SVENNALE 30, 31 January, 1 February 2009 www.belfastmusicsociety.org LOTTERY FUNDED with BBC Biation RADIO International Festival of Chamber Music - Schubertiade bos Belfast Music Society

Chair's introduction On behalf of the Board of BMS I would like to welcome you to the 2009 a Belfast Schubertiade. Our four International Festival of Chamber Music main concerts will once again be recorded by and broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and bring you world-class artists playing some of Schubert's finest chamber music. And in an ever expanding Festival we have two new events which. alongside the Student Showcase recital, celebrate young musical talent in the Province: a coffee concert of Schubert songs (the culmination of a collaborative project with Tosini and Colette McGahon), giving young singers a valuable platform; and a masterclass with renowned performer and teacher Raphael Wallfisch, featuring two local cellists who are currently undertaking professional studies, and accompanied by Derry-born concert pianist and Fulbright scholar Cathal Breslin. What better antidote to post-Christmas January blues than such a collection of music and musicians! And as if that weren't enough, the BMS season is expanding to include a Summer Celebrity Recital for the first time. Tasmin Little will be making a welcome return to Belfast in May with her regular recital partner John Lenchan, performing in the beautiful surroundings of the Belfast Harbour Commission before bringing her much-praised Naked Violin' project to local community venues in the City. A big thank you' to our regular subscribers and attenders for their continued and much appreciated support of our work; and if this is your first visit to a BMS event, I hope it will be the start of a long and happy relationship. Sheila Sloan Sheila Sloan, Chair bas 2009 is supported by Belfast Music Society QO arts council LOTTERY FUNDED BBC RADIO 3 FRIENDS OF BELFAST MUSIC SOCIETY 1934 direct wine shipmente Radisson S SAS HOTELS & RESORTS School of Music & Sonic Arts Queen's University Belfast HARBOUL FORT COMMI fona CAB dkni THE FLORIST

The Schubertiade Artist Marcus Patton Of all the great composers Schubert had the least public of lives. He was not a performer; he did not crave public acclaim. All he wanted was to be left alone to express himself in his own way; mornings were for composing, afternoons for the coffee house and evenings for relaxing with his friends. He never left Austria. He never saw the sea. He didn't publish a note until he was twenty-four, when a public performance of Erlkönig was so successful that the publishers began to show an interest. But so imperious was his genius, so deep the affection he inspired, that a society grew up around him, devoted to a brand new kind of musical event: the Schubertiade, or recital devoted exclusively to his works. Three pictures illustrate the forms these events took. The artist Moritz von Schwind has him playing for a fashionable society gathering; a magazine illustration shows a coach-load of his friends - young men in top hats, looking like the Austrian equivalent of the Pickwick Club - bowling off to a schloss near Vienna to listen to his music; and a pencil sketch depicting a lordly man in a top coat with a tubby little fellow in glasses trotting along behind him: the lordly one is the baritone Vogl and the little chap our composer; off on a tour performing his songs. Schubert was absurdly generous with his genius. He literally poured it out for his friends - young men of independent means and bohemian habits, with a penchant for culture. Several of them were minor poets: did he not transfigure literally dozens of their efforts with the beauty of his settings? And in the evenings, how often did they not roll the carpet back for dancing, while the great Franz Schubert improvised dance tunes for them? Whatever its form, the Schubertiade was characterised by four qualities: spontaneity, enjoyment, friendship, and of course - love of the man who inspired it. It has always seemed to me to be the best way to experience music. Let us hope that our Belfast Schubertiade recaptures some of the charm of the Vienna original. Victor Price 3

STUDENT SHOWCASE RECITAL Friday 30 January 2009, 1.10pm Harty Room, QUB Performances by final year recital students at the School of Music and Sonic Arts, Queen's University Belfast SARAH RICHMOND Soprano GLUCK BRITTEN O mia sposa! and Che faro senza Euridice? from Orfeo ed Euridice How sweet the answer from Folksong Arrangements: Volume Four - Moore's Irish Melodies (1948) LAURA O'NEILL Soprano DOWLAND Weep you no more, sad fountains Awake, sweet love, thou art return'd' DANIELLE ROGAN Flute GODARD Suite de Trois Morceaux, op.116, for flute and piano - Valse MICHAELA MERVIN Soprano DUKE I carry your heart RIONACH MCGLINCHEY Soprano HARTY MOZART HUGHES At Easter from Five Irish Poems Traditional Irish Art Song Voi che sapete from Le Nozze di Figaro. The Garten Mother's Lullaby Traditional Folk Song NATHAN MORRISON Baritone SCHUBERT Das Wandern Der Neugierige from Die schöne Müllerin R. STRAUSS Zueignung op. 10, No. 1 Allerseelen op. 10, No. 8 from Acht Lieder aus Letzte Blätter

COD M C Queen's University Belfast School of Music and Sonic Arts is delighted to partner the Belfast Music Society in the 2009 International Festival of Chamber Music. For information about courses, concerts, festivals and events at Queen's, please visit www.music.qub.ac.uk 5

TRIO WANDERERSETEC Friday 30 January 2009, 8.00pm Great Hall, QUB Vincent Coq Piano Jean-Marc Phillips-Varjabedian Violin Raphael Pidoux Cello SCHUBERT Notturno in Eb, D897 MENDELSSOHN Piano trio in C minor, op 66 Interval SCHUBERT Piano trio in Bb, D898

Friday 30 January 2009, 8.00 pm, Great Hall, QUB Franz Schubert (1797-1828) Notturno in E flat, D897 It is generally assumed that this single adagio movement was intended as the slow movement of the B flat piano trio, D898, and subsequently replaced by the published andante, though some consider it more likely to have been composed as an independent piece for some unknown occasion. In any case, the title is not Schubert's, but was given to the movement by the publisher Diabelli, when he issued it in 1846. Although 'Nocturne' fits the gentle opening of the movement, it doesn't seem particularly appropriate for the agitated central part of the trio. Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) Piano Trio in C minor, op 66 Allegro energico e con fuoco: Andante espressivo: Scherzo : Allegro appassionato Mendelssohn's chamber music has rarely received the recognition it deserves, his output tending to be treated as of considerably less importance than his orchestral music, for example. In fact, his output in all genres is somewhat uneven, but the best of his chamber works deserve to remain in the repertoire. His best-known chamber work is the Octet, a remarkable achievement for a teenager. The D minor trio used to be a regular concert item, while the string quartets contain much fine music. This C minor trio is, perhaps, less familiar. It is a late work, composed in 1845. The Beethovenian mood of the first movement is established by the passionate, driving opening theme. The second movement is in Mendelssohn's typically flowing 9/8 metre; it has the character of one of his Songs Without Words. The scherzo dashes away with lightfoot semiquavers, recapturing something of the fairy atmosphere of the scherzos of the octet and the Midsummer Night's Dream music. The finale has a passionate main theme; a contrasting chorale melody is heard in the central part of the movement. When it appears at the end, it provides a massive and grandiose coda to the work. 7

Friday 30 January 2009, 8.00 pm, Great Hall, QUB Franz Schubert CH Piano Trio in B flat, D898 Allegro moderato: Andante un poco mosso : Scherzo (allegro): Rondo (allegro vivace) Schubert's two mature works for this medium date from the last year or so immediately attractive than the longer and more serious E flat trio (D929), of his life. The B flat trio is generally lighter and more light-hearted and more yet only the E flat trio was performed and published in Schubert's lifetime. The present trio had to wait until 1836 before it appeared in print, as 'opus 99'. C The characteristic song-like theme of the first movement enters in the very first bar, presented by both strings, with a repeated chord accompaniment. Its swaggering nature springs largely from the three-note figure with dotted rhythm, in the bass, a figure that Schubert develops later in the movement. His love of wandering far from his home key is reflected in the immediate restatement of the main theme a tone higher, inor, and in fact the music of this movement travels through a characteristically wide range of keys. The overall result, as always with Schubert, is, however, invigorating rather than disturbing. The movement's second main theme is heard first on the cello. The central (development) section of the movement presents all the material in many different guises and keys, before the recapitulation of the themes as at the opening. After a climax, and a pause, the movement ends with a quiet coda. The cello presents the theme of the slow movement in its treble register, over a rocking accompaniment. There is a more unsettled mood to the central section of the movement, in the minor, but the sun soon breaks through again as the major mood returns, with rippling piano figuration. The conclusion is peaceful. The scherzo is brief, but not without its surprises. There is a leisurely central section, whose theme, interestingly, seems to be a relation of that of the second movement. The rondo finale has a typically jaunty theme. This movement provides another fine example of Schubert's genius, with its great variety of themes and variations, including a curious version of the main theme in 3/2 time. The analyst may have fun discovering the composer's genius in working with his material; the listener can sit back and simply enjoy the meal Schubert sets before him! Alec Macdonald Ⓒ

Friday 30 January 2009, 8.00 pm, Great Hall, QUB Trio Wanderer The Trio Wanderer's choice of name pays homage to Schubert and, more widely, to German Romanticism. Winning first prize for chamber music at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, the Trio Wanderer studied from 1987 to 1991 with such masters as Jean-Claude Pennetier, Jean Hubeau, Janos Starker, Menahem Pressler from the Beaux Arts Trio, and the Amadeus Quartet. In 1988, they won the ARD Competition in Munich and, in 1990, the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition in the USA. They begin their international career with the performance of Beethoven's Trios at the Herkulessaal in Munich. Called a "Wandering Star" by the Strad Magazine, the Trio has performed on the most prestigious music stages and at major festivals. Their debut at the Salburg Festival in August 2002 was praised as "a triumphant success" by the critics and led to their return in 2004 and 2006. They have on many occasions collaborated with artists such as Yehudi Menuhin, Christopher Hogwood, James Loughran, Marco Guidarini, Charles Dutoit and James Conlon, accompanied, in triple or double concertos, by orchestras such as Nice, La Coruna, Tenerife, France's Orchestre National, Berlin's Radio Symphonic Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia, Graz's Philharmonic Orchester and Köln's Gürzenich Orchester. The Trio Wanderer has recorded for some years with Harmonia Mundi. Releases include trios by Chausson, Ravel, Schubert, Haydn, Shostakovich and Copland, Beethoven's Triple Concerto (with James Conlon), Schubert's Trout Quintet, trios by Saint-Saëns, Mendelssohn and the complete Brahms piano trios. Their recordings have been awarded several prizes including Choc du Monde de la Musique, Fanfare's Want List, Critic's Choice de Gramophone, 5-Sterne Ensemble Magazine, Classical Internet Award 2005, MIDEM award 2007 and Diapaisons d'Or. Heralded by the professional music world, the Trio Wanderer was awarded a Victoire de la Musique in 1997, and another Victoire in 2000 for Best Chamber Music Ensemble of the year. Their recording of Brahms trios was awarded a Diapaison d'Or for Best Chamber Music Recording of 2007, and in January 2007 they were awarded a Midem award for the best chamber music recording of the year. C 9

10 Contemporary Italian dining at Filini bar & restaurant, Radisson SAS Hotel Belfast You'llfind Flini at Radisson The Gasworks, 3 Cromac Place, Ormeau Road Belfast BT7 2JB tel: +44 (0)28 9043 4065 infobelfast@radissonsas.com www.radissonsas.com filini bar and restaurant ALMOST 100% ITALIAN In a special arrangement with BMS, the Radisson SAS Hotel, Belfast, is offering 15% discount on the a la carte menu in Filini's restaurant until the end of June 2009. To take advantage of this offer, take either this program or a BMS season brochure to the restaurant with the 'How to Book' page attached.

COFFEE CONCERT- SING SCHUBERT! Saturday 31 January 2009, 11.00 for 11.30 am Harty Room, QUB The culmination of a short masterclass series with renowned mezzo Colette McGahon, in which promising young singers sing a selection of Schubert songs. e The Irish mezzo-soprano Colette McGahon started her professional career with Glyndebourne Festival Opera, where her roles included that of Carmen, a part she also undertook for the touring company Opera 80. Solo recitals have included appearances at the Purcell Room and Queen Elizabeth Hall on London's South Bank and for the BBC and Irish radio and television. Her interest in contemporary music has resulted in her undertaking challenging roles in works by composers such as Berio and Dallapiccola, and her versatility is demonstrated by her success in her one-woman A Little Late Night Music, based on the songs of Stephen Sondheim. Generously supported by the Esme Mitchell Trust 11

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NELSON GOERNER Piano Saturday 31 January 2009, 1.30 pm Great Hall, QUB SCHUBERT Sonata in A, D664 SCHUBERT Sonata in A minor, D784 SCHUBERT Four Impromptus, D935 13

14 Saturday 31 January 2009, 1.30 pm, Great Hall, QUB Franz Schubert (1797-1828) Schubert and the piano sonata Although Schubert's sonatas have not always been accorded the position they deserve, either in the context of his own music, or of the piano repertoire in general, they have, as a set, few rivals - indeed, perhaps only one, the 32 sonatas of Beethoven. As a series they reflect the whole of their composer's development, from his first, incomplete, efforts in 1815, to the majestic trio of sonatas he composed in white heat, shortly before his premature death. They also reflect what Howard Ferguson, in the introduction to his important complete edition (1976), calls Schubert's oddly hit-or-miss method of working, as, apart from 11 complete sonatas, there are as many fragmentary works, some mere movements, or parts of movements, others almost complete, but unaccountably just abandoned (notably the superb D840 from 1825). There are so many fine moments in these fragments, that musicians have subsequently prepared performing editions of them. The opus numbers that have traditionally been added to some of the sonatas, refer to their publication after Schubert's death. Only three sonatas were published in his lifetime - those in A minor (D845), D and G- and the opus numbers can, since the arrival of Otto Deutsch's catalogue (the 'D' numbers), safely be ignored, as they give no indication of their chronological place in Schubert's output. Sonata in A, D664 Allegro moderato: Andante : Allegro The earliest of the two sonatas in this key is thought to date from 1815. The first movement opens with one of its composer's most noble, lyrical themes. It is marked p and indeed the music of this compact movement rarely rises above mf; only in the development section is there a sudden outburst, but this quickly subsides. The central movement is dominated by the favoured Schubertian rhythm of its main melody. Typical too are the frequent switches from major to minor. The last movement is the most lively; although it is in proper sonata form, the listener need not be aware of such academic matters. Again the touch is light, apart from a few brief moments. The whole sonata radiates, as one writer puts it, a homely charm.

hey e in 2 er's rio h. tant ng', ES, but here ntly tas, pus ers), in The nes. ses this hes in ers. ata Saturday 31 January 2009, 1.30 pm, Great Hall, QUB Sonata in A minor, D784 Allegro giusto: Andante: Allegro vivace. The autograph of this sonata is dated February, 1823. Its bleak and restless nature may reflect its composer's awareness of his serious and incurable disease (syphilis) which had just manifested itself for the first time. The flowing andante provides a time of restful contemplation between the two stormy outer movements, but even its broad melody is interrupted by a curious rhythmical motif. The finale is dominated by galloping triplets and rushing scales, though a third theme provides some necessary lyrical contrast. At the conclusion of this powerful and often disturbing sonata, the opening triplets of the movement reappear in what is perhaps the most technically challenging passage in all of Schubert's sonatas. The triumph of Art over suffering' could be the motto for all four works in this programme, for all were conceived during, and influenced by, struggles in their composers' personal circumstances. Four Impromptus, D935 Allegro moderato in F minor: Allegretto in A flat: Andante in B flat: Allegro scherzando in F minor In the hectic last twelve months of his tragically short life, Schubert composed a number of works for the piano, most importantly, the three great sonatas. Of lesser stature, but certainly not insignificant, the eight impromptus had a rather tortuous journey into the repertoire. Two were published in Schubert's lifetime, but as was the case with so many of his later works, the rest did not appear in print until after their composer's death. The present set of four were published as 'opus 142' by Diabelli in 1839. The remaining two did not appear in print until they were added to the opus 90 set in 1857. It doesn't seem from his correspondence that Schubert considered the grouping of the impromptus to be very important, though Schumann thought, on the evidence of the key sequence and some thematic cross-references, that opus 142 was really a sonata in all but name. Certainly the large-scale movement that opens the set has the expansiveness of Schubert's sonata first movements, though not their stature or form, while the song-like second 'movement' is in the expected minuet and trio form, the contrasting central section having constant triplet figuration.. However, to create his 'sonata', Schumann suggested leaving out the third impromptu, a set of five variations on a theme from, or very similar to that of, an Entracte from Schubert's music to Rosamunde (he used the same theme in his string quartet in A minor, D804), which he found 'wholly devoid of invention or fancy' (!). The set concludes with a whirlwind dance in three time. Alec Macdonald Ⓒ 15

16 Saturday 31 January 2009, 1.30 pm, Great Hall, QUB Nelson Goerner Born in 1969 in San Pedro, Argentina, Nelson Goerner has established himself as one of the foremost pianists of his generation. After studying in Argentina with Jorge Garrubba, Juan Carlos Arabian and Carmen Scalcione, he was awarded First Prize in the Franz Liszt Competition in Buenos Aires in 1986. This led to a scholarship to work with Maria Tipo at the Geneva Conservatoire, and in 1990 Nelson Goerner won the First Prize at the Geneva Competition. Nelson Goerner has given recitals in venues throughout Europe including the festival of La Roque d'Anthéron, La Grange de Meslay (where he replaced Richter at short notice), Schleswig-Holstein, Verbier, and at halls in Paris, Munich, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Geneva, Lucerne, and Milan. He has also performed with the Philharmonia Orchestra under Claus Peter Flor, the Deutsche Symphonie Orchestra of Berlin under Andrew Davis, the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Emmanuel Krivine, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under Gerard Schwarz, and the NHK Symphony Orchestra of Tokyo under Fabio Luisi. He has performed twice at the BBC Promenade concert season with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra under Vassily Sinaisky. In the USA and Canada, his appearances have included performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. Mr Goerner has performed chamber music with the Takács Quartet, and duo-recitals with Steven Isserlis, Gary Hoffman, Vadim Repin and the mezzo- soprano Sophic Koch. He also performs repertoire for two pianos with Martha Argerich and with his wife Rusudan Alavidze. Mr Goerner's future appearances will include performances with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hallé Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of the 18th century, the NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Brabants Orchestra and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, as well as recital and chamber appearances in London, Manchester, Paris, Toulouse, Lyons, Seville and in Singapore. Mr Goerner's discography includes a Chopin recording for EMI, discs of repertoire by Rachmaninov and Liszt for the Cascavelle label, Busoni's Indian Fantasy for Chandos, and a new work for piano and orchestra by Jon Lord for EMI.

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18 WIHAN STRING QUARTET AND RAPHAEL WALLFISCH Saturday 31 January 2009, 8.00 pm Great Hall, QUB Leos Cepicky Violin Jiri Zigmund Viola SCHUBERT Quartettsatz in C minor, D703 Jan Schulmeister Violin Ales Kasprik Cello MOZART String Quartet in D minor, K421 SMETANA String Quartet no 2 in D minor Interval SCHUBERT String Quintet in C for two violins, viola and two cellos, D956