Chamber Music by Candlelight
Sunday, April 3rd, 2022 at 7:30pm
Concert presented in-person and livestreamed on YouTube.
PROGRAM
FANTASIA FOR VIOLIN AND HARP, OP. 124
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)
Ivan Stefanovic, violin; Sarah Fuller, harp
PIANO TRIO NO. 2 IN C MINOR, OP. 66
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
1. Allegro energico e con fuoco
2. Andante espressivo
3. Scherzo: Molto allegro quasi presto
4. Finale: Allegro appasionato
Lura Johnson, piano; Kevin Smith, violin; Dariusz Skoraczewski, cello
STRING QUARTET NO. 2 IN A MINOR
Florence Price (1887-1953)
Moderato
Andante cantabile
Juba: Allegro
Finale. Allegro
Clipper Mill String Quartet: Ivan Stefanovic and Kevin Smith, violins
Karin Brown, viola; Daniel Levitov, cello
PROGRAM
FANTASIA FOR VIOLIN AND HARP, OP. 124
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)
Ivan Stefanovic, violin; Sarah Fuller, harp
PIANO TRIO NO. 2 IN C MINOR, OP. 66
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
1. Allegro energico e con fuoco
2. Andante espressivo
3. Scherzo: Molto allegro quasi presto
4. Finale: Allegro appasionato
Lura Johnson, piano; Kevin Smith, violin; Dariusz Skoraczewski, cello
STRING QUARTET NO. 2 IN A MINOR
Florence Price (1887-1953)
Moderato
Andante cantabile
Juba: Allegro
Finale. Allegro
Clipper Mill String Quartet: Ivan Stefanovic and Kevin Smith, violins
Karin Brown, viola; Daniel Levitov, cello
PROGRAM NOTES
FANTASIA FOR VIOLIN AND HARP, OP. 124 (Saint-Saëns)
At the age of 72, Saint-Saëns composed the Fantaisie for harp and violin in 1907 while enjoying some leisure time in the city of Bridger, on the Italian Riviera. He dedicated the duo to a pair of sisters, harpist Clara Eissler and violinist Marianne Eissler. It would become the second of three major pieces Saint-Saëns composed for harp including a previous Fantaisie, for solo harp (1893), and, eventually, the Morceau de Concert for harp and orchestra (1918). The Fantaisie, Op. 124 for harp and violin is a virtuoso piece for both players and the use of harp rather than the more typical piano lends a special, delicate sonority to this duo for two string players. As the title suggests, the work is a single movement of relaxed and spontaneous form comprising a number of distinct sections. The music is characteristic of Saint-Saëns as the traditional French composer: well-crafted, clear, balanced and charming. The opening material recurs towards the end for a light touch of symmetry. Perhaps inspired by the ambiance of the Italian Mediterranean, a particular section of the Fantaisie switches to the minor mode featuring a basso ostinato pattern in the harp with variations from the violin in the manner of an old Italian Baroque dance form. —Kai Christiansen
PIANO TRIO NO. 2 IN C MINOR, OP. 66 (Felix Mendelssohn)
Schumann described Mendelssohn as "the Mozart of the nineteenth century", an apt label considering the classical qualities of Mendelssohn's music within a period dominated by Romanticism. An ample portion of his mature chamber music is continuously celebrated in the standard repertory with his two piano trios high on the list. Perhaps less popular than his first, his second Piano Trio in C minor, Op. 66 embodies all the finest qualities of Mendelssohn's immaculate art. It was composed in 1845, two years before his untimely death at the age of 38, and was the last chamber work Mendelssohn saw published. "Energetic and fiery," the opening allegro is one of Mendelssohn's finest sonata movements. The second movement is a tender balm for the blistering urgency of the first, a graceful song without words. The Scherzo is a tightly wound tour-de-force, with intricate counterpoint and constant trading of lines among members of the ensemble. The final movement, indicated as Allegro appassionato, is a rollicking fast movement laced with a great deal of lyrical beauty.
STRING QUARTET NO. 2 IN A MINOR (Florence Price)
The A-minor string quartet is Florence Price's second contribution to the genre. It was preceded by her G-major quartet (1929) and followed by her Five Folksongs in Counterpoint for string quartet (1951). The first movement begins with a quiet, brooding ostinato. This movement seems to be driven by the tension between the narrow constraints of its opening ostinato and the melodic breadth of its main subject. The second movement is likewise infused with melodic and harmonic turns that bring the melancholy beauty of Black musical idioms into the tradition-bound stylistic vocabulary of the mid twentieth-century string quartet. The second movement employs extensive dissonances that are more a part of the modernist idioms of the early twentieth century than they are of traditional African American culture. The main theme of the third movement is in the style of a Juba dance or hambone, a lively African dance that involved body-slapping, foot-stomping, and hand-clapping. The last movement puts Price's advanced harmonic technique on display in a rondo form of remarkable emotional breadth.
— John Michael Cooper
FANTASIA FOR VIOLIN AND HARP, OP. 124 (Saint-Saëns)
At the age of 72, Saint-Saëns composed the Fantaisie for harp and violin in 1907 while enjoying some leisure time in the city of Bridger, on the Italian Riviera. He dedicated the duo to a pair of sisters, harpist Clara Eissler and violinist Marianne Eissler. It would become the second of three major pieces Saint-Saëns composed for harp including a previous Fantaisie, for solo harp (1893), and, eventually, the Morceau de Concert for harp and orchestra (1918). The Fantaisie, Op. 124 for harp and violin is a virtuoso piece for both players and the use of harp rather than the more typical piano lends a special, delicate sonority to this duo for two string players. As the title suggests, the work is a single movement of relaxed and spontaneous form comprising a number of distinct sections. The music is characteristic of Saint-Saëns as the traditional French composer: well-crafted, clear, balanced and charming. The opening material recurs towards the end for a light touch of symmetry. Perhaps inspired by the ambiance of the Italian Mediterranean, a particular section of the Fantaisie switches to the minor mode featuring a basso ostinato pattern in the harp with variations from the violin in the manner of an old Italian Baroque dance form. —Kai Christiansen
PIANO TRIO NO. 2 IN C MINOR, OP. 66 (Felix Mendelssohn)
Schumann described Mendelssohn as "the Mozart of the nineteenth century", an apt label considering the classical qualities of Mendelssohn's music within a period dominated by Romanticism. An ample portion of his mature chamber music is continuously celebrated in the standard repertory with his two piano trios high on the list. Perhaps less popular than his first, his second Piano Trio in C minor, Op. 66 embodies all the finest qualities of Mendelssohn's immaculate art. It was composed in 1845, two years before his untimely death at the age of 38, and was the last chamber work Mendelssohn saw published. "Energetic and fiery," the opening allegro is one of Mendelssohn's finest sonata movements. The second movement is a tender balm for the blistering urgency of the first, a graceful song without words. The Scherzo is a tightly wound tour-de-force, with intricate counterpoint and constant trading of lines among members of the ensemble. The final movement, indicated as Allegro appassionato, is a rollicking fast movement laced with a great deal of lyrical beauty.
STRING QUARTET NO. 2 IN A MINOR (Florence Price)
The A-minor string quartet is Florence Price's second contribution to the genre. It was preceded by her G-major quartet (1929) and followed by her Five Folksongs in Counterpoint for string quartet (1951). The first movement begins with a quiet, brooding ostinato. This movement seems to be driven by the tension between the narrow constraints of its opening ostinato and the melodic breadth of its main subject. The second movement is likewise infused with melodic and harmonic turns that bring the melancholy beauty of Black musical idioms into the tradition-bound stylistic vocabulary of the mid twentieth-century string quartet. The second movement employs extensive dissonances that are more a part of the modernist idioms of the early twentieth century than they are of traditional African American culture. The main theme of the third movement is in the style of a Juba dance or hambone, a lively African dance that involved body-slapping, foot-stomping, and hand-clapping. The last movement puts Price's advanced harmonic technique on display in a rondo form of remarkable emotional breadth.
— John Michael Cooper
MUSICIAN BIOGRAPHIES
KARIN BROWN, VIOLA
Karin Brown received critical acclaim for her “strikingly rich and warm tone” (The Strad) after making her solo recital debut at Carnegie Weill Hall. Ms. Brown is Assistant Principal Violist of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and performs frequently as soloist and chamber musician in the Baltimore/Washington area. She made her Baltimore Symphony Orchestra concerto debut performing the Britten Double Concerto, of which The Baltimore Sun noted “Karin Brown sculpted her phrases in a rich, subtly shaded tone.” Her Chicago recital debut took place with live radio broadcast at the Dame Myra Hess series. Ms. Brown was hailed “a notable soloist” by the Washington Post after her performance of Bach’s Sixth Brandenburg Concerto with the Baltimore Symphony. Recent performances include collaborations with the contemporary music group Alarm Will Sound, members of eighth blackbird and the Borromeo Quartet, as well as performances of Britten’s Lachrymae with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Brown has served as juror, Laureate recitalist, and masterclass clinician at the William Primrose International Viola Competition, and returned as Laureate recitalist and masterclass clinician. She has been a guest artist at the Oberlin Conservatory for a teaching and performance residency and serves as faculty at the National Orchestral Institute (NOI). More recently, she has collaborated with her viola section colleagues at the Baltimore Symphony as part of an online performance series called “Lunch Bachs” during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ms. Brown has been a prizewinner in numerous competitions, including the William Primrose International Viola Competition and the National Federation of Music Clubs Competition. She has been featured in Caramoor’s “Rising Stars” series, and gives masterclasses and recitals across the country. An advocate for new music, she has performed several premieres, and strives to program music by women composers, lesser known masterworks, and American music. She has been a frequent performer and clinician at American Viola Society Festivals, most recently performing the world premiere of violist/composer Christian Colberg’s work The Rant. In addition, with violist Renate Falkner, she has performed and lectured on pedagogue Roland Vamos’s celebrated double stop exercises. While still a student at Juilliard, Ms. Brown was a frequent substitute with the New York Philharmonic and Metropolitan Opera, joining each for several international tours. She has performed on numerous major motion picture soundtracks.
She received her Bachelor’s degree from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and her Master’s degree from the Juilliard School, where she was a recipient of the Nathan Gordon Memorial Viola Award. Ms. Brown has studied with Cynthia Phelps, Roland and Almita Vamos, Lynne Ramsey, Samuel Rhodes, and Zoya Leybin. A committed teacher, she has been recognized as Outstanding Teacher of the Year by the American String Teachers Association, Maryland/DC chapter. She serves as faculty at the Baltimore School for the Arts, and previously at NOI/Pacific Music Institute in Honolulu, Catholic University, Apple Hill, Foulger International Music Festival and the Killington Music Festival. She maintains a private studio of violin and viola students, and her students have been accepted to the New World Symphony, the Juilliard School, Oberlin, Eastman, New England Conservatory, University of Michigan, Rice University, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and Peabody.
SARAH FULLER, HARP
Sarah Fuller is the principal harpist of the Delaware Symphony Orchestra and has been fulfilling the duties of principal harp with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra since 2007. In a Baltimore Sun review of the Baltimore Symphony, classical music critic Tim Smith claimed that "...the refined harp playing by [Ms.] Fuller stood out" and he hailed her performance as an "impressive flash" in the orchestral texture.
Ms. Fuller is an active chamber musician and frequently performs with her flute, viola and harp trio, Trio Cloisonnè, on series such as the Chamber Music by Candlelight in Baltimore and the Baltimore Symphony’s chamber music series in Frederick, MD. She is also a member of the notable Philadelphia contemporary ensemble, Network for New Music, and has recently been featured on a recording of the works of Bernard Rands with members of the group. In January, 2009, Ms. Fuller was the solo artist on an evening of harp music for the Delaware Symphony's Champagne Chamber Music Series, which was broadcast on Philadelphia's NPR station WHYY.
Ms. Fuller holds a master’s degree in music from Indiana University and studied at the New England Conservatory and the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Glenn Gould School for her bachelor’s degree. Her teachers have included Judy Loman of the Toronto Symphony, Anne Hobson Pilot of the Boston Symphony, Nancy Allen of the New York Philharmonic, Alice Chalifoux of the Cleveland Orchestra, and distinguished professor at Indiana University, Susann McDonald.
Ms. Fuller is a former faculty member of the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia was also the assistant director from 2006-2009 for the Saratoga Harp Colony, an advanced training ground for the world’s next generation of professional harpists that was founded by the Philadelphia Orchestra’s principal harpist, Elizabeth Hainen.
LURA JOHNSON, PIANO
Pianist Lura Johnson is a Steinway Artist and the Second Prizewinner, as a member of Duo Baltinati with cellist Ilya Finkelshteyn, of the 2015 International Johannes Brahms Competition Chamber Music Division. Hailed as “brilliant” by The Washington Post, she is celebrated for her passionate and insightful interpretations of the standard repertoire and esteemed by colleagues for her uncommon sensitivity and skill as a collaborative partner. Equally comfortable as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral musician, she is the principal pianist of the Delaware Symphony and has performed extensively as the pianist of choice for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, at the pleasure of Marin Alsop, since 2007. Trained by luminaries Robert McDonald and Leon Fleisher, Johnson’s extensive orchestral collaborators include Pinchas Zukerman, Yo Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Midori, Leila Josefowicz, Augustin Hadelich, Joshua Bell, and Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and the St. Lawrence String Quartet. Johnson has also performed as soloist with the Baltimore and Delaware Symphonies, performing Rachmaninoff’s First Piano Concerto, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, and the complete Bach Brandenburg Concerti multiple times.
Johnson’s discography includes a 2001 album, The Jennings-Johnson Duo, with flutist Christina Jennings, and 2010 Centaur Records release of Inner Voice, with BSO violist Peter Minkler, featuring sonatas by Rochberg and Shostakovich. This recording of Arvo Pärt’s spiegel im spiegel was featured in the official teaser trailer for the 2013 Warner Brothers film Gravity, directed by Alfonso Cuarón and starring George Clooney and Sandra Bullock. Johnson can also be heard on several recordings released by the BSO, including Naxos’ Grammy nominated release of the Bernstein Mass, on which she played principal keyboard. Johnson’s first solo CD, Turning, was released in summer of 2014. She has recorded for the Foxridge, Naxos, Innova, Centaur, Albany, and Azica labels.
Devoted to chamber music from an early age, her many recital partners include Baltimore Symphony concertmaster Jonathan Carney, with whom she has presented the complete Brahms violin sonata cycle, clarinetist Anthony McGill, cellists Ilya Finkelshteyn, Amit Peled, and Kenneth Slowik, and flutist Marina Piccinini. She is a founding member of three duos, the Jennings-Johnson Duo with flutist Christina Jennings, Times Two with violinist Netanel Draiblate, and Duo Lalu, a cabaret duo with soprano Lara Bruckmann. She performs with VERGE Ensemble, 21st Century Consort, PostClassical Ensemble, and the Towson New Music Ensemble.
Johnson has taught piano at the Peabody Conservatory since 2002 and from 2013 to 2015 was director of chamber music at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. She has taught on the faculty of the Sequoia Chamber Music Workshop and the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music.
Formerly the artistic director of Baltimore chamber music series Music in the Great Hall, Johnson has also worked as pianist and general manager with the PostClassical Ensemble in Washington, D.C., an innovative and wildly ambitious chamber orchestra that is reinventing and reinvigorating the presentation of classical music with programming that is thematic and cross-disciplinary.
When not onstage, Johnson can be found on the dance floor. She is an avid social and competitive dancer with roots in gymnastics, ballet, and ballroom, specializing now in West Coast Swing.
DANIEL LEVITOV, CELLO
Cellist Daniel Levitov maintains a vibrant career as a performer and educator. Levitov is coordinator of cello and chamber music at the Peabody Preparatory of the Johns Hopkins University and director of strings at the Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore. He is director of the Peabody Preparatory Young Artists Orchestra, an ensemble that he named and has developed since he joined the faculty of the Preparatory. He was formerly assistant professor of cello at the Sunderman Conservatory of Music at Gettysburg College. Levitov gives master classes and workshops across the country, including recent master classes for American String Teacher’s Association and the National Orchestra Festival. During the summer, he has served on the faculties of the Killington and Foulger Music Festivals. In summer 2020, Levitov will serve on the faculty of Credo Music Festival at the Oberlin Conservatory. Levitov’s students have won several competitions including ASTA and Washington Performing Arts Society. They have been accepted to major conservatories such as Juilliard, Oberlin, the Cleveland Institute, and the Manhattan School of Music and attended summer festivals such as Heifetz Institute, Meadowmount, National Orchestral Institute, and Kinhaven.
Levitov performs locally and nationally as a soloist, chamber, and orchestral musician. Recognized by The Baltimore Sun for his “warmth of tone and phrasing” and “expressive force,” he is a founding member of the Clipper Mill String Quartet. Levitov also serves as a substitute cellist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and appears frequently with members of the symphony on the Chamber Music by Candlelight series. Levitov has performed as a soloist in Carnegie Weill Hall, on Strathmore Hall’s Music in the Mansion series, and at the Peabody Institute. He has performed as a concerto soloist with the Pazardjik Symphony (Bulgaria), the Manhattan Virtuosi, the Mendocino Festival Orchestra, and the Peabody Camarata. Levitov performed as a member of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, under the direction of Marin Alsop. He recorded the jazz album Moment to Moment: Roy Hargrove with Strings, which was released on the Verve label, and was a member of the Monterey Jazz Festival Chamber Orchestra.
Levitov is active as a speaker and writer. He presents regularly at the ASTA National Conferences and has published in Strings magazine. Levitov is the contributing editor for Two Octave Scales and Bowings for Cello by Susan C. Brown, published by Tempo Press. He is a past president of the Maryland/DC ASTA chapter.
A native of Nebraska, Levitov holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the City University of New York. He did his undergraduate work at the Oberlin Conservatory and received his Master of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music, where he received the Janet Schenk award for distinguished service. Levitov has studied with cellists David Geber, Julia Lichten, Peter Rejto, Carol Work, and Tracy Sands.
DARIUSZ SKORACZEWSKI, CELLO
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s Principal cellist Dariusz Skoraczewski has delighted audiences of many concert halls in America and Europe with his great artistic and technical command of the instrument. As a soloist he performed with numerous orchestras in the US including the National Philharmonic, Alexandria Symphony, Arlington Philharmonic, Lancaster Symphony and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
In 2013 Dariusz was awarded the prestigious Baker Artist Award, the highest recognition for artists in Maryland.
As a chamber musician, Dariusz appeared in many chamber music concert series including the Candlelight Series, Music at the Great Hall in Baltimore and the Barge Music Festival in New York City. In November of 2005 he gave his Carnegie Hall debut, which was sponsored by the La Gesse Foundation. The cellist is also a member of a critically acclaimed ensemble – the Monument Piano Trio.
Dariusz is a laureate of various international competitions such as the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, the Leonard Rose Competition in Washington D.C. and the Rostropovich Competition in Paris.
Dariusz began his musical education at the age of six and spent his school years in Warsaw, Poland where his teachers were Professor Z. Liebig and Professor A. Zielinski. He completed his higher education as a scholarship recipient at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore and perfected his art under the supervision of world-renowned cellist Stephen Kates.
The soloist’s repertoire is extremely diverse and includes compositions from early Baroque to the present. His debut CD “Cello Populus” is a collection of solo pieces from the 20th and 21st centuries and includes works of Hindemith, Ligeti, Crumb, Penderecki and others. Dariusz’s second album “Cello Phantasia” features music by Schumann, Franck and Rachmaninov.
KEVIN SMITH, VIOLIN
Kevin Smith, a native of Dallas, Texas, joined the Baltimore Symphony as Acting Assistant Concertmaster in 2015. Mr. Smith earned his Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance as a student of Julia Bushkova at the University of North Texas. At the Cleveland Institute of Music, he earned Master of Music degree in the studio of Stephen Rose, Principal Second Violin of The Cleveland Orchestra. While attending CIM, Mr. Smith was awarded the 2015 Helen C. Webster Award for Outstanding Graduate Student. As a chamber musician, he has been coached by the Cavani, Juilliard, Shanghai, and Takács Quartets, and studied under Peter Salaff of the Cleveland Quartet. He has attended the Mimir Chamber Music Festival, the Round Top Festival Institute, and the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan. Mr. Smith has performed under the acclaimed conductors, Franz Welser-Möst, Osmo Vänskä, and Valery Gergiev. Before joining the Baltimore Symphony, Mr. Smith was a member of the Akron and Canton Symphony Orchestras, acted as concertmaster for the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra, and has performed with The Cleveland Orchestra. In his free time, he enjoys traveling, reading, and playing golf.
IVAN STEFANOVIC, VIOLIN
Ivan Stefanovic was born in Belgrade, former Yugoslavia, and began his violin studies at the age of five. At sixteen, he came to the United States to continue his education at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with David Cerone, Victor Danchenko, David Updegraff, and Cathleen Winkler. He earned a Bachelor of Music degree in 1989 and an Artist Diploma in 1991, both with honors, from the Cleveland Institute of Music. In 2003, the Cleveland Institute of Music awarded him an Alumni Achievement Award “in recognition of outstanding accomplishments in the fields of Violin Orchestral and Chamber Music Performance.”
Mr. Stefanovic joined the second violin section of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in 1991 under David Zinman, moving up to a third chair position a year later. In 2004, Yuri Temirkanov named him Assistant Principal Second Violin. He was named Associate Principal Second Violin by Marin Alsop in 2012.
As a soloist and chamber musician, Mr. Stefanovic has won many first prizes in local and national competitions in Yugoslavia. He has performed numerous times as a soloist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra of Radio and TV Belgrade and the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra. He has made live recordings for Radio and TV Belgrade, Radio Yugoslavia, and WCLV in Cleveland, in addition to numerous solo and chamber music recitals in Yugoslavia, Spain, and the United States.
Mr. Stefanovic is Principal Second Violin of the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, a baroque violinist in Pro Musica Rara, and a co-founder and co-Artistic Director of “Chamber Music by Candlelight,” a series featuring BSO members. He is a violin teacher and chamber music coach, and conducts orchestra sectionals, at both the Preparatory Department of the Peabody Conservatory of Music and Baltimore School for the Arts. He has conducted master classes in the United States and Japan, and is a member of the Clipper Mill Quartet.
At the invitations of their respective Music Directors, Ivan has served numerous times as Guest Concertmaster with Ft. Wayne Philharmonic and Symphony Orchestra Augusta (GA). He has served on the faculty as a coach and a conductor at Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music, Peabody Utah Summer Music Festival and School, and Peabody Chamber Week. He was chosen to be a member of the All-Star Orchestra, comprised of some of the best orchestral players in the country, in a PBS taping in August of 2014.
Mr. Stefanovic plays on a violin made by Nicholas Lupot in 1810, on a generous loan from the private collection of the family of Marin Alsop.