Sheltering Music
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2016 2017 put Lo- SEASON ren here 27 Sheltering Music Aram Khachaturian Sonata-Song for Solo Viola 7’ Phyllis Kamrin viola Elliott Carter Steep Steps 3’ Jerome Simas clarinet Robert Schumann Bird as Prophet 3’ Eric Zivian piano Pēteris Vasks Landscape with Birds 8’ Stacey Pelinka flute Veronika Krausas Cloisonné 7’ Michel Taddei double bass Jörg Widmann selections from 24 Duos for Violin and Cello 8’ I. Tempo giusto II. Alla breve, ma pesante XIII. Vier Stophen vom Heimwach–– In großer Ruhe, von weit XXI. Valse bavaroise Anna Presler violin • Leighton Fong cello Michel Blavet Gigue en Rondeau from Le Premier Recueil 4’ Stacey Pelinka flute Ruth Crawford Seeger Diaphonic Suite No. 1 6’ I. Scherzando II.Andante III.Allegro IV.Moderato, ritmico Stacey Pelinka flute Ludwig van Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 24 in F-Sharp Major, op. 78 10’ I. Adagio cantabile –– Allegro ma non troppo II. Allegro vivace Eric Zivian piano Left Coast gratefully acknowledges the support of San Francisco Grants for the Arts. Monday, June 1, 2020, 7:30 PM Webcast from The Doug Adams Gallery of the Graduate Theological Union Special thanks to Elizabeth Peña and the Center for Arts and Religion for hosting this concert. program notes Aram Khachaturian Khachaturian wrote. He died in 1978 in Moscow and Sonata-Song for Solo Viola is buried in Armenia. ram Khachaturian was born in 1903 in Tbilisi, - Phyllis Kamrin AGeorgia (Russia) to an Armenian family. As a child he loved the folk music he would hear on the Elliott Carter streets of Tbilisi but didn’t take formal music lessons Steep Steps until he was 19 years old and had moved to Moscow teep Steps was written for the greatly admired with his brother. In 1929, he transferred to the Sclarinetist and friend, Virgil Blackwell, during the Moscow Conservatory where he studied under Nikolai summer of 2001. Its title comes from the fact that, Myaskovsky. Due to his humble roots, he embraced unlike the other woodwind instruments, the clarinet socialist ideology and, with his fellow colleagues, overblows at the twelfth, a large interval that forms Prokofieff, and Shostakovich, thrived under Lenin’s the basis of much of this composition. socialism. Under Stalin however, he and these others - Elliott Carter were denounced as being too “formalistic” and “anti- people” and Khachaturian entered a depression that Robert Schumann stayed with him for several years until composing his Vogel als Prophet, from Waldszenen Op. 40 last big ballet work, “Spartacus” in the 1950s. obert Schumann was at his best when channeling Rhis surging emotional currents through his While Khachaturian was a classically trained compositions, and nowhere does he do that composer of the Soviet school, his style is firmly rooted more than in his works for solo piano. Personal, in the folk music of Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, intimate, and confessional, they can seem well- as well as the Middle East. This Sonata-Song inhabits nigh autobiographical or even psychotherapeutic. the shorter forms of these ethnic worlds and is very In the Waldszenen of 1849, Schumann allowed his fragmented and cadenza-like in feel, starting with a imagination free rein in a series of contemplations rhythmic section that wends its way through various about that favorite Romantic theme, the forest—or, technical and musical challenges in an almost off the to be more precise, the woods as metaphor for our cuff, improvised style. He also uses irregular rhythmic internal selves and our relationship with the larger patterns with repeated notes and small repeated world. The individual pieces may be short and made ornamental figures to build tension and create up of thematic fragments, but they pack a bevy of transitions. associations and resonances. This is no humdrum trip to the woods, in other words: it is a journey into the The use of the interval of a second is a key feature psyche, comforting and beautiful on the one hand, of Khachaturian and also of this piece. According unknowable and mysterious on the other. to the composer himself, “these seconds come from the numerous sounds of folk instruments which I had The nine Waldszenen, written over a mere three heard as a child: sazandartar (a family of long- days, explore Romantic forest symbolism at its most necked lutes), gyamancha (a traditional, bowed evocative, from the sounds of the hunting horn or the string instrument) and drum (an Armenian traditional twittering of birds, while often edging into chaotic instrument played with the hands or a stick).” disruptions, formal ambiguities, and seeming non- sequiturs. The seventh-place Vogel als Prophet (Bird This piece, composed in 1976, is the last in in a as Prophet) encapsulates the essence of Schumann’s trilogy of unaccompanied solo sonatas, the first for thoughts. To describe it as a mere imitation of violin, the second for cello and the final (in a nod birdsong (although Schumann does a pretty good job to Shostakovich’s final composition written in 1975) with that) is to ignore the apparent discongruity of the for viola. This piece is also the last composition that middle section, a gravely lovely chorale-like affair 2019 2020 season 27, program 5 - june 2020 program notes reminiscent of the lyric musings of Dichterliebe. Thus intricate metal designs containing different enamels human consciousness is juxtaposed with a fluttering and gems). The regularity of the watch mechanism aural fantasy, shunning either explanation is reflected in the continuous pulse of the music. The or justification. containment of the enamel in cloisonné is reflected by - Scott Fogelsong the compound melody always having one open string acting as a boundary. Pēteris Vasks - Veronika Krausas Landscape with Birds ēteris Vasks is a Latvian composer born in 1946. He Jörg Widmann Psuffered as an artist under the cultural oppression 24 Duos for Violin and Cello of the Soviet Union, but has had much success and avid Allen’s New York Times article about Jörg recognition in the Post-Soviet era. His music shares DWidman caught my attention in March. He wrote: roots with music from Finland and other Baltic countries, rather than leaning toward Russian music. “One of the most performed orchestral works written Within the framework of his contemporary musical this century is a piece by Jörg Widmann. Commissioned language, Vasks incorporates many programmatic by Mariss Jansons and the Bavarian Radio Symphony elements: he cares deeply about environmental issues Orchestra and given its premiere in 2008, “Con Brio” and many of his pieces explore the relationship has had over 200 performances. Before coronavirus- (both positive and destructive) between humans and related cancellations, it was scheduled to be played 63 nature; he incorporates autobiographical elements times by 28 orchestras this season alone. into his music; and he uses many themes from Latvian folk music. Landscape with Birds, written in So what’s the appeal? Like much of Mr. Widmann’s 1984, uses extreme ranges and dynamics to reflect work, “Con Brio” aims to give the past a fresh spin, landscape forms. Singing and playing are used to so that those who love old music and those who love produce a slightly unstable, fragile sound; there is no the new can both enjoy it. Using basically the same regular pulse or meter, lending the music a sense of instrumentation as Beethoven’s Seventh and Eighth improvisation. Birdsong, laced throughout the piece, Symphonies, “Con Brio” is playful and cheeky, distorted can be understood to be nature in its pristine state and provocative — yet somehow familiar, as if it is or a human longing for freedom. The structure of the pulling on the mystic chords of our musical memories.” piece is a free-form arc from fragile peace, through extreme agitation, back to an altered peace. Reading this, I was so intrigued that I hunted on my - Stacey Pelinka shelves for 24 Duos for Violin and Cello, written, like “Con Brio,” in 2008. It is a piece of Widman’s that has been gathering dust in the music room for Veronika Krausas years, ordered from some sheet music store, but never Cloisonné played. Once I started it, I found that I love just about loisonner (Fr. verb): to divide up, partition, to every note. Although the composer prefers that all Ccompartmentalize. the movements be played cyclically, in order, he says they can be performed individually as well. Eventually This piece for solo double bass echoes images in I do hope to play all the movements, but for the time Nana Tchitchoua’s film Movement Cloisonné (2002) of being, I’m just happy to be able to play something by contained and precise movement in Georgian ballet this remarkable composer for our Left Coast audience. dancers, time mechanisms, writing in a journal, and the eponymous title of the work, cloisonné (ancient Leighton and I have picked 4 of the 24 Duos to play technique for decorating metalwork objects, with for you. The movement marked Tempo Giusto (the 2019 2020 season 27, program 5 - june 2020 program notes very first piece in Volume I of the Duos) starts out interwoven, and everything one instrument does has impetuously. In the first few phrases the music keeps consequences for the other. They attract each other, accelerating; half way through it finds its balance reject each other, love and hate each other, sometimes and settles down. Alla breve, ma pesante is the second throw balls back and forth in play and then suddenly piece in Volume I, and answers to Tempo giusto. It with an almost destructive intent. The playful elements is robust, steady, and vertical, and it so much fun to of the work therefore always remain serious and the play.