Jorge Federico Osorio, Piano
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Sunday, November 2, 2014, 3pm Hertz Hall Jorge Federico Osorio, piano PROGRAM Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) Nun Komm’ der Heiden Heiland, BWV 659 arr. Ferruccio Busoni (1866–1924) Bach “Ertödt’ uns durch dein’ Güte!,” from Cantata arr. Walter Rummel (1887–1953) No. 22, Jesus nahm zu Sich die Zwölfe, BWV 22 (1723; arr. 1922) Franz Schubert (1797–1828) Piano Sonata in in B-flat major, D. 960 (1828) Molto moderato Andante sostenuto Scherzo: Allegro vivace con delicatezza — Trio Allegro, ma non troppo INTERMISSION 2 CAL PERFORMANCES PROGRAM Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) “June: Barcarolle,” from The Seasons, Op. 37a (1875–1876) Isaac Albéniz (1860–1909) Mallorca: Barcarola in F-sharp major (1891) Ricardo Castro Herrera (1864–1907) Barcarola, Op. 30, No. 2 (1907) Modest Mussorgsky (1839–1881) Pictures at an Exhibition (1874) Promenade The Gnome Promenade The Old Castle Promenade Tuileries Bydlo Promenade Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle Promenade Limoges—The Market Catacombs (Sepulchrum Romanum) Con Mortuis in Lingua Morta The Hut on Fowl’s Legs The Great Gate of Kiev Funded, in part, by the Koret Foundation, this performance is part of Cal Performances’ 2014–2015 Koret Recital Series, which brings world-class artists to our community. This concert is made possible, in part, by Patron Sponsors Roger and Silvija Hoag. Cal Performances’ 2014–2015 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo. CAL PERFORMANCES 3 PROGRAM NOTES Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) fantasy.... This style of arrangement, which we Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, BWV 659 take leave to describe as ‘in chamber-music Arranged by Ferruccio Busoni (1866–1924) style’ in contrast to ‘concert arrangements,’ rarely requires the highest skill of the player, The “chorale prelude,” as its title suggests, is except for the art of piano touch, which must an instrumental introduction to a Lutheran certainly be at the player’s command in per- hymn. In its essential form, it originated (and forming these chorale preludes.” continues) as a simple play-through of a cho- The chorale Nun komm, der Heiden rale melody by the organist to familiarize the Heiland (“Now come, the Gentiles’ Savior”), congregation with the tune and set the mood which also served as the basis for two Advent for its words. Such a practice allowed for a cer- cantatas that Bach composed in 1714 and 1724, tain amount of improvisation in figuration, is a venerable hymn in whose creation Martin harmonization, and texture, however, and Luther himself played a part. gave rise to a whole spectrum of independent organ compositions based on chorale melo- dies: in addition to the chorale prelude, such Bach forms as the chorale fugue, chorale fantasia, “Ertödt uns durch dein’ Güte,” from Cantata chorale motet and chorale variation are well No. 22, Jesus nahm zu Sich die Zwölfe, represented in the catalogs of many 17th- and BWV 22 18th-century German Lutheran composers. As Arranged by Walter Rummel (1887–1953) proven sublimely by his incomparable church cantatas, Johann Sebastian Bach was the great- Composed in 1723; arranged in 1922. est aggrandizer of chorale tunes who ever lived, and he made significant contributions Jesus nahm zu Sich die Zwölfe (BWV 22, “Jesus to the repertory of the chorale prelude, most Called to Himself the Twelve”) is one of the notably in Das Orgel-Büchlein (“The Little two cantatas that Bach prepared to surround Organ Book”), Part III of the Clavier-Übung the sermon for the February 7, 1723 service at (“Keyboard Practice Book”), the so-called St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, where he had Eighteen Chorales that he composed during just been installed as director of music. He his tenure as organist and chamber musician had used its companion piece, Du wahrer Gott to Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Weimar (1708–1717) und Davids Sohn (BWV 23, “Thou True God and collected and revised in the 1740s, and and David’s Son”), composed in Weimar, for the six magnificent Schübler Chorales that he his audition for the job. The texts deal with the wrote at the end of his life. scriptures for the day, Jesus nahm with the de- A number of Bach’s instrumental works cision of Jesus to go to Jerusalem, where he will were rendered into arrangements for the mod- be crucified, and Du wahrer Gott with the heal- ern piano by the celebrated Italian-German ing of the man at the wayside who begs Jesus, pianist-composer-philosopher Ferruccio the descendant of David, to heal his blindness. Busoni, who not only regularly played Bach’s Jesus nahm closes with an austere, phrase-by- music on his recitals but also edited two com- phrase setting of the closing verse—Ertödt plete editions of that master’s keyboard mu- uns durch dein’ Güte (“Mortify Us Through sic for publication. “That which induced the Thy Goodness”)—of the chorale Herr Christ, editor to arrange a selection of Bach’s chorale der einig Gotts Sohn (“Lord Christ, God’s preludes for the pianoforte,” Busoni explained, Only Son”), which Elisabeth Kreuziger, one “was not so much to furnish a sample of his ca- of Luther’s earliest and most ardent followers, pabilities as an arranger as the desire to inter- created by fitting a devotional text to a secu- est a larger section of the public in these com- lar German song; it was published in 1524 in positions, which are so rich in art, feeling, and Wittenberg in the Geystlich Gesangk Buchleyn 4 PROGRAM NOTES (“Holy Song Book”), the first Protestant hym- frequent digestive distress. In May, he received nal. The arrangement for piano is one of some invitations from friends to summer in both two dozen of Bach’s music by the Berlin-born Graz and Gmunden in order to refresh himself pianist Walter Rummel, a friend and cham- with the country air, but he had to refuse his pion of Debussy and a specialist in single- hosts because he lacked money to pay for the composer recitals devoted to Bach, Beethoven, transportation. He settled instead for a three- Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, and Liszt. Of day excursion in early June with the compos- his Bach transcriptions, Rummel wrote in er-conductor Franz Lachner to nearby Baden, his 1950 Credo d’un artiste, “We can compare where he wrote a Fugue in E minor for organ, Bach’s chorales and arias to the rose windows four hands (D. 952, his only work for organ), of cathedrals, in which reflections continually which he tried out with his companion on the change from brilliant major to somber minor. instrument in the 12th-century Cistercian ab- These rose windows are the soul of the cathe- bey at neighboring Heiligenkreuz on June 4th. drals and they speak to the innermost part of Between his return to the city a few days later human beings. So too do Bach’s chorales and and August, he composed the Mass in E-flat, arias. They constitute the romantic element of made a setting in Hebrew of Psalm 92 for the his immense output and they speak to us like City Synagogue of Vienna, created a number no other romanticism.” of short pieces for piano, wrote all but one of the thirteen songs published after his death in the collection Schwanengesang, did extensive Franz Schubert (1797–1828) work on what proved to be his last three piano Piano Sonata in B-flat major, D. 960 sonatas (D. 958–60), and began his C major String Quintet. Composed in 1828. At the end of August, Schubert felt unwell, complaining of dizziness and loss of appetite, In the hall of the Gesellschaft der and his physician advised that he move for a Musikfreunde in Vienna on March 26, 1828, time to a new house outside the city recently immediately after completing his magnificent acquired by the composer’s brother Ferdinand. C major Symphony (justifiably dubbed “The Though Ferdinand’s dwelling was damp and Great” by later generations), Franz Schubert uncomfortable and hardly conducive to his gave the only public concert entirely of his recovery, Franz felt better during the follow- works held during his lifetime. The event, ing days, and was able to participate in an prompted and sponsored by his circle of de- active social life and attend the première of a voted friends, was a significant artistic and comedy by his friend Eduard von Bauernfeld financial success, and he used the proceeds to on September 5th. Schubert also continued celebrate the occasion at a local tavern, pay off to compose incessantly, completing the three some old debts, acquire a new piano, and buy piano sonatas on the 26th, and performing tickets for Nicolò Paganini’s sensational début them at the house of Dr. Ignaz Menz the fol- in Vienna three days later. Despite the renewed lowing day. The C major Quintet was finished enthusiasm for creative work that that concert at that same time; it and the sonatas were the inspired in him, and encouraging signs that last instrumental works that he completed. On his music was beginning to receive recogni- October 31st, Schubert fell seriously ill, his tion outside of Vienna, Schubert’s spirits were syphilitic condition perhaps exacerbated by dampened during the following months by the typhus then epidemic in Vienna, and he the perilous state of his health. His constitu- died on November 19, 1828, at the age of 31. He tion, never robust, had been undermined by had originally intended that the three sonatas syphilis, and by the summer of 1828, he was be dedicated to Johann Hummel, a pianist, suffering from headaches, exhaustion, and composer, student of Mozart, and important 5 PROGRAM NOTES supporter during his last years, but when Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) Diabelli published them in 1838 as “Schubert’s “June: Barcarolle” from The Seasons, Op.