Dear Friends: Presenting a Van Cliburn Medalist Is Highly Admirable in the World of Chamber Music Programming. but Here in Maine

Dear Friends: Presenting a Van Cliburn medalist is highly admirable in the world of chamber music programming. But here in Maine we like to do things our own way. As such, Portland Ovations makes it its practice to present the Gilmore Artist Award winners. Since 2002, Ovations has presented all of the awardees. Who can forget the intuitive grace of Kirill Gerstein’s playing or the fiery attack of Ingrid Fliter or the breathtaking command of Piotr Anderszewski? It’s exciting to consider what we all will be saying tonight after experiencing Rafal Blechacz. Unlike the Van Cliburn and other lauded honors, the Gilmore winner is not chosen out of a festival setting in which pianists compete to win. Instead, performers are nominated from around the globe and then observed over a number of years by an anonymous Artistic Advisory Committee. Pianists are not aware they are being considered, and one of the most promising is honored with the Gilmore every four years. Given the generosity of the award and the in-depth selection process, some have likened it to the MacArthur “Genius Award.” Presentation of the Gilmore winner also serves Ovations’ dedication to bringing to Maine emerging instrumentalists whose impact will grow and fortify the future of classical music. Nothing is more thrilling than hearing at intermission: “Amazing. Where did they find him/her?” Recitals by these young virtuosos along with esteemed veterans and a dash of contemporary concert music is what distinguishes Ovations’ chamber series. You could say it’s the way live performance should be. We hope you agree. Enjoy, Aimée M. Petrin Executive Director PROGRAM NOTES by Linda Russell Italian Concerto in F Major, BWV 971 J. S. Bach Coming from a long line of German musicians, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) began his professional career at eighteen as a church organist. His first important position, as court organist and chamber musician to the Duke of Weimar (1708-17), came just five years later. During Bach’s mature period while he was Cantor of St. Thomas’s in Leipzig (1723-50), he published his most comprehensive publication of keyboard music, the Clavier-Übung. He included the Concerto nach italienishem Gusto of 1735 along with several toccatas in Part II of this compilation. Bach composed the Italian Concerto for a two-manual harpsichord in the style of a Baroque Italian concerto grosso. Following that style the work is in a typical Fast-Slow- Fast arrangement (Allegro, Andante, Presto). He also included the dynamic markings forte and piano to imitate the alternation of the large group (grosso) and small group (concertino). The first movement provides a crisp, cheerful beginning with two themes corresponding to the two groups of a concerto grosso. The slow middle movement has the character of an aria with its expressive cantabile melody over a persistent pizzicato- like accompaniment figure in the left hand. In the vigorous third movement Bach returned to the contrast of two themes and two alternating groups. Sonata in C minor, Op. 13 “Pathetique” Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven’s (1770-1827) thirty-two sonatas, perhaps the most important single category in his output, not only reveal his development as a composer but also demonstrate how he transformed the genre. It was in the piano sonatas that he experimented with and worked out new ideas and methods before extending them to other categories of composition. The sonata on today’s program falls into Beethoven’s first period of sonata composition; here Beethoven experimented with accepted classic structures. Sonata in C Minor, Op.13 Pathétique, the first of Beethoven’s sonatas to gain universal popularity, was published in 1799 and dedicated to Prince Karl Lichnowsky, one of Beethoven’s leading patrons. Beethoven himself gave the work its descriptive title. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, the key of C Minor was associated with the pathétique and this character is clear from the outset. A Grave introduction with heavy chords in a dotted rhythm followed by a cantabile line with a ponderous chordal accompaniment opens the sonata. This is the first time Beethoven employs a slow introduction and then integrates it into the rest of the movement. The rhythmically driven principal theme in the Allegro section contains rapidly ascending chords with offbeat accentuations; a more graceful secondary theme provides contrast. Before the development begins and again in the coda, Beethoven brings back, in abbreviated form, the Grave beginning of the introduction. In the sustained and lyric Adagio cantabile in A-flat Major, Beethoven composed a rondo (ABACA), which releases the tension with an interval of peace. The Finale is also a rondo with a yearning principal theme and two contrasting sections, one with eighth note and triplet figuration, the second with two- voice writing and figuration. “To sum up thePathétique sonata, one feels that Beethoven was expressing Tragedy, as the young feel it—with the glamor, the exultancy and the urgency of a Hamlet or Romeo and Juliet.” (Lythgoe) Frédéric François Chopin Frédéric François Chopin (1810-1849) devoted himself almost exclusively to compositions for the piano. In a period when spectacular and forceful playing was greatly admired, Chopin, though capable of great power, achieved many of his effects through a more subtle and restrained style of playing and composition. The fundamental texture of Chopin’s music is accompanied melody, but with limitless variation and expressiveness. Chopin is considered to be among the greatest harmonic innovators of the nineteenth century, pushing the accepted procedures of chromatic dissonance and modulation into previously unexplored territory. Formally, Chopin preferred the creative possibilities of the character piece, a smaller composition in which a composer evokes a mood, thought, or emotion. Such pieces are usually in a simple form; the ternary (ABA) form is the most common, with a contrasting middle section. Chopin’s compositions range from the strict ternary designs of some of the dances, preludes, and nocturnes to the larger structure of the ballades, scherzi, and polonaises—still with a departure and return, but with the return varied, delayed, shortened, or extended in subtle ways. Nocturne E major Op. 62, No. 2 Chopin took the title and general character of the nocturne from English composer John Field, but imbued his nocturnes with distinctive melodies, harmonic innovations, and an original piano style. Most often Chopin composed the nocturnes in a ternary form with the B section a little quicker in tempo and more dramatic in character. The right hand sings the simple lyrical melody, often ornamented upon its return, against a background of arpeggiated accompaniment. In Nocturne in E Major, Op. 62, No. 2 the cantabile sections contrast with the more agitated middle section. Three Waltzes, Op. 64 Waltzes were very popular dances in the nineteenth century—first as short, modest pieces, later becoming more elegant and refined. As with other dances, Chopin took the waltz to new heights. His earlier waltzes are modest with simple, short trio sections; the later waltzes were brilliant, bravura pieces. He composed waltzes of two types: they were either brilliant and dashing with glittering piano figuration, or they were of a pensive and expressive character. Schumann commented about one of Chopin’s waltzes that it was “aristocratic through and through. If played for dancers, half of the ladies should be countesses at least.” The Waltz in D-flat, Op. 64 No. ,1 familiarly known as the Minute Waltz, features fluent finger passages which paint “a whirl of unrestrained gaiety.” This sobriquet refers to the miniature nature of the work rather than the length of time required to play it. Chopin gave this waltz the title Valse du petit chien, inspired by his lover George Sand’s dog chasing its tail. A short cantabile central section provides contrast. For the second waltz of the set in C-sharp Minor, Chopin balanced three musically contrasted ideas. The first is characterized by a yearning expression, the second is faster with running figuration in the right hand, and the third central section is slower and more contemplative. The order of the themes is ABCBAB. Artur Rubinstein played this waltz often. When asked how he could continue to play the same waltz for over 75 years, he replied, “Because it’s not the same, and I don’t play it the same way.” Alexander Glazunov orchestrated it for part of the ballet Les Sylphides. The last waltz in this set was a favorite of Chopin and he frequently played it. The A sections possess a charming, suave elegance; the bass theme in the central section is especially beautiful. Artur Rubinstein said, “This waltz is the most original of all. This waltz is not for dancing, nor is it a ‘salon piece,’ no, it is a thing directly from Chopin’s heart and soul.” Three Mazurkas, Op. 56 The folk music of his native Poland strongly influenced Chopin—as seen in his approximately fifty mazurkas. The mazurka originated as a Polish country dance. There are several different types of mazurkas, but all move in triple meter with strong accents (accompanied by the tap of a heel) on either the second or third beat. Frequently, an accompaniment was played on the duda, a kind of bagpipe. Chopin used these basic rhythmic features of dotted rhythms, syncopations and irregular accentuations, extended the original forms, and developed the mazurka to its fullest and most intimate expression by adding grace notes and ornamental figuration. The variety of moods range from “radiant joyfulness to aching sadness, from brevity to extended movement.” Chopin composed the three mazurkas of Op. 56 in 1843-1844 and they comprise one of his more substantial sets of mazurkas.

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