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Home , Mazurka, Mazurkas (Chopin), Nadezhda von Meck, Olli Mustonen, The Poem of Ecstasy

Sunday, February 15, 2015, 3pm Hertz Hall

Olli Mustonen,

PROGRAM

Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) Album for the Young, Op. 39 (1878) 1. Morning Prayer 2. Winter Morning 3. Mummy 4. Hobbyhorse 5. The Wooden Soldier’s March 6. The New Doll 7. The Doll’s Illness 8. The Doll’s Funeral 9. 10. 11. 12. Russian Song 13. Farmer Playing on the 14. Kamarinskaja 15. Italian Song 16. Old French Song 17. German Song 18. Neapolitan Song 19. Nanny’s Tale 20. Baba-Jaga 21. Sweet Dream 22. The Lark’s Song 23. The Organ-Grinder Sings 24. At Church

PLAYBILL PROGRAM

Frédéric (1810–1849) Mazurka in A minor, Op. 59, No. 1 (1845)

Mazurka in A-flat major, Op. 59, No. 2 (1845)

Mazurka in F-sharp minor, Op. 59, No. 3 (1845)

Mazurka in B major, Op. 56, No. 1 (1843)

Mazurka in C major, Op. 56, No. 2 (1843)

Mazurka in C minor, Op. 56, No. 3 (1843)

INTERMISSION

Olli Mustonen (b. 1967) , “Jehkin Iivana” (2004/2006) in five movements

Aleksandr Scriabin (1872–1915) Sonata No. 10, Op. 70 (1913) in one movement

Scriabin Vers la flamme, Op. 72 (1914)

Funded, in part, by the Koret Foundation, this performance is part of Cal Performances’ " !#–" !$ Koret Recital Series, which brings world-class artists to our community. Additional support is provided by The Bernard Osher Foundation. Hamburg Steinway piano provided by Steinway & Sons, San Francisco. Cal Performances’ " !#–" !$ season is sponsored by Wells Fargo.

CAL PERFORMANCES PROGRAM NOTES

Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky (=D@<–=DE?) I like the garden more and more. Today I Album for the Young, Op. ?E climbed over the wall and on the other side found a small square wood which I immedi- Composed in CJIJ. ately explored. It happens to be what is left of a garden which had been planted by Catholic After his disastrous marriage in the summer monks who had a monastery here until 1840. of 1877, Tchaikovsky fled from to his Of the walls that surrounded the monastery brother Modeste in St. Petersburg, and then only the ruins of the gates are left; the trees are tried to bury his misery in a spate of anxious old and large, the grass thick and luscious. Of wandering about Europe—Clarens, San all I have seen here I like this charming little Remo, Florence, Clarens again. He found wood the best. Plent y of scope for imagina- comfort in work, however, and completed the tion….” It was at Brailov that he fulfilled his Fourth , , and the promise to Jurgenson for an album of piano Concerto during those months of emo- miniatures of varied suggestive characters, tional distress. In February 1878, he explained composing the 24 pieces of Album for the to his publisher, Jurgenson, that he would like Young in just four days. to rest after the rigors of creating these large works, but would be bored and made over- Frédéric Chopin (=D=<–=D@E) anxious by complete idleness, so he proposed Selected to write “a series of easy pieces, a Children’s Album. It would be pleasant for me, and for The mazurka originated in Chopin’s home you even profitable, i.e., relatively. What do district of Mazovia sometime during the 17th you think about this? Tell me in general what century. Rather a family of related musical small-scale compositions you’d like to have. forms than a single set type, the mazurka I’m strongly disposed just now to take on any could be sung or danced, performed fast or small-scale work by way of relaxation.” languidly, and, when danced, given many At that same time, Tchaikovsky’s pa- variations on the few basic steps of the pat- troness, Nadezhda von Meck, was concerned tern. By the 18th and 19th centuries, when its with the effect his marital misfortune might popularity spread throughout Europe, the have on his creativity, and invited him to mazurka was characterized by its triple meter, spend a solitary holiday recuperating at her frequent use of unusual scales (often giving estate at Brailov in the Ukraine while she was the music a slightly Oriental quality), variety summering in Moscow. He accepted, and ar- of moods and occasional rhy thmic syncopa- rived in mid-May at Brailov, where he was tions. Of Chopin’s 56 Mazurkas, 41 of which pampered unreservedly by Mme. von Meck’s were published during his lifetime, G. C. servants, who always had a carriage ready for Ashton Jonson wrote, “In his hands, the his junkets and would bring him a splendid mazurka ceased to be an actual tune, tea wherever his afternoon journey took him. and became a tone poem, a mirror of moods, He developed a passion for collecting mush- an epitome of human emotions, joy and sad- rooms during his retreat, and particularly en- ness, love and hate, tenderness and defiance, joyed partaking in the religious services at a coquetry and passion.” The expressive range local nunnery, whose fine choir, he carefully of the Mazurkas is wider than that of any noted, was capable of reading music and was other g roup of his compositions; it is said that well directed. In one of his daily letters to he never played any of the Mazurkas the same Mme. von Meck, he wrote, “I continue to be way twice. They contain Chopin’s most inti- very pleased with Brailov…. Everything is mate thoughts, and are moving reminders that perfect, and the house is more like a town this famous Polish émigré lived virtually his house, large, luxurious, and very comfortable. whole adult life away from his native soil.

PLAYBILL PROGRAM NOTES

The three Mazurkas of Op. 59 were com- Olli Mustonen (b. =EBC) posed at Nohant in 1845 and published with- Sonata, “Jehkin Iivana” out dedication the following January by Stern in Berlin. No. 1 (A minor) is based on a plain- Composed for guitar in DBBF; arranged for tive, modally inflected melody given simply at piano in DBBH. Piano version premièred on the outset. No. 2 (A-flat major) is an alluring July DC, DBBH, at the Kuhmo number that the turn-of-the-century English Festival by the . composer, critic, and educator Sir William Henry Hadow chose as “perhaps the most Olli Mustonen entered the world of music at beautiful of all the Mazurkas.” The third age five through a somewhat unconventional Mazurka of the Op. 59 set (F-sharp minor) portal: by playing Baroque works on the harp- stands at the pinnacle of Chopin’s achievement sichord—his first musical instruction was on in the form. Daring in its harmony, quirky in that instrument; piano lessons followed two its melodic leadings and subtle in its pianistic years later. Mustonen began composing when nuance, this Mazurka shows Chopin “at the he was seven and showed such promise that summit of his powers,” wrote James Huneker. he was accepted the following year as a private “Time and tune, that wait for no man, are now student by , one of his bond slaves. Pathos, delicacy, boldness, a ’s most distinguished . He measured melancholy, and the art of eupho- began winning recognition as a composer nious presentment of all these, and many more soon after entering the in factors, stamp this Mazurka as a masterpiece.” his native Helsinki in 1977. His Divertimento The three Mazurkas of Op. 56, composed for Piano and dates from 1979, his in 1843 and published by Breitkopf und Härtel No. 1 from two years later. in Leipzig in August 1844 with a dedication to Finnish music scholar Antti Häyrynen has the composer’s student Mlle. C. Maberly, written that “[c]omposing has remained an usher in Chopin’s last and most masterful se- important part of Mustonen’s career alongside ries of works in this form. No. 1 (B major) al- his distinguished international career as a con- ternates two contrasting strains of music: one cert . He could not be described as a pi- is a dotted-rhythm configuration, the other is anist-composer, though, since the piano does an arching melody in quick, even notes which not dominate his output and often is not even travels through some surprisingly distant keys. in a prominent role in those works where it No. 2 (C major) is among the most folkish of is included. Chopin’s Mazurkas. Its outer sections are built “As a composer,” Häyrynen continues, above a bagpipe-like drone bass which sup- “Mustonen has been largely free of schools and ports a jaunty theme with piquant chromatic styles, drawing on a number of techniques in inflections, while the center portion encom- idiosyncratic ways. A classical brand of clarity passes more flowing melodic material. Jim is one of the constant features of his writing, as Samson wrote in his study of Chopin’s music is a powerful and diverse sense of rhythm. He that the harmonically daring third Mazurka typically examines things from different per- (C minor) is “a powerful rhapsody whose tex- spectives and likes to seek out the fundamen- tural intricacy and intensity of expression are tal sources of art and human creativity. In only lightly grounded by folk elements. At recent years, he has shown an affinity with the times indeed we need to remind ourselves that Kalevala, the Finnish national epic, and the an- this is a dance piece.” cient folk tradition that underlies it.”

CAL PERFORMANCES PROGRAM NOTES

Among Mustonen’s compositions are works 19th century as part of the country’s move- for piano, , and three , numerous ment to forge a distinctive national identity at pieces for chamber ensembles and for solo a time when it was ruled by Russia after cen- piano, and a song cycle on poems by Finnish turies of being dominated by Sweden. Among national poet Eino Leino—a contemporary the most important of the modern singers of and close friend of Sibelius and a distant rela- Finnish runes was Jehkin Iivana, born in 1843 tive of Mustonen. Mustonen has also com- in the remote village of Suistamo, where some posed two : His Symphony No. 1, of the ancient traditions then still lingered, for and orchestra (2012), is based on who performed his runic recreations through- Leino’s well-known poem Tuuri. His out the country until his death in 1911. In Symphony No. 2, subtitled “Johannes 2004, Mustonen evoked both the bard and the Angelos” (2014), was inspired by a historical savor of his ancient tales with his Sonata for novel by Finnish author Mika Waltari which Guitar, subtitled “Jehkin Iivana”; the following takes place in 1453, during the final days of year he arranged the work for piano and gave Byzantine Constantinople. its première on July 21, 2006, at the Kuhmo Musicologist Susanna Välimäki describes Chamber Music Festival in the Finnish inte- Mustonen as “a postmodern composer of mys- rior. (There is also an arrangement for orches- tery, drawing on the expressive devices of tra.) The Sonata is in several continuous Western from the Baroque to sections that evoke the bard in mysterious, in- Minimalism and from late to the cantatory music at beginning and end, and in New Spirituality of the 21st century. Music between suggest the fantastic stories—heroic, serves as an expression of the mystery of life, romantic, noble, tragic—that he shares. as a stream of existence in sound. The theme Mustonen writes of this work: “Jehkin Iivana is both age-old and topical; the music speaks was originally composed for the guitar. Writing of a way of experiencing that is often forgotten the piano version, I felt strongly as if it grew or- in technocratic contemporary society. The lis- ganically out of the original, without any con- tener may hear an all-embracing nature expe- scious transcribing having to take place. rience and the rapture of holiness. The idioms “The work is inspired by the numerous of bygone days are wind ows on existence, on strangely fascinati ng descriptions I have read the spirit of life, on something that has always about the colorful life of the runo singer and been there—just like the Renaissance paintings kantele player Iivana Shemeikka (1843–1911). in the films of Andrei Tarkovsky. The everyday Known as Jehkin Iivana after his patronymic becomes sacred, the commonplace mystery, in name, he was one of the last and greatest pro- the twinkling of an eye, a flicker of light, a sin- ponents of the ancient oral tradition of runo gle chord. Each work is an inner journey.” sung in Karelia. According to contemporary A runo (“rune”) is a letter used in various reports, he was a luminous and potent per- ancient Germanic languages that was also sonality whose music, indescribable in words, thought to have mys terious, magic, or divina- possessed the power to transport the listener tory qualities. It is the alphabet in which the into the world of myths. earliest evidences of Finnish mythology were “In this version,” he writes, “the role of the preserved, and the individual poems of those kantele is taken by the piano, in sorrow and in extended tales came to be known as runes. In mirth. The journey, beginning in the runo early Finnish cultures these runes were sung to singer’s cottage, eventually returns to its ori- the accompaniment of the -like kantele, gins, but not before taking the listener to many and that vocal tradition was revived during the strange realms, even to the domain of Death.”

PLAYBILL PROGRAM NOTES

Aleksandr Scriabin (=DC>–=E=A) etc., which were to represent the history of Sonata No. =<, Op. C< man from the dawn of time to the ultimate Vers la Flamme, Op. C> world convulsion. He even imagined a lan- guage of sighs and groans that would express Composed in CKCE and CKCF. Sonata pre- feelings not translatable into mere words. He mièred on December CD, CKCE, in Moscow by whipped all these fantasies together with a the composer. seething sexuality to create a vision of whirling emotional ferment quite unlike any- “The Muscovite seer”; “the Russian musical thing else in the history of music or any other mystic”; “the clearest case of artistic egomania art. In describing The Poem of Ecstasy to his in the chronicles of music”: Aleksandr friend Ivan Lipaev he said, “When you listen Scriabin was one of the most unusual of all to it, look straight into the eye of the Sun!” composers. Living in the generation between Early in 1913, Scriabin gave a series of suc- Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev, he showed an cessful concerts in London that were capped early talent for music and trod the accepted by a performance of his Prometheus: The Poem path of lessons, conservatory training, and of Fire conducted by Henry Wood (founder of teaching. His visions, however, refused to be the popular “Proms” concerts). The pianist- channeled into the conventional forms of composer was back in Russia by spring, and artistic expression, and he developed a style spent the summer at a dacha in the country- and a philosophy that were unique. side near Smolensk, west of Moscow, where he Scriabin’s life was shaken by several sig- quickly composed the Nos. 8, 9, and nificant changes around 1902, when he re- 10, his final works in the form. Each is in a sin- signed from the faculty of the Moscow gle, highly compressed movement and exhibits Conservatory to devote himself to composi- remarkable control of virtuosic piano tech- tion and to rumination, and left his first wife niques, motivic develop- ment, and expressive to take up with another woman. From that direction, which the music critic Boris de time on, Scriabin bent his music ever more Schloezer, the brother of Scriabin’s long-time forcibly to expressing his dizzying world vi- companion, Tatiana, and a close friend, sum- sion. He believed that mankind was ap- marized as “languor, longing, impetuous striv- proaching a final cataclysm from which a ing, dance, ecstasy, and transfiguration.” nobler race would emerge, with himself play- Scriabin spoke to Leonid Sabaneyev, an influ- ing some exalted but ill-defined Messianic role ential critic and his first biographer, of the in the new order. (He welcomed the beginning Sonata No. 10: “All plants and small animals of World War I as the fulfillment of his are expressions of our psyches. Their appear- prophecy.) As the transition through this ance corresponds to movements of our souls. apocalypse, Scriabin posited an enormous rit- They are symbols, and oh! what symbols…. ual that would purge humanity and make it fit My Tenth Sonata is a sonata of insects. Insects for the millennium. He felt that he was di- are born from the sun…they are the sun’s vinely called to create this ritual, this kisses. How unified world-understanding is “” as he called it, and he spent the when you look at things this way.” last twelve years of his life concocting ideas for Though its emotional fervor suggests mu- its realization. Scriabin’s mammoth sical abandon, the Sonata No. 10 is anchored “Mysterium” was to be performed in a spe- by traditional sonata form. The introductory cially built temple in India (in which country section (Moderato) presents three motives: a he never set foot), and was to include music, dotted-rhythm idea in small falling leaps (très mime, fragrance, light, sculpture, costume, doux et pur); a turn-like triplet figure of close

CAL PERFORMANCES PROGRAM NOTES descending intervals (in the third measure); (puissant, radieux) of quickly repeated chords and a phrase of rising half-steps (avec une at the top of the keyboard. The main and sec- ardeur profonde et voilée [veiled]) to which the o nd themes are recapitulated before the mo- turn-like triplet figure (cristallin) is appended. tives from the introduction are recalled in an The sonata form proper begins with a new, ethereal postlude (avec une douce langueur de faster tempo (Allegro) and the entry of the plus en plus éteinte [dying away]). main theme, a melody of descending half-steps Vers la flame (“Toward the Flame”) of (avec émotion) supported by a widely spaced 1914 is one of Scriabin’s last works and one of accompaniment in the low register. A series of his most characteristic, with a harmonic lan- trills and an echo of the triplet motive from guage teetering on the precipice of atonality, a the prologue lead to the second theme (avec texture more dense than seems negotiable by une joyeuse exaltation), marked by a sweeping merely two hands , an almost obsessive treat- upward figure and an abundance of trills. ment of motives, and a rising line of expres- Special prominence is given to the motives sive tension that builds to an eruptive climax. from the introduction in the development sec- tion, which culminates in a powerful passage © DBCG Dr. Richard E. Rodda

PLAYBILL ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Symphony. The latter resulted in a return in- vitation to curate the 2014 Metropolis New Music Festival, where Mr. Mustonen con- ducted the world première of his own Sonata for Violin and Orchestra. Other highlights of last season included a tour of the United States with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, concerts with at both the BBC Symphony and Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, and a return to the Orchestre de Paris to perform with Paavo Järvi. Mr. Mustonen was also invited to be soloist at the gala concert and closing ceremony of the Winter International Arts Festival in Sochi, performing with the Moscow Soloists Chamber Orchestra under Yuri Bashmet. As a recitalist, Mr. Mustonen plays in all the world’s musical capitals, appearing in recent seasons at the Edinburgh International Festival, Chopin Institute Warsaw, Diaghilev Festival LLI MUSTONEN occupies a unique place on Perm, Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Otoday’s music scene. Following the tradi- New York’s Zankel Hall, and Sydney Opera tion of great masters such as Rachmaninoff, House. Among his recital partners are Pekka Busoni, and Enescu, Mr. Mustonen combines Kuusisto, with whom he toured in 2013 to in- the roles of his musicianship as composer, pi- clude the world première of his own Violin anist and conductor in an equal balance that Sonata, and , with whom he per- is quite exceptional. Born in Helsinki, formed Mr. Mustonen’s in 2014. Mr. Mustonen began his studies in piano, The current season sees a new collaboration , and composition at age five. with Barnabás Kelemen, with whom he ap- Initially learning with Ralf Gothóni, he sub- pears at Slovenian Philharmoni c Hall and sequently studied piano with Eero Heinonen Wigmore Hall. Solo recital engagements this and composition with Einojuhani Rautavaara. season include Wigmore Hall, Tampere Hall, As a concerto soloist, Mr. Mustonen has Flagey Piano Days in Brussels, Beethoven- worked with most of the world’s leading or- Haus Bonn, Dresden Festival, and Ruhr Piano chestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Festival, as well as a recital tour of the United Munich Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, States. Mr. Mustonen also gives a recital at the Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, closing ceremony of Sviatoslav Richter’s and the Royal Concertgebouw, partnering December Nights Music Festival in Moscow. conductors such as , Among Mr. Mustonen’s close connections Daniel Barenboim, , with some of today’s most illustrious musi- Pierre Boulez, Myung-Whun Chung, Charles cians is his collaboration with Rodion Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Nikolaus Shchedrin, who dedicated his Piano Concerto Harnoncourt, Kurt Masur, Kent Nagano, Esa- No. 5 to Mr. Mustonen and invited him to Pekka Salonen, and Jukka-Pekka Saraste. perform at his 70th, 75th, and 80th birthday Recent highlights have included complete cy- concerts. In 2013, Mr. Mustonen performed cles of the Bartók piano concertos with the Shchedrin’s Piano Concerto No. 4 at BBC Scottish Symphony and of the Beethoven Stockholm’s Baltic Sea Festival with the piano concertos with the Melbourne Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra under Valery

CAL PERFORMANCES ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Gergiev. Mr. Mustonen’s artistic collaboration In recent years, Mr. Mustonen has con- with Mr. Gergiev is another significant musi- ducted the world premières of both of his cal relationship; in 2011, he had the honor of large-scale orchestral works: Symphony No. 1, closing the Moscow Easter Festival at the per- “Tuuri,” with the Tampere Philharmonic in sonal invitation of Mr. Gergiev, in a perform- 2012; and Symphony No. 2, “Johannes ance that was televised all over Russia. Angelos,” with the Helsinki Philharmonic in A strong exponent of Prokofiev’s music, 2014. Under Mr. Mustonen’s baton, the First Mr. Mustonen embarks upon a major project Symphony has gone on to receive further this season, performing and recording all of performances with including Prokofiev ’s piano concertos with the Finnish the Melbourne Symphony, Tchaikovsky Radio Symphony under Hannu Lintu, as well Symphony, Meiningen Court Orchestra, and as performing two of the concertos at the Helsinki Philharmonic. Such is Mr. Baltic Sea Festival. Mr. Mustonen also pres- Mustonen’s relationship with the Helsinki ents a full cycle of Prokofiev’s piano sonatas, Philharmonic that in 2012–2013 he was in- appearing at Helsinki Music Centre, Lille vited to be Artist in Residence, featuring him Piano Festival, and Singapore Piano Festival. in all three roles of conductor, composer, and Other highlights this season include con- soloist acro ss a diverse range of concerts. certo performances with the Munich Chamber As well as all the major Finnish orchestras, Orchestra, SWR Baden-Baden, and the Mr. Mustonen has conducted the Deutsche Hungarian National Philharmonic, and play- Kammerphilharmonie, Staatskapelle Weimar, ing- engagements with the Royal WDR Köln, Camerata Salzburg, Scottish Northern Sinfonia, Novaya Rossiya Symphony, Chamber, Estonian National Symphony, Sinfonietta, and Symphony Orchestra Orchestra della Toscana, Orchestra del Teatro of Milan. Mr. Mustonen tours Carlo Felice di Genova, Jerusalem Symphony, Germany with his own Quartet for , NHK Symphony, and the Queensland and Violin, Viola, and Piano, and performs the West Australian symphony orchestras. world première of his new Piano Quintet at Mr. Mustonen’s recording catalogue is typ- Festival O/Modernt in Stockholm. ically broad-ranging and distinctive. His re- Mr. Mustonen’s life as a composer is at the lease on Decca of by Shostakovich heart of both his piano playing and conduct- and Alkan received the and ing. Mr. Mustonen has a deeply held convic- Gramophone Award for the Best Instrumental tion that each performance must have the Recording. In 2002, Mr. Mustonen signed freshness of a first performance, so that audi- with the label, on which his most re- ence and performer alike encounter the com- cent releases include Respighi’s Concerto in poser as a living contemporary. In this respect modo Misolidio with Sakari Oramo and the he recalls Mahler’s famous dictum, that tradi- Finnish Radio Symphony and a critically ac- tion can be laziness, yet he is equally suspi- claimed disc of Scriabin’s piano music. More cious of the performance that seeks only to be recently, Mr. Mustonen released a highly ac- different. This tenacious spirit of discovery claimed recording of his own Cello Sonata on leads him to explore many areas of repertoire the BIS label, for which he was joined by beyond the established canon. Steven Isserlis.

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