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Home , Barbara of Portugal, Eugen Indjic, Faust Symphony, Heinrich Marschner, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Rokas & 2017 CMF Artist Valuntonis

Thursday 2nd May 2019, 7.30pm The Priory Church of St Bartholomew the Great Thank you for coming to this evening’s recital – to enjoy this spectacular church, and s u p p o r t C i t y M u s i c F o u n d a t i o n A r t i s t , p i a n is t R o k a s V a l u n t o n i s . CMF’s mission is ‘turning talent into success’. We select exceptional professional musicians at the start of their careers when managing ‘the business of ’ can be a challenge, and support them with a comprehensive career development programme. We arrange mentoring, run workshops, do agency and management, make CDs, videos and websites, commission new music, secure airtime on BBC Radio 3 and promotion though online, print and social media, and put on our own recitals and concerts. CMF Alumni tell us of the many ways CMF has helped them during those very fragile early stages of their professional careers. Getting the necessary visibility, and developing networks, gaining recognition in the industry, having recordings – all this has allowed them to secure their careers as performers. Our aim is that CMF Artists are ready for four decades or more of contributing to society’s culture and wellbeing – reaching hundreds of thousands through live performance, CDs, streaming, broadcast, teaching and mentoring – giving back a thousandfold what CMF has given them.

If you'd like to support our work you can donate online (cafdonate.cafonline.org/7944) or by cheque (post to: Church House, Cloth Fair, London EC1A 7JQ).

Upcoming Events

Wednesday 15th May 1pm Tom Millar Quartet FREE Barts Pathology Museum

Tom Millar (2018 CMF Artist) brings his celebrated Tom Millar Quartet to Barts Pathology Museum for a lunchtime performance of original tunes and jazz standards.

Weekend of 18th-19th May Sound Unbound 2019 FREE Various including St Bartholomew the Less

City Music Foundation is partnering with Barbican and Culture Mile for Sound Unbound, a free music festival taking place in the City of London. Five CMF Artists will be performing in venues including Smithfield, The Charterhouse, and St Bartholomew the Less. Rokas Valuntonis, piano 2017 CMF Artist P raised for his “liquidity of sound” and “devilish performances”, Lithuanian pianist Rokas V aluntonis has drawn admiration for his imaginative interpretations and striking virtuosity.

A laureate of more than 20 international competitions, Rokas won First Prize at the 2018 Campillos International Piano Competition () and previous victories include both the International Music Competition “Societa Umanitaria” (Italy) and the Nordic Piano Competition (Sweden).

He has performed all over Europe, including Denmark, Finland, France, and Portugal, in venues such as Milton Court (Barbican Centre), La Sala Verdi, The Wallace Collection, Lithuanian National Philharmonic Hall, and La Sala Casella Accademia Filarmonica Romana. Rokas has also performed with the Lithuanian National , Lund Symphony Orchestra, St Christopher Chamber Orchestra, Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, and Panevėžys Chamber Orchestra.

Growing up in Lithuania, Rokas studied at the Lithuanian Music and Theatre Academy under Aleksandra Zvirblyte, before attending the Sibelius Academy (Finland), followed by studies with in Paris. He is currently completing an Artist Diploma at Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. For his many achievements, Valuntonis has been honoured with the prestigious Queen Morta Award and acknowledgements by two Lithuanian Presidents. rokasvaluntonis.com @RValuntonis Programme

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840 – 1893) in C minor, Op. 59

Fryderyk Chopin (1810 – 1849) Four , Op. 6 No. 1 in F sharp minor No. 2 in C sharp minor No. 3 in No. 4 in E flat minor

Robert Schumann (1810 – 1856) Etudes symphoniques, Op. 13

Interval

Aleksandr Scriabin (1872 – 1915) Piano Sonata No. 2 in G sharp minor 'Sonata-Fantasy', Op. 19 I. Andante II. Presto

Domenico Scarlatti (1685 – 1757) Sonata in C major, K487 Sonata in , K8 Sonata in G major, K79

Claude Debussy (1862 – 1918) Images, Book 1 I. Reflets dans l'eau II. Hommage à Rameau III. Mouvement

Franz Liszt (1811 – 1886)

Mephisto Waltz No.1 'The Dance in the Village Inn' Tchaikovsky Dumka in C minor, Op. 59

S u b t i t l e d ‘ R u s s i a n R u s t ic S c e n e ', D u m k a , O p . 5 9 was written in Maydanovo, a village in the area where rented a house from 1885-88. Other w o r k s c o m p le t e d t h e r e i n c l u d e T h e N u t c r a c k e r , h i s l a s t o p e r a I o l a n t a , a n d t h e S y m p h o n y . In letters written to the work’s French commissioner, Tchaikovsky refers to the piece as a "rhapsody", but ‘dumka’ is a Ukranian musical term usually given to a song w it h a m e l a n c h o l i c c h a r a c t e r . L i k e t h e d u m k a s o f D v o r a k ’ s m o r e f a m o u s ‘ D u m k y ’ P i a n o T r i o N o . 4 , Tchaikovsky’s impassioned piano work contrasts doleful music with an ebullient and bucolic central section. Tchaikovsky achieves a feeling of melancholy through pointed dissonances and spread chords, invoking a story-teller’s lute or guitar.

C hopin Four Mazurkas, Op. 6

A lthough 'Frédéric' Chopin became the darling of Paris and a French citizen, he spent the first 20 years of his life as Fryderyk in Poland. Chopin left for good in November 1830 and headed to Vienna just before the 'November Uprising' (a native rebellion against the ) consumed his home of Warsaw. Chopin wanted to return and fight, but he was dissuaded. After Warsaw had been captured, Chopin noted in his diary, ‘And I sit here idle, and I sit here with bare hands, sometimes just groaning, grieving at the piano, in despair’. It was during his eight-month stay in Vienna that he wrote his first Mazurkas; how fitting that he should write music inspired by a Polish dance during a time of such deep homesickness. However, Chopin wasn't writing : he had created a new genre.

Schumann Etudes symphoniques, Op. 13

U n l i k e m a n y o f R o b e r t S c h u m a n n ’ s p ia n o w o r k s – C a r n a v a l, D a v id s b ü n d l e r t ä n z e , and P a p il l o n s , f o r e x a m p l e – h i s E t u d e s s y m p h o n i q u e s , O p . 1 3 was written without the direct i nspiration of the usual complex literary subtext, musical cryptograms, or his erstwhile love f or Clara Wieck; but a personal story nevertheless surrounds the work. This sequence of s tudies is actually a set of variations on a theme by Baron von Fricken, of E rnestine von Fricken with whom Schumann fell in love and soon became engaged in 1 834. Despite this, he subsequently broke off the relationship the following year after l earning that she was illegitimate, but perhaps his growing feelings for Clara had s omething to do with his decision. The twelve studies are for the most part faithful to the B aron’s theme, with the addition of a quotation from an by ( b a s e d o n S i r W a l t e r S c o t t ’ s I v a n h o e ) in the finale, perhaps a nod to the nationality of the work’s dedicatee: the English pianist and , William Sterndale Bennett.

S criabin Piano Sonata No. 2 in G sharp minor 'Sonata-Fantasy', Op. 19

Like so many of his fellow Russian – Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, and Prokofiev, for example – Aleksandr Scriabin was a composer-pianist. However, he spent much of his youth in the cadet corps and didn’t begin taking formal piano lessons until he was 14, the same age at which he was badly hurt in a collision involving a horse-drawn vehicle, an accident which often led to repetitive strain injury in his right arm. Begun in 1892 (the year Scriabin graduated from the ), but not completed until after h i s f i r s t m a r r ia g e in 1 8 9 7 , t h e S o n a t a is accompanied by a short programme: "The first part evokes the calm of a night by the seashore in the South; in the development we hear the sombre agitation of the depths. The section in E major represents the tender moonlight which comes after the first dark of the night. The second movement, presto, shows the stormy agitation of the vast expanse of ocean."

S carlatti Sonata in C major, K487; Sonata in G minor, K8; Sonata in G major, K79

To play the complete Keyboard Sonatas of – some 555 in all – in one sitting would take roughly 34 hours. For sake of comparison, J.S. Bach’s keyboard output comes close, but only if you include the organ works; Beethoven’s complete piano works would only take half that time. What is more, it seems that this corpus was mostly written for one individual: his pupil, patron and friend, Princess Maria Barbara of Portugal. Born in 1685 (the same year as Bach and Handel), Scarlatti grew up in the shadow of his father Alessandro, but after posts in Naples, Venice and Rome (as maestro di cappella at the Vatican), he was hired as Kapellmeister by João V of Portugal, a role which included the musical education of the King’s daughter, Princess Maria Barbara. Scarlatti would later follow her to when she married the future Ferdinand VI of Spain; he remained in her employment for the rest of his life.

D ebussy Images, Book 1

D ebussy is thought of as ‘the’ impressionist composer, but he objected to this label. W r i t i n g i n a le t t e r t o h i s p u b li s h e r c o n c e r n i n g h is I m a g e s p o u r o r c h e s t r e , he protested: “I a m trying to do ‘something different' [...] what the imbeciles call ‘impressionism’, a term w h ic h i s as poorly used as possible”. It’s easy to sense a similarity between a Monet or R e n o ir w a t e r s c a p e a n d ‘ R e f le t s d a n s l ’ e a u ’ , t h e f i r s t ‘ im a g e ’ i n D e b u s s y ’ s Im a g e s , B o o k 1 . The composer's first biographer even labelled it an “impressionist sketch”, but although he was certainly inspired by contemporary painters, Debussy was not out to make mere impressions of visual art: he was a painter in music, striving to evoke the nature of his subject and to capture its effects. Unlike Monet's broad brushstrokes, in 'Reflets dans l'eau' Debussy conjures the effect of light on water with the utmost precision, creating the illusion of a liquid in sound whilst also capturing the water's majesty at its climax. The second 'image' is a lilting homage to Rameau and the set closes with a scampering study.

L iszt Waltz No.1 'The Dance in the Village Inn'

T he of – the man who sold his soul to the devil in search of unlimited k nowledge and unbridled pleasure – has inspired numerous plays, novels, , and s ymphonic works by writers and composers such as Schumann, Marlowe, Berlioz, Goethe, a nd . In fact, many of these Faust-inspired works have influenced each other: L i s z t ' s F a u s t S y m p h o n y w a s in s p i r e d b y G o e t h e ' s F a u s t, a work first brought to his attention b y B e r l i o z , w h o s e o w n T h e D a m n a t i o n o f F a u s t was much admired by Liszt. However, L i s z t ’ s M e p h is t o W a l t z N o . 1 w a s a r e s p o n s e t o a p a s s a g e f r o m N i k o la u s L e n a u ' s F a u s t , the scene in which, as its original title suggests, the protagonist and his devilish sidekick () enter an inn in search of revelry and romance. Mephistopheles, taking up a , whips the crowd into a frenzied dance, an image which Liszt conjures with gleeful, scurrying music, in stark contrast to the sensitive, seductive central waltz as Faust slips out into the night with his amorous companion. The mood is broken by the return of Mephistopheles's jaunty theme and the onset of a virtuosic development section, a race to the end, interrupted only by the lonely song of a nightingale, before a rollicking coda. @CityMusicF www.citymusicfoundation.org Registered Charity Number: 1148641