FACULTY RECITAL Yichen Li, Countertenor Mariah Boucher
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FACULTY RECITAL Yichen Li, countertenor Mariah Boucher, piano Krannert Center for the Performing Arts Foellinger Great Hall Friday, February 21, 2020 7:30 pm FRANZ SCHUBERT Gesänge des Harfners aus (1797-1828) “Wilhelm Meister”, D.478 Wer sich der Einsamkeit ergibt Wer nie sein Brot mit Tränen aß Au die Türen will ich schleichen FRANZ SCHUBERT Auf dem Wasser zu singen, D. 774 (1797-1828) Nacht und Träume, D. 827 Rastlose Liebe, D. 138 CLARA SCHUMANN Sechs Lieder, op. 13 (1819-1896) Ich stand in dunklen Träumen Sie liebten sich beide Der Mond kommt still gegangen Liebeszauber intermission REYNALDO HAHN À Chloris a founding member of the Protea Trio, active in the Detroit area, focusing on works that (1874-1947) Quand je fus pris au pavillon blend Latin, jazz, vocal, and contemporary influences. L’heure exquise Mariah received both her Masters of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Michigan in Collaborative Piano, where she studied with Martin Katz and GABRIEL FAURÉ Nell, op. 18 no. 1 Logan Skelton. As an opera and art song coach, she works with singers at the South (1845-1924) Le Voyageur, op. 18 no. 2 Bend Lyric Opera as well as the Bayview Music Festival. Mariah currently serves as Automne, op. 18 no. 3 Staff Accompanist at Indiana University South Bend, as well as a Vocal Coach at The University of Notre Dame. MAURICE RAVEL Cinq Mélodies populaires grecques As an opera and art song coach, Mariah had coached and performed at such festivals as (1875-1937) Chanson de la mariée the Spoleto Music Program, Italian Operatic Experience, Main Street Opera Theater, and Là-bas, vers l’église Opera on Wheels. She has been the Music Director of the South Bend Lyric Opera for the Quel galant m’est comparable past five productions. Chanson des cueilleuses de lentisques Tout gai! Yichen Li (countertenor) is a diverse musician who has performed extensively in opera, Program Notes oratorio, and chamber music and has won numerous awards as a vocalist and piano accompanist. The Yangtze Evening Post described him as “Li is like a rising star, who Gesänge des Harfners aus “Wilhelm Meister” has become one of the most outstanding countertenors in China.” Gesänge des Harfners aus “Wilhelm Meister” is possibly the most utterly touching, but nevertheless most cryptic figure in Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship is the Harfner, the As an active performer, Li has recently appeared in leading roles such as Oberon in harp-player, the tragic and incestuous father of enchanting young tomboy Mignon. Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Nerone in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di The Harfner is the only character in this Bildungsroman (novel of character development) Poppea, and Nero-Caligula in Ilya Demutsky’s Black Square .Past performances include who does not evolve. He simply cannot survive the heartbreaking sorrow that Purcell’s King Arthur, Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, and Yang Ming’s Sister overwhelms him. Especially notable is Goethe’s harsh play with and interconnection of Jiang. Additionally, Li has performed as a soloist with Sinfonia da Camera Chamber the words Einsamkeit (solitude) and Alleinsein (aloneness), which he uses to deliberately Orchestra, Concerto Urbano Baroque Ensemble, and Estampe Trio. and cynically evoke people’s compassion. In addition to Li’s career as a vocalist, he has earned many achievements as a pianist. Auf dem Wasser zu singen Highlights of Li’s piano accomplishments include the first places in both solo piano and Auf dem Wasser zu singen is a Lied composed by Franz Schubert in 1823, based on the piano accompanying at the 5th Jiangsu Collegiate Music Competition. poem of the same name by Friedrich Leopold zu Stolberg-Stolberg. The text describes a scene on the water from the perspective of the narrator who is in a boat, and delves into Li earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in music education (piano concentration) from the narrator‘s reflections on the passing of time. The song‘s piano accompaniment Nanjing Normal University, where he served as a teaching assistant in several music recreates the texture of the shimmering waves (der Freude sanftschimmernden Wellen) classes. He received a Master of Music degree in vocal performance from Illinois State mentioned in the third line of the poem and its rhythmic style in the 6/8 meter is University and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in vocal performance and literature at reminiscent of a barcarole. Harmonically, the song as a whole and within each stanza the University of Illinois under the tutelage of Ollie Watts Davis. Before joining the traces a movement from the minor mode to the major mode. faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Li taught at the University of Illinois at Springfield and Illinois College. Li also serves as a member of the National Nacht und Träume Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) and the Music Teachers National Association Nacht und Träume is a Lied for voice and piano by Franz Schubert, from a text by (MTNA). Matthäus von Collin, and published in 1825. The vocal line stretches into the void and lures moonlight, memories and spirits to visit our dreams. In the piano, slow unruffled Described as “unique and riveting” by Harmonie magazine, American pianist Mariah semiquavers breathe steadily. There is however a touch of lonely, resounding desolation Boucher has distinguished herself as a leading collaborator, specializing in chamber on the diminished chord of ‚Rufen, wenn der Tag erwacht‘: we plead for night‘s return music and vocal coaching. Active as a chamber musician and piano soloist, Mariah has in order to live again in a better world, to recapture the joys that we once possessed. This performed in venues across the United States, including the Aspen Music Festival, Bay is a theme of a number of Schubert‘s greatest songs. Many years before Freud, the poet View Music Festival, Detroit Institute of the Arts, and West Michigan Symphony Series. knew that sleep—the other side of the coin of death—is the key to our past joys and Mariah is a strong proponent of new music. She has worked closely with contemporary troubles. composers, including Gabriela Lena Frank, Pierre Jalbert, Evan Chambers, Michael Daugherty,Roger Zare, and Logan Skelton. Mariah has also worked with the Kresge Rastlose Liebe Literary Fellow Terry Blackhawk, presenting her poetry with newly commissioned Rastlose Liebe is a Lied composed by Franz Schubert and published in July 1821. The music at the Art X Festival, as well as poets Marsha Music and Justin Rogers. She is also song, dedicated to Anton Salieri, is based on a text by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, written during a snowstorm in the Thuringian Forest. The whirling semiquavers in the Tout gai! Everyone is joyous! right hand are marked sempre ligato; the ascending scale in the left hand in crotchets and quavers, partially chromatic and marked sempre staccato, sturdily underpins the Tout gai! gai, Ha, tout gai! Everyone is joyous, joyous! flurry and pushes it forward. The text suggests a moto perpetuo with a flurry of Belle jambe, tireli, qui danse; Beautiful legs, tireli, which dance, semiquavers. Reichardt set it thus in 1794, as did Zelter in 1812. Schubert of course Belle jambe, la vaisselle danse, Beautiful legs; even the dishes are dancing! follows suit; he might have known these settings but it seems more likely that it was Tra la la la la... Tra la la, la la la! Goethe‘s text alone which suggested the restless Bewegung. Sechs Lieder, op. 13 Clara Schumann’s presence in the history of European music has become firmly fixed in recent years: the many new biographies, editions, recordings and performances of her compositions are testimony to her significance and influence. Her songs, not as well known as her works for piano, are among the treasures of her creative work and can take their place with the best of the German Lieder repertoire. op. 13, a collection of six songs, was assembled from songs composed between 1840 and 1843. Robert presumably chose the songs and negotiated for their publication in 1844. The collection is dedicated to Queen Caroline Amalie of Denmark with whom Clara became acquainted on her concert tour to Denmark in 1842. A reviewer described Clara Schumann’s op. 13 as ‘tender, gracious outpourings of a bounteous heart, quiet and unadorned, but conceived as warmly and sincerely as they are expressed: simply, clearly, unpretentiously’. À Chloris À Chloris is beyond doubt the summit of Reynaldo Hahn’s art as a pasticheur, and it ranks as perhaps the most successful example of musical time-travelling in the French mélodie repertoire. À Chloris has charm, elegance, gravity and the ability to move audiences—what more could one ask of a song, whether or not it is a pastiche? The fact that it is based on the striding bass line of Bach’s ‘Air on the G-string’ seems irrelevant: one smiles at the composer’s audacity at the beginning, but one stays to listen to the music, Hahn’s music, in its own right. It uses one of his favorite devices where the accompaniment is a piano piece with its own momentum; over this the voice embroiders an inspired overlay which seems half sung and half spoken, moving with conversational grace between whispered confidences and declarations of love in full voice. Quand je fus pris au pavillon Quand je fus pris au pavillon is to a poem by Charles, Duke of Orleans (1394–1464). Hahn, ever the stylistic chameleon, matches the ancient poem with a delightfully mock- L’église, ô Vierge sainte, The church, o blessed Virgin, archaic style.