Last updated: April 16, 2023
Program
FRANZ DANZI Duo No. 1 in C major for viola and cello (16 min)
I. Allegro
II. Andante con moto
III. Allegretto
IAN CUSSON The Garden of Earthly Delights for violin and piano (10 min)
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Piano Trio No. 5 in C major, K. 548 (20 min)
I. Allegro
II. Andante cantabile
III. Allegro
INTERMISSION
JOHANNES BRAHMS Piano Quartet No. 3 in C minor, Op. 60 (35 min)
I. Allegro non troppo
II. Scherzo: Allegro
III. Andante
IV. Finale: Allegro comodo
Repertoire
Duo No. 1 in C major for viola and cello
I. Allegro
II. Andante con moto
III. Allegretto
In 1801 and 1802, the prolific German composer Franz Danzi (1763–1826) composed two sets of duos for viola and cello—an initial set of three with no opus number, and a second set of three published as Opus 9. There’s scant detail about the circumstances for which he created them; at the time, he was three years into his position of Vice-Kapellmeister in charge of German opera and church music at the Munich court. However, for a decade and half before that, he was the principal cellist of the court’s orchestra. While it’s not clear whether he ever performed them himself, it’s likely that he wrote them with publication in mind, to meet a burgeoning demand for chamber works.
Danzi’s duos are attractive pieces, combining pleasing, tuneful melodies, a skillful (and at times playful) use of established Classical forms, and some mildly adventurous forays into Romantic-style harmony and chromaticism—indeed, to this end they are rather progressive works for their time. Furthermore, as you’ll hear in the one performed today (No. 1 of the first set), they’re quite demanding of their interpreters, requiring finesse in musical expression and technique.
The Allegro in C major is cheerful and robust, opening with stately elegance. Later, a witty concluding phrase with a repeated note motif is introduced; it returns throughout the movement like light-hearted commentary. A vigorous episode in the minor mode then leads to a genial theme, played by the viola, after which the cello presents a peppy tune. Following an energetic middle section in which the main theme and the repeated note motif are developed further, the earlier material is recapped with some variation—Danzi eschews convention by setting the opening melody in F major, not in the home key, and later, the cello and viola switch places in presenting the second and third themes.
The F major Andante begins delicately, with the viola singing lyrically over gentle cello accompaniment. Shifting to the minor mode, the cello takes over with a melancholic, almost pleading melody, to which the viola responds. The tension is then released, through two modulating statements of the opening phrase, which lead to a reprise of the dainty first section.
The Allegretto finale exhibits Danzi’s fondness for starting movements way from the tonic key—with the viola playing a somewhat anxious melody in A minor before unwinding out to C major. A chuckling turning figure appears as if to wipe the worries away. In between this recurring music, several episodes follow, as the instruments present melodies of varying character—by turns confident, sighing, graceful. Listen for a remarkable moment in which viola and cello, as if dancing, take light steps then slide together on expressive portamentos, as well as a short virtuosic cadenza for the viola before the final return of the main melody.
Program notes by Hannah Chan-Hartley, PhD
The Garden of Earthly Delights for violin and piano
In 2020, violinist Nancy Dahn and pianist Timothy Steeves of Duo Concertante commissioned five new works for their Ecology of Being project, in which they sought to explore, through music, “thinking, feeling, and experiencing both the trauma of a lost earth, while also treasuring the joy of a world we love” in light of today’s climate emergency. One of these pieces was The Garden of Earthly Delights by Ian Cusson (b. 1981), a composer of Métis (Georgian Bay Métis Community) and French-Canadian descent. Its title is taken from the work’s source of inspiration—the iconic painting by the late medieval Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch that Ian had seen as a young person and found deeply affecting: “I remember feeling deeply disturbed by its frightening and wonderful images.” In his view, the piece musically evokes the complex emotions generated by the painting’s images, “which speak to humanity’s relationship with the natural world, and the responsibility of humanity to the world we live in.”
The piece unfolds like viewing Bosch’s painting, a triptych, from left to right. After solemn chords sound in the piano, the violin sings a pensive soliloquy (Dahn has described it like a “voice in the wilderness”), as if contemplating earth’s awe-inspiring beauty, like the painting’s left panel depicting the earthly perfection of the Garden of Eden. When the piano re-enters, they trade winding lines, and after a quiet meditation on the piano, the material is developed by the violin. The mood intensifies before resting on the violin’s ethereal harmonics.
The music picks up speed in the second half, turning into a strange and exuberant dance. This is the world of the Garden of Earthly Delights portrayed in the central panel, in which mankind is shown living in the moment without care or consideration. It gets increasingly wild and raucous, reaching an initial climax. After a suspended moment of otherworldliness, the wild dance resumes, this time becoming more aggressive, leading to a second peak of jarring dissonances and scraping violin strings conjuring up the noise of destruction. The piano interrupts with a warning toll (the opening chords slightly embellished), which gives way to the return of the “voice in the wilderness”, now reflecting on the consequences and aftermath of devastation, like that evoked by the hellscape in the right panel of Bosch’s triptych.
Program notes by Hannah Chan-Hartley, PhD
Piano Trio No. 5 in C major, K. 548
I. Allegro
II. Andante cantabile
III. Allegro
In the second half of the 18th century, the piano began to displace the harpsichord as the preferred keyboard instrument by professional musicians for public performance. Mozart (1756–91) was the leading proponent of the German-type of grand piano, which was favoured for its small, clear sound. Championing the qualities of this then relatively new instrument, he composed a significant amount of repertoire specifically for it, including concertos, solo sonatas, and chamber music such as duo sonatas, piano quartets, and piano trios. The latter pieces are particularly notable contributions to the literature. What sets Mozart’s piano trios apart from those of his predecessors (like Carl Philip Emanuel Bach and Joseph Haydn) is his treatment of the three instruments as relative equals, rather than the string instruments as quite secondary to the solo keyboard part.
K. 548 in C major was composed in 1788, the second of a pair of piano trios (with K. 542) he completed that summer, around the time he was writing his E-flat major and G minor symphonies (Nos. 39 and 40). It’s possible that this trio was performed at one of the concerts featuring his new orchestral works. The first movement contains big contrasts, alternating between moments of confidence and delicate poignancy. After a bold call to attention played by all three instruments, the piano responds with the main theme, which is then taken up by the violin. The music maintains its energetic high spirits (the piano is given plenty of flamboyant runs) until the central development section, which suddenly turns to the minor mode, and the opening figure becomes defiant. But then it goes in a somewhat plaintive direction, with sighing phrases and chromatic shifts; later, the main tune appears, tentative and questioning. Soon though, hesitancy is brushed aside, and confidence is reasserted at the opening theme’s return. This time, as the material of the first half is reprised, hints of the middle-section pathos are integrated throughout, before total optimism ultimately wins out.
Against a backdrop of sustained tones in the violin and cello, the piano opens the Andante cantabile with a theme of tender lyricism. It proceeds, calm and relaxed with elegant phrases, that are later answered in turn by the violin and the cello. The middle section begins with sudden contrast, as the three instruments all together intone a stern phrase. As if to pacify, the strings play the opening theme, out of which a motif of lightly bouncing runs is passed between the instruments, as the piano continues with lyrical phrases. In the return of the initial material, new shifts in harmony and chromatic intensification give it a more searching quality, before it unwinds to a serene conclusion.
The closing Allegro is a charming rondo, featuring a playful recurring tune presented by the piano, then reiterated by the violin. After further dialogue, the first episode highlights the piano, which plays sparkling passages while the strings exchange motifs from the main theme. The central episode in the minor mode has a certain brooding intensity, but it soon dissipates with the main theme’s return, this time with comic little embellishments. Near the end, twisting chromatic motifs unsettle the sprightly mood but any lingering doubts are vanquished in the three instruments’ emphatically cheerful final statement of the theme.
Program notes by Hannah Chan-Hartley, PhD
Piano Quartet No. 3 in C minor, Op. 60
I. Allegro non troppo
II. Scherzo: Allegro
III. Andante
IV. Finale: Allegro comodo
In 1855, Johannes Brahms (1833–97) began work on a piano quartet in C-sharp minor, which he finished the following year, then subsequently set aside. Nearly 20 years later, he returned to it. Dissatisfied with what he had originally written, he made substantial revisions: he transposed it down to C minor, the finale became the scherzo movement, and he composed two new concluding movements. On November 18, 1875, the new quartet was premiered in Vienna, by members of the Hellmesberger Quartet with the composer at the piano.
When Brahms sent the completed score to his publisher Fritz Simrock, he enclosed a message saying: “On the cover, you must have a picture, namely a head with a pistol to it. Now you can form some conception of the music!” He was hinting that the piece was a musical illustration of Werther, the young man of Goethe’s 1774 novel who falls in love with a woman married to a man he also befriends, and eventually kills himself to resolve the tortuous situation. But in this flash of dark humour, the parallels to Brahms’s personal life are obvious. When he had initially conceived the piece at age 23, he was a part of Robert and Clara Schumann’s household, and had developed passionate feelings for the latter while the former, whom he greatly admired, was languishing in a mental institution. The emotional tumult he felt clearly left its mark on this piano quartet, especially the first movement.
After a single peal of octaves in the piano, the strings intone a two-note motif, as if sighing “Clara”, which then unravels into a transposed version of Robert’s own “Clara motif” (E-flat, D, C, B, C). It’s repeated in a different key, then leads into a tempestuous episode. An agitated motif in the strings become murmurs, which then melt into a radiant second theme that progresses in four short variations. The mood dips back into melancholy at the start of the middle section, then becomes defiant and strident. Storm and strife continue unrelentingly, save for a moment in an otherworldly reminiscence of the second theme. But the reverie doesn’t last—it’s soon overwhelmed by aggressive dotted rhythms, which lead into a roiling coda that ultimately collapses in exhaustion.
Extending the passionate agitation of the previous movement, the Scherzo presses forth ominously, an electrifying drama between the instruments. There’s no contrasting Trio section as per convention that might have provided a soothing respite. Only a wistful, chant-like theme is able to twice interrupt the persistent pulsing rhythms, which drive inexorably to a bold finish.
Warmth and tenderness finally arrive in the third movement—a song without words that shimmers with the nostalgic glow of remembering a great love. Cello first sings the tender melody, after which the violin joins in, and their voices intertwine in a sensuous duet. Later, the piano recalls the melody against an evocative backdrop of plucked viola and cello.
Unease and restlessness return in the finale, which is dominated by a short-short-short-long motif (likely a reference to the so-called “fate” motif in Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony). It’s introduced, lightly and softly, by the piano at the very beginning, but gains strength and boldness, especially in the central development section. As the piano burbles along almost near continuously, the violin gasps out plaintive descending phrases (a retrograde version of the first movement’s “Clara motif”—B, C, D, E-flat, F, E-flat). There’s a brief respite in the world of the reverent chorale-like second theme, first heard in the strings but recapped in majestic fashion in bright C major by the piano toward the movement’s end. The coda winds down as if resigned, after which a loud C major cadence brings all the turmoil to a brusque end.
Program notes by Hannah Chan-Hartley, PhD
Artists
Yosuke Kawasaki currently serves as Concertmaster of the NAC Orchestra. His versatile musicianship allows him to pursue a career in orchestra, solo, and chamber music. His orchestral career began with the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra and soon led to the Mito Chamber Orchestra, Saito Kinen Orchestra, and Japan Century Orchestra, all of which he led as concertmaster. His solo and chamber music career spans five continents, collaborating with artists such as Seiji Ozawa, Pinchas Zukerman, and Yo-Yo Ma, and appearing in the world’s most prestigious halls such as Carnegie Hall, Suntory Hall, and the Royal Concertgebouw.
Kawasaki’s current regular ensembles are Trio Ink and the Mito String Quartet. His passion for chamber music led to his appointment as Music Director to the Affinis Music Festival in Japan. He is also an artistic advisor to a new chamber music festival, Off the Beaten Path, in Bulgaria.
As an educator Kawasaki has given masterclasses and performed side by side with students in schools across Canada. Well-versed in the string quartet literature he was entrusted by Seiji Ozawa as the youngest faculty member of the Ozawa International Chamber Music Academy at the age of 26. He was also an adjunct professor of violin at the University of Ottawa School of Music from 2013 to 2022 alongside the beloved pedagogue Yehonatan Berick.
Kawasaki began his violin studies at the age of six with his father Masao Kawasaki and Setsu Goto. He was subsequently accepted into The Juilliard School Pre-College Division and further continued his education and graduated from The Juilliard School in 1998 under the tutorship of Dorothy DeLay, Hyo Kang, Felix Galimir, and Joel Smirnoff.
Paul Casey was born and raised in Ottawa and is an avid orchestral, chamber, and solo musician and pedagogue.
Paul is one of the newest additions to the National Arts Centre Orchestra viola section; as a soloist, Paul has performed with NACO as part of FanFair, the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra, and has given recitals in Canada and the United States. He was the 2011 recipient of the NACO Bursary Competition’s Harold Crabtree Foundation Award.
Paul obtained a MMus and BMus from Indiana University and the University of Ottawa, respectively, and most recently studied at McGill University.
Paul is on faculty at the Leading Note Foundation’s OrKidstra Program and was string coach for the Ottawa Junior Youth Orchestra. He is also a member of the Silflay String Quartet with his wife, cellist Karen Kang, and violinists Leah Roseman and Mark Friedman.
Karen Kang is a Korean-Canadian cellist who has performed internationally as a soloist and as an avid chamber musician. She has performed and collaborated with some of the most distinguished musicians, including the Borromeo String Quartet, the Parker Quartet, Pinchas Zukerman, Natalia Gutman, Frans Helmerson, and Lynn Harrell. She is an alumnus of Ravinia-Steans Institute, the Banff Centre, and Internationale Sommerakademie Mozarteum Salzburg. In 2011, Kang resided in Hamburg, Germany, where she toured and performed as the cellist of the Saguaro Piano Trio. She now resides in Ottawa, where she performs regularly with the National Arts Centre Orchestra.
Vadim Serebryany has been acclaimed by audiences and critics on five continents for his sensitive and intelligent music making.
Serebryany has been highly sought after as a recitalist, concerto soloist, and chamber musician. He has performed in Europe, South America, Australia, and throughout North America, and in 2008 completed his eighth consecutive recital tour of Japan. In recent seasons he has been a guest soloist with the NAC Orchestra, the Kingston Symphony, the Osaka Century Orchestra, and Montgomery Symphony Orchestra.
In 2005, Vadim founded Trio Ink, with violinist Yosuke Kawasaki and cellist Wolfram Koessel. The ensemble is known for its creative programs that explore a large portion of the chamber repertoire, including duos, trios, and larger ensembles in which they frequently collaborate with guest artists. The trio has performed to critical acclaim throughout North America and Japan.
An Honours graduate with Distinction from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, where he was a student of Marina Geringas, Vadim went on to complete his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at The Juilliard School in New York City, under the tutelages of the legendary Russian pianist Oxana Yablonskaya and the esteemed American pianist Jacob Lateiner. The final leg of Serebryany’s formal education took him to Yale University, where he completed his studies in the prestigious Doctor of Musical Arts program under the brilliant Russian pianist and teacher Boris Berman.
Vadim Serebryany joined the piano faculty at the renowned School of Music at Ithaca College in 2016.
David Thies-Thompson, violin
Leah Wyber, cello
Nicole Presentey, piano
The Oxbow Trio was formed when three friends came together to explore repertoire during the pandemic. Their time spent together quickly became a creative refuge through a period when in-person music making was a rarity.
As a geographical formation, an oxbow wetland is both familiar and unexpected, adding richness and diversity to an ever-changing landscape.
David Thies-Thompson is a member of the NAC Orchestra and has performed as concertmaster with Thirteen Strings, the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra, and Opera Lyra Ottawa Orchestra. He frequently appears in the NAC’s chamber music concerts and at the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, the Music and Beyond Festival, and the Festival aux iles du Bic.
Leah Wyber has been a member of the NAC Orchestra since 1993, and is also a former member of La Pieta of Montreal, Thirteen Strings of Ottawa, the Atlantic String Quartet, and Joe Trio of Vancouver. She was also principal cello of the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra for several years. Some of the many festivals and programs she has participated in include the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, the Scotia Festival, the Whistler Mozart Festival, the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, and the Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra.
A native of Ottawa, Nicole Presentey made her first appearance with orchestra at age 12 performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto K. 271 with the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra. Recipient of numerous prizes in Canada, she went on to compete successfully in several international music competitions, including the prestigious Royal Overseas League Competition in London. She is on the Faculty at Carleton University where, in 2003, she founded and continues to direct the Carleton University Chamber Music Ensembles.