Juilliard Organists Behind Every Juilliard Artist Is All of Juilliard —Including You
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Juilliard Organists Behind every Juilliard artist is all of Juilliard —including you. With hundreds of dance, drama, and music performances, Juilliard is a wonderful place. When you join one of our membership programs, you become a part of this singular and celebrated community. by Claudio Papapietro Photo of cellist Khari Joyner Become a member for as little as $250 Join with a gift starting at $1,250 and and receive exclusive benefits, including enjoy VIP privileges, including • Advance access to tickets through • All Association benefits Member Presales • Concierge ticket service by telephone • 50% discount on ticket purchases and email • Invitations to special • Invitations to behind-the-scenes events members-only gatherings • Access to master classes, performance previews, and rehearsal observations (212) 799-5000, ext. 303 [email protected] juilliard.edu The Juilliard School presents Juilliard Organists Students of Paul Jacobs Thursday, April 19, 2018, 7:30pm The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, played on the Great Organ CHARLES Victimae Paschali Laudes TOURNEMIRE Levente Medveczky (1870–1939) CAMILLE Fantasy in E-flat SAINT- SAËNS Yuejian Chen (1835–1921) CHEN ZHANGYI The Sixth Angel (b. 1984) Phoon Yu RACHEL LAURIN Prelude and Fugue in F Minor, Op. 45 (b. 1961) Daniel Ficarri MARCEL DUPRÉ Selections from Antiphons, Op. 18 (1886–1971) I Am Black but Comely, O Ye Daughters of Jerusalem How Fair and How Pleasant Art Thou Jeremiah Mead DAVID GOODE Concert Fantasy on Themes by Gershwin (b. 1971) Colin MacKnight (Program continues) Please make certain that all electronic devices are turned off during the performance. The taking of photographs and the use of recording equipment are not permitted in this auditorium. 1 JOHANN Passacaglia in C Minor, BWV 582 SEBASTIAN Alexander Pattavina BACH (1685–1750) FRANZ LISZT From Transcendental Etudes (1811–86) Feux Follets (arr. Ryan Kennedy) Sonata in B Minor (arr. Ryan Kennedy) Allegro energico-Più mosso Stretta quasi Presto-Presto-Prestissimo-Andante sostenuto- Allegro moderato-Lento assai Ryan Kennedy Performed without intermission Photos: architectural detail from the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, photo by Helena Kubicka de Bragança (cover); the Great Organ, photo by Kara Flannery (this page) 2 About This Program By David Crean According to tradition, the pipe organ was invented in the Egyptian city of Alexandria in the third century BCE. It quickly made its way to Europe, where it became a popular instrument for the Roman aristocracy. Later, it flourished in Arabia and the Byzantine Empire before being reintroduced to Western Europe in the eighth century. As European empires spread across the world, so too did the organ, becoming a fixture of American churches by the early 1800s. More recently, East Asia has experienced a surge of interest in the organ and its music, with substantial installations in China and Mongolia over the last decade. Tonight’s program showcases the international character of the contemporary organ world: music by the canonical European masters, works by living composers from Canada and Singapore, a sparkling arrangement of quintessential American music made by a Brit, and a new transcription of Liszt’s piano works by a young American. Victimae Paschali Laudes CHARLES TOURNEMIRE The art of improvisation, long considered a basic skill for all well trained Tonight’s musicians, has gradually diminished in importance for most Classical program instrumentalists over the last century. For organists, however, it remains showcases the an essential skill set, and its best practitioners are in high demand as international recitalists worldwide. France has had a particularly extensive and robust character of the tradition of brilliant improvisers, of which Charles Tournemire was a contemporary prominent member. A pupil of Franck (whom he revered and succeeded organ world. at Ste. Clotilde) and Widor (whom he grudgingly tolerated), Tournemire was enormously prolific. He produced several operas, eight symphonies, chamber music, and the titanic L’orgue mystique, a collection of 51 organ suites specifically written for each Sunday of the church year. But it was his peerless improvisational abilities that attracted the admiration of younger organists including Maurice Duruflé and Olivier Messiaen. It was Duruflé who painstakingly transcribed five of his teacher’s recorded improvisations, including this evening’s selection, based on the Easter hymn Victimae Paschali Laudes (“Christians to the Paschal Victim”). Both extemporaneous and logical, Tournemire’s work is based on short motives drawn from the chant melody, and often juxtaposes bold gestures and intricate passagework for dramatic effect. Fantasy in E-flat CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS Both Tournemire and his forebear Camille Saint-Saëns are often referred to as being part of the “French School” of organ literature, although this identification implies a certain stylistic and pedagogical consensus that was not actually present. It would be more accurate to speak of three interrelated but distinct traditions: the introspective, quasi-mystical style 3 About This Program (Continued) of Cesar Franck, with its kaleidoscopic harmonic language and emphasis on improvisation; the more academically oriented approach of Widor and Guilmant, based on complete technical mastery and appreciation of Bachian counterpoint; and the “classical” style of Saint-Saëns, grounded in formal logic and tasteful expressivity. Saint-Saëns was a true child prodigy who could perform all 32 of Beethoven’s piano sonatas by age 10, and was admitted to the Paris Conservatoire at age 13. He studied organ and composition, but found little to admire in contemporaneous French organ music characterized by shallow technical display and pandering special effects. Saint-Saëns’ own organ works, which began to appear in print in the early 1850s, were among the first to chart a new, more serious course soon followed by Franck, Widor, and their numerous artistic progeny. In contrast to the rhapsodic, freewheeling creations of his classmate (and sometime friend) Franck, Saint-Saëns excelled in the small forms he inherited from the 18th century, in particular the fantasy and prelude and fugue. The bipartite Fantasy in E-flat dates from 1857, and seems indebted to Mendelssohn’s then-recent sonatas in its clear forms, singing melodies, Chen Zhangyi's and subtle chromaticism. It departs from its models, though, in its idiomatic The Sixth Angel use of the organ. Saint-Saëns had few peers as an organist in the 1850s— is based on the Liszt regarded him as the finest organist in the world—and the fantasy account of the demands controlled manual technique and fluency in the pedals. The seven trumpets opening section of the work requires the performer to use all three manuals given in the book (keyboards) in quick succession, in a kind of rapid-fire echo texture. The of Revelation. second section is similarly chordal, with greater activity in the pedals. Both are in a clear binary form and seem to demonstrate Saint-Saëns’s assertion that “the artist that does not feel thoroughly satisfied with elegant lines, harmonious colors, or a fine series of chords, does not understand art.” The Sixth Angel CHEN ZHANGYI Chen Zhangyi is a Singaporean composer, conductor, and violinist who studied at the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University. His works have been performed by the Tokyo Philharmonic and London Symphony Orchestra, among others, and he is currently on the faculty of the National University of Singapore. The Sixth Angel is the second work of a planned seven by Chen Zhangyi based on the account of the seven trumpets given in the book of Revelation: The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the four horns of the golden altar that is before God. It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind. 4 According to the composer, “the increasing intensity of the build-up of notes, as well as the flurry of fingerwork passages all seem to depict the assembling of the armies and the hosts being unleashed with utter brutality upon the masses of mankind.” Phoon Yu, who plays the work this evening, commissioned it and gave its premiere in August 2017 at Victoria Concert Hall in Singapore Prelude and Fugue in F Minor, Op. 45 RACHEL LAURIN Canadian composer Rachel Laurin is an internationally acclaimed organist, particularly well known for her improvisational abilities. While she continues to perform and teach, Laurin is now widely known as a first-rate composer, especially of organ music. Based in Ottawa, she is the “house composer” of Wayne Leupold Editions and has won several composition competitions. Her works are often featured at conventions and have been recorded numerous times. It would be Laurin’s works are grounded in the tradition of the great French improviser- impossible to composers of the 20th century: highly virtuosic, freely, but not abrasively tell the story dissonant, rhetorical, and extremely idiomatic to the instrument. Her style of the pipe is eclectic, though, and colored by her experience as an elite performer and organ in the 20 intimate familiarity with a wide range of organ repertoire. The Prelude and century without Fugue in F Minor won her the 2008 Holtkamp-American Guild of Organists mentioning Composition competition, and was premiered at the 2008 national Marcel Dupré. convention in Minneapolis, Minn. The prelude begins with a flowing, lyrical melody that quickly transforms into something more sinister and unsettled. The opening mood abruptly returns and the whole drama plays out once more before a tranquil conclusion. The fugue utilizes a lengthy, slightly jagged subject whose repeated-note motive recalls the fugues of Buxtehude. A short section of toccata figuration concludes the work. Selections from Antiphons, Op.