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Universal Harmony: Schumann Piano Quintet

Universal Harmony: Schumann Piano Quintet

Our summer celebration of the many ways music brings together our shared voices—a confluence of history, culture, past, present, and future—concludes with three exultant jewels of the chamber music repertoire!

We begin with Beethoven’s buoyantly energetic Clarinet Trio, with joy present from its opening notes and his work culminating in variations on a tune that’s become cherished in the opera world, Pria ch’io l’impegno (Before beginning this awesome task, I need a snack).

Il Convegno (The Convergence) is Ponchielli’s equally exuberant union of two clarinet voices—like the confluence of our Willamette and Columbia Rivers—performed by two of the greatest clarinetists alive today: our Artistic Director Emeritus David Shifrin and the New York Philharmonic’s Anthony McGill.

Our festival grand finale is Schubert’s soaring Piano Quintet—one of the most unifying and thrilling chamber masterpieces ever written. Don’t miss this jubilant culmination of our 56th Summer Festival!

Reed College, Kaul Auditorium
Sunday, 7/19 • 4:00 pm

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Program

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

BEETHOVEN Trio for Clarinet, Cello & Piano in B-flat Major, Op. 11

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
Trio for Clarinet, Cello & Piano in B-flat Major, Op. 11 (23’)

I. Allegro con brio
II. Adagio
III. Tema: Pria ch’io l’impegno: Allegretto - Var. 1-9

AMILCARE PONCHIELLI “Il Convegno,” Op. 76

AMILCARE PONCHIELLI (1834–1886) Il Convegno, Op. 76 (10’)

R. SCHUMANN Piano Quintet in E-flat Major, Op. 44

ROBERT SCHUMANN (1810-1856)
Piano Quintet in E-flat Major, Op. 44 (33’)

I.  Allegro brillante
II.  In modo d’una marcia. Un poco largamente
III. Scherzo: Molto vivace
IV.  Allegro ma non troppo

In its time, Robert Schumann proposed an idea that seems obvious – combining the piano and the string quartet – but had never been tried. In the space of only a few weeks, Schumann wrote a legendary and unprecedented piece of music that influenced countless followers, including Brahms and Dvořák.

Schumann dedicated the quintet to its intended pianist, his wife Clara, and the piano is central to this work. Clara did not play in the first performance, however, as she fell ill and their friend Felix Mendelssohn stepped in at the last minute.

The Allegro brillante begins dramatically, with a chordal theme sounding like Mozart. The development is very dark, foreshadowing the second movement’s funeral march and eventually arriving at a minor-mode version of the first theme.

The second movement begins as a halting funeral march, departing from choppy phrases only briefly for legato piano lines. A carefully restrained cello and violin duet follows, over a blurry, arpeggiated accompaniment. After a return to the march, an agitated section pits staccato arpeggios in the piano against sharp chords in the strings. A violin tremolo adds to the agitation, before the violin and cello duet returns and the movement closes with a final funeral march.

The third movement Scherzo uses incessant scales to maintain its constant energy, transitioning into a trio that uses several arpeggios (and a canon between violin and viola) to subtly move between key areas. After a return to the Scherzo, the furious second trio repeats a short motive in different ranges, instruments, and pitches, before closing with the Scherzo once more.

The fourth movement Allegro ma non troppo begins with an accented theme in the piano. Typically for Schumann, he moves suddenly between different sections, allowing for striking juxtapositions. He closes the Quintet by bringing back the first movement’s main theme (described as Mozartean above) in a double fugue with the main theme of the last movement. Schumann connects the themes skillfully, bringing the tone of the two movements together and meeting somewhere in the middle.

Ethan Allred, 2015

Artists

Efe Baltacigil Efe Baltacigil Cello

Turkish cellist Efe Baltacigil finished his undergraduate studies in Istanbul, Turkey, before attending the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. During his last year of study, at the age of 23, he won the Associate Principal Cello position at the famous Philadelphia Orchestra.

Since 2011, he has held the position of Principal Cellist at the Seattle Symphony and has appeared as a soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Seattle Symphony. Efe has had recital and concerto debuts in Carnegie Hall and has been a senior member of the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont since 2017.

Efe performed as a soloist for Seattle Symphony’s 2022 Opening Night Gala and played Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto with them in October 2023.

Besides music and his family, Efe enjoys windsurfing, sailing, drawing, and volleypong.


Upcoming Concerts & Events

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 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, a position she held for the next decade.

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. They were named recipients of Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Award for Extraordinary Service in 2021 for their efforts during the pandemic.

Most recently, Gloria was named Advisor of the newly launched Institute for Concert Artists at the New England Conservatory of Music. Gloria released two albums—her Gloria Chien LIVE from the Music@Menlo LIVE label and Here With You with acclaimed clarinetist Anthony McGill on Cedille Records.

Gloria received her bachelor, master’s, and doctoral degrees at the New England Conservatory of Music with Wha Kyung Byun and Russell Sherman. She is Artist-in-Residence at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee, and she is a Steinway Artist.

Artist's Website


Upcoming Concerts & Events

Soovin Kim Soovin Kim 2025 YAI Faculty, Violin & Artistic Director

Soovin Kim enjoys a broad musical career regularly performing Bach sonatas and Paganini caprices for solo violin, sonatas for violin and piano ranging from Beethoven to Ives, Mozart, and Haydn concertos and symphonies as a conductor, and new world-premiere works almost every season. When he was 20 years old, Kim received first prize at the Paganini International Violin Competition. He immersed himself in the string quartet literature for 20 years as the 1st violinist of the Johannes Quartet. Among his many commercial recordings are his “thrillingly triumphant” (Classic FM Magazine) disc of Paganini’s demanding 24 Caprices and a two-disc set of Bach’s complete solo violin works that were released in 2022.

Kim is the founder and artistic director of the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival (LCCMF) in Burlington, Vermont. In addition to its explorative programming and extensive work with living composers, LCCMF created the ONE Strings program through which all 3rd through 5th grade students of the Integrated Arts Academy in Burlington study violin. The University of Vermont recognized Soovin Kim’s work by bestowing an Honorary Doctorate upon him in 2015. In 2020, he and his wife, pianist Gloria Chien, became artistic directors of Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon. He, with Chien, were awarded Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s 2021 CMS Award for Extraordinary Service to Chamber Music. Kim devotes much of his time to his passion for teaching at the New England Conservatory in Boston and the Yale School of Music in New Haven.


Upcoming Concerts & Events

Anthony McGill Anthony McGill Clarinet

Clarinetist Anthony McGill, Principal Clarinet of the New York Philharmonic, is one of classical music’s most celebrated performers and advocates. Hailed by The New York Times for his “brilliance, penetrating sound and rich character,” McGill was named Musical America’s 2024 Instrumentalist of the Year and received the 2020 Avery Fisher Prize.

He appears regularly as a soloist with leading orchestras including the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics and the Chicago and Detroit Symphonies. He is a sought-after chamber musician and recording artist, collaborating with the Pacifica Quartet and pianist Gloria Chien on acclaimed albums like American Stories and Here With You.

An advocate for equity in classical music, McGill founded the #TakeTwoKnees movement and collaborates with the Equal Justice Initiative. He directs Juilliard’s Music Advancement Program and teaches at Curtis. A Curtis graduate himself, McGill serves on several arts organization boards and is a Backun Artist.

Artist's Website


Upcoming Concerts & Events

  • Universal Harmony: Schumann Piano Quintet   (currently selected)
Samuel Rosenthal Samuel Rosenthal Viola, Protégé

Internationally acclaimed for his generous musical spirit, violist Samuel Rosenthal delights in sharing music with audiences of all ages and collaborating with some of today’s preeminent artists. His performances are recognized for their “intimate, personal approach” (Journal of the American Viola Society) and communicative style “clearly conveying the range of human emotions” (Cleveland Classical).

First Prize winner at the 2025 Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition, Sam was also recipient of the silver medal at the 2021 Primrose International Viola Competition. Other awards and recognitions include major prizes at the Johansen International Competition and, as a member of the Razumovsky String Quartet, at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition.

Sam began his musical studies in Cleveland and continued his viola studies with Jeffrey Irvine as a member of the Young Artist Program at the Cleveland Institute of Music. His passion for chamber music was ignited by formative work with the Cavani String Quartet and Cleveland Quartet violinist Peter Salaff. Since 2016, he has been a member of the Perlman Music Program community as a student at both the Summer Music School and the Chamber Music Workshop.

Chamber music plays a central part in Sam’s musical life. Since 2023, he has attended the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont, where he had the opportunity to perform and collaborate with its legendary roster of extraordinary artists. Sam has been invited to perform at a variety of celebrated chamber music festivals across the United States and abroad including Chamberfest Cleveland, Musique de Chambre en Normandie, Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, Music from Angel Fire, and Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute.

Sam is a graduate of the Juilliard School where he had the honor of studying with Heidi Castleman, Misha Amory, and Hsin-Yun Huang, and was a proud recipient of a Kovner Fellowship. He is currently studying at the Kronberg Academy under the tutelage of Nobuko Imai and Antoine Tamestit. These studies are funded by the Annika and Wolfgang Fink Patronage.

Artist's Website


Upcoming Concerts & Events

David Shifrin David Shifrin Clarinet & Artistic Director Emeritus 1981–2020

David Shifrin began performing with Chamber Music Northwest in 1978 and served as its Artistic Director from 1981 to 2020. He has performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since 1982 and served as its Artistic Director from 1992 to 2004.

Shifrin received Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Avery Fisher Prize, as well as numerous awards and prizes competitions and organizations worldwide.

David Shifrin is the Samuel S. Sanford Professor in the Practice of Clarinet at the Yale School of Music where he teaches a studio of graduate-level clarinetists and coaches chamber music ensembles. He is also the Artistic Director of Yale’s Oneppo Chamber Music Society and the Yale in New York concert series. Previously, Shifrin served on the faculties of the Juilliard School, the University of Southern California, the University of Michigan, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and the University of Hawaii. He has appeared with many of the major orchestras in the United States and abroad and has served as principal clarinetist with the Cleveland Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and the Symphony Orchestras of New Haven, Honolulu, and Dallas. Shifrin also continues to broaden the clarinet repertoire by commissioning and championing more than 100 works of 20th and 21st-century American composers. Shifrin’s recordings have consistently garnered praise and awards including three Grammy nominations and “Record of the Year” from Stereo Review.

Shifrin is represented by CM Artists in New York and performs on Backun clarinets and Légère reeds.

Artist's Website


Upcoming Concerts & Events

Claire Wells Claire Wells Violin

American violinist Claire Wells is acclaimed by audiences and press for her expressive musicality and rich, singing quality of sound. Claire has won numerous major prizes in renowned international competitions such as the Sibelius, Michael Hill, and Indianapolis competitions, and has collaborated with orchestras such as the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and others. Solo concert engagements have brought her to halls like the Wigmore Hall, Konzerthaus Berlin, the Meyerson Symphony Center, Bass Performance Hall, and Teatro Degollado.

Having always held a special place in her heart for chamber music, Claire has been invited to perform at several international festivals such as Chamber Music Northwest, Chamber Music Connects the World, the Gstaad Festival, Krzyzowa Festival, and the Verbier Festival. Claire has the pleasure of frequently collaborating with some of the world’s top young musicians, as well as sharing the stage with world-renowned musicians such as Noah Bendix-Balgley, Christian Tetzlaff, Lars Anders Tomter, and Enrico Pace, amongst others.

Since 2022, Claire Wells has studied with Mihaela Martin at the Kronberg Academy, made possible by the Opel/Dr. Schaefer patronage. Claire plays on a Nicolo Amati and a Grand Adam bow, on loan from a generous donor.


Upcoming Concerts & Events



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