Cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han rank among the most esteemed and
influential classical musicians in the world today. The duo is regularly
featured in the country’s leading music festivals, including recent
performances at the Aspen Music Festival, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival,
Music@Menlo, and Chamber Music Northwest. David Finckel and Wu Han’s
wide-ranging musical activities also include the launch of ArtistLed, the
first musician-directed and Internet-based recording company, which, in
2007, celebrated its tenth year. All ArtistLed recordings have received
critical acclaim and are available via the company’s website at
www.artistled.com. The duo’s “Russian Classics” recording, featuring works
by Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich, received BBC Music Magazine’s
coveted “Editor's Choice” award. David Finckel and Wu Han have served as
Artistic Directors of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since
2004. They are also the founders and Artistic Directors of Music@Menlo, a
chamber music festival in Silicon Valley that has garnered international
acclaim since its inception in 2003. Prior to launching Music@Menlo, Wu Han
and David Finckel served for three seasons as Artistic Directors of
SummerFest La Jolla. For many years, David Finckel and Wu Han taught
alongside the late Isaac Stern at Carnegie Hall and the Jerusalem Music
Center. They appeared annually on the Aspen Music Festival’s Distinguished
Artist Master Class series and in various educational outreach programs
across the country. David Finckel and Wu Han reside in New York with their
fourteen-year-old daughter Lilian.
Violinist Philip Setzer, founding member of the Emerson String Quartet, was
born in Cleveland, Ohio, and began studying violin at the age of five with
his parents, both former violinists in the Cleveland Orchestra. He
continued his studies with Josef Gingold and Rafael Druian, and later at the
Juilliard School with Oscar Shumsky. In 1967, Mr. Setzer won second prize
at the Marjorie Merriweather Post Competition in Washington, DC, and in 1976
received a Bronze Medal at the Queen Elisabeth International Competition in
Brussels. He has appeared with the National Symphony, Aspen Chamber
Symphony (David Robertson, conductor), Memphis Symphony (Michael Stern), New
Mexico and Puerto Rico Symphonies (Guillermo Figueroa), Omaha and Anchorage
Symphonies (David Loebel), and on several occasions with the Cleveland
Orchestra (Louis Lane). He has also participated in the Marlboro Music
Festival. Mr. Setzer has been a regular faculty member of the Isaac Stern
Chamber Music Workshops at Carnegie Hall and the Jerusalem Music Center.
His article about those workshops appeared in The New York Times on the
occasion of Isaac Stern's 80th birthday celebration. He also teaches as
Professor of Violin and Chamber Music at SUNY Stony Brook and has given
master classes at schools around the world, including The Curtis Institute,
London's Royal Academy of Music, The San Francisco Conservatory, UCLA, The
Cleveland Institute of Music, and The Mannes School. The Noise of Time, a
groundbreaking theater collaboration between the Emerson Quartet and Simon
McBurney--about the life of Shostakovich--was based on an original idea of
Mr. Setzer's. In April of 1989, Mr. Setzer premiered Paul Epstein's Matinee
Concerto. This piece, dedicated to and written for Mr. Setzer, has since
been performed by him in Hartford, New York, Cleveland, Boston, and Aspen.
David Finckel and Wu Han have previously appeared under the auspices of
Chamber Music Columbus on March 18, 2006. David Finckel and Philip Setzer
have appeared as members of the Emerson String Quartet in 1980, March 1982,
December 1984, and October 1989.
David Finckel and Wu Han appear by arrangement with David Rowe Artists, 24
Bessom Street, Suite 2, Marblehead, Massachusetts 01945.
Public Relations and Press Representative: Milina Barry PR.
David Finckel and Wu Han recordings are available exclusively on ArtistLed –
http://www.ArtistLed.com or 1-888-ArtLedCD.
Wu Han performs on the Steinway Piano.
Special support for this concert has been provided by a generous grant from
the Kenneth L. Coe and Jack Barrow Fund for Chamber Music Performance of the
Columbus Foundation.
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Trio in B-flat major, op. 99, D. 898 (composed 1827)
Allegro moderato
Andante un poco mosso
Scherzo: Allegro
Rondo: Allegro vivace
Schubert’s two late piano trios offer a sharp contrast both musically and
historically. The dramatic Trio in E-flat major, op. 100 (D. 929) is
among his most well-documented compositions, whereas the provenance of the
lyrical Trio in B-flat major, op. 99 (D. 898) is an almost total mystery.
The former was the subject of considerable correspondence throughout early
1828. It was first rejected by the publishers B. Schott’s Söhne of
Mainz, then bought by H.A. Probst of Leipzig. In fact, the Trio, op.
100 was to be the only work Schubert published outside of Austria during his
all-too-brief lifetime. On the other hand, the Trio, op. 99 appears
nowhere in any of Schubert’s surviving biographical documentation, nor is it
mentioned in any of the letters or memoirs of his friends.
Speculation since Schubert’s death has focused on a few known facts and
hints within the work itself, particularly allusions to some of his own
songs. Reference to a Premiere Grand Trio, op. 99 appears in the 1831
catalog of the Viennese publisher Diabelli & Co., although the work would
not actually be published until 1836. In her 1982 essay “The
Chronology of Schubert’s Piano Trios,” Eva Badura-Skoda concluded that Opus
99 was likely composed in October and November 1827, just before Opus 100.
The spirited triplets that open the Allegro moderato of the Trio in B-flat
major, op. 99, recall the 1825 song Des Sängers Habe (D. 832) and the 1822
Todesmusik (D. 758), which may have inspired the structure of the piano
accompaniment. The broader second theme is interwoven with the first
in the complex development. Schubert is thought to have written his
Notturno, op. 148 (D. 897) as a first attempt at a slow movement for this
trio, spurred by the second-beat accent of a work song he had heard among
Austrian pile drivers during the summer of 1825. Eventually, he penned
this dreamy Andante un poco mosso instead, with its syncopations and its
quotation from the 1812 Klaglied (D. 23).
Waltzes form the foundation of the third movement’s scherzo and trio,
featuring canonic imitation among the piano and strings. Considerable
variation and the frequent introduction of new thematic material tend to
obscure the rondo structure of the finale, but the wide-ranging piano part
helps keep things in perspective. Yet another song, his Skolie (D.
306) of 1815, makes an appearance. The finale’s midsection is closely
related to the second theme of the work’s first movement, rounding things
off musically for this historical curiosity.
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Trio in E-flat major, op. 100, D. 929 (composed 1827)
Allegro
Andante con moto
Scherzando
Allegro moderato
When he served as a torchbearer at Beethoven’s funeral in March 1827,
Franz Schubert of course had no idea that his own funeral was a mere year
and a half in the future. Even so, he was composing as though he had
no tomorrow. His monumental song cycle Winterreise (D. 911), the
Moments musicaux (D. 780) for piano, and the Fantasie in C major (D. 934)
for violin and piano, all date from around this time. Shortly before,
he had scored a substantial personal success with his first Trio in B-flat
major, op. 99 (D. 898). In November 1827, he hoped to repeat his luck
with a second Trio in E-flat major, op. 100 (D. 929), which received its
first performance on December 28 of the same year at the Vienna Musikverein.
Advice from his good friend Leopold von Sonnleithner (1797-1873) prompted
Schubert to make considerable cuts in the finale, but the publisher B.
Schott's Söhne of Mainz rejected the score. When Schubert then sent
it to H.A. Probst of Leipzig, however, the score was immediately accepted
and became the only work published during his lifetime outside of his native
Austria. The composer never lived to see it, though, as it did not
become available in Vienna until December 11, 1828, some three weeks after
his death.
A unison, rhythmic theme opens the Allegro of the Trio in E-flat
major, op. 100; a more hesitant, minor second theme provides the rare
moments of calm in this movement. What may sound like a third theme,
in the codetta closing the exposition, is actually an amalgam of the first
theme’s rhythm and the second theme’s melody, serving as the basis for the
development. The opening motto returns to mark the recapitulation.
Accompanied by a march-time piano, the cello sings what is thought to be a
Swedish folksong in the Andante con moto.
The airy Scherzando is dominated by the close canon between the piano and
the strings; the weightier trio has been compared to a peasant clog dance on
account of its insistent meter. In spite of its admitted length, the
finale has considerable historical importance as a precursor to the common
romantic practice of the cyclic recurrence of a theme from an earlier
movement, in this case, that “Swedish” melody from the Andante con moto.
Strumming effects in the strings, alternating major and minor passages, and
an extended coda provide the interest in this rondo conclusion.
--
Program notes by Jay Weitz, Senior Consulting Database Specialist for music,
OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Dublin, Ohio.
He is a contributing performing arts critic for the weekly
alternative newspaper Columbus Alive
(http://www.columbusalive.com).
