Schubert Revealed II

Little Franz Schubert (he was barely five feet tall) observed the towering composers of his time and drew inspiration from their works. The ever-present giant in his life was Ludwig van Beethoven, his idol both artistically and as a composer of lasting consequence. Schubert was also duly entranced by the virtuosity and lyrical wizardry of Niccolò Paganini, who led Schubert to believe that nothing was impossible on the violin.

PERFORMERS

Violinist, violist, conductor, and concertmaster Guillermo Figueroa is Principal Conductor of the Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra & Chorus. He serves as Music Director of the Music in the Mountains Festival and the Lynn Philharmonia. He was Music Director of the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra and the Puerto Rico Symphony, Concertmaster of the New York City Ballet, and a Founding Member and Concertmaster of Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Maestro Figueroa has given the world premieres of four violin concertos written for him: Mario Davidovsky’s Concertino at Carnegie Hall, Harold Farberman’s Double Concerto at Lincoln Center, Miguel del Águila’s Violin Concerto co-commissioned by Figueroa, and Ernesto Cordero’s lnsula: Suite Concertante in Zagreb. International and US appearances include the Buffalo and Toronto Symphony Orchestras, Baltic Philharmonic, Xalapa, and Orquesta de Cordoba. He frequently performs viola as guest of the Emerson, Fine Arts, American, Amernet, and Orion string quartets. He has recorded Bartók’s Three Violin Sonatas with pianist Robert Koenig and an album of virtuoso violin music with pianist Ivonne Figueroa. His recording of Cordero’s violin concertos received a Latin Grammy nomination in 2012. An advocate for new music, Figueroa and the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra won an Award for Adventurous Programming from the League of American Orchestras in 2007. He studied with his father and uncle at the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico. At Juilliard, his teachers were Oscar Shumsky and Felix Galimir. His conducting studies were with Harold Farberman in New York.

Co-Artistic Director of CMS since 2004, cellist David Finckel’s dynamic musical career has included performances on the world’s stages in the roles of recitalist, chamber artist, and orchestral soloist. The first American student of Mstislav Rostropovich, he joined the Emerson String Quartet in 1979, and during 34 seasons garnered nine Grammy Awards and the Avery Fisher Prize. His quartet performances and recordings include quartet cycles of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Dvorák, Brahms, Bartók, and Shostakovich, as well as collaborative masterpieces and commissioned works. In 1997, he and pianist Wu Han founded ArtistLed, the first internet-based, artist-controlled classical recording label. ArtistLed’s catalog of more than 20 releases includes the standard literature for cello and piano, plus works composed for the duo by George Tsontakis, Gabriela Lena Frank, Bruce Adolphe, Lera Auerbach, Edwin Finckel, Augusta Read Thomas, and Pierre Jalbert. In 2022, Music@Menlo, an innovative summer chamber music festival in Silicon Valley founded and directed by David and Wu Han, celebrated its 20th season. As a young student, David was winner of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s junior and senior divisions, resulting in two performances with the orchestra. Having taught extensively with the late Isaac Stern in America, Israel, and Japan, he is currently a professor at both the Juilliard School and Stony Brook University, and oversees both CMS’s Bowers Program and Music@Menlo’s Chamber Music Institute. David’s 100 online Cello Talks, lessons on cello technique, are viewed by an international audience of musicians. Along with Wu Han, he was the recipient of Musical America’s 2012 Musicians of the Year Award.

Recipient of a 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant and a 2017 Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists, violinist Paul Huang’s recent appearances include the Detroit Symphony with Leonard Slatkin, Baltimore Symphony with Markus Stenz, and Houston Symphony with Andrés Orozco-Estrada. In the 2022–23 season, he opens the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan season, plays a US tour at the Kennedy Center and Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall, and appears with the Hiroshima Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic with Lahav Shani, and Dallas Symphony Orchestra with Fabio Luisi. Other highlights include engagements with the Buffalo and Fort Wayne philharmonics, and the Colorado, San Diego, and Pensacola symphonies. He recently stepped in for Anne-Sophie Mutter at Bravo! Vail Music Festival playing Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 4 with the Chamber Orchestra Vienna-Berlin and made recital debuts at the Lucerne and Aspen Music Festivals, all to critical acclaim. In fall 2021, he also became the first classical violinist to perform his own arrangement of the US national anthem for the opening game of the NFL at the Bank of America Stadium to an audience of 75,000. Winner of the 2011 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Huang earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the Juilliard School. He plays on the legendary 1742 ex-Wieniawski Guarneri del Gesù, on loan through the Stradivari Society of Chicago. He is on the faculty of Taipei National University of the Arts and resides in New York.

Pianist Wu Han, recipient of Musical America’s Musician of the Year Award, enjoys a multi-faceted musical life that encompasses artistic direction, performing, and recording at the highest levels. Co-Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since 2004 as well as Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Silicon Valley’s innovative chamber music festival Music@Menlo since 2002, she also serves as Artistic Advisor for Wolf Trap’s Chamber Music at the Barns series and Palm Beach’s Society of the Four Arts, and as Artistic Director for La Musica in Sarasota, Florida. Her recent concert activities have taken her from New York’s Lincoln Center stages to the most important concert halls in the United States, Europe, and Asia. In addition to countless performances of virtually the entire chamber repertoire, her concerto performances include appearances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony, and the Aspen Festival Orchestra. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of ArtistLed, classical music’s first artist-directed, internet-based recording label, which has released her performances of the staples of the cello-piano duo repertoire with cellist David Finckel. Her more than 80 releases on ArtistLed, CMS Live, and Music@Menlo LIVE include masterworks of the chamber repertoire with numerous distinguished musicians. Wu Han’s educational activities include overseeing CMS’s Bowers Program and the Chamber Music Institute at Music@Menlo. A recipient of the prestigious Andrew Wolf Award, she was mentored by some of the greatest pianists of our time, including Lilian Kallir, Rudolf Serkin, and Menahem Pressler. Married to cellist David Finckel since 1985, Wu Han divides her time between concert touring and residences in New York City and Westchester County.

PROGRAM

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)

Trio in E-flat major for Piano, Violin, and Cello, Op. 1, No. 1 (1793)

Allegro

Adagio cantabile

Scherzo: Allegro assai

Finale: Presto

WU HAN, HUANG, FINCKEL

Franz Schubert (1797–1828)

Trio in B-flat major for Violin, Viola, and Cello, D. 581 (1817)

Allegro moderato

Andante

Menuetto: Allegretto

Rondo: Allegretto

HUANG, FIGUEROA, FINCKEL

INTERMISSION

Nicolò Paganini (1782–1840)

Sonata in E minor for Violin and Piano, Op. 3, No. 6 (c. 1805)

Andante innocentemente

Allegro vivo e spiritoso

HUANG, WU HAN

Paganini

Cantabile in D major for Violin and Piano (c. 1824)

HUANG, WU HAN

Paganini

Introduction and Variations on “Dal tuo stellato soglio” from Rossini’s Mosè in Egitto for Violin and Piano (c. 1819)

HUANG, WU HAN

Schubert

Rondo brillant in B minor for Violin and Piano, D. 895, Op. 70 (1826)

HUANG, WU HAN