Lukáš Vondráček in Recital ollowing recent debuts with the Pittsburgh and made his debut with the Czech Philharmonic FTokyo Metropolitan symphony orchestras, Orchestra and Vladimir Ashkenazy which was hr-Sinfonieorchester and Royal Scottish National followed by a major US tour in 2003. His natural Orchestra, Lukáš Vondráček has a season packed and assured musicality and remarkable technique WEDNESDAY 4 MARCH 7.30PM with highlights ahead of him. In 2019/20 the have long marked him out as a gifted and mature Federation Concert Hall, Hobart indisputable winner of the International Queen musician. He has achieved worldwide recognition Elisabeth Piano Competition 2016 will make his by receiving many international awards including debuts with London Symphony, Utah Symphony first prizes at the Hilton Head and San Marino MOZART and North Carolina Symphony Orchestras and International Piano Competitions and Unisa Sonata in C, K330 INTERVAL has been reinvited to perform with the Colorado International Piano Competition in Pretoria, Allegro moderato Andante cantabile BRAHMS Symphony Orchestra, Belgian National Orchestra South Africa, as well as the Raymond E Buck Jury Allegretto Sonata No 3 in F Minor, Op 5 and Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, to Discretionary Award at the 2009 International Van Allegro maestoso mention just a few. Cliburn Piano Competition. RAVEL Andante espressivo Over the last decade Lukáš Vondráček has Lukáš Vondráček has worked with conductors Sonatine Scherzo: Allegro energico travelled the world working with orchestras including Paavo Järvi, Gianandrea Noseda, Modéré Intermezzo: Andante molto such as the Philadelphia and Sydney Symphony Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Christopher Warren-Green, Mouvement de menuet Finale: Allegro moderato ma rubato Orchestras, Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Marin Alsop, Christoph Eschenbach, Pietari Animé Paulo, the Philharmonia, Oslo Philharmonic and Inkinen, Vasily Petrenko, Jakub Hr ša, Anu Tali, ů DEBUSSY Netherlands Philharmonic orchestras. Recitals Xian Zhang, Krzysztof Urbański, Stéphane Denève Des pas sur la neige, from Préludes Book 1 have taken him to Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, and Elim Chan. La cathédrale engloutie, from Préludes Book 1 This recital will end at approximately 9.30pm. Deutschlandfunk Cologne, the Flagey in Brussels, After finishing his studies at the Academy of Leipzig’s Gewandhaus, Wiener Konzerthaus, the Music in Katowice and the Vienna Conservatoire, Concertgebouw and to festivals such as Menuhin Lukáš Vondráček obtained an Artist Diploma Festival Gstaad and PianoEspoo in Finland. from Boston’s New England Conservatory under Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra concerts are broadcast and streamed throughout Australia and At the age of four Lukáš Vondráček made his the tutelage of Hung-Kuan Chen, graduating with around the world by ABC Classic FM. We would appreciate your cooperation in keeping coughing first public appearance. As a fifteen-year-old he honours in 2012. to a minimum. Please ensure that your mobile phone is switched off. ABOUT THE MUSIC he Piano Sonata in C, K330, by Wolfgang the leading-note, E sharp), the first movement perhaps enigmatic (Delphic Dancers, The Girl with six-bar theme will prove to be the wellspring of TAmadeus Mozart (1756-1791) was commences with the interval of a falling fourth, a the Flaxen Hair, Heather). But the two Préludes much of the music which follows, with Brahms composed in the early 1780s, either around the motif which runs throughout the entire work. As heard in this recital are more overtly descriptive. (seemingly) taking his cue for motivic working out time when Mozart was in Munich for the première befitting the title, Sonatine, theModéré follows the The first, Des pas sur la neige (Footprints in the from Beethoven and thematic transformation from of his opera Idomeneo, in 1781, or a year or two structural outline of a late 18th-century keyboard Snow), evokes the plodding tread of a wanderer Liszt. Added to that, the mediant key relationships afterwards in Vienna. Light and tuneful, it sits sonata. In keeping with the Classical tradition, making their way through a bleak, wintry landscape. of the exposition section – F, A-flat, D-flat – recall mostly within a three-octave range – from the the middle movement, Mouvement de menuet, A persistent iambic motif suggests the desolate the music of Schubert. And let’s not forget that the octave below Middle C to the two octaves above echoes the minuet of yore but is couched in Ravel’s footsteps. Additionally, Debussy offers descriptive descending chromatic bass in the opening bars it – favouring a transparent, two-part texture. The distinctive harmonies and pianistic gestures. The cues to the performer: ‘sad and slow’, ‘expressive was a staple of Baroque opera, typically reserved melodies flow easily and, once stated, are typically final movement,Animé , combines brilliance with and painful’, ‘a sad and icy landscape’, ‘like tender for moments great seriousness, even tragedy. repeated with additional embellishments, a pattern lyricism. Like the first movement, it is in a modally and sad regret’. La cathédrale engloutie (The Few composers were as mindful of their musical established right from the start of the opening inflected F-sharp minor. It also includes scattered Submerged Cathedral), takes its inspiration from heritage as Brahms! A clue to the prevailing mood movement, Allegro moderato. While the outer references to the principal theme of the Modéré the ancient Breton legend of the lost city of Ys, a of the second movement, Andante espressivo, is movements are in C major, the second movement (albeit in the unusual time signature of 5/4). city which lies beneath the waters of the Bay of provided by a poetic snippet presented at the head is in F major and includes a contrasting middle Unfolding mostly in perpetual motion and with an Douarnenez. Local tradition holds that the bells of of the score: ‘Twilight falls, moonlight shines / And episode in F minor. This, it might be said, is the extraordinary degree of decorative figuration, the the engulfed city’s cathedral occasionally chime two hearts united in love / enclose themselves in emotional heart of the work, allowing for music of Animé brings the Sonatine to a breathless close. from under the waves, signalling the drowned bliss’. Twilight, moonlight and lovers are familiar greater depth and density. Ravel’s compatriot Claude Debussy (1862-1918) settlement. In Debussy’s evocation of the tale, the Romantic tropes. Accordingly, the slow movement Small in output but huge in significance, the solo was one of music’s great innovators. Curious cathedral appears to rise from the depths, ring is overwhelmingly tranquil, expressive and piano music of French composer Maurice Ravel and adventurous, his mind and ears were open out its massive bells and sound the mighty organ tender. It builds to a more passionate paragraph (1875-1937) ranges from the serene Pavane pour to sounds outside those of the prevailing musical before returning once more to its watery grave. featuring robust and heavy chords before une infante défunte to the exacting Gaspard de la culture of his time. As a result, Debussy’s music Composed in 1853 and premièred in December dissolving once more to the blissful serenity of nuit. The Sonatine was composed between 1903 accommodates unusual scales (such as the the following year, the Sonata in F Minor Op 5 by the opening. A lurching Scherzo – offset by a and 1905 and shares with the Mozart sonata a whole-tone and pentatonic), unorthodox chord Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) is the composer’s serene Trio – follows, which is itself followed by certain delicacy, limpidity and lightness of touch. progressions, transgressive voice-leading (he final work of its type. Henceforth, Brahms’ solo a brief movement in B-flat minor,Intermezzo , Like the Mozart sonata, it is also treble dominated. was fond of consecutive fifths) and sonorities piano music would consist of ballades, intermezzi, which reworks the principal theme of the second Ravel composed the first movement, Modéré, for borrowed from non-Western music (he relished waltzes, variations and other non-sonata forms. movement. The sonata comes to a close with a a composition competition launched by a short- the sound of a Javanese gamelan when he heard As such, the Sonata No 3 is a grandly conceived wide-ranging Finale in rondo form embracing a lived Anglo-French journal, The Weekly Review. it at the Universal Exposition of 1889). All of these farewell to the genre (it is in five movements, no huge variety of piano textures and effects. Did As it turned out, Ravel disqualified himself from qualities are apparent in his two volumes of piano less). The Allegro maestoso opens with a forceful twenty-year-old Brahms know at the time that this the competition by writing a work that was Préludes (1910 and 1913). Unlike, say, Chopin’s theme encompassing the entirety of the keyboard, would be his last piano sonata? One thing is for slightly longer than the terms allowed. Also, his Preludes, each of Debussy’s Préludes comes with the left hand moving downwards as the right hand certain: the F-Minor Sonata heralds the arrival of a was the only entry received! Nominally in the key a title, albeit revealed at the end of each work, not reaches ever higher. Whether in rhythm, melody, major new talent. of F-sharp minor (although pointedly avoiding at the start. For the most part the titles are poetic, harmony, articulation or shape, the opening Robert Gibson © 2020.