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KEYBOARD CONVERGENCE: Quintets, Quartets & Solos

KEYBOARD CONVERGENCE: Quintets, Quartets & Solos

Beethoven propelled the piano to the forefront of classical music, challenging both the instrument and pianists as never before. Bold and powerful, subtle and sublime, Beethoven, Robert Schumann, and Igor Stravinsky’s three powerful piano showpieces capture the piano’s full versatility in the hands of the world-renowned pianists Artistic Director Gloria Chien, Stewart Goodyear, and Chloe Mun.

This concert is sponsored by Bill & Diana Dameron.

Reed College, Kaul Auditorium
Premieres Monday, 7/22 • 8:00 pm PT

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SINGLE TICKETS

Program

Click on any piece of music below to learn more about it.

BEETHOVEN Quintet for Piano and Winds in E-flat Major, Op. 16

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) Quintet for Piano & Winds in E-flat Major, Op. 16 (26’)

I. Grave – Allegro ma non troppo
II. Andante cantabile
III. Rondo: Allegro ma non troppo

The inspiration for Ludwig van Beethoven’s Quintet for Piano and Winds in E-flat Major, Op. 16 is generally assumed to be Mozart’s 1784 quintet for the same ensemble, K. 452. Both works share the same key and scoring, but otherwise have little in common. In Mozart’s Quintet, the instruments collaborate equally, while Beethoven’s is closer to a piano concerto with wind ensemble accompaniment. Although both men were in their early to mid-20s when they composed their respective pieces, Mozart’s Quintet is the product of a mature composer, while Beethoven’s style was still evolving.

Beethoven’s youth notwithstanding, this Quintet reveals his lifelong preoccupation with short phrases, more rhythmic than melodic in conception. The first notes, in the manner of a fanfare, announce the opening Grave, which soon gives way to a cheerful Allegro. In the Andante, each wind instrument takes its turn in the spotlight.

Beethoven’s friend Ferdinand Ries documented an amusing—and totally Beethovenian—incident at one performance of Op. 16: “In the last Allegro a pause occurs several times before the theme returns; on one of these occasions Beethoven began to improvise, taking the Rondo as his theme, pleasing himself and those listening for a considerable time, but not pleasing the other players. They were annoyed, and the oboist even enraged. It really looked highly comical when these gentlemen, expecting the movement to be resumed at any moment, kept putting their instruments to their mouths, but then had to put them down again without playing a note. At length Beethoven was satisfied, and started up the Rondo again. The whole assembly was delighted.”

—© Elizabeth Schwartz

IGOR STRAVINSKY Three Movements from “Petrushka”

IGOR STRAVINSKY (1882–1971) Three Movements from Petrushka

I. Danse russe (Russian Dance)
II. Chez Pétrouchka (Petrushka’s Room)
III. La semaine grasse (The Shrovetide Fair)

In 1921, pianist Arthur Rubenstein commissioned Igor Stravinsky to arrange what Rubenstein called a “Petrushka Sonata,” using music from Stravinsky’s 1911 ballet Petrushka; Rubenstein paid the composer 5,000 francs, which Stravinsky deemed “a generous sum.” Stravinsky did not simply transcribe his orchestral score for piano; Three Movements from Petrushka was conceived as a solo piano work designed to display breathtaking virtuosity.

Three Movements uses roughly half the music Stravinsky composed for the ballet. Danse russe sets the scene with the hustle and bustle of the Shrovetide Fair, a pre-Lenten carnival in St. Petersburg, at which all the action takes place. In Chez Pétrushka (In Petrushka’s Cell), we meet Petrushka through the “Petrushka chord,” a combination of two very dissonant keys that suggests the raucous blaring of a car horn. The harsh quality of the Petrushka chord epitomizes this description of the character by Vaclav Nijinsky, who danced the title role: “One who beats his head against the wall but always is cheated and despised and left outside alone.”

La semaine grasse (The Shrovetide Fair) reprises the carnival scene and utilizes most of the material from the ballet’s final moments, with one notable exception. The ballet ends with Petrushka’s murder, but Stravinsky, wanting a less troubling ending, cut that section out of Three Movements and ended instead with the boisterously joyful energy of the crowded fair.

—© Elizabeth Schwartz

R. SCHUMANN Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 47

ROBERT SCHUMANN Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 47

I. Sostenuto assai – Allegro ma non troppo
II. Scherzo: Molto vivace
III. Andante cantabile
IV. Finale: Vivace

When he wrote music, Robert Schumann tended to focus on one genre at a time; in the summer of 1842 he turned his attention to chamber works. By the end of 1842, Schumann had completed three string quartets, a piano quintet, a piano quartet, and his Op. 88 Phantasiestücke for piano, violin, and cello.

The Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 47 reflects Beethoven’s influence on Schumann in the four-note motif that dominates the opening movement. It opens the slow introduction, then announces itself more forcefully in the Allegro ma non troppo. From this concise fragment Schumann generates vigorous, propulsive phrases full of energy and excitement. The energy carries into the brief Scherzo, which features a furtive, whispery theme that contrasts with a lyrical countertheme. In the Andante cantabile, the cello presents one of Schumann’s most singable instrumental melodies, a warm graceful theme of love and longing. This theme becomes a duet and then repeats in between contrasting interludes in which the string quartet comes into its own, with the piano accompanying. The four-note theme of the first movement, now shortened to three notes, launches the Vivace. The viola presents a second theme, a fugue subject played by all the instruments. Schumann reveals his contrapuntal ingenuity in combining this fugue with the three-note opener and additional lyrical phrases that recall the Andante cantabile. The quartet ends with a joyous rush of energy.

When Op. 47 premiered in December 1844 at the Leipzig Gewandhaus, a critic for the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung described it as “... a piece full of spirit and vitality which, especially in the two inside movements, was most lovely and appealing, uniting a wealth of beautiful musical ideas with soaring flights of imagination. It will surely be received with great applause everywhere, as it was here.”

—© Elizabeth Schwartz

Artists

Keith Buncke Keith Buncke Bassoon

Keith Buncke began his tenure as Principal Bassoon of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in July 2015, appointed by Music Director Riccardo Muti. He previously served for one season as Principal Bassoon of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, a position he won while still attending the Curtis Institute of Music.

Keith grew up in Lake Oswego, Oregon. At the age of eleven, after a few years of studying the piano and cello, he heard Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 for the first time. With prominent parts for the winds, he was immediately struck by the sound of bassoon, inspiring him to start playing it. He went on to begin studies with Lyle Dockendorff and Mark Eubanks, the former Principal Bassoon of the Oregon Symphony. He continued his studies at the Interlochen Arts Academy and the Curtis Institute. He supplemented his education at the Pacific, Tanglewood, and Aspen music festivals, as well as Music Academy of the West.

Working with colleagues in the CSO and Chicago area, as well as artists like Mitsuko Uchida and Vadim Gluzman, Keith has extensively performed chamber music in Chicago and around the country at festivals like the Marlboro Music Festival and La Jolla Music Society. He has been a frequent guest artist and teacher at the Aspen Music Festival and Interlochen Academy and Camp, and has given masterclasses and recitals at universities across the country. He is an adjunct faculty at DePaul University. This is his first appearance at CMNW since a brief showing as a high schooler, playing alongside his former teacher.

When not on stage or at the reed desk/practice room, Keith enjoys walking and biking along Chicago’s lakefront, as well as going on trips for hiking and skiing.


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Gloria Chien Gloria Chien Piano & Artistic Director

Taiwanese-born pianist Gloria Chien has one of the most diverse musical lives as a noted performer, concert presenter, and educator. She made her orchestral debut at the age of sixteen with the Boston Symphony Orchestra with Thomas Dausgaard, and she performed again with the BSO with Keith Lockhart. She was subsequently selected by The Boston Globe as one of its Superior Pianists of the year, “who appears to excel in everything.” In recent seasons, she has performed as a recitalist and chamber musician at Alice Tully Hall, the Library of Congress, the Phillips Collection, the Dresden Chamber Music Festival, and the National Concert Hall in Taiwan. She performs frequently with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

In 2009, she launched String Theory, a chamber music series in Chattanooga, Tennessee that has become one of the region’s premier classical music presenters.  The following year she was appointed Director of the Chamber Music Institute at Music@Menlo. In 2017, she joined her husband, violinist Soovin Kim, as Artistic Director of the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival in Burlington, Vermont. The duo became Artistic Directors at Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon in 2020. Chien studied extensively at the New England Conservatory of Music with Wha Kyung Byun and Russell Sherman. She, with Kim, were awarded Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s 2021 CMS Award for Extraordinary Service to Chamber Music.

Chien is Artist-in-Residence at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee, and she is a Steinway Artist. Chien received her B.M., M.M., and D.M.A. degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music as a student of Russell Sherman and Wha-Kyung Byun.

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Stewart Goodyear Stewart Goodyear Composer & Piano

Proclaimed “a phenomenon” by the Los Angeles Times and “one of the best pianists of his generation” by the Philadelphia Inquirer, Stewart Goodyear is an accomplished concert pianist, improviser, and composer. Mr. Goodyear has performed with, and has been commissioned by, many of the major orchestras and chamber music organizations around the world.

Last year, Orchid Classics released Mr. Goodyear’s recording of his suite for piano and orchestra, Callaloo, and his piano sonata. His recent commissions include works for violinist Miranda Cuckson, cellist Inbal Segev, the Penderecki String Quartet, the Horszowski Trio, the Honens Piano Competition, and the Chineke! Foundation.

Mr. Goodyear’s discography includes the complete sonatas and piano concertos of Beethoven, as well as concertos by Tchaikovsky, Grieg, and Rachmaninov, an album of Ravel piano works, and an album entitled For Glenn Gould, which combines repertoire from Mr. Gould’s U.S. and Montreal debuts. His recordings have been released on the Marquis Classics, Orchid Classics, Bright Shiny Things, and Steinway and Sons labels. His newest recording, Adolphus Hailstork’s Piano Concerto with the Buffalo Philharmonic under JoAnn Falletta, was released in March 2023 on the Naxos label.

Highlights for the 2024-25 season are his performances at the BBC Proms with the Chineke! Orchestra, performances at the Rheingau Musik Festival, and performances with the Vancouver and Toronto Symphonies, the Indianapolis Symphony, the Rochester Philharmonic, Frankfurt Museumgesellschaft, and A Far Cry in Boston.

 

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Paul Lueders Paul Lueders Oboe

Paul Lueders is acting Principal Oboist of the Chicago Lyric Opera. He served as Principal Oboe in the San Antonio Symphony for eight years and is also a core member of San Antonio’s Olmos Ensemble, a chamber ensemble consisting of San Antonio’s Principal Winds and Concertmaster. Beyond Texas, he has also performed as Principal in the orchestras of Philadelphia, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Minnesota, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and Detroit. He spends his summer playing in the Berkshire Opera Company based in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

Paul grew up in the suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts where he began studying piano and oboe at an early age. He graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music with a B.M. and M.M. in music performance. He studied with John Ferrillo, Principal Oboe of the Boston Symphony, and Anne-Marie Gabriele, Second Oboist in the Los Angeles Philharmonic. As a student, he also spent summer at the Aspen Music Festival and School, Tanglewood Music Center, and Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California.


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Chloe Mun Chloe Mun Piano, Protégé

At the age of 18, pianist Chloe Jiyeong Mun was brought to the world’s attention in 2014 when she won first prize at the Geneva International Competition in Switzerland. In 2015, she also won the Busoni International Competition in Italy. Since then, she has gained a reputation as one of the most sought-after musicians of her generation.

She has collaborated with the world’s leading conductors, including Myung-whun Chung, Alexander Shelley, Yuri Bashmet, James Judd, Roberto Beltran Zavala, Victor Pablo Perez, Mario Venzago, and Eiji Oue, with renowned orchestras such as Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Moscow Soloists, Asia Philharmonic Orchestra, Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, Trieste Verdi Orchestra, Nuova Orchestra Ferruccio Busoni, St.Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, Palermo Festival Orchestra, MAV Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta y Coro de la Comunidad de Madrid (ORCAM), Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, KBS Symphony Orchestra, and Korean National Symphony Orchestra.

For recitals, she has appeared at the Gewandhaus, Wigmore Hall, Warsaw Philharmonic, Salle Cortot, Philharmonie Arthur Rubinstein in Bydgoszcz, and Seoul Arts Center, as well as performing at the prestigious festivals including Chopin and His Europe, Duszniki Chopin Festival, Arthur Rubinstein Piano Festival, Festival Omaggio di Michelangeli, and Pharos Music Festival. Chloe released her first album, Schumann Piano Sonata No.1 & Fantasie, with Deutsche Grammophon.

Also as a committed chamber musician, she is annually invited to perform at Seoul Spring Festival of Chamber music and Seoul International Music Festival. In 2021, she gave the world premiere of Jeajoon Ryu’s Sonata for Viola and Piano at the Seoul Arts Center with violist Sangjin Kim.

Born in Yeosu, South Korea in 1995, Chloe began studying piano at the age of five. She studied with Professor Daejin Kim at the Korea National University of Arts from 2010 to 2020, then with Sir András Schiff as an Artist Diploma student at the Barenboim Said Academy.


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Clancy Newman Clancy Newman Composer & Cello

Cellist Clancy Newman has enjoyed an extraordinarily wide-ranging career, not only as a cellist, but also as a composer, producer, writer, and guest lecturer. He received his first significant public recognition at the age of twelve, when he won a Gold Medal at the Dandenong Youth Festival in Australia, competing against contestants twice his age. He went on to win first prize at the Naumburg International Competition, and he has performed as soloist throughout the United States, as well as in Europe, Asia, Canada, and Australia. A recipient of an Avery Fisher career grant, he can often be heard on APM’s Performance Today and has been featured on A&E and PBS. As a composer, he has expanded cello technique in ways heretofore thought unimaginable, particularly in his “Pop-Unpopped” project, and he has been featured on series by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Chicago Chamber Musicians. In March 2019 his piano quintet was premiered at the opening ceremony of the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington DC, and in 2021 he was commissioned by the Kingston Chamber Music Festival to produce four educational videos to assist school teachers as they navigate the COVID-19 pandemic. Mr. Newman is a graduate of the five-year exchange program between Juilliard and Columbia University, receiving a M.M. from Juilliard and a B.A. in English from Columbia.

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Burchard Tang Burchard Tang Viola

Burchard Tang joined The Philadelphia Orchestra viola section in September 1999. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in May 1999 from the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Joseph dePasquale, retired Philadelphia Orchestra Principal Viola, and Choong-Jin Chang, the Orchestra’s current Principal Viola. Mr. Tang has served as Principal Viola with the Curtis Symphony and the New York String Seminar, and has performed with the Brandenburg Ensemble.

A 1993 winner of the Philadelphia Orchestra Albert M. Greenfield Student Competition, Mr. Tang performed with the orchestra as a soloist. As a chamber musician, he has performed at festivals across the country including Marlboro, Seattle, Lake Champlain, Angel Fire, Caramoor, Kingston, and Ravinia.

Mr. Tang plays on a viola made for him in 2022 by Samuel Zygmuntovicz.


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Radovan Vlatković Radovan Vlatković Horn

Born in Zagreb in 1962, Radovan Vlatković completed his studies with Professor Prerad Detiček at the Zagreb Academy of Music and Professor Michael Höltzel at the Music Academy in Detmold, Germany. He is the recipient of many first prizes in national and international competitions, including the Premio Ancona in 1979 and the ARD Competition in Munich in 1983—the first to be awarded to a horn player in fourteen years. This led to numerous invitations to music festivals throughout Europe including Salzburg, Vienna, Edinburgh, and Dubrovnik to name but a few, the Americas, Australia, Israel, and Korea, as well as regular appearances in Japan.

In 1998, he became Horn Professor at the renowned Mozarteum in Salzburg. Since 2000, he holds the Horn Chair “Canon” at the “Queen Sofia” School in Madrid.

Radovan Vlatković has appeared as soloist with many distinguished symphony and chamber orchestras including the Bavarian Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart Radio Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie Orchester, Munich Chamber Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields, Mozarteum Orchestra, Camerata Academica Salzburg, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Santa Cecilia Orchestra Rome, Rotterdam Philharmonie, the orchestras of Berne, Basel, and Zürich, the Lyon and Strassbourg Orchestras, NHK Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan and Yomiuri Orchestras, and Adelaide and Melbourne Orchestras.

Very much in demand as a chamber musician, he has performed at Gidon Kremer’s Lockenhaus, Svyatoslav Richter’s December Evenings in Moscow, Oleg Kagan and Natalia Gutman’s Kreuth, Rudolf Serkin’s Marlboro, András Schiff’s Mondsee, Vicenza and Ittingen Festivals, as well as Kuhmo, Prussia Cove, and Casals Festival in Prades.

In 2014, Vlatković was awarded an Honorary Membership of the Royal Academy of Music (Hon RAM), an honor bestowed upon only 300 distinguished musicians worldwide.

Radovan Vlatković plays a full double horn Model 20 M by Paxman of London.

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Claire Wells Claire Wells Violin, Protégé

American violinist Claire Wells is acclaimed by audiences and press for her expressive musicality and rich, singing quality of sound. Solo concert engagements have brought her to halls like the Wigmore Hall, the Meyerson Symphony Center, Bass Performance Hall, Teatro Degollado, and Konzerthaus Berlin. Having won major prizes in international competitions, Claire Wells is the Mendelssohn-Prize 1st Prize winner and Commission Prize winner at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Competition 2021, 2nd Prize winner at the Michael Hill International Violin Competition 2023, and has taken major prizes at the Indianapolis International Competition, Mirecourt International Competition, and Lynn Harrell Competition, among others.

Claire Wells grew up in a musical family, playing both violin and piano from the age of three. Today, Wells has performed with major orchestras such as the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, the Jalisco Philharmonic, and the Shen Zhen Symphony Orchestra, among others.

Now studying at the Kronberg Academy with Mihaela Martin since 2022, Claire Wells studied privately with Brian Lewis, Sandy Yamamoto, and Emanuel Borok, and in 2017 attended the Yehudi Menuhin School with Lutsia Ibragimova.

A passionate chamber musician, Claire Wells has worked alongside artists such as Enrico Pace, Nobuko Imai, Frans Helmerson, Christian Tetzlaff, and Steven Isserlis. Wells has also taken coachings from the likes of Ana Chumachenco, Boris Kuschnir, Andras Schiff, and Robert Levin. Claire Wells has performed at festivals such as the International Holland Music Sessions, Music@Menlo chamber music festival, Chamber Music Connects the World, Gstaad Festival, the Verbier Festival, and others. Wells plays on a Nicola Amati, on loan from a generous donor.


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Afendi Yusuf Afendi Yusuf Clarinet

Born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Afendi Yusuf was recently appointed Principal Clarinet of The Cleveland Orchestra. He has appeared as guest principal with several North American orchestras, including the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Canadian Opera Company, and the Toronto and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestras. As a guest musician, he has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, under the batons of Gustavo Dudamel, Gianandrea Noseda, Edo de Waart, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Robert Spano, and Leon Fleisher.

A winner of numerous competitions, Mr. Yusuf has made solo appearances with the Colburn Orchestra, the Royal Conservatory Orchestra, and the Guelph Symphony Orchestra, among others. He has collaborated with the likes of Charles Neidich, Ronald Leonard, Martin Beaver, and with renowned composers George Friedrich Haas, John Adams, and Anders Hillborg. Mr. Yusuf is a grant recipient from the Canada Council for the Arts and received the Vincent Wilkinson Foundation Fellowship from the Aspen Music Festival and School. He is an alumnus of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, Brott Music Festival, the National Arts Centre’s Young Artists Program, and is a recent participant of the Marlboro Music Festival.

Mr. Yusuf holds a Bachelor of Arts from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, as a student of Ross Edwards, and an Artist Diploma from The Glenn Gould School in Toronto, Ontario, as a full-scholarship student of Joaquin Valdepeñas. He also holds a Master of Music degree and Professional Studies Certificate from the Colburn School’s Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles, California, where he was a student of Yehuda Gilad.


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