Ravinia 2019, Issue 4, Week 8

unbroken time for composition between 1901 and 1902. This first subsidized production be- came his final chamber work—the cello sonata. Rachmaninoff first explorations into the cel- lo and piano combination were the Romance (1890) and the Two Pieces, op. 2, completed two years later. He dedicated the latter work to Ana- toly Andreyevich Brandukov, a close friend and professor of cello at the Moscow Conservatory. In 1901 Rachmaninoff once again honored his colleague with the cello sonata, which the com- poser and dedicatee premiered on December 15. This was a most joyous time for Rachmaninoff. Days later he announced his engagement to Na- talya Alexandrovna Satina, a close relative. Law required written consent from the Tsar before first cousins could be wed—the royal letter of approval arrived soon after the marriage cer- emony at an army chapel outside Moscow on April 29, 1902. Rachmaninoff ’s best men were Siloti and Brandukov. The cello sonata radiates melodic warmth from the first notes of the introductory Lento . As the tempo changes to Allegro moderato , the cello intones an almost Brahmsian melody. However, there is no mistaking the author of the expres- sive theme introduced by the piano. The devel- opment is divided into two distinct segments. Piano tremolos enliven the cello’s melodic fragments in the first. Later, the full piano ac- companiment bolsters impassioned cello lines. Recapitulation is confined to the second theme and motives from the introduction. Sinister triplet material (reminiscent of Schubert’s song Der Erlkönig ) provides a refrain in the Allegro scherzando . The cello interjects two lyrical episodes by way of contrast. Rach- maninoff composes one of his most ardent, heart-rending movements in the Andante . The sonata discovers new vitality in the major-key rondo finale. Two affective cello themes temper the bold heroics of the refrain. –Program notes © 2019 Todd E. Sullivan GARY HOFFMAN, cello Canadian cellist Gary Hoffman grew up in a family steeped in classical music, making his London debut with a recital at Wigmore Hall at age 15. At 22 he became the youngest faculty appointee in the history of Indiana University’s Jacob’s School of Music—where he was previ- ously a student of János Starker—holding that position for eight years, and in 1979 he made his New York recital debut. In 1986 Hoffman achieved even greater international acclaim by becoming the first North American to win Paris’s Rostropovich International Cello Com- petition. He has since performed with many of the world’s foremost orchestras, including the Chicago, London, Montreal, Toronto, Balti- more, and (US) National Symphony Orchestras; English, Moscow, and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestras; Cleveland and Philadelphia Orches- tras; Netherlands and Rotterdam Philharmon- ics; San Francisco Symphony; and the French National Orchestra. Hoffman has been a regu- lar collaborator with such conductors as André Previn, Charles Dutoit, Mstislav Rostropovich, Pinchas Zukerman, Andrew Davis, Herbert Blomstedt, Kent Nagano, and Jésus Lopez-Co- bos, and he has given premieres of concertos by Laurent Petitgirard, Joel Hoffman, Renaud Gagneux, Gil Shohat, Graciane Finzi, and Dom- inique Lemaître, as well as the French premiere of Elliot Carter’s Cello Concerto. His most re- cent recording features concertos by Elgar and Bloch with the Liège Royal Philharmonic on the La Dolce Volta label. In the realm of chamber music, he has often been a guest of the Emerson, Tokyo, Borromeo, Brentano, and Ysaÿe String Quartets, and he has performed at such festivals as Ravinia, Marlboro, Aspen, Bath, Evian, Hel- sinki, Verbier, Mostly Mozart, Schleswig-Hol- stein, Stresa, Festival International de Colmar, and Festival de Toulon. In 2011 Hoffman was appointed Master in Residence for cello at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Brussels. Gary Hoffman first appeared at Ravinia in 1983 and joined the faculty of Ravinia’s Steans Music In- stitute in 1995. This season marks his 17th both on Ravinia’s concert stage and on the RSMI faculty. JON KIMURA PARKER, piano Born and raised in Vancouver, Jon Kimura Parker studied piano with his mother and un- cle before enrolling at the Vancouver Academy of Music and the University of British Colum- bia, continuously under the mentorship of Lee Kum-Sing. He also studied with Marek Jablon- ski at the Banff Centre on his way to entering The Juilliard School, where he earned a doctor- ate in 1988 under the tutelage of Adele Marcus, and winning first prize in the 1984 Leeds Inter- national Piano Competition. Parker has made multiple solo appearances at the Berlin Philhar- monie, London’s Southbank Centre, the Sydney Opera House, and the Beijing Concert Hall, and in recent seasons he appeared at Carnegie Hall performing Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 and at the Kennedy Center as the soloist in Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue . His recent engage- ments also include Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Los Angeles Chamber Orches- tra, Grieg’s Piano Concerto with the New York Philharmonic, Gershwin’s Concerto in F with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and Bernstein’s “Age of Anxiety” Symphony for piano and orchestra with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Parker is a member of the Montrose Trio with violin- ist Martin Beaver and cellist Clive Greensmith and a co-founder with Police drummer Stewart Copeland of the quintet Off the Score, which combines original compositions with fresh takes on the classic canon. He regularly performs in duos with James Ehnes, Aloysia Friedmann, Lynn Harrell, Jamie Parker, Orli Shaham, and Cho-Liang Lin, with whom he has given world premieres of sonatas by Paul Schoenfield, John Harbison, and Steven Stucky. Parker is also Artistic Advisor to the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, where he has premiered works by Peter Schickele and Jake Heggie, and Profes- sor of Piano at Rice University in Houston. He was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1999. Jon Kimura Parker made his Ravinia debut in 1991 and was on Ravinia’s Steans Music Insti- tute faculty in 1997. Tonight he returns for his eighth season performing at the festival. Serge Rachmaninoff (1900) JULY 22 – JULY 28, 2019 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE 95