Ravinia_2018_Week

LINCOLN TRIO

Borrowing the nickname of its home state, the

Lincoln Trio was formed in 2003 by violinist De-

sirée Ruhstrat, cellist David Cunliffe, and pianist

Marta Aznavoorian—each an internationally

recognized performer. Ruhstrat has performed

throughout the United States and Europe, ap-

pearing at the White House and with the Berlin

Radio Orchestra on worldwide broadcasts, Cun-

liffe has toured as a member of the Balanescu

Quartet and performed with the BBC and Royal

Scottish Orchestras, and Aznavoorian has ap-

peared with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra

and at the Kennedy Center and Sydney Opera

House. The trio has performed across the United

roommate, Margo Strosahl, regaled Joyce with

stories of her brother John, who had abandoned

the family farm in Iowa for a life of adventure

in Alaska. Joyce and John began a two-year-long

correspondence that developed into romance.

The couple married in 1944 and lived in Alaska

for three years before moving to Yakima, where

they remained for the majority of their 62 years

of marriage until John’s death in 2005.

The Seasons Music Festival commissioned Daron

Hagen, who served as its artistic director and fac-

ulty chairman for five years, to compose a musi-

cal tribute to Joyce Strosahl in 2007—the Piano

Trio No. 4 (“Angel Band”). The Finisterra Piano

Trio, the work’s dedicatees, gave the premiere on

September 29, 2007, in The Seasons Performance

Hall. Hagen evoked the folksong and spiritual

tradition of Strosahl’s Appalachian roots by in-

corporating the 19th-century gospel song “[O

Come,] Angel Band” with lyrics by Methodist

minister Jefferson Hascall (1807–87) that first ap-

peared in

The Melodeon

(1860) to a tune by the

hymnal’s editor, Rev. J.W. Dadmun. Hascall’s four

stanzas address the approach of death and the

faithful believer’s eternal rest in Jesus.

These lyrics appeared to a different tune, “The

Land of Beulah,” in William Batchelder Brad-

bury’s

Golden Shower of S.S. [i.e., Sunday School]

Melodies

, published in 1682. (This collection also

includes another familiar Bradbury hymn, “Je-

sus Loves Me.”) In this form, “Angel Band” has

remained active in the bluegrass and gospel tra-

ditions for more than a century and a half and

has been performed and recorded by numerous

artists, including The Stanley Brothers, whose

1950s recording appeared in the film

O Brother

Where Art Thou?

In more expansive fashion, the five movements

of Hagen’s Piano Trio No. 4 also outline life’s

journey, from childhood (

Morning

) through

“experience, nostalgia, and regret” (

Waltz: The

Violinist on the Pont Neuf

), “middle-aged labors

to balance and integrate the demands of one’s

‘outer life’ and the poetic ‘inner life’ ” (

Rondo

and “a mature balance” (

Blue Chaconne

) to the

“wisdom of Experience, and the grace, force, and

fascination of Old Age” (

Finale

). “Angel Band”

appears like a melodic milestone throughout

this journey, through “an evolving series of har-

monic languages, musical styles, [and] recurring

motives,” often interwoven with themes of Ha-

gen’s invention. The tune retains its traditional

character through a series of four variations in

the opening movement. In the

Blue Chaconne

after a series of variations over a repeated har-

monic pattern, the hymn returns in full musical

regalia in the finale, combined with themes from

previous movements to create a magnificent set

of eight variations.

States on the Indianapolis Beethoven Chamber

Music, Lane Concert, and Dame Myra Hess Me-

morial Concert Series; Music in the Loft; and at

Le Poisson Rouge and Carnegie’s Weill Recital

Hall in addition to frequent appearances on clas-

sical radio stations, including a live broadcast on

WFMT of a world premiere in commemoration

of the station’s 60th anniversary. A number of

works have been written specially for the Lincoln

Trio, including Ravinia-commissioned works for

the Lincoln Bicentennial, seven works by mem-

bers of the Chicago Composers Consortium,

and most recently an award-winning work by

ASCAP award winner Conrad Tao. This passion

for new music inspired the trio’s debut album,

Notable Women

, featuring works by Joan Tow-

er, Lera Auerbach, Stacy Garrop, Augusta Read

Thomas, Laura Schwendinger, and Grammy-

and Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Jennifer

Higdon. For the Naxos label, the trio collabo-

rated on a critically acclaimed recording of the

chamber version of James Whitbourn’s

Annelies

the choral setting of the diary of Anne Frank,

which they gave the Chicago premiere of at Ra-

vinia in 2013. The trio’s most recent album,

Trios

from Our Homelands

, featuring works by Rebec-

ca Clarke, Arno Babajanian, and Frank Martin,

was nominated for the 2017 Grammy Award for

Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Perfor-

mance. The Lincoln Trio made its Ravinia debut

in 2008 and returns tonight for its 11th season.

COMING UP

AT RAVINIA

7:30 PM TUESDAY, JUNE 26

MARTIN THEATRE

A Night at Bach’s Coffeehouse

APOLLO’S FIRE

JEANNETTE SORRELL,

artistic director, conductor, and harpsichord

TELEMANN:

Selections from

Don Quichotte

Suite

BACH:

Polonaise

Menuet

, and

Badinerie

from

Orchestral Suite No. 2

Concerto for Two Violins

Brandenburg Concerto No. 5

VIVALDI:

Concerto for Four Violins in B minor

Jeannette

Sorrell

Apollo’s Fire

JUNE 11 – JUNE 17, 2018 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE

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