Musical Café

May 12, 2025, 7:30 pm

Michelle Cann, piano

Stefani Matsuo, violin

Tommy Mesa, cello

Michelle Cann has become one of the most sought-after pianists of her generation. After performing with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, she will join the dynamic cellist Tommy Mesa and the CSO’s distinguished Concertmaster Stefani Matsuo for Linton’s season finale. This vibrant program will include an array of musical styles, including music by Claude Debussy, Winton Marsalis, and Clara Schumann.

Linton Chamber Music is grateful to the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra for their support in making possible the appearance of Michelle Cann who performs with the CSO on May 9 & 10.

The length of this concert is approximately 1.75 hours, including intermission.

Program Notes

Claude Debussy (1862 – 1918)
Cello Sonata

Claude Debussy’s Sonata for Cello and Piano, composed in 1915, marked the beginning of what was intended as a six-part series of sonatas for various instrumental combinations—a project left incomplete due to the composer’s deteriorating health. As war engulfed Europe, Debussy turned inward, channeling his patriotism and waning strength into works that sought to reclaim French musical identity. The Cello Sonata—the first of the three completed—emerged in this context of artistic resistance and personal introspection. While Debussy was known for his evocative titles and impressionistic style, this late period work hearkens back to classical forms, though reimagined with his distinct voice. Subtitled in its drafts as Pierrot fâché avec la lune (“Pierrot angry at the moon”), the sonata hints at a commedia dell’arte figure unraveling—perhaps a reflection of Debussy himself amid the disquiet of wartime France.

Listeners familiar with Debussy’s subtleties will find this sonata surprisingly raw and immediate. The opening Prologue presents a searching dialogue between cello and piano, its lyrical restraint periodically torn open by bursts of passion or hushed introspection. The central Sérénade—strange, mercurial, and tinged with irony—unfolds like a dream sequence: a disoriented, theatrical Pierrot plucking and muttering before dissolving into an eerie, moonlit reverie. The finale erupts from this stillness with manic energy, the cello and piano locked in an exuberant, almost reckless interplay. The sonata’s brevity only sharpens its emotional intensity; motifs appear like fragments of thought, flaring up and vanishing before they can settle. Beneath its grotesque humor and unconventional form, the sonata speaks with a piercing emotional clarity—music at once haunted and haunting.

Wynton Marsalis (1961 – )   
Fiddle Dance Suite

1. Sidestep Reel – In 19th Century America, the Afro-Celtic fiddle style was the centerpiece of many a dance. Reels and hornpipes were very popular forms. Their repetitive, even-metered rhythms were easy and fun to dance to, and their infectious singable melodies stayed in the mind and on the tongue. More adventurous fiddlers were given to syncopating on these forms by accenting off beats and by embellishing melodies with oddmetered note groupings. Syncopation is a fundamental rhythmic attitude of jazz and this movement is a celebration of that art. The melodic language is a home-grown concoction of commonality between traditional reels and hornpipes and the Baroque, Ragtime and the quartal concepts of Modern Jazz.

2. As the Wind Goes – the wistful late night song of a lullabye, a campfire song, a ballad…a spiritual. It is sung as if on the wind, yearning to experience once again that which will only ever again live as memory.

3. Jones’ Jig – the Irish Jig, the African 6/8 bell pattern, the shuffle rhythm of jazz and the drum style of Elvin Jones all play around with the relationship of 3 in the time-space of 2. The juxtaposition, negotiation and reconciliation of these opposing rhythmic perspectives create interesting musical relationships all over the globe.

4. Nicola’s Strathspey – In the traditional Strathspey, improvised embellishments, syncopated dotted rhythms and the use of space between notes create expectation, momentum and surprise. These same elements and their effect on the listener are the same in the blues. It seems like a natural marriage.

5. Bye Bye Breakdown – This is good ol’, Saturday night barn dance, hoedown fiddling. It revels in the whining cry of open double stops, in all types of musical onomatopoeia from train sounds to animal calls to country whistling, and in the steady 2/4 rhythm that is as basic as walking. The harmonic framework of several popular fiddle and folk tunes provide a practical grid for the cutting of challenging melodic and rhythmic figures. It is designed to tire fiddler and dancers out. Then we stomp our way home in varying states of delight and disrepair.

–Notes by the composer

Jessie Montgomery (1981 – )
Duo for Violin & Cello

This piece was written for my friend and cellist Adrienne Taylor. The piece is meant as an ode to friendship with movements characterizing laughter, compassion, adventure, and sometimes silliness.

— Jessie Montgomery

Jessie Montgomery (b. 1981) is a New York–born violinist and composer whose music reflects the vibrant cultural mosaic of 21st-century America. Raised on Manhattan’s Lower East Side and trained at the Juilliard School and NYU, Montgomery draws from a diverse array of musical traditions—from Baroque consort music to jazz, swing, samba, and Zimbabwean dance. Her work blends classical structures with improvisation, vernacular styles, and social awareness, making her a powerful voice in contemporary chamber music. In her Duo for Violin and Cello (2015), Montgomery channels these influences into a spirited and emotionally nuanced tribute to friendship.

Originally written for Montgomery herself and cellist Adrienne Taylor, the piece explores the interplay between structure and spontaneity, tradition and experimentation. Recently, Montgomery gave the three movements evocative titles—Antics, In Confidence, and Serious Fun—to underscore the emotional journey and dynamic intimacy at the heart of close friendship. Antics is lively and mischievous, full of rhythmic energy and playful exchanges. In Confidence offers a more introspective tone, with subtle inflections and sensitive interplay between the instruments suggesting whispered conversations or quiet understanding. Serious Fun closes the piece with a joyful momentum, fusing virtuosic flair with a sense of lighthearted adventure. Throughout, Montgomery’s writing challenges the players to communicate with immediacy and honesty, mirroring the trust and openness at the core of both chamber music and friendship.

Clara Schumann (1819 – 1896)
Three Romances

Clara Schumann (1819–1896) was one of the most celebrated pianists of the 19th century and a gifted composer whose work has only recently begun to receive the recognition it deserves. A prodigy trained by her father Friedrich Wieck, Clara was already a touring virtuoso by her teens. Her long and often turbulent marriage to Robert Schumann, as well as her deep friendship with Johannes Brahms, defined much of her adult life. Despite the limitations placed on women composers at the time, Clara wrote a substantial body of music early in her career. However, following Robert’s decline into mental illness and his death in 1856, she largely set aside composition in favor of performance and advocacy for his music. The Three Romances for violin and piano, Op. 22, written in 1853 and dedicated to the violinist Joseph Joachim, mark the end of her creative output and offer a poignant glimpse into her mature voice as a composer.

Each of the three romances unfolds as a compact, emotionally expressive world. The first, Andante molto, blends lyrical warmth with a subtle undercurrent of melancholy; its delicate phrasing and tender dialogue between violin and piano suggest both intimacy and longing. The second, Allegretto, opens with a gentle playfulness that gradually deepens into something more earnest, like a private conversation that turns unexpectedly sincere. The third and final romance, Leidenschaftlich schnell, is the most expansive and impassioned of the set. Sweeping violin lines are woven through dazzling piano textures, building to a fervent climax before softening into a gentle farewell. The Three Romances are not merely charming salon pieces—they are compact emotional narratives that hint at the expressive range Clara might have explored further had she continued composing.

Carlos Simon (1986 – )
Silence for Solo Cello

“Drop Thy still dews of quietness
Till all our striving cease; take from our souls the strain and stress,
and let our ordered lives confess
the beauty of thy peace.”

– John Greenleaf Whittier

This work is one of three works from Songs of Isolation, a project aimed at illuminating important voices in this immensely challenging time across the globe. The three composers writing solo cello works for this project are Andrea Casarrubios, Stephanie Ann Boyd, and Carlos Simon.

Commissioned by Astral Artists through its Micro-Commissioning Program for Thomas J. Mesa, cellist

— Carlos Simon

Clara Schumann (1819 – 1896)
Piano Trio in G minor Op. 17

Clara Schumann composed her Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 17, in 1846 during a rare pause in her busy concert schedule, when pregnancy with her fourth child temporarily kept her off tour. This window of time allowed Clara to fully devote herself to composition, and the resulting trio is one of her most substantial and sophisticated works. Written shortly before Robert Schumann composed his own first trio, Clara’s work stands as a landmark in her compositional output—reflecting both her command of Romantic form and her individual voice as a composer. Though she later lost confidence in the trio, particularly after Robert’s entries into the genre, the work was admired by contemporaries including Brahms and violinist Joseph Joachim. Today, it’s recognized as a powerful contribution to the 19th-century chamber repertoire.

The first movement opens quietly but confidently, establishing a strong G minor theme that lends itself to imitation and rich motivic development. Clara juxtaposes this with lyrical material in G major, leading to a dramatic coda that restores the minor key. The Scherzo, cast in the tempo of a minuet, is full of charm and rustic vitality, especially in the violin’s syncopated lines. The Trio section contrasts with offbeat metrical play and a sweeping, Beethovenian return. The slow movement, Andante, is perhaps the emotional heart of the piece: a poignant instrumental song in G major, marked by warmth, subtle dissonance, and a stormy central section in E minor. The finale, marked Allegretto, draws inspiration from Eastern European folk rhythms and gypsy inflections. It blends rondo and sonata elements, develops themes with contrapuntal elegance—including a brief fugato—and subtly recalls earlier material, bringing the trio to a spirited and cohesive close. The work is both intimate and expansive, showcasing Clara’s skillful handling of form, texture, and lyrical depth.