Biography

Three outstanding musicians come together for this unusual combination of clarinet, cello and piano. Anthony McGill, principal clarinet of the New York Philharmonic, was named Musical America’s 2024 Instrumentalist of the Year. Such is his standing in the musical community that he was invited to perform at the 2009 inauguration of President Barack Obama. McGill appears regularly as soloist with major orchestras, including the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and the orchestras of Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, and Detroit. McGill is an ardent advocate for helping music education reach underserved communities, and for addressing issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in classical music. He serves on the faculty of the Juilliard School of Music and at the Curtis Institute of Music. 2nd LMMC appearance.

Taiwanese-born pianist Gloria Chien made her orchestral debut at the age of 16 with no less than the Boston Symphony and was subsequently chosen by the Boston Globe as one of its Superior Pianists of the Year, one “who appears to excel in everything.” Together with her husband, violinist Soovin Kim, they are Artistic Directors at Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon, and at the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival in Burlington, Vermont. The duo received the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Award for Extraordinary Service in 2021. LMMC debut.

Cellist Sterling Elliott is a 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient and winner of the Senior Division of the 2019 National Sphinx Competition. Already in his young career he has appeared with major orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, and Los Angeles Philharmonic. LMMC debut.

https://www.anthonymcgill.com/

https://www.gloriachien.com/

https://sterlingelliott.com/

Notes

Debussy wrote his Clarinet Rhapsody in late 1909/early 1910 as a competition piece for the Paris Conservatoire. The languid opening presents the soloist in the dreamiest of settings, with delicate curls of sound and rocking accompaniment. A more active scherzando section interrupts the lazy mood. A variety of tempos follows, serving as a backdrop for the clarinet to demonstrate all its ranges, colors, moods and technical abilities. “Surely this piece is one of the most pleasing I have ever written,” exclaimed the composer.

André Messager is largely forgotten today, but in his time he was a pillar of musical life in both Paris and London in the roles of composer, conductor, pianist and organist. Of his thirty stage works, the ballet Les Deux Pigeons maintains a toehold in the repertory today. Some of his works were produced in London’s West End, and some even on Broadway with long runs. The Solo de Concours (1899), like Debussy’s Rhapsody, was written as a competition piece for students at the Paris Conservatoire. In just a few minutes it manages to incorporate a jaunty opening filled with acrobatic stunts, a central episode of soothing lyricism, a cadenza, a varied return of the opening material, and a gung-ho coda.

Beethoven wrote his Op. 11 Trio in 1796. Following a performance in 1799, the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung wrote that it “is by no means easy in parts, but it runs more flowingly than much of the composer’s other work and produces an excellent ensemble effect. … If the composer, with his unusual grasp of harmony, his love of the graver movements, would aim at natural rather than strained and recherché composition, he would set good work before the public, which would throw into the shade the stale, hurdy-gurdy tunes of many a more-talked about musician.”

In 1890 Brahms met Richard Mühlfeld, one of the finest clarinetists in Europe. For Mühlfeld he wrote two sonatas, a trio and a quintet – all masterpieces of his autumnal last years. We casually refer to the trio as the “Clarinet Trio,” but the cello is every bit as prominent. Indeed, it introduces more themes than does the clarinet, and the two blend so harmoniously that Brahms’s friend Eusebius Mandyczewski told him that “it is as though the instruments were in love with each other.” The cello introduces two of the three themes of the first movement. The intimate, elegiac Adagio has inspired writers to heights of eloquent praise: Eduard Hanslick noted that the clarinet’s rich low tones “cast a romantic twilight over the whole.” The next movement has a waltz-like flavor, a result of Brahms’s fraternizing with Johann Strauss when he wrote it. The urgent and feverish finale sweeps forward relentlessly to a thrilling close.

Robert Markow