CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
Ensemble ACJW
The Academy — A Program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and The Weill Music Institute

Weill Recital Hall
Wednesday, December 19th, 2007 at 7:00 PM

ENSEMBLE ACJW
Carol McGonnell, Clarinet
Damian Primis, Bassoon
Alana Vegter, Horn
Angelia Cho, Violin
Anna Elashvili, Violin
Owen Dalby, Violin
Joanna Marie Frankel, Violin
Meena Bhasin, Viola
Leah Swann, Viola
Claire Bryant, Cello
Julia MacLaine, Cello
Caitlin Sullivan, Cello
Kristoffer Saebo, Bass

SCHOENBERG Verklärte Nacht
SCHUBERT Octet in F Major, D. 803

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 Kovner Foundation, Martha and Bob Lipp, The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Judith and Burton Resnick, Susan and Elihu Rose, and Mr. and Mrs. Lester S. Morse Jr., with additional support from the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation, The Dana Foundation, Suki Sandler, Mr. and Mrs. Nicola Bulgari, Susan and Ed Forst, and The William Petschek Family.

Program Notes:

By Steven Ledbetter

ARNOLD SCHOENBERG Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4
Born September 13, 1874, in Vienna; died July 13, 1951, in Brentwood Park, Los Angeles.

Schoenberg composed his string sextet Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night) in the last half of 1899; the completed score is dated December 1. In 1917 he arranged the work for string orchestra without changing any actual notes; he multiplied the number of players and called for double basses to reinforce the cello line at certain points. A further revision in 1943 involved mostly thinning out the texture and reducing the plethora of expression marks. The original version received its first performance at the Vienna Tonkünstlerverein on March 18, 1902, by the Rosé Quartet with an extra violist and cellist; it received its Carnegie Hall premiere on April 1, 1934, with the Kroll String Sextet: William Kroll and Nicolai Berezovsky, violin; Leon Barzin and David Sackson, viola; and Ossip Giskin and Milton Prinz, cello.

Scoring: 2 violins, 2 violas, and 2 cellos.

Arnold Schoenberg, that giant among 20th‑century composers, wrote his most popular score, Verklärte Nacht, at the very end of the 19th century. Its popularity certainly has something to do with the work’s palpable links to the era that was ending, but it is at the same time remarkably forward-looking, anticipating the composer that Schoenberg became. Throughout the 1890s Schoenberg had composed string quartets, the medium he knew best as a performer (he played the cello). Most of these he destroyed, but one score, an enormously assured and competent quartet in D, dating from 1897, shows how much he had learned in his self-directed study and his few formal lessons with his friend Alexander von Zemlinsky. Yet even this could scarcely prepare us for the artistic maturity of the string sextet he was to create two years later.

Like so many Schoenberg scores, Transfigured Night was composed at a furious pace, the bulk of the work being composed in just three weeks in September 1899, though the composer was not ready to sign and date his score until December 1. The overt inspiration was a poem by the German writer Richard Dehmel (1863–1920), whose Weib und Welt (Woman and World) had made something of a stir at its publication in 1896 when government censors found some of the poems offensive. Schoenberg set texts from Dehmel’s book in some of his earliest songs (Op. 2 and 3). Verklärte Nacht was a natural choice as an inspiration for a musical setting, since Dehmel’s poem is laid out almost in a musical way. The last line, for example, is a transformed echo of the opening line, a device that Schoenberg brilliantly mirrors in the music.

The poem is laid out in five short sections, of which the first, third, and fifth are impersonal narration describing the unnamed man and woman walking along on a moonlit night. At first the natural surroundings seem cold and bare. The second section is a speech by the woman, who confesses that she carries another man’s child. Before she met her companion, she explains, she had felt that motherhood would provide her with purpose. Now she has fallen in love with him and must confess her fault. A brief narrative interlude describes her faltering step and the moonlight flooding down upon them. The man’s response comprises the fourth section of the poem. He is understanding and magnanimous. The radiance of the natural world convinces him that they love they feel will draw them together and make the child theirs as well. The poem closes with another description of the moonlit night—now bright with hope.

Perhaps the biggest surprise in the score is Schoenberg’s decision to write a piece of program music on this scale for a chamber ensemble, especially as the medium chosen—two each of violins, violas, and cellos—was a new one for the composer. It had been used twice by Brahms, of whom Schoenberg was a great admirer. Yet the style reflects Schoenberg’s new absorption of Wagnerian chromaticism. (Indeed, one of the most notorious comments ever made about the piece came from one of the program reviewers of the Vienna Tonkünstlerverein charged with deciding whether to recommend new works for performance: it looked, he said, as if the score of Tristan had been smeared while the ink was still wet.)

For all its reflection of the original poem, though, Verklärte Nacht thoroughly transcends the usual point-to-point descriptiveness of run-of-the-mill romantic program compositions and provides a thoroughly satisfying musical shape on its own terms. It is cast as a double sonata, following the five sections of Dehmel’s poem. The “narrative” parts are quite brief, but the second and fourth, representing the words of the woman and the man respectively, are full-scale sonata forms, the first in D minor, the second in D major (though it must be remembered that these keys are already stretched considerably in their tonal function). Moreover, the second is built out of musical ideas that affirm expressive ideas heard more tentatively in the first. From the literary point of view, this can be seen as a reflection of the woman’s anguish on the one hand and the man’s generous confidence on the other. But it functions equally well from a purely musical point of view, with the second sonata section truly completing and “transfiguring” the first, so that the dark and faltering steps of the opening ends with the serene and shimmering moonlight at the close.


Franz Schubert Octet in F Major for clarinet, horn, bassoon, two violins, viola, cello, and double bass, D. 803
Born January 31, 1797, in Liechtental, a suburb of Vienna; died November 19, 1828, in Vienna.

Composed in February 1824 on a commission from Ferdinand, Count Troyer, Schubert’s Octet, D. 803, received its Carnegie Hall premiere on December 24, 1968, with Alexander Schneider and Isidore Cohen, violins; Samuel Rhodes, viola; Robert Sylvester, cello; Julius Levine, double bass; Harold Wright, clarinet; Myron Bloom, French horn; and Elias Carmen, bassoon.

Scoring: 2 violins, viola, cello, bass, clarinet, bassoon, and horn.

Troyer, the man who commissioned the Octet from Schubert, though he bore the noble title of Count, was also a clarinetist in the musical establishment of Beethoven’s friend and pupil Archduke Rudolph. On the evidence of the work that Schubert produced, Troyer evidently requested that he model the Octet on Beethoven’s famous Septet (which at that time was still the most popular of all of Beethoven’s instrumental works, far outdistancing the symphonies and concertos). Schubert followed instructions, mimicking the older master’s work so closely in scoring, layout of movements, and musical character that it must have been obvious to everyone who heard the piece—and they would have enjoyed it all the more for that very reason.

Schubert began with the same instrumental ensemble as Beethoven had used, augmented only by the addition of a second violin. He planned his Octet in six movements, fashioned like the old classical divertimento, just as Beethoven had done. He wrote an Adagio (a tempo mark he rarely used) following Beethoven’s lead, and an Andante theme-and-variation set, too. He imitates Beethoven, too, in preparing the finale with a slow introduction in the minor mode. And the harmonic relationship between successive movements in the two works is absolutely identical.

Yet no pair of works shows more clearly the truth of the notion that the originality of a genius becomes most apparent precisely when he is copying someone else, especially a great older master. Though the outline of the classical divertimento remains, Schubert’s music is nonetheless absolutely his own in color, harmony, and melodic character. The characteristic classical gestures of the martial and the pastoral, which were still very much alive when Beethoven wrote his Septet, are here subsumed into a new spirit. The Andante theme that serves as the basis of the variation set is from a love duet, “Gelagert unter’m hellen Dach der Bäume,” in his Singspiel Die Freunde von Salamanka. Despite the obvious “symphonic” possibilities of the large chamber ensemble, the Octet remains utterly and deliciously a work of chamber music throughout.

Copyright © 2007 by The Carnegie Hall Corporation

Steven Ledbetter, musicologist and program annotator of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1979 to 1998, writes and lectures widely on many aspects of classical music.

ENSEMBLE ACJW
Featuring Fellows of The Academy—a program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and The Weill Music Institute

Carol McGonnell, Clarinet
Dublin-born Carol McGonnell can be heard with leading ensembles internationally, both as soloist and chamber musican. A regular fixture in New York, she has participated at the Marlboro Music Festival, and performed at the inaugral concert of Zankel Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, where she is a regular member of the Zankel Band. Equally sought after in her native Ireland, Carol has performed as soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra, the RTE Concert Orchestra, and the Ulster Orchestra. In summer 2005, a RTE One broadcast of the Mozart Clarinet Concerto featured Carol and the National Symphony Orchestra. She is a founding member of the Argento Chamber Ensemble, and is also the curator of Music at Museums in association with the National Gallery of Ireland. She has guest-curated for the Kilkenny Arts Festival and is on the advisory board of the Argento Chamber Ensemble. She studied in Ireland with Brian O’Rourke and in New York with Charles Neidich. As part of her fellowship program, Carol teaches in Harlem at The Tappan School, PS 46.

Damian Primis, Bassoon
A native of Eagle River, Alaska, Damian Primis has quickly gained a reputation as one of the most versatile bassoonists in the New York metropolitan area, performing on both bassoon and contrabassoon. Damian performs extensively with the Princeton Symphony, Absolute Ensemble, BargeMusic, the Handel and Haydn Society, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the New York City Ballet, the American Ballet Theater, the Orpheus Chamber Ensemble, Queens Symphony, and Long Island Philharmonic. In 2003 he went on an international concert tour with the Orchestra of the 18th Century under the baton of Frans Bruggen, performing the complete Beethoven symphonies on period instruments. Damian holds a master’s degree from The Juilliard School, where he also completed his bachelor’s degree as a scholarship student of Frank Morelli and David Carroll. As part of his fellowship program, Damian teaches in Queens at IS 73.

Alana Vegter, Horn
French hornist Alana Vegter is a recent graduate of The Juilliard School. A student of Julie Landsman, she was a recipient of the full-tuition Bidú Sayão Scholarship. While pursuing her undergraduate degree in Chicago at DePaul University, she was a regular member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the training orchestra of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Alana has concertized in music halls around the world, including Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Kitara in Sapporo, the Wiener Konzerthaus in Vienna, L’Auditori in Barcelona, Orchestra Hall in Chicago, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. She has performed in both orchestral and chamber music settings with the Juilliard Orchestra and at the Spoleto Festival USA, Pacific Music Festival, the Verbier Festival, and the Aspen Music Festival with conductors including Daniel Barenboim, Valery Gergiev, James Conlon, Pierre Boulez, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Herbert Blomstedt. As part of her fellowship program, Alana teaches in Brooklyn, at Ditmas 62.

Angelia Cho, Violin
Violinist Angelia Cho was born in 1981 in Columbia, South Carolina, and began to study violin at age three. She made her debut with The Philadelphia Orchestra at age 11 at the Mann Music Center, and performed with the orchestra again at the Academy of Music three years later. Angelia graduated from The Curtis Institute of Music in 2002 and completed her graduate studies with Donald Weilerstein at the New England Conservatory. She has appeared as soloist with ensembles including the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony, Israel Kibbutz Orchestra, and Allegro Society under such conductors as Mark Laycock, Daniel Meyer, Luis Biava, Shlomo Mintz, and David Lobel. Angelia has attended master classes in Israel and at the International Musicians Seminar in Prussia Cove, England; has performed at the Sarasota, Verbier, and Yellow Barn festivals; and is a first-prize winner at the National Society of Arts and letters Violin Competition. As part of her fellowship program, Angelia teaches in the Bronx, at PS 154.

Anna Elashvili, Violin
Violinist Anna Elashvili has performed in the US, Europe, and Israel in such venues as Carnegie’s Zankel Hall and Weill Recital Hall, Stadttheater Lindau, and Mann Auditorium. She recently performed as soloist with Maxim Vengerov, and has also collaborated with such artists as Peter Serkin, Lynn Harrell, Donald Weilerstein, and the Peabody Trio. As a founder of the Fountain Chamber Music Society and former member of the Fountain Ensemble, she is a prizewinner of several international chamber music competitions. Ms. Elashvili has served as concertmaster of the Tanglewood and Verbier Festival Orchestras under James Levine, Claudio Abbado, and André Previn. Currently, she is a member of the String Orchestra of New York City and the Fantasy Duo. Ms. Elashvili is on the faculty at the Third Street Music School Settlement. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School. As part of her fellowship program, Anna teaches in Corona, Queens, at The Fairview School, PS 14.

Owen Dalby, Violin
Violinist Owen Dalby has performed throughout North America and Europe as a solo artist and as an orchestral and chamber musician. With pianist Alexander Rabin, Owen was a top prizewinner at the 2007 Lyon International Chamber Music Competition for violin and piano duo. Owen received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Yale, where he served as concertmaster of both the Philharmonia Orchestra of Yale and the Yale Symphony Orchestra. He has also served as first violinist in the Norfolk Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, and has appeared with the Oakland East Bay Symphony (California) and in Europe with the Festival Orchestra of Sofia. Festival appearances include Aspen, Adriatic, Accademia Musicale Chigiana (Siena, Italy), Music at Menlo, Norfolk, Salzburg, and the Gros Morne Chamber Music Festival in Newfoundland. Owen is the co-founder and artistic director of The Hindemith Ensemble, a chamber group dedicated to promoting new music, music by Yale composers, and neglected chamber works from earlier times. As part of his fellowship program, Owen teaches in Manhattan, at the Choir Academy of Harlem.

Joanna Marie Frankel, Violin
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, violinist Joanna Frankel performs as guest soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician throughout the US and abroad. Highlights of Joanna’s upcoming seasons include solo recitals in Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC; chamber music appearances at La Jolla’s SummerFest; and her European recital debut tour, which will include solo recital engagements at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw as well as at various additional distinguished concert halls across Eastern Europe. Joanna made her Carnegie Hall recital debut in January 2007. A recent scholarship graduate of The Juilliard School in New York, Ms. Frankel has collaborated with mentors Jascha Brodsky, CJ Chang, Robert Chen, Masao Kawasaki, Joseph Kalichstein, and Cho- Liang Lin. As part of her fellowship program, Joanna teaches in Brooklyn, at PS 167.

Meena Bhasin, Viola
Violist Meena Bhasin has performed throughout the US, Japan, China, and Israel in such venues as Lincoln Center, the United Nations, the Hammerstein Ballroom, and Mann Auditorium in Tel-Aviv. She received instruction and guidance from Itzhak Perlman at the Perlman Music Program, which led to engagements including an appearance with Mr. Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, and the Israel Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall. In 2007 Meena completed a dual degree program at Tufts University and the New England Conservatory, where she was the recipient of the 2006 Presser Award. Her teachers have included Patinka Kopec and Martha Strongin Katz. Meena hopes to forge a career that uses music to facilitate cross-cultural dialogue. As part of her fellowship program, Meena teaches in Queens, at MS 72.

Leah Swann, Viola
An avid chamber musician, orchestral performer, writer, and organizer of interdisciplinary collaborations, violist Leah Swann recently completed her Graduate Diploma at the New England Conservatory, where she studied with and was Teaching Assistant for Martha Katz. In recent years, Leah has performed under James Levine, Bernard Haitink, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos, frequently appearing as a substitute with the New World Symphony and as principal with the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra. As a recipient of an Albert Schweitzer Fellowship in 2006–07, Leah designed and taught music and violin classes in South Boston, completing over 200 hours of community service. Leah has worked with chamber musicians from the Cleveland, Guarneri, Juilliard, Orion, Takács, and Ying quartets, and received a BA degree in English from Yale University, where she was awarded a fellowship to study primate behavior in Bali, Indonesia, and won Honorable Mention in the Atlantic Monthly’s Nonfiction Competition. Leah currently freelances for Strings magazine. As part of her fellowship program, Leah teaches in Queens, at Long Island City High School.

Claire Bryant, Cello
Cellist Claire Bryant has appeared as a soloist with the Kuopion Orchestieri of Finland, the National Symphony of Honduras in Tegucigalpa, the San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra, and the South Carolina Philharmonic Orchestra. An active chamber musician, she has collaborated with Donald Weilerstein, the Peabody Trio, Roger Tapping, Maria Lambros, and members of the St. Lawrence, Orion, Mendelssohn, and Pacifica string quartets. She is a founding member of the TETRAS Quartet, a string quartet dedicated to the study, performance, and promotion of repertoire of the 20th and 21st centuries. She is the founder, producer, and artistic director of the acclaimed chamber music series With Strings Attached, which has raised over $10,000 for arts education in her native state of South Carolina. Claire received her Bachelor of Music degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and her Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School. As part of her fellowship program, Claire teaches in the Bronx at the Grove Hill School, PS 157X.

Julia MacLaine, Cello
Cellist Julia MacLaine, from Prince Edward Island, Canada, has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the US, Canada, and Europe, as well as in Iceland and Argentina. Her performances have been broadcast by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and excerpts from her recently released CD of Australian composer Katia Tiutiunnik’s complete solo cello works have been broadcast in Australia. Julia has played with a variety of newmusic ensembles in New York, including the Ikarus Chamber Players, a group she co-founded to present new and classical music in innovative spaces and programs. In addition to having performed at Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Hall, and Alice Tully Hall, Julia has appeared at the Colony Club, the National Arts Club, and the Consulates of Poland, Bulgaria, and Ukraine. Julia studied with Timothy Eddy at The Juilliard School and Mannes College of Music, and with Antonio Lysy at McGill University. As part of her fellowship program, Julia teaches in Staten Island, at IS 61.

Caitlin Sullivan, Cello
Cellist Caitlin Sullivan is gaining widespread recognition as a solo, chamber, and orchestral musician. She is a winner of numerous prizes and awards, and has performed extensively with groups as diverse as the Argento New Music Project and Symphonic Eurythmy, and in venues ranging from Trinity Church to Jazz at Lincoln Center. As a winner of the 2006 Artists International Audition, Ms. Sullivan gave her Carnegie Hall recital debut last December. Committed to outreach and music education, Ms. Sullivan has been a Teaching Artist for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and a faculty member of the Belvoir Terrace summer performing arts camp in Lenox, Massachusetts; she has also taught in the Pre-College Division of The Juilliard School. Ms. Sullivan received her bachelor's degree from the Eastman School of Music, where she studied with Steven Doane, and her master's degree from The Juilliard School, where she studied with Timothy Eddy. As part of her fellowship program, Caitlin teaches in Manhattan, at PS 153.

Kristoffer Saebo, Bass
Bassist Kristoffer Saebo is a soloist, bass guitarist, and chamber and orchestral musician. He performs regularly with the Chris Norman Ensemble, Grammy Award winner Paul Halley, and the Alaskan Native Band Pamyua, with whom he showcased at the 45th Annual Grammy Awards. As a member of I Palpiti, the chamber orchestra of Young Artists International, Kristoffer has toured Europe, North America, and the Middle East. He has also performed contemporary music with such groups as Alarm Will Sound, Argento Chamber Ensemble, and Anechoic Chamber Ensemble. He received his Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School in 2006 as a student of Orin O’Brien and his Bachelor of Music degree from Juilliard in 2004 as a student of Homer Mensch.