CAL PERFORMANCES PRESENTS

Sunday, November 24, 2013, 3pm Hertz Hall

Shai Wosner,

PROGRAM

Franz Schubert (1797–1828) Drei Klavierstücke, D. 946 (1828) No. 1 in E-flat minor Allegro assai — Andante — Tempo I No. 2 in E-flat major Allegretto No. 3 in Allegro

Jörg Widmann (b. 1973) Idyll and Abyss: Six Schubert Reminiscences (2009) Unreal, as if from afar Allegretto un poco agitato Quarter = 40, like a lullaby Scherzando Quarter = 50 Mournful, desolate

Schubert No. 13 in A major, D. 664 (1819) Allegro moderato Andante Allegro

INTERMISSION

Schubert Sonata No. 21 in B-flat major, D. 960 (1828) Molto moderato Andante sostenuto Scherzo: Allegro vivace con delicatezza Allegro, ma non troppo

Funded by the Koret Foundation, this performance is part of Cal Performances’ 2013–2014 Koret Recital Series, which brings world-class artists to our community. This performance is made possible, in part, by Patron Sponsors Dalia and Lance Nagel. Cal Performances’ 2013–2014 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo.

CAL PERFORMANCES 35 PROGRAM NOTES PROGRAM NOTES

Franz Schubert (1797–1828) Schubert leavened their inherent pianism with at the Juilliard School in New York. After win- having moved the soul, so literally and real does Drei Klavierstücke, D. 946 his incomparable sense of melody, a situation ning the Carl Maria von Weber Competition, his music enter us.’ This statement from 1928 by for which Kathleen Dale proposed the following Competition of German Music Colleges the influential German philosopher and musi- Composed in 1828. explanation: “Schubert’s continued experience and Bavarian State Prize for Young Artists, cologist Theodor Adorno captures the essential of song-writing had by now so strongly devel- Widmann was appointed professor of clarinet at phenomenon of Schubert’s music. In my com- Schubert was among the first practitioners of oped his wonderful natural gift of apprehending the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg positions in homage to Schubert, the Lied für the so-called “character piece,” the species of the spirit of a poem and re-creating it in music, in 2001; he continues to be recognized as one Orchester (2003, rev. 2009), the Octet (2004) compact, single-movement, sharply etched pi- that when he turned from songs to write for pi- of his generation’s finest clarinetists. His parallel and now these six brief piano pieces, my objec- ano composition designed for the burgeoning ano solo, he inevitably composed works which, interest in composition began when he started tive is to capture in my own personal fashion home music market of the early 19th century. though specifically instrumental in character, lessons with Kay Westermann in Munich at this constantly precarious flight between heaven There grew to be a virtual musical tidal wave are so truly lyrical in essence that each is a poem age eleven, and continued with his studies and hell, paradise and the very depths of anxi- of these popular miniatures in the years after in sound.” A Poem in Sound—music that is flow- with Hans Werner Henze, Wilfried Hiller, and ety, between idyll and abyss.” The Reminiscences Schubert’s death in 1828—the masterful ex- ing, evocative, reflective of the rhythms of the Wolfgang Rihm; in 2009, he was also named range from ethereal to angry, from playful to amples by Chopin, Schumann, Brahms, Liszt, heart and the soul and of life itself. Such is the to the Freiburg Hochschule’s composition tragic, with tone clusters in the penultimate Mendelssohn, Fauré, Grieg, and others occupy gift that Schubert left the world. faculty. Widmann’s residencies include those movement that may be intended to evoke “the the heart of the piano literature—but the form The Drei Klavierstücke are arranged accord- with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, German abyss” answered by the sense of loss in the finale, was still new when he took it up around 1815 ing to a pleasing tonal plan: E-flat minor, E-flat Radio Orchestra of Saarbrücken-Kaiserslautern, which quotes Schubert’s transcendent Sonata in to provide keyboard entertainment at the con- major and C major. They are in simple three- , Salzburg Festival, Lucerne B-flat major, his last work for piano. vivial local gatherings known as “Schubertiads” part structures (the second adds an additional Festival, Cologne Philharmonic, Vienna Pianist Shai Wosner said of Idyll and Abyss, that featured his music and performances. intervening episode: A–B–A–C–A), and almost Konzerthaus, Oxford Chamber Music Festival, “Its six short, dreamy miniatures are like frag- Beginning in 1824, during what proved to be opulent in the warmth of their sonority and Dortmund Konzerthaus, Essen Philharmonic, mented sketches that use images and gestures the last years of his pitifully brief life, Schubert harmony. No. 1 (E-flat minor) opens and closes and Heidelberg Spring Festival. Among his familiar from Schubert’s musical language— created a fine and characteristic series of char- with an anxious strain whose febrile quality is many distinctions as a composer are the Stoeger echoes of distant horn calls, half of a forgot- acter pieces that parallel his superb late sona- enhanced by layering its duplet melody upon a Prize of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln ten Ländler. It is as if Widmann is trying to tas. First among this group were the endear- triplet accompaniment; the central Andante is, Center, Arnold Schoenberg Medal, Belmont delve into the psyche of Schubert’s sound world ing Moments Musicaux, whose six movements by way of expressive balance, quiet and medita- Award for Contemporary Music of the Forberg- and the contrasting elements of which it is occupied him between 1824 and 1827. During tive. No. 2 (E-flat major) is based on a tender Schneider Foundation, Schneider-Schott Music made—the naïve, the tragic, the nostalgic, and the last six months of 1827, he composed eight theme that Schubert borrowed from the chorus Award, Honorary Award of the Munich Opera the foreboding.” pieces he called Impromptu. Schubert sold his that opens Act III of his 1823 opera Fierrabras; Festival, Paul Hindemith Prize, Ernst von Impromptus to Haslinger in Vienna, who agreed the movement’s two contrasting episodes are Siemens Foundation Encouragement Award, to publish them in small lots to test their accep- unsettled and mysterious. No. 3 (C major) ex- Composition Award of the Berlin Philharmonic Schubert tance. He issued the first two numbers of the hibits a teasing rhythmic ambiguity reminis- Academy, and Kaske Foundation Music Award, Sonata in No. 13 A major, D. 664 series in 1828 as Schubert’s Op. 90, Nos. 1 and 2 cent of a Slavic dance that is countered in its and election to membership in the Institute for with some success, but the composer’s death on middle region by a rather stolid paragraph in Advanced Study in Berlin, Bavarian Academy Composed in 1819. November 19th of that year halted the project, block chords. of the Fine Arts, Free Academy of the Arts and the remaining pair of Op. 90 Impromptus in Hamburg, and German Academy of the Early in July 1819, Franz Schubert left the heat was not published until 1857 or 1858; the four Dramatic Arts. Widmann’s creative output in- and dust of Vienna for a walking tour of Upper others were issued at the end of 1839 by Diabelli Jörg Widmann (b. 1973) cludes a large number of chamber compositions Austria with his friend, the baritone Johann as Op. 142. Idyll and Abyss: Six Schubert Reminiscences (many featuring clarinet), the 2003 opera Das Michael Vogl. The goal of the journey was Steyr, It seems likely that the three piano pieces Gesicht im Spiegel (“The Face in the Mirror”) a small town in the foothills of the Austrian Schubert wrote in May 1827 were intended as Composed in 2009. Premièred on April 24, 2009, and other music theater works, and several Alps south of Linz and some eighty miles west the nucleus of a third set of Impromptus, though at the Allerheiligen Hofkirche in Munich by large-scale orchestral scores. of Vienna in which Vogl was born and to which their manuscripts bear neither title nor number. Siegfried Mauser. Widmann wrote of his Idyll and Abyss: Six he returned every summer. Schubert enjoyed When edited them and over- Schubert Reminiscences of 2009, part of a tril- the venture greatly, writing home to his brother, saw their initial publication in 1868, he labeled German composer and clarinetist Jörg Widmann ogy in which he also paid homage to Robert Ferdinand, that the countryside was “incon- them simply “Drei Klavierstücke” (“Three Piano was born in Munich in 1973 and studied clari- Schumann (Eleven Humoresques) and Johannes ceivably beautiful.” In Steyr, Vogl introduced Pieces”). Perhaps the most remarkable quality net with Gerd Starke at the Hochschule für Brahms (Intermezzi): “‘On hearing Schubert’s the composer to the village’s chief patron of the of these character pieces is the manner in which Musik in Munich and with Charles Neidich music, tears pour out of the eyes without ever arts, Sylvester Paumgartner, a wealthy amateur

36 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 37 PROGRAM NOTES PROGRAM NOTES cellist and an ardent admirer of Schubert’s mu- Schubert At the end of August, Schubert felt unwell, Beethovenian model in favor of a warm, even sic. Paumgartner’s home was the site of frequent Sonata No. 21 in B-flat major, D. 960 complaining of dizziness and loss of appetite, sometimes dreamy, lyricism whose principal local musical events—private musical parties and his physician advised that he move for a aims are to examine fragments of the move- were held in the first floor music room and a Composed in 1828. time to a new house outside the city recently ment’s melodies in different harmonic lights and large salon upstairs, decorated with musical acquired by the composer’s brother Ferdinand. to extract the instrument’s most ingratiating emblems and portraits of composers and hous- In the hall of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde Though Ferdinand’s dwelling was damp and un- sonorities. The B-flat Sonata, generally regarded ing his considerable collection of instruments in Vienna on March 26, 1828, immediately after comfortable and hardly conducive to his recov- as Schubert’s greatest achievement in the genre, and scores, was used for concerts. It was for completing his magnificent C major Symphony ery, Franz felt better during the following days, opens with a movement of breadth and maj- Paumgartner that Schubert composed his ever- (justifiably dubbed “The Great” by later genera- and he was able to participate in an active social esty based on one his most ravishing melodies. green “Trout” Quintet. tions), Franz Schubert gave the only public con- life and attend the premiere of a comedy by his The Andante, music such as it is given to only While in Steyr, Schubert, then 22, met cert entirely of his works held during his lifetime. friend Eduard von Bauernfeld on September 5th. the greatest masters to compose, seems almost Josephine von Koller, 18, the daughter of one The event, prompted and sponsored by his circle Schubert also continued to compose incessantly, freed from earthly bonds, rapt out of time. “It of the town’s music lovers introduced to him by of devoted friends, was a significant artistic and completing the three piano on the 26th is,” concluded Alfred Einstein, “the climax and Paumgartner. On July 19th Schubert excitedly financial success, and he used the proceeds to and performing them at the house of Dr. Ignaz apotheosis of Schubert’s instrumental lyricism reported to Ferdinand, “She is very pretty, plays celebrate the occasion at a local tavern, pay off Menz the following day. The C major Quintet and his simplicity of form.” The playful Scherzo the piano well, and is going to sing some of my some old debts, acquire a new piano, and buy was finished at that same time; it and the sonatas that follows serves as the perfect foil to the slow songs.” It was for Josephine that he wrote one tickets for Nicolò Paganini’s sensational debut were the last instrumental works that he com- movement. The finale balances a certain serious- of his most genial piano works, the Sonata in A in Vienna three days later. Despite the renewed pleted. On October 31st, Schubert fell seriously ness of expression with exuberance and rhyth- major (D. 664). Schubert returned to Vienna the enthusiasm for creative work that that concert ill, his syphilitic condition perhaps exacerbated mic energy. following month and Miss von Koller slipped inspired in him, and encouraging signs that his by the typhus then epidemic in Vienna, and he from the pages of his biography. The music, music was beginning to receive recognition out- died on November 19, 1828, at the age of 31. He however, remains a lovely testimony to a halcyon side of Vienna, Schubert’s spirits were dampened had originally intended that the three sonatas be © 2013 Dr. Richard E. Rodda summer junket and a pretty young girl who once during the following months by the perilous state dedicated to Johann Hummel, a pianist, com- graced Schubert’s life. of his health. His constitution, never robust, had poser, student of Mozart and important sup- The brilliance and lyricism of the A major been undermined by syphilis, and by the sum- porter during his last years, but when Diabelli Sonata speak well of Josephine’s technical skill mer of 1828, he was suffering from headaches, ex- published them in 1838 as “Schubert’s Last and musicianship. Though the first movement haustion and frequent digestive distress. In May, Compositions: Three Grand Sonatas,” Hummel follows Classical sonata structure, Schubert es- he received invitations from friends to summer was already dead, so the pieces were instead in- chewed the dramatic possibilities of that form, in both Graz and Gmunden in order to refresh scribed to another champion of Schubert’s mu- which Beethoven exploited so mightily, in favor himself with the country air, but he had to refuse sic, . of tunefulness and tender sentiments. Only in a his hosts because he lacked money to pay for the “All three of the last sonatas are works in passage of rising scales in the brief development transportation. He settled instead for a three-day which meditation, charm, wistfulness, sadness section does he touch on any darker emotions, excursion in early June with the composer-con- and joy are housed in noble structures,” wrote and these are soon assuaged by the lyricism of ductor Franz Lachner to nearby Baden, where he George R. Marek. Though each follows the the recapitulation. The Andante, with its simple, wrote a Fugue in E minor for organ, four hands traditional four-movement Classical pattern of three-part construction (A–B–A) and its flow- (D. 952, his only work for organ), which he tried opening sonata-allegro, lyrical slow movement, ing melody, is, quite simply, a song without out with his companion on the instrument in the scherzo (minuet in the Sonata) and live- words. The finale, another of Schubert’s incom- 12th-century Cistercian abbey at neighboring ly finale, this is music less concerned with the ti- parably lyrical sonata forms, is buoyed by its rip- Heiligenkreuz on June 4th. Between his return to tanic, visionary, long-range formal structures of pling grace and dancing vivacity. the city a few days later and August, he composed Beethoven (whom Schubert idolized) than with the Mass in E-flat, made a setting in Hebrew of the immediately perceived qualities of melody, Psalm 92 for the City Synagogue of Vienna, cre- harmonic color, piano sonority and the subtle ated a number of short pieces for piano, wrote balancing of keys—what Hans Költzsch in his all but one of the thirteen songs published after study of Schubert’s sonatas called “the nascent his death in the collection Schwanengesang, did present.” This characteristically Schubertian pre- extensive work on what proved to be his last three dilection is particularly evident in the develop- piano sonatas (D. 958–960), and began his C ma- ment sections of the opening movements, which jor String Quintet. eschew the rigorous thematic working-out of the

38 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 39 ABOUT THE ARTIST ABOUT THE ARTIST

and the German première of Michael Hersch’s Center’s Chamber Music Society Two and per- concerto Along the Ravines (a work he commis- forms regularly at various chamber music festi- sioned and premièred with the Seattle Symphony vals, including Chamber Music Northwest, the in 2012) with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival, the Oregon Saarbrücken led by Tito Muñoz. Additional Bach Festival, the Piano Aux Jacobins festival highlights include a performance with the Miró in France, and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Quartet at Baltimore’s Shriver Hall; a duo recital Festival. Recent chamber music engagements tour with violinist Veronika Eberle, including a include a duo recital with baritone Wolfgang performance at Wigmore Hall; a duo recital with Holzmair at the 92nd Street Y in New York, a cellist Matthew Barley at the Concertgebouw, performance with members of the New York Marco Borggreve Marco featuring standard repertoire as well as free-form Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall, a perfor- Pianist Shai Wosner has attracted international improvisation; and a third Wigmore Hall con- mance of the Mozart concerto for three recognition for his exceptional artistry, musical cert with cellist Ralph Kirshbaum. with Joseph Kalichstein and Alon Goldstein integrity, and creative insight. His performances Mr. Wosner made his highly acclaimed sub- and the New York String Orchestra with Jaime of a broad range of repertoire from Beethoven scription début with the Chicago Symphony Laredo at Carnegie Hall, and collaborations and Mozart to Schoenberg and Ligeti, as well as Orchestra in 2010 and was invited to return with the Tokyo, Miró, and Parker string quar- music by his contemporaries, communicates his later that year to perform with the orchestra tets. He has performed at such summer festivals imaginative programming and intellectual curi- at the Ravinia Festival. He has appeared with as Ravinia, Hollywood Bowl, Lincoln Center’s osity. Mr. Wosner’s virtuosity and perceptiveness numerous major orchestras in North America, Mostly Mozart, Bridgehampton, Grand Teton, have made him a favorite among audiences and including the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the and Bravo! Vail Valley. For several consecutive critics alike. Hollywood Bowl, the Orpheus, Saint Paul and summers, Mr. Wosner was involved in the West- Mr. Wosner has been widely praised for his Wisconsin chamber orchestras, the National Arts Eastern Divan Workshop led by Mr. Barenboim interpretations of Franz Schubert’s solo works, Centre Orchestra, and the symphony orches- and toured as soloist with the West-Eastern both in concert and in recording. He continues tras of Atlanta, Baltimore, Berkeley, Cleveland, Divan Orchestra. to present Schubert works in recital throughout Dallas, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Mr. Wosner is a recipient of an Avery Fisher the 2013–2014 season, with performances at Cal Pittsburgh, and San Francisco. He performed with Career Grant, as well as a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Performances, the Santa Fe Chamber Music the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra in a concert Award. He was in residence with the BBC as a Festival, in Fresno, California, and Schenectady, that was broadcast on American Public Radio. In New Generation Artist, during which he played New York, at Wigmore Hall in London, and at Europe, he has appeared with the Bournemouth frequently with the BBC orchestras, including the Festival Internacional de Música de Cámara Symphony, Staatskapelle Berlin, LSO St. Luke’s, appearances conducting Mozart concertos from in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Gothenburg Symphony, Barcelona Symphony, the keyboard with the BBC Scottish Symphony. Mr. Wosner’s most recent recording, released Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Orchestre National He also returned to the BBC Scottish Symphony by Onyx in October 2011, features a selection of de Belgique, and Nieuw Sinfonietta Amsterdam, in both subscription concerts and performances solo piano works by Schubert that incorporate and at Cardiff’s Hoddinott Hall, among oth- at the Proms with Donald Runnicles, and ap- elements of folk music. Mr. Wosner’s 2010 de- ers. In 2006, he debuted with the Vienna peared with the BBC Philharmonic in a broad- but recording, also released by Onyx, juxtaposed Philharmonic Orchestra in Salzburg, during the cast from Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall. His works by Brahms and Schoenberg. His next 250th anniversary celebrations of Mozart’s birth. various performances continue to be broadcast recording, with frequent recital partner violin- He has worked with such conductors as Daniel on BBC Radio 3. ist , featuring works by Janáček, Barenboim, Jiří Bělohlávek, James Conlon, Alan Born in , Mr. Wosner enjoyed a broad Bartók and Kurtág, will be released by Cedille Gilbert, Gunther Herbig, James Judd, Zubin musical education from a very early age, study- Records in fall 2013. Mehta, Peter Oundjian, Donald Runnicles, and ing piano with Emanuel Krasovsky and com- This season, Mr. Wosner’s orchestral en- Leonard Slatkin. position, theory, and improvisation with André gagements include Mozart piano concertos with Mr. Wosner is widely sought after by col- Hajdu. He later studied at the Juilliard School the Hamburger Symphoniker conducted by leagues for his versatility and spirit of partner- with . Mr. Wosner now resides in Jeffrey Tate, the BBC Scottish Symphony led by ship. As a chamber musician, he has collabo- with his wife and two children. Andrew Manze, and the Discovery Ensemble led rated with numerous esteemed artists including For more information about Mr. Wosner, by Courtney Lewis at Boston’s Jordan Hall. He Martin Fröst, Lynn Harrell, Dietrich Henschel, please visit his fan page on Facebook or go to plays Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto with Cho-Liang Lin, Christian Tetzlaff, and Pinchas www.shaiwosner.com. the Pasadena Symphony conducted by Jajha Ling Zukerman. He is a former member of Lincoln

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