Nicolas Hodges, Piano Ferruccio Busoni (1866–1924) Giga, Bolero E Variazione, Study After Mozart, from an Die Jugend, Book III (1909)
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CAL PERFORMANCES PRESENTS PROGRAM Sunday, January 27, 2013, 3pm Hertz Hall Nicolas Hodges, piano Ferruccio Busoni (1866–1924) Giga, Bolero e Variazione, Study after Mozart, from An die Jugend, Book III (1909) PROGRAM Harrison Birtwistle (b. 1934) Gigue Machine (2011) West Coast premiere Gigue Machine was co-commissioned by Cal Performances and Carnegie Hall. Claude Debussy (1862–1918) Études, Book I (1915) Pour les “cinq doigts,” d’après Monsieur Czerny Pour les tierces Debussy Études, Book II (1915) Pour les quartes Pour les sixtes Pour les degrés chromatiques Pour les octaves Pour les agréments Pour les huit doigts Pour les notes répétées Pour les sonorités opposées Pour les arpèges composés Pour les accords Elliott Carter (1908–2012) Two Thoughts About the Piano Intermittences (2005) Caténaires (2006) Funded by the Koret Foundation, this performance is part of Cal Performances’ 2012–2013 Koret Recital Series, which brings world-class artists to our community. INTERMISSION Cal Performances’ 2012–2013 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo. 34 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 35 PROGRAM NOTES PROGRAM NOTES Claude Debussy (1862–1918) Salle Gaveau in Paris with the soprano Ninon piano inspired by Chopin’s contributions to the movement begins sedately, but it is quickly and Études, Books I and II Vallin, and that event seems to have kindled a genre. He attached considerable importance to permanently deflected from its drudging diaton- spark that brightened his mood during the fol- his Études, keeping Durand informed of their icism by a quirky dissonance brazenly escaped Composed in 1915. lowing months. He was seized once again with progress and describing the music in some de- from the original key. The next movement (For the urge to compose, and temporarily put aside tail to his publisher. He loaded the pieces with Thirds) presents sonorous ribbons of consonant When the Guns of August thundered across the Chopin material. “The Muse, which you immense challenges of execution and musician- intervals that are abruptly halted by a surpris- the European Continent in 1914 to plunge the kindly believe to be inspiring me at the moment, ship, and then pointed out, with gleeful sar- ingly passionate closing statement. For Fourths, world into “the war to end all wars,” Claude has taught me to put little faith in her constancy, casm, that they would “treat pianists to their just with its streams of parallel open intervals, ex- Debussy was already showing signs of the colon and I would rather hold her fast than run after deserts...[and] frighten the fingers.... Apart from udes an aura of antiquity tinged with mysticism. cancer that was to take his life four years later. her,” he explained to Durand about the delay. the question of technique, these Études will be Concerning For Sixths, Debussy wrote to his Apprehensive about his health and tormented With the Germans posing a constant threat to a useful warning to pianists not to take up the publisher, “For a very long time, the continuous by the military conflict, his creative produc- descend on Paris, he eagerly accepted the offer musical profession unless they have remarkable use of sixths gave me the feeling of pretentious tion came to a virtual halt. “I should not like to spend the summer at a friend’s sea-side chalet hands.... You break your left hand in them, in demoisselles seated in a salon sulkily embroider- that work to be played before the fate of France in Pourville, near Dieppe. “I have a few ideas at gymnastics almost Swedish. They all conceal a ing, envying the scandalous laughter of mad has been decided, for she can neither laugh nor the moment,” he wrote in June from Pourville, rigorous technique beneath flowers of harmony ninths...yet I am writing this study where the at- weep while so many of our men are heroically “and, although they are not worth making a where flies are not caught with vinegar!” The tention to the sixth organizes the harmonies only facing death,” he told his publisher, Durand, fuss about, I should like to cultivate them.” composer, himself an excellent pianist, admit- with aggregates of these intervals, and it’s not concerning the projected London performance Temporarily freed from the Chopin project and ted that playing them caused him to catch his ugly! (Mea culpa...).” Oscar Thompson called the of a new ballet set to his music. Except for a the terror of the war that summer, he completed breath, “as after climbing a mountain.” He exac- next movement, For Octaves, a “valse caprice.” Berceuse Héroïque for piano composed “as a his first compositions in over 18 months—the erbated their difficulty by publishing the Études The closingÉtude of Book I (For Eight Fingers), tribute of homage to His Majesty King Albert Épigraphs antiques for piano, four hands, and En with absolutely no suggestions for fingering. “It written throughout in patterns of four notes, is I of Belgium and his soldiers,” Debussy wrote blanc et noir for two pianos. is obvious that the same fingering cannot suit meant to be played without the thumb. “It is up no new music in 1914. At the end of the year, Though illness had already begun to sap differently shaped hands,” he rationalized in the to the conscience of the performer whether or he undertook the preparation of a new edition his strength by the summer of 1915, Debussy’s introduction to the score. “‘If you want a thing not he will actually do so,” chided Jacobs. of Chopin’s works to help compensate Durand mind was filled plans for other works, the most done well, do it yourself.’ Let us then choose our The second book of Études is concerned for the regular advances he had been sending. ambitious of which was a projected set of six own fingering.” The Études remain among the with various idiomatic keyboard figurations. Debussy’s attitude toward the Chopin project sonatas for various instrumental combinations most daunting technical and artistic challenges Slithering scales are rife in For Chromatic was ambivalent. On the one hand, his admira- inspired by the old Baroque school of French in the entire piano literature, “truly music that Degrees. Of For Ornaments, the last Étude to tion for the great Polish expatriate was immense, clavecinists. (It is indicative of the artistic tem- soars to the summit of execution,” according to be completed and the longest and most com- and he noted in the introduction he eventually per of those troubled and uncertain years that the composer. plex of the set, Debussy said, “It borrows the wrote for the publication about the importance Ravel also sought to preserve the spirit of 18th- The twelve Études, Debussy’s last works for form of a barcarolle on a somewhat Italian sea.” of Chopin’s achievement, not only as a historical century France in his Le Tombeau de Couperin, piano, are divided into two books of six num- For Repeated Notes is flashing and mercurial. phenomenon and as part of the pianist’s reper- conceived in 1914. Before deciding to dedicate bers each: the first set broaches traditional Moods as well as tone colors are contrasted in tory but also as a continuing influence on con- his Études exclusively to Chopin, Debussy con- problems of technique; the second, matters of For Opposed Sonorities. Guido Gatti discovered temporary music. On the other hand, the con- sidered a joint dedication to that composer and musical figurations. Though grown from the in this music “alternations of light and shade, flicting editions and manuscript sources for the Couperin.) The first of the Sonatas, for cello and dusty but indispensable realm of piano peda- the contrast between lofty, irradiant peaks and compositions promised to tax mightily his skill, piano, was completed quickly during July and gogy, these movements soar far beyond pieces deep, shadowed abysses, opposites of sonority patience, and judgment. “The Chopin manu- August; another for flute, viola (originally oboe), merely for the practice of keyboard mechan- heard in the most profound silence. And only scripts simply terrify me,” he wrote to Durand and harp was written before the end of the year. ics in their expressive and compositional con- the chime of a bell in the distance brings an echo in February 1915. “How can three manuscripts, Surgery in December prevented him from com- tent—Paul Jacobs, one of the finest exponents of human life into the solitary mountain re- which are obviously not in Chopin’s hand, all pleting the Violin Sonata, his last important of Debussy’s piano music, called them the com- gions.” The Études close with a sweet essay titled be correct? You may be quite sure that only work, until 1917. A sonata for oboe, horn, and poser’s “most finished, perfect and yet adven- For Composite Arpeggios and the rhythmically one is...and that is where the trouble begins....” harpsichord never went beyond the planning turous [piano] pieces.” The first Étude (For Five ambiguous For Chords. Coming as they do near Drained of creative energy during that time, stage; the remainder of the projected set did not Fingers), marked sagement (“well-behaved”), is the end of Debussy’s life, Edward Lockspeiser however, he resigned himself to the assignment. get that far. inscribed to Monsieur Carl Czerny (1791–1857), noted that the Études are “perhaps the greatest of The death of his mother in March 1915 further Simultaneously with the creation of the whose School of Finger Dexterity (Op. 740!) is his piano works...representing a summary of the deepened his depression. In that same month, Cello Sonata in August and September, Debussy known to every serious student of the piano.