The Helicon Foundation

The Morgan Library & Museum presents Helicon In Concert

2011-09-08T14:50:00.000-07:00

2010-12-02T13:30:00.000-08:00

HELICON WEBSITE LAUNCH

2009-12-03T17:01:00.000-08:00

From now on, please visit:

http://www.helicon.org

regularly . . .

The Helicon Foundation's 24th Season

2008-06-09T10:54:00.000-07:00

James Roe, Artistic Director

William A. Simon, President
Albert Fuller, Founder

It is with great pleasure that I announce the concerts of The Helicon Foundation’s twenty-fourth season.

Each year, Helicon presents a series of four chamber music concerts—called Symposiums—in an oak-paneled music room on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. These concerts offer proximity to world-class performances, insightful programming, camaraderie, and immersion in chamber music’s intimate world.

Our 2008-2009 season takes the theme of great musical cities and presents music spanning four centuries played on instruments from the time the music was composed. We begin with music from New York and Boston, written during the fertile first decades of the 20th Century. Vienna is represented in the sublime music of Mozart’s last years. For the splendid music of Baroque Italy we center on Rome and the radiating influences of that city’s great composers. We conclude in one of the celebrated salons of 19th-century Paris. Accompanying us on this tour is an impressive roster of today’s most exciting chamber musicians, including violinists, Jennifer Frautschi, Monica Huggett, and Mark Steinberg; pianist, Pedja Muzijevic; tenor, Nicholas Phan; historical clarinet expert, Eric Hoeprich; cornetto virtuoso, Bruce Dickey, and Brooklyn Rider, the exciting young string quartet founded by Colin and Eric Jacobsen.

You can be a part of this exciting season. Attendance at Helicon's events is by tax-deductible subscription. This Helicon Membership contribution guarantees your seats in one of New York City’s cultural gems.

For information on becoming a Helicon Member, please email: HeliconFoundation@gmail.com or write:

The Helicon Foundation
2067 Broadway, Studio 50
New York, New York, 10023

Symposium 87 - November 2, 2008

2008-06-09T10:33:00.000-07:00

Helicon's 24th Season Explores Great Musical Cities

Symposium 87 — NEW YORK & BOSTON
November 2, 2008
“AMERICAN VISIONS & VISIONARIES”

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Nicholas Phan, tenor
James Roe, oboe
Pedja Muzijevic, piano
Brooklyn Rider String Quartet
Alex Sopp, fife

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Charles Loeffler Rhapsody for Oboe, Viola and Piano
Songs by Charles Ives
Samuel Barber String Quartet, Op. 11
John Cage In a Landscape
Amy Beach Piano Quintet in F# Minor, Op. 67

•

Helicon opens its twenty-fourth season with a Symposium dedicated to the multi-faceted voices of American composers. We begin in 1901 at the dawn of the “American Century” with the evocative music of French-immigrant, Charles Loeffler, and then move to iconoclast, Charles Ives for his quirky, touching songs steeped in American folk music. Samuel Barber’s String Quartet follows with its gripping “Adagio for Strings,” famously featured in Oliver Stone’s “Platoon.” After intermission, Pedja Muzijevic plays the hypnotic In a Landscape by visionary genius, John Cage, and then is joined by the young string quartet, Brooklyn Rider, for Amy Beach’s lush Piano Quintet of 1907.

Nicholas Phan, tenor

James Roe, oboe

Pedja Muzijevic, piano

Brooklyn Rider
Alex Sopp, fife
THE HELICON FOUNDATION
James Roe, Artistic Director
William A. Simon, President
Albert Fuller, Founder

Symposium 88 - December 7, 2008

2008-06-09T10:08:00.000-07:00

Helicon's 24th Season Explores Great Musical Cities

Symposium 88 — VIENNA
December 7, 2008
“TWO LATE MOZART QUINTETS”

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Eric Hoeprich, clarinet
Mark Steinberg, violin
Claire Jolivet, violin
David Cerutti, viola
Jessica Troy, viola
Myron Lutzke, ‘cello

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Quintet for Strings in D Major, K. 593
Quintet for Clarinet and Strings in A Major, K. 581

•

Mozart lived out his final years in the sophisticated musical world of late 18th-century Vienna. This program pairs two of his masterpieces from that time in vivid period-instrument performances. Helicon’s internationally distinguished ensemble features the world’s foremost expert on historical clarinets, Amsterdam-based, Eric Hoeprich, who designs and builds his own instruments to period specifications. Our 88th Symposium opens with Mozart’s sublime String Quintet, K. 593. Written within a year of the composer’s death, it evinces no sign of diminished powers, but instead overflows with vigor, invention, and joy. Mozart’s beloved Clarinet Quintet is among the finest achievements of his last years and combines graceful intimacy with sparkling soloistic display.

Eric Hoeprich, clarinet

Mark Steinberg, violin
Myron Lutzke, cello
Claire Jolivet, violin

David Cerutti, violaJessica Troy, viola

THE HELICON FOUNDATION
James Roe, Artistic Director
William A. Simon, President
Albert Fuller, Founder

Symposium 89 - April 5, 2009

2008-06-09T09:50:00.000-07:00

Helicon's 24th Season Explore Great Musical Cities

Symposium 89 — ROME
April 5, 2009
“CURIOSE INVENZIONI"
MUSICAL FIREWORKS FROM 17th-CENTURY ITALY

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ENSEMBLE GALATEA
Richard Savino, guitar
Bruce Dickey, cornetto
Julie Andrijeski, violin
Paul Beier, lute & theorbo
Gianluca Capuano, organ

•

Improvisations on the music of Palastrina
and virtuoso chamber works by Marini, Castello, Buonamente, and Rognoni

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Helicon’s 89th Symposium features the world’s foremost virtuoso on the nearly forgotten instrument, the cornetto, Rome-based American, Bruce Dickey. The cornetto is a wind instrument fashioned out of a tube of curved wood wrapped in leather. It has finger holes like a recorder and a small mouthpiece like a trumpet. Its haunting tone bears an uncanny likeness to the human voice, and though not widely known today, the cornetto vied with the violin for virtuosic dominance in 17th-century Italy.

This program offers a rare opportunity to hear this fascinating instrument showcased with the violin in beautiful, ancient music of the Italian Baroque. It will be an evening of musical discoveries of exceptional beauty and invention.

The CORNETTO

Richard Savino, guitar

Julie Andrijeski, violin
Bruce Dickey, cornetto

THE HELICON FOUNDATION
James Roe, Artistic Director
William A. Simon, President
Albert Fuller, Founder

Symposium 90 - May 17, 2009

2008-06-09T09:13:00.000-07:00

Helicon's 24th Season Explores Great Musical Cities

Symposium 90 — PARIS
May 17, 2009
“THE CELEBRATED SALON of ERNEST CHAUSSON”

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Jennifer Frautschi, violin
Pedja Muzijevic, piano
Harumi Rhodes, violin
John Marcus, violin
Hsin-Yun Huang, viola
Matthew Herren, ’cello

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César Franck Sonata for Violin and Piano
Ernest Chausson Concerto for Violin, Piano & Strings

•

We complete our tour of great musical cities in 19th-century Paris, where composer Ernest Chausson (1855-1899) hosted his famous salon at 22 Boulevard de Courcelles. There he welcomed France’s leading artists, poets, musicians, and intellectuals to exchange ideas and introduce new work. The two pieces on this program were dedicated to a member of this circle, the prodigious violin virtuoso Eugène Ysaÿe (1858-1931), whose playing inspired many composers to write works for him. In Helicon’s 21st-century salon, we are fortunate to regularly hear the inspiring collaborations of Jennifer Frautschi and Pedja Muzijevic, who will be joined by an ensemble of new and familiar faces for these opulent works from the height of French Romanticism.

Jennifer Frautschi and Pedja Muzijevic

Jennifer Frautschi, violinHarumi Rhodes, violin

John Marcus, violin

Hsin-Yun Huang, viola

Matthew Herren, cello

THE HELICON FOUNDAITON
James Roe, Artistic Director
William A. Simon, President
Albert Fuller, Founder

Helicon Foundation Board of Directors

2008-01-10T15:55:00.000-08:00

William A. Simon, President
Lisa Welch, Vice-President
Franklin Heller, Treasurer
Pamela Drexel, Secretary
Philippine Dodd
Joan K. Easton
Karen McLaughlin
David S. Moyer
Sherman Pazner, M.D.
Susan Zolla-Pazner, Ph.D.

Directors In Memoriam
Albert Fuller†, Founder
Craig Logan Jackson†
Zoltan Ovary, M.D.†
Gregory B. Smith†
Miss Alice Tully†

Helicon Foundation Advisory Committee

2008-01-09T16:19:00.000-08:00

Leslie Armstrong, AIA
Abbe Aronson
Bart Feller
Jennifer Frautschi
Matthew Herren
Joe Hsu
Bejun Mehta
Pedja Muzijevic
Jody Ripplinger
Thomas Sokolowski
Jason Starr
Mark Steinberg
Barry Wacksman

2007-09-01T05:08:00.000-07:00

The posts below outlined the programs for Helicon's 23rd Season, 2007-2008. The following is a short introduction to our organization.

In 1985, harpsichordist, scholar, educator, conductor, and raconteur, Albert Fuller, in the company of Alice Tully and Gregory B. Smith, brought together a group of musicians and music lovers to create The Helicon Foundation.

Taking its name from the Greek mountain revered as the home of Memory and her daughters, the nine Muses, the organization's goal was to address a need in the New York music community. Large concert halls and the manner of playing necessary to fill them had pulled music away from what composers knew and intended. Helicon bridges that gap with style and élan, presenting chamber music in an intimate setting and using the instruments and performance techniques of the period.

In 2006, James Ro e succeeded Albert Fuller as Artistic Director, to continue Helicon’s goals into its third decade.

• CHAMBER MUSIC IN AN INTIMATE SPACE — Helicon returns chamber music to an intimate space where the audience can follow a performer’s every nuance and experience proximity to music’s expressive power.

• PROGRAMMING — By focusing on a single composer or specific cultural question, Helicon Symposiums deepen our experience through immersion and focused inquiry.

• MUSICIANS — Helicon chooses its musicians for their virtuosity, openness, and musical creativity, and provides the opportunity to know them as artists and people.

• PERIOD INSTRUMENTS & PERFORMANCE PRACTICE — Our musicians seek out the sounds composers knew by using the instruments and performance techniques of the time.

• COMMUNITY — Helicon’s unique Membership structure connects music lovers and musicians who share the enjoyment of musical exploration.

Helicon has produced over 80 Symposiums covering a broad range of musical genres, from the 14th through the 21st centuries. From these Symposiums have arisen recordings, public concerts, educational programs, and most importantly, a body of performers and music lovers with a deepened experience of music in their lives.

THE HELICON FOUNDATION, INC.
James R. Roe, Artistic Director
Albert Fuller, Founder
William A. Simon, President

2067 Broadway, Studio 50
New York, NY 10023
(212) 874-6438
HeliconFoundation@gmail.com

Symposium 83 - 14 October 2007

2007-08-30T05:18:00.000-07:00

Symposium LXXXIII
14 October 2007
“The Pinnacle of Classicism”
Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven

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Mark Steinberg, violin
Myron Lutzke, ’cello
Pedja Muzijevic, fortepiano

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Haydn Piano Trio in C
Mozart Violin Sonata, K. 454
Beethoven Piano Trio in E-flat Major, Op. 1, No. 1

•

Though Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven stand at the center of the Classical music canon, it is still rare to hear their music on the kind of instruments they knew.

The fortepiano, one of Europe’s great pre-electronic technological achievements, rapidly evolved from the late 1700s through the 19th Century. Composers were protagonists this process, writing music that fully marshaled the capacities of each new model. For this concert, Pedja Muzijevic will play a fortepiano based on those of the 1790s, ideally suited to this music.

Pedja Muzijevic, piano

Written within a decade of each other, the three works on this program reveal the shared musical influences of the greatest Classical composers.

Mark Steinberg, violin

When I contacted Myron Lutzke about this concert, he remarked that “these pieces are all old friends.”

Myron Lutzke, 'cello

Could there be better company in which to open our 23rd Season?

The Helicon Foundation
James Roe, Artistic Director
William A. Simon, President
Albert Fuller, Founder

Symposium 84 - 9 December 2007

2007-08-29T05:24:00.000-07:00

Symposium LXXXIV
9 December 2007
“PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION”
Romantic Russian Music

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Lauren Skuce, soprano
Jennifer Frautschi, violin
Pedja Muzijevic, piano

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Prokofiev Violin Sonata No. 1, in F Minor
Rachmaninov Art Songs
Mussorgsky “Pictures at an Exhibition”

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In June of 1994, Albert Fuller and I attended England’s Aldeburgh Festival to hear Pedja Muzijevic play “Pictures at an Exhibition.”

Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" autograph score

Helicon’s first Symposium exploring the deeply expressive Russian repertoire features Pedja’s interpretation of Mussorgsky’s masterpiece with works by his countrymen, Prokofiev and Rachmaninov.

Pedja Muzijevic, piano

Prokofiev returned to the USSR in 1936 and shortly thereafter began work on a violin sonata that would take him eight years to complete. It was premiered by David Oistrakh with whom Prokofiev collaborated to ensure the virtuosic demands of the solo part suited the violin.

Jennifer Frautschi, violin

To perform Rachmaninov’s lush art songs, Helicon welcomes the award-winning soprano, Lauren Skuce, whose singing was recently praised in The New York Times as “bright and agile, becoming brilliantly liquid and sexy in the high register.”

Lauren Skuce, soprano

THE HELICON FOUNDATION
James Roe, Artistic Director
William A. Simon, President
Albert Fuller, Founder

Sympoisum 85 - 10 February 2008

2007-08-28T05:33:00.000-07:00

Symposium LXXXV
10 February 2008
“The Mysterious World of Heinrich Biber”
Baroque Virtuoso Violin Music

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Colin Jacobsen, violin
Robert Wolinsky, harpsichord & organ
Myron Lutzke, 'cello
Daniel Swenberg, theorbo

•

Heinrich Biber (1644-1704) was one of the great violin virtuosos of his day and a composer with a deeply personal language. The works on this program inhabit both the virtuosic and numinous worlds of his music. Listening to Biber, I am reminded of the marvelous Duccio “Madonna and Child” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The front edge of its frame is charred in two places by candles, because this work of great artistic sophistication was used to enhance personal devotion. Likewise, Biber’s music places extraordinary demands on performers, yet seems aimed not at public display, but rather, the intensely personal work of faith and spiritual understanding. We are pleased to welcome virtuoso violinist, Colin Jacobsen, back to Helicon to perform this remarkable music with the formidable continuo team of Myron Lutzke and Robert Wolinsky.

THE HELICON FOUNDATION
James Roe, Artistic Director
William A. Simon, President
Albert Fuller, Founder

Symposium 86 - 27 April 2008

2007-08-27T05:37:00.000-07:00

Symposium LXXXVI
27 April 2008
“Transfigured Night”
Romantic String Sextets by Johannes Brahms and Arnold Schoenberg

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Vera Beths & Mark Steinberg, violins
Dov Scheindlin & David Cerutti, violas
Myron Lutzke & Nina Lee, ’celli

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Brahms String Sextet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 36
Schoenberg Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4

We close our 23rd season with two works that limn the acme and apotheosis of the Romantic Era. The youthful vigor of Brahms’ String Sextet, Op. 36 will be enhanced by the richness of our ensemble’s twenty-four gut strings. Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht (“Transfigured Night”), composed in 1899, is the first “symphonic poem” scaled for chamber music. Based on a Richard Dehmel poem, Schoenberg’s richly expressive music follows the story of a couple discovering the redemptive power of truth, forgiveness, and love. Presenting such 19th-century masterpieces in rare gut-string performance is central to Helicon’s mission. To lead this important performance, the renowned Amsterdam-based violinist Vera Beths makes her Helicon debut.

"Transfigured Night" (Verklärte Nacht)
by Richard Dehmel
(Translation:1992 Lionel Salter)

Two People are walking through the bare, cold grove;
the moon accompanies them, they gaze at it. The moon courses above the
high oaks; not a cloud obscures the light of heaven, into which the black
treetops reach. A woman's voice speaks:

I am carrying a child, and not of yours;
I walk in sin beside you.
I have deeply transgressed against myself.
I no longer believed in happiness
and yet had a great yearning
for purposeful life, for the happiness
and responsibility of motherhood; so I dared
and, shuddering, let my body
be embraced by a strange man,
and have become pregnant from it.
Now life has taken its revenge,
now that I have met you.

She walks with awkward step.
She looks up: the moon accompanies them.
Her dark glance is inundated with light.
A man's voice speaks:

Let the child you have conceived
be no burden to your soul.
see, how brightly the universe gleams!
There is a radiance on everything;
you drift with me on a cold sea,
but a special warmth flickers
from you to me, from me to you.
This will transfigure the other's child;
you will bare it for me, from me;
you have brought radiance on me,
you have made me a child myself.

He clasps her round her strong hips.
Their breath mingles in the breeze.
Two people go through the tall, clear night

Richard Dehmel (1863-1920)

THE HELICON FOUNDATION
James Roe, Artistic Director
William A. Simon, President
Albert Fuller, Founder

Helicon Members 2007-2008

2007-08-26T19:30:00.000-07:00

Ongoing major support for Helicon is provided by The Alice Tully Foundation.
We extend special thanks to Carol & Jeff Barber of Metrowines for donating the wine for 2007-2008
As always, we are grateful to The Kosciuszko Foundation for its hospitality. 

•

We wish to express our gratitude to Helicon’s Members
whose support makes possible the events of our twenty-third season:

Helicon Society
Joan K. Easton

Directors Circle
Karen McLaughlin & Mark Schubin

Sponsoring Members
V. Edward Dent, Arthur Richenthal
Ryo Toyonaga & Alvin Friedman-Kien
Marica & Jan Vilcek
Lisa & Paul Welch

Sustaining Members
Yukiko & Jim Gatheral
Franklin Heller & Christian Steiner
David  S. Moyer & Alice Schroeder
Laura Schoen & Robert Kaufman
Ann & Joe Scozzafava
Lavinia & William Simon
Joanne Witty & Eugene Keilin
Susan Zolla-Pazner, Ph.D. & Sherman Pazner, M.D.

Contributing Members
Patty Otis Abel & Dennis R. Reiff
Judy Evnin
Doreen Lindsay & Andrew Burt
Peter C. Lombardo, M.D.
Arlene & Bruce Simon

Members
Anonymous (1)
Carol & Jeff Barber
Cindy Bolt & Edmond V. Karam
R. David
Bynum, Nancy Cardozo
Philippine Dodd
Pamela Drexel
Patricia & Michael Fast
Nancy Hall
Rosanna & Corwith Hansen
Rebecca Higgins
Anthony Joseph
Hideko Kamino, M.D. & Howard Ratech, M.D.
Paul Kimball
Sarah O.H. Johnson
Gregory Keilin
Honey & Michael Shara
Yoshiyuki Shimizu
Catherine Keller & Jason Starr
David Longmire
Lena Persson
Hervé Pierre,
Gil Quito
Robert Schwartzman
Jane Taylor & Guy Renvoize
Joanna Wylomanska
Barry Wacksman
Ruth S. Widder
Anna Zetlin

Contributors
Amy & Bob Poster

Program Notes - The Mysterious World of Heinrich Biber - Symposium 85

2007-07-20T07:25:00.000-07:00

HELICON SYMPOSIUM LXXXV
5 p.m., Sunday, 10 February 2008

"Listening to Biber, Some Thoughts"

Career

Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber (1644-1704) was born in the small Bohemian town of Wartenberg, now Stráx pod Ralskem in the Czech Republic. Little is known of his early training as a musician, though Johann Heinrich Schmelzer (c1620-1680), Kapellmeister of the Imperial Viennese Court knew and encouraged Biber’s career, and may even have been his teacher. Biber held posts in Graz and then Kromeriz, before establishing himself in Salzburg in 1670, a move he made without notifying his former employer he was leaving! He flourished in Salzburg, entering the service of Archbishop Maximilian Gandolph von Khuenberg. In 1679, he was given the modest appointment Vice-Kapellmeister, advancing to Kapellmeister and dean of the choir school in 1684. Leopold I granted him ennoblement in 1690 with the title, ‘Biber von Bibern.’ Subsequently, Biber was promoted to the station of 'Lord High Steward' marking the culmination of his social career. By this point, his salary had risen to 60 gulden a month, with free board and lodging including such items as wine, bread and firewood. Jacob Stainer, the most celebrated instrument maker of the day referred to Biber as “the formidable virtuoso,” and indeed his reputation and compositions reveal a man of prodigious talent and quixotic temperament.

Style

Biber’s music can be heard as the culmination of the 17th-century Italian style birthed around 1600 with the invention of opera. In the first decades of the 17th Century, this new Italian music swept over The Alps, quickly dominating the courts of Austria, Germany, and France (the latter, only until the reign of Louis XIV). The major part of Biber’s career was spent in Salzburg, and indeed, it was in this city that Italian operatic music gained its first important foreign outpost. Archbishop Marcus Sitticus von Hohenums, who reigned from 1612-1619, fostered close ties to Italy and in 1614 built a stage in his residence appropriate for Italian opera. On 10 February 1614 (394 years ago today), the first performance of an opera outside of Italy took place on that stage in Salzburg.

To appreciate the music of Biber, it is important to know some things about 17th-century Italian opera. Music before 1600 was characterized by complex polyphony, or the simultaneous sounding of multiple melodic lines. The euphonious pleasures and splendors of 16th-century Italian polyphonic vocal music outweighed clear communication of the text being sung. The music of Palestrina (c1525-1594) represents the highest achievement in music of this style. The invention of Italian opera offered the antidote to the excesses of this complex music. In the new musical style, the vocal line followed inflections of speech and the accompaniment did not obstruct a direct presentation of the text. Instead of polyphony, or multiple melodic lines, 17th-century Italian opera was based on monody.

As Italian opera spread north of the peninsula, it influenced all musical genres, including instrumental music. By the time of Biber, this style had developed a great sophistication of affect, expression, and melodic inventiveness, while retaining its economy of means, and directness of expressive intent.

Each of Biber’s sonatas is a single movement work with contrasting sections. These sections are quite recognizable and while the music is instantly appealing, it may help to know some of the signposts along the road. These works often begin with a freely rhapsodic prelude (Praeludium) where the violin plays seemingly improvised flourishes over long held notes in the continuo. These sections invite the listener to enter the sound world of the work; they seduce and in so doing, prepare the way for what is to come. These preludes are purely instrumental music, but Biber also writes Adagios in the vocal style of small opera arias. Here the accompaniment has a more active and regular metric feel over which the violin sings its songs (albeit without words). The most striking sections of Biber’s sonatas are the long sets of variations (Variatio or Aria e Variatio). These sections are the meat of his works and begin with either a simple song-like melody or simple chord progression. The violin then embarks on a series of fanciful reinterpretations of those simple building blocks. With all the inventive and virtuosic tricks of his trade, Biber moves through these variations, creating a music of accretion, upping the ante with each repetition. These sections can produce a trance-like or meditative experience in the listener. Your own imagination is in good hands with Biber and
these musicians. Enjoy!

Tonight's Violin Music

The eight sonatas published in 1681 represent Biber’s most sophisticated marrying of composition and virtuoso violin technique. Fiendishly difficult, these melody-driven works are marked by unpredictability, inventiveness, and a spontaneity that suggests improvisations. The violinist Andrew Manze suggests that, “but for the fact that it exists on the printed page, [Biber’s music] might have been improvised straight into a baroque tape-recorder.” Biber revels in the surprises he throws at the audience, so be ready.

Biber’s most famous work is a cycle of fifteen violin sonatas based on the Mysteries of the Rosary with a concluding Passacaglia for Violin Solo. “The Mystery Sonatas,” as they are titled, were published in the 1670s. They are remarkable for their use of scordatura, or the retuning of the violin’s strings to allow special harmonic and acoustic effects. Tonight we will hear the first of the “Mystery Sonatas” (and the only one to employ standard violin tuning), to open our second half.

The Sonata Representativa was written for Carnival while Biber was living in Kromeriz. The Prince-Bishop of Olmouc-Kromeriz was a fan of programmatic effects in music, so the piece may have been written for him. The animal noises Biber sets are obvious enough, but they are not exactly his invention. He was quoting from an internationally influential musicological work, “Musurgia Universalis,” written by Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher, who codified melodies in imitation of nature. (A chart of these musical/bestial quotations is included with your program.) This work would certainly be an “inside joke” for the highly literate audience. As Robert Frost taught us “all the fun is how you say a thing," and when Biber says something, it turns out to be very fun, indeed.

A quick note on Schmelzer

Johann Heinrich Schmelzer (c1620-1680) began his career as a violinist in the Viennese Imperial court band, a world dominated by Italians, playing Italian music. This young Austrian musician went on to overturn the foreign domination by becoming a master of their style. His Sonatae unarum fidium of 1664 were the first solo sonatas to be published by a non-Italian. Schmelzer also became the first non-Italian Kapellmeister at the Viennese court and was widely considered to be ‘one of the most famous, distinguished violinists in the whole of Europe’ (J. J. Müller, Reise-Diarium, 1660). Though it has been suggested that he was Biber’s teacher, this attractive idea cannot be proven. We do know, however, that he used his influence to aid the younger musician, and certainly, he was an important role model to any aspiring Austrian musician.

The sonata of Schmelzer that ends our program tonight opens with an extended set of variations—a passacaglia—built on a peaceful descending four-note melody. Over this bass line, Schmelzer presents a simple melodic line in the violin that builds in complexity as the piece unfolds. He weaves two contrasting Baroque dances into the repeating bass line, a graceful sarabande and a lively gigue. At the end of the passacaglia, Schmelzer offers a small aria before ending in flourishes of virtuosic display.

Symposium 79 - 22 October 2006

2006-08-31T05:48:00.000-07:00

Symposium LXXIX
22 October 2006
The 22nd Season Opener
Beethoven & Brahms String Quintets

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Mark Steinberg & Colin Jacobsen, violins
Dov Scheindlin & David Miller, violas
Nina Lee, ’cello

•

To inaugurate Helicon’s first season of Symposiums at Kosciuszko, we’ve gathered an impressive ensemble of virtuoso string players for a rare gut-string performance of masterpieces by Beethoven and Brahms. We begin with Beethoven, his splendid Quintet in C Major, Op. 29. Among the finest works from his early creative period, this is the composer’s only quintet originally conceived for strings. In the magnificent tumult of the last movement, Beethoven creates such vivid musical effects that the work became known as “The Storm.” We then move to Johannes Brahms’ glorious Quintet in G Major, Op. 111. Opening with shimmering strings under a sweeping ’cello melody, this work is symphonic in scope and contains some of Brahms’ most engaging and emotionally generous chamber music. His lush textures and rich harmonies will be enhanced by the earthy sound of gut strings.

THE HELICON FOUNDATION
James Roe, Artistic Director
William A. Simon, President
Albert Fuller, Founder

Symposium 80 - 10 December 2006

2006-08-30T05:49:00.000-07:00

Symposium LXXX
10 December 2006
"Buon Natale y Felices Fiestas"
Baroque Holiday Music from Italy, Spain, & Latin America

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EL MUNDO & ENSEMBLE REBEL
Jennifer Lane, mezzo soprano; Catherine Webster, soprano
Richard Savino, lute & baroque guitar
Jörg-Michael Schwarz & Karen Marie Marmer, violins
John Moran, cello
Dongsok Shin, harpsichord

•

Helicon is pleased to welcome back the renowned Baroque guitarist, Richard Savino and his ensemble, El Mundo. Composed of singers, strings, and plucked instruments, El Mundo specializes in the rich, sensual music of 16th - 19th century Italy, Spain and Latin America. Their Helicon performance features mezzo-soprano, Jennifer Lane. Throughout the Baroque period music flourished in the Spanish colonial territories, yet little of this fascinating repertory is known today. This music truly crosses cultural borders by blending European styles with native rhythms and dances. Richard has created a program of new musical discoveries including Yuletide music from Mexico, Guatemala, Peru and Argentina, and sacred Hebraic psalms by Solomon Rossi.

“El Mundo’s program was a joyful tour. . . this ensemble was stupendous!” - San Francisco Classical Voice

THE HELICON FOUNDATION
James Roe, Artistic Director
William A. Simon, President
Albert Fuller, Founder

Symposium 81 - 11 February 2007

2006-08-29T05:50:00.000-07:00

Symposium LXXXI
11 February 2007
“The Art of English Song”
Baroque and 20th-century Masterpieces

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Nicholas Phan, tenor
Robert Wolinsky, harpsichord
Myron Lutzke, ’cello
Pedja Muzijevic, piano
James Roe, oboe

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Nicholas Phan has quickly established himself as an important tenor among America's next generation of singers. A noted interpreter of Handel, he made his New York debut this season as Damon in Acis and Galatea with the New York City Opera. He has appeared with the Houston, Frankfurt, Glimmerglass, and L.A. Operas, the Chicago Symphony, and the Orchestra of St. Luke's. At Helicon Mr. Phan will sing an innovative program that juxtaposes beautiful Baroque and 20th-century songs by England’s two greatest composers, Henry Purcell and Benjamin Britten. Separated by 300 years, both possess a lyric naturalness for setting the English language and a bountiful melodic gift. The stylistic breadth of this program will offer new ways of hearing music from these different eras. Rounding out the program, James Roe will join Mr. Phan for Vaughan Williams’ haunting and lyrical “Blake Songs” for Tenor and Oboe.

THE HELICON FOUNDATION
James Roe, Artistic Director
William A. Simon, President
Albert Fuller, Founder

Helicon at The Morgan, October 4, 2011 at 6:30

2006-08-27T05:51:00.000-07:00

The Morgan Library & Museum presents Helicon in Concert

"Réalités Invisibles" Music from the Life of Marcel Proust

TUE • 4 OCT 11 • 7:30

For tickets and information please visit

www.helicon.org/morgan

Symposium LXXXII
13 May 2007
“The Music of Proust’s Salon”

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Jennifer Frautschi & Serena Canin, violins
Hsin-Yun Huang, viola
Ed Arron, ’cello
Pedja Muzijevic, piano

with

Richard Howard, poet & reader

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It is no surprise that Marcel Proust—an author so concerned with memory and time—was a dedicated lover of music, the invisible art that exists only in the passage of time. Our 82nd Symposium features music important in Proust’s life and work. We open with piano pieces by Proust’s lover, Reynaldo Hahn. His is quintessential salon music, charming, nostalgic, and utterly French. Jennifer Frautschi then joins Pedja for Saint-Saëns’ Violin Sonata No. 1. Hahn’s diaries reveal that the reoccurring melody in this piece inspired the famous “little phrase” that represents Swan’s love for Odette in “A la recherche du temps perdu.” Proust wrote that his primary “spiritual nourishment” came from the music of Beethoven and Franck. Famously, he would round up certain Parisian musicians for private, post-midnight performances Franck’s music. To close our 22nd season (well before midnight) we’ve rounded up musicians of our own to play Franck’s opulent Piano Quintet. It should be night to remember.

Program

I. PROUST IN LOVE — Marcel & Reynaldo
“One is always inspired when speaking of what one loves.
The truth is that one should never speak of anything else.”
Letter from Proust to Hahn

Marcel Proust: poems from
"Portraits of Painters, Portraits of Musicians" (1896)
translated and read by Richard Howard

Reynaldo Hahn: Premières valses pour piano (1898)

II. THE LITTLE PHRASE — Swann & Odette
“. . . the little phrase by Vinteuil which was, so to speak,
the national anthem of their love.”
from Swann’s Way

Passage from Swann’s Way
“In Search of Lost Time” Vol. 1, chapter "Swann in Love"
translated and read by Richard Howard

Camille Saint-Saëns
Violin Sonata No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 75 (1885)

III. SPIRITUAL NOURISHMENT — Proust & Music
“For some years Beethoven’s last quartets and the music of Franck
has been my principal spiritual nourishment”
Proust to Mme. Albert Hecht, March 1916

César Franck
Piano Quintet in F Minor, Op. 7 (1878-79)

THE HELICON FOUNDATION
James Roe, Artistic Director
William A. Simon, President
Albert Fuller, Founder

Helicon Members 2006-2007

2006-08-26T19:41:00.000-07:00

For its generous support of our 82nd Symposium,
The Helicon Foundation is deeply grateful to The Alice Tully Foundation.
We thank The Kosciuszko Foundation for their hospitality.

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We wish to express our gratitude to Helicon’s Members
whose support makes possible the events of our twenty-second season:

Directors Circle
Joan K. Easton
Susan Zolla-Pazner, Ph.D. & Sherman Pazner, M.D.

Sponsoring Members
V. Edward Dent
Karen McLaughlin & Mark Schubin
Ryo Toyonaga & Alvin Friedman-Kien
Lisa & Paul Welch

Sustaining Members
Yukiko & Jim Gatheral
Franklin Heller & Christian Steiner
David S. Moyer
The Irwin Scherzer Foundation
Ann & Joe Scozzafava
Lavinia & William Simon
Marica & Jan Vilcek
Joanne Witty & Eugene Keilin

Contributing Members
Patty Otis Abel & Dennis R. Reiff
Leslie Armstrong
Barbara & Paul Krieger,
Doreen Lindsay & Andrew Burt
Peter C. Lombardo, M.D.
Arthur Richenthal
Laura Schoen & Robert Kaufman
Arlene & Bruce Simon

Members
Anonymous (1)
Cheryl Milone Bab
Cindy Bolt & Edmond V. Karam
Nancy Cardozo
Pamela Drexel
Patricia & Michael Fast
Nancy Hall & Robert Schwartzman
Rosanna & Corwith Hansen
Timothy B. Harwood
Hideko Kamino, M.D. & Howard Ratech, M.D.
Sarah O.H. Johnson
Gregory Keilin
Catherine Keller & Jason Starr
David Longmire
Lena Persson & Hervé Pierre
Gil Quito
Carol & Gerard Silverman
Jane Taylor & Guy Renvoize

Contributors
Rowan Dordick & Jennifer Hirschowitz in Honor of William A. Simon
Don Lebowitz, Esq.

Program Notes - "Music from Proust's Salon - Symposium 82

2006-07-31T07:17:00.000-07:00

HELICON SYMPOSIUM LXXXII

MUSIC OF PROUST’S SALON

Program Notes by James Roe

“I believe that the essence of music is to arouse
the mysterious depths of our souls.”
Marcel Proust

It is no surprise that Marcel Proust—a writer consumed with exploring the experience of memory—was a dedicated lover of music, the invisible art that only exists in the passage of time. Helicon’s 82nd Symposium presents music important in Proust’s life and work with readings from his poems and “In Search of Lost Time.”

Reynaldo Hahn (1875-1947)

I. PROUST IN LOVE — Marcel & Reynaldo

Poems of Marcel Proust
Premières valses pour piano by Reynaldo Hahn

When I contacted Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, Richard Howard about participating in Helicon’s Proust concert, he was not only delighted at the prospect, but said he had some new material to offer. He was making new translations of little known Proust poems for an upcoming book, and had recently finished several he thought might be of interest. So, I paid a visit to his book-lined apartment near NYU. The poems he showed me were lyrical portraits of individual painters and composers and fit Helicon’s program perfectly. They were written in the mid-1890s, shortly after Proust met the composer, Reynaldo Hahn.

One of twelve children, Hahn was born in Venezuela to a Catholic mother and a Jewish businessman. To escape growing political unrest, the family left South America for Paris in 1877. By 1893, the year the two young men met, Hahn had already distinguished himself as a composer and performer. With sympathetic tastes and dispositions, the two quickly fell in love. Considering the time in which they lived, Proust and Hahn conducted their relationship with uncommon conspicuousness. (Oscar Wilde’s trial for “gross indecency” began in 1895.) Their romance lasted several years, but the two artists remained life-long friends.

Though Hahn wrote music in every genre including, opera and ballet, his gifts shine brightest in smaller forms. His songs are exquisite, and he often sang them at parties accompanying himself at the piano. He also produced a large body of salon music for solo piano, which displays his characteristic wit and sophisticated charm. To open our program, we will intersperse readings of Proust’s poems between his friend’s Premières valses pour piano.

Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)II. THE LITTLE PHRASE — Swann & Odette

A Passage from Swann’s Way translated and read by Richard Howard
Violin Sonata No. 1 in D Minor by Camille Saint-Saëns

In Swann’s Way, Book One of “In Search of Lost Time,” Proust introduces a fictive composer named Vinteuil, whose presence and music recur throughout the multi-volume work. The cyclic structure of Proust’s novel is mirrored in a composition by Vinteuil, a Sonata for Violin and Piano. Swann is particularly taken by this music, especially a “little phrase” that reappears throughout the piece and subsequently comes to symbolize the love he shared with Odette. “The national anthem of our love,” they called it. Through Swann’s evolving experience of this piece, Proust traces the development of his characters’ relations while illuminating complex connections between music, emotion, and memory. Swann’s reflections on the Vinteuil Sonata are among the most eloquent descriptions of musical experience in literature. Richard Howard will read his own translation of Swann’s first encounter with the sonata and the effect of its “little phrase.”

That this imaginary sonata must be based on an actual piece has spawned nearly a century of speculation. Swann describes a work so sublime, that César Franck’s great Sonata in A Major is often suggested as the model. Another candidate is the First Violin Sonata of Gabriel Fauré, a composer Proust knew and admired. (Helicon has presented both pieces, the Franck on our 38th Symposium, 21 April 1996, with Pedja Muzijevic and Mark Steinberg, and the Fauré on our 73rd, 13 March 2005, with Pedja and Jennifer Frautschi.) Reynaldo Hahn’s diaries reveal that the “little phrase” was based on the recurring melody in Camille Saint-Saëns’ Violin Sonata in D Minor, which closes the first half of this program.

César Franck (1822-90)III. SPIRITUAL NOURISHMENT — Proust & Music

Piano Quintet in F Minor by César Franck

“For some years Beethoven’s last quartets and the music of Franck has been my principal spiritual nourishment,” wrote Proust in 1916. It was listening to the music of Franck and Beethoven, as well as Schumann, Wagner, and Mozart, that stimulated Proust’s thinking about the creative process and informed the narrator’s musical meditations late in his novel.

Proust attended concerts by the celebrated Parisian string quartet, Quatuor Poulet, and became acquainted with their violist, Amable Massis. During a post-concert conversation, Proust proposed a private performance in his home. The musicians agreed in principle, though no specific plans were made. Some days later, Proust made a surprise visit to the first violinist’s apartment around 11:00 P.M., consumed by the desire to hear a string quartet of César Franck that very night! The violinist followed Proust to a waiting car where he was offered a bowl of mashed potatoes. They then drove around Paris collecting the other quartet members. By the time the performance began, it was nearly one in the morning. Upon finishing the demanding hour-long work, Proust sat in silence a long time. He then asked to hear the whole work again from the beginning.

Massis later remarked on the novelist’s attention during their performance, “Proust was a marvelous listener, straightforward, direct, a man who drank in music without raising any questions.” One can only imagine the heightened experience of such intimate music making and the spiritual nourishment it provided the musicians and their solitary, marvelous listener.

“Music may be the unique example of what might have been
the means of communicating between souls.”
From “In Search of Lost Time”

Program Notes - The Art of English Song - Sympoisum 81

2006-07-11T07:28:00.000-07:00

HELICON SYMPOSIUM LXXXI
Sunday, 11 February 2007
THE ART OF ENGLISH SONG

In February Helicon presented its 81st Symposium, titled "The Art of English Song," which featured music by Purcell, Vaughan Williams, and Britten. It was a great night. The tenor, Nicholas Phan is an impressive young artist and a major rising star. I met him while playing principal oboe in the Houston Grand Opera back in 2004, and had wanted to make this program happen ever since. The continuo team is from the Orchestra of St. Luke's and is one of the best in this country. I particularly wanted to present a program combining English Baroque and 20th-C. music to explore the connections and contrasts that might result. Purcell is, of course, the great progenitor of English music and so was a strong influence on Britten and Vaughan Williams. Hearing these works together in one evening turned out to be illuminating.

Here is the program followed by my program notes.

HELICON SYMPOSIUM LXXXI
Sunday, 11 February 2007

THE ART OF ENGLISH SONG

Nicholas Phan, tenor
Robert Wolinsky, harpsichord
Myron Lutzke, ’cello
Pedja Muzijevic, piano
James Roe, oboe

PROGRAM

Henry Purcell (1659-1695)
Songs for Voice and Continuo

If Music Be The Food Of Love
Music For A While

I Attempt From Love's Sickness To Fly
Sweeter Than Roses
Not All My Torments
There's Not A Swain
An Epithalamium: Thrice Happy Lovers

Olinda In The Shades Unseen
An Evening Hymn

---INTERMISSION---

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)
Canticle I for Tenor and Piano, Op. 40 (1947)

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
Ten Blake Songs for Tenor and Oboe (1957)

Britten
Three Folk Song Settings for Tenor and Piano

PROGRAM NOTES

Word painting in “The Art of English Song”
by James Roe, Artistic Director

Song is the ubiquitous form for expressing emotion through words and music. Helicon’s 81st Symposium presents art songs by three of England’s greatest composers, Henry Purcell, Benjamin Britten, and Ralph Vaughan Williams. These composers were masters of a compositional technique called “word painting,” which is the use of musical tools to enhance the meaning of the text. Since the songs on this program are in English, we have direct access to the interplay between words and music.

Among the first musical choices a composer makes when approaching a text is that of key or mode. There are two main musical modes, major and minor. Major modes are generally happy, minor the opposite. One expects a sad sentiment to be sung in a minor mode, however composers can play with these expectations to highlight an underlying ambivalence in a text. One of the Purcell songs we’ll hear opens with the line: “I attempt from Love’s sickness to fly in vain, since I am myself my own fever and pain.” Purcell sets this unhappy realization in the sunny key of A Major. This surprising choice emphasizes not the pain of love’s sickness but our hapless complicity in it. The song becomes a self-amused realization of our own susceptibility to love’s traps. A successful song reveals such layers of meaning not evident in the music or the text alone.

Another musical choice is that of tempo. The famous Purcell song, “Sweeter than Roses,” opens with expansive, improvisatory music that evokes the nostalgic images of the opening line: “Sweeter than roses, or cool evening breeze, was the dear kiss.” This kiss seems to have gone exceedingly well, “first trembling made me freeze, then shot like fire all over.” On this phrase, Purcell launches into a fast tempo, painting the kiss’s fiery passion with shooting musical notes. The next line reads “What magic has victorious love!” Here, Purcell sets up a brisk, regular tempo emphasizing the power of love’s magic over us.

A composer’s most direct tool for word painting is melodic shape. Words are set to melody in two ways, syllabic and melismatic. Syllabic is the most common. With one note per syllable of text, it emphasizes clarity and flow. A melisma is more than one note sung on a single syllable. This expressive device highlights certain words and enhances their emotional impact. A fine example of syllabic word painting from this Symposium comes in the second of Vaughan Williams’ Blake Songs, “A Poison Tree.” Blake’s poem, from his “Songs of Experience,” is a chilling depiction of the progression of anger to fatal revenge. In the last line, the speaker sees his foe dead on the ground, poisoned by the fruit of enmity. “In the morning glad I see, my foe outstretched beneath the tree.” Vaughan Williams sets this line syllabically, each word descending step-by-step to the song’s final note, a long unaccompanied “D.” This unadorned, outstretched note represents the final resting place of the speaker’s victim. (Could the note “D” also denote the word “death”?) Melismatic text setting is a special expressive choice. When a composer writes a melisma on a word, the clarity of that word can be partly or even greatly obscured as the shape of the melody takes prominence over the natural flow of the text. A fine composer will use melismas in important moments where the expressive meaning of a word overwhelms its grammatical or rhythmic place in the poem. There is an irresistible example from Handel’s “Messiah” in the chorus “All We Like Sheep.” The opening line, “All we like sheep, have gone astray,” is set syllabically until the word, “astray.” On its second syllable, Handel writes a long undulating melisma. The melody practically goes haywire, jumping and leaping all about. Quite literally, it goes astray. Melismas offer performers great opportunity for personal expression. In his song “Not All My Torments,” Purcell writes exquisitely complex melismas to color key words such as “torments,” “pity,” and “sorrows.” The two final bars of the song are given over to a weeping melisma on the words, “I despair.” Listen for the way our musicians respond to passages such as these

I cannot leave the topic of word painting without mentioning one of my favorite examples in all of music, which happens to be on this program. It comes in Purcell’s sublime song, “Music for a While.” Referencing the story of Orpheus, the text tells of music’s power to calm a troubled mind, if only temporarily. The song's second section describes music’s affect on one of the mythological Furies, Alecto. This Alecto is a singularly unpleasant girl. Armed with a whip, she has snakes for hair, bat wings, a dog’s head and blood dripping from her eyes. Yet music has the power to calm even this beastly creature, causing “the snakes to drop from her head and the whip from out her hands.” In his setting, Purcell repeats the word “drop” nine times, each one iterated with a single short note sung on the weak half of the beat. The effect is onomatopoetic word painting, and is immensely charming.

The songs featured in this Symposium are rich in these devices and many others. Keep your ears open. Let your imagination be stimulated by the words, the music, and the performers’ interpretations to heighten your experience of these masterpieces of art song written in our shared language.