P R E S E N T S

Dalí Quartet with Ricardo Morales

Domenic Salerni, violin Carlos Rubio, violin

Adriana Linares, viola Jesús Morales, cello

Ricardo Morales, clarinet

Sunday, May 1, 2016 3:00 p.m.

John H. Williams Theatre Tulsa Performing Arts Center

This concert weekend and Any Given Child performances are underwritten in part by The Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, Burt Holmes and Mary Lee Townsend, and

Anna Maria Lloyd-Jones.

For more information about Chamber Music Tulsa, or to make a contribution, please visit ChamberMusicTulsa.org or call 918.587.3802

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Dalí Quartet

With an artist’s grace and a Caribbean soul, the Dalí Quartet is today’s freshest voice in Classical and Latin-American music. Anchored in both Venezuela’s El Siste-ma and in American classical conservatory traditions, this exciting quartet combines the best of both worlds.

The quartet is comprised of award-winning solo and chamber artists who have appeared at Carnegie Hall, toured widely in Europe and Asia, collaborated with some of the finest composers of our time, and recorded for Do-rian, Centaur and Naxos. Based in Philadelphia, the Dalí Quartet has brought the Latin-Classical connection to television, festivals, educational, and presenting organiza-tions on tour in Canada, the U.S., and South America. Recent and upcoming engagements include performances in New York, Toronto, Washington D.C., Detroit, Port-land (OR), Tulsa, San Jose (CA), East Lansing, Des Moines and beyond.

The Dalí Quartet serves as Quartet in Residence for the Arts & Community Network where it hosts the Dali Quar-tet International Music Festival. The Dalí is also a Resi-dent Ensemble of the Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra in Philadelphia, serves as West Chester University’s 2015-2016 Brandywine Artist-in-Residence, and IRIS Orches-tra Resident Ensemble as well. A part of the Dalí Quar-tet’s mission includes the presentation of many Latin-Classical educational programs each year. On tour, the group gives master-classes and professional development workshops for students at colleges and universities, has inaugurated a library series for the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and has created outreach programming for all the 4th grade students in Tulsa’s Any Given Child pro-gram.

For more information on the Dalí Quartet’s activities, please visit www.daliquartet.com.

Ricardo Morales

Ricardo Morales is the principal clarinetist of The Phila-delphia Orchestra. Prior to this, he was principal clarinet of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, a position he as-sumed at the age of 21 under the direction of James Lev-ine. He began his professional career as principal clarinet of the Florida Symphony at age 18. In addition, he has performed as guest principal clarinet with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, The New York Philharmonic and at the invitation of Sir Simon Rattle, performed as guest principal clarinet with the Berlin Philharmonic. He has also participated as principal clarinet of the Saito Kinen Festival Orchestra in Matsumoto, Japan, under maestro Seiji Ozawa.

A native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, Mr. Morales began his studies at the Escuela Libre de Musica along with his five siblings, who are all distinguished musicians. He contin-ued his studies at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and Indiana University, where he received his Artist Di-ploma.

An active chamber musician, Mr. Morales has performed in the MET Chamber Ensemble series at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall with James Levine at the piano, at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the Saratoga Chamber Music Festival, on NBC’s The Today Show, and with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He has performed with many distinguished ensembles such as The Juilliard Quartet, the Pacifica Quartet, the Miró Quartet, the Leipzig Quar-tet and The Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio. He has also collaborated with Christoph Eschenbach, André Watts, Emmanuel Ax, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Gil Shaham

and Kathleen Battle. Mr. Morales is highly sought after for his recitals and master classes, which have taken him throughout North America and Europe. In addition, he currently serves on the faculties of the Juilliard School, Temple University and the Curtis Institute of Music.

He has been a featured soloist with many orchestras in-cluding the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony, the Indianapolis Symphony, the Seoul Philharmonic, Les Violons du Roi, the Flemish Radio Symphony, the North Carolina Sym-phony, the Puerto Rico Symphony, the Florida Symphony and the Columbus Symphony. During his tenure with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Mr. Morales soloed under the baton of James Levine in Carnegie Hall and on two European tours. He made his solo debut with The Phila-delphia Orchestra in 2004 with Charles Dutoit and has since performed as soloist on numerous occasions.

His performances have been met with critical acclaim. The Philadelphia Inquirer hailed his appointment to the Philadelphia Orchestra, stating “…in fact, may represent the most salutary personnel event of the orchestra’s last decade.” He was also praised by the New York Times as having “...fleet technique, utterly natural musical grace, and the lyricism and breath control of a fine opera sing-er.” Mr. Morales was also singled out in the New York Times review of the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Berlioz’s Les Troyens, describing his playing as “exquis-ite” and declared that he “deserved a place onstage during curtain calls.”

For more information, please visit Mr. Morales’ website, www.ricardomoralesclarinet.com.

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Program

Angelica (Mix of Latin rhythms, 2000) Efraín Amaya (Venezuela, b. 1959)

Clarinet Quintet in B Minor, Op. 115 Johannes Brahms (1833–1897)

Allegro Adagio Andantino Con moto

I N T E R M I S S I O N String Quartet No. 1 Heitor Villa-Lobos (Brazil, 1887-1959)

Cantilena: Andante Brincadeira: Allegretto scherzando Canto lirico: Moderato Canconeta: Andantino quasi Allegretto Melancolia: Lento Saltando como um Saci: Allegro

La Historia de un Amor Carlos Eleta Almarán (Panamá, b. 1918–2013) “The story of love” (Bolero, 1956) arr. by Javier Montiel

El día que me quieras Carlos Gardel (Argentina, 1890–1935)

“The day you love me” (Tango, 1935) arr. by N. Aponte

Wapango (1990) Paquito D’Rivera (Cuba, b. 1948)

Preludio y Merengue Paquito D’Rivera (Cuba, b. 1948)

Arr, by Gustavo Tavares for Clarinet and String Quartet

Chamber Music Tulsa’s concerts and educational outreaches are presented with the assistance of

the Oklahoma Arts Council and Arts Alliance Tulsa.

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About the Program by Jason S. Heilman, Ph.D., © 2016

Efraín Amaya Born in 1959 in Caracas, Venezuela

Angelica Composed in 2000; duration: 6 minutes

Born in Venezuela but raised in the United States, Efraín Amaya is a versatile conductor as well as a composer whose music spans two cultures. He began his earliest music studies in Venezuela before relocating to the U.S., where he earned degrees in composition and conducting from Indiana University and Rice University. Afterwards, Amaya returned to Venezuela to conduct a youth orches-tra in the vaunted El Sistema program. In 1993, he came back to America to become the orchestra director at Car-negie Mellon University. Currently, Amaya is on the fac-ulty of Minot State University in North Dakota and serves as music director of the Minot Symphony Orchestra.

Amaya’s compositions range from intimate chamber works to operas. He composed the single-movement An-gelica for a violinist friend, eventually completing ver-sions for both string quartet and orchestra. The piece de-picts the legend of the knight Rinaldo and the beautiful Angelica. The two meet at a jousting tournament, and Rinaldo is immediately smitten, but Angelica remains unmoved. Then, during a chase through the forest, the two drink from different magic fountains and find their feelings reversed: suddenly Angelica is in love with Rinaldo, who now flees from her advances. The music tells this vivid story of the star-crossed lovers through the characteristically complex rhythms of Latin American dances.

Johannes Brahms Born May 7, 1833, in Hamburg (Germany) Died April 3, 1897, in Vienna (Austria)

Clarinet Quintet in B Minor, Op. 115 Composed in 1891; duration: 36 minutes

The clarinet is a relatively young instrument, and its chamber repertoire is not nearly as extensive as that of the violin or even the other woodwinds. Most of the nota-ble contributions to the clarinet repertoire came as a re-sult of the personal connections forged between virtuoso clarinetists and their era’s leading composers. In the late 1780s, the Viennese clarinetist Anton Stadler showed Mozart the instrument’s potential, and was directly re-sponsible for Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto as well as his Clarinet Quintet in A, K.581. This latter work was one of the earliest surviving pieces of chamber music to feature the clarinet, and it served as the inspiration for numerous subsequent works in the genre.

More than a century later, when Johannes Brahms came to fully appreciate the instrument, he was already the most honored and revered composer alive. In fact, Brahms had retired from composing altogether in 1890, bringing to a close a career that took him from his native Hamburg to Vienna, and saw him heralded as the succes-sor to Schumann and Beethoven, largely on the strength of his chamber music. Brahms’s inspiration to come out of retirement was the clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld, who was then the principal clarinetist and assistant conductor of the Court Orchestra in Meiningen, Germany. The Meininger Hofkapelle was at the time considered one of the finest orchestras in Europe, and Mühlfeld’s skill on the instrument must have been most impressive, as Brahms ended up composing no less than four chamber works for the clarinet in his “retirement”: a Trio for Clari-net, Cello and Piano, two Clarinet Sonatas, and the Quin-tet for Clarinet and Strings.

As a late work in the composer’s life, Brahms’s Clarinet Quintet has an appropriately introspective quality that seems to evoke the autumn years not just of a distin-guished composer, but also of an entire way of life as the nineteenth century drew to a close. The work’s acquies-cent key of B minor no doubt contributes to this percep-tion. The autumnal mood is set right away in the allegro first movement, which opens with a short, nostalgic mel-ody in the strings that is immediately taken up by the clarinet. This opening theme will be integral to the sona-ta-form movement — and, as we will see, the work as a whole — as it returns at key structural points, often juxta-posed against a more angular second theme. The adagio second movement is cast in three large sections: the first is like a song without words, initially sung by the clarinet over a string accompaniment, then in alternation with the violin. The middle section is announced by a declamatory clarinet solo, which is often characterized as Gypsy-sounding, but could just as easily recall Italian opera. This dramatic, cadenza-like section then leads to a return of the opening music to close the movement. The brighter major key of the brief andantino third movement pro-vides a necessary contrast; this movement opens with a lyrical, serpentine melody, which segues into a jaunty scherzo that Brahms marks “not too fast, but with senti-ment”. Much like the finale of Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet, Brahms’s finale is in the form of a theme and variations: the fourth movement opens with a con moto statement of the minor-key theme, which Brahms subjects to five dis-tinct variations that give all of the instruments of the en-semble their own chances to shine. The final variation elides into a transformed restatement of the autumnal theme that opened the work’s first movement, drawing the quintet to a close in the same mood in which it began.

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Heitor Villa-Lobos Born March 5, 1887, in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) Died November 17, 1959, in Rio de Janeiro

String Quartet No. 1 Composed in 1915, revised ca. 1947; duration: 20 minutes

The culture of Brazil is forged from a unique mixture of European, African, and Native American influences — and no composer embodied that mixture more than Heit-or Villa-Lobos. Born in Rio de Janeiro during Brazil’s tenuous transition from a monarchy to a republic, Villa-Lobos learned the clarinet, guitar, and cello as a boy, but he identified more closely with his nation’s popular music — particularly the mournful chôros, which seemed to ex-press his own despair after his father’s untimely death. This ignited a lifelong passion; when he turned eighteen, Villa-Lobos abandoned his studies for a medical career to wander the Brazilian countryside and absorb the diverse folk music of his vast homeland for seven years. During this time, he occasionally returned home to take formal music courses, but his real musical education was borne out of his insatiable curiosity.

Villa-Lobos’s passion for Brazilian indigenous music was matched by his admiration for the European classical tra-dition, and his impressive compositional output com-bined these two strains in striking ways. His best-known works are his series of nine Bachianas Brasileiras; com-posed between 1930 and 1945; these suites for diverse groups of instruments blend elements of Brazilian folk music with the contrapuntal style of J.S. Bach. Taking inspiration from Joseph Haydn, Villa-Lobos also wrote no less than 17 string quartets. At one point, he reportedly confessed to a friend that he had a “mania” for the genre.

This mania started in 1915, when Villa-Lobos composed his First String Quartet, albeit in a completely different form from the quartet we know today. Villa-Lobos’s First Quartet started out as a three-movement folksong suite, which he later expanded to six movements sometime be-fore 1947. Across the two versions, the basic idea re-mained the same: Villa-Lobos intended to create an ana-logue to the dance suites of Bach, only by drawing upon the song and dance styles of his native Brazil instead of the European Baroque dances of Bach’s era. An alterna-tion between heartfelt and jocular movements soon be-comes apparent as the quartet unfolds. It opens with an expressively soulful cantilena, sung by the quartet as though it were a romantic aria. This is contrasted imme-diately by a brincadeira; meaning “joke”, this witty movement serves as a quick scherzo. The canto lirico that follows returns to the impassioned mood of the first movement, while the subsequent cançoneta lightens the mood a little with its breezy lyricism and bouncing rhythms. The fifth movement, titled melancolia, returns to the theme of romantic yearning, this time announced by the violin. The finale dispels this mood almost imme-diately; titled saltando como um sací, or “the jumping of the sací,” this bouncing movement refers to a leprechaun-

type creature from Brazilian folklore, whose humorous walking style rather incongruously serves as the subject of a fugue.

Carlos Eleta Almarán Born May 16, 1918, in Panama City (Panama) Died January 16, 2013, in Panama City

La Historia de un Amor Composed in 1955; duration: 4 minutes

Carlos Eleta Almarán was a businessman and occasional songwriter who scored an unlikely hit with an intensely personal song. Born in Panama, Almarán earned degrees in business from Málaga University in Spain and Bryant College in Providence, Rhode Island. Returning to Pana-ma in 1941, he took over his family business, which in-cluded the Central American distributorship of Chester-field cigarettes, and composed songs in his spare time. In 1955, after the death of his brother’s wife, Almarán wrote “La Historia de un Amor” (“Love Story”), a poignant bolé-ro whose lyrics tell of the sadness of losing the one you love. Initially popular in its local recordings, the song be-came a major Latin American hit when it was used as the basis of a Mexican film by the same name in 1956. Since then, the song has been covered by countless artists, from Eydie Gormé to Julio Iglesias to Il Volo.

Carlos Gardel Born December 11, 1890 in Toulouse (France) Died June 24, 1935 in Medellín (Colombia)

El día que me quieras Composed ca. 1935; duration: 4 minutes

Singer and composer Carlos Gardel nearly singlehandedly elevated the tango to international popularity over his brief career in the 1920s and 30s. Yet like any artist whose career has transcended into myth, his origins are something of a mystery. Current biographers believe he was born Charles Romuald Gardes to an unwed mother in Toulouse, France. Fleeing social stigma, his mother brought him to Buenos Aires at the age of three. There, he grew up speaking Spanish, and, going by Carlos Gardel, he immersed himself in the city’s burgeoning tango sub-culture. By age 17, he was singing with his own tango trio, and after a hit first record, he toured constantly through-out South America. Sadly, Gardel’s life was cut short at the peak of his success in 1935, when he and his band perished in an airplane crash over Colombia. But his last year saw the creation of his most enduring music, includ-ing the tangos “Volver” and “Por una cabeza” — arguably the most famous tango ever written — and the song “El día que me quieras.” Gardel’s recording of the latter song, whose title translates to “The day that you love me,” was made popular by a 1935 movie of the same name. Since then, it has been covered by such artists as Luis Miguel and Gloria Estefan.

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Paquito D’Rivera Born June 4, 1948, in Havana (Cuba)

Wapango Composed in 1975; revised in 1990; duration: 5 minutes

Preludio y Merengue Composed in 2003, revised in 2013; duration: 6 minutes

The music of saxophonist, clarinetist and composer Paquito D’Rivera defies categorization; indeed, it seems to inhabit many different worlds at the same time. Born in Havana, his earliest musical studies were with his fa-ther, a classical saxophonist. As a teenager, the younger D’Rivera played clarinet and saxophone in the Cuban Na-tional Symphony Orchestra while at the same time per-forming with Havana’s many Latin and jazz groups. In the 1970s, he was one of the founding members of Irak-ere, the groundbreaking Afro-Cuban ensemble that mixed elements of jazz, rock and traditional Cuban music.

It was on Irakere’s 1981 tour of Spain that D’Rivera de-fected, seeking asylum at the U.S. embassy there. Moving to New York, he was quickly able to establish himself on the American jazz scene, having earned the respect of such artists as Dizzy Gillespie and David Amram. More recently, D’Rivera has collaborated with such classical artists as Yo-Yo Ma, the Ying Quartet, and Imani Winds, becoming the only artist to ever have won Grammy Awards in both the Classical and Latin Jazz categories.

The two selections on today’s program feature D’Rivera’s trademark setting of distinctive Latin American dance styles in rhythmically complex arrangements, represent-ing a modern updating of tradition. Wapango is inspired by the huapango, a syncopated Mexican folk dance in a 6-beat rhythm. Preludio y Merengue, featuring the clari-net, opens with a flurry of activity which gradually sub-sides into a colorful yet episodic prelude. A propulsive rhythm emerges to signal the beginning of the merengue dance, in a 5-beat meter, with flourishes in the clarinet accompanied by percussive effects in the string.

Chamber Music Tulsa

Chamber Music Tulsa presents outstanding chamber music concerts and educational experiences for the appreciation and enjoyment of the community. Our vision is to be an essential element of an arts-rich Tulsa community, a presenter of pro-grams enjoyed by people of all ages and backgrounds, and an organization acknowledged nationally and internationally for professional and artistic excellence. For more information on our upcoming concerts and outreach activities, please visit www.chambermusictulsa.org.

Contributors

The Haydn Circle$30,000 and above The Oklahoma Arts Council The Estate of Susan Douze $15,000 to $29,999 The Mervin Bovaird Foundation Pam and Terry Carter The Charles and Marion Weber

Foundation $10,000 to $14,999 The Judith and Jean Pape Adams

Foundation The Albert and Hete Barthelmes

Foundation The Charles and Lynn Schusterman

Family Foundation $5,000 to $9,999 The Sharna and Irvin Frank Foundation Mary Ann Hille

Burt Holmes Ana Maria Jones Lydia and Ted Kronfeld Mid-America Arts Alliance Emily Wood $1,000 to $4,999 Anonymous The Avery Family Trust Etta May Avery The Denise Caves Trust Robert Babcock and Bill Major/ONE Gas

Foundation Marion and Bill Elson Raymond Feldman Mark Fossey Janie and Earl Funk Phyllis and Harvey Gaspar The Gelvin Foundation The Herbert and Roseline Gussman

Foundation

Phil Haney Helen Jo and Jim Hardwick Kathleen Gerety and James Howard Deloris Isted Frankie and Carleton James Judy and Allen Keenan Les Lapidus Amanda Lawrence Mary McIlhany Catherine and Gordon Nielsen Cheryl Cornelius-Ochs and Leonard Ochs Jane Mudgett and Sam Peled Beth and Jim Rainey Mary Lhevine and George Schnetzer Senior Star Stephanie and Tom Seymour Kim Smith and Bob Stanley Dorothy and Michael Tramontana Tom and Vicki Warburton The Burl and Nita Watson Fund

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$500 to $999 Mary Athens Marsue and Bill Gent Anne Graham Linda and Tony Ringold Helen Savage Josie Winter Betsy and Joel Zeligson

$100 to $499 Ellen and Stephen Adelson Laurence and Claudia Altshuler Nancy and Paul Anderson Mike and Ginny Ayling Vera Berlin Michael Blechner Barbara Bucchianeri Diane Bucchianeri Beth Clary Irene and Jimmy Cody Alice and James Costas Carroll Craft Carol Mochel and James Deal Sally and Robert Donaldson Myriam and Rainer Dupont Norma Eagleton Claire Farr Noam Faingold Rich Fisher Linda and Marc Frazier Martin Frey Jennifer Gibbens Linda Goldenstern Lynn Greene Nancy Hermann Cherie and Bill Hughes Aldean Newcomb and George Krumme Dietrich Lanert Euclide Le Leux Sandra Moore Dennis Neill Stephen Parker Deborah Pinkerton Bobbye Potter Jack C. Rea

Nancy Sahler Alton Schultz Beverly Seay Joan and Harry Seay Jean Seeger Anna Marie Sellers Manju Singh Susan Swatek Renata and Sven Treitel Theodore Vestal Penny Williams

Up to $100 Rolf and Adele Blom Laura Bottoms Kathryn Burke Lewis Cappellari Jessica and D’wain Carthen Scott Black and Houston Conner Eugene De Verges Patricia Eaton Jay Engle Barry Farbro Bill Elson, Jr. Sue Forney Jeremy Foster Miriam Freedman Nancy Hardy Laura Hockett Sonia Hocherman Raymond Johnson Ian Kiefer Kym Morella Robert Pitcock Glenda and Larry Silvey Bruce Sorrell Barbara Swiggart Rhonda Wagnon Jody Walsh Sue Young

In Memory of Bill Gent Norma Eagleton Emily Wood

In Memory of Frank Letcher Michael Blechner Renata and Sven Treitel Emily Wood

In Memory of Martin Letcher Linda Goldenstern

In Memory of Ray Feldman Michael Blechner Norma Eagleton Linda Goldenstern Jim Green Beth and Jim Rainey Joan and Harry Seay Emily Wood

In Memory of Ted Kronfeld Ginny and Mike Ayling Jo and Jack Babbitt Joel Blake Maurice and Lindsay Blanco Michael Blechner Pam and Terry Carter Susie Collins Hentschel John and Lynn Evansohn Janie and Earl Funk Fernelius Alvarez Simon PLLC Linda Goldenstern Anne Graham Edee Harvey Cindy Marshall Jane Mudgett and Sam Peled Kent Oellien Joseph Parker The Reiff Family Laura and Brannon Robertson SK Plymouth Peggy Striegel and Tom Schmeltz Jessie and Charlie Stein Peter Walter Emily Wood Maxine Zarrow

Board of Directors

Jane Mudgett, President Cherie Hughes, Vice President Mary McIlhany, Secretary Kymberly Morella, Treasurer Michael Blechner Rolf Blom Pam Carter Houston Conner Bob Donaldson

Noam Faingold Claire Farr Rich Fisher Linda Frazier Earl Funk Kathleen Gerety Frankie James Allen Keenan Lydia Kronfeld

Bethany Lyon, TYPros Intern Beth Rainey Susan Swatek Emily Wood Bruce Sorrell, Executive Director J.J. Cody, Customer/Donor Relations

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