RECITAL PROGRAM NOTES, SPRING 2014

Post date: Mar 21, 2014 5:06:09 AM

RECITAL PROGRAM NOTES,

SPRING, 2014

Many concert-goers have asked for more information about the

compositions on my recital programs, so in March 2014 I started

including comprehensive notes about each work and its composer.

Edward Grieg wrote The Wedding Day at Troldhaugen (1895) for his 25^th wedding anniversary. Troldhaugen was the name of Grieg’s summer home, located in Norway’s Hardanger Mountain Range. The festivities took place at the historic Hotel Fossli, located atop the Voringsfoss Waterfall, the highest in Europe. The work is in three sections, Welcoming the Guests, Reflections, and Farewells.

Johannes Brahms wrote his monumental Third Piano Sonata (1853) when he was only twenty years old. If Bach created musical cathedrals and Beethoven wrote the only compositions worthy of filling them, the “Third B” - Brahms – wrote the music of the Gods being worshipped. Most of his works are finely crafted combinations of free Romantic spirit structured in strict classical form, and no composer depicted human emotion and feeling more poignantly. The second movement is actually a rather private musical communication he dedicated to young woman named Ida Hohenthal, who seems to have had captured more than his fancy. The middle section is a very poignant conversation (right hand asking, left hand answering) between two passionate individuals, and throughout the work Brahms uses seven different motifs to depict the human heartbeat. The poem by Sternau which served as Brahms' inspiration seems to say it all.

Ignace Paderewski was one of the most notable figures of the 20^th century. At various times he was a concert pianist of rock-star proportions, an accomplished classical composer, Prime Minister of Poland, architect (with President Woodrow Wilson) of the League of Nations, and a world-class Napa Valley vintner. His Minuet in G (1887) starts with the formal politeness of an Edwardian dance party, loses itself with some energetic abandon, and then gives way to a more introspective middle section (an interlude when the young women gather to discuss their dance cards?) , and ends in a bravura flourish. Paderewski's music is neglected today, but it should not be; those who familiarize themselves with the works of this genius are richly rewarded.

Franz Liszt took on at least three different identities during his lifetime: piano virtuoso the likes of which the world had never seen before; innovative Romantic composer often fascinated with both the sacred (Benediction to God Given in Solitude) and the profane (Mephisto Waltz); and man of the cloth (taking Catholic vows and becoming a tertiary). The Valse Oubliee (1883) falls somewhere in the middle. Liszt’s use of unresolved harmonics and strange chordal patterns create an ominous atmosphere, but the themes and motifs throughout the work seem too engaging and darkly fascinating to ignore.

Claude Debussy was fascinated by the art and music of different cultures, and his extensive body of piano works includes American cakewalks and rags, Middle Eastern dances, Asian landscapes, Scottish airs, and Spanish dances. The Ballade Slave (1893) is one of his Russian works. The Slave refers to Slavic, and the Ballad (story) in this work may chronicle the life of a Slavic peasant in czarist Russia. Toward the end of the piece (perhaps marking a funeral) one hears tolling church bells, a repetitious low F, a musical depiction common in Russian classical music.

His Danse {Tarantelle Styrienne} (1893) is a clever mix of two cultures, Italy (a tarantella is an Italian “spider dance”) and Austria (Styria was a province north of Vienna). If the Ballade exemplifies how moving Debussy’s works can be, the Danse showcases his infectious rhythms, innovative harmonics, and joie de vivre. For many years this work was pianist Andre Watts’ signature showpiece

Gabriel Faure’s Third Impromptu is a free-wheeling “perpetual motion” work which exemplifies his complex harmonies, rich Gallic themes, and his use of ancient musical modalities. Faure’s influence on 20^th Century music is unmistakable, even though he is relatively unknown in many musical circles. Faure was a master at creating clever modulations, and the cerebral, introspective nature of his writing, while reminiscent of Brahms, also foreshadows Rachmaninoff. Today he is probably best known for his choral works, which include the famous Requiem and also the haunting Cantique De Jean Racine.