Sunday, November 8, 2015, 3pm Hertz Hall

Leila Josefowicz, violin John Novacek, piano

PROGRAM

Manuel de Falla (1876–1946) Suite populaire espagnole (1914) arr. Kochánski (1925)

El Paño Moruno: Allegretto vivace Nana (Berceuse): Calmo e sostenuto Canción: Allegretto Polo: Vivo Asturiana: Andante tranquillo Jota: Allegro vivo

Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992) Thème et Variations (1932)

Thème: Modéré Variation I: Modéré Variation II: Un peu moins modéré Variation III: Modéré, avec éclat Variation IV: Vif et passionné Variation V: Très modéré

2 PROGRAM

Robert Schumann (1810–1856) Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano in A minor, Op. 105 (1851)

Mit leidenschaftlichem Ausdruck Allegretto Lebhaft

INTERMISSION

Erkki-Sven Tüür (b. 1959) Conversio (1994)

John Adams (b. 1947) Road Movies (1995)

Relaxed Groove Meditative 40% Swing

Funded, in part, by the Koret Foundation, this performance is part of Cal Performances’ 2015–2016 Koret Recital Series, which brings world-class artists to our community.

Additional support is provided by Patron Sponsor Daniel W. Johnson.

Hamburg Steinway piano provided by Steinway & Sons of San Francisco.

Cal Performances’ 2015–2016 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo.

3 PROGRAM NOTES

Manuel de Falla that Gilbert Chase said they provide “a model Suite populaire espagnole for contemporary song-writers throughout the Spanish-speaking world, in which popu- Composed for voice and piano in 1914; ar- lar and artistic elements are closely and often ranged in 1925. Premièred on January 14, 1915, inextricably intertwined.” In 1925, six of the in Madrid by soprano Luisa Vela and the com- Seven Popular Spanish Songs were arranged poser. Arranged by Paul Kochánski (1887–1934). for violin and piano as the Suite populaire es- pagnole by Paul Kochánski (1887–1934), the When Manuel de Falla was preparing his noted Polish violinist and Juilliard faculty opera La Vida Breve for its first Paris perfor- member who excelled in the performance of mance, at the Opéra Comique on December modern works, most notably those of Karol 30, 1913 (it had been premièred in Nice on Szymanowski, and transcribed many works April 1), he received two requests—one from for his instrument. the soprano Luisa Vela, who was performing El Paño Moruno (“The Moorish Cloth”), the leading role of Salud in the cast of La Vida whose accompaniment was inspired by the Breve; the other, from a Greek singing teach- steely brilliance of the guitar, comes from er. Vela was planning a series of solo recitals Murcia in southeastern Spain. Nana is an during the coming months, and she asked Andalusian lullaby. Canción (“Song”) exhib- Falla to provide some songs in Spanish style its the pattern of mixed rhythmic stresses for her programs. The Greek singing teacher that characterizes much of Spain’s indigenous wanted advice about the appropriate accom- music. Polo, Andalusian in origin, evokes the panimental style for some melodies from his Gypsy world of flamenco.Asturiana is a la- homeland. Falla experimented with setting ment from the northern region of Asturias. one of the Greek songs, and discovered that he The Jota, mainly associated with the northern could extrapolate a suitable harmonic idiom province of Aragon, is one of the most familiar from the implications of the melody itself. He of Spanish dance forms. tried out this new technique in the songs he was preparing for Vela, which he had decided would be settings of seven popular indigenous Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992) melodies culled from various regions of Spain. Thème et Variations The Siete Canciones Populares Españolas were largely completed by the time he retreated to Composed in 1932. Premièred in 1932 in Paris, Spain in 1914 in the face of the German inva- by violinist Claire Delbos and the composer. sion of France; he and Vela gave their première at the Ateneo in Madrid on January 14, 1915. Olivier Messiaen, one of towering figures The idiom of the piano accompaniments that of modern French music, was born in 1908 Falla devised for his Seven Popular Spanish in the ancient southern town of Avignon to Songs was, according to the composer’s biogra- Pierre Messiaen, a professor of literature not- pher Suzanne Demarquez, derived from “the ed for his translations of Shakespeare, and natural resonance...and modal nature of each the poetess Cécile Sauvage. Olivier entered song, without in any way neglecting the grace, the Paris Conservatoire at the age of eleven the sensitivity, the delicate style of his pianis- to study with composer Paul Dukas, organist tic inspiration.” Though the Siete Canciones Marcel Dupré, and other of that school’s dis- Populares Españolas is virtually the only work tinguished faculty, winning several prizes for of Falla to quote existing Spanish themes (two harmony, organ, improvisation, and compo- tiny folksong fragments were employed in The sition before graduating in 1930. The follow- Three-Cornered Hat), so potent were these ing year he was appointed chief organist at pieces in defining a national style of art song the Trinité in Paris. In 1936, Messiaen joined

4 PROGRAM NOTES with André Jolivet, Yves Baudrier, and Daniel followed by variations (four, in this case) with Lesur to form La Jeune France, a group of increasingly quick figurations, and a broad, young French composers pledged to return- concluding variation that returns the theme ing substance and sincerity to the nation’s in a heightened, octave-transposition setting. music, which they felt had become trivial- ized and cynical. Messiaen was appointed to the faculties of the Schola Cantorum and the Robert Schumann (1810–1856) École-Normale that same year. Called up for Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano in A minor, military service at the outbreak of hostilities in Op. 105 1939, he was captured the following summer and imprisoned at Stalag VIII-A in Görlitz, Composed in 1851. Premièred in March 1852 in Silesia. There he wrote hisQuartet for the End Leipzig by pianist Clara Schumann and violin- of Time for the musical instruments available ist Ferdinand David. among his fellow musician-prisoners (clarinet, violin, cello, and piano); the work’s extraordi- In September 1850, the Schumanns left nary première was given at the camp in 1941. Dresden to take up residence in Düsseldorf, He was repatriated later that year, resuming where Robert assumed the post of municipal his position at the Trinité and joining the staff music director. He was welcomed to the city of the Conservatoire as professor of harmony, with a serenade, a concert of his works, a supper, where his students came to include such im- and a ball. Though he had been cautioned a few portant musicians as Boulez, Stockhausen, years before by his friend Felix Mendelssohn and Xenakis. In addition to his teaching du- that the local musicians were a shoddy bunch, ties in Paris, Messiaen gave special classes he was eager to take on the variety of duties in Budapest, Darmstadt, Saarbruck, and that awaited him in the Rhenish city, includ- Tanglewood. He was a member of the French ing conducting the ’s subscription Institute, Academy of Beaux Arts de Baviere of concerts, leading performances of church Berlin, Santa Cecilia Academy of Rome, and music, giving private music lessons, organiz- American Academy of Arts and Letters. He ing a chamber music society, and composing died in Paris in 1992. as time allowed. Despite Schumann’s promis- Among Messiaen’s first works after gradu- ing entry into the musical life of Düsseldorf, ating from the Paris Conservatoire was the it was not long before things turned sour. His Thème et Variations for Violin and Piano, fragile mental health, his ineptitude as a con- written as a wedding gift for violinist Claire ductor, and his frequent irritability created Delbos upon the occasion of their marriage a rift with the musicians, and the orchestra’s in 1932; the newlyweds premièred the piece in governing body presented him with the sug- Paris that year. (The following year Messiaen gestion that, perhaps, his time would be better wrote a Fantaisie for them to play together, but devoted entirely to composition. Schumann, that score has never been published.) Claire increasingly unstable though at first deter- was forced to give up playing the violin dur- mined to stay, complained to his wife, Clara, ing the World War II because of illness; she that he was being cruelly treated. Proceedings became an invalid and died in 1959. In 1962, were begun by the orchestra committee to re- Messiaen married the pianist Yvonne Loriod. lieve him of his position, but his resignation in The Thème et Variations, one of Messiaen’s 1853 ended the matter. By early the next year, earliest creations, is more indebted in concept Schumann’s reason had completely given way. and realization to his traditional training at On February 27th, he tried to drown himself the Conservatoire than to the unique mysti- in the Rhine, and a week later he was com- cal vision that informs his best-known works. mitted to the asylum in Endenich, where he The piece uses the conventional form: theme lingered with fleeting moments of sanity for

5 PROGRAM NOTES nearly two-and-a-half years. His faithful Clara Hiiumaa, first gained notice when he founded was there with him when he died on July 29, what he called the “chamber rock” band In 1856, at the age of 46. Spe (“In Hope”) in 1979, three years after he Though Schumann’s tenure in Düsseldorf had begun studying percussion and flute at the proved difficult and ended sadly, he enjoyed Tallinn Music School. Tüür tried out his ideas there one of his greatest outbursts of creativ- about combining rock and classical idioms ity—nearly one-third of his compositions were with In Spe during the next four years, serving written in the city. His two Sonatas for Violin as vocalist, percussionist, flutist, and keyboard and Piano (A minor and D minor) were com- player, and composing most of the group’s posed in a rush during the autumn of 1851 music. In 1980, he enrolled at the Tallinn (September 12–16 and October 26–November Academy of Music as a composition student of 2). A restless theme, marked “with passionate Jaan Rääts; he also took private lessons from expression,” opens the A minor Sonata. The Lepo Sumera after graduating from the school music brightens as it enters its formal second in 1984. Tüür has incorporated into his works theme area, though its melodic content contin- a wide variety of influences, from Renaissance ues to be spun from the same motives. Rapid polyphony and Baroque motoric rhythms to harmonic changes lend an unsettled quality modern minimalism and serialism. “To com- to the development section. After a full reca- pose is to give intensity to the musical archi- pitulation, the movement ends abruptly in the tecture,” he explained, “to construct the archi- anxious, minor-mode manner in which it be- tectonics of sound using the opposites of high gan. TheAllegretto , more a pleasant intermez- and low, dense and sparse, tonal and atonal, a zo than an emotional slow movement, takes as single sound and an expanse of sound…to col- its principal theme a three-part melody: the late these images, to let them melt all but un- outer phrases are sweet and lyrical; the center noticeably into each other, to let them undergo one, quick-moving and staccato. Two short a constant change.... My work as a composer is episodes, one reminiscent of the lyrical strain, entirely concerned with the relation between the other of the staccato phrase, separate the emotional and intellectual energy and the returns of the main theme. The sonata-form ways in which they can be channeled, accumu- finale resumes the restless mood of the open- lated, liquidated, and re-accumulated.” ing movement, though the level of tension Tüür taught composition at the Tallinn here is heightened by the music’s fast tempo Conservatory from 1989 to 1992, but he has and tightly packed imitative texture. Episodes otherwise devoted himself primarily to his cre- in brighter tonalities provide some expressive ative work, producing an opera (based on the contrast, but the Sonata ends with agitated ca- life of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat dential gestures that reaffirm the work’s per- instrumental in saving many Hungarian Jews vasive anxious mood. during the Holocaust), eight symphonies, and several other orchestral scores, nine concertos (including one for accordion and another in- Erkki-Sven Tüür (b. 1959) spired by Uluru, the massive sandstone mono- Conversio lith, also known as Ayers Rock, in the heart of the Australian desert that is sacred to the Composed in 1994. indigenous people), several large-scale choral pieces on sacred texts, chamber compositions, Among the many gifted musicians whose electronic pieces, incidental music, and film work became known in the West following scores. Among Tüür’s honors are the Estonian the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989 is the Music Prize, Estonian Culture Award, Baltic Estonian composer Erkki-Sven Tüür. Tüür, Assembly Culture Prize, Order of the White born in 1959 in Kärdla on the Baltic island of Star, Prize of the Estonian Music Council,

6 PROGRAM NOTES

Prize of the Republic of Estonia, and an hon- made a Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des orary doctorate from the Estonian Academy Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture; of Music; in 2009, he was named Estonian in 1999, Nonesuch released The Citizen of the Year. Earbox, a critically acclaimed ten-CD col- Conversio—Latin for “change” or “conver- lection of his work; in 2003, he received the sion”—eschews classical formal types to fol- Pulitzer Prize for On the Transmigration of low instead a path that seems almost to mir- Souls, written for the New York Philharmonic ror a human experience. The first half of the in commemoration of the first anniversary of work is an infectious dance of Celtic cast that the World Trade Center attacks, and was also grows with youthful exuberance until increas- recognized by New York’s Lincoln Center with ingly harsh chords in the piano undermine a two-month retrospective of his work titled the violin’s nearly frenzied motion. The dance “John Adams: An American Master,” the most stumbles, falls into fragments, and finally extensive festival devoted to a living composer stops altogether. Their optimism suddenly ever mounted at Lincoln Center; from 2003 lost, violin and piano try to continue the dance to 2007, Adams held the Richard and Barbara but cannot. They propose new directions—the Debs Composer’s Chair at Carnegie Hall; in first notes of what could be a broad, heroic 2004, he was awarded the Centennial Medal of melody that can never get beyond a single bro- Harvard University’s Graduate School of Arts ken phrase, a keening low note in the violin, and Sciences “for contributions to society” and querulous intrusions from the piano—but the became the first-ever recipient of the Nemmers earlier momentum cannot be recovered, and Prize in Music Composition, which included Conversio closes in a state of quiet, question- residencies and teaching at Northwestern ing resignation. University; he was a 2009 recipient of the NEA Opera Award; he has been granted honor- ary doctorates from the Juilliard School and John Adams (b. 1947) Cambridge, Harvard, Yale and Northwestern Road Movies universities, honorary membership in Phi Beta Kappa, and the California Governor’s Award Composed in 1995. Premièred on October 23, for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts. 1995, in Washington, D.C. by violinist Robin John Adams was born into a musical family Lorentz and pianist Vicki Ray. in Worcester, Massachusetts, on February 15, 1947; as a boy, he lived in Woodstock, Vermont, John Adams is one of today’s most acclaimed and in New Hampshire. From his father, he composers. Audiences have responded en- learned the clarinet and went on to become an thusiastically to his music, and he enjoys a accomplished performer on that instrument, success not seen by an American composer playing with the New Hampshire Philharmonic since the zenith of Aaron Copland’s career: and Sarah Caldwell’s Boston Opera Orchestra, a recent survey of major conduct- and appearing as soloist in the first perfor- ed by the League of American Orchestras mances of Walter Piston’s Clarinet Concerto in found John Adams to be the most frequently Boston, New York, and Washington. (Adams performed living American composer; he first met Piston as a neighbor of his family in received the University of Louisville’s distin- Woodstock, and received encouragement, ad- guished Grawemeyer Award in 1995 for his vice, and understanding from the older com- Violin Concerto; in 1997, he was the focus poser, one of this country’s most respected art- of the New York Philharmonic’s Composer ists.) Adams’s professional focus shifted from Week, elected to the American Academy of the clarinet to composition during his under- Arts and Letters, and named “Composer of graduate study at Harvard, where his principal the Year” by Musical America; he has been teacher was Leon Kirchner.

7 PROGRAM NOTES

Rather than following the expected route probably suggested by the ‘groove’ in the piano for a budding composer, which led through part, all of which is required to be played in a Europe, Adams chose to stay in America. In ‘swing’ mode. Road Movies is travel music, mu- 1972, he settled in California to join the fac- sic that is comfortably settled in a pulse groove ulty of the San Francisco Conservatory of and passes through harmonic and textural re- Music, where his duties included directing gions as one would pass through a landscape the New Music Ensemble, leading the student on a car trip. The piano sets the tone of the first orchestra, teaching composition, and admin- movement (‘Relaxed Groove’) with its regular, istering a graduate program in analysis and undulating figuration, a style of writing that is history. In 1978, he became associated with always executed ‘with a slight swing.’ The vio- the San Francisco Symphony and conduc- lin rides the wave, picking up little fragments tor Edo de Waart in an evaluation of that en- of melody, juggling them, playing with them, semble’s involvement with contemporary mu- and then tossing them aside in favor of some- sic. Two years later he helped to institute the thing new. Symphony’s “New and Unusual Music” series, “Then follows a movement (‘Meditative’) which subsequently served as the model for of almost motionless contemplation, a quiet the “Meet the Composer” program, sponsored dialogue that passes a single phrase back and by the Exxon Corporation, the Rockefeller forth between the two instruments, each play- Foundation, and the National Endowment er slightly modifying it, savoring it, and then for the Arts, which placed composers-in- yielding it up to his partner. The violinist tunes residence with several major American or- the low G string down a full step to produce a chestras; Adams served as resident composer curious, ultra-relaxed, baritone F-natural. with the San Francisco Symphony from 1979 “‘40% Swing’ is for four-wheel drives only, a to 1985. He began his tenure as Creative Chair big perpetual-motion machine with echoes of with the with the jazz and bluegrass. On modern MIDI sequenc- première of City Noir on October 8, 2009. In ers the desired amount of swing can be ad- May 2012, the Los Angeles Philharmonic justed with almost ridiculous accuracy. ‘40%’ and Los Angeles Master Chorale conducted provides a giddy, bouncy ride, somewhere by Gustavo Dudamel premièred The Gospel between an Ives ragtime and a long ride-out According to the Other Mary, an “oratorio by the Benny Goodman Orchestra, circa 1939. in two acts”; Scheherazade.2, a “dramatic What was a relaxed groove in the first move- symphony for violin and orchestra,” was in- ment now shifts into high gear with synco- troduced in March 2015 by violinist Leila pated accents making the surface bump and Josefowicz and the New York Philharmonic, stutter with unexpected shifts and swerves. conducted by Alan Gilbert. The rhythm is very difficult for violin and -pia Of Road Movies, composed in 1995 and no to maintain over the seven-minute stretch, premièred at the Terrace Theater of the especially in the tricky cross-hand style of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in piano part. Relax, and leave the driving to us.” Washington, D.C., by violinist Robin Lorentz and pianist Vicki Ray on October 23, 1995, Adams wrote that “the title is total whimsy, © 2015 Dr. Richard E. Rodda

8 ABOUT THE ARTISTS

recital at New York’s Zankel Hall as well as at Cal Performances and in Denver. Violin concertos have been written for Ms. Josefowicz by composers including John Adams, Esa-Pekka Salonen, , and Steven Mackey. Scheherazade.2 (Dramatic Symphony for Violin and Orchestra) by Mr. Adams was given its world première by Ms. Josefowicz in March 2015 with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Alan Gilbert. Luca Francesconi’s concerto Duende: The Dark Notes, also written for Ms. Josefowicz, was given its world première by her in 2014 with Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Susanna Mälkki before being performed by Ms. Josefowicz, Ms. Mälkki, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the BBC Proms in July 2015. Her recent concert highlights include performances with the Chicago, Cincinnati, Baltimore, and Melbourne symphony orches- tras, Ottawa’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, Tonhalle-

Chris Lee Orchester Zürich, Filarmonica della Scala, and eila josefowicz’s passionate advo- the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester. Lcacy of contemporary music for the violin Ms. Josefowicz has released several record- is reflected in her diverse programmes and ings, notably for Deutsche Grammophon, enthusiasm to perform new works. She fre- Philips, and Warner Classics, and was featured quently collaborates with leading composers on Touch Press’s acclaimed iPad app, The and works with orchestras and conductors at Orchestra. Her latest recording, Mr. Salonen’s the highest level around the world. In 2008, Violin Concerto with the Finnish Radio she was awarded a prestigious MacArthur Symphony Orchestra conducted by the com- Fellowship, joining prominent scientists, writ- poser, was nominated for a Grammy Award ers, and musicians who have made unique in 2014. contributions to contemporary life. Highlights of Ms. Josefowicz’s 2015– John Novacek (piano) 2016 season include engagements with the regularly tours the London Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw, Americas, Europe, and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, and Sydney Asia as solo recitalist, Symphony orchestras, the Orquesta Nacional chamber musician, and de España, and the Finnish Radio Symphony concerto soloist; in the Orchestra, including on tour in Vienna, latter capacity he has Salzburg, and Innsbruck. In North America, presented over 30 con- Josefowicz performs with the Cleveland certos with dozens of Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Los orchestras.

Angeles Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, St. SchaafPeter Mr. Novacek’s ma- Louis Symphony, and Washington’s National jor American performances have been heard Symphony Orchestra. She also appears in in Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center’s Avery 9 ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Fisher Hall and Alice Tully Hall, the 92nd Ying string quartets. He also tours widely as Street Y, Columbia University’s Miller Theatre, a member of Intersection, a piano trio that Merkin Concert Hall, the Metropolitan includes violinist Kaura Frautschi and cellist Museum of Art, and Symphony Space in Kristina Reiko Coooper. Mr. Novacek has also New York; Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy given numerous world premières and worked Center; Boston’s Symphony Hall; Chicago’s closely with composers John Adams, John Symphony Center; and the Dorothy Chandler Harbison, Jennifer Higdon, George Rochberg, Pavilion, Hollywood Bowl, and Royce Hall in John Williams, and John Zorn. Los Angeles. International venues in which Mr. Novacek took top prizes at the he has performed include the Théâtre des Leschetizky and Joanna Hodges international Champs-Élysées, Salle Gaveau, and Musée du piano competitions, among many others. He Louvre in Paris; London’s Wigmore Hall and studied piano with Jakob Gimpel at California Barbican Centre; and most major concert halls State University, Northridge, where he earned in Japan. He is also a frequent guest artist at a B.M., summa cum laude. Subsequently, he festivals, including Mostly Mozart, Festival earned an M.M. from the Mannes College of Mozaic, Aspen, Caramoor, Chautauqua, Music, where his instructors were Peter Serkin Ravinia, SummerFest La Jolla, and Wolf Trap in piano and Felix Galimer in chamber music. in the United States; and the BBC Proms, Mr. Novacek’s coaches in composition includ- Braunschweig, Lucerne, Menuhin, Verbier, ed Frederick Werle, Aurelio de la Vega, and Majorca, Sorrento, Stavanger, Toulouse, and Daniel Kessner. Sapporo internationally. Mr. Novacek has recorded more than 30 Mr. Novacek is a sought-after collabora- CDs, encompassing solo and chamber mu- tive artist who has performed with Joshua sic by major composers from Bach to Bartók, Bell, Matt Haimovitz, Leila Josefowicz, Cho- as well as many contemporary and original Liang Lin, Yo-Yo Ma, Truls Mørk, Elmar scores. Titles with Ms. Josefowicz include Oliveira, and Emmanuel Pahud, as well Americana, For the End of Time, Shostakovich, as the Colorado, Harrington, Jupiter, New and Recital. Hollywood, St. Lawrence, SuperNova, and Mr. Novacek is a Steinway Artist.

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