Semi-Final Round

GARTNER AUDITORIUM CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART July 30, 2021 Presented by Piano Cleveland TONIGHT’S PROGRAM PROGRAM NOTES

Jiarui Cheng Jiarui Cheng China Domenico Scarlatti (1685–1757) Domenico Scarlatti (1685–1757) Sonata in B Minor K. 87 Sonata in B Minor K. 87 Born in the same year as Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Frideric Handel, and just two years aer Jean-Philippe Rameau, Domenico Scarlatti was one of a handful of Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849) illustrious musicians and composers who came of age in the early eighteenth century and Barcarolle in F-sharp Major, Op. 60 who would come to profoundly influence the later development of Western music. He Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943) was born in Naples, and was himself the son of a major composer, Alessandro Scarlatti, who was known especially for his work in Italian opera—a fashionable commodity taking Variations on a Theme of Corelli, Op. 42 the aristocratic audiences of the Italian peninsula by storm. Domenico, one of ten Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990) children, was trained in music by his father; his first appointment, at the age of sixteen, was as composer and organist to the Neapolitan royal chapel. It was the beginning “America” from West Side Story (arr. Kurbatov) of a significant career conducted across the courtly centers of Europe, which would eventually bring Scarlatti to the Iberian peninsula in 1719: first to Lisbon, where for eight -brief pause- years he was the sole music teacher to the Infanta of Portugal, Maria Barbara; then a briefer stay in Seville; and finally to Madrid, where he served as the music master once more to Maria Barbara, now married to the future King of Spain. Yedam Kim Scarlatti lived the rest of his life in Spain, and his music from this period—primarily the South Korea 555 sonatas for solo keyboard for which he is best known today—absorbed significant elements of Iberian musical culture, including colorful harmonies influenced by folk music and keyboard figuration reminiscent of the Spanish guitar. In addition, they drew Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849) on melodic and harmonic gestures from the newly fashionable galant style that swept across Europe from the 1730s onwards, a musical movement that favoured simplicity Polonaise-Fantaisie in A-flat Major, Op. 61 in melody and harmony, and which, in reacting against the complex, contrapuntal style Sergei Prokofiev (1891–1953) of the Baroque period laid the ground for the establishment of the Classical style that flourished at the end of the eighteenth century. Scarlatti’s sonatas capture this tension Sonata No. 4 in C Minor, Op. 29 well. Many of the sonatas are straightforwardly in the binary form familiar from the suites Freddie Mercury (1946–1991) of dances beloved by Baroque composers such as Bach. Each piece, typically cast in a single movement, falls into two repeated and complementary halves based on similar “Bohemian Rhapsody” (arr. Kurbatov) material: the first half oen features a modulation to a new key, while the second returns to the home key. But some of Scarlatti’s sonatas feature an innovation in binary form that -intermission- points towards sonata form, the formal pattern that would come of age in the Classical era and inform musical composition in the Western tradition for well over a century. Sonatas in this mold foreground musical similarities between the two halves, deliberately Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) mimicking the outline of the first half in the second. Sonata for Two Pianos in D major, K. 448

2  CLEVELANDINTERNATIONALPIANOCOMPETITION/SEMIFINALROUND PRESENTED BY 3 PROGRAM NOTES

The vast majority of Scarlatti’s compositions were unpublished during his lifetime, and The barcarolle (a French word, derived from the Italian for boat, barca) was the name the composer’s only significant publication came from his Madrid years: the Essercizi per given to folk songs sung by Venetian gondoliers, but the genre was a staple, even a gravicembalo or “Exercises for Harpsichord” of 1738, which brings together 30 of the 555 cliché, of nineteenth-century music. Barcarolles for the piano were especially popular, sonatas. Nonetheless, Scarlatti’s sonatas exerted a substantial influence on later keyboard given that the essential musical characteristics of the genre—a moderate tempo, a writing, and were much admired by pianists of the late eighteenth-century onwards—both rocking time signature of 6/8, a singing melody and an air of romance—lent themselves for the beauty, economy and originality of their keyboard writing, and for the way each well to the instrument’s expressive capabilities. But Chopin’s effort, while taking these sonata seems to encapsulate specific challenges of keyboard technique or expressive features as a starting point, ultimately transcends the picture-postcard origins of the playing. The sonata in B minor, K 87, is a slow, serious piece which belongs more to the barcarolle to make a profoundly original artistic statement. It was written in 1845–46 over composer’s Baroque inheritance than the galant future. Melancholy and expressive, the two summers spent in Nohant, the home town of Chopin’s long-term partner, the novelist sonata is based on continually descending scales in different contrapuntal lines. George Sand. Chopin may well have been inspired by the barcarolles that appeared in Italian operas he had seen in Paris, Dresden and Vienna; certainly, this would be in keeping with Chopin’s fondness for transmuting the long, ornate melodies of Italian Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849) bel canto opera into dazzling pianistic equivalents, as happens oen in his nocturnes. Barcarolle in F-sharp Major, Op. 60 There is definitely a nocturnal quality to the Barcarolle, with its wide ranging le-hand accompaniment and its singing right-hand melody in thirds. Yet there is also an epic, The two piano virtuosos who defined the sound of Romantic pianism in the first half of the almost narrative quality to the piece that recalls Chopin’s efforts in a different genre, the nineteenth century—Frédéric Chopin and Franz Liszt—were born within 18 months of one ballade. Like Chopin’s four works bearing this title, the Barcarolle knits together several another, in 1810 and 1811 respectively. Yet in their music and in their character, the two men themes in a process of continual variation, creating a totally idiosyncratic form that seems defined opposite poles of musical experience. Liszt’s extravagant showmanship was well to tell a story. It was this combination of beauty and originality that made Barcarolle a suited to public display, and to the growing demand for public concert-going across Europe. particular favorite of pianists and composers in the decades following Chopin’s death. Chopin, by contrast, looked inwards: though no less prodigiously gied than his Hungarian contemporary, his music and playing blossomed in the intimate space of the salon. Born The Barcarolle begins with a brief introduction, in which the swaying seafaring rhythm is Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin in a small town near Warsaw, the composer was a child prodigy established by the le hand alone. With the entry of the graceful main theme against this who was giving his first public concerts already by the age of seven. By the age of twenty, expectant background, the listener embarks on the journey of the piece. The main theme having been trained in a range of musical disciplines and with two youthful piano concertos is repeated, varied, embellished, before moving into new reaches. Hushed, minor-key to display, he was planning his European tour as a concert pianist. But a volatile political questioning gives way to a new theme that shis and slips between harmonies a half- situation in his Polish homeland would alter his plans decisively: in the wake of the failed step apart; then another, songlike tune blossoms in the higher registers of the piano. An November Uprising of 1830, when Polish rebels ineffectually challenged the Russian Empire’s ecstatic quiet passage proves to be a disguised transition back to the main theme, now rule, Chopin travelled to Paris, where he found himself among a rich community of Poles in joyfully uninhibited; then, as the intensity slowly diminishes over a long coda, intricate exile. Paris would be his home for the rest of his life; he never returned to Poland. arabesques in the right hand bring the piece to a close. For those who tuned in to our First and Second Round performances, Chopin’s Barcarolle will be familiar, as it was the When first establishing himself in Paris, Chopin sought to make his name by giving public music featured before each broadcast, during intermission, and at the closing credits, concerts. But he found himself attracting unfavorable comparisons to more extraverted performed by 2016 CIPC contestant Tomer Gewirtzman. pianists, like Liszt; one common criticism is that his sound was too small for the large halls that public concerts typically demanded. As a result, Chopin withdrew into the private sphere, cultivating his relationships with the Parisian elite by giving performances in aristocratic salons, dedicating his published and unpublished compositions to pupils and patrons, and giving lessons; he was in high demand as a teacher. Much of Chopin’s output, from nocturnes to waltzes, emerges from this elite milieu. The Barcarolle, Op. 60, however, stands somewhat apart.

4  CLEVELANDINTERNATIONALPIANOCOMPETITION/SEMIFINALROUND PRESENTED BY 5 PROGRAM NOTES

Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943) back round to the beginning, whereas the second time it comes to a full close. The melody and its associated chord pattern were a mainstay of Baroque composition, and had been Variations on a Theme of Corelli, Op. 42 used by dozens of composers since the Baroque period as well; Liszt’s Rhapsodie espagnole, for instance, was based on variations of the “Folia.” Sergei Rachmaninoff was the quintessential Russian composer-pianist, successful equally in both fields throughout his career. Born to an aristocratic family, Rachmaninoff was sent to In Rachmaninoff’s hands, the tune appears in its simplest form at the outset, but from the live with famed teacher Nikolai Zverev, who put him on a rigorous musical schedule through very first variation the simple harmonic framework underpinning the melody is altered by courses at the Moscow Conservatory (fellow pupils included other future composers, the addition of “blue” notes; in fact, the way Rachmaninoff substitutes surprising new chords such as Alexander Scriabin). Zverev instructed all of his students to focus only on piano for the familiar harmonies of “La Folia” is distinctly jazz-like. There are twenty variations, performance, so Rachmaninoff was discouraged from pursuing composing until aer he not counting the initial theme statement, a coda at the end, and a surprising “Intermezzo” completed his piano degree. Upon graduation, he was awarded the Great Gold Medal in movement in between Variations 13 and 14. This “Intermezzo” is crucial, as it divides the composition, leading him to sign a publishing contract with Gutheil that helped jumpstart work into a series of movements, of a kind. Variations 1–13 explore the tune in a range his compositional career. It was in this early stage that Rachmaninoff composed his first of textures, accompaniment patterns, and rhythms. The “Intermezzo” then serves as a major hit: his Prelude for solo piano in C-sharp minor, a piece that became so popular that transition: it sounds like a free hybrid between a cadenza (an improvised solo in a concerto Rachmaninoff felt practically obliged to perform it as an encore for every concert. Beginning movement, in which the soloist shows off his chops) and a recitative (a way of setting text in the late 1890s, he took up the baton for the first time, and toured across Russia and in operas and oratorios that follows the natural rhythms of speech, with bare chords in the Europe for several decades as a pianist and conductor. accompaniment). Two very striking variations follow (14 and 15), the only ones in a major key; the first is a tender and melancholy reharmonization of the theme, the second a delicate However, aer the Russian revolutions of 1917, Rachmaninoff was forced to flee Russia; he piece akin to a nocturne. Variations 16–20 see the return of D minor, the home key, and get would never return. Of necessity, Rachmaninoff focused on his performance career over and progressively more difficult, more full-textured, and emotionally raw. Finally, the coda—cool above composition so that he could make enough money to support his family. As a result, and reserved—brings the variations to an understated close. most of the composer’s works were written before this point. By 1919, he was living in New York and had been offered a Steinway piano as a gi, leading him to perform 40 concerts during the 1919–1920 season alone; much of the remainder of his career was spent touring

the United States and Germany. Like many other Russian composers, Rachmaninoff had Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990) a complicated relationship with his former homeland aer the Revolution, and in 1931 he “America” from West Side Story (arr. Kurbatov) vented his feelings by sending a letter to the New York Times, signed by two fellow Russian expatriates, that criticized Soviet policies. This public challenge was met with a bitter attack Leonard Bernstein was a genuine musical polymath, and one of few musicians who could by the press in Moscow, leading to the ban on the performance and study of his works in the genuinely claim to have had equal success in his career as an influential composer, a major Soviet Union for two years. conductor, and a significant pianist. He was also a dedicated communicator and educator, who was tireless in his efforts to make works of the classical canon available and accessible The Variations on a Theme of Corelli, Op. 42, emerged at precisely this moment, and to new audiences; and he was also genuinely open to the possibilities of American popular its complex emotional undercurrents; it was the composer’s last work for solo piano, music, from big band arrangements to Latin American popular dance rhythms, in a way that and the only such work written aer his departure from Russia. Written in 1931, it is not few “serious” musicians were for much of the twentieth century. Born to Jewish Ukrainian Rachmaninoff’s most famous set of variations; the concerto-like Rhapsody on a Theme immigrant parents, Bernstein grew up in Massachusetts, eventually going on to study of Paganini, written not long aerwards, is by far the better known. Unlike the exuberant at Harvard. A series of increasingly important conducting appointments eventually saw mischief of the latter work, however, the Corelli Variations are darker in tone, partly as a him become the first American-born principal conductor of the New York Philharmonic, result of the chosen theme. Despite its name, this was not actually written by Corelli. It is an appointment he held for just over 10 years (1958–1969); during his tenure he played an a very old tune known as “La Folia,” whose origins lie in the early seventeenth century. “La especially significant role in promoting the works of Gustav Mahler, recording eight of Folia” is in a minor key (D minor in Rachmaninoff’s work), and consists of two eight-measure Mahler’s nine symphonies with the orchestra. Bernstein wholeheartedly embraced the phrases, both identical except for the ending of each phrase: the first time, the tune loops potential of television, famously bringing the Philharmonic’s “Young People’s Concerts”

6  CLEVELANDINTERNATIONALPIANOCOMPETITION/SEMIFINALROUND PRESENTED BY 7 PROGRAM NOTES

series to a record new audience through the broadcast medium. In later life, he enjoyed Yedam Kim an international reputation: it was Bernstein who conducted a landmark performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in former East Berlin, following the fall of the Berlin Wall. Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849) As a composer, Bernstein’s style was marked out by its eclecticism, borrowing from a wide range of musical genres and styles; during his lifetime he was occasionally frustrated by Polonaise-Fantaisie in A-flat Major, Op. 61 criticism that his “serious” works lacked a wholly original core. But it is this facility with genre As described above, much of Chopin’s output, from nocturnes to waltzes, emerged from the and style that led to what is undoubtedly Bernstein’s most widely known and beloved work, Parisian elite milieu. Other works, however, had their wellspring in Chopin’s Polish identity, an the musical score for . The musical was an inspired collaboration between West Side Story identity that found musical expression particularly in two dances associated with his former author-playwright Arthur Laurents, choreographer Jerome Robbins, lyricist Stephen homeland: the mazurka and the polonaise. Much like Baroque composers’ artistic evocations Sondheim, and Bernstein himself. What was originally conceived as a story of religious of courtly dances in their keyboard suites, Chopin’s adoption of these Polish dance genres conflict between Jews and Catholics in the Lower East Side of Manhattan (“East Side and their characteristic rhythms transformed them into vehicles for artistic expression—and Story”) became, aer a long genesis, the story of ethnic conflict between rival gangs on the for a nationalist sentiment that would only increase in intensity aer Chopin’s death. Upper West Side, loosely modelled on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The Montagues and Capulets are transformed into the Jets, mainly white descendants of European immigrants, The polonaise, by its very name, is “of Poland” (in French): originally a folk dance, it had been and the Sharks, recently arrived Puerto Rican immigrants: like the play, West Side Story ends absorbed by the nobility and was popular in aristocratic ballrooms across Europe. It is a tragically, with a death on stage at the end of each act. Lyrics, choreography and music to broad dance in triple time (three beats to each measure) and has a characteristic rhythm, West Side Story all made much of the Latin American element story, taking inspiration from with a drum-like rap on the first beat of the bar. Chopin had written his first polonaise aged Latin American dances, instruments, and musical genres. just seven, and cultivated the form throughout his life; however, of the 23 polonaises he is known to have written, only seven were published during his lifetime. The latest of these, While many of the musical numbers are classics — from the witty “I Feel Pretty” to the and his last essay in the genre, was the Polonaise-Fantaisie, Op. 61, written and published rapturous “Maria”— perhaps the single best known number from is also the West Side Story in 1846. A long and complex work, the hyphenated title already indicates that this is no number that probes most deeply into the immigrant experience. “America” is conceived as a ordinary polonaise: the “fantasy” element is at least as important, if not more so. In fact, the playful argument between Anita, girlfriend of the Sharks’ leader Bernardo, and Rosalia, one polonaise’s rhythmic pattern is perhaps detectable only in the first theme, which appears of her friends: Anita, as per the famous line, “wants to be in America,” while Rosalia would only aer an extended, searching introduction. For much of the rest of the piece, Chopin prefer to return to Puerto Rico. (In the 1961 film adaptation, the duet is modified, and the uses the dance more as a pretext for exploring the furthest reaches of harmony and form; argument is between the pro-America Sharks men and the pro-Puerto Rico Sharks women). like in the composer’s four Ballades, there is a sense of being taken on a journey “through” a Bernstein embodies this tension musically in the main tune through a clever rhythmic musical process, though there is no specific program or story that attaches to the work. scheme that alternates, bar by bar, from duple time to triple time: that is, Bernstein divides the measure either into two beats (1-and-a | 2-and-a ) or three beats (1-and | 2-and | 3-and). By swapping between them constantly, the tension between Anita and Rosalia comes to life, and in between the insults and barbs they throw at each other in the verses there are Sergei Prokofiev (1891–1953) interludes for the orchestra alone, that allow for the choreography to tell the story. Sonata No. 4 in C Minor, Op. 29

I. Allegro molto sostenuto II. Andante assai III. Allegro con brio, ma non leggiero

8  CLEVELANDINTERNATIONALPIANOCOMPETITION/SEMIFINALROUND PRESENTED BY 9 PROGRAM NOTES

From an early age, Sergei Prokofiev strove to balance his progressive nature with a nuanced Prokofiev’s lifelong love of contrapuntal textures, with multiple, interlocking lines of music appreciation for the Western musical tradition he had inherited. Born in what is now Ukraine, sounding simultaneously, is much in evidence. In the central slow movement, a plodding he started taking piano lessons with pianist and composer Reinhold Glière aged just four. accompaniment pattern supports long-limbed, plaintive melodies in the right hand. Finally, By his teens Prokofiev was already being hailed as a prodigy, leading to his enrollment at in the third movement (the briefest of the three), the minor-key gloom of the sonata thus far the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where he studied orchestration under Nikolai Rimsky- lis: a helter-skelter chase across the piano begins, marking this movement out as a sort of Korsakov. Even in his early conservatory days, Prokofiev was considered to be a rebel: toccata (a fast piece involving tricky repeated notes and plenty of nimble fingerwork). his music gravitated towards the percussive (or barbaric, some said), yet always revealed a reverence for Classical and Romantic forms and compositional devices. This balance between innovative modernist tendencies and traditional structures not only led to the birth Freddie Mercury (1946–1991) of —an early twentieth-century compositional style with which Prokofiev is neoclassicism “Bohemian Rhapsody” (arr. Kurbatov) closely associated—but also likely kept Prokofiev alive and (mostly) thriving throughout the turmoil of the Stalinist regime. The shy, introverted man born Farrokh Bulsara in Zanzibar in 1946 will forever be better known to posterity as Freddie Mercury—the passionate, charismatic and flamboyant Prokofiev’s life and compositional output were profoundly shaped by the tumultuous politics lead singer of the English rock band Queen—who died, much before his time, in London of his home country. The October Revolution of 1917 prompted his departure from Russia, in 1991. Born to Parsi parents who worked for the British colonial office in Zanzibar (now like several of his Russian contemporaries. Arriving in the United States in 1918, Prokofiev part of Tanzania), Mercury attended a British-style boarding schools in India for much of came face to face with one such individual, Sergei Rachmaninoff, who by that point had his childhood, where he cultivated a strong taste for western popular music. The whole already built a successful career overseas as a performer. But while Rachmaninoff had family would relocate to England in the mid-1960s following a violent revolution in Zanzibar. mastered satisfying American tastes through his varied concert programs, Prokofiev had Aer studying graphic art and design at college in London, Mercury flitted between a few difficulty coming to terms with these new expectations, leading him to eventually move short0lived bands. But it wasn’t long before he would team up with Brian May (guitar), back to Europe—and to Paris in particular. And whereas Rachmaninoff would never return Roger Stone (drums) and John Deacon (bass), to form a new band on Mercury immediately to his homeland, Prokofiev always retained contact with what had become the Soviet Union bestowed a grand title: Queen. through concert tours and performances of his works. In 1936, almost 20 years aer he had le, he and his family moved back to Moscow. Prokofiev was, for a time, able to align his The immense success Queen enjoyed over the next two decades is partly result of musical instincts and output to satisfy the whims of the Soviet state. Towards the end of his Mercury’s gied vocals: blessed with an enormous range and a chameleonic ability to life, however, his music was officially proscribed, alongside that of Dmitri Shostakovich, Aram embody different vocal styles, he was able to bring something new and different to each Khachaturian, and others, which profoundly affected his ability to make a living. In ill-health song, each performance. But Mercury also brought those vocals to bear on a set of highly for much of his final years, Prokofiev died on March 5th, 1953—by ironic coincidence, the original songs, many of which have become revered classics of twentieth-century popular same day that Stalin himself died. music. And perhaps the most original and unique and eccentric of them all is the six-minute, genre-bending, medley-style suite called “Bohemian Rhapsody.” The song melds together Prokofiev wrote piano sonatas throughout his life; Sonata No. 4 is a relatively early work, five incongruous sections: an introduction, a ballad incorporating a guitar solo, what Mercury composed and premiered in 1917—shortly before the composer le Russia. Like Sonata No. called “the opera section”, a hard-rock passage, and a soer coda. The music changes key 3 that preceded it, the work is subtitled “from old notebooks,” a marker of the work’s origins as frequently as it does style, and each section is characterised by allusive lyrics that are in Prokofiev’s early juvenilia; but it is a more serious, somber work than its predecessor. Cast playful, confusing and nihilistic by turns. Released as a single in 1975, the song completely in a traditional pattern of three movements, in a fast-slow-fast order, the sonata begins in a confounded record executives who had judged the song to be completely unsuited to radio key of surprising restraint. The opening movement is in a measured three-to-a-bar, and is in promotion by becoming a major hit on both sides of the Atlantic. The band also broke new sonata form: two musical ideas are presented in different keys in the first part of the sonata ground by releasing the song alongside a promotional music video, then almost unheard (the exposition), and then reprised in the home key, aer some intervening activity, in the of as a practice and a harbinger of the MTV generation to come. Though critical opinion of second part (the recapitulation). But the whole movement is stamped with a shaking trill-like the idiosyncratic song was mixed on its release, in the decades since has become one of the motive, heard right at the beginning in the bass register and then repeatedly throughout; most significant and influential popular song committed to record.

10  CLEVELANDINTERNATIONALPIANOCOMPETITION/SEMIFINALROUND PRESENTED BY 11 PROGRAM NOTES

H. v. Auernhammer; the young lady is a fright, but plays enchantingly, though in cantabile Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) playing she has not got the real delicate singing style. She clips everything.” Nevertheless, Sonata for Two Pianos in D major, K. 448 Mozart clearly esteemed Auernhammer’s playing, as they performed together in at least three concerts over the following year. I. Allegro con spirit II. Andante The sonata itself is a fine tribute to Auernhammer’s abilities. It is a cheerful work, III. Allegro molto unashamedly entertaining and wearing its virtuosic tendencies easily. As with many of Mozart’s solo piano works, it is written idiomatically for the keyboard while still managing One of the most important musicians of the Classical period and its foremost child prodigy, to evoke the timbres and textures of music for a larger ensemble (and especially his Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg, in what is now Austria, to a highly musical symphonies and concertos). With two players, however, Mozart is able to take this mimicry family. His father, Leopold, was a violinist; once he saw the musical gis with which his son much further, and performing the sonata effectively requires the two pianists to work and his younger sister Nännerl were endowed, he set off on a long tour of the courts and together as an orchestral unit. Oen, one can sense the pianists’ four hands being “scored” cities of Europe, proudly showing off his children’s musical abilities on the violin and piano like an orchestra: a firm bassline in one hand, a chugging accompaniment akin to a string to the astonished nobility. In particular, the young Wolfgang—no older than five when section in another, punctuating brass or wind chords in yet another hand, and over the top he began touring, and just eight when he wrote his first symphony—caused a sensation. the charming tunes for violin or solo woodwind. Sometimes, the two pianists bat melodic Mozart thus grew up in a glare of publicity, and it is perhaps no coincidence that aer a brief lines between them like a tennis rally; at other times, one pianist steps back, accompanying engagement at the court of the archbishop of Salzburg, he was one of the first composers to the other pianist’s singing line. make a living as an independent musician. That is, rather than entering the service of a single powerful nobleman (as his elder colleague Joseph Haydn would do for most of his career), As was typical of the sonata genre by this point, K. 448 is written in three movements. The Mozart would eventually move to Vienna, and support himself by giving public concerts—a first movement is in a classical sonata form: this musical form, which fully cohered in the new fashion in the late 1700s—teaching, selling works to publishers, and seeking the ad hoc works of Mozart’s generation of composers, would remain the standard formal reference support of benevolent patrons. Mozart’s compositions would come to be emblematic of point for instrumental music genres for well over a century. The form depends on the the mature Classical style: they are characterized by an easy grace that blended the charm presentation of (typically) two contrasting musical ideas in different keys, in a first part known and sophistication of the galant style, which was in full force when he was born, with a new as the exposition. K. 448’s opening theme is grand and symphonic, outlining the home intellectual rigor and complexity that came with his study of music from the earlier Baroque key of D major with bold descending arpeggios (broken chords) and a fizzing trill (shake); period—and especially the works of Handel and J. S. Bach. the second theme is soer, with a sense of curtseying grace. There follows a transitional section known as the development, where ideas from the exposition are chopped up and Mozart took pupils throughout his independent professional career, and some of these mixed together; finally, in the recapitulation, all the musical themes from the exposition are pupils (such as Johann Nepomuk Hummel, who studied with Mozart as a boy) went on to repeated in order, but altered so as to end in the home key. The opening movement of K. become major figures of a pan-European, “post-Classical” style. Others forged significant 448 is notable, however, for introducing a snaking new tune in the development section, careers in the Viennese sphere—a category that includes Josepha von Auernhammer, which also comes back in the coda. Aer all this busy activity, the slow second movement the dedicatee of the Sonata for Two Pianos, K. 448 and other works. The story of offers the opportunity of basking in sweet, winsome melody (though it too is in a fully- Auernhammer’s varied career—she performed both publicly and privately in Vienna, fledged sonata form). Finally, the last movement is a madcap rush through contrasting composed and also published several of her own works, and also corrected proofs of tunes, and sends the audience off with a bang; is also in a modified sonata form known as Mozart’s sonatas—is one of many similar stories that confirm how integral women musicians sonata-rondo, where the principal theme comes back at various points in the movement were to musical life in European capitals, throughout a period of music history that we tend interspersed with other material—including two deliciously ear-catching minor-key episodes, to remember by a handful of men’s names alone (Mozart’s among them). K. 448 was written the only such passages in the whole sonata. in 1781, during Auernhammer’s studies with Mozart; only 23 at the time, she apparently fell in love with the then-unmarried composer, two years her senior. This may have prompted the slightly acid remark in one of Mozart’s letters dated June 27, 1781: “I dine almost daily with Program notes by Marco Ladd, Ph.D. with support from Marissa Glynias Moore, Ph.D.

12  CLEVELANDINTERNATIONALPIANOCOMPETITION/SEMIFINALROUND PRESENTED BY 13 STAY TUNED!

ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE CLEVELAND INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION FINALISTS Directly following the performance on Sunday, August 1!

Don’t miss the exciting finale of the CIPC with our final four, performing with Escher String Quartet

CHECK OUT OUR ONLINE EDUCATION OFFERINGS ON YOUTUBE! August 3 and 4 at 7:00 pm | Gartner Auditorium, Cleveland Museum of Art Let’s Get Loud in Italy Move to Meter in Israel Admiral Emily and Captain Joe set off on their Join us as we dive into the world of meter as 2021 world tour to learn about dynamics in Italy! we learn how to feel pulse, and practice your AND Get ready to learn the sos and louds of music conducting skills as we get to know different and explore how dynamics work with guest musical time signatures. Guest artist and President Professor Marissa, and venture into the world of of Piano Cleveland, Yaron Kohlberg joins us in Israel Italian opera with guest singer Crystal Carlson. to learn about its unique musical history and style.

Feel the Beat in Brazil Storytelling with Music Get ready to feel the beat in this fun, energetic This year’s world tour ends with a look into how episode as we learn all about different note values, stories are told through music and the tools western and world rhythms. Cra your own composers use to bring these stories to life. A musical shaker to use along with our guest artist, special portion of this episode will be dedicated to Conducted by Jahja Ling and samba drumming master, Dylan Moffitt. meeting women composers, including our guest August 6 and 7 at 7:00 pm | Severance Hall artist, singer and harpist Anna O’Connell.

PIANO CLEVELAND

14  CLEVELANDINTERNATIONALPIANOCOMPETITION/SEMIFINALROUND PRESENTED BY 15 UPCOMING EVENTS

JURY ROUNDTABLE July 31 at 10:00 am Gartner Auditorium, Cleveland Museum of Art Learn what it takes to crown a winner! President of Piano Cleveland Yaron Kohlberg leads the competition jurors in discussing what jurors listen for during performances and how music competitions impact careers. Presented in-person and virtually.

MASTER CLASSES August 1 at 10:00 am | August 5 at 2:00 pm Mixon Hall, Cleveland Institute of Music CIPC Jurors present master classes for talented local university students.

FINAL CHAMBER MUSIC ROUND August 3 and 4 at 7:00 pm Gartner Auditorium, Cleveland Museum of Art Each evening, two of our four finalists perform chamber music with the engaging Escher String Quartet.

FINAL CONCERTO ROUND August 6 and 7 at 7:00 pm Severance Hall Each evening, two of our four finalists perform concertos with The Cleveland Orchestra, conducted by Jahja Ling. Special prize winners and medalists will be announced on Saturday, August 7 following the performances.

Buy tickets at pianocleveland.org