Concert #5 - Friday, February 6, 2009, 8:00 pm
Lucas Theater

The Savannah Concert Association presents

80th Birthday Tribute to Charles Wadsworth

With the St. Lawrence String Quartet
Geoff Nuttall, violin
Scott St. John, violin
Lesley Robertson, viola
Christopher Costanza, cello

and Anton Nel, piano
Edward Arron, cello

Charles Wadsworth founded the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in 1969, leading it as Artistic Director and pianist for twenty years and bringing chamber music the unprecedented popularity it enjoys today. His innovative programming, and the varied repertoire he unearthed, have inspired a new generation of virtuoso musicians to perform chamber music, and fostered the creation of chamber music festivals worldwide.

Since 1977, Wadsworth has been one of the Artistic Directors of the Spoleto USA Festival in Charleston, South Carolina, where he is pianist and host of the daily chamber music concerts, which he originally created in 1960 at the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy.

Wadsworth is also the Artistic Director, pianist and host of the Musical Masterworks concert series in Old Lyme, CT, and four other chamber music series in Beaufort, Columbia, and Camden, SC, and Savannah, GA. He tours annually with violinist Chee-Yun, clarinetist Todd Palmer, cellist Andres Diaz and pianist Wendy Chen in “Spoleto USA Chamber Music” programs throughout the U.S. as well as with other artists in “Charles Wadsworth and Friends” concerts.

Wadsworth has been honored by the Republic of France as a Chevalier in the Order of Arts and Letters, and by Italy as a Cavaliere Ufficiale in the Order of Merit. He has received New York City’s highest cultural award, the Handel Medallion, in addition to South Carolina’s Order of the Palmetto and most recently, the Elizabeth O’Neill Verner Award. Wadsworth holds honorary doctorates from the University of South Carolina, Converse College and Connecticut College. He has been invited to perform at the White House for Presidents Kennedy, Nixon, Ford, Carter and Reagan.

Welcome back, Charles!

St. Lawrence String Quartet
Having walked on stage together more than 1900 times in the past nineteen years, the St. Lawrence String Quartet (SLSQ) has established itself among the world-class chamber ensembles of its generation. In 1992, they won both the Banff International String Quartet Competition and Young Concert Artists International Auditions, launching them on a performing career that has brought them across North and South America, Europe and Asia.

Their summer calendar features their 13th year as Resident Quartet to the Spoleto USA Festival in Charleston, SC. Other recent summer festival appearances include Mostly Mozart in New York, Maverick Concerts, Bay Chamber Concerts (Maine) and the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival.

Having been privileged to study with the Emerson, Tokyo and Juilliard String Quartets, the St. Lawrence are themselves passionate educators. Since 1998 they have held the position of Ensemble in Residence at Stanford University. The SLSQ has also served as visiting artists to the University of Toronto since 1995 and will inaugurate a new visiting chamber music residency at Arizona State University this season.

The SLSQ is deeply committed to brining music to less traditional venues outside the classroom or concert hall. Their strong desire to share the wonders of chamber music with their listeners has led to a more informal performance style than one might expect form chamber musicians. Alex Ross of The New Yorker writes, “the St. Lawrence are remarkable not simply for the quality of their music making, exalted as it is, but for the joy they take in the act of connection.”

Anton Nel, piano
Winner of the first prize in the 1987 Naumburg International Piano Competition at Carnegie Hall, Anton Nel enjoys a remarkable, multifaceted career that has taken him throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia and South Africa. He came to the U.S. in 1983, attending the University of Cincinnati where he pursued his Masters and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees. In addition to garnering many awards from his alma mater, he was a prizewinner at the 1984 Leeds International Piano Competition in England and won several first prizes at the Joanna Hodges International Piano Competition in Palm Desert in 1986.

As recitalist he has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Museum and the Frick Collection in New York, at the Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena, Davies Hall in San Francisco and the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Internationally he has performed in Canada, England, France, Holland, Japan, Korea and South Africa.

Eager to pursue dual careers in teaching and performing, he was appointed to the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin in his early twenties, followed by professorships at the Eastman School of Music, and the University of Michigan where he was Chairman of the Piano Department. In September 2000, Nel was appointed as the Priscilla Pond Flawn Regents Professor of Piano and Chamber Music at UT Austin where he teaches an international class of students and heads the Division of Keyboard Studies. He has been the recipient of both the Austin-American Statesman’s Critics Circle Award for his performance of the Rachmaninov Second Concerto, as well as the University Cooperative Society/College of Fine Arts Award for extra-curricular achievement.

Edward Arron, cello
Cellist Edward Arron is rapidly gaining recognition worldwide for his elegant musicianship, impassioned performances and creative programming. A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Arron made his New York recital debut in 2000 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Earlier that year, he performed Vivaldi’s Concerto for Two Cellos with Yo-Yo Ma and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at the Opening Night Gala of the Caramoor International Festival.

The 2008-2009 season marks Arron’s sixth season as the artistic coordinator of the Metropolitan Museum’s Artists in Concert, a chamber ensemble created in 2003 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Museum’s prestigious Concerts and Lectures series. Mr. Arron is also the artistic director of the Caramoor Virtuosi and of the Alpenglow Chamber Music Festival in Summit County, CO. For four seasons, he was the artistic administrator and resident performer for New York’s classical music station WQRX’s “On A-I-R” series, a weekly chamber music program.

Arron has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, New York’s Town Hall and the 92nd Street Y, and is a frequent performer at Bargemusic. Past summer festival appearances include Ravinia, Salzburg, Mostly Mozart, BRAVO! Colorado, Tanglewood, Bridgehampton, Spoleto USA, Santa Fe, the North Country Chamber Players, the Chamber Music Conference of the Arts and Isaac Stern’s Jerusalem Chamber Music Encounters. Arron has participated in the Silk Road Project and is currently a member of MOSAIC, a contemporary music ensemble.

PROGRAM

Suite for Two Cellos and Piano (1973)  —  Minotti

String Quartet in B Flat Major, Op. 18, No. 6  —  Beethoven
    Allegro con brio
    Adagio, ma non troppo
    Scherzo: Allegro
    La Malinconia: Adagio; Allegretto quasi allegro

— INTERMISSION —

Piano Quintet in F minor  —  Franck
    Molto moderato quasi lento; Allegro
    Lento, con molto sentimento
    Allegro non troppo, ma con fuoco

PROGRAM NOTES

Suite for Two Cellos and Piano Gian Carlo Menotti (1911-2007)
A native of Italy, Gian Carlo Menotti spent most of his long life in the U.S. The winner of two Pulitzer Prizes for his operas in the 1950s, he was also the founder and long-time director of the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy and its namesake counterpart in Charleston, SC. He wrote the Suite for Two Cellos and Piano for Gregor Piatogorsky and his young Canadian student and assistant, Dennis Brott. The work was first performed at the Italian festival and is in four movements. The introduction is a declamatory piece for the two cellos in a dotted rhythm over heavy chords in the piano. The scherzo is more playful with technical demands on all three instruments. The arioso is an eloquent duet for the two cellos with the piano again largely in an accompaniment role. The finale is a fast, lively summing up for all three instruments.

String Quartet in B Flat Major, Opus 18, Number 6
Ludwig von Beethoven (1770 - 1827)
Beethoven’s string quartet number six, the last of the opus 18 set, was written between 1798-1800, published in 1801. The work, which displays all the vigor and enthusiasm of the young composer still in full possession of his sense of hearing, is in the conventional four movements. The first movement allegro begins with the cello alternating in conversation with the two violins, proceeds to a long development section, and ends without a coda. The second movement adagio starts with the first violin playing a lyrical melody in 2/4 time and then shifts to a minor key with unexpected accents and silences. The third movement scherzo was described by one critic as a “tour de force of syncopation.” The final movement was marked by the composer “to be played with the greatest delicacy.” The opening adagio is in 2/4 time and is appropriate to the “melancholy” of the title. The next section, in 3/8 time, is a more upbeat evocation of the Viennese ballroom or a German country dance and builds to a dramatic conclusion.

Piano Quintet in F minor César Franck (1822-1890)
César Franck was the organist at St. Clotilde in Paris for more than thirty years and professor of organ in Paris’ conservatory from 1872 until his death. In that latter role he taught Vincent d’Indy, Ernest Chausson and Louis Vierne. He is considered by many to be the greatest composer of organ music since J.S. Bach. The piano quintet marks his return to chamber music after more than 35 years. The work was dedicated to Saint-Saens who, although he played the piano part in the premiere, so strongly disapproved of the music that he rejected the dedication. In its content, the work bears witness to the composer’s increased preoccupation with the late works of Beethoven. D’Indy described it as a “sonate cyclique”, a balancing act between simplicity and complexity. The opening movement is driven by a dramatic dialogue between the urgent strings and the gentle piano and builds to a stormy climax. The second movement evokes a sense of tragedy in the dialogue between strings and piano. The final movement is once again characterized by a sense of agitation, driven by a strong rhythmic urgency.

Tickets $35, $25, $12.50
Visit SCAD Box Office
www.scadboxoffice.com
216 E. Broughton Street, Savannah, or call
(912) 525-5050. Visa and Mastercard accepted.

Music teachers and students may order special tickets @$2 by emailing name & address to dianelboyd@comcast.net

For a free brochure of the 2008-2009 season, email name & address to eoliver524@comcast.net

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