Violin Legends: Ysaÿe's Legacy — Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach

Violin Legends: Ysaÿe’s Legacy

Bask in unbridled emotion and virtuosity as star violinists Jennifer Frautschi, Benjamin Beilman, and Arnaud Sussmann shine in an evening of evocative works for solo violin, string quartet and piano. Featuring music of Chausson and Ysaye, two architects of modern violin performance.

Program

Ernest Chausson: Poème (Op. 25)

The Poème (Op. 25) that Chausson composed in 1896 remains the most recognizable calling card from that fruitful period near the end of his life. The Belgian superstar Eugène Ysaÿe had asked him for a violin concerto, but he demurred, calling it a “huge undertaking” and “the devil’s own task.” Instead of a proper concerto, Chausson took inspiration and the title from a novella by the Russian writer Ivan Turgenev to fashion a dreamy, freeform score he originally labeled The Song of Triumphant Love: Symphonic Poem for Violin and Orchestra. With the same gift for cutting to the heart of material that he showed in his musical language, Chausson chopped the title down simply to “Poem,” and he published both the orchestral original and his own transcription for violin and piano in 1898. The introspective flow and utter lack of gratuitous showiness have made this poetic gem a perennial favorite of those violinists who place feelings above fireworks.
Eugène Ysaÿe: Rêve d’enfant

At the dawn of the twentieth century, the Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaÿe (1858-1931) had an international career that few musicians could rival, spanning from the United States to Russia. The years he had trained in Paris and his ongoing friendships with major French composers meant that, in his own concert showpieces, Ysaÿe followed the Gallic fashion of valuing beautiful sound and heartfelt expression over formal rigor and technical flash. While on tour and fretting about the well-being of his six-year-old son who had been ill, Ysaÿe penned this sweet and simple Rêve d’enfant (“Child’s Dream”).
Ernest Chausson: Concert for Piano, Violin, and String Quartet (Op. 21)

French chamber music was resurgent in the 1880s after a long lull when it was subsumed by opera and other grand spectacles, and Chausson took up the trend by making his first foray into chamber music since a piano trio from his student days. Pausing his work on an opera based on King Arthur that took him eight years to complete, Chausson drafted the unusual Concert for Piano, Violin, and String Quartet (Op. 21) between 1889 and 1891. Rather than signifying a concerto in the Romantic mold, with the soloist playing against an orchestra, his use of the term concert (French for concerto) was instead a nod to the Baroque tradition of a group concerto or concerto grosso, in which individuals and the larger group work together. Ysaÿe appeared as the solo violinist at the premiere in Brussels in 1892.

Using a device popularized by his teacher César Franck, Chausson organized the entire piece around a unifying theme, heard at the beginning with a performance instruction that translates as “determined” or “purposeful.” Those three notes initiate a calm introduction, and they also launch the animated body of the movement, heading a theme introduced by the solo violin and piano. The wide-ranging finale completes this cyclical form by referencing earlier themes, including the all-important three notes from the beginning.

Featured Artists

Benjamin Beilman, violin

American violinist Benjamin Beilman is winning plaudits across the globe for his compelling and impassioned performances, his deep rich tone and searing lyricism. The Scotsman has described him as “a remarkable talent, delivering playing of rare insight and generosity, as captivating as it is gloriously entertaining” and the New York Times has praised his “handsome technique, burnished sound, and quiet confidence [which] showed why he has come so far so fast”.

Recent highlights include solo performances with Budapest Festival Orchestra conducted by Janowski, the Wroclaw Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Houston Symphony and Philadelphia Orchestra.

In recital and chamber music, Beilman performs regularly at the major halls across the world, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Wigmore Hall, Louvre (Paris), Philharmonie (Berlin), and Concertgebouw (Amsterdam).

Beilman studied with Almita and Roland Vamos at the Music Institute of Chicago, Ida Kavafian and Pamela Frank at the Curtis Institute of Music, and Christian Tetzlaff at the Kronberg Academy, and has received many prestigious accolades including a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship, an Avery Fisher Career Grant and a London Music Masters Award. Beilman plays the “Engleman” Stradivarius from 1709 generously on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation.
Jennifer Frautschi, violin

Two-time GRAMMY nominee and Avery Fisher career grant recipient violinist Jennifer Frautschi has appeared as soloist with innumerable orchestras including the Cincinnati Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Milwaukee Symphony. As chamber musician she has performed with the Boston Chamber Music Society and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and appeared at Chamber Music Northwest, La Jolla Summerfest, Music@Menlo, and many others.

Her extensive discography includes several discs for Naxos: the Stravinsky Violin Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London and two GRAMMY-nominated recordings with the Fred Sherry Quartet. She also recorded widely praised CDs featuring 20^th-century works for solo violin with Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony.

Ms. Frautschi attended the Colburn School, Harvard, the New England Conservatory, and the Juilliard School. She performs on a 1722 Stradivarius violin, “ex-Cadiz,” on loan with support from Rare Violins In Consortium. She teaches in the graduate program at Stony Brook University
Arnaud Sussmann, violin

Winner of a 2009 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Arnaud Sussmann has distinguished himself with his unique sound, bravura, and profound musicianship. Minnesota’s Pioneer Press writes, “Sussmann has an old-school sound reminiscent of vintage recordings by Jascha Heifetz or Fritz Kreisler, a rare combination of sweet and smooth that can hypnotize a listener.”

Mr. Sussmann has recently appeared as a soloist with the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev, and the Vancouver, and New World Symphonies. As a chamber musician, he has performed at the Tel Aviv Museum, London’s Wigmore Hall, Lincoln Center, and the White Nights Festival in Saint Petersburg. He has also given concerts at the Caramoor, Music@Menlo, La Jolla SummerFest, Mainly Mozart, and Seattle Chamber Music festivals, collaborating with many of today’s leading artists including Itzhak Perlman, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Wu Han, David Finckel, and Jan Vogler.

Sussmann is Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach, Co-Director of Music@Menlo’s International Program, and teaches at Stony Brook University.
Beth Guterman, viola

Beth Guterman Chu is one of the most sought-after violists of her generation. Before joining the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in 2013 as Principal Viola, she was a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and enjoyed a varied career as a chamber musician and recitalist. Chu is still an avid chamber musician, and collaborates with many artists including Gil Shaham, Itzhak Perlman, Joseph Kalichstein, Menahem Pressler, Jaime Laredo, James Ehnes, and members of the Guarneri, Emerson, and Orion quartets. As a recording artist, she has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, Tzadik, Naxos, and the CMS Studio Recordings.

During the summer Chu performs and works with young musicians at the Aspen Music Festival and School, National Youth Orchestra-USA, and at the Marlboro Music Festival. In recent years, she has also performed at festivals in Seattle; Lake Champlain, Vermont; Portland, Maine; as well as Luzerne, Bridgehampton, and Skaneateles, New York. Chu has also performed as soloist with many distinguished conductors including Hannu Lintu, Bramwell Tovey, David Robertson, Leonard Slatkin, and James DePreist.

Chu received her Artist Diploma at the New England Conservatory studying with Kim Kashkashian, and her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from the Juilliard School studying with Masao Kawasaki and Misha Amory. She lives in St. Louis with her husband Jonathan, another violist, and their three children.
Nick Canellakis, cello

Nicholas Canellakis has become one of the most sought-after and innovative cellists of his generation. The New York Times praises his playing as “impassioned … the audience seduced by Mr. Canellakis’s rich, alluring tone.”

Canellakis’s recent highlights include concerto appearances with the Albany, Delaware, and Lansing Symphonies, and the New Haven Symphony as Artist-in-Residence; international tours with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, with appearances in London’s Wigmore Hall, the Louvre in Paris, and Shanghai’s National Concert Hall; and recitals throughout the United States.

Canellakis is an artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and a regular guest artist at many of the world’s leading music festivals, including Santa Fe, Ravinia, Music@Menlo, Bard, and Bridgehampton. He was recently named Artistic Director of Chamber Music Sedona, in Arizona.

A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and New England Conservatory, his teachers have included Orlando Cole, Peter Wiley, Paul Katz, and Madeleine Golz.
Michael Stephen Brown, piano

Michael Stephen Brown has been hailed by The New York Times as “one of the leading figures in the current renaissance of performer-composers.” His artistry is shaped by his creative voice as a pianist and composer, praised for his “fearless performances” (The New York Times) and “exceptionally beautiful” compositions (The Washington Post).

Winner of the 2018 Emerging Artist Award from Lincoln Center and a 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Brown has recently performed as soloist with the Seattle Symphony, the National Philharmonic, the Grand Rapids symphony, and many others. He has given recitals at Carnegie Hall, the Mostly Mozart Festival, and Caramoor. Brown is an artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, performing frequently at Alice Tully Hall and on tour. He regularly performs recitals with his longtime duo partner, cellist Nicholas Canellakis, and has appeared at numerous festivals including Tanglewood, Marlboro, and Music@Menlo.

Brown was First Prize winner of the Concert Artists Guild Competition, a winner of the Bowers Residency from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (formerly CMS Two), a recipient of the Juilliard Petschek Award, and is a Steinway Artist. He earned dual bachelor’s and master’s degrees in piano and composition from The Juilliard School, where he studied with pianists Jerome Lowenthal and Robert McDonald and composers Samuel Adler and Robert Beaser.

A native New Yorker, he lives there with his two 19th century Steinway D’s, Octavia and Daria.