First Monday at Jordan Hall: Ligeti, Schubert

György Ligeti | Poème Symphonique for 100 Metronomes (1962)

Our thanks to Rodney Lister for the loan of his metronome collection.

György Ligeti | Trio for Violin, Horn, and Piano (1982)

Andante con tenerezza
Vivacissimo molto ritmico
Alla marcia
Lamento: Adagio

INTERMISSION

Franz Schubert | String Quartet No. 15 in G Major, D. 887

Allegro molto moderato
Andante un poco moto
Scherzo: Allegro vivace
Allegro assai

Artist biographies

Borromeo String Quartet, formed in 1989, has had a rich and multi-faceted career performing all around the world.  They have performed in many of the world's great concerts halls: the Berlin Philharmonie, the Zurich Tonhalle, Dvořák Hall in Prague, Wigmore Hall in London, the Opera Bastille in Paris, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Oriental Arts Center in Shanghai and the Seoul Arts Center in Korea.  They have worked extensively with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Library of Congress, and have over many years presented quartet cycles such as the complete quartets of Beethoven and Shostakovich at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.  They studied for their Artist Diploma at the New England Conservatory and upon graduation in 1992 they were asked to become the faculty String-Quartet-in-Residence at the Conservatory.  They have fulfilled this role with great enthusiasm for nearly 30 years now.  The Borromeo Quartet has also had a long-term involvement with the Taos School of Music and they now serve as faculty String-Quartet-in-Residence at the Heifetz International Music Institute where first violinist Nicholas Kitchen is the Artistic Director.  For many years the Borromeo Quartet performed at the Spoleto Festivals in both Charleston and Italy and they have also performed at Tanglewood and Ravinia and at each of these places they also gave special presentations about their unique research into the manuscripts of Beethoven.
        The Borromeo Quartet has received numerous awards.  They won top prizes in the Evian International String Quartet Competition, won the Young Concert Artists Auditions, and received the Cleveland Quartet Award, the Avery Fischer Career Grant and Lincoln Center's Martin E. Siegel Award.  They were Ensemble in Residence for NPR's Performance Today and have worked extensively with WGBH in Boston. 
        The Borromeo Quartet is known as the first professional ensemble to use computers to read music in concerts and they started doing this in 2007 in order to always work from the full score.  This use of computers also made it natural for them to bring sources such as composer's manuscripts into their rehearsal process, and this has proved very inspiring to the group in their work with many great composers - Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Schoenberg and Bartók, to mention just a few.
        The Borromeo Quartet invented and offered for many years a program called Living Archive where audience members could order CDs and DVDs of the live concert they just heard.  Recently this initiative has transformed into CD offerings as well as Web presentations some of which delve into some of the more fascinating aspects of their work with the manuscripts of Beethoven. 
        Through the transcriptions of first violinist Nicholas Kitchen the Borromeo Quartet has brought a great deal of the music of J.S. Bach into the repertoire of their quartet.  They have performed and recorded both books of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier (Book 1 as a CD, Book 2 as a web presentation) and they perform the Goldberg Variations and numerous organ works.  They have also worked with a great array of
contemporary composers, including Gunther Schuller, John Cage, György Ligeti and Steve Reich.

Gabriela Díaz began her musical training at the age of five, studying piano with her mother, and the next year, violin with her father. A childhood cancer survivor, Gabriela is committed to supporting cancer research and treatment as a musician. In 2004, she was awarded a grant from the Albert Schweitzer Foundation to organize a series of chamber music concerts in cancer units at various hospitals in Boston, this project is now a part of her chamber music organization, Winsor Music (winsormusic.org). A fierce champion of contemporary music, Gabriela has worked closely with many significant composers, including Pierre Boulez, Joan Tower, Jessie Montgomery, Tania León, and Helmut Lachenmann. Gabriela is a member of The International Contemporary Ensemble, A Far Cry, Castle of Our Skins, Sound Icon, and appears frequently with other chamber music ensembles throughout the United States. Gabriela teaches at Wellesley College and the Longy School of Music at Bard College. Critics have acclaimed Gabriela as “a young violin master,” and “one of Boston’s most valuable players.” Lloyd Schwartz of the Boston Phoenix noted, “…Gabriela Diaz in a bewitching performance of Pierre Boulez’s 1991 Anthèmes. The come-hither meow of Diaz’s upward slides and her sustained pianissimo fade-out were miracles of color, texture, and feeling.” Others have remarked on her "indefatigably expressive" playing, “polished technique,” and “vivid and elegant playing.” Gabriela can be heard on New World, Centaur, BMOPSound, Mode, Naxos, and Tzadik records. Her recording of Lou Harrison's Suite for Violin and American Gamelan was highlighted in the New York Times Article, "5 Minutes That Will Make You Love Classical Music." Gabriela is proud to be a core member of the team that created Boston Hope Music, bringing music to patients and frontline workers during the pandemic. More info can be found at gabrieladiazviolin.com

Praised by the Boston Globe as “simply dazzling,” Korean-born pianist Mihae Lee maintains a versatile career as soloist, chamber musician, and artistic director.  She has been captivating audiences throughout North and South America, Europe, and Asia in solo and chamber music concerts, in such venues as Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Jordan Hall, Berlin Philharmonie, Academia Nationale de Santa Cecilia in Rome, Warsaw National Philharmonic Hall, and Taipei National Hall. A devoted chamber musician, Mihae is a founding member of the Triton Horn Trio and was an artist member of the Boston Chamber Music Society for three decades. In addition, she has appeared frequently at numerous international chamber music festivals including Dubrovnik, Amsterdam, Groningen, Medellin Festicamara, Busan, Gimhae, Great Woods, Seattle, OK Mozart, Mainly Mozart, Music from Angel Fire, El Paso, Arizona Friends of Chamber Music, Chamber Music Northwest, Rockport, Bard, Norfolk, Mostly Music, Music Mountain, and Chestnut Hill Concerts. She has also collaborated with the Juilliard, Brentano, Tokyo, Muir, Cassatt, and Manhattan string quartets; has been a guest artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Speculum Musicae, and Bargemusic; and has premiered and recorded solo and chamber works by such composers as Gunther Schuller, Ned Rorem, Paul Lansky, Henri Lazarof, Michael Daugherty, and Ezra Laderman. 
        Mihae made her professional debut at the age of fourteen with the Korean National Orchestra after winning the prestigious May 16th National Competition. In the same year, she came to the United States on a scholarship from The Juilliard School Pre-College, and subsequently won many further awards including First Prize at the Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin Competition, the Juilliard Concerto Competition, and the New England Conservatory Concerto Competition. Mihae received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School, studying with Martin Canin, and her artist diploma from the New England Conservatory with Russell Sherman. Mihae is often heard over the airwaves on National Public Radio’s Performance Today and on other stations around the country. Her recordings include Paul Lansky’s Notes to Self, a solo piano work written for her, as well as Lansky’s Etudes and Parodies and Pieces of Advice. She has released compact discs on the Etcetera, EDI, Northeastern, BCMS, and Bridge labels. Mihae is currently Artistic Director of the Essex Winter Series in Connecticut and Music Director of the Sebago-Long Lake Music Festival in Maine.

William Purvis has pursued a multifaceted career both in the U.S. and abroad as horn soloist, chamber musician, conductor, and educator. A passionate advocate of new music, he has participated in numerous premieres including horn concerti by Peter Lieberson, Bayan Northcott, Krzysztof Penderecki (New York premiere), and Paul Lansky; horn trios by Poul Ruders and Paul Lansky; Quintet for Horn and Strings by Richard Wernick with the Juilliard Quartet, Sonate en Forme de Préludes by Steven Stucky; and recent premieres by Elliott Carter, Retracing II for Solo Horn and Nine by Five with the New York Woodwind Quintet. He is a member of the New York Woodwind Quintet, the Yale Brass Trio, and the Triton Horn Trio, and is an emeritus member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. Mr. Purvis has been a frequent guest artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Boston Chamber Music Society, and has  collaborated with many of the world’s most esteemed string quartets, including the Juilliard, Tokyo, Orion, Brentano, Mendelssohn, Sibelius, Daedalus, and Fine Arts string quartets. Recent Festival appearances have included the Sarasota, Norfolk, Sebago-Long Lake, Chestnut Hill and Phoenix Chamber Music Festivals in the U.S., the Great Mountain, Busan and Gimhae music festivals in South Korea and the Kitaruizawa Festival in Japan. He has participated in performances on historical instruments with the Smithsonian Chamber Players, and a recording of the Quintets for Piano and Winds will be released in 2023. He has recorded extensively on numerous labels including Deutsche Grammophon, Sony Classical, Naxos, Koch, and Bridge. Mr. Purvis is currently Professor in the Practice of Horn and Chamber Music at the Yale School of Music, where he is also coordinator of winds and brasses, and serves as Director of the Yale Morris Steinert Collection of Musical Instruments.