Summer Evenings III
Tue, July 16, 2024, 7:30 pm
Alice Tully Hall
2 hours, including intermission
CMS’s summer tradition returns. Get this year’s hottest ticket, featuring beloved chamber works in the cool atmosphere of Alice Tully Hall. Stay after the performance and get to know the artists in the lobby with a complimentary glass of wine.
Program
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
(1756–1791)Sonata in G major for Violin and Piano, K. 379
(1781)Quick Note
Ludwig van Beethoven
(1770–1827)Trio in D major for Piano, Violin, and Cello, Op. 70, No. 1, “Ghost”
(1808)Quick Note
Beethoven employs dramatic contrasts and haunting melodies to create a sense of mystery and depth.
Listen for the ominous and ethereal atmosphere established in the second movement, where Beethoven introduces the ghostly theme that gives the trio its nickname, showcasing his innovative approach to chamber music composition.
Felix Mendelssohn
(1809–1847)Lied ohne Worte in D major for Cello and Piano, Op. 109
(1845)Quick Note
Part of his set of "Songs Without Words," Mendelssohn breaks new ground by transcribing the lyrical beauty typically found in vocal melodies for the cello and piano duo.
Listen for the seamless blending of the cello and piano voices, mimicking the expressive qualities of a singer accompanied by piano.
Felix Mendelssohn
(1809–1847)Trio No. 1 in D minor for Piano, Violin, and Cello, Op. 49
(1839)Quick Note
Wu Qian
Alexander Sitkovetsky
Isang Enders
Winner of a 2016 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, as well as classical music’s bright young star award for 2007 by The Independent, pianist Wu Qian has maintained a busy international career for over a decade. She has appeared as soloist in many international venues including the Wigmore, Royal Festival, and Bridgewater halls in the UK, City Hall in Hong Kong, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. As a soloist she has appeared with the Konzerthaus Orchester in Berlin, the Brussels Philharmonic, the London Mozart Players, I Virtuosi Italiani, the European Union Chamber Orchestra, and the Munich Symphoniker. She won first prize in the Trio di Trieste Duo Competition and the Kommerzbank Piano Trio competition in Frankfurt, and has received numerous other awards. Appearances this season include performances in the UK, Germany, USA, Korea, Australia, Spain, and The Netherlands and collaborations with Alexander Sitkovetsky, Leticia Moreno, Cho-Liang Lin, Clive Greensmith, and Wu Han. Her debut recording of Schumann, Liszt, and Alexander Prior was met with universal critical acclaim. She is a founding member of the Sitkovetsky Piano Trio with which, in addition to performing in major concert halls and series around the world, she has released two recordings on the BIS label and also a disc of Brahms and Schubert on the Wigmore Live Label. Wu Qian an alum of The Bowers Program.
Violinist Alexander Sitkovetsky was born in Moscow into a family with a well-established musical tradition. His concerto debut came at the age of eight and in the same year he moved to the UK to study at the Menuhin School. Last season he debuted at Vienna’s Musikverein with the Tonkünstler Orchester, made return visits to Anima Musicae Budapest and Russian Philharmonic Novosibirsk and appeared with the Sitkovetsky Trio at festivals throughout Spain, Finland, Denmark, Switzerland, and Germany. Recent concerto performances include appearances with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Konzerthaus Orchester Berlin, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Moscow and St Petersburg Symphony Orchestras, Orquesta Filarmónica de Bolivia, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, London Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Philharmonia Orchestra. He directs and performs as a soloist regularly with chamber orchestras, including the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, London Mozart Players, New York Chamber Players, Camerata Zurich, and most recently with the Romanian Sinfonietta. He is a founding member of the Sitkovetsky Trio, which regularly performs throughout Europe, Asia, and the Americas. The trio’s fourth disc for BIS Records, Ravel’s Piano Trio and Saint-Saëns’s Second Trio, was released to great critical acclaim in July 2021. 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.
Isang Enders has quickly established himself as a dynamic artist in search of new-concepts and works for the violoncello. Born into a German-Korean musician family in Frankfurt in 1988, Isang Enders began studying with Michael Sanderling at the age of twelve. His playing has since been influenced by his studies with Gustav Rivinius, Truls Mørk, and above all, by the mentoring of the American cellist Lynn Harrell.
At the age of twenty, Isang Enders was appointed principal cello of the Dresden Staatskapelle, making him the youngest section leader in Germany. During his four years with the orchestra, he also co-founded the Gohrisch Shostakovich Festival alongside Tobias Niederschlag.
Isang Enders recently made his debut with the Philharmonia Orchestra, enjoyed collaborations with the Stuttgarter Philharmoniker and Stavanger Symphony orchestras and performs regularly with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. He has worked with eminent conductors including Myung-Whun Chung, Christoph Eschenbach, Pablo Heras-Casado, Eliahu Inbal, Zubin Mehta and Vasily Petrenko.
He has most recently performed Unsuk Chin’s Cello Concerto in both Stavanger and Paris, and performed the Korean debut of Dutilleux’s Cello Concerto as well the Shostakovich Cello Concerto with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra.
As a dedicated chamber musician, he continues to work closely with the pianist Igor Levit, with whom he has toured extensively, as well as Kit Armstrong and Sunwook Kim.
Last season he made his debut at the Bach Festival in Montreal, and spent the summer at the Malboro Music Festival in the US. He performs regularly as a recitalist at Heidelburger Fruhling and Rheingau Musikfestivals.
His highly-acclaimed and early recording of the Bach Cello Suites on Berlin Classics was a triumph. One critic describes him as a “reflective and highly intelligent young man”. Isang Enders is signed to Berlin Classics and SONY Music Entertainment and plays an instrument by Jean Baptiste Vuillaume (Paris, 1840).