Invesco Piano Concerts Jan Lisiecki Sunday, March 3, 2019 at 3:00pm Pre-concert Talk at 2:00pm This is the 922nd concert in Koerner Hall PROGRAM – “Night Music” Fryderyk Chopin: Two Nocturnes, op. 55 No. 1 in F Minor No. 2 in E flat Major Robert Schumann: 4 Nachtstücke, op. 23 I. Mehr langsam, oft zurückhaltend II. Markiert und lebhaft III. Mit grosser Lebhaftigkeit IV. Einfach Maurice Ravel: Gaspard de la nuit I. Ondine. Lent II. Le Gibet. Très lent III. Scarbo. Modéré INTERMISSION Sergei Rachmaninov: Cinq morceaux de fantaisie, op. 3 I. Élégie II. Prélude III. Mélodie IV. Polichinelle V. Sérénade Fryderyk Chopin: Nocturne No. 19 in E Minor, op. 72, no. 1 Fryderyk Chopin: Scherzo No. 1 in B Minor, op. 20 Fryderyk Chopin Born in Żelazowa Wola, nr. Warsaw, Poland, March 1, 1810; died in Paris, France, October 17, 1849 Two Nocturnes, op. 55 (1842-4) Nocturne No. 19 in E Minor, op. 72, no. 1 Scherzo No. 1 in B Minor, op. 20 “From their very first sounds, we are immediately transported to those hours when the soul, released from the day’s burdens, retreats into itself and soars aloft to secret regions of star and sky.” That is how Franz Liszt described the Irish pianist John Field’s transformation of the 18th century festive, serenade-like notturno, to the 19th century dream- like nocturne, “designed to portray subjective and profound emotions.” If John Field impressed Liszt, as well as Chopin and most who heard him with his poetic, inward-looking, evening reveries, it was left to Chopin to take the nocturne deeper into the night over the course of his 20 Nocturnes. The E Minor Nocturne, (published six years after his death, misleadingly as op. 72, no. 1), is the earliest of them, dating from the late 1820s, while he was still a student at the Warsaw Conservatory. Its expressive right-hand writing carries the melody throughout and reflects the young Chopin’s love of the long, sustained, elaborately decorated vocal line found in Italian bel canto. Where its more agitated middle section is a contrasting variation on the main theme, in many of the later nocturnes, including the F Minor, op. 55, no. 1, the middle section becomes a more clearly defined agitated diversion, here heightening the expressive fioriture which surrounds the return of the calm, composed main theme. By contrast, the intensely inward-looking E flat Major, op. 55, no. 2, restlessly roams over a complex interweaving of musical lines and sophisticated textural writing in one of the most sophisticated yet graceful of Chopin’s Nocturnes. Chopin was exploring new territory when he wrote single virtuoso scherzo movements outside the context of the symphony and piano sonata. Without the framework of contrasting sonata movements, he made a point of providing contrast within the scherzo itself. The principle behind the four Scherzos is that of alternating dramatic and lyrical ideas. A lively outer section often encompasses a more lyrical middle episode, though the shape of each Scherzo does vary. The heroic opening chords of the Scherzo No. 1 in B Minor, op. 20 and its subsequent dynamic, scampering passagework seem to throw a challenge to Chopin’s Parisian piano rivals. The turbulence of the work is relieved by a contrasting central episode where the young Chopin recalls his homeland in a melody from a Christmas folk-song “Lulajze Jezuniu” (Sleep, Little Jesus). “How will gravity array itself, if wit is already cloaked so darkly?” asked Robert Schumann when reviewing the piece. Robert Schumann Born in Zwickau, Saxony, June 8, 1810; died in Endenich, nr. Bonn, Germany, July 29, 1856 4 Nachtstücke, op. 23 (1839-40) The night visions turn darker in Schumann’s cycle of four Night Pieces, op. 23. “Somebody seemed to be sighing and saying from the bottom of his heart ‘Ach Gott!’” Schumann wrote to his then fiancée Clara Wieck, April 7, 1839. “While I was composing, I kept seeing funerals, coffins, and unhappy despairing faces.” Schumann’s premonitions of death led to a cycle of four pieces to which he gave the morbid working title Leichenphantasien (Corpse Fantasy). He changed it to Night Pieces when he heard of his brother Eduard’s sudden and unexpected death, stunned and, at the same time, somewhat fascinated by the premonitions he had been having, without knowledge of his brother’s illness. The title can be traced back to a collection of ghost stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann published some two decades earlier. By the January 1840 publication date, Schumann had dropped a subsequent idea of naming the movements “Funeral March,” “Strange Company,” “Nocturnal Revels,” and “Round with Solo Voices.” The intensity of the loss of a brother remains in the element of mystery and dark undercurrents which colour the recurring theme of No. 1. The piece eventually fades to black but its slow, march-like rhythm reappears in the last piece of the set, which has the gentle character of a fond farewell. Maurice Ravel Born in Ciboure, France, March 7, 1875; died in Paris, France, December 28, 1937 Gaspard de la nuit (1908) As one of the greatest of Ravel’s piano works, Gaspard de la nuit (Casper of the Night) was inspired by a set of macabre prose poems by the proto-symbolist poet Aloysius Bertrand – a near contemporary of Schumann. In writing them, Bertrand said, Satan (Gaspard) appeared to him in darkest night and suggested a series of fantastic, eerie tales after the manner of Edgar Allan Poe or E. T. A. Hoffmann. Taking Bertrand’s vivid pictorial imagery and marrying it with the virtuoso, diabolic piano style of Liszt, Ravel produced three extraordinarily demanding miniature tone poems for piano. They require extremes of tone colour and shading that had never before been required from a pianist. For the nymph Ondine, a siren attempting to lure a mortal to her underwater palace, Ravel produces water imagery of the utmost subtlety. Shimmering, almost tactile in its effect, the subdued music disappears with a snatch of mocking laughter. Le gibet hovers around an ever-present, tolling B flat. It is consciously monotonous in its effect and the embodiment of the late 19th century concept of ennui. French pianist Henri Gil-Marchex once tallied more than two dozen different kinds of touch necessary to draw out its tone colour. The music portrays “the tolling of a bell that sounds from the walls of a town beyond the horizon, and the hanging corpse glowing red in the setting sun.” The dwarf Scarbo scratches on the silk curtains, drops from the ceiling, and “flits around the room like the handle off a witch’s broomstick.” The music is hallucinatory, dark, and terrifying. Ravel said that he intended to write something that was more technically challenging than anything in Liszt or in Balakirev’s Islamey. Pianists do not disagree. He also said that in Scarbo he wished to produce “a caricature of romanticism.” Under his breath, he added, “Maybe I got carried away.” Sergei Rachmaninov Born in Semyonovo, Russia, March 20/April 1, 1873; died in Beverly Hills, California, March 28, 1943 Cinq morceaux de fantaisie, op. 3 First performed at the Moscow Electrical Exposition in 1892, the prelude that Rachmaninov grew to hate and call ‘It’ was written when he was just 19. The C sharp minor prelude packs a lot into its four and a half minutes. Its brooding, soulful opening, built on the interval of a falling sixth, brings to mind Stravinsky’s description of his fellow Russian as “6 feet 2 inches of Russian gloom.” The entire prelude, including the stormy impassioned middle section where Rachmaninov could display some of his phenomenal piano technique, grows out of the opening three notes. Its sonorous, bell-like triumphant conclusion rapidly made it a natural concert closer, demanded – though not always provided – wherever he performed. Rachmaninov included the prelude as the second piece in his first publication – a collection of five character pieces which the publisher named Morceaux de fantaisie, op. 3. All the pieces date from 1892 and all contain hallmarks of the mature composer’s style. The Élégie features a characteristically broad right-hand melody and writing that spans the entire keyboard. The Mélodie, built around a gentle melody in the tenor, supported by pulsing right-hand triplets, was one of Rachmaninov’s favourites. The title of the fourth piece of the set Polichinelle (the French version of the commedia dell’arte character Pulcinella, or Punch) was suggested by a fellow student at the Moscow Conservatoire. Its pianistically brilliant and wide-ranging writing make this tightly controlled, virtuoso scherzo one of Rachmaninov’s most original early pieces. In complete contrast, the improvisatory opening of the Sérénade leads to Spanish-coloured song with guitar-like accompaniment. - Program notes © 2019 Keith Horner Jan Lisiecki Piano At 23, pianist Jan Lisiecki is already recognized as one of the greatest pianists of our time. Acclaimed for his extraordinary interpretive maturity, distinctive sound, and poetic sensibility, he is “a pianist who makes every note count” (The New York Times). His insightful interpretations, refined technique, and natural affinity for art give him a musical voice that belies his age. In 2017, Mr. Lisiecki received the Echo Klassik, Germany’s most significant classical music award, as well as the Juno Award, honouring his fourth recording for Deutsche Grammophon, featuring Chopin’s rarely-performed works for piano and orchestra with NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester and Krzysztof Urbański. His latest album for the label, released in February 2019, features both Mendelssohn concertos with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra as well as selected solo works.