Sunday, October 23, 2016, 3pm Hertz Hall

Denis Matsuev, piano

PROGRAM

Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770 –1827) Sonata No. 31 in A-flat Major, Op. 110 Moderato cantabile molto espressivo Allegro molto Adagio ma non troppo

Robert SCHUMANN ( 1810 –1856 ) Symphonic Études, Op. 13 Theme: Andante Étude I: Un poco più vivo Étude II: Marcato il canto Étude III: Vivace Étude IV: Allegro marcato Étude V: Vivacissimo Posthumous Variation No. 4 Posthumous Variation No. 5 Étude VI: Agitato Étude VII: Allegro molto Étude VIII: Andante Étude IX : Presto possibile Étude X: Allegro Étude XI: Andante Étude XII: Allegro brillante

INTERMISSION Franz LISZT ( 1811 –1886 ) Mephisto Waltz No. 1, S. 514 Piotr Ilyich TCHAIKOVSKY ( 1840 –1893 )“Méditation,” Op. 72, No. 5

Sergei PROKOFIEV ( 1891 –1953 ) Sonata No. 7 in B-flat Major, Op. 83, Stalingrad Allegro inquieto Andante caloroso Precipitato

Funded, in part, by the Koret Foundation, this performance is part of Cal Performances’ 2016–17 Koret Recital Series, which brings world-class artists to our community. Additional support made possible, in part, by Patron Sponsor Dan Johnson.

 PROGRAM NOTES

Sonata No. 31 in A-flat Major, Op. 110 bring release. With robust strength the theme Ludwig van Beethoven pursues its course in confidence, rising ever This work, one of the most lyrical of his 32 higher, while the tempo and the mobility of the piano sonatas, was written in 1822, when Beet - music grow, to reach a climax in an exclama - hoven had already begun his Ninth Symphony tion of joie de vivre. and was working on the enormous Missa —Columbia Artists Management Inc. Solemnis. It is one of the three sonatas written between 1820 and 1822, a set of works highly Symphonic Études, Op. 13 diverse in content but similar in their precision Robert Schumann and economy of development, the distillation Robert Schumann is a central figure in musical of a lifetime’s musical experience. Aided by de - Romanticism; his music is infused with much velopments that within the span of his career self-expression, potent lyricism, and extra- had considerably expanded the range of the musical associations—both personal and liter - fortepiano, Beethoven took the inherited struc - ary—thus making him one of the quintessen - ture of the sonata form crystallized by Haydn tial Romantic composers. Though Schumann and transformed it into a spacious framework was above all a composer of piano music and for the expression of grand ideas. He did this by art songs, the concert literature of the 19th cen - employing important innovations, such as fre - tury would be greatly impoverished without his quent key changes, and by reintroducing into it orchestral works. fugal elements. Son of a bookseller, publisher, and author, The first movement of this sonata, which is Schumann demonstrated such talent in both lyrical, friendly, and informal in construction, musical and literary spheres while still a school - begins con amabilita —amiably and graciously. boy that his father thought to send him to study Like a foreboding of Romanticism, an ecstatic composition with Carl Maria von Weber in beauty of melody dominates the movement, 1826. Unfortunately, both Weber and Schu - which seems to have grown out of the tone col - mann-père died before this plan could be real - ors that are peculiar to the pianoforte, partaking ized; in 1828, Robert’s mother sent him to the neither of the quartet nor the orchestral style. University of Leipzig to matriculate as a law The music glides along, now disporting itself student. After a rather dilatory pursuit of legal in graceful curves, arabesques, or trills, now studies in both Leipzig and Heidelberg, he speaking in eloquent declamation. finally won his parent’s permission to devote The second movement, scherzo-like, mixes himself solely to music in 1830. the soft dialogue sounds with harder accents. It Much of this was due to the support of the is a kind of fantastic march, with suspended renowned piano pedagogue Friedrich Wieck, rhythms and mobile basses, at once light and he who later, after much resistance and a court heavy, delicate and opulent, high and low, loud battle, would become Schumann’s father-in-law. and soft. A trio-intermezzo in D-flat flutters Wieck told Frau Schumann that three years of along, following a capriciously drawn line. solid study could see her son one of the fore - A subdued recitative at the beginning of the most pianists of the day. His share of Robert’s next movement leads to the deeply moving tutelage however, dropped to naught when his arioso, filled with prayerful expression. Deep, daughter Clara showed promise as a concert melancholy shadows descend. But it would not pianist herself and required his presence on be worthy of Beethoven to remain in this mood concert tours. long. Building a rampart against it, piling stone The Symphonic Études , Op. 13 is not only upon stone, the fugue follows, liberating and one of Schumann’s greatest works, but a land - elevating. Once again in the middle portion the mark in the history of piano literature. The beautiful arioso raises its plaintive voice. The title of the work underwent several metamor - fugue hesitates but resumes its progress with an phoses: Schumann had originally intended to inner unrest, from which only the final sections call it “12 Davidsbündleretüden” in reference to

 PLAYBILL PROGRAM NOTES the League of David that he had in - vented as a symbol of his battle with musical philistines. Later he thought of the more portentous title of “Études in Orchestral Character,” finally settling for the double title of “Études en forme de Variations, or XII Études symphoniques.” The theme is, in fact, not by Schu - mann, but Baron von Fricken, an amateur composer and the father of Ernestine von Fricken (Schu mann’s fiancee at the time). In 1834 the Baron asked Schumann to look at a set of variations he composed. Schumann, impressed with the theme, used it for his own Symphonic Études . But he felt that the somber character of the theme was too prevalent in the Baron’s work (a problem Schumann eventually solved by giving his work a tri - umphant conclusion). As he ex - plained in a letter to the Baron:

No doubt the subject ought to keep in view but it ought to be w o

shown through different colored h u t v E

glasses, just as there are windows y n e g v

of various colors which make the E country look rosy like the setting sun, or as golden as a summer morning . . . the finale revised. After Schumann’s death, I am now really arguing against myself, Clara Schu mann and Brahms published five as I have actually been writing variations variations of the six that had been left out of on your theme, and am going to call them the first edition. Today’s program presents the “pathetic.” Still if there is anything pathetic first edition, as well as the last two of the so- about them I have endeavored to portray called posthumous variations. it in different colors. Étude No. 1 is a rhythmically tense march confined almost exclusively to the middle Strangely enough, Schumann struggled all and lower half of the keyboard. No. 2 pits an his life to find the perfect version of this work. assertive and massive triplet accompaniment He was not only interested in composing vari - against a canto in duple time. The wide-spaced ations with the utmost variety, but variations “violin” arpeggios in the right hand of No. 3 that united structurally to form a work of sym - provide a background for the left hand’s elegant phonic proportions. melody. No. 4 is another march, with full chords The first version contained 18 variations, in both hands separated from one another by but when it was published in 1837, it had just eighth-note rests; it leads directly into No. 5, a 12. In 1852, Schumann published a second scherzo handled in pseudo-canonic fashion. edition in which Nos. 3 and 9 were deleted and e fourth of the so-called posthumous varia -

 PROGRAM NOTES

tions is a waltz setting with a prominent accent Faust and Mephistopheles enter a village on the second beat of the measure. e final tavern where a wedding celebration is in posthumous variation combines brilliant finger progress. Faust becomes enamored of a work with the melody hidden in the oeats. dark-eyed beauty, while Mephistopheles Returning to the first edition, No. 6, marked ag - takes over the fiddle-playing. The dancers itato , gets its tumbling, fluttering quality by a become intoxicated by his demonically complicated figuration divided between the two inspired music-making and the party hands. No. 7 starts with both hands moving becomes a bacchanalia. The dancers slip close together, in parallel motion, but the right out into the night, with Mephistopheles’ hand gradually gains a separate identity. No. 8, laughter echoing from time to time as a with its persistent dotted rhythm and ascending- double-note trill. Finally, the nightingale’s descending “slides,” resembles the opening of a song is heard. The heavy desire pulls them Baroque overture. No. 9 is another puckish down. And they are swallowed in the boil - scherzo, to be played presto possibile . There is ing sea of ecstasy. never a pause in the massive, sixteenth-note progression of No. 10. The left hand is equally Liszt scored this work first for full orchestra, persistent in the following étude, but above it then later transcribed it for piano solo and for the right hand spins out an expressive nocturne. two pianos. The Mephisto Waltz is a grand The finale is more than three times the show piece; it presents the performer with tech - length of any of the preceding études and tends nical problems that are truly diabolical. There to overshadow them with its brilliance and are few compositions that offer such a wealth of melodic appeal. As a tribute to the young dazzling pyrotechnics in so few minutes. English man William Sterndale Bennet, a close —Columbia Artists Management Inc. friend of Schumann’s to whom the work is ded - icated, Schumann used the theme “Du stolzes “Méditation,” Op. 72, No. 5 England, Freue dich” (“Proud England, rejoice”) Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky from a Marschner opera, Der Templer und die Tchaikovsky’s works do not exhibit the raw Jüdin , as the theme for the finale. national and folk-song idiom to the extent of Though one of Schumann’s most brilliant Mussorgsky’s music, for instance, and his works, these works were received with so much colors are not quite as brilliant as Rimsky- hostility when first performed, by Clara, that Korsakov’s; yet, more than those by either of Schumann advised her not to play them in pub - these two composers, Tchaikovsky’s works are lic again. He said they were written not to please considered by musicians all over the world as the public but for their own sake. the epitome of Russian music. While he ad - —Columbia Artists Management Inc. hered to Western European forms of technical (edited by Mark Williams) skill and lyric style, in his essentials Tchaikovsky remains a Russian of the most classic tenden - Mephisto Waltz No. 1, S. 514 cies—his language is emotionally Slavic. His Franz Liszt music glows with the peculiar fire that burned The Mephisto Waltz is the first of four such- in his soul; rapture and agony, gloom and joy titled works by Liszt, this one composed in seem in perpetual struggle for expression. 1860. One of his favorite pieces of literature, Tchaikovsky’s piano works often take a back - Goethe’s Faust , inspired these and many of seat compared to his orchestral and vocal Liszt’s compositions, but this music is based on music. This is curious when one realizes the a scene from Nico laus Lenau’s poetic setting of praise they were given by both Bülow and the legend. Sub titled “The Dance in the Village Rubin stein. Nevertheless, his works are infre - Tavern,” the story, inscribed at length in Liszt’s quently played, and little gems like his “Médi - score, follows in brief: tation” are quite deserving of inclusion in the

 PLAYBILL PROGRAM NOTES recital repertoire. Its grand tune, interesting The first performance of this work was given figurations, and strong sense of direction, by Sviatoslav Richter in , January 18, 1943; paired with its strong Russian roots and con - the pianist described the sonata in these terms: templative nature, make this piece a well- deserved respite in a virtuosic recital. The sonata throws us immediately into —Columbia Artists Management Inc. the anxious atmosphere of a world off- (Elizabeth E. Torres) balance. Disorder and uncertainty reign. Man watches the play of death-bearing Sonata No. 7 in B-flat Major, Op. 83, Stalingrad forces. That which made up his life has Sergei Prokofiev ceased to be. He feels, he loves. The full - Not many composers write music that has such ness of this feeling is now directed toward an unmistakable identity as that of Prokofiev. all men. He, together with all men, pro- What is particularly interesting is that Pro - tests and keenly experiences the general kofiev’s music, stylistically changed little over grief. The impetuous offensive rush, full the decades; the same qualities and mannerisms of the will of victory, sweeps all in its path. by which his later works are recognized can be He gains strength in the battle, acquiring found in many of his earlier compositions. In gigantic power, and this becomes an affir - his autobiography, Pro kofiev stated that five mation of life. principal factors dom i nated his art; these are: 1) the influence of Baroque and Classical forms, In his biography of the composer, Israel 2) the desire to introduce new harmonies into Nestyev writes: his expressive music, 3) strong rhythms, 4) ele - ments of lyricism, and 5) the jesting and mock - They were correct who sense in the tem - ing characteristics so typical of his symphonies, pestuous, precipitate rhythms of the first concertos, and stage works. movement, in its “percussive” harmonies, In his keyboard works, Prokofiev sought in the Cyclopean might of its finale— freedom from typical 19th-century techniques. music of gigantic, thundering tension, as if He used the piano’s full sonority, at the same overturning everything in its path—a re - time treating it as a basically percussive instru - flection of the shattering events endured ment. This music, which has become extremely by the in these years. The popular, often suggests strange, psychological sonata has no program, but the storms of elements. the war years are surely reflected in its Prokofiev wrote more than 100 piano pieces, general emotional tonality. For a brief of varying lengths and in many styles; however, moment at the beginning of the second his finest keyboard writing is exhibited in the movement the nervous dynamics give way nine piano sonatas. Their composition covers a to the charm of a live-lyrical minuet span of over 40 years. The Sonata No. 7 was theme. But soon this oasis of pure lyricism begun in 1939 and completed three years later is engulfed by the steely pressure of the in Tbilisi, where and when he also completed B-flat Major finale, courageously uniting the opera War and Peace . The composer enti - in itself the Russian monumentalism of tled this sonata, along with the sixth and eighth, Bor o din with sharp modern “machine” the War sonatas, as they were written during the rhythms. period when the impact of the Nazi invasion was most strongly felt by the Russian people, One of the landmarks of 20th-century piano and especially by Prokofiev. literature, the Sonata No. 7 in B-flat Major, Op. 83 earned the composer the Stalin Prize. —Columbia Artists Management Inc.

 ABOUT THE ARTIST

Denis Matsuev (piano ) has enjoyed a stellar tor and chairman of the organ izing committee career since his triumphant victory at the 11th for the Moscow Grand Piano Competition for International Tchaikovsky Competition in young pianists. Moscow; he is now one of the most sought-after Matsuev is the president of New Names, the musicians of his generation. Matsuev appears Russian interregional charitable foundation; regularly with renowned orchestras such as the artistic director of the Serge Rachmaninoff Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Pitts burgh Sym - Foundation; and laureate of the prestigious phony, London Symphony Orchestra, New Shostakovich Prize. He was voted People’s Artist York Philharmonic, Phila delphia Orchestra, of Russia and is a member of the Presi dential Los Angeles Philharmonic, Amsterdam’s Con - Council for Culture and Art. He recently be - cert gebouw, Berliner Philhar moniker, Bavarian came the head of the Public Council under the Radio Symphony Orch estra, Leipzig Gewand - Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation. haus Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, and In 2014 Matsuev was seen by millions of the Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre. He also spectators around the globe performing ex - enjoys successful creative partnerships with the cerpts from Rachmaninoff’s Piano Con certo world’s most prominent conductors, including No. 2 at the closing ceremony of the Olympic , Mariss Jansons, Myung-Whun Games in . Also that year, he was desig - Chung, Zubin Mehta, and Yuri Temirkanov. nated a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. Matsuev continues his involvement with the Denis Matsuev was recently announced as Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation, established by the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia ambassador. Alexander Rachmaninoff, the grand son of the composer, and it was Matsuev who was chosen to present Rachmaninoff’s unpublished works, Columbia Artists Management LLC recorded at the composer’s grand piano. R. Douglas Sheldon, personal direction For many years Matsuev has led numerous 1790 Broadway music festivals and educational projects, in - New York, NY 10019 cluding the Stars on the Baikal Festival, the Crescendo Festival, the Annecy Music Festival Denis Matsuev gratefully acknowledges the (artistic director), and the International Astana AVC Charity Foundation, Andrey Cheglakov, Piano Passion Festival and Competition. In founder, as a Strategic Partner of today’s per - 2016 Matsuev also serves as the artistic direc - formance.

 PLAYBILL