Tomer Gewirtzman Photo by Claudio Papapietro Juilliard Scholarship Fund The Juilliard School is the vibrant home to more than 800 dancers, actors, and musicians, over 90 percent of whom are eligible for financial aid. With your help, we can offer the scholarship support that makes a world of difference—to them and to the global future of dance, drama, and music. Behind every Juilliard artist is all of Juilliard—including you. For more information please contact Tori Brand at (212) 799-5000, ext. 692, or [email protected]. Give online at giving.juilliard.edu/scholarship. iii The Juilliard School presents Leo B. Ruiz Memorial Award Recital Tomer Gewirtzman, Piano Friday, November 30, 2018, 7:30pm Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH Prelude and Fugue in D Minor, Op. 87, No. 24 (1906-75) LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Andante Favori in F Major, WoO 57 (1770-1827) NIKOLAI MEDTNER Fairy Tale, Op. 51, No. 3 (1880-1951) ALEXANDER SCRIABIN Sonata No. 2 in G-Sharp Minor, Op. 19 (1871-1915) Andante Presto Three Études, Op. 65 Allegro Fantastico Allegretto Molto Vivace Intermission JOHANNES BRAHMS Sonata No. 3 in F Minor, Op. 5 (1833-97) Allegro maestoso Andante espressivo Scherzo – Allegro energico Intermezzo – Andante molto Finale – Allegro moderato ma rubato Tomer Gewirtzman is the winner of the seventh annual Leo B. Ruiz Memorial Recital Award. This concert is made possible by the Artists International Leo B. Ruiz Recital Memorial Fund. Please make certain that all electronic devices are turned off during the performance. The taking of photographs and the use of recording equipment are not permitted in this auditorium. 1 Notes on the Program by Jay Goodwin DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH Prelude and Fugue in D Minor, Op. 87, No. 24 In 1950, in the midst of a frightening and uncertain time for Russian artists, Dmitri Shostakovich traveled to Soviet-occupied Leipzig, where J.S. Bach had Shostakovich spent the last 27 years of his life and written an overflowing catalogue of masterpieces. The occasion was the Bicentennial Bach Competition, Born: marking the 200th anniversary of the great composer’s death, and September 25, 1906, Shostakovich was an honored guest. In addition to the cumulative impact in St. Petersburg, of being immersed in Bach’s music for an extended period, Shostakovich Russia was profoundly inspired by the young Russian pianist Tatiana Nikolayeva, who won the competition on the strength of her complete performance Died: of the 24 Preludes and Fugues of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier. Upon his August 9, 1975, in return to Moscow, Shostakovich immediately set to work on his own set Moscow, Russia of 24 preludes and fugues—a companion pair in each of the major and minor keys, for a total of more than two-and-a-half hours of music—which poured out of him in just a few months’ time. The D-Minor Prelude and Fugue are the work’s final two pieces and also the set’s most expansive, lasting some 12 minutes total. Somber and serious, they seem to wrestle with weighty subjects and project a great depth of feeling. The prelude begins quietly and largely remains so, mixing a hymnlike simplicity with whispered yearning, while the fugue expresses the same sentiments but with heightened urgency and at full voice. Anxious and increasingly desperate, it gains in intensity until reaching a denouement imbued with the sense of resentment and defiance that seems to radiate from much of Shostakovich’s music. LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Andante Favori in F Major, WoO 57 Despite its lack of an opus number, Beethoven’s Andante Favori was, in Ludwig van fact, published by the composer in 1805. In fact, its title—which translates Beethoven to “Favored Andante”—reflects the work’s popularity, both in the form of sheet music and with attendees at Beethoven’s own recitals, in which he Born: programmed it often. The work is a musical orphan, originally composed December 16, 1770, as the second movement of the famous “Waldstein” Sonata, but cast in Bonn, Germany out in favor of a much shorter replacement that was less a standalone movement and more an ephemeral, atmospheric introductory section to Died: the finale. Perhaps the change was made to reduce the prodigious length March 26, 1827, in of the sonata, or perhaps it was for the sake of creating a more audacious, Vienna, Austria unconventional structure; in any case, Beethoven recognized the beauty and craftsmanship of his original andante movement and didn’t allow it to go to waste. In rondo form, the Andante Favori ventures farther afield harmonically as it goes through its series of variations, adding more and more embellishment to the musical themes, and more elaborate involvement from 2 the left hand, along the way. Toward the end, Beethoven creates a gauzy, blurred sonority with extended use of the sustain pedal, a technique that also features prominently in the “Waldstein.” NIKOLAI MEDTNER Fairy Tale, Op. 51, No. 3 Russian composer Nikolai Medtner was a conservative artist, aligned in general philosophy with his friend Rachmaninoff and hostile to the various Nikolai Medtner strains of modernism that transformed the musical landscape in the early 20th century. Like Rachmaninoff and their contemporary Scriabin, Born: Medtner’s catalog is dominated by music for the piano, consisting principally January 5, 1880, in of music for the instrument alone, but also including works for piano and Moscow, Russia orchestra as well as songs with piano accompaniment and chamber music with pianistic participation. And though there are elements of late-Romantic Died: passion to be found in his music, it also incorporates Classical influences November 13, 1951, and Russian folk-music flavor. The latter is especially evident in his nearly 40 in London, England Skazki (“Fairy Tales” or, simply, “Tales”)—a diverse group of short works for solo piano written over a wide swath of Medtner’s career and published in collections of varying numbers of pieces. The Op. 51 set dates from 1928, by which time the composer had left Russia out of distaste for the Revolution and the new Bolshevik regime. The third piece in the set, an elegant number enlivened by a youthful exuberance, whirls about with the energy and rhythm of a jaunty yet dignified dance. ALEXANDER SCRIABIN Sonata No. 2 in G-Sharp Minor, Op. 19; Three Études, Op. 65 One of music history’s most eccentric and colorful characters, Alexander Scriabin was intensely interested in philosophy, theosophy, mysticism, and Alexander Scriabin metaphysics, and he thought of his music as a means of entering into, and delivering listeners to, a different spiritual realm. His ultimate ambition was Born: to write a massive, ritualistic multimedia work entitled Mysterium—involving December 25, 1871, music, dance, chanted text, light, mist, incense, and audience participation— in Moscow, Russia which would be performed in a custom-built temple in the Himalayas and would, upon its premiere, bring about an apocalypse, raising human beings Died: to a higher plane. It is perhaps these incredible biographical details that April 14, 1915, in have led to a fierce divide in posterity’s opinion of the composer, whose Moscow, Russia work has, over the years, been met with rapturous devotion and withering scorn in equal measures. The music, however, would be fascinating even if it were written by a more mundane personage. Beginning in his early years as a composer of vivid but relatively straightforward Romanticism, Scriabin eventually became one of the most innovative figures of the early 20th century, developing a uniquely haunting style all his own. Apart from a handful of significant orchestral works, his catalog consists almost 3 Notes on the Program Jay Goodwin (continued) exclusively of piano music, including dozens of miniatures as well as 10 sonatas that collectively represent his most significant artistic achievement. Sonata No. 2 has its origins at the very beginning of Scriabin’s artistic maturity, with the first drafts dating from 1892, the year he graduated from the Moscow Conservatory. That was also the year that the composer first spent time on the open sea—the Baltic, specifically, as part of a visit to Riga, Latvia—and it was this experience that seems to have sparked his inspiration. He would continue to intermittently work on and revise the sonata for another five years, only finishing it after a sustained burst of effort in 1897—perhaps not coincidentally around the time he spent on the shores of the Black Sea during his honeymoon, in Odessa. Firmly rooted in the Romantic tradition of Chopin, Sonata No. 2 is one of Scriabin’s most accessible and beautiful works, enjoying more popularity in recital halls over the years than almost any of his other music. The piece is divided into two movements: an expansive and atmospheric Andante full of lush harmonies, softly rolling rhythms, and impressionistic touches, followed by a roiling Presto that builds to a thundering tempest. Both sections are evocations of the sea, and the composer himself left behind a description: “The first part evokes the quiet of a southern night by the seashore; in the development, we hear the somber agitation of the depths. The section in E Major represents the caress of moonlight which comes after the first dark of night. The second movement shows the vast expanse of ocean in stormy agitation.” With the Three Études, Op. 65, completed in 1912, we move to the opposite end of Scriabin’s career—just three years before his premature death of septicemia at age 43. The music of this period is visionary, often nearly atonal, and full of fascinating sounds and textures that give the impression of delving into a previously unexplored musical realm.