Senior Recit al Aziel Verner - Violin Ge Xiaozhe - Piano

Yong Siew Toh Conser vat or y of Music Concer t Hal l 27t h Apr il 2pm

Car m en Fantasy by Pablo de Sar asate Leo? Janá?ek Violin Sonata I nterm ission Car m en Fantasie by Jenö H ubay Car m en Fantasie by Fr anz W axm an 27 April | SATURDAY

Aziel Verner Violin Recital

Ge Xiaozhe, ​piano

PABLO DE SARASATE Carmen Fantasy​ Op. 25

LEOŠ JANÁČEK Violin Sonata

I.​ Com​ moto II.​ Ballada​ III.​ Allegretto​ IV. Adagio

INTERMISSION (5 minutes)

JENÖ HUBAY Carmen Fantasie Brillante ​Op. 3

FRANZ WAXMAN Carmen Fantasie

About The Performer

Aziel Verner began his musical studies in Wellington, New Zealand. He is currently in his 4th year studying under Prof Qian Zhou at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music in Singapore. Aziel has been a prize winner at numerous competitions, recently winning prizes at the Gisborne International Music Competition, Chengdu Guangya International Violin Competition and the YSTCM Concerto Competition. In 2018, he performed a concert with virtuosos violinist Aleksey Igudesman and pianist Hyung-Ki Joo and as guest 1st violin with the Juilliard String Quartet. Verner has been a member of the YSTCM Orchestra as concertmaster, NZSO National Youth Orchestra, Wellington Youth Orchestra, and concertmaster for the North Sydney Youth Symphony. Aziel previously attended the Singapore Violin Festival and The Keshet Eilon Summer Mastercourse, studying with world renown teachers such as Shlomo Mintz, Victor Danchenko, Takashi Shimizu, Boris Kuschnir, Shmuel Ashkenasi, and Midori Goto. Aziel plays on a 1778 JB Guadagnini generously loaned by The Rin Collection.

Programme Notes

Pablo De Sarasate, ​Carmen Fantasy​ Op. 25

Sarasate dedicated Carmen Fantasy to Joseph Hellmesberger, a distinguished violinist. This fantasy consists of four movements with a prelude which is taken from the Entr’acte "Aragonaise" between Acts III and IV. The solo violin demonstrates various skills such as tremolo, trills, grace notes, harmonics in the melody ending with calm pizzicato.

The first movement presents the famous Habanera sung by Carmen in Act I "L'amour est un oiseau rebelle" where Sarasate exquisitely adds grace notes to the chromatic tune. The second movement is in a slow tender manner. The violin softly performs the melody from the scene of Carmen, Don José and Zuniga, “Mon officier c’était une querelle” in Act I and ends lightly with a series of harmonics. The Séguidille from Act I appears in the third movement. The piano plays the melody lightly before the violin repeats it also adding difficult techniques to the melody. Sarasate connects the link between the third movement and the Chanson Bohème from Act II with the piano starting off the dance for the fourth movement. After the the main melody, the virtuosity takes over which challenges the violinist. The piece concludes in a bright and intensive tremolo.

Leoš Janáček: Violin Sonata

LeoŠ Janáček, born in 1854 at Czech, has been recognized as one of the great composers of the early twentieth century.

Written in 1914, no violinist took interest in performing it. After a complete revision, the violin sonata was eventually premiered in 1922 when Janáček was 68. This sonata offers a impression of the rich achievement of his remarkable final fourteen years. Janáček generates a shimmering, rippling sound in the accompaniment. However, the violin has jagged melodic lines, some are sustained but some are very brief. In fact, these harsh interjections are one of the most distinctive aspects of this sonata, in spite of the reversal to what the audience expect. Janáček also shows here his tenderness for unusual key signatures: the four movements are in D-flat minor, E major, E-flat minor, and G-sharp minor.

The opening movement, marked Con moto. Starts with a jagged recitative for violin, which immediately plays the movement’s main theme over a sonorous piano accompaniment. The second movement Balada is the only movement which he kept from the original sonata. The sustained lyricism in the violin sails above the shimmering piano which is the main character for this movement. At the climax, Janáček marks both parts ad lib, (in the Latin mearns “at one’s pleasure.”) giving the performers the freedom in tempo. The music fades away as the violin getting up on the E string.

As a nationalism composer, Janáček used the folksong-like, short, and repeated phrases for the third movement. The violin part supports the dancing piano with the brist whirls. The opening material and a cadenza appears after the trio section. Surprisingly, the violin sonata ends with a slow movement which is also the most impressive movement. The fourth movement contains the elements of the dumka, the rapid alternation of bright and dark music. The quiet chordal melody in the piano is broken by the roughly interjection by the violin. The second theme provides the audience a glance of quiet beauty. The matter ends ambiguously on the violin’s fierce disturbance(interjection).

Jenő Hubay , ​Carmen Fantaisie Brillante​, Op. 3

The Carmen Fantaisie Brillante, Op. 3 by Jenő Hubay was written in 1877. Unlike Sarasate’s Carmen Fantasy, Hubay’s Fantaisie is “a relatively unknown work which includes a greater amount of thematic material from the opera by Bizet than Sarasate’s,” intended to be a bright, virtuosic showpiece.

Borrowing the famous melodies from the opera Carmen: the theme of Carmen’s fate, Michaela’s aria from Act III, the famous Habanera and the Toreador Song and March — Hubay combines those sparkles into fireworks! Multiple stops, daring leaps, dramatic slides, and frenzied bowing forcefully captures the spirit and the emotions of the music. Nonetheless, Hubay does not neglect the piano part. The piano part is virtuosic and supports the solo violin. Lyricism hands back and forth between the violin and the piano in a delicate balance of technical prowess and emotional effectiveness customarily adds the distinctive Hungarian flavor.

Franz Waxman,​ ​Carmen Fantaisie

Franz Waxman, a composer best remembered for his 144 Hollywood film scores (Rebecca, The Philadelphia Story, Sunset Boulevard, Rear Window, Peyton Place, etc.). Franz Waxman composed his Carmen Fantasie for the film Humoresque (Warner Brothers, 1947). It was played by John Garfield with Isaac Stern’s recording on the soundtrack.

Between August 13 and October 18, 1946, Waxman modified the score due to the request from Heifetz for an upcoming performance on a rather prominent radio station called The Bell Telephone Hour. After a successful premiere on September 9, 1946, Heifetz championed the work, performing it around the world during his tours. This virtuoso showpiece remains as one of Waxman’s most loved concert work, immanent with irresistible melodies and animated by stunning technical demands.