The Library of Congress has been on the air, amazingly, since 1925, long before the founding of network giants like NBC. The opening concert here—for a series that is about to mark its 85th anniversary—was heard in Washington and New York, plus a few other places on the Eastern Seaboard, thanks to a fledgling network anchored by the Naval Broadcasting Station in Arlington, Virginia. Bill McGlaughlin and guest host Rich Kleinfeldt, a good friend of the Library and former host, talk about LC radio history and about the influence and reach of the longest-running chamber music series on the nation’s airwaves. Performances of Beethoven’s “Ghost” Trio and two sets of variations on themes from Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute sandwich an expressive work for clarinet and strings, K’vakarat, by Osvaldo Golijov.
Download the Podcast for Program 10 (82 MB)
Performer Bios
Lynn Harrell: Soloist, chamber musician, recitalist, conductor, and teacher, Lynn Harrell is a frequent guest of many leading orchestras of Boston, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Ottawa, Pittsburgh, and the National Symphony; and in Europe, those of London, Munich, Berlin, Halle, and Israel.
Victor Santiago-Asuncion: Pianist Victor Santiago-Asuncion has performed in solo recital and chamber music in the U.S., Canada, Japan, and the Philippines, where he was born. Artist in residence at the Garth Newel Music Center in Virginia, he is professor piano at the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music, University of Memphis.
Orion String Quartet: Daniel Phillips, violin; Todd Phillips, violin; Steven Tenebom, viola; Timothy Eddy, cello. Celebrating its twenty-first season, the Orion String Quartet has consistently offered diverse programs that juxtapose the standard quartet literature with works by living composers, a number of who it has commissioned—Chick Corea, Alexander Goehr, and others.
David Krakauer: Clarinetist David Krakauer is known for his mastery of diverse musical styles including classical, klezmer, and avant-garde improvisation. With his band Klezmer Madness!, Krakauer has forged alliances between klezmer and jazz, rock, funk, and most recently hip-hop. Krakauer has collaborated with the Kronos Quartet, Uri Caine, Dawn Upshaw, Eiko and Koma, and the Tokyo, Merson and Lark string quartets.
Florestan Trio: Anthony Marwood, violin; Richard Lester, cello; Susan Tomes, piano. Winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society Award 2000, the Florestan Trio, formed in 1995, celebrated its tenth anniversary season with the completion of a Beethoven recording cycle and with three sold-out performances of the Beethoven Trios in London’s Wigmore Hall.
Anthony Marwood: In May 2006 Anthony Marwood was named Instrumentalist of the Year at the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards, the first string player to receive this honor in more than a decade. Since his concerto debut at the BBC Proms in 1993, he has performed with major British orchestras. Works written for him include Sally Beamish’s 1995 concerto and Thomas Adè’s 2005 concerto “Concentric Paths.”
Richard Lester: Equally at home in period and modern instrument performance, Richard Lester is the principal cello with both the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. He has appeared as soloist with conductors such as Abbado, Harnoncourt, Norrington, Berglund, and others; and with several orchestras in the UK.
Susan Tomes: The first woman to receive a music degree from King’s College, Cambridge, Susan Tomes was a founding member of Domus, which toured worldwide with its own portable concert hall, a geodesic dome. After Domus disbanded in 1995, she joined Anthony Marwood and Richard Lester to form the Florestan Trio. Committed to the task of opening up classical music for listeners, she has written three books and reviews books for the Guardian and the Independent.
Playlist/Repertoire
Ludwig Van Beethoven: Variations on “Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen” from Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, WoO 46
Lynn Harrell, violin; Victor Santiago-Asuncion, piano
View the score
Osvaldo Golijov: K'vakarat for clarinet and strings (1994)
Orion String Quartet; David Krakauer, clarinet
Ludwig Van Beethoven: Piano Trio in D Major, op. 70, no. 1 (“Ghost”)
Florestan Trio
Program Notes
Ludwig Van Beethoven: Variations on “Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen” from Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, WoO 46
Beethoven’s works for the cello raised the status of the instrument from its accompanying role to that of a legitimate solo instrument. During his early years in Vienna, he wrote his first cello sonatas, op. 5, and three sets of variations for cello and piano, based on materials originally written for the voice. These materials were by composers other than himself; two arias from Mozart’s singspiel, Die Zauberflöte-“Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen” and “Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen”; and an aria from Handel’s oratorio, Judas Maccabeus-“See, the conqu’ring hero comes.” Unlike the op. 5 cello sonatas which, having no precedents, represented a new form, these variations follow the traditional structure of late-eighteenth-century works in the genre.
Osvaldo Golijov: K'vakarat for clarinet and strings (1994)
K’vakarat is the last paragraph of the prayer known as Un’tahne Tokef Kedushat hayom (We will observe the mighty holiness of this day) that epitomizes the central theme of the High Holidays. Tradition ascribes this prayer to the fifteenth-century Rabbi, Amnon of Mayence, who uttered it in his last moments has he lay dying in martyrdom. The English translation of the Hebrew text is as follows: “As a shepherd musters his sheep and causes them to pass beneath his staff, so dost Thou pass and record, count and visit, every living soul, appointing the measure of every creature’s life and decreeing its destiny.”
Based on the traditional Ashkenazic melody and written “In memory of Rabbi Marshall Meyer,” the work has two versions: Version I for Cantor and String Quartet and Version II for Clarinet and String Quartet. It was commissioned by the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio, where the premiere took place on January 27, 1994, with the Kronos Quartet and Cantor Mikhail Alexandrovich.
Argentinean composer Osvaldo Golijov first gained international recognition in 2000 with the premiere of St. Mark Passion, commissioned by Helmuth Rilling for the European Music Festival, to commemorate the 250th death anniversary of J.S. Bach. In January-February 2006 Lincoln Center presented a sold-out Festival, “The Passion of Osvaldo Golijov,” featuring multiple performances of his major works, his chamber music, and late nights of tango and klezmer.
Recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and several other awards, Golijov has been composer-in-residence at the Spoleto USA Festival, LA Philharmonic’s Music Alive series, Marlboro Music, Ravinia, Ojai, and several other festivals. He has recently been named composer-in-residence for the 2007 Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center. Recently completed projects include Azul, a cello concerto for Yo-Yo Ma and the Boston Symphony, and the soundtrack for Francis Ford Coppola’s Youth Without Youth.
Currently he is at work on Rose of the Winds, commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, where he is co-composer-in-residence with Marc-Anthony Turnage. Future works include a commission from the Metropolitan Opera. Golijov is Loyola Professor of Music at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA, where he has taught since 1991. He is also on the faculty of the Boston Conservatory.
Ludwig Van Beethoven: Piano Trio in D Major, op. 70, no. 1 (“Ghost”)
The composition of Beethoven's two Piano Trios, op. 70, occurred in 1808, one of his most productive years. Both dedicated to the Countess Marie von Erdödy, the trios were probably motivated by his friendship with the Countess, a gifted pianist, although partially paralyzed, in whose home he resided at the time. In his memoirs, the composer Louis Spohr describes Beethoven’s playing at a rehearsal of the "Ghost" Trio in D Major, op. 70, no.1, in the composer’s home:
“It was no pleasure, firstly, because the piano was out of tune, which bothered Beethoven not at all, since he could not hear it, and secondly because little was left of his once famous virtuosity. In forte passages he hit the keys so hard that the strings rattled and in piano so softly that whole groups of notes never sounded at all…I was deeply moved by so tragic a fate.”
The opening bars of the D-Major Trio show how Beethoven took advantage of new developments in piano construction, especially the wider range. The pianist’s hands are three octaves apart, while the strings occupy the middle range. He also capitalized on the increased dynamic range of the piano, using both softer and louder shades for greater emotional effect. The first movement is full of drama and contrasts, opening rhythmically in a rush with all three instruments presenting the explosive theme. This gives way immediately to a cantabile melody and then returns to the opening phrase. The alternating moods recur repeatedly throughout the movement.
The eerie nature of the slow movement is the source of the nickname Geistertrio (Ghost Trio). The origin of the theme is apparently part of Beethoven’s attempt at an opera, based on a libretto of Heinrich Collin on Shakespeare’s Macbeth. But Collin gave up after the first act after deciding it was too gloomy. Beethoven, not one to waste good material, used one of two sketches he had already done for the Trio’s slow movement. The sunny finale is a welcome contrast to the first two movements. There are no sharp contrasts and no soul wrenching, just a seamless flow, calm and serene.
—Notes provided by Arts Management Group
Last Updated: 04/05/2010
