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James Ehnes: Bartók’s Violin Sonata No. 1

James Ehnes

My Bartók obsession has been going full tilt for quite a number of years now, and shows no signs of abating. Luckily, as a violinist I have a lot of Bartók to play; 2 wonderful concertos, 6 string quartets, various folk-music-related pieces, a magnificent solo sonata, and the two amazing sonatas for violin and piano. I’ll be performing the 1st Sonata on January 22 at the opening concert of the Seattle Chamber Music Society’s Winter Festival.

Béla Bartók’s music is wildly varied in mood and complexity, but always sounds uniquely his own. Early in his career, his music was heavily influenced by the late romantic ideals of Liszt and Strauss; in his late life, his music often had a serenity and beauty that belied the complexity of the composition and the technical virtuosity required to play it to its full potential. It was in his middle years, approximately 1915-1930, that Bartók was at his most avant-garde and experimental. His willingness to push the boundaries of tonality was never exceeded by the two wildly experimental sonatas for violin and piano, written in 1922-23 for himself and the Hungarian violinist Jelly D’Arányi.

Bartók’s obsession with folk music started in 1904 when he heard a peasant woman singing. Shortly thereafter, he embarked on the first of many journeys to the countryside to collect and study indigenous music, a project that, in my mind, is one of the most important musicological studies of all time. His work to preserve this fascinating music of cultures ranging from Hungary and Romania all the way to Northern Africa could not have come at a better time; reliable (if rudimentary) recording equipment was only recently available, but just over a decade later the world changed forever with the outbreak of the First World War. Much of this music, and musical tradition, would have been lost to history forever if not for Bartók efforts.

This exploration of folk music profoundly influenced Bartók’s own compositions. He wrote a great number of folk song arrangements and folk-music-related works, but even in his works in “traditional” forms – concertos, sonatas, quartets – the influence of folk music is plainly heard. In the first violin sonata, it is fascinating how he combines an obvious ambition for harmonic experimentation with elements that are clearly influenced by eastern folk traditions. I believe that is a large part of what makes the piece so successful: the tonal language can often seem unfamiliar, exotic to the point of austerity, or even downright confusing upon first hearing, but the infectious rhythms and the intensely personal narrative of the solo lines are elements with which one can immediately connect.

As with a fair amount of Bartók, the musical subtext, the “feel”, is something terribly elemental, something almost distressingly personal and familiar. The second movement of this sonata goes to emotional places that few pieces of music access.

I’ve had the great pleasure of working on this sonata extensively with my wonderful colleague Andrew Armstrong (we recorded it as part of our set of Bartók’s complete works for violin and piano), and we are both tremendously excited to present this very special piece to the SCMS audience.

 


 

Artist Spotlight: Edward Arron

 

Cellist Edward Arron leads several chamber music festivals, including the Musical Masterworks concert series in Old Lyme, Connecticut, as well as the Festival Series in Beaufort, South Carolina and Chamber Music on Main at the Columbia Museum in Columbia, SC. Edward has been joining SCMS for the past seven seasons and we had the chance to find out why he loves coming to Seattle and what we’ll hear him play during the 2016 Winter Festival (January 22-31).

 

edwardarron2

You’ve been coming to SCMS for the past 7 years, what makes Seattle, and this Festival, such a great place to come and play?
SCMS is truly one of my favorite organizations to be a part of, and Seattle is one of my very favorite cities to visit, rain or shine. There is of course the great food and coffee, the friendly folks, and that breathtaking view of Mt. Rainier as you drive down I-5 on a clear day, but what I love most about Seattle is that its residents treasure the arts, and that it is a sanctuary for creativity and all forms of art, including our beloved art of chamber music.

What I love about the Festival is that it has always been purely and elementally about the music and the musicians, with no other bells, whistles or gimmicks. Each program takes on a life of its own, as well-known masterworks are put together with seldom-heard treasures from the vast chamber music repertory, and are played by dedicated and passionate musicians.

Can you tell us about the pieces that you are playing this winter with us?
I will have the pleasure of playing the monumental Schubert E-flat Trio (January 22), a piece that I listened to over and over as a child, and have always felt very lucky to be able to play over the years. As you listen to the four expansive movements of this piece, you become aware of Schubert’s incredible humanity and the wisdom beyond his years. I will also be playing the exquisite Debussy String Quartet (January 23), an example of Debussy’s complete and absolute mastery of his compositional craft. It is full of vivid colors and characters, and every note is like a perfect brush stroke on a canvas. And finally, I will be playing a string trio by Krzysztof Penderecki (January 24), composed in 1991. Penderecki’s trio is a thrilling and intense dialogue between the intimate combination of violin, viola and cello.

You’ve led quite a few chamber programs over the years, what is your philosophy when you are putting together a series of concerts? 
My philosophy in making concert programs is to assemble groups of musicians who will have a wonderful chemistry, and to create interesting musical contexts by combining beloved masterpieces with lesser-known gems. Does this sound at all familiar?

Edward Arron

You’ve had a varied career, but tend to spend a lot of your time playing chamber music. What do you love about playing this style of music? 
The thing that I enjoy most about chamber music is that I can have my own voice, yet I can still share in a musical dialogue with other musicians. Chamber music requires an incredible level of cooperation and flexibility, which in turn generates excitement and inspiration in the moment. And I love that chamber music, by its nature, is constantly bringing together friends, both old and new.

Your wife, Jeewon Park, is also a very talented musician. How do you find a good work/life balance when you are both traveling and performing so frequently? 
Fortunately, we get to play and travel together quite a lot, so through our livelihood, we have gotten to see a lot of the world together while doing the thing we love most. It has become a bit of a juggling act ever since our daughter, Lily- now 2 years old- has joined us. Lily has been to 23 states already, and will be making her third trip to Korea this spring. It can be challenging, but as long as the family is together as much as possible, we are happy.

What would you have done were you not a professional musician? 
Either coffee roasting or beer brewing.

When you have a day off, what is your favorite thing to do? 
Spending the entire day playing with Lily.

 

Join us at the 2016 Winter Festival to hear Edward, and 18 other world class musicians, perform the finest chamber music repertoire in our series of 6 concerts.

 


 

James Ehnes: Debussy’s String Quartet

James EhnesI’m sure it’s obvious that one of the greatest perks of my job as Artistic Director of the Seattle Chamber Music Society is to be able to program myself in my favorite pieces, year after year. Over my 20-year association with SCMS I’ve been able to perform dozens (if not hundreds) of wonderful works, but one favorite that has always eluded me is Debussy’s String Quartet. No longer!

I first got to know the Debussy Quartet as a teenage student at the Meadowmount School of Music in upstate New York, a place of great importance in my life. I was assigned to play a string quartet with three other young players, and, at the suggestion of my teacher Sally Thomas, we decided to work on the Debussy. It was love at first play, I think for all of us. The time we spent working on this masterpiece, including some coaching with the great Joseph Gingold (whose teacher Ysaye had premiered the piece!), left a tremendous impression on me, and I made a promise to myself that I would come back to it many, many times over the course of my career.

Now, 25 years later, I finally have that opportunity. My enthusiasm for the piece has certainly never waned; if anything, it has strengthened and deepened. The quartet is early Debussy, composed in 1893, and shares the sound world of other masterpieces like the Suite bergamasque for solo piano (with its famous Clair de lune), the Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, and, to a certain extent, his opera Pelléas and Mélisande. This was only a few years after Debussy’s life-changing discovery of the Javanese Gamelan at the Paris Exhibition in 1889, and while it has hints of that exoticism that was to become an ever more important part of his compositional palette, this is music that is still deeply rooted in the 19th century. It is exciting, breathtakingly beautiful, and, to me, immensely moving.

This winter I have the privilege of playing with several Festival favorites, violist Rebecca Albers and cellist Edward Arron, along with a new face to the Festival, violinist Alexander Kerr. Alexander was the Concertmaster for many years with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in the Netherlands and he currently serves as the Concertmaster for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.

Twenty-five years is a long time to wait. January 23 can’t come soon enough.

 


 

SCMS in Korea

Recently a group of SCMS had the chance to travel to Korea. While there they had the chance to attend the DITTO Festival (where SCMS favorite Richard O’Neill is the Artistic Director), travel throughout the country, and enjoy some of the amazing cuisine. We asked one of our friends to report from the road and John gave us a glimpse into this musical journey!

Seoul Changing of the Guard (Royal Palace)

Changing of the Guard at the Royal Palace in Seoul

“Our intrepid band of hardy travelers left Seattle for a 9 day trip to Korea. We arrived on a Tuesday night after an 11 ½ hour flight, and for the last three days we have seen many palaces, museums, and temples in Seoul and enjoyed some great Korean cuisine.

Korea boasts a very old civilization, and suffered horribly from the devastating consequences of the war in the 1950’s, which caused much of the country to be destroyed. The rebuilding effort since then is truly astonishing, and Seoul is a remarkably clean city with much to recommend it. The subway system, for instance, is amazingly clean and efficient.

One of the big draws of this trip is Richard O’Neill’s Ditto Chamber Music Oktoberfest here in Seoul. The four of us attended a great concert at the Seoul Arts Center’s cavernous auditorium, which seats 2,500, but nonetheless had very good acoustics. In addition to Richard, we also got to hear another SCMS Festival regular, Stefan Jackiw.

Richard O'Neill Dress Rehearsal (Ditto)

Richard O’Neill rehearses at the Ditto Festival

On our fifth day in Korea, we travelled 60 km. north of Seoul to the border with North Korea, to see the demilitarized zone (DMZ), which is a strip of land 2.5 miles wide that stretches 155 miles from one side of the Korean Peninsula to the other. By the end of the day, our heads were spinning because of the bizarre set of contradictory experiences that we had.

First up was a visit to the Joint Security Area (JSA), where American military personnel took us to the actual border, where we could see North Korean sentries. We were admonished frequently to avoid waving or yelling at these sentries, as if a major eruption of gunfire might be the consequence. We then visited one of four tunnels dug by the North Koreans in an effort to sneak into the south undetected. All four were discovered by South Korea and blocked. We watched a quite jingoistic film about these tunnels that suggested that Armageddon was just around the corner.

We then had lunch in an area that contained an amusement park filled with people on holiday, blithely enjoying themselves as if all was normal in the area. Finally, we saw the Doresan railway station, a gorgeous brand new gleaming structure which is the last station in South Korea, but connects to the north. Inside, exhibits wishfully display hopes for a trans-Korean railway, that one day might connect to a trans-Manchurian railway, and then to a trans-Asian railway. The station cries out for reunification of Korea, but seems naive in view of our other experiences in the DMZ.

Backstage with Richard (Ditto)

Onstage with Richard O’Neill

Perhaps the biggest highlight of this SCMS Korea trip has been the opportunity to get to know Richard O’Neill better. He was genuinely thrilled that four of us made the long trip from Seattle, and he did his best to be a great host! The night after a concert at the Oktoberfest Ditto Festival, he invited us all to his favorite Korean BBQ restaurant in the trendy Seoul neighborhood of Gangnam (as in “Gangnam Style” by the Korean rapper Psy).

On the night of the concert we experienced Seoul traffic at its worse, as it took us 90 minutes for a trip that should only take 15. We thus decided to take the subway to dinner, which put us just a few yards from the restaurant. Richard ordered both plain and marinated wagyu beef, and a waitress cooked it right at our table and skillfully cut it into bite sized pieces. Richard’s facility with the Korean language has improved greatly so he directed the meal with great aplomb. He regaled us all with stories about how he has developed the Ditto festival over the last 10 years, and how proud he is of the fifty or more young string players that he has mentored.

The festival is so popular that on most nights the 2500 seat hall is sold out. We noticed that about 75% of the audience was female. He says that the marketing department for his festival has urged him to have all male ensembles, because in Korea this generates enormous female ticket sales. Interesting…….

It was really a treat for all of us to be able to spend a delightful evening with such a luminary; it is very clear that he is a total rock star on the Seoul chamber music scene. It is also very clear, however, that our Seattle festivals mean a great deal to him. Having grown up in Sequim, he has a strong connection to the Northwest.”

It sounds like they had a great trip exploring Seoul and other locations in Korea. Seattle Chamber Music Society offers a variety of patron trips and travel experiences, including a trip to New York this spring! Find out more about that trip here.



 

Lorna McGhee returns to SCMS for the 2016 Winter Festival

Lorna McGheeLorna McGhee, principal flute of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, was our featured artist in the recently printed 2016 Winter Festival brochure. We sadly didn’t have enough space to share the full interview and are launching our new blog with more great information about the Winter Festival (January 22-31) and Lorna’s background.

 

Tell us about the pieces you are playing with us this winter:
I will be playing Mozart’s C Major Flute Quartet (January 22), Copland’s Duo for Flute and Piano and Barber’s Canzone (both January 23). This particular Mozart Quartet does not get played as much as the C major, so the audience will be less familiar with it. It is nevertheless a very joyful and inventive piece. It’s in two movements — a bright and breezy allegro followed by a gorgeous theme and variations. (Incidentally Mozart recycled the theme and variations in his ‘Gran Partita for 13 instruments’.)

The Copland is one of the staples of the flute repertoire. It dates from 1972 when Copland returned to tonalism. It is in three movements, the last of which is a hoe-down, as you might expect from Copland — full of wonderful cross-rhythms and high energy. The slow middle movement is quite cryptic, and anguished as if trying to find some resolution. The first movement is my favourite as it is so quintessential Copland — opening with a simple lyrical flute line built of 4ths and 5ths and octaves — spacious and innocent and evocative. Somehow, when I play this opening, it makes me think of how it must have felt for European pioneers moving west and seeing the pristine American landscapes for the first time. A sense of awe and wonder.

The Barber Canzone is the composer’s own transcription of the second movement of his piano concerto. It is exquisitely delicate and heartfelt and melancholy — somehow profound even in it’s transparency.

You are also presenting one of the Pre-Concert Recitals this winter (January 23). Tell us what you’ve selected. Why this piece?
The Kernis piece, Air is first of all one of my favourite pieces of recent years. It is so great to hear a piece of ‘new’ music that has so much substance, emotional weight and beauty. It also relates to the Barber and the Copland, in that the musical language has the same lyricism and apparent simplicity. It was inspired in part by the wonderful rhapsodic flights of Hildegard de Bingen’s music. She was a catholic mystic who lived in the 12th century. While her counterparts were writing Gregorian Chant with very narrow intervals, Hildegard’s music by contrast would have expressive leaps. This lyricism and spaciousness is also why we love Copland and Barber so much.

You have a long history as a chamber musician and as an orchestral musician. How do these different performance styles influence each other in regards to your musicianship?
I think they complement each other. Playing in the wind section of an orchestra is already a form of chamber music. At it’s best, orchestral playing is glorified chamber music, with a conductor as a fellow chamber musician who does a lot of leading, but also is capable of responding.

Trio Verlaine

Trio Verlaine: David Harding, viola; Heidi Krutzen, harp; Lorna McGhee, flute

Currently you are the principal flute at the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. How long have you been there and how did you end up going to Pittsburgh?
Yes, I’ve been in Pittsburgh since 2012. I first auditioned and won the job in 2007, but the timing wasn’t right to move from Canada then. It would have meant living apart from my husband, violist David Harding (due to immigration complications). Anyway, the job was open again in 2011 so I auditioned again. Fortunately there was also a viola teaching position open at Carnegie Mellon University, so we both won our positions and could live together in Pittsburgh. Much better!

Most audience members know about the various makers of string instruments; can you talk about the craftsmanship that goes into creating flutes? Can you tell us about the instrument that you play?
Yes– wind instruments are not as glamorous or as romantic as string instruments, in terms of history! However, I do have two beautiful old LouisLot silver flutes made in Paris in the 1870s. These instruments are like the ‘Stradivari’ of the flute world, and date from the period where silver flutes started to replace wooden flutes, and flutists became interested in trying to replicate the expressiveness of singers. LouisLot flutes often have a depth of resonance and color possibilities that interest me very much. However, the scale (tuning) and mechanism are not so compatible with playing in a modern orchestra. Therefore, I play on a modern body made by the wonderful Japanese company, Altus, combined with one of my LouisLot headjoints to get the best of both worlds!

What do you like to do when not playing the flute?
I love being in nature — hiking, especially in the Pacific Northwest, or Scotland. I love books and I am also very interested in the Alexander Technique. One of my favourite things is to listen or read interviews with authors. I put them on a pedestal — it’s so miraculous to create a convincing, transformative work of fiction. How do they do it?

 

Join us at the 2016 Winter Festival to hear Lorna, and 18 other world class musicians, perform the finest chamber music repertoire in our series of 6 concerts.