As Night Descends
| 1. | Introduction | 00:00:53 |
| 2. | Wolf: Italian Serenade for String Quartet | 00:09:06 |
| 3. | Bloch: Three Nocturnes for Piano, Violin, and Cello | 00:10:03 |
| 4. | Chopin: Nocturne No. 13 in C minor for Piano, Op. 48, No. 1 | 00:06:28 |
| 5. | Chopin: Nocturne No. 19 in E minor for Piano, Op. 72, No. 1 | 00:04:18 |
| 6. | Chopin: Sonata in G minor for Cello and Piano, Op. 65 | 00:27:39 |
The collection of works on this program evoke the magic of the night. After a brief flash of sunshine from Hugo Wolf’s charming Italian Serenade, journey into twilight and beyond. The journey begins with two sets of Nocturnes, musically defined as, “a short composition of a romantic nature, typically for piano.” The first set, Bloch’s Three Nocturnes depicts three different aspects of the night. The first is a tranquil night, full of stars and gentle breezes; the second a lyrical, romantic lullaby, and the third suggests, “the pent-up excitement of a night chase.” Frédéric Chopin is known as a great master of the Nocturne and his two here showcase his love of solo piano music and the Nocturne form. The final piece on the program, Chopin’s Sonata in G minor for Cello and Piano is one of five of the composer’s works of chamber music (three of the five composed for this instrumentation). His cello works are likely inspired by his friendship with the French cello virtuoso, Auguste Franchomme, though this Romantic Sonata plagued Chopin, and he revised it numerous times stating, “...with my cello sonata I am now contented, now discontented.”
PROGRAM
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Hugo Wolf (1860–1911) |
Italian Serenade for String Quartet (1887) Jupiter String Quartet (Nelson Lee, Meg Freivogel, violin; Liz Freivogel, viola; Daniel McDonough, cello) |
|
Ernest Bloch (1880–1959) |
Three Nocturnes for Piano, Violin, and Cello (1924) Alessio Bax, piano; Alexander Sitkovetsky, violin; Jakob Koranyi, cello |
|
Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849) |
Nocturne No. 13 in C minor for Piano, Op. 48, No. 1 (1841) Inon Barnatan, piano |
|
Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849) |
Nocturne No. 19 in E minor for Piano, Op. 72, No. 1 (1827) Inon Barnatan, piano |
|
Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849) |
Sonata in G minor for Cello and Piano, Op. 65 (1845–46) Alisa Weilerstein, cello; Inon Barnatan, piano |
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Alessio Bax
Alexander Sitkovetsky
Inon Barnatan
Alessio Bax won first prize at both the Leeds and Hamamatsu International Piano Competitions, and has appeared with nearly 200 orchestras, including the New York, London, and Royal Philharmonic Orchestras; the Boston, Baltimore, Dallas, Cincinnati, Seattle, Sydney, BBC Scottish, and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestras; the Cleveland and Minnesota Orchestras; and the Tokyo and NHK Symphonies in Japan. He is the recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award, and the Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists. At age 14, Bax graduated with top honors from the conservatory of Bari, Italy. He is a former member of CMS’s Bowers Program and is on the faculty at New England Conservatory. For ten years, Bax has been Artistic Director of the Incontri in Terra di Siena Festival, and is the Artistic Director of the London Festival of Chamber Music at Smith Square Hall in London. He also serves as Co-Artistic Director of the Joaquín Achúcarro Foundation for emerging pianists.
Violinist Alexander Sitkovetsky was born in Moscow into a family with a well-established musical tradition. Since his concerto debut at the age of eight, he has performed as soloist and chamber musician in many of the major venues around the world including Vienna’s Musikverein, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and the Wigmore Hall in London. This season he will make his subscription debut with the Budapest Festival Orchestra, among other engagements. He is the Artistic Director of the NFM Leopoldinum Chamber Orchestra in Wrocław, Poland, and is a founding member of the Sitkovetsky Trio, which regularly performs throughout Europe, Asia, and the Americas and is recognized as one of the most important ensembles performing today. Sitkovetsky is an alum of CMS’s Bowers Program and plays the 1679 “Parera” Antonio Stradivari violin, kindly loaned to him through the Beare’s International Violin Society by a generous sponsor.
Pianist Inon Barnatan performs regularly with leading orchestras and conductors worldwide. He was the inaugural Artist-in-Association of the New York Philharmonic and has appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, the BBC Proms with the BBC Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Chicago and Boston symphonies, and most major US ensembles, as well as the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Zurich Tonhalle, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, and the London, Hong Kong, and Royal Stockholm Philharmonics. In the 2025–26 season he performs with the Baltimore, Dallas, and Minnesota symphonies, gives solo recitals at Tippet Rise Art Center and Wigmore Hall, and takes part in the Complete Etudes of Philip Glass project at the Krannert Center and the University Musical Society. Barnatan is Music Director of La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest in California, a recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and Lincoln Center’s Martin E. Segal Award, and an alum of CMS’s Bowers Program.