carte blanche concert v: David Finckel and Wu Han RICHARD STRAUss (1864–1949) S August 9 Cello Sonata in F Major, op. 6, TrV 115 (1881–1883) Allegro con brio Thursday, August 9, 8:00 p.m., The Center for Performing Andante ma non troppo Arts at Menlo-Atherton Finale: Allegro vivo PROGRAM OVERVIEW OLIVIER MEssIAEN (1908–1992) Music@Menlo’s 2012 Carte Blanche series concludes with Louange à l’éternité de Jésus from Quatuor pour la fin du temps (1940–1941) a recital celebrating the breadth of the season’s theme: David Finckel, cello; Wu Han, piano Resonance. The program begins with Strauss’s youthful and ISAAC ALBÉNIZ (1860–1909) energetic Cello Sonata, juxtaposed against Olivier Mes- Selections from Suite española, op. 47 (1886–1887) siaen’s deeply personal Praise to the Eternity of Jesus from Granada his Quartet for the End of Time. Evoking places far and wide, Cádiz the program continues with a solo piano work by Albéniz, Cataluña Wu Han, piano NCHE CONCERT as well as Glazunov’s Chant du ménestrel. The program is A capped by the impassioned Cello Sonata by Fryderyk Cho- INTERMISSION L pin, his final work to be published. ALEKSANDR GLAZUNOV (1865–1936) B Chant du ménestrel, op. 71 (1900) FRYDERYK CHOPIN (1810–1849) SPECIAL THANKS (1845–1846) RTE RTE Cello Sonata in g minor, op. 65, B. 204 Music@Menlo dedicates this performance to the Martin Allegro moderato A Family Foundation with gratitude for its generous support. Scherzo: Allegro con brio C Largo Finale: Allegro David Finckel, cello; Wu Han, piano 52 Music@Menlo 2012 Program Notes: David Finckel and Wu Han RICHARD STRAUss OLIVIER MEssIAEN (Born June 11, 1864, Munich; died September 8, 1949, Garmisch- (Born December 10, 1908, Avignon; died April 28, 1992, Paris) Partenkirchen) Louange à l’éternité de Jésus from Quatuor pour la fin du temps Cello Sonata in F Major, op. 6 Composed: 1940–1941 Composed: 1881–1883 Other works from this period: Rondeau (1943); Visions of the Amen First performance: 1883, in Nuremberg (1943) Other works from this period: Symphony no. 1 in d minor, op. 94 Approximate duration: 9 minutes (1880); Horn Concerto no. 1 in E-flat Major, op. 11 (1882); Piano Quartet in c minor, op. 13 (1883) In 1939, Messiaen was called to serve in World War II. In May of the Approximate duration: 23 minutes following year, he was captured and taken to a prisoner-of-war camp in Görlitz. It was there that he completed the Quartet for the End of Strauss was born in Munich on the 11th of June, 1864, the son of Franz Time, one of only a handful of chamber works he composed and one of Joseph Strauss, Principal Hornist in the Court Orchestra (Hoforchester), his most powerful and significant contributions to the repertoire in any and Josephine Pschorr, whose family were prominent brewers in the medium. Although work on the quartet had begun well before Mes- Bavarian capital (a city still famous the world over for its beer). This siaen’s imprisonment, the piece nevertheless represents his catharsis lineage provided the young Richard with a background both musically from, in his own words, the “cruelty and horrors of camp.” Messiaen and financially secure and, indeed, he showed great promise from an also suffered from synesthesia, a condition that caused him to see early age: he started piano at four (he could read musical notes before music and hear colors. The bleakness of Görlitz made him thirst for what letters and words) and began composing at the age of six (lieder, piano he called “sound-colors,” which he attempted to capture in his music. pieces, and orchestral overtures). At the age of eight, Richard Strauss The Quartet for the End of Time alludes to a passage from chapter began violin studies and at eleven, theory, harmony, and instrumenta- ten of the Book of Revelations: S tion (of which he was to become an acknowledged master). His father encouraged him to listen to the music of the older masters, including And I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Schumann, all of whose influences can wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow on his head; his face was like be clearly heard in Strauss’s Cello Sonata, which he began to compose the sun, and his legs like pillars of fire...Setting his right foot on in 1881 at the age of seventeen. He revised the work extensively dur- the sea and his left foot on the land...and, standing on the sea ing the winter of 1882–1883, preserving only the introductory Allegro and on the land, he raised his right hand toward Heaven and con brio, in which the cello is treated in a heroic style anticipating his swore by He who lives forever and ever...saying: “There will be tone poem of 1888, Don Juan. When the sonata was first performed in no more Time; but in the days when the seventh angel is to blow Berlin in 1884, he was congratulated on the opening lyrical theme by his trumpet, the mystery of God will be fulfilled.” the legendary violinist and composer Joseph Joachim. The vitality and verve of the opening pervade the entire first Messiaen wrote in his preface to the score of the quartet, “When movement, whose unified thematic structure shows the influence of we are freed from before and after, when we enter into that other NCHE CONCERT Beethoven and Schumann. There is extensive dialog between the cello dimension of the beyond, thus participating a little in Eternity, then we A and piano, and an ingenious four-part fugue leads into the recapitula- shall understand the terrible simplicity of the angel’s words, and then L tion. The second movement, with its pensive, dark-hued atmosphere indeed there shall be Time no longer.” B and sensitive theme in “romanza” style, is clearly inspired by Mendels- Composer’s note on the movement: sohn—possibly by one of his “Songs without Words.” (Strauss also composed a Romance for Cello and Orchestra in the same year, 1883.) V. Praise to the Eternity of Jesus. Jesus is here considered as In the finale, Strauss draws inspiration from Mendelssohn’s Scottish one with the Word. A long phrase, infinitely slow, by the cello, RTE Symphony and Wagner’s Parsifal (which he had heard in Bayreuth). In expiates with love and reverence on the everlastingness of the A addition, the movement reveals some unmistakably Straussian charac- Word. Majestically the melody unfolds itself at a distance both C teristics, including a cadence that foreshadows his own Elektra, written intimate and awesome. “In the beginning was the Word, and fifteen years later. The F Major Cello Sonata was written for the Czech the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” cellist Hanuš Wihan, who gave the first performance in Nuremberg on the 8th of December, 1883. (Twelve years later, Wihan was the dedicatee —Patrick Castillo of Dvorˇák’s Cello Concerto.) The Dresden premiere of the sonata took place two weeks later, with the cellist Ferdinand Böckmann and Strauss himself at the piano, after which the composer reported proudly to his ISAAC ALBÉNIZ mother, “My sonata pleased the audience greatly, and they applauded (Born May 29, 1860, Camprodón; died May 18, 1909, Cambo-les-Bains) most enthusiastically. I was congratulated from all sides, and the cellist, Selections from Suite española, op. 47 Böckmann, reflected quite wonderfully in his playing how much he liked the work and plans to play it quite soon again in his concerts.” Composed: 1886–1887 —Steven Paul Other works from this period: Suite ancienne, op. 54 (1886); Piano Sonata no. 4 in G-flat Major, op. 82 (1888); Suite española no. 2, op. 97 (1889) Approximate duration: 5 minutes At an early age, Isaac Albéniz moved with his family from the remote *Bolded terms are defined in the glossary, which begins on page 107. northern Spanish city of Camprodón to the bustling metropolis of Bar- www.musicatmenlo.org 53 celona. Although Albéniz would eventually go on to study in Paris and Composed: 1845–1846 Leipzig, his Catalonian upbringing in the warm landscape and culturally Other works from this period: Three Mazurkas, op. 63 (1845); Two rich city of Barcelona would continue to have a lasting effect on his Nocturnes, op. 62 (1846) musical language. By 1885, Albéniz had settled in Madrid, where he Approximate duration: 26 minutes immersed himself in the city’s cultural fabric. A pianist of prodigious tal- ent, he performed extensively in the homes of wealthy patrons and on Chopin’s Cello Sonata represents an extraordinary effort on the part of various concert series throughout the city. Albéniz quickly established a composer who, only a few years from the end of his life, determined himself as a consummate improviser, awing the public with his skill at to master a genre he had never before attempted. Only five chamber turning simply rendered tunes into coloristic masterpieces. He wrote works by Chopin exist; three of them are for cello and piano. That the many of these improvisations down, producing a remarkable body of cello was Chopin’s favorite instrument after the piano is not in doubt solo piano music in a short amount of time. for me! In poor health and the middle of an anguished breakup with Albéniz began composing movements of his Suite española in George Sand, Chopin found it within himself to labor extensively on 1886, eventually compiling the works into a set in 1887. As with many this work, making numerous sketches and revisions: “...with my cello of Albéniz’s compositions, the Suite española evokes specific locations sonata I am now contented, now discontented.” The result is a grand throughout Spain.