophon’s DG Concerts series, and SonY Classical.
ABOUT CMS
David Finckel and Wu Han
ARTiSTiC DiRECToRS
Suzanne DavidsonExECuTiVE DiRECToR
James P. o’ShaughnessyCHAiRMAn,
BoARD oF DiRECToRS
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Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill is the larg-est national Historic Landmark in Ken-tucky and is home to the country’s largest private collection of original 19th-century buildings. Shaker Village’s 34 historic structures are surrounded by a mixed-use nature preserve of conserved farmland,
native prairies, forests, and wetlands. The Historic Centre, The Farm, and The Preserve provide points of departure for learning, and programs and events encourage engaged participation while building strong bonds to the past, the land, and our communities.
ABOUT SHAKER VILLAGE OF PLEASANT HILL
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ABOUT LIVE FROM LINCOLN CENTERSimple Gifts was produced as a film for television by Live From Lincoln Center.
The Shakers chose a peaceful way
of life, with an emphasis on equality and freedom from prejudice. A quest for simplicity and perfection is reflected in their fine designs and craftsmanship. Al-though the population peaked at almost 500 in the 1820s, the community thrived through the mid-19th century, acquir-ing more than 4,000 acres of farmland. However, after the 1860s, changing social attitudes and the industrial Revolution signaled the community’s decline. own-ership of the land passed into private hands from the early 1900s until 1961, when a groundswell of interest in saving these historic structures brought on the formation of an organization to acquire and restore them. Recently named a member of Discovery Destinations and a top hidden travel destination by BBC news, Shaker Village is a landmark destination that shares 3,000 acres of discovery in the spirit of the Kentucky Shakers. For more information, please visit shakervillageky.org.
ExECuTiVE PRoDuCER: Andrew Carl Wilk
DiRECToR: Habib Azar
PRoDuCER: Douglas Chang
DoCuMEnTARY PRoDuCER: Elliot Caplan
SounD DESiGnER: Da-Hong Seetoo
DiRECToR oF PHoToGRAPHY: Ki S. Hwang
EnGinEER in CHARGE: Sandor Bondorowsky
EDiToRS: oriana Syed, Stephanie Kaznocha and Donald DuBois
CooRDinATinG PRoDuCER: Kristy Geslain
LinE PRoDuCER: Daisy Placeres
PoST PRoDuCTion SuPERViSoR: nick Palm
MEDiA CounSEL: Danielle Schiffman
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For four decades, Live From Lincoln Center has presented the world’s great-est performing artists. Luciano Pavarotti, Beverly Sills, Leonard Bernstein, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Yo-Yo Ma, Renée Fleming, Audra McDonald, and hundreds more have graced Lincoln Center’s hallowed stages for concerts broadcast across the coun-try. The pioneering series has been seen by hundreds of millions of viewers, and
collected 14 Emmy Awards, including one for outstanding Special Class Program for the broadcast of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, starring Bryn Terfel, Emma Thompson, and the new York Philharmonic.
Simple Gifts: The Chamber Music So-ciety at Shaker Village marks the first time the series has filmed an episode outside of new York City. it will air nationally on PBS.