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Three Lighthearted Debuts From a Familiar Classicist
Strings Magazine praises Wendy Warner's Popper & Piatigorsky CD
For one night, Chicago becomes the center of Beethoven's universe

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Three Lighthearted Debuts From a Familiar Classicist

By Vivien Schweitzer
May 19, 2010

Since Beethoven’s death in 1827, musicians and academics have pored over his life, letters and documents with a fine-tooth comb; even his hair was the subject of an entire book. By now a new scholarly treatise analyzing his fingernails seems likelier than an evening of Beethoven premieres.

But three of his works received their New York premieres on Tuesday evening at Alice Tully Hall, courtesy of the Beethoven Project Trio, an ensemble founded in 2008, after the pianist George Lepauw learned about these obscure Beethoven scores. Mr. Lepauw, the violinist Sang Mee Lee and the cellist Wendy Warner performed the world premiere of the Piano Trio in E flat (Hess 47) and the American premieres of the Piano Trio in D (Kinsky/Halm Anhang 3) and the Piano Trio in E flat (Op. 63) last year in Chicago.

The three musicians gave committed performances throughout the evening. Mr. Lepauw played with sparkling clarity on the bright-toned Fazioli piano in elegant partnership with Ms. Lee and Ms. Warner, whose musicianship was particularly distinctive. Ms. Warner’s expressive playing and glowing tone were everywhere a pleasure, particularly in the Andante of the Opus 63 Trio.

Beethoven based that genial four-movement work — composed around 1805, with the piano in a central role — on his Opus 103 Wind Octet and Opus 4 String Quintet, itself an arrangement of the octet. Mr. Lepauw played with a singing tone in the lilting Andante and witty Menuetto. He did the same in the Andante of the Piano Trio in B flat ("Archduke"), which concluded the program in familiar Beethovenian territory.

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Strings Magazine praises Wendy Warner's Popper & Piatigorsky CD

Wendy Warner Plays Popper and Piatigorsky.
Wendy Warner, cello, Eileen Buck, piano. (Cedille Records 90000 111)

Wendy Warner is a terrific cellist. Recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, student and protegé of Mstislav Rostropovich, she has enjoyed a flourishing international career since winning his competition in 1990. The program recorded here—Popper’s Suite for Cello and Piano, Op. 69; Three Pieces, Op. 11; Im Walde (In the Forest), Op. 50; and Piatigorsky’s Variations on a Paganini T eme—is tailored to her strengths: her effortless and exuberant virtuosity, beautiful tone, and ardent, but restrained, romanticism.

Of the two great cellists whose works are featured on this disc, David Popper, born in Prague, but long active in Hungary, was the more renowned and prolific composer. His music abounds with lovely melodies, surprisingly daring, chromatic harmonies, felicitous modulations, and, of course, technical fireworks. Warner tosses all these off with relish and also brings out the contrasting character and moods of the pieces with simple expressiveness.

Ukranian-born Gregory Piatigorsky spent most of his life in Germany and America teaching and playing solo and chamber music with such partners as Schnabel and Heifetz. He was renowned for his charm and wit, both of which are on full display in his Variations on a Paganini Theme, the 24th caprice, which has inspired composers from Brahms to the present. Piatigorsky’s 15 variations, each shorter than two minutes, capture the styles and personalities of his famous friends and colleagues.

The piece is grand fun and Warner plays it to the hilt, negotiating its formidable technical obstacles with aplomb.

Pianist Eileen Buck’s empathetic support and remarkably singing tone contribute greatly to the performances. —E.E.

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For one night, Chicago becomes the center of Beethoven's universe

By John von Rhein, Tribune critic
March 3, 2009

The chances of anyone turning up a forgotten Beethoven masterpiece at this late date, while tantalizing, are virtually nil. Even so, odd bits of Beethoveniana still are discovered from time to time, mostly forgotten or incomplete works, piquing the interest of novelty-seeking performers.

One such Beethoven rediscovery had its world premiere Sunday at John B. Murphy Auditorium by an ensemble of Chicago musicians performing as the Beethoven Project Trio, under the auspices of the International Beethoven Project. Making the sold-out event even more newsworthy were the North American premieres of two other Beethoven piano trios.

The world premiere piece, nicknamed "Hess 47" after the Swiss musical scholar Willy Hess, is the only movement Beethoven completed of a piano-trio arrangement of his String Trio in E-Flat, Opus 3, composed in 1794. Is the 12-minute Allegro con brio a major discovery? No. But even a relatively minor piece of forgotten Beethoven casts revealing light on the master's working methods.

Beethoven's style had evolved considerably by the time he made this arrangement, sometime between 1800 and 1805. The piano part abounds in forte and piano contrasts that lend surprise and color and strengthen what is basically an accompanying voice in this pleasant Haydnesque movement.

For musicians who had never worked together as a trio before, pianist George Lepauw, violinist Sang Mee Lee and cellist Wendy Warner made a splendid ensemble, playing with finely judged balance, evenness of sound and unanimity of style. Lee and Warner played Stradivari and Guarneri instruments on loan from Chicago's Stradivari Society.

Receiving its American premiere was the Piano Trio in E-Flat, Opus 63—Beethoven's reworking of his Wind Octet (Opus 103) and String Quintet (Opus 4). Although beholden to classical models, the four-movement work is fraught with passionate romantic drama, foreshadowing the composer's middle-period manner.

Also an American premiere was Beethoven's early Piano Trio in D Major (Kinsky/Halm Anhang 3), dating from 1799. Two missing pages of manuscript totaling 33 bars were skillfully reconstructed by Robert McConnell, a music student at Northwestern University. It's easy to hear why this slight but ingratiating music was long mistaken for a work of Mozart's: It's full of melodic grace and sunny classical charm.

Lepauw, Lee and Warner ended their program with Beethoven's familiar "Archduke" Trio, a masterpiece that drew fully on their individual and collective abilities. The slow movement emerged with particular eloquence here.

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Concerto Repertoire

Johan Christian Bach Sinfonia Concertante for violin and cello in A Major

Barber Concerto

Beethoven Triple in C Major Opus 56

Bernstein Three Meditations from his Mass

Bloch Schelomo-Rhapsodie hebraique

Boccherini Concerto in B flat Major

Brahms Double Concerto in a minor Opus 102

Bruc Kol Nidrei Opus 47

Dutilleux Tout Un Monde Lointain

Dvorak Concerto in b minor Opus 104

Elgar Concerto Opus 85

Faure Elegie Opus 24

Glazunov Chant du Menestrel Opus 71

Haydn Concertos in C Hob. VII, n.1 and D Hob. VII b:2, Opus 101

Hindemith Concerto 1940

Lalo Concerto in d minor

Lutoslawski Concerto

Menotti Fantasia

Milhaud Concerto No. 2, Opus 255 (1945)

Popper Hungarian Rhapsody Opus 68

Prokoffief Sinfonia Concertante Opus 125

Saint-Saens Concerto in a minor No. 1

Saint-Saens Allegro Appassionato Opus 43

Schumann Concerto in a minor Opus 129

Shostakovich Concerto No. 1 Opus 107

Strauss Don Quixote

Tchaikovsky on a theme Rococo Opus 33

Tchaikovsky Pezzo Capriccioso Opus 62

Tchaikovsky Nocturne

Tchaikovsky Andante Cantabile from String Quartet Opus 11

Vivaldi Double Concerto for violin and cello in A, F. IV, n.6

Vivaldi Double Cello Concerto in g minor F.III, n.2, P.411

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Download Biography (PDF)

Biography

Wendy Warner, hailed by Strings magazine for her “youthful, surging playing, natural stage presence and almost frightening technique,” has become one of the world’s leading cellists.  Since she first garnered international attention by winning first-prize at the Fourth International Rostropovich Competition in Paris in 1990, audiences have watched Warner perform on prestigious stages including New York's Carnegie Hall, Symphony Hall in Boston, Walt Disney Hall in Los Angles, Paris' Salle Pleyel and Berlin's Philharmonie.

Warner has collaborated with such leading conductors as Mstislav Rostropovich, Vladimir Spivakov, Christoph Eschenbach, Andre Previn, Jesús López-Cobos, Joel Smirnoff, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Ignat Solzhenitsyn, Charles Dutoit, Eiji Oue, Neeme Järvi and Michael Tilson Thomas. She has recently performed with the Santa Barbara, Detroit, Colorado and New World Symphonies; the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Orchestre Symphonique de Quebec and the Calgary Philharmonic.

Additional North American engagements have included the Chicago, Boston, Dallas, North Carolina, Jacksonville, Montreal, New Mexico, Omaha, Nashville and San Francisco Symphonies, and the Minnesota and Philadelphia Orchestras. Around the world she has performed with the London Symphony (Barbican Center), Berlin Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, French Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Iceland Symphony, L'Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, and L'Orchestre de Paris, with which she performed the Brahms Double Concerto with violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, Semyon Bychkov conducting.

Highlights from the 2008-2009 season brought Warner to South Africa, debuting with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra and a world premiere of a Beethoven Trio in Chicago with violinist Sang Mee Lee and pianist George Lepauw. Her concerto appearances this season include the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Cape Cod Symphony, Evanston Symphony, Valdosta Symphony (GA) and the Santa Fe Concert Association performing the Barber Concerto with members of the New Mexico and Santa Fe symphonies.

A passionate chamber musician, Warner has collaborated with the Vermeer and Fine Arts Quartets and esteemed violinist Gidon Kremer. Recital work includes performances at the Music Institute of Chicago’s Nichols Hall, the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, and internationally in Milan and Tokyo. Warner was invited to perform in recital and with orchestra at the 70th birthday celebration concert for Mstislav Rostropovich in Kronberg, Germany and with Rostropovich in Vivaldi’s two-cello concerto in Reims, France. Festival highlights include performances with El Paso Pro-Musica, Great Teton and Penderecki's Beethoven Easter Festival in Krakow.

Warner's musical career began at age six under the tutelage of Nell Novak, until she joined Mstislav Rostropovich at the Curtis Institute from which she graduated. Warner made her New York debut with the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich in October 1990, playing Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto. She was immediately reengaged to appear with the NSO on a North American tour in 1991. She was also the featured soloist on the Bamberg Symphony’s 1991 European tour, again, conducted by Rostropovich, making her debuts in Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Köln, Düsseldorf and Berlin. From there, she debuted in important music halls all over the world, as well as with the European Soloists of Luxembourg at Frankfurt's Alter Oper, and the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine. She has toured Japan as soloist with NHK Symphony Orchestra and Japan Philharmonic.

In 2009-2010 Wendy Warner will be releasing three more cds for Cedille: Popper and Piatigorsky, Rachmaninov and Myaskovsky Sonatas as well as a CD devoted to unknown Beethoven piano trios including a world premiere. Her past recordings include Hindemith’s complete chamber works for cello for Bridge Records and a disc of 20th century violin and cello duos with Rachel Barton Pine for Cedille Records. Warner’s critically acclaimed CD of Samuel Barber’s Cello Concerto, with Marin Alsop and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, was released by Naxos.

A recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, Warner teaches at Roosevelt University and resides in Chicago.

The outstanding cello bow being used by Wendy Warner is by Francoix Xavier Tourte of Paris, c. 1815, the “De Lamare” on extended loan through the generous efforts of the Stradivari Society of Chicago. The Stradivari Society is a unique organization that supports the very highest level of string playing by assisting Patrons who own the most precious antique Italian instruments and French bows and choose to make them available to artists of exceptional talent and ability.

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Acclaim

"Rachel Barton and Wendy Warner interpret Ravel's Sonata with flair and imagination, not least its lively second movement 'scherzo,' which builds to an exciting climax. The third movement's opening canonic theme and subsequent material are played with full-toned passion and the lively finale is full of panache, its Hungarian folk elements driving it to an invigorating conclusion."

— The Strad

"Warner's pianissimo was gorgeous, and she had plenty of vigor at the other end as well. Warner's finale was a virtuoso's reading, and, overall, hers was a remarkably mature performance of this most adult of concerti."

— Boston Globe

"The young soloist Wendy Warner convincingly made the cello part her own, making light of the various technical demands of this concerto, regarded as one of the more challenging in the repertoire. Despite the cello's markedly centrestage role, there was never any danger of a domineering soloist here: Warner concerned herself with the subtleties of the piece, resisting the temptation to sentimentalise, and all with an impressive spontaneity."

— Glasgow (Scotland) Herald

“Rachel Barton Pine really may be the most charismatic, the most virtuosic, and the most compelling American violinist of her generation.”

— All Music Guide

“Pine is an extraordinary violinist. She played [the concerto] with astonishing ease, bringing a burnished tone and pristine articulation and intonation to the most furious passages. Pine played expressively, freely and, in all cases, appropriately. Pine's rhythmic and metric flex and dynamic and coloristic shadings contributed the emotional investment that late-Romantic music in general and this piece in particular demand.”

— Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

"Barton and Warner [play] this demanding music with virtuosity, virility, and the ability to play an accelerando that really goes over the top. Their Ravel balances lyricism with technical brilliance in a performance that rivals Jaime Laredo and Yo-Yo Ma."

— American Record Guide

"Cellist Wendy Warner calmly ripped through Rimsky-Korsakov's `Flight of the Bumblebee' as if she were tapping her fingers on a coffee cup."

— Durango (CO) Herald

"Warner's finely sculpted playing made the most of the movement. Throughout, her thoughtful music-making had an admirable counterpart in the BSO's response to Yuri Falik's fluent conducting."

— Baltimore Sun

"Warner's phrasing was deliberate and definitive, her tone soaring, fragile or gritty as the music demanded. She took the slow movement at full measure, allowing its double-stops to embrace. At moments, she was able to hold the orchestra alongside her in unspoiled quiet."

— Harrisburg Patriot-News

"The Triple Concerto is perhaps a little less widely known than some of Beethoven's other orchestral works, but it possesses all of the composer's hallmarks in terms of style and structure. It is meant to set off fireworks, and it did."

— Omaha World Herald

"Miss Warner displayed marvelous gifts. She got a warm, full-bodied, gorgeous sound from the cello. She was both poet and firebrand. She played tenderly, stormily, soulfully. She showed a sense of the architecture of a long and expressively complex piece. She found the emotional heart of the music and sang from it."

— Jackson Hole Guide

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Discography

Wendy Warner Plays Popper & Piatigorsky Wendy Warner, cello Eileen Buck, piano Cedille Records: CDR 90000 111	"… This is sovereign music-making deserving of the highest accolades." — Music & Vision website Suite for Cello and Piano, Op. 69 (27:30) 1. Allegro giojoso (10:37) 2. II. Tempo di Menuetto (6:07) 3. III. Ballade (4:47) 4. IV. Finale (5:50) Three Pieces, Op. 11 (12:31) 5. Widmung (5:59) 6. Humoreske (2:42) 7. Mazurka (3:44) Im Walde, Op. 50 (23:02) 8. No. 1 Eintritt (6:05) 9. No. 2 Gnomentanz (3:30) 10. No. 3 Andacht (5:25) 11. No. 4 Reigen (2:36) 12. No. 5 Herbstblume (1:58) 13. No. 6 Heimkehr (3:13) Variations on a Paganini Theme (1946) (16:07)* 14. Theme (0:29) 15. Variation 1 (Pablo Casals) (1:09) 16. Variation 2 (Paul Hindemith) (0:46) 17. Variation 3 (Raya Garbousova) (0:32) 18. Variation 4 (Erica Morini) (0:46) 19. Variation 5 (Felix Salmond) (1:05) 20. Variation 6 (Joseph Szigeti) (1:26) 21. Variation 7 (Yehudi Menuhin) (0:52) 22. Variation 8 (Nathan Milstein) (0:35) 23. Variation 9 (Fritz Kreisler) (1:20) 24. Variation 10 (self-portrait) (0:33) 25. Variation 11 (Gaspar Cassado) (0:57) 26. Variation 12 (Mischa Elman) (1:37) 27. Variation 13 (Ennio Bolognini) (1:19) 28. Variation 14 (Jascha Heifetz) (0:59) 29. Tempo di Marcia (Vladimir Horowitz) (1:35)
Double Play: Twentieth Century Duos for Violin and Cello Rachel Barton Pine, violin Wendy Warner, cello Cedille Records: CDR 90000 047	"[Rachel Barton and Wendy Warner] are major virtuosos who collaborate like best friends… The players' coordination and virtuosity are reminiscent of those of the best string quartets of today (think Emerson), and the generous program is vividly recorded. A superb disc in every respect. Encore!" — Editorial Review - Amazon.com Bohuslav Martinu (1890-1959) Duo No. 2 (1958) I. Allegretto II. Adagio III. Poco Allegro Erwin Schulhoff (1894-1942) Duo (1925) I. Moderate II. Zingaresca: Allegro giocoso III. Andantino IV. Moderato Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) Sonata (1922) I. Allegro II. Tres vif III. Lent IV. Vif, avec entrain Zoltan Kodály (1882-1967) Duo Op. 7 (1914) I. Allegro serioso, non troppo II.Adagio III.Maestoso e largamente, ma non troppo lento
Samuel Barber: Orchestral Works, Volume 2 Cello Concerto, Op. 22 Medea, Op. 23 Adagio for Strings, Op. 11 Wendy Warner, cello Royal Scottish National Orchestra Marin Alsop conducting Naxos	"Wendy Warner's recording of the Barber Cello Concerto is a more satisfying account than the recordings by Yo-Yo Ma, Steven Isserlis or Raphael Wallfisch. Each of these other recordings commend themselves for various reasons, but Ms. Warner's account brings together a searching musicality, technical command, poignant lyricism, and a beautiful stereo acoustic." — Robert Berkovitx Cello Concerto, Op. 22 1.Allegro moderato - 12:51 2.Andante sostenuto - 07:22 3.Molto allegro e appassionato - 09:14 Medea Ballet Suite Op. 23 (1947) 4.Parodos - 03:14 5.Choros. Medea and Jason - 05:01 6.The Young Princess. Jason - 03:28 7.Choros - 03:30 8.Medea - 07:46 9.Kantikos Agonias - 02:27 10.Exodos - 03:18 Adagio for Strings, Op. 11 11.Adagio for Strings, Op. 11 - 07:47
Paul Hindemith: Music for Cello & Piano Wendy Warner, Cello Eileen Buck, Piano Bridge Records	"An excellent disc in every respect." — Classicstoday.com Sonata for Solo Cello, Op. 25, No. 3 (9:53) With Eileen Buck, Piano: Variations on "A frog he went a-courting" (6:16) Sonata 1948 (22:42) Capriccio, Op. 8, No.1 (3:15) Sonata, Op. 11, No. 3 (19:35)

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