JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897)
Piano Quintet No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 34 (1861-1864)
When Brahms set to work on this piece in 1861 he at first intended it to be scored for string quartet plus an additional cello. But when he sent it off to his friend and frequent musical advisor, the violinist Joseph Joachim, the latter felt there was “harshness in some of the passages.” Brahms burned the score (as he was known to do with anything that didn’t live up to his exacting standards.) Three years later, the work morphed into a sonata for two pianos and was actually performed in that guise by Brahms and Karl Tausig. But it found little favor among the critics who thought that it was now lacking sweetness, which strings would certainly provide. When, at the behest of Clara Schumann, he recast his composition for yet a third time for string quartet and piano it finally achieved perfection. It is one of Brahms’s grandest and most frequently performed chamber works. The tempestuous opening is truly on an epic scale, with the piano sounding as a powerful voice. The next two movements are a study in contrast: the Andante un poco adagio is sweet and simple, while the Scherzo is a driving, intense statement by all forces. After a slow introduction, the quintet’s final movement goes into overdrive and ends in a whirlwind of emotion. No less a figure than the famed conductor Hermann Levi declared to Brahms: “The Quintet is beautiful beyond words; you have turned a monotonous work for two pianos into a thing of great beauty, a masterpiece of chamber music.”

Violinist Sheryl Staples joined the New York Philharmonic as Principal Associate Concertmaster (The Elizabeth G. Beinecke Chair) in 1998, and made her solo debut with the Orchestra in 1999. Previously she was the associate concertmaster of The Cleveland Orchestra and concertmaster of the Pacific Symphony and Santa Barbara Chamber orchestras. She has appeared as soloist with more than 40 orchestras, including The Cleveland Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic; participated in the Santa Fe, La Jolla, Brightstar, Martha’s Vineyard, and Seattle chamber music festivals; and been a faculty artist at the Aspen, Bowdoin, and Sarasota music festivals. She is a former member of The Cleveland Orchestra Piano Trio, and currently performs with the New York Philharmonic Ensembles and the Lyric Chamber Music Society. Ms. Staples was a scholarship student at the Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences, Young Musicians Foundation Scholar, and W.M. Keck Scholar at the Colburn School of Performing Arts, spending summers at the Encore School for Strings. She earned an artist diploma from the University of Southern California. Ms. Staples performs on the “Kartman” Guarnerius del Gesù, ca. 1728.

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Violinist Michelle Kim has been Assistant Concertmaster (The William Petschek Family Chair) of the New York Philharmonic since 2001. She has performed as soloist with orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, New Jersey Philharmonic, Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, and Pacific Symphony. An active chamber musician, Ms. Kim has collaborated with violinists Cho-Liang Lin, Christian Tetzlaff, and Pinchas Zukerman; cellists Mstislav Rostropovich, Lynn Harrell, and Gary Hoffman; and pianists Lang Lang and Yefim Bronfman. She has performed at the Santa Fe Chamber Music, La Jolla Chamber Music, Strings in the Mountain, and Bravo! Vail Valley Music festivals. She has also served as the first violinist of the Rossetti String Quartet, and was a Sterne Virtuoso Artist at Skidmore College in 2007–08. A former Presidential Scholar, Ms. Kim attended the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music as a Starling Foundation scholarship recipient. She has been a member of the faculty at the USC Thornton School of Music; Colburn School of Performing Arts; and University of California, Santa Barbara. Michelle Kim currently teaches at the Mannes College of Music.

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Cynthia Phelps is the Philharmonic’s Principal Viola (The Mr. and Mrs. Frederick P. Rose Chair). Her solo appearances with the Orchestra have included performances on the 2006 Tour of Italy, sponsored by Generali, and the 1999 premiere of Sofia Gubaidulina’s Two Paths, which the Orchestra commissioned for her and Philharmonic Associate Principal Viola Rebecca Young. Other solo engagements have included the Minnesota Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, and Orquesta Sinfónica de Bilbao. Ms. Phelps performs with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Boston Chamber Music Society, and Bargemusic. She has toured internationally with the Zukerman and Friends Ensemble; appeared with The Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio and the Guarneri, American, Brentano, and Prague string quartets; and has given recitals in the music capitals of Europe and the U.S. Her honors include the Pro Musicis International Award and first prize in the Lionel Tertis International Viola and Washington International String competitions. Her most recent album, for flute, viola, and harp, on Telarc, was nominated for a Grammy Award.She has released a solo CD on Cala Records. Ms. Phelps has performed on PBS’s Live From Lincoln Center, NPR, Radio France, and RAI in Italy.

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Carter Brey was appointed Principal Cellist of the New York Philharmonic in 1996, and made his subscription debut as soloist with the Orchestra in May 1997, performing Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations led by then-Music Director Kurt Masur. He has performed as soloist in subsequent seasons in the Elgar Cello Concerto with André Previn conducting; in William Schuman’s A Song of Orpheus with Christian Thielemann; in Richard Strauss’s Don Quixote with Music Director Lorin Maazel and with former Music Director Zubin Mehta; and in the Brahms Double Concerto with Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow and conductor Christoph Eschenbach. The Brahms was repeated at the Tanglewood Music Center in the summer of 2002 as part of Kurt Masur’s final concerts as Philharmonic Music Director.

Carter Brey rose to international attention in 1981 as a prizewinner in the Rostropovich International Cello Competition. Subsequent appearances with Mstislav Rostropovich and the National Symphony Orchestra were unanimously praised. The winner of the Gregor Piatigorsky Memorial Prize, Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Young Concert Artists’ Michaels Award, and other honors, he also was the first musician to win the Arts Council of America’s Performing Arts Prize, and has performed as soloist with many of America’s major symphony orchestras.

His chamber music career is equally distinguished. He has made regular appearances with the Tokyo and Emerson string quartets as well as The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Spoleto Festival in the U.S. and Italy, and the Santa Fe Chamber Music and La Jolla Chamber Music festivals, among others. He presents an ongoing series of duo recitals with pianist Christopher O’Riley; together they have recorded The Latin American Album, a disc of compositions from South America and Mexico (Helicon Records). His recording with Garrick Ohlsson of the complete works of Chopin for cello and piano was released by Arabesque in the fall of 2002 to great acclaim.

Mr. Brey was educated at the Peabody Institute, where he studied with Laurence Lesser and Stephen Kates, and at Yale University, where he studied with Aldo Parisot, and where he was a Wardwell Fellow and a Houpt Scholar. He lives in New York City with his wife, Ilaria Dagnini Brey, and their two children, Ottavia and Lucas. Among his outside interests are marathon running, ballroom dancing, and sailing (he holds two U.S. Sailing certifications and restored a classic sloop that he sails out of City Island).

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YEFIM BRONFMAN, piano, born in 1958 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Millions of people who may never have heard Yefim Bronfman in the concert hall did hear him perform Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2 at their local cineplex on the soundtrack of Disney’s Fantasia 2000, and later also live, at gala screenings of the film in New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, and Los Angeles. Yefim Bronfman left his native Uzbekistan for Israel in 1973, where the 15-year-old auditioned for the Israel Philharmonic, the orchestra with which he then toured America under Leonard Bernstein and Zubin Mehta. With the help of Isaac Stern and the America-Israel Foundation he immigrated to the United States in 1976 and studied with piano virtuosos Rudolf Serkin, Rudolf Firkusny, William Masselos, and Leon Fleisher. He made his New York Philharmonic debut in May l978, and his Carnegie Hall debut in 1989 (that’s also the year he became an American citizen), and returned to Russia in 1991 for a series of acclaimed recitals with Isaac Stern. Among his many distinctions are the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize (1991), one of the highest honors given to American instrumentalists, and a Grammy in 1996 for Best Instrumental Soloist for his recording of Bartók’s three piano concertos. His discography also includes the complete Prokofiev Piano Sonatas; Rachmaninoff’s piano concertos Nos. 2 and 3; and numerous recital albums. Following the January 2010 concerts with the Philharmonic (Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2, conducted by Alan Gilbert) he joined them on tour in Europe. He will appear with the London Philharmonia under Christoph von Dohnányi playing both Brahms concertos for a live recording. Yefim Bronfman received a Grammy nomination for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (with Orchestra) for his recording of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Piano Concerto with the composer conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic—about which The New York Times wrote that the soloist “plays the fiendishly difficult piano part with stunning virtuosity.”

“…warmly romantic sentiment and jaw-dropping bravura” Chicago Tribune

“He never puts himself ahead of the music, which is kind of refreshing. No matter what he plays, it’s always about the music and how he can best do justice to the score and realize the composer’s intentions. It’s never about him playing the piano. I think he can be relaxed about it because he can play better than most other people on the planet.” Esa-Pekka Salonen

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