GIOVEDÌ ORE LIVE STREAMING 17.06.21 18:00 conservatorio.ch/eventi Fabian Hügli clarinetto Recital per il conseguimento del Master of Arts in Music Performance Conservatorio della Svizzera italiana Scuola universitaria di Musica Via Soldino 9 CH-6900 Lugano T +41 (0)91 960 23 62 [email protected] Fabian Hügli Fabian Hügli (*1997) received his first clarinet lessons at the age of 7. At the music conservatory in Zurich he was admitted to play in his first symphonic orchestra at the age of 13 and joined the local Zurich Youth Symphony Orchestra just a few years later. From 2016-2019 he completed his BA in the Zurich University of the Arts with Matthias Müller and is currently completing his Master of Arts in Music Performance in Lugano where he studies in the well-known class of François Benda and Jordi Pons. His participation as principle clarinetist in various youth orchestras and university orchestras has led him to concert tours all around the world. Famous clarinetists like Sharon Kam, Jörg Widmann, Gabor Varga and Christoph Zimper gave him new impulses in masterclasses. He also took part in several competitions and was awarded prizes such as the sponsorship award of the „Mozart Association Zurich“ and special prize in the „Concours National d‘Éxecution Musicale“. Jörg Widmann Fantasie *1973 per clarinetto solo Johannes Brahms Sonata n°1 in Fa minore op. 120 1833 – 1897 per clarinetto e pianoforte I. Allegro appassionato II. Andante, un poco adagio III. Allegretto grazioso IV. Vivace Luigi Bassi Fantasia da Concerto 1833 – 1871 su motivi del “Rigoletto” di Giuseppe Verdi per clarinetto e pianoforte Eva Bohte pianoforte Classe di clarinetto di François Benda e Jordi Pons Jörg Widmann – Fantasie Jörg Widmann, an internationally sought- after soloist and professor of clarinet at the Freiburg Musikhochschule, displays the exquisite refinement of contemporary clarinet sound in 'Fantasie' for solo clarinet. 'Fantasie' is largely based on the usual Romantic melodious sound, though this time with ironic side trips into dance, klezmer and jazz music, the clarinet's equivalent of light music. "'Fantasie' for solo clarinet is my first real piece for my own instrument, the clarinet. With its eccentric virtuosity and its cheerful, ironic fundamental character, it reflects the experience with Stravinsky's 3 Pieces for solo clarinet of 1919 and the tonal innovations which did not appear in music before Carl Maria von Weber's notation for the clarinet, and takes them further in a new way. It is a little imaginary scene uniting the dialogues of different people in close proximity in the spirit of the commedia dell'arte." – "It would be important to take the title completely literally – which is why the performer should of course play the piece with imagination. The most important information on the structure: the complete absence of bar lines – whenever the piece is played to me by students or other persons, I am always pleased about the player's own ideas and about the fact that the musical text is taken literally and seriously, with all its dynamic and articulation marks, and yet filled with life and imagination. What I always notice, however, is that the rhythmic fast pulse part is often played like an étude, rather than with imagination. What is most important to me, personally, is to take pleasure in making tonal distinctions, even despite the strict timing. Use your imagination and enjoy playing my 'Fantasie'!" Jörg Widmann Johannes Brahms and the clarinet: During his later years, the German composer Johannes Brahms was a frequent visitor to the town of Meiningen, where the Grand Duke had a fine orchestra that gave stellar performances of Brahms’ music. Early in 1891, Brahms heard one member of that orchestra, the clarinetist Richard Mülhfeld, perform chamber works by Mozart and Weber. Brahms was so impressed that they became friends fast. Listening to Mülhfeld play, Brahms became so enthusiastic about the clarinet’s possibilities that began writing chamber works for his new friend. Brahms was always particularly fond of the female alto voice, whose timbre is similar to the clarinet’s, and so Brahms promptly nicknamed Mülhfeld “Fraeulein Clarinet” or the “new primadonna.” For Mülhfeld, Brahms first wrote a clarinet trio, which was followed by a clarinet quintet, and finally, a pair of clarinet sonatas, both composed in the summer of 1894. These two sonatas were first played by Mülhfeld with Brahms at a private performance in the home of the sister of the Duke of Meiningen on today’s date that year. In November, the two friends also gave private performances in Frankfurt for Clara Schumann and at Castle Altenstein for the Duke of Meiningen. The first public performances occurred in Vienna in January of 1895. Johannes Brahms – Sonata op. 120 no. 1 in f minor The F-minor Sonata begins with a brief piano introduction, after which the clarinet presents the brooding principal theme. The music soon shifts into more virtuosic arpeggios, the piano writing increasingly full-textured. The development again features more beguiling harmonic exploration, shifting through varying moods – giddy one moment, melancholic the next. The final moments are almost painfully exquisite, a moment of absolute serenity. The “Andante un poco adagio,” is a deeply introspective and intimate conversation between clarinet and piano. The third movement sounds mixes an elegant waltz with an earthier, rambunctious Austrian ländler, its middle section more restlessly chromatic. The final rondo begins with a burst of exuberance, quickly settling into a study of contrasting moods, as each new passage seems intent on mollifying the opening music’s youthful energy. Thankfully, the opening music’s high spirits have the last word in a lively and spirited coda. Luigi Bassi - Concert Fantasia on Motives from 'Rigoletto' Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the 1832 play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. Despite serious initial problems with the Austrian censors who had control over northern Italian theatres at the time, the opera had a triumphant premiere at La Fenice in Venice on 11 March 1851. The work, Verdi's sixteenth in the genre, is widely considered to be the first of the operatic masterpieces of Verdi's middle-to-late career. Its tragic story revolves around the licentious Duke of Mantua, his hunch- backed court jester Rigoletto, and Rigoletto's daughter Gilda. The opera's original title, La maledizione (The Curse), refers to a curse placed on both the Duke and Rigoletto by a courtier whose daughter the Duke has seduced with Rigoletto's encouragement. The curse comes to fruition when Gilda falls in love with the Duke and sacrifices her life to save him from the assassin hired by her father. The Concert Fantasia for clarinet and piano focuses on bringing all the emotions, mood swings, tragedy and hysteria, faced in the plot oft the opera, into a well rounded and polished virtuosic masterpiece of the clarinet repertoire. .