horowitz piano seriesBoris Berman, Artistic Director

april 6, 2011Sprague Memorial Hall

music ofJohann Sebastian Bach

with Katie Hyun, violinDavid Southorn, violinEttore Causa, violaMihai Marica, cello

Robert Blocker, Dean

Boris Berman» piano

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.

Concerto in E Major, BWV 1053(Allegro)SicilianoAllegro Concerto in F Minor, BWV 1056AllegroAdagioPresto

Concerto in A Major, BWV 1055AllegroLarghettoAllegro ma non tanto

Intermission

Concerto in G Minor, BWV 1058(Allegro)AndanteAllegro assai

Concerto in D Major, BWV 1054(Allegro)Adagio e piano sempreAllegro

Johann Sebastian Bach(1685–1750)

april 6, 2011 · 8 pmMorse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall

with

katie hyun, violindavid southorn, violinettore causa, violamihai marica, cello

Boris Berman» piano

The artistry of Boris Berman is well known to the audiences of over forty countries on six continents. His highly acclaimed performances have inclu- ded appearances with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Gewandhaus Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra (London), Toronto Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Houston Symphony, Atlanta Sym- phony, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, and Royal Scottish Orchestra. A frequent performer on major recital series, he has also appeared in important festivals including Marlboro, Waterloo, Bergen, Ravinia, and Israel Festival.

Born in Moscow, Boris Berman studied at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory with Lev Oborin. He performed extensively throughout the Soviet Union as a recitalist and appeared as guest soloist with numerous orchestras. In 1973, Boris Berman left a flourishing career in the Soviet Union to immigrate to Israel. He quickly established himself as one of the most sought- after keyboard performers and an influential musical personality.

A dedicated teacher of international stature, Boris Berman has served on the faculties of Indiana (Bloomington), Boston, Brandeis, and Tel-Aviv Universities. Professor of Piano at Yale School of Music since 1984, he is now the coordinator of piano and the director of the Horowitz Piano Series. He also conducts master

classes throughout the world and is a frequent juror of various national and international com-petitions. In 2005, he was named an honorary professor of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.

Mr. Berman’s acclaimed releases on Philips, Deutsche Grammophon, and Melodia labels were followed by two CDs of all the Scriabin piano sonatas for the Music and Arts label and a recital of Shostakovich piano works (Ottavo), which received the Edison Classic Award in Holland. His recording of three Prokofiev Concertos with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and conductor Neeme Jarvi (Chandos) marked the beginning of an ambitious project of recording the complete Prokofiev solo piano works. The first pianist ever to undertake this task, Mr. Berman has released it on nine Chandos CDs to great critical acclaim. In addition, Chandos has issued Mr. Berman’s recitals of works by Debussy, Stravinsky, and Schnittke, as well as chamber music of Janácek, and – with Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under Neeme Jarvi – Stravinsky’s Concerto.

Berman’s most recent discography shows the breadth of his repertoire: a disc of Debussy for Children (Ottavo); two releases of works for pre- pared piano by John Cage (Naxos), which was named the Top Recording by BBC Music Maga-zine; the Grammy-nominated Piano Quintets of Shostakovich and Schnittke with Vermeer Quartet (Naxos); and, unexpectedly, a recor-ding of Scott Joplin’s Ragtimes (Ottavo). In the recently issued Naxos collection of the complete Sequenzas by Luciano Berio, Berman plays Sequenza IV for piano. For the recording of Brahms Sonatas with the cellist Clive Greensmith (Biddulph), he played an 1867 Bechstein piano.

In 2000, Yale University Press published Boris Berman’s Notes from the Pianist’s Bench, which has since been translated into several languages. His most recent book is Prokofiev’s Piano Sonatas: A Guide for the Listener and the Performer, also from Yale University Press.

boris bermanpiano

Photo by Bob Handelman

Ettore Causaviola

Born in Naples, Italy, Ettore Causa began his studies of violin and viola at the Naples Conservatory, where he graduated with the high- est honors. He later studied at the International Menuhin Music Academy in Switzerland with Sir Yehudi Menuhin and others, and with Michael Tree at the Manhattan School of Music. Causa has been first solo viola of the Carl Nielsen Philharmonic (Denmark) and leader of the Copenhagen Chamber Soloists. In 2000, he was awarded the Peter Schidlof Prize and the John Barbirolli Prize at the prestigious Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition. He has since made solo, recital, and festival appearances around the world, performing in North and South America, Europe, and Asia. He is a member of the Aria Quartet and is regularly invited to play with colleagues such as Pascal Rogé and Thomas Adès. His first recording, for Claves, was crowned with the 5 Diapason, and a new recording has already been highly praised by critics worldwide. In 2001, Causa was appointed professor of viola and chamber music at the International Menuhin Music Academy, and in 2009 he joined the faculty of the Yale School of Music. Ettore plays on a viola made for him by Frederic Chaudiere in 2003.

Katie Hyunviolin

Violinist Katie Hyun has performed as a soloist with the Houston Symphony, Dallas Chamber Orchestra, Concerto Soloists Orchestra in Philadelphia, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Winner of the Philadelphia Orchestra Albert M. Greenfield Student Competition, she has also won the 2005 Stony Brook Concerto Competition, 2004 Aspen Academy Orchestra Concerto Competition, 2003 Music Academy of the West Concerto Competition, 2000 Concerto Soloists Young Artists Competition, and several others. She has appeared on the television program Good Morning Texas and on the NPR show Prairie Home Companion. In 2006, she collaborated with bassist Edgar Meyer at the Laguna Beach Chamber Music Festival and participated in his Carnegie Hall workshop. She has attended the Music Academy of the West, Aspen, Taos Festival of Music, Music@Menlo, Yellow Barn, and other festivals. Katie Hyun received her artist diploma from the Yale School of Music and her master’s degree from the State University of New York in Stony Brook. She earned her bachelor’s degree at the Curtis Institute of Music.

artist profiles

Mihai Maricacello

Mihai Marica began his training as a cellist at the age of seven in his native Romania. He earned his master’s degree and artist diploma under Aldo Parisot at the Yale School of Music. Mihai has won numerous competitions, including first prize and the award for the best performance of a commissioned work in the 2005 Irving M. Klein International String Competition, and first prize and the Audience Choice Award at the 2006 Dr. Luis Sigall International Competition. He received the 2006 Charlotte White’s Salon de Virtuosi Fellowship Grant. Mihai has performed as a soloist with the New Haven and New Britain Symphony Orchestras, Louisville Orchestra, Santa Cruz Symphony, Symphony Orchestra of Chile, Xalapa Symphony (Mexico), Daejeon Philharmonic (Korea), Hermitage State Orchestra of St. Petersburg (Russia), and the major Romanian orchestras. He has also appeared in recital across Europe and North America and in Korea, Japan, and Chile, as well as at festivals including Banff, Great Mountains, and Laguna Beach. Mihai served as interim principal cellist with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra for the 2008–2009 season.

David Southornviolin

David Southorn has distinguished himself as a violin soloist, chamber musician, and concert- master. He is a member of the award-winning Amphion String Quartet, which, in 2010, won first prize in both the Plowman Chamber Music and Hugo Kauder Quartet Competitions. As a soloist he has appeared with the Fremont, Nova Vista, and Portland Festival Symphonies, among others. Southorn has had the opportunity to perform with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and on the Mostly Music series, and in numerous festivals including Banff, Spoleto USA, Kneisel Hall, and Tanglewood. Last summer he performed with the Amphion Quartet at Music@Menlo and the Beethoven Institute at Mannes. David frequently assumes the role of concertmaster and has performed under such conductors as James Levine, Kurt Masur, Bernard Haitink, and Michael Tilson Thomas, among many others. This summer he will be appearing with the Amphion Quartet at the OK Mozart Festival and Chamber Music Northwest. David earned a Master of Music degree and Artist Diploma from Yale under the tutelage of Ani Kavafian and is currently pursuing a Professional Studies Certificate with Glenn Dicterow.

notes on the programby Jordan Kuspa

Concertos for Keyboard and Strings BWV 1053, 1054, 1055, 1056, 1058by Johann Sebastian Bach

Now widely hailed as the greatest Western com- poser of all time, Johann Sebastian Bach was once not even considered the finest composer in his own corner of Germany. In 1722, Bach applied to become Kantor of the Thomaskirche (St. Thomas Church) in Leipzig, one of the most prestigious musical positions in the city. However, the Leipzig authorities preferred to hire Bach’s friend Georg Philipp Telemann, who was at that point the most famous German composer living in Germany. (George Frideric Handel was entrenched in England by this time.) When Telemann was not allowed to leave his current post in Hamburg, the Leipzig council turned to a musician named Christoph Graupner, who had been educated in the Thomasschule (the boarding school attached to the Thomaskirche) himself. Graupner was not permitted to leave his post in Darmstadt either, so in the spring of 1723, Bach was finally offered the position. Upon hearing that Bach was the choice for Leipzig, Graupner graciously wrote to the city council assuring them that Bach “is a musician just as strong on the organ as he is expert in church works and capelle pieces” and a man who “will honestly and properly perform the functions entrusted to him.”

These functions included organizing the music for the four main churches of Leipzig, acting as musical director to the Leipzig university, and instructing the fifty to sixty students of the Thomasschule in music and Latin. (The lessons in Latin were a sticking point between Bach and his employers, as he did not wish to teach them.)

For several years, Bach threw himself whole- heartedly into the creation of a body of sacred cantatas to be used by the various churches. Between 1723 and 1729, Bach composed the bulk of his roughly 300 cantatas, allowing him to continually draw upon this repertoire for each of the churches whose music he organized.

In 1729, with this body of sacred works to support his activities as Kantor, Bach took the additional position of director of the Collegium musicum, an instrumental ensemble of profes-sionals and university students that Telemann had founded in 1702. While it is not known definitively what was performed at their weekly concerts, it is likely that many of the secular orchestral and chamber works written during Bach’s previous employment at Cöthen (1717– 1723) were revisited here, including the three orchestral suites (BWV 1066–8) and the three violin concerti (BWV 1041–3). Bach’s keyboard concerti (BWV 1052–8) also must first have been performed at this time.

Though Bach was one of the most prolific com- posers in history, he often borrowed heavily from his earlier work to create new compositions. In the case of the keyboard concerti (which were originally played on the harpsichord), musicologists have suggested that the concerti in E major and A major (BWV 1053 and 1055) were adapted from earlier concerti for oboe d’amore (a mezzo-soprano cousin of today’s oboe). Unfortunately, these originals have been lost. In the case of the D major and G minor works (BWV 1054 and 1058), Bach’s violin concerti in E major and A minor (BWV 1042 and 1041, respectively, still extant) formed the basis of these compositions.

This is not to say that the keyboard concerti should not be considered independent works in their own right. Bach reworked the originals extensively, adding new contrapuntal lines and developing his musical material more fully. For this reason, it is impossible to accurately recreate the original versions of some of these works, although scholars have certainly tried. In many cases, Bach reused the originals in other contexts, often creating movements of cantatas from the earlier music. These adaptations may be closer to the original conception for the concerti, and have offered many clues as to how the works may have sounded with an oboe or violin as the solo instrument. For example, the F minor concerto has been the subject of much debate, with some scholars convinced that the work draws from multiple earlier sources, while others have found that argument unsatisfactory. The middle movement of this concerto is also used as the opening Sinfonia of the cantata Ich Steh mit einem Fuß im Grabe (BWV 156). In this setting, Bach scores the music for oboe and strings, suggesting the use of the oboe as the original concerto soloist.

As keyboard concerti, Bach’s works form one of the earliest significant bodies of German music in the nascent genre. The manuscript, now held at the Staatsbibliothek Berlin, has been dated to 1738, though it is probable that Bach would have played the concerti several years before then in the scope of his responsibilities as director of the Collegium musicum. It is also possible that two of Bach’s elder sons, Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emanuel, played the solo parts in concert, as they almost certainly did for the concertos for two harpsichords (BWV 1060–2). Carl Philipp Emanuel (the name Philipp was

notes on the programby Jordan Kuspa

given in honor of Telemann, who was the boy’s godfather) and Bach’s youngest son, Johann Christian, would both go on to write important keyboard concerti, with those of Johann Christian proving to have a great influence over the piano concerti of Mozart.

The harpsichord concerti of Johann Sebastian Bach have been played on the piano for centuries. Mendelssohn was known to have played the D minor concerto (BWV 1052, not on tonight’s program), and Brahms wrote a cadenza for it. Bach himself was introduced to the piano in the 1730s by the piano and organ builder Gottfried Silbermann, but he was dissatisfied with the new instrument. (The piano had been invented around 1700). However, in the last years of his life, Bach changed his mind and even began to act as an agent for selling Silbermann’s pianos. This is not to say that Bach would have played these harpsichord concerti on the piano, but it does leave open the possibility that he might have approved of the substitution. While we may never know how Bach felt about hearing his compositions played on this new instrument, we can be grateful for the pianists who have kept this music alive so that we might continue to enjoy it for centuries to come.

upcoming

The Yale CellosApril 20 | 8 pm | Wed | Sprague Hall

Aldo Parisot, director. Music from Bach to Bright Sheng, plus a new work by Ezra Laderman. Tickets $10–$20 | Students $5

Masaaki Suzuki, harpsichordApril 26 | 5 pm | Tue Collection of Musical Instruments

Music by Bach, Byrd, Froberger, and more. Tickets $20 | Students $10

Dorothy and Nicholas RenoufMay 1 | 3 pm | Sun | Collection

Music for piano four hands by Mozart, Schubert, Dvorák, and Fauré, performed on the Collection’s Erard grand piano.

concerts & mediaDana AstmannMonica Ong ReedDanielle HellerRichard Henebry

operationsTara DemingChristopher Melillo

piano curatorsBrian DaleyWilliam Harold

recording studioEugene KimballJason Robins

Yale School of Music203 432-4158concerts@yale.edumusic.yale.edu/media

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