Jonathan Biss, Piano V

CAL PERFORMANCES PRESENTS PROGRAM Sunday, April 1, 2012, 3pm David Ludwig (b. 1972) Lunaire Variations (2011–2012) Hertz Hall I. Nostalgia: “a sighing crystal…” II. Trepan: “shrieks cut through the air” III. Parody: “mocking moon” IV. Moonspot: “a fleck of moonlight” Jonathan Biss, piano V. Serenade: “scrapes on his viola” VI. Barcarole: “moonbeam rudder” VII. Chorale: “a scent of ancient times” PROGRAM Played without pause. Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) Sonata No. 5 in C minor, Op. 10, No. 1 (1798) Beethoven Sonata No. 26 in E-flat major, Op. 81a, Allegro molto con brio “Les Adieux” (1809–1810) Adagio molto Finale: Prestissimo Les Adieux: Adagio — Allegro L’Absence: Andante espressivo — Le Retour: Vivacissimamente Leos Janáček (1854–1928) In the Mists (1912) Andante The program is subject to change. Molto adagio — Presto Andantino — Presto — Meno mosso Beethoven Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor (Sonata quasi una Fantasia), Op. 27, No. 2, “Moonlight” (1801) Adagio sostenuto — Allegretto — Presto agitato Funded by the Koret Foundation, this performance is part of Cal Performances’ 2011–2012 Koret Recital Series, which brings world-class artists to our community. Additional funding is also provided by Patron Sponsors William and Linda Schieber. INTERMISSION Cal Performances’ 2011–2012 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo. 38 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 39 PROGRAM NOTES PROGRAM NOTES Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) two of the town’s noted keyboard luminaries, by violent dotted rhythms, which is immediately vengeful warrior maiden, to add to its repertory. Sonata No. 5 in C minor, Op. 10, No. 1 he became all the rage among the gentry, who countered by a smooth, soothing idea of closely He could not, however, obtain permission for a exhibited him in performance at the soirées in packed chords. The tension inherent between performance from the libretto’s author, Julius Published in 1798. their elegant city palaces. In catering to the aris- these sharply contrasted thematic cells is little Zeyer (who had already promised the text to the tocratic audience, Beethoven took on the air of exploited, however: most of the movement deals established composer Zdeněk Fibich), and Sárka In November 1792, the 22-year-old Ludwig van a dandy for a while, dressing in smart clothes, with the smooth shape and steady rhythms of the was not to be staged until 1925. Janáček had bet- Beethoven, bursting with talent and promise, learning to dance (badly), buying a horse, and second motive, with the craggy opening phrase ter luck with the one-act opera The Beginning of arrived in Vienna. So undeniable was the genius even sporting a powdered wig. This phase of his reiterated only to mark the end of the exposition Romance, premiered in Brno in 1894, but that he had already demonstrated in a sizable amount life did not outlast the 1790s, but in his biog- and the arrival at the development and the reca- work remained unknown elsewhere. That same of piano music, numerous chamber works, can- raphy of the composer, Peter Latham described pitulation. Indeed, even the movement’s formal year he began an opera based on a tragic story of tatas on the death of Emperor Joseph II and Beethoven at the time as “a young giant exult- second theme is nothing more than a domesti- village life titled Jenůfa and toiled over it for the the accession of Leopold II, and the score for ing in his strength and his success, and youthful cated, major-key transformation of the opening next decade. Jenůfa was warmly received at its a ballet, that Maximilian Franz, the Elector of confidence gave him a buoyancy that was both motive. TheAdagio is a slow rondo, with the two Brno premiere in 1904, and Janáček longed to Bonn, his hometown, underwrote the trip to the attractive and infectious.” returns of the tender main theme separated by have it produced in Prague, but it was rejected Habsburg Imperial city, then the musical capi- Among the nobles who served as Beethoven’s highly decorated episodes. The finale is a tightly by the theaters of the Bohemian capital. He tal of Europe, to help further the young musi- patrons after his arrival in Vienna was one compacted sonata form anchored by an agitated continued to teach and compose, mostly cho- cian’s career (and the Elector’s prestige). Despite Count Johann Georg von Browne-Camus, a main subject with wide leaps and a perky second ral numbers, folksong arrangements and some the Elector’s patronage, however, Beethoven’s descendent of an old Irish family who was at theme of scalar motion. modest pieces for orchestra and for piano, while professional ambitions quickly consumed any that time fulfilling some ill-defined function dreaming of recognition on a national, perhaps thoughts of returning to the provincial city of in the Habsburg Imperial city on behalf of the even international, scale. By 1908, he had com- his birth, and, when his alcoholic father died Empress Catherine II of Russia. Little is known Leos Janáček (1854–1928) pleted his fourth opera, Osud (“Fate”), but plans in December, he severed for good his ties with of Browne. His tutor, Johannes Büel, later an In the Mists for its production in Prague collapsed; it would Bonn in favor of the stimulating artistic atmo- acquaintance of Beethoven, described him as not be staged until 30 years after the composer’s sphere of Vienna. “full of excellent talents and beautiful qualities Composed in 1912. Premiered on January 24, death. He immediately began another opera, During his first years in Vienna, Beethoven of heart and spirit on the one hand, and on the 1914, in Brno by Marie Dvoráková. The Excursions of Mr. Brouček, but, like Jenůfa, was busy on several fronts. Initial encourage- other full of weakness and depravity.” He is said progress on it was slow and prospects for its per- ment for the Viennese junket came from the to have squandered his fortune and ended his Janáček’s ambition was bigger than his Brno. formance were dismal. In 1912, when his ambi- venerable Joseph Haydn, who had heard one days in a public institution. In the mid–1790s, Born in 1854 to a teacher and choirmaster in tions as a composer had largely been thwarted, of Beethoven’s cantatas on a visit to Bonn ear- Beethoven received enough generous support Hukvaldy, in the mountains east of Brno, the when his marriage offered little comfort, when lier in the year and promised to take the young from Browne, however, that he dedicated sev- Moravian capital, Janáček received most of his he was having problems with severe rheumatism composer as a student if he came to see him. eral of his works to him and his wife, Anne general and musical education in Brno, with and apprehensively facing his 58th birthday, Beethoven, therefore, became a counterpoint Margarete, including the Variations on Bei some advanced study in Vienna, Leipzig and Janáček channeled his remorse and frustration pupil of Haydn immediately after his arrival Männern, welche Liebe fühlen from Mozart’s Die Prague. During the 1870s, he taught and di- into a set of four disquieting piano pieces that he late in 1792, but the two had difficulty getting Zauberflöte for Cello and Piano (WoO 46), the rected choral groups in Brno and began com- titled, perhaps in contemplating his own uncer- along—Haydn was too busy, Beethoven was too three Op. 10 Piano Sonatas, the B-flat Piano posing. In 1881, he founded the Brno Organ tain future, In the Mists. bullish—and their association soon broke off. Sonata (Op. 22) and the three String Trios of School, and soon thereafter took up the study of In the Mists is music of strong, unsettling Several other teachers followed in short order— Op. 9. In appreciation of these dedications, the region’s indigenous folk music, which helped emotions: the phrases are fragmented, or of ir- Schenk, Albrechtsberger, Förster, Salieri. While Browne presented Beethoven with a horse, to shape the style and ethos of his own creative regular lengths; the harmony is unstable; the he was busy completing fugal exercises and which the preoccupied composer promptly for- idiom. Janáček came to understand that music rhythms proceed fitfully; ferocious outbursts practicing setting Italian texts for his tutors, he got, thereby allowing his servant to rent out the inextricably wrapped around the language, cus- collapse into brooding introspection; the epi- continued to compose, producing works for solo beast and pocket the profits. toms, stories and beliefs of his homeland could sodes of aural beauty or melodic continuity— piano, chamber ensembles and wind groups. The three Sonatas of Op. 10 were begun dur- become a rallying point for Moravian and Czech the Debussian chord streams of the first move- It was as a pianist, however, that he gained his ing the summer of 1796 and completed by July culture, and might well raise him from a small ment, or the folk tune of the third—seem ironic first fame among the Viennese. The untamed, 1798, when the Viennese publisher Joseph Eder town music master to a national figure. In 1884, rather than restful, and only heighten the appre- passionate, original quality of his playing and issued them as a set. The first sonata of the set, in he founded a journal to chronicle the operatic hension of the surrounding music. “In the Mists his personality first intrigued and then capti- the tragic-heroic key of C minor epitomized by activities of the newly established Provisional does not contain a single moment of cheerful vated those who heard him. When he bested in Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, opens with a crag- Theater in Brno, and four years later composed respite,” Jaroslav Vogel wrote in his 1981 biog- competition Daniel Steibelt and Joseph Wölffl, gy motive driven across much of the keyboard a work, Sárka, based on a Czech legend of a raphy of the composer.

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