NOVA Chamber Music Series

Fry Street Quartet, music directors

Connect With Mystery

music by Bach • Bartók • Chuaqui • Beethoven

Libby Gardner Concert Hall
03.12.2023 | 3pm
pre-concert discussion at 2:30pm

concert program
with notes by Jeff Counts

Sonata in A minor, Wq. 49/1, H. 30 “Württemberg”

C.P.E. Bach
(1714-1788)

Viktor Valkov piano

I. Moderato
II. Andante
III. Allegro assai

Carl Philipp Emmanuel (C.P.E.) Bach was the fifth of J.S. Bach’s twenty children and his second surviving son. As a composer, C.P.E. Bach served as a bridge between the Baroque mastery of his father and the formal Classicists who followed. Mozart apparently held him in very high regard, as did Haydn, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Weber. But Schumann did not. C.P.E. Bach’s music fell out of favor in the 19th century, and Schumann’s opinion that he couldn’t hold a candle to his father probably helped that somewhat natural process along. But with the 300th birthday celebrations that happened across Germany in 2014, C.P.E. Bach once again claimed a rightful place in our minds and our history books, even if performances of his works are still quite rare. C.P.E. Bach wrote over 150 keyboard sonatas during his productive life, six of which were composed in the mid-1740s and dedicated to his pupil, The Duke of Württemburg. The challenging “Württemburg” Sonatas allow us a glimpse into the personal style and abilities of, not the Duke per se, but C.P.E. himself. They are experimental, intellectually curious, and heartfelt. Rising in German music at the time, and championed by Bach fils, was the concept of “Empfindsamkeit” (sensitivity), which promoted emotion as an equal to technique when communicating with an audience.

Violin Sonata No. 2, Sz. 76

Béla Bartók
(1881-1945)

Rebecca McFaul violin | Mayumi Matzen piano

I. Molto moderato
II. Allegretto

Rarely just one thing or another, Béla Bartók’s compositions typically stood at intersections — of academia and folklore, of Europe and Hungary, of the various “schools” of artistic thought that laid claim to the new 20th century. He was a good student, a diligent observer of the prevailing creative winds that shaped his environment. And then he became one. One of the concepts Bartók explored and then immediately assimilated into his own peerless voice was the “expressionism” of Schoenberg and others. Bartók was never one to embrace absolute abstraction and, as a perfect example, his brief dalliance with the twelve-tone technique was highly individual but never completely atonal. The two violin sonatas Bartók wrote in 1921 and 1922 are from this interesting period of consideration and experimentation. Violin Sonata No. 2, Sz. 76 differs formally from No. 1 by employing a connected, two-movement structure but, exactly like the earlier piece, No. 2 is highly demanding and can’t help but default to some wonderfully impetuous dance music (of a sort) for the finale. It’s not based on a folk tune, at least not literally, but the second movement clearly reflects Bartók’s fascination with the improvisatory song traditions of the Hungarian villages. Even at his most “modern”, he was fully himself.

*Parallel Play*

Miguel Chuaqui
(b. 1964)

Zachary Hammond oboe | Erin Svoboda-Scott clarinet
Lori Wike bassoon | Michael Sammons percussion

This piece was commissioned by the NOVA Chamber Music Series.

Utah-based composer Miguel Chuaqui is fascinated with the process of translation. “Often,” he recently told me, “I’m frustrated that a single language can’t capture all the nuances I try to express in my speech and in my writing.” Chuaqui’s new work Parallel Play, which has its world premiere on today’s program, deals directly with this question and what he calls “the complexities of my background in music.” According to his program note, Chuaqui “was born in California to a Chilean father and an Andean mother, grew up bilingual in Santiago, and have lived in the United States for decades.” He goes on to say that he “can claim musical influences from both the U.S. and Chile, but I often find myself expected to become an American composer in Chile and a Chilean composer in the U.S.” Parallel Play attempts to embrace this bivalence by frequently casting the clarinet as the “American” voice and the oboe as the “Chilean”. The bassoon, in Chuaqui’s words, acts a “somewhat ironic observer” while the percussion instruments reflect flexibility on everything around them without any particular allegiance. “As the piece progresses,” Chuaqui’s note continues, the players “tend to develop their motives in parallel…as if they were playing with different toys but in the same ‘room’.”

a note from the composer:

Parallel Play is a work in which I play with the complexities of my background. I was born in California to a Chilean father and an American mother, grew up bilingual in Santiago, and have lived in the United States for decades. I hold dual citizenship and I can claim musical influences from both the U.S. and Chile, but I often find myself expected to become an American composer in Chile and a Chilean composer in the U.S.

In many of my works I disregard this issue, but this piece plays with these expectations from the beginning by presenting a chromatic gesture marked bluesy in the clarinet followed in the oboe by what I hear as a typical Chilean folk-music gesture: a quick leap to a high note preceded by two quick short notes, marked cantando (singing) in the score. These two gestures are juxtaposed, superimposed, combined and developed in different contexts throughout the piece, and they are connected often to the clarinet and the oboe. The bassoon tends to be a somewhat ironic observer, interrupting the opening sustained phrase of the piece (which includes the bluesy music and the cantando music) with a version of the cantando leap that is, however, short and abrupt (with grace notes and silences, which the oboe and clarinet take up immediately). The percussion shares characteristics of each of the other instruments, with passages that are jazzy or ironic, or that are typical of Latin American music (such as off-beat accents in 6/8 time, typical of folk music from central Chile).

As the piece progresses, the instruments tend to develop their motives in parallel, rather independently, but still influencing each other, as if they were playing with different toys but in the same “room.” However, they come together frequently to develop another strand of music in the piece: descending harmonic progressions in parallel motion based on fifths (marked dolente – sorrowfully), which become more intense toward the end of the piece.

Piano Trio in D major, op. 70 no. 1 “Ghost”

Ludwig van Beethoven
(1770-1827)

Alex Woods violin | Andrew Larson cello
Viktor Valkov piano

I. Allegro vivace e con brio
II. Largo assai ed espressivo
III. Presto

The only composer subjected to more nickname abuse than Beethoven was, of course, Papa Haydn. The catalogues of both men are filled with clever unrequested monikers, bestowed by others out of either enthusiasm (critics) or ambition (publishers). Beethoven did choose “Pastoral” and “Eroica” himself, but “Moonlight”? Nope. “Emperor”? Definitely not; he would have hated that one. Who knows, then, how he would have felt about “Ghost”, the alias for the Piano Trio in D minor, op. 70 no. 1? Beethoven’s student Carl Czerny is often credited, but regardless of who said it first, the name is now written in stone. The “ghost” perceived by Czerny and others presents itself in the second movement. The largo is the brooding, eerie centerpiece of the trio and, by all accounts, proof that Beethoven was working towards an opera based on Shakespeare’s Macbeth. This speculation arises from the fact that, written very near a sketch for the spectral slow movement in his notebooks was the word “Macbett”. It’s tantalizing to imagine this music as meant for the stage and it certainly seems purpose-built to underpin a supernatural plot point from an opera about a murderous Scottish king. But ultimately, we are just guessing. Hence, the nickname and its restless, purgatorial connotations.

artists

Featured

Zachary Hammond

oboe

Rebecca McFaul

violin

Erin Svoboda-Scott

clarinet

Viktor Valkov

piano

Lori Wike

bassoon

Alex Woods

violin

our sponsors

Today’s concert has been made possible by
THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH SCHOOL OF MUSIC

The World Premiere of Miguel Chuaqui’s Parallel Play is supported by
iZOTOPE

Our tribute to Corbin Johnston, NOVA Music Director from 2004-2009, is sponsored by
JOAN & FRANCIS HANSON

NOVA would like to recognize the following government, corporate, and foundation partners for their generous support of our mission:

Aaron Copland Fund for Music
The Amphion Foundation
Chamber Music America
Cultural Vision Fund
Lawrence T. and Janet T. Dee Foundation
Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University
George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation
Marriner S. Eccles Foundation
iZotope
O.C. Tanner
Rocky Mountain Power Foundation
Salt Lake City Arts Council
Salt Lake County Zoo, Arts and Parks (ZAP) Program
Sorenson Legacy Foundation
Utah Legislature | Utah Division of Arts & Museums
Utah State University Caine College of the Arts Production Services

In-kind contributors include:

AlphaGraphics
Bement & Company, P.C.
Michael Carnes
Taylor Audio
University of Utah School of Music
Utah Museum of Fine Arts
Utah State University Caine College of the Arts Production Services

our donors

impresario ($2,500+)

Michael & Fran Carnes
John & Linda Francis
Eric & Nancy Garen
Joan & Francis Hanson
Hugh & Cindy Redd
Richard Segal
Kathryn Waddell
Frank & Janell Weinstock

benefactor ($1,000+)

Miguel Chuaqui in memory of Andrew Imbrie
Hillary Hahn & Jeff Counts
Diane & Michael L. Hardink
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friend (under $100)

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Anonymous (3)

endowment contributors

Joan & Francis Hanson
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G. Ronald Kastner, PhD
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