Sunday, January 22, 2017, 3pm Zellerbach Hall Emanuel Ax,

PROGRAM

Franz SCHUBERT (1797 –1828) Four Impromptus, D. 935 (Op. 142) No. 1 in No. 2 in A-flat Major No. 3 in B-flat Major No. 4 in F minor

Frédéric (1810 –1849) Impromptus No. 1 in A-flat Major, Op. 29 No. 2 in F-sharp Major, Op. 36 No. 3 in G-flat Major, Op. 51 Fantaisie-Impromptu in C-sharp minor, Op. 66

INTERMISSION

SCHUBERT Klavierstück No. 2 in E-flat Major, D. 946

CHOPIN No. 3 in , Op. 58 Allegro maestoso Scherzo: Molto vivace Largo Finale: Presto non tanto

Funded, in part, by the Koret Foundation, this performance is part of Cal Performances’ 2016/17 Koret Recital Series, which brings world-class artists to our community. Additional support made possible, in part, by Patron Sponsors Diana Cohen and Bill Falik.

Steinway Piano

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PROGRAM NOTES

Four Impromptus, D. 935 (Op. 142) , the last three piano , the String Quintet, the two piano trios, the Impromp tus— On January 31, 1827, Franz Schubert turned 30. that he created during the last months of his He had been following a bohemian existence brief life. in Vienna for over a decade, making barely Schubert began his eight pieces titled more than a pittance from the sale and per - Impromptu in the summer and autumn of formance of his works, and living largely off 1827; they were completed by December. He the generosity of his friends, a devoted band of did not invent the title. e term “Impromptu” music-l overs who rallied around his convivial had been current in Vienna since at least per son ality and exceptional talent. e pattern 1822, when the Bohemian- Austrian composer of Schubert’s daily life was firmly established by Johann Voříšek issued a set of brief, ternary- that time: composition in the morning; long form works of extemporized nature under that walks or friendly visits in the aernoon; com - name. e term (from “unprepared” or “un - panionship for wine and song in the evening. premeditated” in French) was meant to convey e routine was broken by occasional trips into a certain sense of improvisation-like spontane - the countryside to stay with friends or families ity, but in a clearer form than was usually im - of friends—he visited Dombach, near the plied by the title “Fantasia.” Schubert was Vienna Woods, for several weeks in the spring familiar with Voříšek’s pieces, as well as with of 1827 and Graz in September. A curious di - the many independent piano works by Beet - chotomy marked Schubert’s personality during hoven, Field, Tomášek, and others that were those final years of his life, one well suited to flooding the market in the wake of the bur - the Romantic image of the inspired artist, rapt geoning piano manufacturing trade (and out of quotidian experience to carry back to falling consumer prices) of those years. Schu - benighted humanity some transcendent vision. bert sold his eight Impromptus to Haslinger in “Anyone who had seen him only in the morn - Vienna, who agreed to publish them in small ing, in the throes of composition, his eyes shin - lots to test their acceptance. He issued the first ing, speaking, even, another language, will two numbers of the series (in and never forget it—though in the aernoon, to be E-flat Major) in 1828 as Schubert’s Op. 90, sure, he became another person,” recorded one Nos. 1 and 2, with some success, but the com - friend. e duality in Schubert’s character was poser’s death on November 19th of that year reflected in the sharp swings of mood marking halted the project, and the remaining pair of both his psychological makeup and his creative Op. 90 Impromptus was not published until work. “If there were times, both in his social 1857 or 1858; the four others were issued at the relationships and his art, when the Austrian end of 1839 by Diabelli as the Op. 142. character appeared all too violently in the vig - , one of Schubert’s earliest orous and pleasure-loving Schubert,” wrote his champions and the catalyst for the first per - friend the dramatist Eduard von Bauernfeld, formance of the Great Symphony in C Major “there were also times when a black-winged (conducted, at Schumann’s insistence, by Men - demon of sorrow and melancholy forced its way delssohn at the Leipzig Gewandhaus concerts into his vicinity; not altogether an evil spirit, it in 1839), knew the Impromptus in manuscript is true, since, in the dark concentrated hours, it copies, and wrote of their special instrumental oen brought out songs of the most agonizing character: “As a composer for the piano, beauty.” e ability to mirror his own fluctuat - Schubert stands alone (in some respects, even ing feelings in his compositions—the darken - above Beethoven), in that his writing is more ing cloud momentarily obscuring the bright pianistic, that is to say, the piano’s full resources sunlight—is one of Schubert’s most remarkable are effectively brought into play, than is Beet- and characteristic achievements, and touches hoven’s piano writing, in which tone color is indelibly upon the incomparable series of achieved more orchestrally.” Perhaps the most works— Winterreise , the Great Sym phony in remarkable quality of the Impromptus is the

Opposite: photo by Lisa Marie Mazzucco  PROGRAM NOTES

manner in which Schubert leavened their in - Schubert’s lifetime. e central trio is more ac - herent pianism with his incomparable sense of tive rhythmically and harmonically than the melody, a situation for which Kathleen Dale music that surrounds it. proposed the following explanation: “Schubert’s Schubert was apparently particularly fond of continued experience of song-writing had by the lovely melody of the Impromptu No. 3 in now so strongly developed his wonderful natu - B-flat Major—he had used it previously in the ral gi of apprehending the spirit of a poem and Entr’acte No. 3 for the Incidental Music to Rosa - re-creating it in music, that when he turned munde (1820) and the String Quartet in A minor, from songs to write for piano solo, he inevitably D. 804 (1824). It here serves as the theme for composed works which, though specifically in - five variations that are led into some deeply ex - strumental in character, are so truly lyrical in pressive harmonic areas as they proceed. e essence that each is a poem in sound.” A Poem brief coda recalls the theme in its original form. in Sound—music that is flowing, evocative, re - e last of the set, in F minor, is in the nature flective of the rhythms of the heart and the soul of a brilliant folk dance, perhaps of Gypsy ori - and of life itself. Such is the gi that Schubert gin. e piece demands several flights of virtu - le the world. osity, especially in the rolling scale passages and Schumann contended that the four Op. 142 mercurial broken chords of the middle section, Impromptus (D. 935) comprise a loose sonata before coming to a bravura close. cycle, with the opening F-minor number stand - ing as the first movement. Schumann’s argu - Impromptu No. 1 in A-flat Major, Op. 29 ment founders because of the lack of fully Impromptu No. 2 in F-sharp Major, Op. 36 realized sonata-allegro form in the F-minor Impromptu No. 3 in G-flat Major, Op. 51 Impromptu (there is no development section) Fantaisie-Impromptu in C-sharp minor, Op. 66 and the unconventional tonal relationships Frédéric Chopin among the later movements, but he was correct Chopin first tried out the idiom and the in recognizing the grand scale and expressive Im promptu designation in his Fantaisie- weight of this opening piece. e initial theme, Im promptu of 1834 (later the source of the hit a stair-step descending motive in dotted rhy- Tin Pan Alley tune “I’m Always Chasing Rain - thms, promises drama with its bold opening bows”), but that piece was not published until gesture but reveals its true character as amiably 1855, six years aer the composer’s death, as his melancholy. ree related ideas comprise the Op. 66. e earliest impromptu Chopin guided second theme group: a tenor melody in evenly into print was the one in A-flat Major, written paced notes, strewn with right-hand , in 1837, the memorable year in which he first of emotionally unsettled character; a sweet song met George Sand. e piece was issued in of inspired lyricism, grown from the preceding December with a dedication to Countess de evenly paced motive, in chordal harmonies; and Lobau, one of his aristocratic pupils. an episode of rippling arpeggios woven around By the summer of 1838, Chopin’s health was a theme divided between a close-interval call showing disturbing signs of decline, and he de - in the treble and an answering response in the cided that he needed to leave Paris that autumn, bass. e series of themes is repeated, with before damp winter set in. He settled on the some truncation, as the second half of the piece, distant Mediterranean island of Majorca, off the which ends with a reminiscence of the opening eastern coast of Spain, which friends (who had stair-step motive. not been there) assured him was blessed with e Impromptu in A-flat Major, based on a abundant sunshine and fresh air. e trip was a melody of disarming purity and tranquil sim - disaster, plagued by terrible weather, shabby plicity, is the most gentle of dances, perhaps a accommodations, and the lack of a piano on nostalgic recollection of the old minuet, long which he could compose. e venture’s nadir out of fashion by 1827, or the Austrian Ländler , was reached when he was diagnosed with which evolved into the modern waltz during tuberculosis. A piano finally arrived from

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Paris and he was well enough by the end of subtle harmonic vocabulary worked a profound December to begin composing again. e influence upon Chopin, the effect of which is Impromptu No. 2 in F-sharp Major, sketched clearly heard in the broad melody that occupies during Chopin’s ill-fated stay with George Sand the center of the Fantaisie-Impromptu. Despite on Majorca early in 1839 and completed that the work’s title, there is nothing improvisational summer at Sand’s country house at Nohant, about its form, whose boundaries are precisely is reminiscent of a in its placid flow marked by the contrast between the agitated and gentle spirit. e opening section contains music in the outer sections and the spacious a sweet, simple melody in even notes and a theme in the middle. more animated one supported by block chords. e central episode is given over to a theme of Klavierstück (“Piano Piece”) No. 2 sturdier character presented above a leaping, in E-flat Major, D. 946 dotted-rhythm ostinato in the bass. e open - Schubert ing phrase returns as expected (at first, how - Schubert was among the first practitioners of ever, in the surprising tonality of F Major), but the so-called “,” the species of the reappearance of the second theme is de - compact, single-movement, sharply etched layed by a passage of sweeping figurations in piano composition designed for the burgeon - the right hand. ing home music market of the early 19th cen - e Impromptu No. 3 (G-flat Major, Op. 51) tury. ere grew to be a virtual musical tidal was composed at the beginning of 1842 for wave of these popular miniatures in the years Chopin’s concert with mezzo-soprano Pauline aer Schubert’s death in 1828—the masterful Viardot at the Salle Pleyel on February 21st, examples by Chopin, Schumann, Brahms, Liszt, one of his rare public appearances in Paris. e Mendelssohn, Fauré, Grieg, and others occupy event, which attracted a crowd of the city’s most the heart of the piano literature—but the form notable socialites and musicians, was received was still new when he took it up around 1815 to rapturously. “Chopin is a pianist apart,” assessed provide keyboard entertainment at the con - the critic of La France musicale , “who should vivial local gatherings, known as “Schu bertiads,” not and cannot be compared with anyone that featured his music and per formances. else.” When the score was published the follow - Beginning in 1824, during what proved to be ing year by Hofmeister in Leipzig and the last years of his pitifully brief life, Schubert Schlesinger in Paris, it carried a dedication to created a fine and characteristic series of char - Countess Jeanne Batthyany-Esterházy, one of acter pieces that parallel his superb late sonatas. Chopin’s most blue-blooded pupils. “e G-flat First among this group were the endearing Impromptu is salon music with a slight differ - Moments Musicaux , whose six movements ence,” wrote Herbert Weinstock in his biogra - occupied him between 1824 and 1827. During phy of the composer. “It aims at nothing more the last six months of 1827, he composed eight complex or—for Chopin—more difficult than pieces he called Impromptu. It seems likely that charm. But it does not mistake banality for the three piano pieces Schubert wrote in May charm, and its nuances of rhythm and, even 1827 were intended as the nucleus of a third set more, harmony are legion. It flows, not in of impromptus, though their manuscripts bear strophes or stanzas, but like a stream slowed by neither title nor number. When Johannes curves, in which it momentarily deepens.” Brahms edited them and oversaw their initial e Fantaisie-Impromptu, Op. 66, dates publication in 1868, he labeled them simply from 1834 (though it was not published until Drei Klavierstücke —ree Piano Pieces. 1855), the time when his friendship with the e Drei Klavierstücke are arranged accord - brilliant but short-lived Italian opera composer ing to a pleasing tonal plan: E-flat minor, E-flat Vin cenzo Bellini was at its zenith. (Bellini died Major, and C Major. ey are in simple three- the next year, at age 34.) Bellini’s long melodic part structures (the second adds an additional arches, precise and tasteful ornamentation, and intervening episode: A–B–A–C–A) and almost

 PROGRAM NOTES

opulent in the warmth of their sonority and of this hyperventilated activity, and gladly took harmony. No. 2, in E-flat Major, is based on a Ludwika and Kalasanty to Nohant. Chopin was tender theme that Schubert borrowed from the greatly revived in mind and body (Sand later chorus that opens Act III of his 1823 opera wrote to assure Ludwika that she was “the best Fierrabras ; the movement’s two contrasting physician he has ever had, because merely episodes are unsettled and mysterious. speaking to him about you is enough to restore his love of life”), and returned to his B-minor Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58 sonata with enthusiasm aer his sister’s depar - Chopin ture at the beginning of September. e work Chopin first met the flamboyantly iconoclastic was completed by the time he returned to Paris novelist George Sand late in 1836 at a party in late autumn. given by . eir friendship deepened e key of B minor was virtually unprece - into sincere if tempestuous and unconventional dented in the Classical piano sonata literature— love during the following months, and Sand no such works by Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, served for the next decade as Chopin’s muse Schumann, Mendelssohn, Dussek, or Hummel and protectress. Beginning in 1839, they es - exist in that tonality. (Liszt did not begin his caped from the summer heat and dust of Paris Sonata in B minor until 1852.) Chopin appar - to Sand’s country villa at Nohant, near Château - ently chose the key for both the darkly colored roux in the province of Berry. Just as the couple emotional ambiance it creates for the music and was preparing to leave for Nohant in May 1844, for the opulent sonorities it allows to be drawn Chopin learned that his father had died in from the piano. Both of these qualities are . e news devastated him, exacerbat - evident in the opening movement, which is ing the tuberculosis that was beginning to sap marked by the rich figurations, precise motivic his strength, and Sand took him to Nohant as control, and melodic fecundity that character - soon as he had recovered sufficiently to travel. ize the creations of Chopin’s fullest maturity. She was concerned enough over his health and Formal delineation is provided by the contrast - state of mind that she wrote to his mother, sug - ing second theme, an arching lyrical inspiration gesting that a visit from the family might help buoyed by a rippling accompaniment. to restore him. It was agreed that his sister e remainder of the movement proceeds ac - Lud wika, who had not seen Chopin for 14 cording to the traditional sonata model, except years, would travel to Paris with her husband, for the not unimportant point that the main Kala santy. Sand wrote back that the guests theme is omitted in the recapitulation, which would stay first in her Parisian apartments and therefore begins directly with the lyrical sub - then continue to Nohant. Chopin was stirred sidiary subject. e compact Scherzo balances enough by the news of Ludwika’s visit that he its mercurial outer sections with a smoothly started to compose again, and began sketching flowing melody in the baritone range for the a large piano sonata in B minor in July. central trio. e Largo, reminiscent in its rapt Early in August, Chopin hurried to Paris to eloquence of Chopin’s finest , was meet Ludwika and Kalasanty. Brother and judged by Alfred Frankenstein to be “one of the sister fell tearfully into each other’s arms, and high points in all of Chopin and in all of the Frédéric celebrated their reunion by shepherd - music of the Romantic era.” e closing move - ing the couple around Paris—sightseeing, ment, compounded formally of elements of attending Les Huguenots at the Opéra, arrang - sonata and , is febrile and almost tempes - ing soirées to show her off to his friends, visiting tuous until it turns to the brighter tonality of the aristocrats in whose apartments he per - B Major for its energetic coda. formed. Chopin was worn out aer two weeks —© 2016 Dr. Richard E. Rodda

 PLAYBILL ABOUT THE ARTIST

Emanuel Ax (piano ) was born in modern day Bronfman. In 2015 Deutche Grammophon re - Lvov, , and moved to Winnipeg, Canada, leased a duo recording with Perlman of sonatas with his family when he was a young boy. His by Fauré and Strauss, which the two artists pre - studies at the were supported sented on tour during the 2015 –16 season. Ax by the sponsorship of the Epstein Scholarship has received Grammy Awards for the second Program of the Boys Clubs of America, and and third volumes of his cycle of Haydn’s piano he subsequently won the Young Concert Artists sonatas. He has also made a series of Grammy- Award. Additionally, he attended Columbia winning recordings with cellist Yo-Yo Ma of the University, where he majored in French. Ax Beethoven and Brahms sonatas for cello and made his New York debut in the Young Concert piano. His other recordings include the concer - Artists Series, and captured public attention in tos of Liszt and Schoenberg, three solo Brahms 1974 when he won the first albums, an album of tangos by Astor Piazzolla, International Piano Competition in . and the premiere recording of ’ In 1975 he won the Michaels Award of Young Century Rolls with the Cleveland Orchestra for Concert Artists, followed four years later by the Nonesuch. During the 2004 –05 season, Ax also coveted Avery Fisher Prize. contributed to an International Emmy Award- Always a committed exponent of contempo - winning BBC documentary commemorating rary composers—with works written for him the Holocaust that aired on the 60th anniver - by John Adams, Christopher Rouse, Krzysztof sary of the liberation of Auschwitz. In 2013, Ax’s Penderecki, , and Melinda Wagner recording Variations received the Echo Klassik already in his repertoire—Ax performed the Award for Solo Recording of the Year (19th- world premiere of the newly commissioned century music/piano). Piano Concerto by HK Gruber earlier this A frequent and committed partner for cham - month with the New York Philharmonic and ber music, he has worked regularly with such Alan Gilbert (the European premiere will fol - artists as Young Uck Kim, Cho-Liang Lin, Ma, low in March with the Berlin Philhar monic and , Peter Serkin, , and Sir Simon Rattle). His ongoing relationship with the late . the Boston Symphony this season includes vis - Ax resides in with his wife, its with them to Carnegie Hall, Montreal, and pianist Yoko Nozaki. ey have two children Toronto; with the Cleveland Orchestra Ax ap - together, Joseph and Sarah. He is a Fellow of peared as the featured artist for their gala open - the American Academy of Arts and Sciences ing concert of the season. As a regular visitor and holds honorary doctorates of music from he also returns to the orchestras of Chicago, Los Yale and Columbia universities. For more Angeles, San Fran cisco, Cincinnati, Toronto, information about his career, please visit Seattle, Milwaukee, and Detroit. www.EmanuelAx.com. Ax has been a Sony Classical exclusive record - ing artist since 1987, and recent releases include Mendelssohn trios with Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Exclusive Management Perlman, Strauss’ Enoch Arden narrated by Opus 3 Artists , and discs of two-piano music 470 Park Avenue South by Brahms and Rachmaninoff with Yefim New York, NY 10016

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