CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
Ensemble ACJW

Weill Recital Hall
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 at 7:30 PM

Ensemble ACJW

PROKOFIEV Quintet in G Minor, Op. 39
DAVID BRUCE Gumboots for Clarinet and String Quartet
SHOSTAKOVICH Piano Trio No. 2

The Academy—a program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and The Weill Music Institute in partnership with the New York City Department of Education—is made possible by a leadership gift from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Major funding has also been provided by Mercedes and Sid Bass, The Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation, The Irving Harris Foundation, The Kovner Foundation, Martha and Bob Lipp, Mr. and Mrs. Lester S. Morse Jr., Judith and Burton Resnick, Susan and Elihu Rose, and The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation, with additional support from Mr. and Mrs. Nicola Bulgari, Jean and Louis Dreyfus Foundation, Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation, Susan and Ed Forst, Mrs. Nancy A. Marks, Edward John Noble Foundation, The William Petschek Family, and Suki Sandler.

The Academy School Partnerships benefitting NYC public school students are made possible, in part, by Bank of America.

The Academy and Ensemble ACJW are made possible, in part, by public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Recovery Act, and the New York State Council on the Arts.

Program Notes:

SERGEI PROKOFIEV (1891–1953)
Quintet in G Minor, Op. 39

About the Composer

Sergei Prokofiev was precociously accomplished as both a pianist and a composer. His early works established him as something of an enfant terrible among Russian musicians of his generation, but his popular "Classical" Symphony (1916–1917) showed him capable of a polished neo-classical idiom also.

Following the Revolution and the advent of Communist rule in Russia, Prokofiev left his homeland, living in the United States and Western Europe for nearly two decades. Especially while he was in Paris, Prokofiev associated with many of the leading artists of the modernist movement. Among the important compositions of this period are his much-performed Third Piano Concerto and the Quintet on this evening's program.

Prokofiev returned to the Soviet Union in 1927 and made several more visits during the ensuing years. He repatriated permanently in 1936. Despite restrictions imposed by Stalin's government, Prokofiev produced some of his finest compositions during his Soviet period, including the ballet Romeo and Juliet, his Fifth Symphony, and his opera War and Peace.


About the Work

In 1924, Prokofiev was living in Paris, one of many Russian émigré artists in the French capital. Another was Boris Romanov, a former dancer and choreographer at the famed Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg. Romanov had a small traveling dance company in France, prompting him to ask Prokofiev to write music for a new ballet called Trapeze that was set in a circus. Romanov specified that Prokofiev write for a small ensemble, one that could travel easily and not strain his company's slender financial resources. The composer chose a heterogeneous quintet of oboe, clarinet, violin, viola, and bass.

Romanov's company toured much of Europe with Trapeze during the fall of 1925. But Prokofiev, ever practical, had written the music so that it could be presented as a concert piece independent of the ballet. The first opportunity for such a presentation came during a visit to Moscow in 1927. There the piece made a great impression on Soviet composers, who took it as an example of the latest musical trends emanating from the West. This piece is what we now know as the Quintet, Op. 39.


A Closer Listen

Cast in six movements, the Quintet is one of the most daringly modern works Prokofiev ever ventured. In this piece, the composer essayed a high level of tonal complexity, unusual instrumental colors, and harmonically static ostinatos (drone patterns). The piece poses no great difficulties for listeners today, but compared to such familiar Prokofiev favorites as the "Classical" Symphony or Peter and the Wolf, it seems a surprising experiment.



DAVID BRUCE (b. 1970)
Gumboots for Clarinet and String Quartet

About the Composer

Winner of the Lili Boulanger Memorial Prize, David Bruce enjoys a growing reputation on both sides of the Atlantic. He is particularly known for his vocal music. Mr. Bruce has created an unusual and critically acclaimed series of chamber operas, and his song cycle Piosenki, commissioned by Carnegie Hall for Dawn Upshaw, proved successful from its first performance in April 2007. Gumboots, composed for Todd Palmer and the St. Lawrence String Quartet, is the result of a second Carnegie Hall commission.


The History of Gumboot Dancing

Born in South Africa during the years of apartheid, gumboot dancing was created by black prisoners who were chained together while they worked in the goldmines. When the mines flooded, miners were provided with Wellington boots, since the mine-owners found it cheaper to supply boots than to drain the mines. By slapping their boots and chains in particular ways, miners developed a form of communication to circumvent the ban on speaking frequently imposed in the mines. From this emerged a form of dance named after the Wellingtons, which the miners called gumboots.

Gumboot dancing is now widely practiced in the townships of South Africa, dancers regularly performing around the tourist sites of Cape Town and Johannesburg. Considering its origin, gumboot dancing is surprisingly lively. Paul Simon even paid tribute to the spirit of this dancing in an up-tempo song called "Gumboot" on his African-inspired album Graceland.


About the Work

Gumboot dancing provided the inspiration for David Bruce's piece. This work is in two parts of roughly equal length. The first is tranquil and slow-paced, seemingly yearning at times. The second consists of five increasingly animated gumboot dances. Mr. Bruce acknowledges influences from African music in the work, but he doesn't consider the piece to be about gumboot dancers specifically. Rather, he observes, it is "an abstract celebration of the rejuvenating power of dance, moving ... from introspection to celebration."

—Paul Schiavo



DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH (1906–1975)
Piano Trio No. 2 in E Minor, Op. 67

About the Composer

Throughout his career, Shostakovich was alternately lionized and demonized by the Soviet Union's cultural apparatchiks. It's a small wonder that his music veers wildly between mordent satire (the opera The Nose and the ballet The Golden Age), patriotic bombast (the Second Symphony and the symphonic poem October, both eulogizing the 1917 Russian Revolution), and bleak alienation (almost any of his 15 string quartets, arguably his most deeply personal works). Shostakovich came of age in the 1920s, during the brief halcyon period of the workers' state. But his incorrigible political cynicism, and his contempt for the proletariat produced under the banner of Soviet Realism, repeatedly landed him in hot water with the authorities. The international success of the "Leningrad" Symphony—composed during the Nazi siege of Leningrad in World War II and widely hailed as a symbol of Russian resistance—finally brought him a measure of security. Fundamentally tonal, but laced with dissonant harmonies and kinetic energy, Shostakovich's music epitomizes the restless, existentialist spirit of the 20th-century "Age of Anxiety."


About the Work

Some two decades separate Shostakovich's two trios for piano and strings. The first, a short, ebullient exercise in the key of C minor, dates from his student days at the Petrograd (Saint Petersburg) Conservatory. The high-spirited lyricism of the Op. 8 Trio is a far cry from the brooding intensity of its E-minor cousin, a work, as his biographer Ian MacDonald observes, "begun in grief and concluded in anger." The grief was occasioned by the death in February 1944 of the composer's artistic confidant Ivan Sollertinsky, an eminent music critic. The anger arose from the horrific revelations in the press that summer of the Nazi death camps that had been liberated by Soviet troops. Completed in mid-August, the trio was first performed in Leningrad on November 14, 1944, by Shostakovich and members of the Beethoven Quartet. At the Moscow premiere two weeks later, according to one member of the audience, "the music left a devastating impression. People cried openly. The last 'Jewish Part' of the Trio by popular demand had to be repeated."


A Closer Listen

The Second Piano Trio bears Shostakovich's stylistic fingerprints in its extremes of mood and register, insistent rhythms, and spare, linear textures. The opening Andante casts a haunting spell, with the muted cello intoning a plaintive melody in ghostly, high-lying harmonics. Soon the violin joins in, followed by the piano in simple octaves. The pulse quickens and the piano introduces a brighter variant of the melody, set against throbbing eighth notes in the strings. Shostakovich develops this material in a brilliant and frequently sardonic manner, using changing meters and canonic imitation.

The second movement starts in a light, scherzo-like vein, but soon turns demonic, with angular leaps, stabbing accents, and relentlessly driving rhythms. The following Largo is a dirge-like passacaglia, characterized by a harmonic pattern that repeats itself every eight bars. The piano part consists entirely of slow-moving block chords, above which the violin and cello weave a tender and richly lyrical duet. (This is the movement that was played at Shostakovich's funeral service in 1975 at the Moscow Conservatory.)

The finale, a grimly grotesque dance of death, follows without a break. Shostakovich would incorporate Jewish themes into many of his later works, but never to greater emotional effect than in this savage Allegretto. Toward the end, the theme from the first movement returns in the strings, buoyed by the piano's sweeping arpeggios. The dance flickers back to life, then subsides, and the trio ends with a hushed echo of the third-movement passacaglia.

—Harry Haskell

© 2010 The Carnegie Hall Corporation

Ensemble ACJW
Sarah Beaty

Sarah Beaty is both a passionate performer and a teacher of music. She has had recital debuts at London’s Royal Festival Hall, Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall, New York’s Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, and Wigmore Hall in London. Sarah has performed at Italy’s Spoleto Festival, the Lucerne Festival, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and currently attends the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont, and Prussia Cove’s Open Chamber Music, UK. Sarah performs with the Ikarus Chamber Players, The Knights, The Metropolis Ensemble, The Second Instrumental Unit, Ensemble 360, and the Aronowitz Ensemble. A graduate of The Juilliard School and the Royal Northern College of Music, Sarah studied with Charles Neidich, John Bradbury, Lynsey Marsh, Chris Swann, and John Reynolds. She is the recipient of the Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe woodwind prize, an Ian Fleming Award from the Musicians’ Benevolent Fund, a June Alison Woodwind Award from the Philharmonia Orchestra / Martin Musical Fund, and a Hattori Foundation award. As part of The Academy, Sarah teaches in Manhattan at PS 46.



Meena M. Bhasin

Meena M. Bhasin is a violist whose interests lie in music and international relations. She has traveled extensively, performing and collaborating in cultural exchange programs throughout Japan, China, Iran, and Israel—inspiring her continued dedication to use music as a means to facilitate cross-cultural dialogue. Meena trained under the guidance of Itzhak Perlman at the Perlman Music Program. In 2007, she graduated from a dual-degree program between Tufts University, where she graduated with honors in International Relations, and New England Conservatory, where she was the recipient of the 2006 Presser Award. Current engagements are taking Meena beyond her classical upbringing to encompass various types of world and popular music. She recently toured the US as a guest soloist with legendary rock band, Jethro Tull. As part of The Academy, Meena teaches in Brooklyn at PS 282.



Nicholas Canellakis

Cellist Nicholas Canellakis has performed throughout Europe and the US, and has participated in the festivals of Santa Fe, Ravinia, Music@Menlo, Verbier, Aspen, Music from Angel Fire, and Sarasota. Nicholas is a member of the prestigious Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society Two. A regular performer at Bargemusic in New York City, he has also appeared in venues such as Weill Recital Hall and Zankel Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Kennedy Center, Jordan Hall, and Disney Hall. Nicholas was a founding member of the prize-winning Vertigo String Quartet, which made its New York debut in February 2008 and was Bargemusic’s resident quartet for the 2007–2008 season. He graduated form the Curtis Institute and the New England Conservatory, studying with Orlando Cole, Peter Wiley, and Paul Katz. He is on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music Precollege. As part of The Academy, Nicholas teaches in Manhattan at PS 153M.



Owen Dalby

Violinist Owen Dalby has performed throughout North America and Europe as a solo, orchestral, and chamber musician. He was a top-prizewinner at the 2007 Lyon International Chamber Music Competition. Owen’s enduring love of chamber music began at The Crowden School in California, and continued to develop at the Aspen, Adriatic, Kneisel Hall, Norfolk, Music@Menlo, and Yellow Barn summer festivals. He has appeared as a soloist with the Oakland East Bay Symphony, the Festival Orchestra of Sofia, and on several occasions with the Yale Symphony Orchestra. Acclaimed for his instrumental versatility, Owen is a co-founder of The Hindemith Ensemble and is also a member of the Momenta Quartet. He appears regularly with the Clarion Music Society, the Grand Tour Orchestra, and the Orchestra of St Luke’s. A California native, Owen received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Yale University. As part of The Academy, Owen teaches in Brooklyn at PS 112K.



Joanna Marie Frankel

Violinist Joanna Marie Frankel is a 2007 recipient of a Career Grant from the Rachel Elizabeth Barton Foundation, and of The Juilliard School’s prestigious William Schuman Prize for artistic excellence. Highlights of Joanna’s upcoming season include solo recitals in Switzerland, The Netherlands, Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia, as well collaborations with orchestras in New Jersey, Tennessee, and Michigan. Recent engagements have included chamber music appearances at La Jolla’s Summerfest and her European recital debut tour, during which she performed in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. Joanna made her Carnegie Hall recital debut in January 2007. In 2008, she was appointed to the Concert Artist Faculty at Kean University in violin and viola. A recent scholarship graduate of The Juilliard School, Joanna performs on the 1846 Jean Baptiste Vuillaume violin labeled Joseph Guarnerius fecit Cremonae, on extended loan from a generous patron through the Rachel Elizabeth Barton Foundation. As part of The Academy, Joanna teaches in Queens at PS 63.



Angelina Gadeliya

Ukrainian pianist Angelina Gadeliya has performed as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician throughout the US, as well as in France, Italy, Spain, Mexico, Israel, and Ukraine. She has appeared as soloist with the Sinfonia of Colorado, and the Fort Worth, South Dakota, Oberlin, and Stony Brook symphonies. She has collaborated with such artists as Lucy Shelton, John Harbison, James Levine, members of the New York Philharmonic, and the acclaimed Mark Morris Dance Goup. This past year, Angelina toured Ukraine, playing benefit concerts for families with special needs children—something she does annually to raise community awareness of this underserved population. She has studied with Gilbert Kalish, Angela Cheng, Pavlina Dokovska, and Julian Martin. A graduate of Oberlin, The Juilliard School, and Mannes College The New School for Music, she also holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Stony Brook University. As part of The Academy, Angelina teaches in Brooklyn at PS 130.



Evan Premo

Bassist Evan Premo is an active chamber musician. He has performed concertos with numerous ensembles, including the 2009 world premiere of his own Double Concerto for Violin and Double Bass with Andrés Cárdenes and the Pittsburgh Symphony Chamber Orchestra. Evan has also collaborated with Yizhak Schotten, Katherine Collier, and the Formosa String Quartet, in addition to performing his own arrangements for piano and bass at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. A graduate of the University of Michigan, Evan was a winner of the school’s concerto competition in 2006 and, that same year, premiered his own Concertino for Bass Fiddle and Winds with the University of Michigan’s Symphony Band. Evan’s bass teachers include virtuosos Diana Gannett and Gary Karr, and he has studied composition with Michael Daugherty, Susan Botti, and Evan Chambers. He is also a member of Duo Borealis with soprano Mary Bonhag. As part of The Academy, Evan teaches in the Bronx at PS 157.



James Austin Smith

An active chamber musician and new music advocate, oboist James Austin Smith is a member of the International Contemporary Ensemble, Sospiro Winds, and the Metropolis Ensemble. James has performed with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, East Coast Chamber Orchestra, Speculum Musicae, and Manhattan Sinfonietta. His festival appearances include Marlboro, Lucerne, Schleswig-Holstein, OK Mozart, Schwetzingen, and Spoleto USA. James received a master’s degree from the Yale School of Music and bachelor’s degrees from Northwestern University; he also spent a year as a Fulbright Scholar in Leipzig, Germany. His principal teachers are Stephen Taylor, Christian Wetzel, Humbert Lucarelli, Hansjörg Schellenberger, and Ray Still. The son of musician parents and the eldest of four boys, James was born in New York and raised in Connecticut. As part of The Academy, James teaches in Brooklyn at PS 69.