photos: Chung Cheng
photos: Reubin Stern
event photos: Xiaopei Xu and Chi Wei Lo |
Stella Chen
陳思蕾,
violinist
First Prize, 2019 Queen Elisabeth Competition
https://stellachen.com
2021/2022
authorized by artist management. |
"Her
performance sounded fresh and spontaneous, yet emotionally
profound and intellectually well-structured."
-The
Jerusalem Post
"Stella
Chen looks to tell a story and does it with beautiful
nuances and beautiful intentions."
-Le
Soir(translated
from French)
Praised
for her "phenomenal maturity" and "fresh and spontaneous,
yet emotionally profound and intellectually well-structured
performance" (Jerusalem Post), American violinist
Stella Chen garnered worldwide attention with
her first-prize win at the 2019 Queen Elizabeth International
Violin Competition, followed by the 2020 Avery Fisher
Career Grant and 2020 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist
Award.
Following
debuts with the Chicago Symphony and Chamber Orchestra
of Europe in summer 2021, her auspicious 2021-22 season
sees her recital debut at Carnegie Hall and recital,
concerto, and chamber music appearances throughout Europe,
Asia, and North America, including debuts with Kremerata
Baltica, German State Philharmonic, and New Japan Philharmonic,
as well as appearances with Chamber Music Society of
Lincoln Center both in New York and on tour.
Stella’s
most recent engagements include appearances with the
Belgian National Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic and
the Luxembourg Philharmonic and at the Phillips Collection
in Washington, DC, Salzburg Mozarteum, Ravinia, and
Kronberg Academy Festivals. Stella has appeared as a
chamber musician in festivals including the Perlman
Music Program, Music@Menlo, the Sarasota Festival, and
YellowBarn.
She is the
first recipient of the Robert Levin Award from Harvard
University, the top prize winner of the Tibor Varga
International Violin Competition and youngest ever prize
winner of the Menuhin Competition. Stella plays on the
1700 ex-Petri Stradivarius, on generous loan from Dr.
Ryuji Ueno and Rare Violins In Consortium, Artists and
Benefactors Collaborative.
Matthew Lipman,
viola
 American
violist Matthew Lipman has been praised by the New York
Times for his “rich tone and elegant phrasing,” and
by the Chicago Tribune for a “splendid technique and
musical sensitivity.” Lipman has come to be relied on
as one of the leading players of his generation, frequently
appearing as both a soloist and chamber music performer.
Lipman will debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
at the Ravinia Festival and with the Chamber Orchestra
of Europe at the Rheingau Music Festival in the summer
of 2021. Highlights of recent seasons include appearances
with the Minnesota Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Academy
of St Martin in the Fields, and the Juilliard Orchestra.
Lipman has worked with conductors including Edward Gardner,
the late Sir Neville Marriner, Osmo Vänskä, and Nicholas
McGegan. Lipman was a featured performer with fellow
violist Tabea Zimmermann at Michael Tilson Thomas’s
2019 Viola Visions Festival of the New World Symphony
in Miami. His recent debuts include at the Aspen Music
Festival, Seoul’s Kumho Art Hall, Wigmore Hall, Chicago’s
Orchestra Hall at Symphony Center, the Walt Disney Concert
Hall and in recital at Carnegie Hall.
Ascent, his 2019 release by Cedille Records, was celebrated
by The Strad as a “most impressive” debut album while
Lipman is praised for his “authoritative phrasing and
attractive sound.” The album marks the first ever recording
of the recently discovered work by Shostakovich, Impromptu
for viola and piano and of Clarice Assad’s Metamorfose
for viola and piano, which Lipman commissioned for the
recording. He has also been featured on the recording
of Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with violinist Rachel
Barton Pine and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields
conducted by the late Sir Neville Marriner. The album
topped Billboard’s Classical Chart and has received
praise by both the press and public.
Named the 2019 Artist-in-Residence for the American
Viola Society, Lipman has additionally been featured
on WFMT Chicago’s list “30 Under 30” of the world’s
top classical musicians, and is a published contributor
to The Strad, Strings and BBC Music magazines. He was
featured on the second season of PBS’s ‘Now Hear This’
performing Schubert’s ‘Arpeggione’ Sonata with pianist
Mishka Rushdie Momen. He performs regularly on tour
and at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall with the Chamber
Music Society of Lincoln Center and at music festivals
including the Morizburg Festival, St. Petersburg’s White
Nights, Music@Menlo, Marlboro, Ravinia, Bridgehampton,
Seattle, Saratoga, and Kissinger Sommer festivals. His
regular chamber music partners include Tabea Zimmermann,
Mitsuko Uchida, Itzhak Perlman, Sir András Schiff, Jeremy
Denk, Stella Chen, and Pinchas Zukerman. Dedicated to
expanding the repertoire for the viola, Lipman has also
performed the premieres of works for viola by composers
Helen Grime, Clarice Assad, David Ludwig and the American
premiere of Monochromer GartenVI by Malika Kishino.
Lipman is the recipient of a 2015 Avery Fisher Career
Grant, a Kovner Fellowship, and the Jack Kent Cooke
Award, and is also a major prize winner in the Primrose,
Tertis, Washington, Johansen, and Stulberg International
Viola Competitions. He studied at The Juilliard School
with Heidi Castleman, and was further mentored by Tabea
Zimmermann at the Kronberg Academy. As an alum of the
Bowers Program, Lipman occupies the Wallach Chair at
the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He performs
on a 1700 Matteo Goffriller viola loaned through the
generous efforts of the Pine Foundation.
Brannon Cho,
cellist
https://brannoncho.com
.jpg) Described
by Arto Noras as “a finished artist, ready to play in
any hall in the world,” cellist Brannon Cho has emerged
as an outstanding musician of his generation. He is
the First Prize winner of the prestigious 6th International
Paulo Cello Competition, and is also a prize winner
of the Queen Elisabeth, Naumburg, and Cassadó International
Cello Competitions.
Brannon Cho has appeared as a soloist with many of the
top orchestras around the world, including the Helsinki
Philharmonic Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic
Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, and Orchestre Philharmonique
Royale Liège, under world-renowned conductors such as
Susanna Mälkki, Stéphane Denève, and Christian Arming.
As a lover of chamber music, Brannon Cho has shared
the stage with artists such as Anne-Sophie Mutter, Christian
Tetzlaff, Gidon Kremer, and Joshua Bell. His recent
festival appearances include Marlboro, Kronberg Academy,
Music@Menlo, and Verbier. In addition, Brannon Cho is
a scholarship holder in the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation,
and the recipient of the 2019 Ivan Galamian Award, which
was previously held by James Ehnes.
Brannon Cho’s recent and upcoming solo performance highlights
include debuts in Wigmore Hall, Weill Recital Hall at
Carnegie Hall, the Cello Biënnale Amsterdam, Kumho Art
Hall in Seoul, Konzerthaus Berlin, Seoul Arts Center,
the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and New England
Conservatory’s Jordan Hall.
Born in New Jersey, Brannon Cho received his Bachelor’s
degree from Northwestern University’s Bienen School
of Music under Hans Jørgen Jensen. He was awarded the
prestigious Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory,
where he studied with Laurence Lesser. Today, he is
in the Professional Studies program at the Kronberg
Academy, under the tutelage of Frans Helmerson. Brannon
Cho is sponsored by Thomastik-Infeld, and performs on
a rare cello made by Antonio Casini in 1668 in Modena,
Italy.
NOTES ON THE PROGRAM
By Dr. Jannie Burdeti
Leo Weiner
(1885-1960)
String
Trio in G minor, Op. 6
“From the 1920s to the ‘60s, all Hungarian musicians
of any future consequence attended his classes;
…without fail [they] name him as the most important
influence in their lives. I am no exception. I was
lucky to drink in the principles he preached.” -János
Starker, cellist
Hungarian-Jewish composer and pedagogue,
Leó
Weiner, wielded a profound influence within
Budapest’s musical circles during the first half of
the twentieth century. Born in 1885, not much is
known about his formative years until his enrollment
at the Budapest Academy of Music at the age of
sixteen. Under the tutelage of composer Hans von
Koessler (cousin of Max Reger and also mentor to
Weiner’s slightly older contemporaries, Ernst von
Dohnanyi,
Béla
Bartók,
and
Zoltán
Kodály),
Weiner honed his compositional skills, leading him
to become one of the greatest musical influences
this past century.
Upon graduation from the Academy, Weiner would take
on the title of professor at his alma mater, the
Budapest Academy of Music, teaching music theory,
chamber music, and composition for nearly five
decades, from 1908 to 1957. His pupils notably
included Sir Georg Solti,
Sándor
Vegh,
György
Kurtag,
Géza
Anda, Antal Doráti,
Peter Frankl, Cyprien Katsaris, György Sebok, János
Starker, Tamás
Vásáry
and Sándor
Vegh,
to name just a fraction of the great personalities
that frequented his classes. His analytical
expertise—particularly with the works of the
Viennese classicists: Mozart, Beethoven and
Haydn—was unmatched and left a profound mark on many
students who recall learning from him what it meant
to truly listen.
While renowned primarily as an educator, Weiner was
also celebrated as a composer, especially in his
younger years. He burst onto the international scene
as a final-year student at the academy with his
Serenade, Op. 3, winning awards and earning him the
nickname ‘Hungarian Mendelssohn.’ Weiner’s output
included opera, ballet, symphonic poems,
divertimentos, dance suites, a piano concertino, two
violin concertos, three string quartets, and
numerous piano pieces and orchestrations.
Unfortunately, with the increasing shift towards
twelve-tone composition within his cultural milieu,
he no longer felt he understood the “modern trends”
of music, leading to his resignation from the
department of composition as he
redirected
his focus towards chamber music. Eventually, though
being apolitical all his life, he could not escape
the onset of fascism in Hungary in 1944: he lost his
job, lived in hiding due to his Jewish heritage,
lost his home and manuscripts to bombings, and was
taken to a forced labor camp. Though he wrote more
upon his return to Budapest, he nonetheless felt
neglected towards the end of his life due to his
more traditional compositional idiom. Weiner valued
beauty, musical comprehensibility, and was very
particular, even with culinary nutrition: he would
cancel foreign engagements if it meant he had to eat
food cooked in butter.
Among Weiner’s compositions, the String Trio in G
minor, Op. 6, written in 1908 (the year he started
teaching at the academy) and published in 1909,
stands as a testament to his meticulous
craftsmanship. The four-movement work begins with a
questioning theme in the violin that sets the tone,
as surprising harmonic modulations unfold.
Characteristic of Weiner’s writing, the whole trio
is imbued with elegance and taste. The initial
movement vanishes into a delicate G major cadence. A
delightful and fleeting
scherzo
in B-flat major serves as the second movement,
with its
characteristic jestful syncopations. This lively
section contrasts with a melodic and soulful trio.
The slow movement that follows is a tender
barcarolle, presented in three variations, leading
to a rousing finale. The work ends with an impetuous
tour de force tempered by its classical construct.
Emmy
Frensel Wegener
(1901-1973)
Suite for Violin, Viola, and Cello
Emmy Frensel-Wegener
was
born
in
Amsterdam in
1901
to Bertha Frensel Wegener-Koopman, an accomplished
composer and music educator, and John
Frensel-Wegener, an American insurance agent. She
received her formative musical education in North
Holland and England and culminated her studies at
the
Amsterdam Conservatory,
where she graduated in violin performance under the
tutelage of
Felice Togni.
Concurrently, Frensel-Wegener pursued studies in
composition
with distinguished
Jewish composer
Samuel
“Sem” Dresden, clarinet with Willem Brohm,
and
acquired proficiency in
Gregorian Chant.
By 1935,
Frensel-Wegener
experienced the onset of multiple sclerosis,
ultimately leading to paralysis in
1950.
Perhaps drawing inspiration from the poems that her
mother previously set to music, she turned to
publishing poetry when composing became too
difficult. The majority of her musical output was
confined to the years between 1925 and 1935,
predominantly encompassing chamber music and several
orchestral compositions.
Her Suite for Violin, Viola, and Cello was composed
in 1925 and bears resemblance to a collection of
vignettes. She writes: “This suite consists of five
very short parts, largely of a light-hearted nature
and the whole has therefore the character of a
divertimento. Only the
Andante
has a slightly more serious tone.” With most of them
being only a little over one minute long—the longest
of which extends to approximately three-and-a-half
minutes—Frensel-Wegener imbues the suite with a
fresh and compelling neo-classical style.
The first movement is titled “Introduction:
moderate, clear and light.” Its designation is
elucidated by the plucked strings and buoyant
character. Subsequently, a fugato ensues, composed
in clear textures and a compositional choice
possibly influenced by her teacher Samuel Dresden’s
extensive involvement with Renaissance counterpoint.
The next movement is a fleeting scherzo,
displaying nimble string writing. The slow movement
adopts a plaintive, romantic style, while the work
concludes in a sparkling finale marked “as rigorous
as possible.”
Gideon Klein
(1919-1945)
String
Trio
“Gideon Klein is, without doubt, a very remarkable
talent. His is the cool, matter-of-fact style of the
new youth; one has to marvel at his strangely early
stylistic maturity.” -Victor Ullmann
Born in
Přerov,
Moravia, on December 6, 1919, Gideon Klein, a
Czech-Jewish pianist and composer, was a precocious
musical talent. At the age of 11, he travelled once
a month to Prague for lessons with esteemed piano
pedagogue,
Růžena Kurzová.
In 1938, he secured admission into
Vilém
Kurz’s prestigious class at the Master School of the
Prague Conservatory, while simultaneously pursuing
studies in philosophy and musicology at the Charles
University. Although he completed his studies under
Professor Kurz within one year, his university
studies ended abruptly due to Klein’s Jewish
heritage. Nonetheless, he continued private
compositional studies with Alois
Hába,
a proponent of Arnold Schoenberg’s philosophy aimed
at liberating music from its tonal constraints.
Hába
was
also
notably a leading figure in the realm of microtonal
music.
Despite the escalating political tensions, Klein
performed as a pianist under the pseudonym Karel
Vránek until even this became too dangerous. On
December 1, 1941, he, along with thousands of other
Prague Jews, was transported to
Terezín,
a labor camp that was exploited by the Nazis for
propaganda to portray a rich cultural life.
Terezín’s
harsh living conditions claimed thousands of lives.
In the face of these trials, the ever-productive
Klein immediately became a central figure in the
camp, performing chamber music, working with
singers, arranging choral works, presenting solo
concerts, and providing encouragement to his
esteemed colleagues.
Klein’s
compositions in Terezín
included chamber music for strings, choral works, a
song cycle, a piano sonata, and incidental music for
the theater. Klein’s String Trio was his last
composition. Only ten days later, he was sent from
Terezín
to Auschwitz, and from there to
Fürstengrube,
a coal-mining labour camp, where he died on January
27,
1945,
at the age of twenty five.
The first movement is abundant in energy, rhythmic
propulsion, and at times, adopts a motoric momentum,
which unexpectedly concludes quietly. The middle
movement is a theme and seven variations on a
Moravian folksong titled “The Knezdub Tower.” The
words poignantly feature a wild goose that flies up
into a high tower, potentially symbolizing Klein’s
yearning for freedom. The final movement exhibits
folkish and vivacious writing.
Klein’s
sister, Lisa Kleinová
organized posthumously the first performance of the
work in 1946 in Prague.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
(1756-1791)
Divertimento in E-flat major, K. 563
Composed in 1788, the same year as his final three
symphonies and the “Coronation” Concerto, K. 537,
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Divertimento for String
Trio, K. 563 is dazzling in its compositional
prowess and expressive depth, and has since become
one of the most celebrated chamber music works, not
to mention, of the string trio repertoire. Mozart
called this work his “Puchberg” Trio as it was
written for his friend and fellow freemason, Michael
Puchberg, who frequently and generously loaned money
to him in times of need.
The word divertimento comes from the verb
divertire in Italian, meaning “to amuse.” As
such, a divertimento is usually conceived as
music performed for entertainment, often
extending beyond the typical four movements of a
string quartet and interspersed with minuets and
slow movements. In this work, Mozart elevates both
the string trio and divertimento genre to the
stature of the esteemed string quartet. The work is
remarkable in its equal treatment of the
instruments, demanding virtuosity from every player.
As noted by Charles Rosen, Mozart’s Divertimento “is
an interesting precursor of the last quartets of
Beethoven, in its transference of divertimento form,
with two dance movements and two slow movements (one
a set of variations), into the realm of serious
chamber music, making purely intimate what had been
public.”
The work begins with a stately descending E-flat
major triad, which becomes a thematic thread
throughout the work. The exposition is tuneful, with
a diversity of quick-changing characters. A
contrapuntal development takes a dark turn with its
searching harmonies. In the subsequent Adagio,
characterized by an overwhelming tenderness, it
unfolds from an inversion of the initial motive. It
is one of Mozart’s most poignant slow movements and,
similar to the first movement, ventures to
mysterious regions halfway through.
The first of the two minuets open with metrical play
and exudes good-natured humor. Mozart juxtaposes the
minuet with a delicate trio, putting a different
slant on his metrical inventiveness. Following the
minuet is another slow movement, an Andante
in B-flat major, and one of his most wondrous sets
of five variations, based on a charming, folkish
theme. In the conclusion of this Andante, one
hears an unbounded exuberance in the last variation,
with the viola playing a cantus firmus
melody, while the violin and cello play carefree and
joyful thirty-second and sixteenth-notes around it.
The penultimate movement is the second minuet and
trio (with two trios!), full of jubilance and
whimsy, with horn-like sonorities. This minuet,
unlike the first, is dance-like and regular in its
meter. The Divertimento’s final Allegro, with
its tuneful charm, virtuosity, and contrapuntal
mastery, brings the work to a joyful close.
會後新聞稿
Stella Chen, Matthew Lipman and
Brannon Cho
中華表演藝術基金會第35屆音樂季第二場音樂會,於1月13日週六晚8時,在新英格蘭音樂學院喬頓廳
(Jordan Hall)
盛大而的成功舉行。由2019年伊莉莎白皇后國際小提琴大賽第一名
Stella Chen,(她也是2020年艾弗里·費舍爾職業生涯獎
Avery Fisher Career Grant
得獎者,2023年留聲機年度青年藝術家獎得獎者)、中提琴家
Matthew Lipman(2015年
艾弗里·費舍爾
Avery Fisher
職業生涯獎,
林肯中心室內樂團成員)和大提琴家
Brannon Cho(保羅大提琴比賽一等獎,
以及伊麗莎白女王、瑙姆堡和卡薩多國際大提琴比賽的最高獎得主)以三重奏形式亮相。約300多名熱情的觀眾,
為此場令人難忘的音樂會,
高水平成功的演出,報以歡呼及掌聲,欲罷不能。
這三個人從青少年時期起就是最好的朋友。雖然他們每個人都已經獲得國際頂級獎項,並活躍於世界舞台,與頂級樂團和著名指揮家合作演出。獲得好評。但當他們一起表演時,彼此的合作,相互的支持,
是自然而真誠的。他們選擇的曲目包括莫札特的標誌性作品(降E大調嬉遊曲,K.563),但也包括鮮為人知的作曲家的作品。Gideon
Klein
在納粹集中營被殺的前幾天完成了這部傑出的,天才型的作品,年僅26歲。
觀眾中有許多世界著名的音樂家。大家都對此次演出給予了高度評價和讚譽。這個弦樂三重奏已經進入第二季,但尚未選擇名稱。波士頓音樂情報(The
Boston Musical Intelligencer)稱讚上週六在喬丹音樂廳舉行的這場驚人,永恆,和創新表演。樂評稱這個
“尚未正式命名的合作夥伴”為“青年名人弦樂三重奏”,並說：“與在場的許多世界知名弦樂鑑賞家交談後,他們都表示同意我的看法:即是這個年輕的名人弦樂三重奏所呈現的華麗音色,以及精緻、投入、有力而深刻的音樂演繹,將長時間在我們的記憶中迴盪。”
在音樂會後慶祝酒會上,超過35位跨代知名音樂家齊聚一堂,向他們表示祝賀。Stella
Chen、Matthew
Lipman 和
Brannon Cho
他們的高中和大學的親密朋友,
都來參加,聚集在一起慶祝。
燦爛的微笑和團聚的喜悅,
使這個珍貴的時刻,發光發熱。(這張照片裡),
在這聯繫緊密的幾個人中,
有四位Avery
Fisher職業獎獲得者,還有伊麗莎白女王、利茲(Leeds)、肖邦、保羅(Paulo)、諾伯格(Naumberg)
等
國際知名大賽的頂尖獎項得主。
我們為他們感到十分驕傲。
音樂會的錄影近日將放上
youtube，供大家免費欣賞。也請關注中華表演基金會的
instagram。
中華表演藝術基金會第35屆音樂季第二場音樂會，將於1月13日週六晚8時，在新英格蘭音樂學院喬頓廳
(Jordan Hall)
舉行。由2019年伊莉莎白皇后國際小提琴大賽第一名
Stella Chen，
(她也是2020年艾弗里·費舍爾職業生涯獎
Avery Fisher Career Grant
得獎者，2023年留聲機年度青年藝術家獎得獎者)、中提琴家
Matthew Lipman
(2015年
艾弗里·費舍爾
Avery Fisher
職業生涯獎)和大提琴家
Brannon Cho(保羅大提琴比賽一等獎,
以及
伊麗莎白女王、瑙姆堡和卡薩多國際大提琴比賽的最高獎得主)以三重奏形式亮相。
節目包括：Weiner,
Wegener, Klein,
莫札特的弦樂三重奏作品。票價為
$20 (7-13歲)、$40、$60。提供學生免費票(14歲以上)，及非學生贈送卷。需事前預訂。6歲以下兒童請勿入場。詳情請在中華表演藝術基金會的官網查詢.
小提琴家
Stella Chen
除了上面列出的獎項之外，她
也是2020年林肯中心傑出新秀獎
(Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award)
獲獎者。同年被邀請加入林肯中心室內樂團。她經甄試進入最具挑戰性的哈佛新英格蘭音樂學院五年聯合項目，由哈佛心理系以榮譽學士學位畢業，同時獲得新英格蘭音樂學院的音樂碩士學位。Stella
Chen
已多次在世界各大音樂廳與著名指揮及樂團合作演出。耶路撒冷郵報
(The Jurusalem Post)
稱讚她「成熟清新自然，情感深厚，有智慧且平衡。」Musical
America
稱她「音色高雅柔美，觀眾屏息傾聽，不敢錯過她的任何輕微的細節。」留聲機評論家加德納
(Charlotte Gardner)
稱讚
Stella Chen “音色精美,
具內在靈魂,
是一位有思想的小提琴家。”
她所用的1708年Stradivarius
“Huggins”
名琴是由日本Nippon
基金會提供。
中提琴家
Matthew Lipman (2015年
艾弗里·費舍爾
Avery Fisher
職業生涯獎得主),
林肯中心室內樂團成員，是世界上最受歡迎的中提琴家之一。《紐約時報》稱讚他“豐富的音色和優雅的音樂措辭”，《芝加哥論壇報》稱讚他“出色的技巧和音樂敏感性”。
大提琴家
Brannon Cho (保羅大提琴比賽一等獎,
以及
伊麗莎白女王、瑙姆堡和卡薩多國際大提琴比賽的最高獎得主)活躍於世界舞台，與頂級樂團和著名指揮家合作演出。他所用的
Antonio Casini 1668
年在義大利製作的稀有大提琴,
是由
Thomastik-Infeld
贊助
。
節目:
(節目說明已經在官方網站)
Leo Weiner: String Trio in G minor, Op. 6
Emmy Frensel Wegener: Suite for Violin, Viola, and
Cello
Gideon Klein: String Trio
W.A. Mozart: Divertimento in E-flat Major, K. 563 |
音樂會門票分為$60 (貴賓保留區、可預先指定座位)及$40(不對號自由入座)兩種, 學生票$20 (不對號自由座區) 。六歲以下兒童請勿入場 。購票:喬登廳票房: 617-585-1260。網站購票:
http://www.ChinesePerformingArts.net
無手續費 。
提供100張免費學生票 (14歲以上, 每人一張) 請上 贈票網頁 索票 。 
