First Monday at Jordan Hall: Mozart, Smetana, Bruckner

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | from Ein musikalischer Spass (A Musical Joke), K. 522

II. Menuetto and Trio
IV. Presto
 

Bedřich Smetana | Piano Trio in G Minor, op. 15

Moderato assai - Più animato
Allegro, ma non agitato
Finale: Presto

INTERMISSION

Anton Bruckner | String Quintet in F Major, WAB 112

Gemäßigt
Scherzo: Schnell - Trio: Langsamer
Adagio
Finale: Lebhaft bewegt

Artist biographies

The 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, Dvorak 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 of Music 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 over 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.

Cellist Lluís Claret was born in 1951 in Andorra la Vella to exiled Andorran parents, and began his musical studies at the age of nine. In 1964 he moved to Barcelona, Spain, where he won major distinctions at the Conservatory of the Liceu, and began working with Enric Casals, brother of Pablo Casals. He continued his studies in France, Italy, and in the United States, with masters such as Maurice Gendron, Radu Aldulescu. Claret has said that his personal meetings with György Sebök, Eva Janzer, and Bernard Greenhouse were also implemental in the development of his artistic personality. Claret’s professional career was launched into the international spotlight after he took first prizes at the Pablo Casals International Cello Competition in 1976 and the Rostropovich Cello Competition in 1977.
        Chamber music, pedagogy, and a great interest in contemporary music are all essential elements of Claret’s musical focus. His previous teaching posts include the "Victoria dels Angels" Music School at Sant Cugat in Barcelona, and the Toulouse Conservatory in France. He currently teaches at the Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu in Barcelona, and has presented masterclasses in France, Portugal, Belgium, Italy, the U.S., Japan, and Korea. Also, together with Bernard Greenhouse he conducted seminars at the Abbey of Fontfroide in Narbonne, France.
        A consummate performer, Claret has been on stage in the principal capitals of Europe, America, and Asia. Under the baton of Vaclav Neumann, Mstislav Rostropovitch, Pierre Boulez, Karl Münchinger, Dimitri Kitaienko, Sakari Oramo, George Malcolm, and many others, Claret has performed with orchestras such as the Washington National Symphony, Moscow Philharmonic, Hungarian Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic, English Chamber Orchestra, and the French National Orchestra. He has also performed with notable orchestras in Tokyo, Seoul, Düsseldorf, Stuttgart, Bamberg, Moscow, Madrid, and Barcelona. In 1980, he founded the Barcelona Trio, which performed for nearly 15 years. He also was member of the Berlin Trio for ten years with Klaus Helwig and Christane Edinger. His interest on contemporary music has brought him to personal collaboration with prestigious musicians such as Henri Dutilleux, Witold Lutoslawski, Krzysztof Penderecki, Joan Guinjoan, Iannis Xenakis, and Pierre Boulez.
        A regularly invited jury member for international competitions, Claret has served on the juries of the Rostropovitch Competition in Paris, France, Paulo Cello Competition in Helsinki, Finland, the International Pablo Casals Competition in Kronberg, Germany, and the Adam Cello Competition in Auckland, New Zealand. He joined the NEC faculty in 2016 and serves as co-chair of the Strings and Chamber Music Departments.

Hailed as “an artist who combines a probing, restless intellect with enormous beauty of tone,” Kim Kashkashian has forged a unique path as a performing and recording artist.
        Kim Kashkashian made history when she won the coveted Grammy Award - the first ever given to a violist – for her ECM recording of Ligeti and Kurtag solo viola works.  She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the Royal Academy of Music.   
        Ms. Kashkashian performed as viola soloist with the orchestras of Berlin, London, Vienna, Milan, Amsterdam, New York and Cleveland in collaboration with Eschenbach, Mehta, Welser-Moest, Kocsis, Dennis Russel Davies, Blomstedt, and Holliger.
        She is a member of Trio Tre Voce, and the long-standing duo partner of pianist Robert Levin in the great halls of Vienna, Rome, Paris, Berlin, Munich, Tokyo, Athens, London, New York, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and Philadelphia.  Ms. Kashkashian worked closely with György Kurtág, Krzysztof Penderecki, Alfred Schnittke, Giya Kancheli, and Arvo Pärt and commissioned compositions from Eötvös, Ken Ueno, Betty Olivero, Thomas Larcher, Lera Auerbach, Tigran Mansurian, and Toshio Hosokawa.
        More than 25 solo albums on ECM label have garnered a Grammy, a Cannes Classical Award, the Edison Prize and the Opus Klassik Prize.
       Ms. Kashkashian is Founder of “Music for Food”, a musician-led hunger relief initiative that offers a model for all musicians who wish to act as artist -citizens in their home communities. Music for Food has created more than one and a halfmillion meals for people in need.
      To learn more, please go to musicforfood.net or kimkashkashian.com

Winner of numerous prizes including the Walter Naumburg International Competition, Tibor Varga International Competition, Astral Artists National Auditions, Young Performers Career Advancement, and Lili Boulanger awards, Ayano Ninomiya has performed with orchestras across the U.S., Switzerland, Bulgaria, and most recently in Carnegie Hall.  Praised for her "deeply communicative and engrossing" (The New York Times) performances, recent and upcoming teaching and performance festivals include Yellow Barn's Young Artist Program, Ravinia's Steans Institute, Portland Chamber Music Festival, Skaneateles Music Festival, Colorado College Music Festival, Kingston Chamber Music Festival, and the Bowdoin International Music Festival. She has been featured on Musicians from Marlboro tours in the U.S. and France, and has given a TEDx talk at the University of Tokyo.  She was first violinist of the Ying Quartet and was Associate Professor at the Eastman School of Music until 2015 when she joined the violin faculty of New England Conservatory.  As a recipient of the Beebe Fellowship, Ayano studied in Budapest, Hungary, at the Liszt Academy after graduating from Harvard University and The Juilliard School. 

Pianist HaeSun Paik has been hailed as a “sensitive and thinking musician with stunning virtuosity” (Los Angeles Times), and a “big and individual personality” (New York Times). Having won top prizes at international piano competitions including the Queen Elisabeth, Leeds, William Kapell, and the Tchaikovsky, Ms. Paik has performed around the world in solo recitals, concerti with leading orchestras, and as a renowned chamber musician.
        Ms. Paik has recently performed all five Beethoven Concerti and the Triple Concerto with the New York Classical Players. Additionally, she recorded the complete works by Beethoven for cello and piano with Laurence Lesser, a collection released by Bridge Records. Her debut and subsequent solo recordings are available on the EMI label.
        Ms. Paik, a much sought-after pedagogical influence in Korea, was the youngest pianist of her generation to be appointed as a music professor at Seoul National University. Currently, she serves as the co-chair of the piano department at the New England Conservatory, following several years of teaching at the Cleveland Institute of Music.
        Furthermore, she teaches and performs at numerous summer festivals, including Morningside Music Bridge, PianoSummer at New Paltz, Chautauqua Institute, PyeongChang Music Festival in Korea, and has served as a juror in many prestigious international competitions.
        Ms. Paik, a recipient of the 2019 Music Award from the Korean National Academy of the Arts - the nation’s highest honor for Korean musicians - published her life-essay book, Master of My Own Frustrations in Korea in 2023.
        Ms. Paik graduated from the New England Conservatory and Walnut Hill School under the guidance of Russell Sherman and Wha-Kyung Byun. Her artistic development was further enriched through studies at the International Piano Foundation in Lake Como, Italy