Monday, April 29, 2019, 8pm Zellerbach Hall gil Shaham, violin Akira eguchi, piano
ProgrAM
Fritz KREISLER (1875 –1962) Praeludium and Allegro in the Style of Pugnani
Scott WHEELER (b. 1952) e Singing Turk (Sonata No. 2) Sù la sponda O vous, que Mars rend invincible In Italia
Avner DORMAN (b. 1975) Nigunim (Sonata No. 3) Adagio religioso Scherzo Adagio Presto
INTERMISSION
Johann Sebastian BACH (1685 –1750) Partita No. 3 for Solo Violin in E Major, BWV 1006 Preludio Loure Gavotte en Rondeau Menuet I, Menuet II Bourrée Gigue
César FRANCK (1822 –1890) Sonata in A Major Allegretto ben moderato Allegro molto Recitativo – Fantasia: Ben moderato Allegretto poco mosso
Cal Performances’ 2018 –19 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo.
5
ProgrAM noteS
Fritz kreisler Sissy ), but he is most fondly remembered for his Praeludium and Allegro in the Style of Pugnani many short compositions and arrangements for Fritz Kreisler—“unanimously considered violin, some of which he attributed to several among his colleagues to be the greatest vio - Baroque composers who never actually got linist of the 20th century,” wrote critic Harold around to writing them. Among Kreisler’s most Schonberg in the New York Times on January 30, delightful musical counterfeits is the 1910 1962, the day aer Kreisler died—was admitted Prae ludium and Allegro in the Style of Pugnani to the Vienna Conservatory when he was seven, (1731 –1798), a prominent Turin-born violinist gave his first performance at nine, and won a and composer. Gold Medal when he was 10. He then trans - ferred to the Paris Conservatoire, where, at age Scott wheeler 12, he won the school’s Gold Medal over 40 e Singing Turk (Sonata no. 2) other competitors, all of whom were at least 10 Scott Wheeler, born in 1952 in Washington, years his senior. In 1888 –89, Kreisler success - DC, studied at Amherst College (BA), Brandeis fully toured the United States but then virtually University (MFA, PhD), and the New England abandoned music for several years, studying Conservatory in Boston; his principal teachers medicine in Vienna and art in Rome and Paris, included Arthur Berger, Harold Shapero, Mal - and serving as an officer in the Austrian army. colm Peyton, and Lewis Spratlan. Wheeler also He again took up the violin in 1896 and failed pursued advanced study at the Tanglewood to win an audition to become a member of Music Center (with Oliver Messiaen), Dart - the Vienna Philharmonic, but quickly estab - ington School (with Sir Peter Maxwell Davies), lished himself as a soloist, making his formal and privately with Virgil omson. In 1975, reappearance in Berlin in March 1899. He re - he co-founded Boston’s Dinosaur Annex con - turned to America in 1900 and gave his London temporary music ensemble, which he contin - debut in 1901, creating a sensation at every per - ues to serve as artistic advisor. In 1989, Wheeler formance. At the outbreak of World War I, joined the faculty of Emerson College in Bos - Kreisler rejoined his former regiment but he ton, where he is now Distinguished Artist-in- was wounded soon thereaer and discharged Residence. In addition to his responsibilities in from service. In November 1914, he moved to Emerson’s music department, Wheeler, an au - the United States, where he had been appear - thority on Broadway and American musical ing regularly for a decade. He gave concerts in theater, has also co-directed the college’s musi - America to raise funds for Austrian war relief, cal theater program; his students have per - but anti-German sentiment ran so high aer formed in shows across the country and several America’s entry into the war that he had to of them have worked as theatrical songwriters. temporarily withdraw from public life. He Wheeler has composed works in a largely resumed his concert career in New York in traditional idiom for orchestra, chamber en - October 1919, then returned to Europe. In sembles, and piano, many with evocative titles 1938, following the annexation of Austria by and referential qualities, as well as for chorus, the Nazis, Kreisler settled in the United States solo voice, and music theater that have been for good; he became an American citizen in performed throughout America and interna - 1943. Despite being injured in a traffic accident tionally by such distinguished artists as Renée in 1941, he continued concertizing to immense Fleming, Sanford Sylvan, Susanna Phillips, acclaim through the 1949 –50 season. He died Anthony Roth Costanzo, William Sharp, and in New York in 1962. Joseph Kaiser. Wheeler’s commissions include In addition to being one of the 20th-century’s those from the Metropolitan Opera/Lincoln undisputed masters of the violin, Fritz Kreisler Center eater, Washington National Opera, also composed a string quartet, a violin con - Boston Lyric Opera, Guggenheim Foundation, certo, and two operettas ( Apple Blossoms and Koussevitzky Foundation of the Library of
Opposite: Gil Shaham. Photo by Luke Ratray. 7
ProgrAM noteS
Con gress, Virgil omson Foundation, Fromm “e second movement is the aria of Foundation, Tanglewood, Yaddo, and Mac - Roxelana from the 1761 e ree Sultanas Dowell Colony; among his honors are the by librettist Charles Simon Favart and com - Louise L. Stoeger Prize from the Chamber poser Paul-César Gibert. is aria was famously sung by the librettist’s wife, Marie Music Society of Lincoln Center, a Dis tin - Favart, who accompanied herself on the guished Visitor residency at the American harp. In the opera, Roxelana sings to the ‘in - Academy in Berlin, Composer of the Year vincible’ warrior Suleiman the Magnificent Award from the Classical Recording Founda - to ‘defend yourself, if possible/From be - tion, Hinrichsen Award from the American coming the slave of two beautiful eyes.’ Academy of Arts and Letters, and a Resident “My third Singing Turk is the handsome Fellowship at the Center for Ballet and the Arts Prince Selim from Rossini’s Il Turco in Italia . at New York University. In this comic opera, Selim falls in love with the Italian Fiorilla. In their duet, she sings, Wheeler wrote of e Singing Turk (Sonata ‘In Italy certainly one doesn’t make love No. 2), commissioned by violinist Sharan like that.’ Selim responds that ‘in Turkey Leventhal and premiered by her and pianist certainly one doesn’t make love like that.’ Randall Hodgkinson at the Boston Conser - Rossini’s music makes it clear that they make vatory at Berklee on February 12, 2017: love in exactly the same way. “e music of the singing Turks doesn’t “Larry Wolff’s book e Singing Turk , pub - quite guide the composition, which has its lished in the fall of 2016, is that rare work own structure; rather, the earlier music by a non-musician that provides a new forms a subterranean vein that colors perspective on music. Larry [the Silver Pro - the piece in varying degrees, occasionally fessor of History and Director of the Center emerging more clearly. e first movement for European and Mediterranean Studies at is a two-part structure in which the poise NYU] is a European historian and the sort and tragic nobility of Handel’s Bajazet in - of opera buff who knows far more about forms the entire movement, with his aria opera than do most musicians. e Singing quoted most clearly at the end of the first Turk examines the popularity of Turkish half. e second movement begins as a pas - characters in European opera; between the sacaglia [i.e., based on a repeating musical 1680s and the 1820s there were over 100 of phrase], which then alternates with varia - these operas written. Wolff’s book doesn’t tions on Favart and Gibert’s tender aria. e belabor either the similarities or the differ - finale is a moto perpetuo for the violin, from ences with today’s relations between which Rossini’s deliciously joyful duet Europe and the Muslim lands to the east. emerges with increasing clarity and giddy He shows how the shiing nature of the violinistic virtuosity.” threat of the Ottoman Empire caused telling shis in the way these Turkish oper - Avner Dorman atic characters were portrayed in the Nigunim (Sonata no. 3) European operatic theatre. e intellectual Avner Dorman was born in 1975 into a musical history is fascinating and the music of these family in Tel Aviv—his father plays bassoon and operas is so enchanting that I decided to feature one Singing Turk in each movement conducts—and had cello and piano lessons as of my Violin Sonata No. 2, and to borrow a child but only took up music seriously as a Larry’s title for the work as a whole. teenager. He studied composition with the “e first movement, Sù la sponda, Georgian émigré composer Josef Bardanashvili draws on Handel’s 1724 opera Tamerlano . at Tel Aviv University while also taking courses e noble Turkish ruler Bajazet is impris - in musicology and physics, and then pursued oned by the title character, Tamerlane (also graduate study at Juilliard, where his doctoral known historically as Timur). Before his work as a C.V. Starr Fellow was mentored by suicide, Bajazet sings to his beloved daugh - ter ‘on the banks of Lethe, wait for me Oscar- and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer there. ’ John Corigliano. Dorman was a Composition
Opposite: Akira Eguchi 8 ProgrAM noteS
Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center and has short but since it begins and ends on the held residencies with the Israel Camerata same pitch it may be repeated over and over. (2001 –03), Alabama Symphony (2010 –11), and In this sense, the Nigun has no beginning Stockton Symphony (2011 –12). He was a mem - and no end and is eternal. Nigunim (the plu - ral of Nigun ) may be secular or religious, fast ber of the composition faculty of the Cabrillo or slow, and may be sung and played in a Music Festival in 2009 and is currently an asso - variety of social events and circumstances. ciate professor of theory and composition at “When the 92nd Street Y and Orli and Gettysburg College. In 2000, at age 25, Dorman Gil Shaham approached me to write a new became the youngest composer to win Israel’s piece for their ‘Jewish Melodies’ program, prestigious Prime Minister’s Award; that same my first thought was to write a work that year he received the Golden Feather Award would explore the music of the ten lost from ACUM (the Israeli Society of Composers tribes (the Hebrew tribes that were exiled aer the first temple was destroyed). Since and Publishers) for his Ellef Symphony . His ad - we know very little as to the whereabouts ditional distinctions include being named 2002 of these tribes, I decided to explore the Composer of the Year by Ma’ariv , Israel’s sec - music of various Jewish traditions from dif - ond largest newspaper, awards from ASCAP ferent parts of the world and how they re - and the Asian Composers League, and selection late to larger local musical traditions. as an IcExcellence Chosen Artist in 2008. In “To my surprise, aer researching Jewish 2013, he was appointed music director of City - music from different parts of the world, Music Cleveland Chamber Orchestra. I found that there are some common musi - cal elements in North African Jewish can - Dorman’s compositions, in which he says he tillations, Central Asian Jewish wedding tries to achieve “a combination of rigorous songs, Klezmer music, and Ashkenazy construction while preserving the sense of prayers. ough I did not use any existing excitement and spontaneity usually associated Jewish melodies for Nigunim , the main with jazz, rock or ethnic music,” have been modes and melodic gestures of the piece performed by the Vienna Radio Symphony are drawn from these common elements. Orchestra, Salzburg Festival, New York Philhar - Moreover, different sections of the piece monic, Israel Philharmonic, Munich Philhar- draw upon local non-Jewish musical tradi - tions of each of these regions: for example, monic, UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra, Los the second movement uses principles found Angeles Philharmonic, Nashville Sympho ny, in Georgian folk rhythms and harmonies, Hamburg Philharmonic, Cabrillo Music Festi - and the fourth is inspired by Macedonian val, and other leading ensembles and soloists. dances.” In 2006, Naxos released Eliran Avni’s album of Dorman’s piano works to critical acclaim; Johann Sebastian bach a recording of Dorman’s chamber orchestra Partita no. 3 for Solo Violin in e Major, concertos was released on Naxos in 2010 and bwV 1006 earned a Grammy nomination for Avi Avital’s From 1717 to 1723, Bach was director of music performance of the Mandolin Concerto. at the court of Anhalt-Cöthen, north of Leipzig. Dorman wrote of Nigunim of 2011, his He liked his job. His employer, Prince Leopold, Violin Sonata No. 3: was a well-educated man, 24 years old at the time he engaged Bach. (Bach was 32.) Leopold “e Nigun is a fundamental musical con - was fond of travel and books and paintings, but cept of traditional Jewish music. According his real passion was music. He was an accom - to Habbad literature, the Nigun serves as a plished musician who not only played violin, universal language; it ascends beyond words viola da gamba, and harpsichord well enough and conveys a deeper spiritual message than words can; a Nigun sung in Yiddish will to join with the professionals in his house or - reach and affect someone who only speaks chestra, but he also had an exceptional bass Arabic and vice-versa. e Nigun may be voice. He started the court musical establish -
8b PLAYBILL ProgrAM noteS ment in 1707 with three players (his puritanical contest arranged by a local nobleman.) ough father had no use for music) and by the time of Bach may have found models and inspiration Bach’s appointment it had grown to nearly 20 in the music of his predecessors, his works for performers equipped with a fine set of instru - unaccompanied violin far surpass any others in ments. It was for this group that Bach wrote technique and musical quality. many of his outstanding instrumental works, ough Bach’s three solo violin partitas vary including the Brandenburg Concertos, orches - in style, they are all examples of the sonata da tral suites, violin concertos, and much of his camera (“chamber sonata”), or suite of dances. chamber music. Leopold appreciated Bach’s ge - (e three solo sonatas follow the precedent of nius (his annual salary as Court Conductor was the more serious “church sonata,” the sonata di 400 thalers, equal to that of the Court Marshal, chiesa .) e Partita No. 3 in E Major opens with Leopold’s second highest official), and Bach re - a brilliant Preludio, which Bach later arranged turned the compliment when he said of his as the introductory Sinfonia to his Cantata Prince, “He loved music, he was well acquainted No. 29, Wir danken dir, Gott, of 1731. ere fol - with it, he understood it.” lows a series of dances in bright tempos. e Bach composed the set of three sonatas and Loure was derived from a 17th-century country three partitas for unaccompanied violin before dance originally accompanied by rustic instru - 1720, the date on the manuscript, probably at ments. (“Loure” is an obsolete French name for Cöthen. ough there is not a letter, preface, the bagpipe.) e Gavotte en Rondeau posits contemporary account, or shred of any other an opening strophe, separated by sparkling epi - documentary evidence extant to shed light on sodes, which returns, in the manner of the the genesis and purpose of these pieces, the French rondo form, throughout the movement. technical demands they impose upon the player Next come a matched set of two Menuets, the indicate that they were intended for a virtuoso most enduring of all Baroque dance forms. A performer: Johann Georg Pisendel, a student of Bourrée, enlivened by what Karl Geiringer Vivaldi; Jean Baptiste Volumier, leader of the called “puckish echo-effects,” and a rousing Dresden court orchestra; and Joseph Spiess, Gigue round out this most lighthearted of concertmaster of the Cöthen orchestra, have Bach’s works for unaccompanied violin. been advanced as possible candidates. Aer the introduction of the basso continuo early in the César Franck 17th century, it had been the seldom-broken Sonata in A Major custom to supply a work for solo instrument Franck first considered writing a violin sonata with keyboard accompaniment, so the tradition in 1859, when he offered to compose such a behind Bach’s solo violin sonatas and partitas piece for Cosima von Bülow ( née Liszt, later is slight. Johann Paul von Westhoff, a violinist at Wagner) in appreciation for some kind things Weimar when Bach played in the orchestra she had said about his vocal music. He was, there in 1703, published a set of six unaccom - however, just then thoroughly absorbed with panied partitas in 1696, and Heinrich Biber, his new position as organist at Ste.-Clotilde and Johann Jakob Walther, and Pisendel all com - unable to compose anything that year except a posed similar works. All of these composers short organ piece and a hymn. (His application were active in and around Dresden. Bach vis - to his duties had its reward—he occupied the ited Dresden shortly before assuming his post at prestigious post at Ste.-Clotilde until his death Cöthen, and he may well have become familiar 31 years later.) No evidence of any work on the at that time with most of this music. (Bach’s rep - proposed sonata for Cosima has ever come to utation as a peerless keyboard virtuoso pre - light, and it was not until 20 years later that he ceded him on his visit to Dresden in 1717: the first entered the realm of chamber music with French organist and clavecin player Louis Mar- his Piano Quintet of 1879. Franck’s next foray chand fled town rather than be beaten in a into the chamber genres came seven years aer
ProgrAM noteS
the quintet with his Sonata for Violin and Piano, dolcissima —“sweetly … always sweetly … very which was composed as a wedding gi for his sweetly,” cautions the score repeatedly) rounds friend and Belgian compatriot, the dazzling out the form of the lovely opening movement. virtuoso Eugene Ysaÿe, who had been living e quick-tempo second movement fulfills the in Paris since 1883 and befriending most of the function of a scherzo in the sonata, though its leading French musicians; Ysaÿe first played the music is more in the nature of an impetuous in - piece privately at the marriage ceremony on termezzo. Two strains alternate to produce the September 28, 1886. e formal premiere was movement’s form. One (“scherzo”) is anxious given by Ysaÿe and pianist Léontine Bordes- and unsettled, though it is more troubled than Pène at the Musée moderne de peinture in Brus - tragic; the other (“trio”) is subdued and rhap - sels on December 16, 1886. sodic. ey are disposed in a pattern that yields In tailoring the sonata to the warm lyricism a fine balance of styles and emotions: scherzo– for which Ysaÿe’s violin playing was known, trio–scherzo–trio–scherzo. e third move - Franck created a work that won immediate and ment begins with a cyclical reference to the enduring approval and which was instrumental third-based germ motive that opened the in spreading the appreciation for his music be - sonata. e violin’s long winding line in the yond his formerly limited coterie of students Recitativo section is succeeded by the Grecian and local devotees. e quality of verdant lyri - purity of the following Fantasia, one of the most cism that dominates the sonata is broken only chaste and moving passages in the entire in - by the anticipatory music of the second move - strumental duo literature. e main theme of ment and the heroic passion that erupts near the finale is so richly lyrical that its rigorous the end of the finale. e work opens in a mood treatment as a precise canon at the octave is of twilit tenderness with a main theme built charming rather than pedantic. When the largely from rising and falling thirds, an inter - piano and violin do eventually take off on their vallic germ from which later thematic material own paths, it is so that the keyboard may recall is derived to help unify the overall structure of the chaste melody of the preceding Fantasia. the work. e piano alone plays the second Other reminiscences are woven into the move - theme, a broad melody given above an arpeg - ment—a hint of the third-based germ motive in giated accompaniment never shared with the one episode, another phrase from the Fantasia— violin. e movement’s short central section, which unfolds as a free rondo around the reiter - hardly a true development at all, consists only ations of its main theme in a variety of keys. e of a modified version of the main theme played sonata is brought to a stirring climax by a grand in dialogue between violin and piano. e re - motive that strides across the closing measures capitulation of the principal and secondary sub - in heroic step-wise motion. jects ( dolcissima … semper dolcissima … molto —© 2019 Dr. Richard E. Rodda
b PLAYBILL About tHe ArtIStS gil Shaham is one of the foremost violinists of ships from the America-Israel Cultural Foun - our time: his flawless technique combined with da tion. In 1981, he made debuts with the Jeru- his inimitable warmth and generosity of spirit salem Symphony and the Israel Philhar monic; has solidified his renown as an American mas - the following year, he took the first prize in ter. e Grammy Award winner, also named Israel’s Claremont Competition. He then be - Musical America ’s “Instrumentalist of the Year,” came a scholarship student at Juilliard, while is sought aer throughout the world for con - also studying at Columbia University. certo appearances with leading orchestras and Shaham was awarded an Avery Fisher conductors, and regularly gives recitals and ap - Career Grant in 1990, and in 2008 received the pears with ensembles on the world’s great con - coveted Avery Fisher Prize. In 2012, he was cert stages and at the most prestigious festivals. named Instrumentalist of the Year by Musical Highlights of recent years include the ac - America . He plays the 1699 “Countess Polignac” claimed recording and performances of J.S. Stradi varius, and lives in New York City with Bach’s complete sonatas and partitas for solo his wife, violinist Adele Anthony, and their violin. In the coming seasons, in addition to three children. championing these solo works, he will continue For more information, visit www.gilsha - to join Akira Eguchi, his longtime duo partner ham. com; www.facebook.com/gilshaham; and pianist, in recitals throughout North America, twitter.com/gilshaham. Europe, and Asia. Shaham’s appearances with orchestra regu - Since making his highly acclaimed New York larly include the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston recital debut at Alice Tully Hall in 1992, Akira Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Israel Philhar - eguchi has performed in the foremost music monic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York centers of the United States, Europe, and the Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, and San Far East. His appearances in the United States Francisco Symphony as well as multi-year resi - include Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Alice dencies with the orchestras of Montreal, Stutt - Tully Hall, and the 92nd Street Y in New York gart, and Singapore. With orchestra, Shaham City, and the Kennedy Center in Washington continues his exploration of violin concertos DC. He has also performed at the Musikverein of the 1930s, including the works of Barber, in Vienna, Barbican Centre in London, éâtre Bartók, Berg, Korngold, and Prokofiev, among des Champs-Elysées in Paris, Herkulessaal in many others. Munich, Tonhalle in Zurich, and Concertge - Shaham has more than two dozen concerto bouw at Amsterdam. Distinguished for his and solo CDs to his name, earning multiple performances before heads of state, Eguchi has Grammys, a Grand Prix du Disque, a Diapason played for President Clinton (presented by Isaac d’Or, and Gramophone Editor’s Choice. Many Stern) at the White House, and for the Emperor of these recordings appear on Canary Classics, and Empress of Japan at Hamarikyu Ashahi the label he founded in 2004. His CDs include Hall in Tokyo. 1930s Violin Concertos , Virtuoso Violin Works , Eguchi has been featured in numerous tours Elgar’s Violin Concerto, Hebrew Melodies, and of the United States, France, England, Germany, e Butterfly Lovers . His most recent record - Austria, Switzerland, Holland, Italy, Belgium, ing in the series 1930s Violin Concer tos, Vol. 2, Poland, Slovenia, Ireland, Spain, Greece, Cana- including Prokofiev’s Violin Con certo and Bar - da, Mexico, Guatemala, Korea, China, Taiwan, tók’s Violin Concerto No. 2, was nominated for Hong Kong, and Japan, encompassing recitals a Grammy Award. and concerts with many of those countries’ Shaham was born in Champaign-Urbana, foremost ensembles. He is also known as a Illinois, in 1971. He moved with his parents collaborative pianist, working with renowned to Israel, where he began violin studies with violinists such as Gil Shaham, Anne Akiko Samuel Bernstein of the Rubin Academy of Meyers, Akiko Suwanai, Tamaki Kawa kubo, and Music at the age of 7, receiving annual scholar - Reiko Watanabe among others.
About tHe ArtIStS
Currently 45 of Eguchi’s recordings are avail - University of the Arts), and his MA in piano able from Deutsche Grammophon, Philips, performance from the Juilliard School. He has Denon, Marquis Classics, Victor, IDC, BMG, studied with Herbert Stessin, Samuel Sanders, Kosei publishing, Canary/Vanguard, AVEX, Hitoshi Toyama, Akiko Kanazawa (piano), and Octavia, and NYS Classics, including 11 solo Shin Sato, Akira Kitamura, and Ichiro Mono- albums, most of which have been selected as “the nobe (composition). best newly released album of the month” by Eguchi was a faculty member at CUNY Recording Arts Magazine. Eguchi is privileged Brook lyn College until the spring of 2011. to record using the legendary instrument, New Currently, he lives in New York and Tokyo, York Steinway model “CD75”(1912), which serving as an associate professor at Tokyo Uni - Vladimir Horowitz played at his concerts, cur - versity of the Arts. He also teaches at Senzoku- rently owned by Takagi Klavier of Tokyo. Gakuen Music College in Japan as a guest Active as a composer, Eguchi’s arrangements professor. of Gershwin piano works were published by Zen-On publishing company, and his piano trio version of Fauré’s Après un rêve was published Management for gil Shaham by International Music Company. Opus 3 Artists Born 1963 in Tokyo, Eguchi received his BA 470 Park Avenue South, 9th Floor North in composition from Tokyo National University New York NY 10016 of Fine Arts and Music (renamed the Tokyo www.opus3artists.com
b PLAYBILL