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Program Notes “Public and Private” Home delivery plus 2021 SeRIeS SIR ANDRÁS SCHIFF, piano PREMIERING FRI, APR 23, 8pm (ET) STREAMING ON DEMAND THROUGH THU, APR 29, 11:59pm (ET) Program From the artist: J.S. BACH (1685–1750) Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Greetings to Sinfonia No. 9 in F minor, BWV 795 Washington, D.C.—the Washington Performing Arts Society, dear friends. It would be wonderful to be LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) with you live, but unfortunately, due to the circum- Sonata No. 12 in A-flat Major, Op. 26 stances, this is not possible, so we will have to hope I. Andante con variazioni and wait for better times. This is also a great plea- II. Scherzo. Allegro molto sure for me and an honor to be able to play for you a III. Marcia funebre sulla morte d’un eroe. concert that was recorded and filmed last December Maestoso andante in the city of Zürich, Switzerland, in a beautiful IV. Allegro church: Peterskirche, the St. Peter Church. WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756–1791) The program is based on three of my favorite Adagio in B minor, K. 540 composers: Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven. First, BEETHOVEN you will hear Bach’s Sinfonia (or three-part Invention) Sonata No. 31 in A-flat Major, Op. 110 in F minor. I consider this to be one of the greatest I. Moderato cantabile molto espressivo works of Bach. In a little over two minutes, you have II. Allegro molto a great, great composition. This is very difficult for a III. Adagio ma non troppo – great composer—to show what he can do in a very Allegro ma non troppo short span of time. And in this Invention, you have all the tragedy and depth of the Bach Passions. This will be followed by Beethoven’s Sonata, Opus I hope you will find that these compositions are 26, with the “Funeral March,” a wonderful compo- on the very, very highest level. To me, it’s very sition from his younger years. Then you will hear important to present nothing but the very best Mozart’s B-minor Adagio, Köchel number 540. And music, because life is too short for anything else. the program closes with another Beethoven Sonata – Sir András Schiff in A-flat Major—there are only two in A-flat Major. (from his video introduction) This is his penultimate sonata, Opus 110. More Info, Series Sales, and Donations: WashingtonPerformingArts.org 1 Program notes “Public and Private” Composers sometimes write music for public When Beethoven completed the Piano Sonata in performance and consumption, and sometimes they A-flat Major, Op. 101 that concludes this program, write out of deep personal necessity, creating music he was a very different composer (and person) from of an intensely private expression. The two halves of the young man who had written the sonata on the this program illustrate this perfectly. first half of this program—now he had been trapped Bach was not just a composer—he was also a in deafness for nearly ten years. Yet from out of teacher, and he wrote his Two-Part Inventions and that lonely silence Beethoven writes beautiful, Sinfonias for the instruction of his children. He said heartfelt music. He stresses that the beginning of that he wanted his pupils “not only to be inspired this sonata should be played con amabilita, which with good inventions but to develop them prop- in music translates variously as “with love, with erly; and most of all to achieve a cantabile manner grace, with sweetness.” This sonata is not all of playing.” Over the last three centuries, millions sweetness and light, though. Its final movement—a of children (and adults!) have played and loved complex fugue—reaches a climax that Beethoven these little pieces, music originally written just for marks Ermattet, klagend (“exhausted, grieving”). their instruction. After this tension, Beethoven concludes with a great rush upward across five octaves to the triumphant Beethoven composed his Piano Sonata in A-flat final chord. Major, Op. 26 in 1801 and published it immediately in Vienna—he was writing at least in part for the Public and private. This recital brings us four pieces growing number of amateur pianists who would composed for very different reasons and often love to play music as attractive as this. Rather sharply different in character. This music can be than opening with a powerful movement, he begins relaxed and open, and it can be inward and painful. with a relaxed theme-and-variation movement— And in a sense this virtual recital illustrates that this music sets out to be agreeable rather than public and private distinction perfectly. We are used dramatic. Note particularly the third movement, to concerts as “public” occasions when we are which Beethoven titled “Funeral March on the Death surrounded by a thousand other listeners, we see of a Hero.” When he wrote this music, Beethoven performers creating the music in our presence, and could not have known that 26 years later it would we feel the release that comes with the eruption be performed at his own funeral. Now, though, of applause around us. By contrast, how relatively writing for a general audience in Vienna, Beethoven “private” this concert is! Sir András Schiff performs composes a good-natured sonata that—after all its this music in a Swiss church in the presence of an energy—comes to a very calm conclusion. intentionally sparse, socially distanced audience, Matters change sharply on the second half of this and we hear it in our homes in the company of a program. Mozart composed the Adagio in B minor in few family members. Yet even in this private concert March 1788, at a crucial moment in his life. He had we can feel this music reaching out to us in ways just seen the successful premiere of Don Giovanni, that look ahead to that moment when we can once but now his fortunes were about to change. His again experience music as that ideal public fusion music—thought “too highly spiced” by many—was of composer, performer, and listener. about to go out of fashion in Vienna, and in just a few – Eric Bromberger months he would be begging his friends for loans. Eric Bromberger has been program annotator for Everything about this music is mysterious. No one Washington Performing Arts since 2000. He also knows why Mozart wrote this dark and expressive writes program notes for the Minnesota Orchestra, Adagio. It is in a key that he almost never used. Was San Diego Symphony, Santa Fe Chamber Music this movement conceived as the first movement Festival, San Francisco Performances, University of of a piano sonata that he abandoned? No one Chicago Presents, and many other organizations. A knows. What we do know is that this is some of violinist, he was a member of the La Jolla Symphony the most inward and expressive music that Mozart for 32 seasons. ever wrote. 2 About the artist Sir András Schiff is world-renowned as a pianist, his interest in performing on period keyboard conductor, pedagogue, and lecturer. Music critics instruments. and audiences alike continue to be inspired by the He has established a prolific discography and masterful and intellectual approach he brings to has been an exclusive artist for ECM New Series each masterpiece he performs. Born in Budapest, and its producer, Manfred Eicher, since 1997. Hungary in 1953, Sir András studied piano at the Liszt Highlights have included the complete Beethoven Ferenc Academy with Pál Kadosa, György Kurtág, and Piano Sonatas recorded live in Zurich, solo recitals Ferenc Rados; and in London with George Malcom. of Schubert, Schumann, and Janáˇcek, as well as Recitals and special cycles, including the complete J.S. Bach’s Partitas, Goldberg Variations, and Well- works of Bach, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, and Tempered Clavier. His most recent two-disc set of Bartók, constitute an important component of his Schubert Sonatas and Impromptus was released in work. Having collaborated with the world’s leading spring 2019. orchestras and conductors, he now focuses primarily on solo recitals, play-conducting appearances, and He continues to support new talent, primarily exclusive conducting projects. through his “Building Bridges” series, which gives performance opportunities to promising young During his fall 2019 tour of North America, Sir András artists. He also teaches at the Barenboim-Said and conducted and played with the Boston Symphony Kronberg academies and gives frequent lectures and Orchestra and the Orchestre Symphonique de masterclasses. In 2017, his book, Music Comes from Montreal, pairing concerti by Bach, Beethoven, Silence, a compilation of essays and conversations and Haydn with Brahms’s Variations on a theme by with Martin Meyer, was published by Barenreiter Haydn and Bartók’s Dance Suite. He was joined by and Henschel. violinist Yuuko Shiokawa for an all-Mozart program opening New York’s 92nd Street Y season. Sir András Schiff’s many honors include the inter- national Mozarteum Foundation’s Gold Medal (2012), Vicenza is home to Cappella Andrea Barca—his own Germany’s Great Cross of Merit with Star (2012), chamber orchestra consisting of international solo- the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Gold Medal (2013), ists, chamber musicians, and friends, founded in a Knighthood for Services to Music (2014), and a 1999. They have appeared together at Carnegie Hall, Doctorate from the Royal College of Music (2018). the Lucerne Festival, and the Salzburg Mozartwoche. Forthcoming projects include a tour of Asia and a Sir András Schiff’s recordings are available on the Decca/ London, Teldec/Warner and ECM labels. cycle of Bach’s keyboard concertos in Europe.
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