MACKENZIE MELEMED, Piano

2020·2021 VIRTUAL SEASON Series Sponsored by The Wattles Family in Memory of Helen Fischer Wattles

Sunday, September 20, 2020 | 4 PM Live Streamed from Wellspring Theater, Kalamazoo, Michigan

MACKENZIE MELEMED, piano

J. SIBELIUS Valse Triste, Op. 44, No. 1

J. S. BACH Partita No. 1 in B-flat Major, BWV 825 I. Praeludium II. Allemande III. Corrente IV. Sarabande V. Menuet I & II VI. Gigue

L. V. BEETHOVEN Sonata in F Major, Op. 54 I. In tempo d’un menuetto II. Allegretto - Più allegro

F. LISZT Funérailles from Harmonies poétiques et religieuses

F. PRICE Meditation

C. DEBUSSY Estampes I. Pagodes

A. SCRIABIN Préludes, Op. 16 I,. Andante II. Allegro III. Andante cantabile IV. Lento V. Allegretto

I. STRAVINSKY Étude No. 4 from 4 Études, Op. 7

CONCERT SPONSOR THREE RIVERS FRIENDS OF THE GILMORE About the Artist JEAN SIBELIUS (1865-1957) Valse Triste, Op. 44, No. 1 Jean Sibelius, the voice of Finnish capturing the orchestral sonorities nationalism, is principally known on the keyboard. (Since then it has for his large-scale symphonies and been set for six double basses, cello/ concertos. This exquisite little waltz piano, a cappella vocal ensemble, reveals a softer side. It was composed synthesizer, and jazz quartet.) With in 1903 as incidental music for Arvid its yearning melodies, harmonies Järnefelt’s play Kuolema (“Death”), that change beneath your feet, and to accompany a scene in which a surprising tempo and mood changes, dying mother, attended by her son, it is quintessentially Romantic in imagines that she is waltzing. The son style. Fragments of waltzes from sleeps. When he awakes, he finds that happier times float in and out, the she has danced away with death. last one becoming almost manic. Yet it is the plaintive first melody, always Sibelius sold the work outright to returning, that expresses the work’s his publisher, giving up all royalties. deep sadness, lingering in the ear It immediately became one of his long after the music is finished. It most popular works ever, a signature is the perfect expression of the last piece. A year after its composition dance of the evening. “Triste” indeed. Mackenzie Melemed he arranged it for piano, brilliantly

American pianist Mackenzie Melemed was the winner of The Juilliard School’s 2019 JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH Leo B. Ruiz Carnegie Hall Recital Prize and 2018 Arthur Rubinstein Piano Prize. (1685-1750) In May 2019, he won third prize in the 1st China International Music Competition, Partita No. 1 in B-Flat Major, BWV 825 performing in the final round with The Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton In 1731, J. S. Bach published at his Because Bach’s contemporaries knew of Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin at the National Center for Performing Arts own expense the first part of his each type intimately, they would have in Beijing. Most recently, he was named a finalist of the 2021 American Pianists magisterial Clavierübung (“Exercises been intrigued by his reworkings. Association Awards, which comes with a $50,000 cash prize. for the Keyboard”), containing a Today’s work starts with a Praeludium, Recent performance highlights include guest artist appearances with the San set of six partitas. He described the a persistent mordent (“turn”) passing Diego Symphony and Finland’s Vaasa City Orchestra and solo recitals at the Salle work as “Clavier Practice, consisting in imitation between the hands. Cortôt (Paris), Arctic Piano Fest (Finland), South Orange Performing Arts Center of Preludes, Allemandes, Courantes, Then comes an Allemande (from the (NJ), and Tuckerman Hall (Worcester, MA). As winner of the Ruiz Prize he also Sarabandes, Gigues, Minuets and French word for Germany). Rather made his debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. other Galanteries composed for the than complex and serious, as befitted pleasurable diversion of music lovers.” In October 2019, Warner Classics released “Möbius,” featuring his performance the supposed character of the Like its sister, the suite, the Baroque of contemporary Korean composer Jeajoon Ryu’s first piano concerto with 1994 German people, this one is downright partita is a collection of venerable Gilmore Artist Ralf Gothóni conducting the Sinfonia Varsovia (Warsaw). Since the cheerful, the music unfolding in dances, all in the same key, cast in start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr. Melemed has transformed his New York City Vivaldian sequences. In the buoyant two repeated sections, each with its apartment into a home studio, performing concerts via livestream and offering Corrente ( “current”), a sparkling own distinctive character. By now virtual lessons to students around the world. melody dances over a rippling bass. far from the dance floor, they had In the Sarabande (a French court become stylized, the music exploring dance), a stately bass supports an the character of a particular dance. expressive melody, full of graceful

2 | THEGILMORE.ORG 2020-2021 Rising Stars Series | 3 decorations. Next come two added while the right sings an irresistible electric shock passed through it.” Hungary and his grief about Chopin’s Galanteries, both minuets. The first, tune. The second, abbreviated and Contemporary British pianist Charles death. Daniel Barenboim calls it one one of Bach’s most famous, is almost chordal, is the perfect foil. A cheerful Hallé sat speechless, “in a stupor of the most wonderful of his piano danceable, with the left hand, a Gigue (“jig”), brings the partita to a of amazement.” His playing had a works. It is certainly among the most walking bass, keeping the beat secure, close. “crystal-like clearness which never challenging. It begins somberly with failed him for a moment, even in the a tolling bell, leading into a fanfare

most complicated and, for anybody announcing a funeral march, whose LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN else, impossible passages,” Hallé wrote. ponderous steady rhythm has become (1770-1827) When Clara Schuman heard Liszt a universal symbol of mourning. The Sonata in F Major, Op. 54 play, she reported, “I sobbed aloud, it heart-breakingly beautiful melody of As Jonathan Biss has pointed out, explosion of octaves, and the minuet overcame me so.” Between 1839 and the next section is quintessentially one of the most extraordinary things has become a rondo. The theme comes 1847 Liszt gave at least 1,000 public Liszt. Ostinato bass octaves pile up about Beethoven’s thirty-two piano back around, increasingly decorated performances, creating what Heinrich in repeated scales in both hands, sonatas is their great variety, each each time. “Improvisations on paper,” Heine dubbed “Lisztomania.” gradually building in intensity. Finally, Liszt sums up all that has gone before individually profiled. This one is a Joseph Kerman called them. The theme Funérailles, subtitled “October 1849,” in a dazzling ending. surprise. Composed in 1804, Op. 54 returns, the octaves interrupt. With gives full voice to Liszt’s outrage is sandwiched between two giants: a cadenza , then a charming coda, about the bloody uprising in his native Op. 53 (“Waldstein”) and Op. 57 Beethoven bids an affectionate farewell (“Appassionata”). Beethoven would to the gracious theme, which by now sometimes juxtapose weightier has become an old friend. FLORENCE PRICE works with lighter ones--the Eighth (1887-1953) The second movement grows Symphony between the monumental seamlessly out of the first, joyfully rising Meditation Seventh and Ninth, for example. But upward, dominated by a central theme. A native of Little Rock, Florence Price consider her music, even though, she is this extraordinary sonata a “lighter” It is Beethoven at work, “the master graduated from the New England wrote, “I have two handicaps—those work, or does it reveal aspects of atomizer, pulverizer, and transmogrifier Conservatory of Music, where she of sex and race. I am a woman, and I his evolving view of the sonata? As of motivic ideas,” as Thomas May puts studied organ and composition. In have some Negro blood in my veins.” Beethoven plays with his audience’s it. Although marked Allegretto (“a little 1927 she moved to Chicago, and There is no record that he replied. clearly understood expectations of fast”), the music’s irrepressible high in 1933 her Symphony in E was just what a sonata might be, his robust Meditation exists in a single undated spirits drive it forward. A daunting premiered by the Chicago Symphony, sense of humor is clearly on display. autograph copy, most likely written challenge to a pianist, it is a study making her the first African American about 1929. A meticulously crafted Rather than beginning with a dramatic, of perpetual motion coupled with a woman to have her music played by miniature, simple on the surface, it even argumentative, sonata-form first series of quickly changing, far ranging a major American orchestra. The exhibits what Alex Ross calls Price’s movement, Beethoven starts with a harmonies. Then Beethoven, who could next year the Women’s Symphony “pervasively elegant and subtle Tempo di Menuetto, giving it a clearly take his time in coming to an ending, Orchestra of Chicago premiered handling of familiar idioms.” With its structured, old-fashioned theme, its provides a bravura conclusion to this her piano concerto, with fellow graceful melody and rich harmonies, balanced phrases repeated. Suddenly remarkable work. No wonder he has composer Margaret Bonds as soloist. it is perfect in its own way, like a there comes a sempre forte e staccato cast such a long shadow. In November 1943 Price wrote to Chopin waltz, a tantalizing sample of Serge Koussevitzky, conductor of her remarkable body of work. the Boston Symphony, urging him to FRANZ LISZT (1811-1886) Funérailles from Harmonies poétiques et religieuses Liszt not only invented the solo piano who attended one of his monologues recital, he turned it into an art form. pianistiques, reported: “When Liszt Fabulist Hans Christian Andersen, entered the salon it was as if an

4 | THEGILMORE.ORG 2020-2021 Rising Stars Series | 5 CLAUDE DEBUSSY preludes, from the first in 1894 to the against-three cross rhythm creating a (1862-1918) last in 1914. tranquil murmuring. Time is suspended in the second, which is dominated by Estampes In Op. 16 Scriabin adopted the key a recurring gesture: two sustained plan Chopin had used in his set of In his Dictionnaire de musique, layered towers, perhaps Debussy had chords followed by a gentle shake. twenty-four--following a major key by Rousseau wrote, “Music portrays that structural principal in mind, he Marked cantabile (“song-like”), the its relative minor--setting his preludes everything, even those objects that suggests. third prelude tells an intimate story, its are purely visible. By means of almost in B major, G-sharp minor, G-flat Once heard, who can forget Carmen’s phrases rising and falling like gentle inconceivable powers it seems to give major, and E-flat minor. He breaks sensuous Habanera aria from Bizet’s breaths. The fourth is the briefest: just the ear eyes.” Debussy shared this the pattern for the last, set in F-sharp 1875 opera? Clearly Debussy couldn’t, twelve measures based on a single view completely. A friend of Monet, he major (the enharmonic equivalent of subtitling La soirée dans Grenade (“An idea. Beginning sotto voce, it fades to a was keenly interested in the painting G-flat). The first prelude suggests a Evening in Grenada”) Mouvement de pianissimo close. The fifth darts quickly revolution going on around him, giving Chopin nocturne, its tender melody Habanera. His version is an impression, away to end this captivating set. this work (composed in 1903) a title meandering over a gently sprawling almost a meditation, on the nature of meaning “prints” or “engravings.” accompaniment, a pervasive two- the dance. Its characteristic rhythm-- Although he disliked being labeled an DUM-da-dum-dum--is present in nearly Impressionist, Debussy’s music was just every measure; lovely melodies pass IGOR STRAVINSKY as ground breaking. At the 1889 Paris from voice to voice. (1882-1971) Exposition he first heard the Javanese gamelan (an ensemble of gongs, Jardins sous la pluie (“Gardens in the Étude No. 4 from 4 Études, Op. 7 xylophones, and similar instruments). Rain”) is a brilliant depiction of water Stravinsky wrote his only set of piano Stravinsky dedicated the last etude He began to think about the piano in play, in the same vein as Ravel’s Jeux etudes in the summer of 1908 while of Op. 7 to his beloved teacher. It is a new ways. d’eau of 1901. The music sparks the he and his family were on vacation brilliant study of rapid-fire perpetual imagination immediately, its sparkling in the Ukrainian countryside. He was motion, spiced with syncopation. Pagodes comes as close to imitating sonorities like sunshine on water taking time off from private study in The action never stops: the left-hand gamelan music as possible, Stephen droplets, its gusts as unpredictable as Moscow with the renowned composer scampers about the keyboard in Walsh observes, marked by suspended the weather. The wind blows, the rain Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, who had been four-note patterns; the right provides animation, unchanging harmonies patters down, and this spectacular trio meticulously guiding his development double-time commentary. Each pattern fragmented melodies, horizontal and of pieces comes to an end. as a composer. It was at Rimsky’s begins on a weak rather than a strong vertical layers. Since pagodas are Wednesday house-concerts that many beat, making everything sound a bit of Stravinsky’s compositions were off kilter. Percussive chords add to ALEXANDER SCRIABIN first heard. Their fruitful relationship the clamor; the left hand rushes up (1872-1915) was cut short when Rimsky died the scale, and the right maintains its Préludes, Op. 16 in June 1909, the very time of this ceaseless activity. Marked “Vivo,” the composition. Devastated and grieving, etude is a pianistic workout indeed. When the sixteen-year old Scriabin composers. Enthusiastic about his Stravinsky traveled by train for two- entered Moscow Conservatory in 1888, new contributor, Balyaye planned to and-a-half days, from the Ukraine to St. ©Zaide Pixley, PhD he quickly became one of its foremost take Scriabin to Paris. He challenged Petersburg, to attend his funeral. pianists, second only to Rachmaninoff. the young composer to write forty- Professor Emerita, Kalamazoo College Feeling the competition, he set out eight preludes before their departure, to learn all thirty-two of Beethoven's basing the tally on Bach’s forty-eight. sonatas in order, but lost interest at the Scriabin took him on, but finished just tenth (Op. 14, No. 2), twelve sonatas under thirty, among them the lovely shy of Op. 54. In 1894 he met music miniatures of Op. 16. It was a genre publisher Mitrofan Balyaye, whose Scriabin would cling to throughout catalogue was restricted to Russian his career, writing over one hundred

6 | THEGILMORE.ORG 2020-2021 Rising Stars Series | 7 THANK YOU TO OUR GENEROUS SPONSORS OF THE 2020-2021 RISING STARS SERIES Three Rivers Friends of The Gilmore West Michigan Endodontics Julie & Keith Peterson and Jan & Ed Sackley Clara and Joseph Stewart A Friend of The Gilmore Landscape Forms Elizabeth Burns & Roger Zinser and Janet & Arthur Riley

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