VENERDÌ ORE 07.06.19 20:30 Aula Magna Entrata libera

Kasumi Higurashi violino

Recital per il conseguimento del Master of Arts in Music Performance

Leonardo Bartelloni pianoforte

Francesco Maria Veracini, Ludwig van Beethoven,

Classe di violino di Alessandro Moccia

Conservatorio della Svizzera italiana Scuola universitaria di Musica Via Soldino 9 CH-6900 Lugano

T +41 (0)91 960 23 62 [email protected] www.conservatorio.ch Kasumi Higurashi

Kasumi Higurashi, she began playing the violin at the age of 4 in Nara, Japan. She studied at the Kyoto city university of Arts with Chikako Nakajima. After she graduated from the university, she came to France to study with Jean-Pierre Wallez and Aki Saulière in La Schola Cantorum de . She obtained the diploma of advanced level curriculum with an excellent result by a unanimous vote in 2015. From 2008, she frequently participated in the academy at La Loingtaine, managed by Mori Yuko and Aki Saulière as music directors. She studied the chamber music with Yuko Mori, Aki Saulière, Raphael Bell, David Quiggle and Joseph Carver. The music with historical instruments has inspired her, since she participated in The jeune orchestra de l’abbaye (JOA – the abbey’s youth orchestra) in Saintes in 2014. In 2017, she left from France to study with Alessandro Moccia at the Royal Conservatory of Gent, Belgium and then at the Conservatorio della Svizzera italiana, from which she is about to complete her Master of Arts in Music Performance. She joined the project “Beethoven éroïque” with Insula orchestra. She has been a member of the academy of Les musiciens du Louvre with Marc Mincowski since 2018.

Francesco Maria Veracini Sonata in Mi minore op. 2 n°8 1690 – 1768 per violino e continuo I. Allegro Moderamente II. Ritornello III. Gigue

Ludwig van Beethoven Sonata n°4 in La minore op. 23 1770 – 1827 per pianoforte e violino I. Presto II. Andante scherzoso, più Allegretto III. Allegro molto

Francis Poulenc Sonata FP 119 1899 – 1963 per violino e pianoforte I. Allegro con fuoco II. Intermezzo: très lent et calme III. Presto tragico

Leonardo Bartelloni pianoforte Classe di violino di Alessandro Moccia

Veracini: Sonata Accademiche no.8 op.2

Francesco Maria Veracini (1690-1768) was born into the musician’s family in Florence. From an early age, he was introduced to music by his uncle who was composer and violinist, and learned counterpoint with Casini, organist and composer of Florence. Especially as a violinist, Veracini had an amazing talent, and Casini has written with exclamation about Veracini. The famous violinist Tartini (1692-1770),known by his work “Devil's Trill”, was also surprised and beaten by a novel violin technique when he watched Veracini’s performance during Tartini’s trip, and It is said that he was frantic and closed alone to practice like crazy. As many Italian musicians did at that time, Veracini was also a frequent performer in London. The first stay was in 1714, the second time was in 1733- 1738, and the last time was in 1741-1745. During his first stay, he had only concerts as a violinist. However during the other two long stays, he was involved not only in the concert as a violinist but also in 4 opera performances as a composer. The Veracini's violin performance seems to have been very popular in London, and he performed very frequently in such a charity concert, a small private concert, and also a concerto performance between opera acts. During his last stay in London, he has published 12 Sonate Accademiche op.2 in 1744. This 8th sonata in E minor, is composed of three movements form:ⅠAllegro Moderamente,ⅡRitornello,Ⅲgigue. The sonata is not only dramatic but also noble at the same time.

Beethoven: Sonata for violin and piano no.4 op.23

Originally the 4th violin sonata and the 5th sonata composed by Beethoven (1770-1827) were named op.23-1 and op.23-2. Both pieces were published in 1801 and dedicated to Sir Moritz von Fries, one of Vienna's most famous music lovers at that time, and Beethoven's patron. It is about the same time when the Piano Sonata No.14 “Moonlight" (op. 27-2) was composed. In those days his ears were getting worse and worse, and the famous Heiligenstadt Testament was written on 6 October 1802. In the 4th violin sonata in A minor, Beethoven's character appears more in comparison with his earlier works. It was the first violin sonata composed in minor key in his life, and it escapes from the influence of Mozart and Haydn. Beethoven gets used to the technical things of the violin, and through the progress of the composition technique for a development, a broader emotion expression has become possible to him. This sonata is a work that seems to be at a starting point, for creating his own music completely separate from the imitation of others. The sonata composed of the three movements: the first movement which has a novel beginning, the second which has a humorous development, and the third which has the tragic tone contrast. It is the work that allows us to feel Beethoven's depressed and unstable mental state at that time. Poulenc: Sonata for violon and piano

Garcia Francis Poulenc (1899-1963), known as one of Les Six, was born into a wealthy family in Paris. In 1917, he admired the premiere of "Parade" (script: poet Jean Cocteau, music: Eric Sati, art: Pablo Picasso) performed by Ballets Russes at Théâtre de Châtelet, Paris. He wanted to study composition in earnest, but his idea was objected to by his father who was industrialist , the founder of a pharmaceutical company. After He served for three years in the army without entering the Paris Conservatory, he studied with Charles Koechlin, a pupil of Gabriel Fauré and Jules Massenet, by the advice of Darius Milhaud.

Poulenc prefers the sound of wind instruments to string instruments, even for chamber music, so there are more works for wind instruments. Accordingly the remaining Poulenc’s violin pieces are the only two, Bagatelle for violin and piano and this violin sonata. Poulenc attempted to compose sonatas for violin and piano at least four times before writing this sonata, but none was completed. The sole sonata for violin and piano was composed between 1942-1943 thanks to a request of French genius violinist Ginette Neveu (she closed her life at the age of 30 with a plane crash) for the memory of Federico Garcia Lorca, killed by fascists during the Spanish civil war in 1936. The premiere was performed at , Paris on 21 June 1943, in the middle of the second world war, with Poulenc’s piano playing and Ginette Neveu’s violin playing. There are many notes in this sonata that express emotions directly such as "violently", which are rare for Poulenc’s works. There are expressions that are rem/iniscence of the army in detache of violin part in the first movement, Allegro con Fuoco, and the bullet which killed Lorca in the end of the third movement, Presto Tragico. At the head of the second movement, Intermezzo, Poulenc put a quotation from Lorca's poem, "Guitar makes tears of dreams (La guitar fait pleurer les songes)". It is impressive that the pizzicato and arpeggio of the violin part recalls the sound and Spanish music of the guitar. Poulenc was not satisfied with this sonata, and the third movement have been revised in 1949. For Poulenc, who quoted from the poems of Lorca, an artist who was killed as a synonym for the victims of the Spanish civil war, and wrote this violin sonata in the wartime when Paris was occupied by the Nazis , a resistance was not to the war or the politics, but to regain a freedom. There would have been the wrath, resentment and the sorrow of Poulenc that innocent people were driven to death.