Trio Cavatina - University of Florida Performing Arts

University of Florida Performing Arts
Presents
Trio Cavatina
Sunday, April 15, 2012, 2 p.m.
Squitieri Studio Theatre
A part of
www.primaverafestival.us
Trio Cavatina
Harumi Rhodes, violin
Priscilla Lee, cello
Ieva Jokubaviciute, piano
Program
Piano Trio in E Minor Op. 90, (“Dumky”)
Lento Maestoso – Allegro
Poco Adagio – Vivace non troppo
Andante – Vivace non troppo
Allegro
Lento Maestoso – Vivace
Big Sky for Piano Trio
ˇ
Antonín Dvorák
Joan Tower
INTERMISSION
Piano Trio in F Minor, Op. 65
Allegro ma non troppo
Allegro grazioso
Poco Adagio
Finale: Allegro con brio
ˇ
Antonín Dvorák
Program Notes
Piano Trio in E minor, Op. 90 (“Dumky”)
Antonín Dvorák
ˇ (1841-1904)
Though Czech composer Antonín Dvorák
ˇ was steeped in the classics and ultimately became an
international sensation, his heart and soul was in the music of his native land. He was born in the
small village of Nelahozeves in 1841, now in the Czech Republic, just north of the city of Prague.
In spite of his international reputation and many extended visits abroad, he considered Prague
and its environs his home. He died there in 1904.
Dvorák’s
ˇ first lessons were supplied by the village schoolmaster, and in short order he was
gigging at the local churches and with the Nelahozeves village band. Still, music didn’t seem to
be his destiny when he quit school at age 12 in order to study the family business: both his father
and grandfather were town butchers. When he left his native village for nearby Zlonice a year
later to pursue an apprenticeship, the call of music – and a strong champion in a Zlonice music
teacher, Antonín Liehmann – sealed his fate.
Dvorák’s
ˇ progress was slow and steady. First, he had to learn German, since German was the
language of the university and music conservatory system. Dvorák
ˇ slowly mastered German,
which helped him gain entrance to the Prague Organ School. There he was trained to be a
traditional church musician. It was during this period that he developed into quite a violist,
too, and started gigging around Prague with various orchestras, eventually becoming principle
violist in an ensemble that would become the Orchestra of the Prague Theatre. It was during
his time that he began to compose. Still, his main source of income was neither performing nor
composing; at this point, he was teaching to make ends meet.
He eventually found some success with his cantata The Heirs of the White Mountain in 1873,
though the next year a publisher rejected a work and he went into a slump. He slowly recovered,
got married and applied for an Austrian State Stipend that was extended to artists of Austrian birth.
(He was eligible since his birthplace was at the time a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.)
Again, he found champions, first in music critic Eduard Hanslick and later in Johannes Brahms,
already household names in international music circles. They were among the distinguished
judges who award the stipends. Dvorák
ˇ applied from 1874 to 1878 and received a stipend each
year; ultimately it was Brahms who helped Dvorák
ˇ find an international publisher. Dvorák
ˇ was
now to become more than just a regional composer.
Indeed, he was soon celebrated throughout Europe, with frequent visits to the major music
capitols of Vienna, London, Paris and Berlin. As a result of his international acclaim, he was
cajoled to move to the United States to become the director of the National Conservatory in
New York City. During this so-called “American period” (1892-95), the Czech composer found
inspiration in the folk music of the U.S., especially African-American music. Dvorák’s
ˇ most
popular work, his symphony From the New World, sprang from this period in the U.S.
ˇ premiered his Piano
It was during a 40-concert “farewell” tour of his native land that Dvorák
Trio in E minor, Op. 90 (“Dumky”). It is a unique work in many ways, most notably in its formal
construction. Rather than a typical four-movement work, this Trio is in six parts, each a dumka,
a melancholy folk ballad of Ukrainian origin that is common among the various countries of
Eastern Europe. Generally speaking, the dumka alternates between a slow, mournful beginning
and a joyful, almost manic answering section.
The first dumka, marked “Lento maestoso” (slowly, with majesty), indeed begins almost as if
we have interrupted a group of mourners at a funeral. After a brief introduction by all three
instruments, the cello and violin take turns in a somber moment. The next section is a wild
contrast, upbeat, almost delirious. This again gives way to the somberness from before. The
second section returns again and ends on a cheery note.
The second dumka (“Poco adagio,” meaning rather slowly) is generally more somber overall,
though a contrasting dance section (“Vivace ma non troppo,” meaning lively, but not too much)
does make an early appearance and prevails in the end.
The third, marked “Andante,” begins on a more hopeful note, almost like a church processional.
Notice especially the uncharacteristic single line melody in the piano. Again, a contrasting
second section (Vivace ma non troppo) takes us away for a moment, but in this dumka, the
opening music prevails in the end.
The fourth dumka (“Andante Moderato,” meaning moderate walking tempo), as its tempo
suggests, begins with a deliberateness of a walk in the cold morning air. Here a contrasting
upbeat section briefly emerges several times, each a little more energetically, though the
movement ends quietly. The fifth movement (“Allegro,” meaning brisk), too, is at turns moody
and contemplative, at other moments bouncy and joyous.
The finale follows the dumka pattern, though Dvorák
ˇ accentuates the melancholy side of things
until very near the end, when a dance section emerges to close the work.
Big Sky for Piano Trio
Joan Tower (b. 1938)
American Joan Tower is among the most celebrated musicians of our day. She was the first
woman, and one of only two, to win the University of Louisville’s prestigious Grawemeyer
Award for Music Composition. She is also a multiple Grammy-award winner for her 2008
Naxos recording Made in America, a founding member and pianist for the celebrated Da Capo
Chamber Players and recipient of numerous composition commissions by orchestras, ensembles
and soloists worldwide. Her catalogue of works is extensive: works for orchestra, band, chamber
ensembles and solo instrumentalists, among others. Her music has been recorded and released
by a wide assortment of classical labels such as Naxos, Koch, Summit, D’note Classics, Albany
Records, Centaur and Virgin Classics. She received her doctorate in music from Columbia in
1968 and has been on the faculty at Bard College since 1972.
Big Sky was commissioned by the La Jolla, (Calif.) Chamber Music Society for their Summer-Fest
La Jolla 2000 music festival. Dr. Tower wrote for the La Jolla premiere of the work:
“As a young girl—and like many young girls—I had an obsession with horses. When I was
growing up in South America, my father bought me a racehorse. This was in Bolivia, where
horses, even racehorses, were very cheap. I loved this horse and took very good care of it in our
makeshift garage/stable … Big Sky is a piece based on a memory of riding my horse Aymara
around in the deep valley of La Paz, Bolivia. The valley was surrounded by the huge and high
mountains of the Andes range, and as I rode I looked into a vast and enormous sky. It was very
peaceful and extraordinarily beautiful. We never went over one of these mountains, but if we
had, it might have felt like what I wrote in this piece.”
Piano Trio in F Minor, Op. 65
ˇ (1841-1904)
Antonín Dvorák
Unlike the “Dumky Trio,” written at a time when Dvorák’s
ˇ international reputation was assured,
the Piano Trio in F Minor, Op. 65, was written while the composer was still trying to define
himself outside his homeland. The F-minor trio was also underway when his mother died,
December of 1882. His publisher, Simrock, was pressuring him to be more international in his
approach (read: “Germanic”): write an opera in German and present it in Vienna … spell his
name as Anton, rather than the more ethnic Antonín, drop the “Bohu díky” (Czech for “thanks
to God”) that appeared on the final pages of his autograph scores.
Unlike the “Dumky” Trio, the Piano Trio in F Minor, Op. 65 doesn’t immediately bring to mind
the folk music of Bohemia. Rather, one might be more inclined to think of the chamber works
of Brahms (Brahms’ F minor Piano Quintet comes to mind, a work that Dvorák
ˇ undoubtedly
knew). The opening movement of the Trio is always in control, yet ardent and passionate.
Aficionados – and Brahms was certainly among them – were inspired by Dvorák’s
ˇ harmonic
surprises, not to mention his ability to write and develop a stirring melody.
His command of rhythm seemed a birthright. Indeed, the second movement might be heard as a
tribute to Czech rhythm. Notice the combined pulse of two and three, presented simultaneously
in the opening, and again towards the end. This could be a dance section of a dumka. The middle
of this movement, marked by florid piano arpeggios and spritely melodic snippets for the violin
and cello, is another opportunity for Dvorák
ˇ to impress his international audience with his
compositional acumen.
The third, slow movement is rich with tuneful moments, with violin and cello doing the bulk
of the heavy lifting while the piano generally takes on a less prominent role (though piano is
featured at the end as a transition to the coda).
The finale is a romp, this time based on the
Czech furiant, a dance with a somewhat
irregular pattern of accents, Here, in
Dvorák’s
ˇ hands, we get the impression of
two different tempos at once, one slow and
one fast, not to mention shifting accents
that obscure the underlying triple meter.
About Trio Cavatina
Pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute, violinist
Harumi Rhodes and cellist Priscilla Lee
formed Trio Cavatina in 2005 at the
renowned Marlboro Music Festival in
Vermont. Deeply rooted in a strong sense
of shared musical values, Trio Cavatina
has rapidly emerged as one of today’s
outstanding chamber ensembles whose
committed music-making prompted
Harris Goldsmith to describe the trio,
in his 2008 Musical America article, as
offering “potent, intense interpretations.”
As the winner of the 2009 Naumburg
International Chamber Music
Competition, Trio Cavatina made its Carnegie Hall debut in 2010 with scintillating
performances of two monumental Beethoven trios, Leon Kirchner’s second trio and the world
premiere performance of Faces of Guernica written for them by Richard Danielpour. They
also made their San Francisco debut earlier that season at Herbst Theater (San Francisco
performances) as well as their Philadelphia debut as one of the youngest ensembles to perform
on the prestigious Philadelphia Chamber Music Society concert series. During the summer of
2010, the Trio gave concerts and appeared in mixed programs at the Kingston Chamber Music
Festival, Newburyport Chamber Music Festival and at Music in the Vineyards in Napa Valley.
Within only two years of their formation, Trio Cavatina made its New York City and Boston debuts
on the New School’s Schneider Concert Series and at Jordan Hall, respectively. They also gave
notable debut appearances on Kneisel Hall’s “Emerging Artists” Series in Maine, at Union College
in Schenectady, New York, at Merkin Hall in New York City, at the Brattleboro Music Center in
Vermont and at the Eastern Shore Chamber Music Festival in Maryland. They were also selected to
perform at the closing concert of the Chamber Music America Conference in New York City.
Garnering critical acclaim and enthusiastic responses from audiences and presenters wherever
they perform, the trio has received immediate re-engagements, most notably at Union College in
Schenectady, N.Y. where they returned in the fall of 2008 in a performance of Messiaen’s Quartet
for the End of Time and twice in the 2009-10 season to celebrate the anniversaries of Haydn,
Mendelssohn, Schumann and Chopin. The trio embarked on their first international tour in
2008, which included performances in Lithuania on stages in Vilnius and Kaunas.
In addition to their command of the classical and romantic repertoire, Trio Cavatina is committed
to collaborating with living composers and to weaving 20th century repertoire into their programs.
They have worked closely with American composers Leon Kirchner and Richard Danielpour and
premiered a new work written for them by David Ludwig in the fall of 2010 in Chicago.
Trio Cavatina completed the New England Conservatory’s Professional Piano Trio Training
Program in 2006-07.