1

Simple GiftsSimple GiftsThe Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center

at Shaker VillageThe Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center

at Shaker VillageThe Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center

at Shaker Village

Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869)

1 The Union, Concert Paraphrase on National Airs for Piano, Op. 48 (1862) 7:20

Antonín Dvorák (1841-1904)

Sonatina in G major for Violin and Piano, Op. 100 (1893)

2 Allegro risoluto 6:10

3 Larghetto 4:11

4 Scherzo: Molto vivace 3:07

5 Finale: Allegro 6:33

Samuel Barber (1910-1981) Souvenirs for Piano, Four Hands, Op. 28 (1951-52)

6 Waltz 3:40

7 Schottische 2:07

8 Pas de deux 3:35

9 Two-Step 1:51

10 Hesitation Tango 3:27

11 Galop 2:37

Gilles Vonsattel, PiAno

Arnaud Sussmann, VioLin Wu Han, PiAno

Gilles Vonsattel, PiAno

Wu Han, PiAno

Mark O’Connor (b. 1961)

12 F.C.’s Jig for Violin and Viola (1992-93) 3:48

Aaron Copland (1900-1990)

13 Appalachian Spring Suite for Ensemble (1944) 24:41

Stephen Foster (1826-1864)

Selections from The Social Orchestra for Ensemble (arr. Tara Helen O’Connor) (1854)

14 Village Quadrille no. 1 1:29

15 Jeannie’s own Schottisch 1:31

16 Village Quadrille no. 4 1:13

Arnaud Sussmann, VioLin

Paul neubauer, VioLA

Kristin Lee, Arnaud Sussmann, Adam Barnett-Hart, Aaron Boyd, VioLin • Paul neubauer, Pierre Lapointe, VioLA • David Finckel, Brook Speltz, CELLo Daxun Zhang, DouBLE BASS Tara Helen o’Connor, FLuTE David Shifrin, CLARinET Peter Kolkay, BASSoon Gilles Vonsattel, PiAno

Gilles Vonsattel, Wu Han, PiAno

Adam Barnett-Hart, Arnaud Sussmann, Aaron Boyd, Kristin Lee, VioLin • Pierre Lapointe, Paul neubauer, VioLA • Brook Speltz, David Finckel, CELLo Daxun Zhang, DouBLE BASS Tara Helen o’Connor, FLuTE David Shifrin, CLARinET

Peter Kolkay, BASSoon

This recording captures a historic moment in

American history: the first performance of

Aaron Copland’s iconic ballet score Appalachian

Spring in the heart of an authentic Shaker

village. Why historic? Because Copland adapt-

ed the famous Shaker song “Simple Gifts”

as the centerpiece of his moving depiction of

an Appalachian wedding, and The Chamber

Music Society of Lincoln Center proudly

brought Copland’s masterful realization of the

tune “home” for the first time since its original

composition by Elder Joseph Brackett in 1848.

When that tune—containing music and a mes-

sage which have become universal—sounded

introduction

4

in the hushed tobacco barn of the village, the

communal emotional intensity hit a peak rarely

experienced in a concert hall, a moment here

captured for eternity, for all to share. These

performances of Copland’s original score and

the accompanying American-inspired works

speak for themselves, but we would be remiss

without acknowledging the supreme skill of

our musicians, the state-of-the-art engineering

and producing of Da-Hong Seetoo, and the

wholehearted support of Shaker Village of

Pleasant Hill, Kentucky, without which this

extraordinary project would not have reached

a pinnacle of artistic achievement.

David Finckel and Wu Han

ARTiSTiC DiRECToRS

The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center

5

program notes

Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869)

1 The Union, Concert Paraphrase on National Airs for Piano, Op. 48 (1862) 7:20

Though little-known today, and unfairly

relegated by history to the status of a parlor

pianist, Louis Moreau Gottschalk was arguably

America’s first nationalistic composer, as well

as a virtuoso pianist of considerable talent.

Born and raised in new orleans, Gottschalk

was exposed to a wide variety of cultural and

musical influences from Europe, north America,

South America, and the Caribbean—influences

that he would later assimilate in his own com-

positions, and that in turn would lead to the

development of ragtime, jazz, and blues in the

late 1890s and early 1910s.

Gottschalk played a tremendous role in

the development of an authentic American

6

7

musical voice. Long before Charles ives or

Aaron Copland ever put pen to paper, Gott-

schalk was consciously incorporating echoes

of daily life and culture in America during

the 19th century into his compositions: from

popular American folk songs, Afro-Caribbean

tunes, rhythms, and Creole melodies, to the

sounds of circus bands, horse races, banjos,

and drums. He managed to fuse together

these varied and multi-cultural musical influ-

ences in compositions written idiomatically

for the piano with the skill of a true virtuoso,

making his the most important pianistic out-

put by an American of the mid-19th century.

Composed in 1862, The Union: Concert

Paraphrase on National Airs is nothing if

not the greatest patriotic celebration in all

of music: a triumphant, virtuosic musical

firework display that celebrates the American

spirit like no other. in it, Gottschalk weaves

together several traditional tunes including

“Yankee Doodle,” “Hail, Columbia,” and

“The Star-Spangled Banner” (which at the

time of The Union’s composition was not yet

the official anthem of the united States) to

tremendous and dazzling effect.

Antonín Dvorák (1841-1904)

Sonatina in G major for Violin and Piano, Op. 100 (1893)

2 Allegro risoluto 6:10

3 Larghetto 4:11

4 Scherzo: Molto vivace 3:07

5 Finale: Allegro 6:33

on September 26, 1892, Czech composer

Antonín Dvořák arrived in new York City to

take up the post of Director at the newly

founded national Conservatory of Music.

The hope was that Dvořák would not only lead

the conservatory, but also guide a new genera-

tion of American composers in establishing a

national musical identity.

in contemplating the new American

musical idiom that he had been tasked with

fostering, Dvořák found exciting potential

in native and African American melodies,

rhythms, and harmonies. As a result, we find

in Dvořák’s American-inspired chamber music

(including the sonatina) the use of pentatonic

scales and driving ostinati or syncopated

8

rhythms reminiscent of native American drum

beats. And while these features were already

present in Dvořák’s earlier music (the use of

the pentatonic scale, for example, is common

to other forms of music worldwide, including

music from Dvořák’s homeland of Bohemia),

they acquired greater prominence in Dvořák’s

music during his stay in the new World.

Dvořák certainly also drew inspiration from

the natural beauty he found in the new World,

especially around the town of Spillville, iowa,

an area with a large Czech population, where

Dvořák vacationed during the summer of 1893.

it was around this time that Dvořák also visited

Minnehaha Falls in St. Paul, Minnesota. Accord-

ing to Dvořák: “We went to the valley and

saw little Minnehaha Falls, a place that Henry

Wadsworth Longfellow celebrated in his famous

poem 'The Song of Hiawatha.' it is not possible

to express how bewitching it was.” it was while

standing amidst the spray of the waterfall that

Dvořák was suddenly struck with inspiration,

and where he hurriedly scribbled a musical

theme on his shirt sleeve. That melody was to

become the theme of the slow movement (Lar-

ghetto) of his Sonatina in G major, op. 100.

The sonatina was the last chamber music

composition Dvořák wrote during his sojourn

in America, and was intended as a gift for two

of his children, his 15-year-old daughter otilie

and 10-year-old son Toník. in a letter to his

publisher, Fritz Simrock, on January 2, 1894,

Dvořák conceived the piece in the following

terms: “it is intended for youths (dedicated to

my two children), but even grown-ups, adults,

should be able to converse with it...” indeed,

while the relative simplicity of the writing has

made the work a favorite for performance by

young musicians, the invigorating freshness,

delicacy, and delightful joy of the sonatina has

captured the inspiration and imagination of

musicians and listeners of all ages.

9

Samuel Barber (1910-1981) Souvenirs for Piano, Four Hands, Op. 28 (1951-52)

6 Waltz 3:40

7 Schottische 2:07

8 Pas de deux 3:35

9 Two-Step 1:51

10 Hesitation Tango 3:27

11 Galop 2:37

Perhaps more than any other composer of his

time, Samuel Barber was the face of American

music to the world, winning two Pulitzer Prizes,

representing the united States in the first

post-World War ii international music festival,

serving as vice-president of the international

Music Council, attending the biennial Congress

of Soviet Composers in Moscow in 1962, and

being one of a select group of composers

commissioned to write music for the opening

of Lincoln Center.

ironically, this most “American” of American

composers did not fall into the Americana mode

of an ives, Gershwin, or Copland. Barber was

in spirit a neo-romantic, a quality that we

immediately associate with his “blockbuster” hit,

the Adagio for Strings, his Violin Concerto, or the

evocative Knoxville: Summer of 1915. Souvenirs,

however, shows us a different (and more per-

sonal) side of Barber—light-hearted nostalgia—

and reflects, in the words of music critic Wilfrid

Mellers, an “awareness of adolescence [that]

strikes deep into the American experience.”

According to biographer Barbara Heyman,

Barber and his mother used to visit the Palm

Court of the Plaza Hotel for tea while visiting

new York City—a fond memory from his youth

that the composer tapped into when in 1951 he

started a suite of six duets for piano, four hands,

at the encouragement of his friend and student

Charles Turner. Further inspiration came in the

form of Barber and Turner’s frequent visits to

the chic Blue Angel Club, where they would

listen to the piano duo of Edie and Rack play

arrangements of Broadway show tunes and

other popular music. Turner persuaded Barber to

write something in a similarly light vein, and the

result was Souvenirs, which they often played

to great effect at parties and social gatherings.

10

Souvenirs stylishly surveys the following

dance types: the waltz, schottische, pas de

deux, two-step, "hesitation tango" (Barber's

phrase), and galop. in the preface to the pub-

lished score Barber wrote: “one might imagine

a divertissement in the setting of the Palm Court

of the Hotel Plaza in new York, the year about

1914, epoch of the first tangos; ‘Souvenirs’—

remembered with affection, not in irony or with

tongue in cheek, but in amused tenderness.”

Mark O’Connor (b. 1961) 12 F.C.’s Jig for Violin and

Viola (1992-93) 3:48

From the plush setting of the Plaza Hotel in

new York City circa 1914, we would have to go

back some three hundred years to the arrival

of the first settlers in the new World in order

to trace the history of fiddle-playing and the

origins of Mark o’Connor’s F.C.’s Jig.

in 1620, when the Francis Bonaventure

sailed up the James River to Jamestown,

Virginia, its precious cargo included a fiddle

belonging to one John utie, who had played

“a Violl at sea” during the long journey west.

utie, as far as we know, holds the special dis-

tinction of being the first known fiddler to set

foot on American soil.

For years the fiddle was virtually the only

instrument found on the frontier, and in the

Appalachian hills of West Virginia and Kentucky

it became a fixture in the homes of farmers and

plantation owners. in the South it was used so

widely that as early as 1736 we find written

accounts of fiddle contests. The fiddle also took

center-stage in dance bands, with the jig (which

originated in Scotland and northern England in

the 16th and 17th centuries), proving one of the

11

more popular dance forms of the day.

in 1995, Mark o’Connor, one of today’s

foremost fiddle virtuosos, teamed up with

cellist Yo-Yo Ma and double bassist Edgar

Meyer for the album Appalachia Waltz, which

featured, among others, his composition,

F.C.’s Jig, for violin and cello, based on the

third movement of his earlier Fiddle Concerto

(hence “F.C.”). o’Connor himself explained:

“i retained the violin line from the score and

adapted the entire symphonic orchestration

into the second line.”

o’Connor later arranged F.C.’s Jig for violin

and viola. The result is thrilling: a virtuoso duet

filled with infectious energy and joy that remains

true to o’Connor’s belief that “American music

sounds so optimistic… because people actually

do believe that tomorrow could be better here.”

Aaron Copland (1900-1990) 13 Appalachian Spring Suite for

Ensemble (1944) 24:41

The pioneering path Dvořák forged in

developing an American musical identity

enabled Aaron Copland, perhaps more than

any other composer, to succeed in creating

a distinctly American style of classical music

by incorporating elements of American

popular music such as jazz, folksong, cow-

boy songs, spiritual hymns, dance rhythms,

“big-city sounds,” and Latin American ele-

ments into his compositions, most notably

in works such as El Salón Mexico, Billy the

Kid, and Rodeo.

Copland’s masterpiece, however, is

Appalachian Spring, which perfectly cap-

tures the essence of an ideal America, one

of vast landscapes and endless possibilities.

in 1942, the influential dancer Martha

Graham commissioned Copland to write a

ballet with “an American theme.” Copland

responded with a work simply titled Ballet

for Martha, based on an abstract plot that

describes “a pioneer celebration in spring

around a newly-built farmhouse in the

Pennsylvania hills in the early part of the

last century.”

Graham chose the title “Appalachian

Spring” shortly before the work’s premiere

from a phrase that struck her in Hart Crane’s

12

poem, “The Dance.” Following its premiere,

Copland was amused that people would

compliment his music as brilliantly evok-

ing the pastoral beauty of Appalachia, even

though he readily admitted that was not

his intention. “i gave voice to that region

without knowing i was giving voice to it,”

he later noted.

While Billy the Kid and Rodeo made

explicit reference to American myth and

incorporated actual folk songs, Copland's

musical treatment in Appalachian Spring, as

music writer Peter Gutmann points out, is

far more subtle, and yet sounds completely

“American.” Musically the score is made up

of a wealth of diverse influences, including

13

open intervals, long melodic lines that seem

to stretch time, wide spacing of instrumen-

tal parts, sections of great rhythmic energy

contrasted by sections of great simplicity,

and diatonic (and sometimes modal) har-

monies reminiscent of the traditional songs

and fiddle tunes inherited from Scotland

and England. Appalachian Spring is also

comprised of distinct sections, in contrast

to the through-composed music of many

German Romantic and early twentieth-

century composers, and other American

composers trained in that tradition.

The most famous extraneous musical

influence in Appalachian Spring, however,

and the emotional climax of the work, is

Copland’s use of a melody based on a

traditional Shaker song, “Simple Gifts,” that

was composed by Elder Joseph Brackett Jr.

in the Shaker community at Alfred, Maine

in 1848. The song wonderfully evokes the

“earnest, but good-natured piety” of

Shaker culture:

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to

be free,

'Tis the gift to come down where we ought

to be,

And when we find ourselves in the place

just right,

'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gain'd,

To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd,

To turn, turn will be our delight

'Till by turning, turning we come round

right.

in Appalachian Spring, Copland and

Graham succeeded in distilling the essence

of human aspiration by evoking an idealized

image of the frontier and its eternal sense

of opportunity, promise, and hope. unlike

The Union, Appalachian Spring contains no

explicit patriotic content, yet at the time of

its premiere and in the years following, it

served to underscore the core values of the

American people during the Second World

War. Decades later, it still has, as Gutmann

observed, the power to reaffirm established

ideals of hope and optimism, and to speak

straight to the hearts of listeners, regardless

of nationality or religion.

14

Stephen Foster (1826-1864)Selections from The Social Orchestra for Ensemble (arr. Tara Helen O’Connor)

(1854)

14 Village Quadrille no. 1 1:29

15 Jeannie’s own Schottisch 1:31

16 Village Quadrille no. 4 1:13

American musical nostalgia found its greatest

voice in the songs of Stephen Collins Foster,

known as “the father of American music.”

His output of more than 200 songs, includ-

ing such well-known tunes as “oh! Susanna,”

“Camptown Races,” “old Folks at Home,”

“My old Kentucky Home” (Kentucky’s official

state song), “Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair,”

“old Black Joe,” and “Beautiful Dreamer,” have

become an integral part of America’s collective

cultural conscience.

As a composer, Foster, like Gottschalk,

drew from the various music and cultural influ-

ences circulating in the immigrant populations

of the new united States (his first hit, “oh,

Susanna,” for example, has a rhythmic profile

similar to that of the polka, which originated in

the middle of the 19th century in Dvořák’s be-

loved Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic,

and which swept the united States in popularity

when it was introduced by immigrants to the

united States in the 1840s). His intention was

to write the people's music, using images and a

musical vocabulary that would be widely under-

stood by all groups. “i think that Stephen Foster

really did create popular music as we still recog-

nize it today, and he did it because he took

together all these strands of the American ex-

perience,” noted writer Ken Emerson. “He effec-

tively merged other ethnic genres into a single

music, and i think he merged them in a way that

appeals to the multicultural mongrel experience

of America in its history and culture.”

in addition to writing songs, Foster also

wrote a half-dozen instrumental pieces in

popular dance styles of the day, most probably

with a view toward bringing his music before a

wider public. The Social Orchestra, published in

1854, was a compendium of 73 arrangements

for flute, violin, piano, and other instruments.

The selections ranged from operatic—including

13 melodies by Donizetti—and classical—Mozart

15

and Schubert—to popular airs and dances,

including his own (such as the three selections

included here, arranged by fl utist Tara Helen

o’Connor). The collection was ideal for informal

entertainment at home and the arrangements

lent themselves to various combinations and

numbers of instruments. While The Social

Orchestra proved to be very popular, it was

not a money-maker for Foster. He received a

fl at fee of only $150 from the publisher, which

may explain why this was his only venture into

instrumental arranging.

Program notes by: Adriaan Fuchs

DiRECToR oF ARTiSTiC PLAnninG AnD TouRinG

The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center

16

The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS) is one of eleven constitu-ents of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the largest performing arts complex in the world. Along with other constitu-ents such as the new York Philharmonic, new York City Ballet, Lincoln Center Theater, and The Metropolitan op-era, the Chamber Music Society has its home at Lincoln Center, in Alice Tully Hall—the finest hall in the world for chamber music. Called “A jewel in this nation’s musical crown,” CMS, through its performance of chamber music of every instrumen-tation and style, unparalleled national and international touring, multifaceted education programs, broad commission-ing program, and recording/broadcast/streaming/radio activities, draws more

people to chamber music than any other organization of its kind.

The artistic core of CMS is a multi-generational, dynamic repertory company of expert chamber musicians who form an evolving, international musical com-

munity. As part of that community, the CMS Two program discovers and weaves into the artistic fabric a select number of highly gifted young artists—individuals and ensembles—whose pairing with world-renowned senior musicians creates

the electrifying performances that are the signature of CMS.

CMS recordings are available on a number of labels, including the CMS Studio Recordings label, CMS Live! downloads, Deutsche Grammophon’s DG Concerts series, and SonY Classical.

ABOUT CMS

David Finckel and Wu Han

ARTiSTiC DiRECToRS

Suzanne DavidsonExECuTiVE DiRECToR

James P. o’ShaughnessyCHAiRMAn,

BoARD oF DiRECToRS

17

Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill is the larg-est national Historic Landmark in Ken-tucky and is home to the country’s largest private collection of original 19th-century buildings. Shaker Village’s 34 historic structures are surrounded by a mixed-use nature preserve of conserved farmland,

native prairies, forests, and wetlands. The Historic Centre, The Farm, and The Preserve provide points of departure for learning, and programs and events encourage engaged participation while building strong bonds to the past, the land, and our communities.

ABOUT SHAKER VILLAGE OF PLEASANT HILL

18

ABOUT LIVE FROM LINCOLN CENTERSimple Gifts was produced as a film for television by Live From Lincoln Center.

The Shakers chose a peaceful way

of life, with an emphasis on equality and freedom from prejudice. A quest for simplicity and perfection is reflected in their fine designs and craftsmanship. Al-though the population peaked at almost 500 in the 1820s, the community thrived through the mid-19th century, acquir-ing more than 4,000 acres of farmland. However, after the 1860s, changing social attitudes and the industrial Revolution signaled the community’s decline. own-ership of the land passed into private hands from the early 1900s until 1961, when a groundswell of interest in saving these historic structures brought on the formation of an organization to acquire and restore them. Recently named a member of Discovery Destinations and a top hidden travel destination by BBC news, Shaker Village is a landmark destination that shares 3,000 acres of discovery in the spirit of the Kentucky Shakers. For more information, please visit shakervillageky.org.

ExECuTiVE PRoDuCER: Andrew Carl Wilk

DiRECToR: Habib Azar

PRoDuCER: Douglas Chang

DoCuMEnTARY PRoDuCER: Elliot Caplan

SounD DESiGnER: Da-Hong Seetoo

DiRECToR oF PHoToGRAPHY: Ki S. Hwang

EnGinEER in CHARGE: Sandor Bondorowsky

EDiToRS: oriana Syed, Stephanie Kaznocha and Donald DuBois

CooRDinATinG PRoDuCER: Kristy Geslain

LinE PRoDuCER: Daisy Placeres

PoST PRoDuCTion SuPERViSoR: nick Palm

MEDiA CounSEL: Danielle Schiffman

19

For four decades, Live From Lincoln Center has presented the world’s great-est performing artists. Luciano Pavarotti, Beverly Sills, Leonard Bernstein, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Yo-Yo Ma, Renée Fleming, Audra McDonald, and hundreds more have graced Lincoln Center’s hallowed stages for concerts broadcast across the coun-try. The pioneering series has been seen by hundreds of millions of viewers, and

collected 14 Emmy Awards, including one for outstanding Special Class Program for the broadcast of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, starring Bryn Terfel, Emma Thompson, and the new York Philharmonic.

Simple Gifts: The Chamber Music So-ciety at Shaker Village marks the first time the series has filmed an episode outside of new York City. it will air nationally on PBS.

Photos courtesy of Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, Live From Lincoln Center, and David Finckel.

Simple Gifts