Benjamin Grosvenor, Piano

November 9, 2017 at 8:00pm Pre-concert talk by Ruth Ochs at 7:00pm Richardson Auditorium in Alexander Hall BENJAMIN GROSVENOR, PIANO JOHANN French Suite No. 5 in G Major, BWV 816 SEBASTIAN Allemande BACH Courante (1685-1750) Sarabande Gavotte Bourrée Loure Gigue JOHANNES Four Pieces, Op. 119 BRAHMS Hommage à Brahms (1833-1897) Intermezzo in B Minor (Brahms) interspersed with Angels’ Wings 1 (Dean) BRETT DEAN Intermezzo in E Minor (Brahms) (b. 1961) Harbor Bar Music (Dean) Intermezzo in C Major (Brahms) Angels’ Wings 2 (Dean) Rhapsodie in E-flat Major (Brahms) INTERMISSION CLAUDE DEBUSSY Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (1862-1918) (arr. Leonard Borwick/George Copeland) ALBAN BERG Piano Sonata, Op. 1 (1885-1935) MAURICE RAVEL Gaspard de la nuit (1875-1937) Ondine. Lent Le Gibet. Très lent Scarbo. Modéré ABOUT THE PROGRAM By Peter Laki ©2017 French Suite No. 5 in G Major, BWV 816 works. During the six years he spent at JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH the Cöthen court, Bach concentrated on (1685-1750) the instrumental genres and produced, among others, the six “English” and the The suite—a set of dance movements six “French” suites. (The main difference organized into multi-movement instrumental between the two sets is that the English cycles—was a central musical genre in suites contain opening preludes while England, Germany, and France during the the French suites do not. Incidentally, Baroque era. As time went on, the order neither name comes from Bach himself.) of the movements in these suites was standardized, and the dances themselves Each movement type in the suites has its “stylized,” that is, increasingly thought of precise character, defined by tempo and as standing on their own as autonomous predominant rhythmic figures. Within works and not necessarily intended to those limits, however, each Allemande, be danced to. Courante, Sarabande and Gigue also has its own distinctive features that Suites played an important part in mark them as individuals. Those four J. S. Bach’s output; he wrote about forty-five movements constitute the backbone of of them, mostly for keyboard but some also all suites as they are invariably present in for orchestra, as well as unaccompanied each one. In addition, suites also contain violin and cello. (Some of these works were some optional movements, known as actually called “partitas.”) In a sense, all “Galanterien” as they are often lighter in of Bach’s suites are “French,” since they tone and, in certain ways, anticipate the are all based on the same types of French “galant” style of Bach’s sons’ generation. court dances (with only a few Italianate movements among them). Like all the French suites, No. 5 begins with an Allemande in which the dance character As a young man, Bach became familiar is much attenuated, with the emphasis on with the keyboard suites of many French a continuous motion in sixteenth-notes. composers from the late 17th century The same kind of motion is typical of the and immediately began writing similar Courante as well, but now the tempo is 2 | Princeton University Concerts ABOUT THE PROGRAM faster and the 3/4 meter conveys a stronger Schumann. Most of the twenty short dance feel. The Sarabande is a slow pieces published as Opp. 116-119 are lyrical movement in 3/4 meter, made eminently and introspective in character. Many of danceable by the symmetrical structure them are called “intermezzi” not because of the musical phrases. The Gavotte they come between two larger works (as and the Bourrée, two “Galanterien,” are the original meaning of the word would both fairly straightforward fast dances suggest) but because the name connotes in duple meter, but the next movement, something light, transient, and indefinite. the Loure, is again slow, and introduces Brett Dean is an Australian composer and contrapuntal imitation for the first time in violist who served as principal violist in the suite. The Loure is, in essence, a slow the Berlin Philharmonic before devoting form of the gigue, and is here followed himself full-time to composition. He by a fast gigue which, in fact, is the last won one of the most prestigious awards movement of every Baroque suite. The available to composers, the Grawemeyer present Gigue takes the form of a full- Award, in 2009 for his violin concerto The fledged fugue in three parts, or rather Lost Art of Letter Writing. two fugues, because the second half of the piece is really a new fugue where the In 2013, Dean composed three short piano theme of the first fugue is inverted (that pieces in homage to Brahms, intended to is, turned upside down, with ascending be interspersed with the Op. 119 piano intervals becoming descending ones and pieces, and it is this composite suite vice versa). Contrapuntal writing, then, that we are going to hear tonight. The gradually takes over the entire suite. pieces were jointly commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association; Symphony Center Presents, Chicago; Cal Four Pieces, Op. 119 Performances, University of California, JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897) Berkeley; and Carnegie Hall, New York Hommage à Brahms City. The first performance was given by BRETT DEAN (b. 1961) Emanuel Ax in Chicago, on February 21, 2014. In his late piano music, Brahms comes across as a composer withdrawn from In composing intermezzi intended to be the world and playing to himself or a played in between the intermezzi, Dean few of his closest friends such as Clara took his cue from certain characteristic princetonuniversityconcerts.org | 3 ABOUT THE PROGRAM accompaniment figures in Brahms’ works of Brahms’ writing and adds his own but, more importantly, he matched Brahms’ remarkable sense of atmosphere to create autumnal mood by writing soft, lyrical three stunning movements.” music that seems to flow naturally from the sources of inspiration. The first and the third of the Dean intermezzi are called Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune Engelsflügel (“Angel’s Wings”) I-II; these CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862-1918) are lyrical dreams that seem to be logical arranged for piano by extensions of Brahms’s musical ideas. Leonard Borwick & George Copeland Dean further developed this material in a wind ensemble piece, written the same It is, to a large extent, its luxuriant year, also under the title Engelsflügel. The orchestration, with its sensuous flute second added movement, which occupies and oboe solos, that makes Debussy’s the central position in the composite Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune a Brahms/Dean, is agitated and virtuosic: landmark work of musical impressionism. this Hafenkneipenmusik (“Harbor Bar Yet Debussy was a pianist himself, and Music”) alludes to the rumor that the knew how to evoke poetic images on the young Brahms may have played the piano keyboard just as well as he did through in such seedy establishments to support the manifold colors of the orchestra. His himself. Pianist Orli Shaham, who has piano works have shown arrangers how to recorded the complete Brahms/Dean capture the exquisite dreamworld of the cycle for Canary Classics, has written: Faun even without resorting to the flute “Dean takes the beauty and character as a stand-in for the ancient panpipe. FOR ALL PRINCETON UNIVERSITY STUDENTS...a contest ANNOUNCING designed to capture the impact of classical music, as perceived by THE Princeton University students. The source of inspiration? Our concerts! 2017-2018 Sign up to participate and receive a free ticket to one of 10 events this season. And it’s not too late to sign up to write about tonight’s concert! WIN $500 FOR YOUR CREATIVE RESPONSE! For more information and to sign up, visit: princetonuniversityconcerts.org/forstudents 4 | Princeton University Concerts ABOUT THE PROGRAM Debussy based his short symphonic poem unpredictable, reflecting the unconstrained on an eclogue by Stéphane Mallarmé nature of the faun’s meditations. The two (1842-1898), one of the greatest innovators pianist-arrangers, the British Leonard in the history of French poetry. Mallarmé’s Borwick (1868-1925) and the American works, which abound in complex symbols George Copeland (1882-1971), were younger and images, sought to represent states of contemporaries of Debussy, and had a mind rather than ideas, express moods natural feeling for the music, which they rather than tell stories. The French poet made their audiences hear in a way they tried to capture that elusive line between had never heard it before. dream and awakening that most of us who are not poets are well aware of but are unable to put into words. Piano Sonata, Op. 1 ALBAN BERG (1885-1935) The first-person narrator in the eclogue (the word evokes associations with the As graduation pieces go, Alban Berg’s Piano pastoral poetry of the great Latin poet Sonata and Anton Webern’s Passacaglia Virgil) is a faun, a mythological creature for orchestra, both written in 1908, are who is half man and half goat. The faun in a class all by themselves. Both young lives in the woods, near a river surrounded men had just completed a course of by reedy marshes; he is daydreaming study with Arnold Schoenberg, who was about nymphs who may be real or mere probably the most exciting composition figments of his imagination. The faun’s teacher active anywhere at the time. The desire is filtered through the vagueness three composers, soon to be known as of its object as he recalls past dreams, the “Second Viennese School,” pushed which emerge from the shadows only to post-Wagnerian harmony to its limits recede into the darkness again. and, by the early 1910s, reached a point where traditional major-minor tonality In his music, Debussy admirably captured was replaced by “free atonality,” where the that delicious vagueness of contours relationships of the tones were determined which is so important in the poem.

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