Sunday, May 27, 2017 • 3:00 p.m
Daniel Meyers
Graduate Recital
DePaul Concert Hall 800 West Belden Avenue • Chicago
Saturday, May 27, 2017 •3:00 p.m. DePaul Concert Hall
Daniel Meyers, double bass Graduate Recital Jonathan Hannau, Piano
PROGRAM
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007 (1720) Prelude Allemande Courante Sarabande Menuettes Gigue
Serge Koussevitzky (1874-1951) Concerto for Double Bass, Op. 3 (1905) Allegro Andante Allegro
Jonathan Hannau, piano
Intermission
Ernest Bloch (1880-1959); trans. Stuart Sankey Méditation Hébraïque (1924)
Jonathan Hannau, piano
Daniel Meyers • May 27, 2017 Program
Sofia Gubaidulina (1931) Sonata (for Double Bass and Piano) (1975)
Jonathan Hannau, piano
Giovanni Bottesini (1821-1889) Capriccio di Bravura
Jonathan Hannau, piano
Daniel Meyers is from the studio of Robert Kassinger. This recital is presented in partial fulfillment of the degree Master of Music. in Performance.
As a courtesy to those around you, please silence all cell phones and other electronic devices. Flash photography is not permitted. Thank you.
Daniel Meyers • May 27, 2017
PROGRAM NOTES
Johann Sebastien Bach (1685-1750) Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007 (1720) Duration: 18 minutes
Johann Sebastien Bach’s cello suites are some of his best known compositions and may be some of the most easily recognized pieces of classical music. Though they can be heard everywhere today, the suites were rarely performed until Pablo Casals brought them into fashion through his performances and recordings. Before Casals, the suites largely served as etudes in single voice counterpoint for the cello. Casals revealed their expressive potential, and they have been performed by countless cellists and transcribed for a wide variety of instruments since.
The history of the suites has replayed itself on the double bass. They have become a staple of the double bass repertoire due to both their educational value and their expressive potential. Each suite is comprised of a prelude and five dance movements. The Prelude (often heard on television) is cheery with running sixteenth notes and a slow harmonic rhythm that provides a buoyancy to the constant motion. Dissonant harmonies are gracefully approached and quickly resolved, easily creating and releasing tension without changing the character of the movement. Slightly slower, the Allemande is more reflective but still quite content in the first half. The second half of the movement begins to roam more, visiting several keys closely related to the home key, but it never strays far and easily returns to sunny G major. The third movement Courante is the first to feel strongly of a dance, and it pushes the calm joyfulness of the Prelude toward ebullience. The Sarabande is the slowest movement of the suite and is very meditative. The last two movements, the Menuets and Gigue, return to a very lively dance-like spirit. The first Menuet is very bright while the second is much more somber. It is the only movement in a minor key, and it may be the point at which the turmoils of life are considered amidst the joys. The somber mood does not last, however, as the first Menuet returns and restores the sunny mood, and the Gigue ends the suite with a lively dance
Daniel Meyers • May 27, 2017 Program Notes
Serge Koussevitzky (1874-1951) Concerto for Double Bass, Op. 3 (1905) Duration: 16 minutes Most remember Serge Koussevitzky as the long-time conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Before his time in the United States and his long tenure with the BSO, however, he made his living primarily as a solo double bassist performing across Europe. He was one of the great virtuosos and composers for the instrument, and many of his compositions have become standard repertoire for the bass.
Koussevitzky’s Concerto for Double Bass is one of his best known and most popular compositions. The first movement begins with two quasi-militaristic, march-like statements in the orchestra alternating with two agonized, cadenza-like statements from the solo bass. Then the bass begins to a sing a very lyrical melody with an air of determination. The melody is developed, building tension to the peak of the movement. Following the climax, the mood relaxes, and the bass plays a sunnier melody in a major key. The movement ends with a flourish of activity and a dramatic return to the minor key. The second movement of the concerto is a beautiful romantic song with a quiet character, reminiscent of the melody heard in the first movement. It provides a nice respite before the third movement, essentially a reprise of the first. It begins as a verbatim quote of the first movement. Then, the themes and motives of the first and second movements are combined and redeveloped. This concerto effectively elicits emotions of longing, determination, and hope, and through the recombination and development of material, a complex experience is created.
Ernest Bloch (1880-1959) Méditation Hébraïque (1924) Duration: 6 minutes Born in Switzerland, Ernest Bloch absorbed fin-de-siècle styles from across Western Europe as a young man before immigrating to the United States in 1916. In New York, Bloch began his music career in earnest. He found personal compositional fulfillment drawing from his Jewish heritage. Many of his works are explicitly Jewish, drawing directly from Jewish subjects (psalm settings, a programmatic symphony titled Israel, and a sacred service). Others, while not composed on Jewish subjects, are still influenced by Hebrew musical gestures and styles.
Daniel Meyers • May 27, 2017 Program Notes
Bloch wrote many Jewish works for accompanied cello, perhaps using the lyrical tenor voice of the cello as a stand-in for a cantor. Méditation Hébraïque was originally written for Pablo Casals. It is a very expressive and mournful sounding piece with augmented seconds (a very dissonant interval) and bent pitches (similar to Blues styles) creating the distinctly Jewish character. The long phrases, dynamic swells, and chromaticism create a very emotional and cathartic experience.
Sofia Gubaidulina (1931-) Sonata (for Double Bass and Piano) (1975) Duration: 12 minutes Sofia Gubaidulina has become one of the most lauded composers of the twentieth century, and she is one of few women to receive wide recognition for her work. She believes the primary purpose of music is spiritual renewal, and she uses a wide variety of techniques in service of that goal. In the Sonata, rhythm frequently obscures the sense of pulse, and silences are as important as sounds. Techniques such as playing with the stick of the bow, playing over the bridge, sliding the finger up or down the string while a note is sounding, and others are very precisely instructed and carefully controlled. Even the piano uses non-traditional techniques, at times working in concert with the bass and at others opposing it. Each sound has a unique effect on the listener, and what begin as small ideas unfold and are stretched, building excitement and anticipation.
Giovanni Bottesini (1821-1889) Capriccio di Bravura (unknown) Duration: 10 minutes Alongside Serge Koussevitzky, Giovanni Bottesini is one of the most famous double bassists in history and one of the most influential contributors to the instrument. Like his later counterpart, Bottesini had a very rich career as a conductor and composer in addition to his career as a bassist. Italian to the core, Bottesini’s passion lay with opera, and his career was deeply involved with and heavily influenced by contemporary Italian opera. After meeting Giuseppe Verdi at the age of twenty, Bottesini conducted many of the older composer’s operas, including the premiere of Aida in Cairo, and he composed twelve of his own. For his own instrument, he composed at least sixteen pieces based on Italian Romantic operas, and all of his compositions display operatic influence.
The Capriccio di Bravura is very operatic in style. The melodies, with many scalar and arpeggiated passages, could come from the virtuosic vocal passages written by Bellini or Donizetti. The form of the one-movement piece is very similar to the
Daniel Meyers • May 27, 2017 Program Notes conventional forms of arias in bel canto opera. The capriccio begins with a musing introduction in a moderate tempo. It then launches into a swift Allegro con fuoco in a lilting meter. It’s a short, fiery section that gives way to to a more lyrical passage (though still very lively and energetic). After a triumphant cadence, the bass relaxes and plays a charming, short song. This, too, is brief, and the movement jumps back into the quick tempo. Previous material reappears, and the energy builds all the way to the end. One can imagine the bass on stage, an operatic star as the curtain comes down.
Notes by Daniel Meyers.
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