Russian Lyricism
| 1. | Introduction | 00:00:53 |
| 2. | Glinka: Variations on a theme of Mozart for Piano | 00:10:08 |
| 3. | Selection of Russian Songs | 00:16:33 |
| 4. | Rimsky-Korsakov: Quintet in B-flat major for Flute, Clarinet, Bassoon, Horn, and Piano | 00:30:54 |
| 5. | Closing | 00:00:30 |
This program emphasizes the passion and the lyricism of 19th- and early 20th-century Russian music. For an introductory taste, the program begins with a short variation set that Mikhail Glinka wrote on a theme by Mozart, adding a Russian spin to a Classical tune. Next, the beauty of the Russian language and the spirit of the music from this nation is showcased in a set of songs by a wide range of Russian composers. Finally, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s wonderful though rarely performed Quintet in B-flat major features the sparingly heard but effective combination of piano and four wind instruments.
PROGRAM
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Mikhail Glinka (1804–1857) |
Variations on a theme of Mozart for Piano (1822, rev. 1827) Michael Stephen Brown, piano |
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Mily Alekseyevich Balakirev (1837–1910) |
“Song of the Goldfish” for Voice and Piano (1860) Erika Baikoff, soprano; Gilles Vonsattel, piano |
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Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (1839–1881) |
“Where are you, dear star?” for Voice and Piano (1857) Erika Baikoff, soprano; Gilles Vonsattel, piano |
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Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943) |
“Arion” for Voice and Piano, Op. 34, No. 5 (1912) Erika Baikoff, soprano; Gilles Vonsattel, piano |
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Mikhail Glinka (1804–1957) |
“The Lark” from A Farewell to St. Petersburg for Voice and Piano (1840) Erika Baikoff, soprano; Gilles Vonsattel, piano |
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Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943) |
“These Summer Nights” for Voice and Piano, Op. 14, No. 5 (1896) Erika Baikoff, soprano; Gilles Vonsattel, piano |
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Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908) |
“Does not the wind, blowing from the heights” from In Spring for Voice and Piano, Op. 43, No. 2 (1897) Erika Baikoff, soprano; Gilles Vonsattel, piano |
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Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908) |
Quintet in B-flat major for Flute, Clarinet, Bassoon, Horn, and Piano (1876) Adam Walker, flute; David Shifrin, clarinet; Marc Goldberg, bassoon; David Byrd-Marrow, horn; Michael Stephen Brown, piano |
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Michael Stephen Brown
Erika Baikoff
Gilles Vonsattel
David Shifrin
Marc Goldberg
David Byrd-Marrow
Michael Stephen Brown is a composer and pianist hailed by the New York Times as “one of the leading figures in the current renaissance of performer-composers.” The 2026 Andrew Wolf Award Winner and a recent fellow at both MacDowell and Yaddo, he is also a recipient of Lincoln Center’s Emerging Artist Award and an Avery Fisher Career Grant. Brown performs internationally and receives commissions from orchestras, soloists, and festivals around the world. Recent highlights include a recital at Alice Tully Hall for CMS, and collaborations with cellist Nicholas Canellakis and violinists Pinchas Zukerman, Kristin Lee, and Arnaud Sussmann. He is currently composing The Carnival of Endangered Wonders, a CMS-led project co-presented by a consortium of US presenters. His first album devoted entirely to his music, Twelve Blocks, will be released in February 2026. Brown is also composing the score for Angeline Gragasin’s upcoming film Look But Don’t Touch and lives in New York City with his two 19th-century Steinways, Octavia and Daria.
Russian-American soprano Erika Baikoff is a recent graduate of the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. As a Lindemann Young Artist, she sang the roles of Xenia in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov and Barbarina in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro. At Maestro Nézet-Séguin's invitation, she joined the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra’s tour of Das Rheingold and the Orchestre Métropolitain as the soprano soloist in Bach’s Mass in B minor. She has also recently made her debut with the Ulster Orchestra, under the baton of Maestro Rustioni, and the Schubertíada festival, where she gave the inaugural recital in Vilabertran in 2023. She is the first-prize winner of the 2019 Helmut Deutsch Liedwettbewerb and the 10th Concours international de chant-piano Nadia et Lili Boulanger with her duo partner, Gary Beecher. Other awards include the 6th Prize, Oratorio-Lied Prize, and Schubert Prize at the Tenor Viñas Contest, George London Foundation Award, Sullivan Foundation Career Development Grant, 2020 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Semi-finalist, Career Bridges Grant, Mondavi Young Artist Founders’ Prize, and the Bouchaine Young Artist Scholarship. Baikoff is an alum of the Atelier Lyrique at the Verbier Festival and the Académie du Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in French Studies from Princeton University and a Master of Music from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Swiss-born American pianist Gilles Vonsattel boasts remarkable versatility and artistic originality. Winner of an Avery Fisher Career Grant, the 2016 Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award, and top prizes in the Naumburg and Geneva competitions, he has graced prestigious stages worldwide, enthralling audiences with recitals and chamber performances, and collaborating with renowned orchestras including the Munich Philharmonic and the Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco symphonies. As a champion of new music, he has premiered compositions by celebrated composers such as Jörg Widmann, Heinz Holliger, Anthony Cheung, and George Benjamin. He is an alum of CMS’s Bowers Program and has earned degrees from Columbia University and the Juilliard School. Today, Vonsattel shares his passion for music as a Professor of Piano at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
A Yale University faculty member since 1987, clarinetist David Shifrin is artistic director of Yale’s Chamber Music Society and the Yale in New York concert series. He has performed with CMS since 1982 and served as its artistic director from 1992 to 2004, inaugurating CMS’s Bowers Program and the annual Brandenburg Concertos concerts. He was the artistic director of Chamber Music Northwest from 1981 to 2020. Winner of the Avery Fisher Career Grant (1987) and the Avery Fisher Prize (2000), he has held principal clarinet positions in numerous orchestras including the Cleveland Orchestra and the American Symphony under Leopold Stokowski. As soloist, Shifrin has performed recitals at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and the Library of Congress. Notable concerto performances include the Philadelphia and Minnesota orchestras; the Dallas, Seattle, Houston, Milwaukee, and Denver symphonies; as well as orchestras in China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Switzerland, Germany, and Italy. Shifrin performs on clarinets made by Morrie Backun in Vancouver, Canada, and Légère synthetic reeds.
A member of the St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble and New York Woodwind Quintet, Marc Goldberg is principal bassoonist of the Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, American Ballet Theater, the Saito Kinen Orchestra, and the NYC Opera. Previously the associate principal bassoonist of the New York Philharmonic, he has also been a frequent guest of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, touring with these ensembles across four continents and joining them on numerous recordings. A long-time season artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, he has been a guest of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, the Brentano Quartet, Music@Menlo, Musicians from Marlboro, and Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Band. Goldberg is on the faculty of the Juilliard School Pre-College Division, Mannes College, New England Conservatory, the Hartt School, and the Bard College Conservatory of Music.
Hailed as “stunning and assured” by the New York Times, Atlanta native David Byrd-Marrow is a member of the International Contemporary Ensemble, as well as The Knights. He enjoys an active chamber music calendar, and has performed at festivals including the Ojai Music Festival, the Spoleto Music Festival, Music@Menlo, the Tanglewood Music Center, Summerfest! at La Jolla Music Society, and the Denver Chamber Music Festival. Formerly a member of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect, he has also appeared with the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Atlanta, Seattle and Tokyo symphony orchestras, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, the Washington National Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera. He has recorded on labels including Tundra, More Is More, Nonesuch, EMI, Deutsche Grammophon, and Naxos. Byrd-Marrow received his bachelor’s degree from the Juilliard School and master’s from Stony Brook University. He is Associate Professor of Horn at Oberlin College and Conservatory.