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Home , Aaron Jay Kernis, Sergei Taneyev

CONCERT #6 - Released JULY 29, 2021

SERGEI TANEYEV in D Major Allegro Scherzo Adagio ma non troppo Finale. Allegro molto—Più mosso

Bejamin Beilman violin / Yura Lee / Bion Tsang

AARON JAY KERNIS Before Sleep and Dreams Before Play Before Lullaby Lullaby Lights Before Sleep Before Sleep and Dreams Andrew Armstrong

SERGEI RACHMANINOV Sonata for Cello and Piano in G minor, Op. 19 Lento—Allegro moderato Allegro scherzando Andante Allegro mosso

Bion Tsang cello / Stewart Goodyear piano SERGEI TANEYEV chordal episodes. An open-air quality pervades, (1856–1915) offset by occasional forays into the minor. His wonted String Trio in D Major (1880) contrapuntal gifts mid-movement do not slavishly Most recent SCMS performance: Summer 2014 imitate Baroque fugal writing.

Friend and erstwhile student of Tchaikovsky, Sergei Redolent of Mendelssohn’s all but patented “elfin” Taneyev earned a reputation as an especially gifted scherzos, the like-named movement occasionally and a lesser one as a . Despite darkens into brief “night” thoughts. The second personal intellectual and stylistic differences vis à theme led by the viola provides a lovely dose of vis his mentor’s approach to , lyricism. A more forceful chordal mid-section recurs, Taneyev premiered Tchaikovsky’s second and suggesting a cross between scherzo and rondo. As third piano . Keeping his compositional with the opening movement his Russian birthright is aspirations largely under wraps, Taneyev felt no clearly manifest, ideology notwithstanding. kinship with the nationalist known collectively as the “Mighty Five” or “Mighty Handful,” The ensuing Adagio—the emotional heart of the which may have cemented his relationship with piece—unfolds slowly, positing a sad opening theme Tchaikovsky, who was viewed with suspicion (and on a rising triad that moves to a lower repeated probably jealousy) by the uber-nationalist cabal. two-note figure. Taneyev closes the movement with a sequence of the repeated two-note figures from Tchaikovsky viewed Taneyev as “the greatest master earlier. of in .” The younger musician’s musical heroes were Mozart (a passion shared by The Allegro molto finale begins vigorously before Tchaikovsky) and Bach. He also studied and was offering a quiet descending theme before reprising captivated by the music of such Renaissance masters the opening motif. As the movement proceeds as Lassus, Ockeghem, and Palestrina. Despite their Taneyev again displays his contrapuntal savvy. With connection, the two Russian composers had distinct recurring echoes of the movement’s opening, the and distinctly different viewpoints on the essential finale has the hallmarks of a rondo. To raise the ingredients in musical composition. Tchaikovsky temperature and energy level Taneyev ups the tempo famously valued spontaneity and considered the before bringing the work to an emphatic close. ardent expression of feeling to be paramount, while Taneyev stressed structural elegance and an intellectually sound basis for musical form. AARON JAY KERNIS Still a young man when Taneyev composed the String (b.1960) Trio in D Major, he sought Tchaikovsky’s opinion. The Before Sleep and Dreams (1990) esteemed composer noted, “I have examined the Most recent SCMS performance: Winter 2018 work and am amazed at the composer’s skill.” Yet the work went unperformed until 1956 on the centenary Writing in The Christian Science Monitor, Benjamin of Taneyev’s birth. Ivry described Kernis as “America’s most honored younger composer, “a reference to Kernis having The String Trio opens with an initial movement just been awarded the prestigious and munificent marked Allegro, though it often feels like Moderato. University of Louisville in It begins lyrically with a brief rising 2-note motif November 2001. In 1998, the composer became one followed by a downward scalar phrase. Though of the youngest recipients of the Pulitzer Prize for not in a “nationalist” vein, it nonetheless betrays his No. 2. Among many subsequent a distinctly Russian accent. Generally, the music is awards bestowed upon Kernis is the 2012 Nemmers largely gentle and sweet, punctuated by animating Prize in Music Composition, which included a

summer festival // residency at (2013–15) and Lights Before Sleep limns nearly subliminal glasslike the position of composer in residence at Mannes sonorities that produce a feeling of somnolent semi- College (2014–2015). Though best known for his consciousness in this penultimate closing movement. orchestral canvasses he is no stranger to chamber music in which genre he has produce more than 30 The concluding Before Sleep and Dreams introduces works. a modal and strangely -like ambience that feels as if the dawn brings a serene close to night’s Kernis studied with such esteemed musicians as strangeness. , , , and , but he actually was a youthful autodidact who at age 12 began teaching himself piano; a year later he was forging his own SERGEI RACHMANINOV way as a budding composer. By the time of his (1873–1943) Pulitzer Prize he had already established a strong Sonata for Cello and Piano in G minor reputation as composer in residence of the St. Paul Op. 19 (1901) Chamber Orchestra for which ensemble he wrote Most recent SCMS performance: Winter 2018 his in Waves in 1989. Like other American composers his “informal” influences crossed once Rachmaninov began work on the Sonata for Cello sacrosanct barriers, embracing musical accents from and Piano in G minor shortly after composing his jazz, pop, folk, international, etc., all remaining true to evergreen C-minor Piano in 1901. Virtuoso himself as a creative spirit. concertos may always draw larger audiences than chamber music, but make no mistake, the sonata Before Sleep and Dreams began as an idea for a trio requires a masterly technique of any pianist and of three pieces he called Poisoned Nocturnes before cellist to take on the myriad challenges of this utterly Kernis decided to incorporate the single movement, Romantic chamber work. Lullaby, into a newly fashioned work under its ultimate title, Before Sleep and Dreams. The opening Lento—Allegro moderato starts with a brief lamenting introduction based on a rising two- The first movement, Before, quietly insinuates its note figure. The larger moderately paced second implicitly sparkling sonorities into the listener’s part of the movement presents a lovely and lyrical barely aroused expectations as if floating above theme that seems to emerge from the introductory semi-conscious night-thoughts. moments. Repeated notes on the piano launch the second motive, a touching melody initiated by the In Play Before Lullaby, increasingly assertive keyboard and picked up by the cello. In loose sonata- sonorities and downwardly stepping soft chords allegro form, the remainder of the movement flows support pointillistic repeated note thematic material, by as a succession of restatements and second though soon enough the music momentarily thoughts about the two themes. becomes more assertive. In the ensuing Allegro scherzando the cellist enjoys An inner and unforced darkness pervades Lullaby. It several opportunities to “sing” in short lyrical begins quietly and gently as perhaps an innocent episodes that contrast with the storminess of the prelude to sleep, yet its faintly dissonant left-hand predominant material. (The piano part’s rapid repeat- accompaniment obscures hidden qualities. As the note finger-work calls to mind the challenging dynamic level gradually increases and subsides accompaniment to Schubert’s Erlkönig.) the music retains its inward journey. Cascades of pointillistic chords form a flow of ebbing harmonic It is in the Andante third movement that we enter colors around spare melodic lines. into the composer’s private, inner world. The

july 29, 2021 // program notes two instruments seem to merge into an intimate expression of exquisitely tender melancholy, no doubt a sublimation of Rachmaninov’s lifelong depression.

The Allegro mosso finale does mitigate much of the Russian composers moodiness, beginning energetically with a galvanic triplet theme answered by the cello’s lovely cantabile second subject. With a nod to his Second , he appends a coda of blazing virtuosity.

Program Notes by Steven Lowe

summer festival //