Artur Rubinstein
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THE COMMUNITY CONCERT ASSOCIATION presents Season 1961-1961 ARTUR RUBINSTEIN PIANIST "rpHE last of the great romantic performers in 1 the tradition of Liszt and Anton Rubinstein ... the best living pianist... a great artist with the broadest popular following of any front-rank musician in the world.”—so Time Magazine re cently described Artur Rubinstein. Born in Lodz, Poland, son of a hand-loom manufacturer, Rubinstein first displayed signs of musical talent at the age of three. At six, he already had performed at a charity concert in Warsaw. At eleven, young Artur made his formal debut in Berlin under the baton of the venerable Joachim, who had assumed responsibility for Artur’s musical future. By the time Rubinstein was fifteen, his reputation had spread through out Europe and he had earned the praise of Saint-Saëns, Paderewski and Max Bruch. Two years later, in 1906, he paid his first visit to America where he gave 75 concerts in three months. Rubinstein returned to Europe to begin his global peregrinations, which have since covered more than two million miles and have taken him to every country in the world except Tibet. COMMUNITY CONCERTS INC. In 1946, the most international of all living affiliated with artists, Rubinstein became a U. S. citizen. He is COLUMBIA ARTISTS MANAGEMENT INC. 165 West 57th Street, New York 19, N. Y. (Continued on Page 4 of Program) PROGRAM 1. Sonata in F minor, Ludwig van Beethoven This is one of Beethoven’s most famous compo sitions, and rightly so. Here he gives full vent to Opus 57 (“Appassionata”) his passion; the tempest rages over the land, Allegro assai furious and insatiable. It is a phantasmagoria in which all the contending powers of nature are Andante con moto let loose.... With one single exception, all the Allegro ma non troppo themes of the first and last movements are in minor mode. All the more striking, therefore, is the effect of the almost religious sounding An dante in D-flat major, whose Variations show how inspired sheer figuration can be. Carnaval, Opus 9 Robert Schumann The numerous small sketches suggest the famil iar scenes and figures of a carnival. Some of 1. Préambule (Moderato) these, like Pierrot, Harlequin, Pantalon and 2. Pierrot (Moderato) Colombine are traditional; others are in dance 3. Arlequin (Vivo) measure; and there are, too, references to actual 4. Valse Noble (Adagio) persons in the pieces called Chiarina (which 5. Eusebius (Adagio) stands for Clara Wieck), Chopin, Paganini, 6. Florestan (Passionato) Eusebius (Schumann’s personality in its dreamy, 7. Coquette (Vivo) poetic phase), and Florestan (Schumann him 8. Répliqué (Prestissimo) self, fiery and passionate). These two sides of 9. Papillons (Prestissimo) himself Schumann united under the term “Dav 10. Lettres Dansantes (Presto) idsbundler,” and the composition ends with the 11. Chiarina (Passionato) triumphant march of the new school under 12. Chopin (Agitato) “Davidsbundler” against the conventional and 13. Estrella (Con affetto) academic “Philistines.” The theme of this march 14. Reconnaissance (Animato) is based upon a XVth Century tune. 15. Pantelon et Colombine (Presto ) 16. Valse Allemande (Molto vivace) 17. Paganini (Presto) 18. Valse Allemande (Ma piu vivo) 19. Aveu (Passionato) 20. Promenade (Commodo) 21. Pause (Vivo) 22. Marche des “Davidsbundler contre les Phil istins” (Non allegro; Molto piu vivo) INTERMISSION 2. Prelude, “Pour le Piano” Claude Debussy At the World’s Fair of 1889 in Paris, Debussy heard among many other national orchestras, the gameland of the Javanese. Memories of this exotic music are artfully intertwined in this little score with reminiscences of the French clavecinists, Rameau and Couperin. 3. La Cathédrale engloutie Claude Debussy The most mystic of the Preludes makes audible and all but visual the essence of the old legend which Lalo used for his opera Le Roi d’Ys. In the clear light of morning, out of the waves rises the cathedral of Ys, its bells tolling, slowly to return again to the depths to resume its en chanted sleep. The melodic content is Cregorian the effect, orchestral. 4. La plus que lente Claude Debussy Debussy did more than bring a new scale anc new harmonies to the musical scheme which prevailed up to his time. He restored the practice of 18th century French composers, in making music an illustrative art and a means for re creating in sound impressions of the outside world derived through the other senses. This i: “program music” in a most subtle and poetic aspect. 5. Dance of Fear, Manuel de Falla The music of Spain, with its Moorish and Arabic from “El Amor Brujo” colorations, was the natural language of de Falla, and few spoke it better than he. In the ballet pantomime “El Amor Brujo,” he makes unusually varied employment of rhythm, ranging from the tenderness of love, through the depths of terror to the brutality of insistent, thudding passion. The story is of a young and lovely girl named Candelas, who has loved a Gypsy whose death brought her much grief. She is terrified that the dead may still be standing by with shadowy caresses and jealous eyes. This, of course, inter feres with the progress of her subsequent love affair with the young and handsome Carmelo. It becomes evident the couple will not be freed from spectral supervision till they would be able to exchange the kiss of perfect love. Carmelo, an inventive young man, recalls the philandering history of his one-time chum, and provides a girl friend, Lucia, as bait. Sure enough, when the Gypsy lover materializes, his eyes fall on Lucia, and the lovers are forgotten. The troth is sealed with the love-kiss, and the Gypsy vanishes. 6. Dance of the Miller’s Wife Manuel de Falla The second decade of this century witnessed a from “The Three-Cornered Hat” level of excellence in the ballet—music, chore ography, settings, costumes and performance— that may never again be seen. The center of this great surge in the ballet art was Serge Diaghileff, the impressario who had built the fabulous Ballet Russe company with such dancers as Nijinsky, Massine, Karsavina; choreographers like Michel Fokine, Bakst as the principal designer of sets and costumes. Commissions for music for ballets were given to such composers as Ravel and Stravinsky. While touring in Spain, Diaghileff made the acquaintance of Manuel de Falla, who had al ready written music for a theatrical pantomime based on a novel of Alarcon. The plot concerned itself with a young miller and his wife revelling with their neighbors in a village dance. The elderly, lecherous Governor of the province comes by with his retinue of bodyguards and servants and is immediately smitten with the young miller’s wife. Returning during the mill er’s absence (he has been arrested to get him out of the way), the Governor makes clumsy amorous advances to the miller’s wife. Her taunting agility in evading him results in his falling into the nearby stream. Alone, he ex changes his wet clothes for those of the miller who, having escaped, discovered the Governor in his house. Vengeance \s his, when the police enter, mistake the Governor for the escaped miller, thrash him soundly and drag him off as the villagers gather to rejoice at the Governor’s misfortune. At the suggestion of Diaghileff, several native Spanish dances were added to de Falla’s musical score. The ballet, first produced in 1919, has been a perennial favorite since that time. 7. Ballade in G minor, Frederic Chopin In the Ballade, Chopin created a musical form of his own, a compact structure, glowing with Opus 23 his genius. As Niecks, one of his biographers writes, “None of Chopin’s compositions surpasses his Ballades in masterliness of form and beauty and poetry of content.” The name Ballade implies a story, a legend, a poetic narration. Chopin gave this title to four of his most unique and expressive inventions. 8. Nocturne in F sharp minor, Frederic Chopin The term “Nocturne" means, as its name implies, “night music.” The title and style were invented Opus 48 by John Field, an Irish pianist. Before him, piano movements were written as a matter of course in compliance with established forms. With the appearance of this new and simpler form, melody and fancy were given free play, without the restriction of formal requirements. Chopin heightened and glorified these ideas, embodied them in splendid symmetry and wove into them the poetic beauty which is common to all his compositions. 9. Polonaise in A flat major, Frederic Chopin Of the “Polonaises,” this one is the summit in its vision and power. Compared with it, all the Opus 53 others of the great group have limitations. In the bardic Opus 53 there are no conditionings. Its culmination is made the more magnificent by the deliberately contrived moment of hesitation which comes after the impetuous challenge, after the swing and chant of the Polonaise theme proper, and the sweepings of the lyre and the evocation of the vision of the marching hosts— all this antecedent to the moment when the music dramatically reassembles its forces and sweeps in a furious tide to victory. ARTUR RUBINSTEIN current RCA Victor catalogue, the sales of which average a million dollars annually. (Continued from Page 1 of Program) Mr. Rubinstein has two homes—a house in prouder of the simple document that officially Paris and an apartment in Manhattan, and after makes him an American than any of the many the last concert on his itinerary he rushes to one decorations and citations he has received from of them to spend as much time as he can with universities and governments.