Violinist Helena Baillie has been hailed by The Strad magazine for her “brilliance and poignance,” and stands apart for a rare ease on both violin and viola. Cellist Anita Balázs is a laureate of several international competitions including the Antonio Janigro International Cello Competition in Porec, Croatia and the Alfredo e Vanda Marcosig International Competition in Italy. Pianist Erika Switzer performs regularly in major concert settings around the world, including at New York’s Weill Hall (Carnegie), Geffen Hall, Frick Collection, and Bargemusic, at the Kennedy Center, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the Spoleto Festival in Charleston. Together, these exciting musicians offer a program which includes Tchaikovsky’s haunting Trio in A Minor, Opus 50.
This concert is made possible, in part, with the generous support of Jim McGuire.
PROGRAM NOTE
Lus Mór (lit. “big herb”) is the Irish name for Foxglove and, in Irish folk legend, is closely associated with the tale of Lusmore and the Faeries. In the story, of which there are different versions that appear in several cultures around the globe, a sweet-natured, humpbacked foxglove-peddler named Lusmore comes across a Faerie ráth in the Galtee mountains and hears little voices coming from inside. The Little People are singing a strange and bewitching melody: “Monday… Tuesday…” (de Luan… de Máirt…) over and over. Lusmore, a sensitive and skillful musician in his own right, chimes in with “agus de Céadaoin!” (“and Wednesday!”). Awestricken at Lusmore's musical genius upon hearing the sweet sound of his voice, the Faeries whisk him into the ráth. They feed him and over merriment, and he is put in a place of high honor.
Though the tale has a second part, Lusmore’s act ends with his hump being generously cast from his back by a Faerie spell; he wakes up outside the ráth the next morning, amazed to be able to stand up straight and tall. Growing up in Ireland, I used to take walks on paths lined with foxglove and nettles and gorse growing freely ––just breathing the air there could make someone believe in the old legends. For me those places are still charged with the same otherworldly energy, and I have tried as best I can to imbue this music with it. Foxglove Elegy uses major and minor pentatonic scales in an effort to evoke the sounds of traditional Irish music (hereafter abbreviated to simply “traditional music”), and the tuning of the viola in fifths has proved very useful in the implementation of that harmonic language. Writing for the piano with these themes in mind, however, was not so simple––my primary teacher notes that the piano is better suited to thicker harmonic textures with more intervallic saturation than the pure, exquisitely bare sonorities of traditional music. Thus, I sought to fill in the piano part as if a reflection of the viola in water; the viola’s mode at a given moment would become that of the piano, but transposed a perfect fifth, fourth, second, etc. away from its original home… fifths would be interrupted and coloured by fitting dissonances that highlight where applied. One of the more fitting examples of this is in the passage at m. 116, throughout which the piano moves in F Mixolydian, A-flat Lydian, as well as visits to G and C collections where the viola is hanging out. The tune(s) referenced in this section include “Máire Ní Mhongáin” by Uilleann piper Liam O’Flynn and “How Can I Live at the Top of a Mountain” popularized by Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill and the Bothy Band.
Foxglove Elegy is dedicated to my dear friend and colleague Michelle O’Brien, to whom I owe all my knowledge of traditional music, and to Kristi Gunnarshaug, my often-time walking companion.
CASHEL DAY-LEWIS
London-born Helena Baillie was hailed by The Strad magazine for her ‘brilliance and poignance,’ and stands apart for a rare ease on both violin and viola. American Record Guide praised her ‘gorgeous singing tone’ in an album that ‘from the opening flourish will be a special recital.’ A prizewinner in international competitions including Munich ARD, Banff and Tertis, Helena has performed throughout Europe and the United States, with broadcasts on BBC Radio 3 and Performance Today for American Public Radio. She has collaborated in chamber music with Pinchas Zukerman, Midori, the Tokyo String Quartet, the Shanghai Quartet, and the Beaux Arts Trio, with whom she collaborated in a live broadcast from the Alte Oper in Frankfurt. Helena was honored by a Bard Fellowship from 2010-2015. While a Fellow, her projects included Bach Among Us at Bard’s Fisher Center, which Helena produced and performed in collaboration with dancers of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. Helena teaches violin and viola for the Bard College Music Program.
Hungarian cellist Anita Balázs was born into a musical family and started her music studies at the age of 5. From early childhood, she has been giving concerts in Europe, taking part in international festivals and masterclasses in Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Croatia, France, and Switzerland with professors such as Heidi Litschauer, László Fenyő, Philippe Muller, and Wolfgang Boettcher. She holds an Artist’s Diploma from Montclair State University where she studied with Nicholas Tzavaras (Shanghai Quartet) as well as a Master of Musical Arts degree from Yale School of Music where she studied with legendary cellist and teacher Aldot Parisot. Laureate of several international competitions such as the Antonio Janigro International Cello Competition in Porec, Croatia or the Alfredo e Vanda Marcosig International Competition in Italy, she has also been awarded 1st prize as well as the Grand Prix of the Jury at the Janos Starker Competition in Hungary and 1st prize at the International Cello Competition in Liezen, Austria.
Pianist Erika Switzer collaborates regularly with a variety of artists in major concert settings around the world, such as New York’s Weill Hall (Carnegie), Frick Collection, and the Kennedy Center. Her performances have been called “precise and lucid” (New York Times), and “intelligent, refined, and captivating” (Le Monde). She has won numerous awards, including best pianist prizes at the Robert Schumann, Hugo Wolf, and Wigmore Hall International Song Competitions. Recent recordings include English Songs à la française and A Left Coast with frequent recital partner, baritone Tyler Duncan. Switzer is a co-founder of Sparks & Wiry Cries, which curates opportunities for creators, performers, and scholars through innovative initiatives that foster a diverse future in art song performance. She is Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Collaborative Piano Studies at Bard College and its Conservatory of Music, and holds a doctorate from The Juilliard School. erikaswitzer.com; sparksandwirycries.org