CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER
REPERTOIRE
2023-24 season touring projects
TOUR 1 – “Rachmaninov Celebration” (150th anniversary of his birth)
(4 musicians: Gilles Vonsattel, piano; Benjamin Beilman, violin; Clive Greensmith cello; Erika Baikoff, soprano)
Available: October 14-27, 2023
Anton Rubinstein: “Romance” from Soirées à Saint-Petersbourg arranged for Piano, Violin, and Cello, Op. 44, No. 1 (Rachmaninov attended his concerts at age 12 and was greatly influenced by him) (1860)
A collection of songs by Rimsky-Korsakov (Rachmaninov dedicated a work to him), Arensky, and Taneyev (his teachers)
Rachmaninov: Selected Songs for soprano with violin obbligato
Rachmaninov: Romance and Oriental Dance for Cello and Piano (1880s, 1892)
Tchaikovsky: Souvenir d'un lieu cher for Violin and Piano, Op. 42 (1878)
Rachmaninov: Trio élégiaque in D minor for Piano, Violin, and Cello, Op. 9 - in memory of Tchaikovsky (1893)
TOUR 2 – “Extraordinary Imaginations”
(5 musicians: Gloria Chien, piano, Kristin Lee, violin, James Thompson, violin, Yura Lee, viola, Dmitri Atapine cello)
Available: Jan 20 - Feb 2, 2024
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: African Dances for violin and piano, Op. 58 (1904)
Reynaldo Hahn: Quintet in F-sharp minor for Piano, Two Violins, Viola, and Cello (1922)
Eugene Ysaye: Sonata for solo violin, Op. 27, No. 3 “Ballade” (1923) (Ysaye was Bloch’s teacher)
Ernest Bloch: Quintet No. 1 for Piano, Two Violins, Viola, and Cello (1921-23)
TOUR 3 – “Instrumental Array”
(7 musicians: Juho Pohjonen, piano, Paul Neubauer, viola, Nicholas Canellakis, cello, Nina Bernat, bass, Sooyun Kim, flute, James Austin Smith, oboe, Radovan Vlatkovic, horn)
Available: March 2 - Mar 10, 2024
Beethoven: Sonata for horn and piano in F major, Op. 17 (1800)
Rossini: Duetto for cello and bass in D major (1824)
Benjamin Britten: Two Insect Pieces for Oboe and Piano (1935)
Maurice Duruflé: Prelude, Recitative and Variations, for flute, viola and piano, Op.3 (1928)
J.N. Hummel: Septet in D minor for Flute, Oboe, Horn, Viola, Cello, Bass, and Piano, Op. 74 (1816)
TOUR 4 – “String Magic”
(5 musicians: Bella Hristova, violin; Chad Hoopes, violin; Timothy Ridout, viola, Matthew Lipman, viola, Sihao He, cello)
Available: April 6-19, 2024
Beethoven: Trio for Violin, Viola and Cello in E-flat major, Op. 3 (before 1794)
Jean Francaix: Trio for Violin, Viola, and Cello (1933)
Frank Bridge: Lament for Two Violas (1912)
Mendelssohn: Quintet No. 2 in B-flat major for Two Violins, Two Violas, and Cello, Op. 87 (1845)
ALSO AVAILABLE: the complete Brandenburg Concertos (early-mid December, 2023)
Feb 2022
Narrative program descriptions
TOUR 1 – “Rachmaninov Celebration”
The year 2023 marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of composer-pianist Sergei Rachmaninov, a great figure of the Romantic era who gave the world of orchestral, chamber, and piano composition some of its most monumental and beloved works. In tribute to his legacy, this program highlights the personal inspirations that directly influenced Rachmaninov, tracing the lineage of his particular style of piano-forward composition, as well as highlighting his musical heritage and appreciation for his teachers Anton Arensky and Sergei Taneyev, along with fellow composer-pianist Anton Rubinstein. In 1893, along with much of the music world, a 20-year-old Rachmaninov was shaken by the sudden death of his close mentor Pyotr Tchaikovsky; ending this program is Rachmaninov’s three-movement Trio in D minor, written not only in the style of Tchaikovsky’s famous Piano Trio, but also in his memory.
TOUR 2 – “New Masters”
Truly diverse in origin and expression, this program offers audiences the opportunity to dive deeper into chamber music of the early 20th century, with new sounds and divergent compositional influences that helped shape contemporary chamber music. In 1904, the year of the premiere of his African Dances for violin and piano, English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor received a warm welcome from American audiences, especially Black concert goers, while on his first tour in the states. Coleridge-Taylor would continue to dive deeper into both his Sierra Leonean heritage and his use of African-inspired themes in his music for the remainder of his too-short life. Unlike Coleridge-Taylor's inspirations from his heritage, Venezuelan composer Reynaldo Hahn, a naturalized Frenchman, preferred to write strictly with Paris in mind. His Piano Quintet opens with all the drama of the latest Parisian fashion of the 1920s, but its ability to shift moods within movements is even more spectacular. Belgian composer, teacher, and virtuosic violinist Eugene Ysaÿe provides a differing style with his Sonata No. 3, “Ballade”, which reflects the playing style of the violinist it was dedicated to, George Enescu. A passing student of Ysaÿe’s in Brussels, Swiss-American composer Ernest Bloch’s compositions are often described as reflective of his Jewish heritage, with highly dramatic scores influenced by philosophical, poetic, and religious themes. His Quintet No. 1, composed in Cleveland, Ohio in 1923, is rife with tension and expression and is regarded as one of his greatest works.
TOUR 3 – “Instrumental Array”
With a focus on the intersection of unusual instrumentation, this unique program offers something for everyone, and the breezy melodies are perfect for the nearing of spring. Triumphant, light, and pastoral, Beethoven’s Sonata for horn and piano in F major leaves the listener humming a joyful tune. In the same vein, Gioachino Rossini’s Duo for cello and double bass can be best described as jaunty, Italianate, and bright. While slightly more angular, Benjamin Britten’s Two Insect Pieces for Oboe and Piano, written for an oboist colleague, opens with dialogue between the two instruments, creating a delightful onomatopoeia. Duruflé’s more somber Prélude, Récitatif et Variations for flute, viola, and piano is a rare example of the composer’s instrumental chamber music, written in 1928 and dedicated to the memory of the well-known French publisher and contemporary music enthusiast Jacques Durand. The final work, Johann Nepomuk Hummel’s Septet in D minor for Flute, Oboe, Horn, Viola, Cello, Bass, and Piano, brings the previous ensembles together for a final stage-call of ingenious harmonies and musical flavors. Hummel, an accomplished pianist and pupil of Mozart, Antonio Salieri, and Haydn, was at the epicenter of the musical communities of Austria in the early 19th century, which gave him consistent access to the most prestigious musicians of his time. It’s no wonder that his composition features such a diverse and charming instrumentation.
TOUR 4 – “String Magic”
Spanning from 1797 Vienna to 1933 Paris, this all-string program invites audiences to take a journey through the astounding breadth of chamber music repertoire in just four works. Setting the stage, Beethoven’s understanding of the Classical era is paramount to his very first string trio; conversational and light, it introduces audiences to the buoyancy of his early style through what is widely considered one of the most challenging ensembles for a composer. Just as expectations of compositional mastery seem to have been met in that work, Jean Francaix—a student of the great Nadia Boulanger—dashes them with a frenetic and energized trio of his own. Seemingly opposed to this flurry of sound is the music of English composer Frank Bridge. During World War I and immediately afterwards, Bridge wrote several pastoral and elegiac works, including his Lament for Two Violas, as part of a pair of viola duos, which debuted March 18, 1912. The composer and iconic English violist Lionel Tertis premiered the work and helped set the scene for a renaissance of music written for viola. Mendelssohn’s second string quintet, one of his final compositions, rounds out the program with, in the composer’s own words, “an exercise in forms and an expression of ideas”.