presents The Shenson Piano Series Made possible by Fred M. Levin and Nancy Livingston, The Shenson Foundation Richard Goode, piano

Friday, January 22, 2010, 8pm Herbst Theatre

PROGRAM

Johann Sebastian Bach The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II Prelude and Fugue in F-sharp minor, BWV 883 Prelude and Fugue in G Major, BWV 884

Franz Joseph Haydn Piano Sonata in C Major, Hob. XVI:21 Allegro Adagio Finale: Presto

Piano Sonata in C minor, Hob. XVI:20 Moderato Andante con moto Finale: Allegro

Piano Sonata in G Major, Hob. XVI:40 Allegretto e innocente Presto INTERMISSION

Robert Schumann Kreisleriana, Opus 16 Ausserst bewegt Sehr innig und nicht zu rasch Sehr aufgeregt Sehr langsam Sehr lebhaft Sehr langsam Sehr rasch Schnell und spielend

San Francisco Performances acknowledges the generosity of Concert Partners: Anonymous, in memory of Peter F. Ostwald, M.D., David and Judith Preves Anderson, the Rev. Richard Fabian, Dr. Daniel J. Fourrier Jr., Ellen Friedman, Frederick D. Hammer, Mr. James Hayward, Kim and Judith Maxwell, Robert and Adelle Rosenzweig. Richard Goode is generously donating a portion of his fee for this concert, which San Francisco Performances is matching, as a contribution to Classical Action: Performing Arts Against AIDS. Richard Goode is managed by Frank Salomon Associates, 121 W. 27th Street, Suite 703, , NY 10001-6262; franksalomon.com. Richard Goode records for Nonesuch and RCA Records. Hamburg Steinway Model D and piano technical services, Pro Piano San Francisco.

1 ARTIST PROFILE and he was invited to hold master classes at the their collection of some 5,000 volumes live in city’s three leading conservatories—Juilliard, New York City. Richard Goode has a long-standing relationship Manhattan and Mannes—and to give two il- with San Francisco Performances, appearing to- lustrated talks on his “Perspectives” repertoire NOTES ON THE PROGRAM night for the 15th time. Previous concerts were in at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His or- 1985 (with clarinetist ), 1989, chestral appearances included the Boston Sym- The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II January and October 1992 (with soprano Dawn phony, New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Prelude and Fugue in F-sharp minor, BWV 883 Upshaw), 1993, 1994, April and March 1996 (with Symphony, Concertgebouw Orchestra and Prelude and Fugue in G Major, BWV 884 Upshaw), 1998 (with the Australian Chamber Or- Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. chestra), twice in 2002, 2004, and twice in 2007. His recording of the Beethoven Concerti with Ivan Fischer and the Budapest Festival Born March 21, 1685, Eisenach Richard Goode Orchestra was released in May 2009 by None- Died July 28, 1750, Leipzig such Records—the same label that released his Photo: Gusov Sasha historic recordings of the complete Beethoven In 1722 Bach wrote a set of pieces for key- sonatas. Other recent releases, both on None- board that has become one of the most popu- such, include a collection of Mozart sonatas lar and influential works ever composed, even and short pieces, as well as a recital disc with though it was not published until half a cen- Dawn Upshaw. Also among his more than tury after his death. Bach’s own description of two dozen recordings are Mozart Concerti this music suggests his intention: “Preludes and with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Fugues through all the tones and semitones… complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas, the com- for the use and profit of young musicians an- plete Partitas by J.S. Bach, and most recently xious to learn as well as for the amusement of chamber and solo works of Brahms, Schubert, those already skilled in this art.” But Bach had Schumann, Chopin and George Perle. Goode two larger purposes in writing this music. He is the first American-born pianist to have re- wanted, first, to demonstrate the possibilities corded the complete Beethoven Sonatas, which of an instrument tuned to equal temperament: Richard Goode’s music-making speaks of a were nominated for a 1994 Grammy Award. such a “well-tempered” instrument could play sublime connection with composers, inspiring A native of New York, Richard Goode easily in all 24 keys. And he wanted to explore critics around the world to utter such praise as studied with Elvira Szigeti and Claude Frank, the musical possibilities of two quite different “you’d swear the composer himself was at the with Nadia Reisenberg at the Mannes Col- kinds of music: the free prelude—the extension keyboard, expressing musical thoughts that lege of Music, and with at the of a single idea somewhat in the manner of a had just come into his head.” The American pi- Curtis Institute. He has won many prizes, fantasia—and the disciplined fugue, that most anist’s tremendous emotional power, depth and including the Young Concert Artists Award, complex of contrapuntal forms. Working in part expressiveness can be heard in recitals, cham- First Prize in the Competition, from preludes he had composed for his son Wil- ber and orchestral collaborations around the the Avery Fisher Prize and a Grammy Award helm Friedemann’s instruction, Bach compiled world, as well as in a series of highly acclaimed with clarinetist Richard Stoltzman. a collection he called The Well-Tempered Clavier, Nonesuch recordings, including the recent re- Goode has appeared with many of the world’s a set of 24 preludes and fugues in the major and lease of the complete Beethoven Concerti. greatest orchestras, including the Boston Sym- minor of each of the 12 tones of the scale. Goode opens the 2009-10 season with Ivan phony Orchestra under Ozawa, the Chicago The Well-Tempered Clavier—full of won- Fischer and the Cleveland Orchestra, followed Symphony under Eschenbach, the Cleveland derful, ingenious and expressive music—has by an extensive tour of the U.S. and Europe, Orchestra under Zinman, the San Francisco moved and haunted composers ever since. with concerts in Palm Beach, Jacksonville, Los Symphony under Blomstedt, the Deutsches One of those haunted was Bach himself; two Angeles, San Francisco, Copenhagen, Cologne Symphonie Orchester under Ashkenazy, and decades later, in 1744, he wrote a second set and Dresden, among other cities. He also vis- the BBC Symphony under Belohlavek at the of 24 preludes and fugues. The “48,” as the its , Boston and New York in col- London Proms. He has also appeared with the two books of The Well-Tempered Clavier are laborative performances with pianist Jonathan Orchestre de Paris and Ivan Fischer, and toured sometimes called, have been a part of ev- Biss of piano duos by Beethoven, Schumann, with Fischer and his Budapest Festival Orches- ery pianist’s repertory since then, from the Schubert, Stravinsky and Debussy. tra, as well as making his Musikverein debut humblest amateur to the greatest virtuoso. Goode was honored for his contributions to with the Vienna Symphony. He has been heard Though this music was not published until music with the first ever Jean Gimbel Lane Prize throughout Germany in sold-out concerts with 1801, it had wide circulation in manuscript in Piano Performance in 2006, which culmi- the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields under copies: the young Beethoven dazzled audi- nated in a residency at Northwestern University Sir Neville Marriner. ences with these preludes and fugues during in Evanston, IL for the past two years. His most Richard Goode serves with Mitsuko Uchi- his earliest years in Vienna, and pianist-com- recent season included performances with the da as co-Artistic Director of the Marlboro posers of very different character have felt the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the baton Music School and Festival in Marlboro, Ver- pull of Bach’s achievement. Their number has of Herbert Blomstedt and the Cleveland Or- mont. He is married to the violinist Marcia included composers so diverse as Chopin, chestra with conductor Ivan Fischer. Carnegie Weinfeld, and, when the Goodes are not on Debussy, Rachmaninoff and (surprisingly) Hall featured Goode in an “engrossing” (New tour (with each new city offering the chance Shostakovich, who in 1951 composed his own York Times) eight-event “Perspectives,” series to visit a new or favorite bookstore), they and set of 24 Preludes and Fugues. 2 This program opens with two preludes and own professional orchestra, opera house and quire his own first piano until the 1780s, but he fugues from the second book of The Well- marionette theater. Those residences, however, doubtless had access to pianos long before that). Tempered Clavier. ThePrelude in F-sharp mi- were on the broad plain that ran east from Vi- This is indeed very expressive music. Haydn nor is solemn, serious music, and Bach varies enna toward Hungary, and in an oft-quoted scholar H.C. Robbins Landon has hailed it its rhythmic pulse by constantly switching line Haydn said of this isolation: “I was set as “one of the very finest sonatas by Haydn” between triplets, steady sixteenths and synco- apart from the world, there was nobody in and has noted that it is “the first in a distin- pations. The fugue, in three voices, preserves my vicinity to confuse and annoy me in my guished line of C minor keyboard sonatas by the solemnity and the rhythmic complexity course, and so I had to become original.” each of the principal figures in the Viennese of the prelude, developing a great deal of ten- Haydn spent three decades with the Ester- Classical School, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven sion as its proceeds. ThePrelude in G Major, hazy family, and in his early years of service and Schubert.” The grave and shaded begin- in binary form, drives steadily forward along his symphonies, operas, quartets and much ning of the opening Moderato may establish its 3/4 meter, while the fugue, in 3/8, is ex- other music was written specifically for use an atmosphere, but it does not prepare one tremely concise (and brief); Bach rounds it at the court. In 1773, however, Haydn com- for the variety of music that will follow; this off with a series of runs built on 32nd-notes. posed a set of six keyboard sonatas that Prince movement can be urgent one moment, full of Nikolaus allowed to be published in Vienna. power and blistering runs, then subside into Piano Sonatas These were Haydn’s first official publication, long and expressive pauses the next. The An- and he dedicated them to Prince Nikolaus. dante con moto moves to A-flat major, and its Franz Joseph Haydn These sonatas were somewhat lighter in style opening theme—already ornate on its initial Born March 31, 1732, Rohrau than the series of dramatic symphonies Haydn statement—undergoes a process of continuous Died May 31, 1809, Vienna had just composed (sometimes referred to as his variation. TheFinale returns to the C-minor “Sturm und Drang symphonies”), and it has mood of the first movement. Its slashing open- Haydn’s 104 symphonies and his 83 string been universally felt that in these keyboard so- ing idea spins off energy as it goes, and Haydn’s quartets have become, generally, part of the rep- natas Haydn was writing for amateur perform- writing here is particularly athletic and forceful, ertory, but his 62 keyboard sonatas remain much ers who might play them at home. The music is right through the emphatic concluding chords. less familiar. These sonatas span his creative ca- straightforward and pleasing, technical demands reer (he wrote the earliest about 1750 at age 18, are not too great, and these sonatas might appeal Piano Sonata in G Major, Hob. XVI:40 the last in 1794 when he was 62), yet they are to amateur or professional musician alike. not widely performed, nor is a great deal known The Sonata in C Major, the first of the set, TheSonata in G Major shows Haydn at his about them, and they have made their way into is in three brief movements. The agreeable most original and pleasing. He wrote this so- the repertory very slowly. As late as 1950, the dis- opening Allegro, in sonata form, is remark- nata about 1784, at a time when he was a very tinguished piano pedagogue Ernest Hutcheson able for its rhythmic contrasts. The open- experienced composer: at age 52, he had al- suggested that it did no real harm to the music if ing theme-group is built on sharply dot- ready composed about 80 symphonies. Here, performers played individual movements from ted rhythms, but the second group glides Haydn dispenses altogether with sonata form the sonatas rather than playing them complete. smoothly along flowing triplets, and Haydn and constructs this work in two movements There is debate about the sort of performer nicely exploits these two different impulses. that span only about a dozen minutes. Haydn was writing for and about the exact in- By contrast, the Adagio (in F major) is or- The first movement is not the expected fast strument he was writing for. Were these sonatas nately decorated music—Haydn embellishes movement but instead has an unusual mark- intended for the growing number of amateur its main theme with rolled chords, trills and ing: Allegretto e innocente. The movement is a pianists at the end of the 18th century? Their grace notes. The concluding Presto dances set of double variations, and it begins with the publication in groups suggests that they might nimbly on its 3/8 meter. This is very pleasing “innocent” theme, a flowing chordal melody have been. Did Haydn write them for his stu- music, and much of its charm rests in the way in 6/8. But soon a less innocent face of this dents? Did he write them for himself? (Haydn its propulsive ideas are interrupted by off-the- movement emerges: Haydn takes a rhythmic was an able pianist but by no means a virtuoso, beat accents and other rhythmic surprises. detail of that melody and launches the varia- and these sonatas are at times very difficult.) tions in an entirely new direction, fragment- Even the instrument he had in mind has been Piano Sonata in C minor, Hob. XVI:20 ing the opening theme and subjecting it to debated: while the early sonatas may have been considerable harmonic tension. In the process composed for clavichord, the wide dynamic The Sonata in C minor raises the issue of the he achieves some of the conflict that we nor- range of the later ones makes clear that he was specific instrument Haydn was writing for. He mally associate with sonata form, even as these writing these for the piano. And this in turn originally drafted it in 1771, and on that occa- variations go their own very original way. Ev- would have meant not the modern pianoforte sion the manuscript was inscribed “Sonata for ery new phrase is repeated, and the movement but the fortepiano of the 18th century. the Clavichord.” But Haydn held this sonata makes its way gracefully to the resounding fi- back for several years, revised it thoroughly, and nal chord. The sonata concludes with a crisp Piano Sonata in C Major, Hob. XVI:21 published it as part of a group of six keyboard so- but very brief Presto: it is only three minutes natas that appeared in Vienna in 1780. As part of long. The opening is full of energy, with stac- In 1761 Haydn became Kapellmeister to the the revisions, Haydn added dynamic and phras- cato writing alternating with fast runs. But Esterhazy family, which included some of the ing markings that are possible on the piano but very quickly this elegant beginning wanders most distinguished musical patrons in history. not on the clavichord, and it seems clear that ul- far afield, exploring unusual harmonies and That family maintained lavish residences in timately this music was conceived for the greater finding unexpected shadows along the way. Eisenstadt and Esterhaza, where they had their expressive range of the piano (Haydn did not ac- continued on page 4 3 Goode Notes continued from page 3 sense of order and the claims of the world he undercut by the frequent internal episodes And then, just as quickly, we are back in the must live in; one of Hoffman’s original work- at contrasting tempos. Particularly striking sunlight, and the movement whips to a close ing titles, in fact, appears to have been Lucid is the variety of mood and expression in this that is both charming and utterly unexpected. Intervals of an Insane Musician. Schumann, music—one moment it can be simple and one of the most mentally tormented of all lyric, the next it turns mercurial, and suddenly Kreisleriana, Opus 16 composers, saw in Johannes Kreisler a spiri- it is violent and extroverted. Yet this music tual brother, and he borrowed that name for tells no tales, paints no pictures, nor does it this collection of eight piano pieces, which he try to translate Hoffmann’s magical stories Born June 8, 1810, Zwickau specifically called “fantasies.” into music; these eight pieces are abstract Died July 29, 1856, Endenich Schumann wrote Kreisleriana in the spring music, complete in themselves. Throughout, of 1838. He was 27 years old, his efforts to mar- one feels Schumann’s instinctive and idiom- Few composers have been as well read as ry Clara Wieck were being thwarted by the atic understanding of the piano, and the end Robert Schumann, who found inspiration opposition of her father, and music seemed of Kreisleriana is stunning: after the gallop- in a range of writers, from Shakespeare to to pour out of the young composer. From ing, hammering energy of the final piece, the Goethe to Jean Paul to Byron. One of his January 1838 came his Novelletten, followed music grows quiet and suddenly vanishes like strongest literary influences was the work of by the Kinderszenen in February. In March smoke on two barely audible strokes of sound. the German writer E.T.A. Hoffmann (1776- Schumann composed the Fantasy in C Major, The apparent inspiration for this music 1822), author of novels and fantastic tales. and in April—in the space of four days—he was Hoffmann’s character, but Schumann Hoffmann named one of his sets of fantastic wrote Kreisleriana. Schumann may have chose to dedicate Kreisleriana “To His stories Fantasiestücke, and Schumann bor- called these pieces “fantasies,” which implies Friend Frederic Chopin.” His letters, how- rowed that title for several of his own works, formlessness, but they are in fact quite dis- ever, make clear that the real inspiration for but it was Hoffmann’s fictional character ciplined works. They do, however, defy easy this music was his love for Clara Wieck— Johannes Kreisler who seems to have struck classification: some are in ABA form, some he wrote to tell her: “Play my Kreisleriana Schumann most strongly. A musician and are in simple binary form, and several have occasionally. In some passages there is to critic (like Schumann himself), Kreisler was a forms all their own. As a very general rule, it be found an utterly wild love, and your life perfect example of the literary concept known might be observed that the odd-numbered and mine.” as Zerrisenheit: the artist-hero who is torn movements are fast and dramatic, the even apart by the conflict between his idealized slow and expressive, but even this observation —Program notes by Eric Bromberger © 2009

4