Alexander Gavrylyuk, Piano

Transcription

1 The Program Sunday Morning, January 10, 2016, at 11:00 Sunday Morning Coffee Concerts Alexander Gavrylyuk, Piano SCHUBERT Sonata in A major, D.664 (1819) Allegro moderato Andante Allegro RACHMANINOFF Selected Études-tableaux, Op. 39 ( ) No. 1 in C minor No. 5 in E-flat minor No. 6 in A minor No. 7 in C minor No. 9 in D major PROKOFIEV Sonata No. 3 in A minor (1917) Allegro tempestoso This program is approximately one hour long and will be performed without intermission. Please join the artist for a cup of coffee following the performance. Please make certain all your electronic devices are switched off. Lead Support provided by BNY Mellon Coffee and refreshments provided by Zabar s and zabars.com. This performance is made possible in part by the Josie Robertson Fund for Lincoln Center. Yamaha Piano Walter Reade Theater

2 Great Performers BNY Mellon is Lead Supporter of Great Performers Support is provided by Rita E. and Gustave M. Hauser, Audrey Love Charitable Foundation, Great Performers Circle, Chairman s Council, and Friends of Lincoln Center. Public support is provided by the New York State Council on the Arts. Endowment support for Symphonic Masters is provided by the Leon Levy Fund. Endowment support is also provided by UBS. MetLife is the National Sponsor of Lincoln Center UPCOMING SUNDAY MORNING COFFEE CONCERTS IN THE WALTER READE THEATER: Sunday Morning, February 7, 2016, at 11:00 Jack Liebeck, Violin Katya Apekisheva, Piano BRIDGE: Violin Sonata BRAHMS: Violin Sonata No. 1 Sunday Morning, April 3, 2016, at 11:00 Roman Rabinovich, Piano HAYDN: Sonata in E minor MICHAEL BROWN: Surfaces (World premiere) HAYDN: Sonata in C major SCHUMANN: Faschingsschwank aus Wien For tickets, call (212) or visit LCGreatPerformers.org. Call the Lincoln Center Info Request Line at (212) to learn about program cancellations or to request a Great Performers brochure. Visit LCGreatPerformers.org for more information relating to this season s programs. Join the conversation: #LCGreatPerfs We would like to remind you that the sound of coughing and rustling paper might distract the performers and your fellow audience members. In consideration of the performing artists and members of the audience, those who must leave before the end of the performance are asked to do so between pieces. The taking of photographs and the use of recording equipment are not allowed in the building.

3 Great Performers I Notes on the Program Notes on the Program By Kathryn L. Libin Sonata in A major, D.664 (1819) FRANZ SCHUBERT Born January 31, 1797, in Vienna Died November 19, 1828, in Vienna Approximate length: 24 minutes Franz Schubert may be best loved for his songs, but his steady devotion to the piano throughout his life produced ample, varied, and frequently astonishing contributions to the piano repertoire. As a boy he took piano and organ lessons as well as violin, and his singing so impressed court composer Antonio Salieri that he was admitted to Vienna s prestigious Hofkapelle (court chapel). There he sang in the imperial court choir, and for five years attended an elite boarding school where he joined the student orchestra. During this youthful period he wrote many songs, string quartets, and piano pieces, already demonstrating prolific talent as a composer. In his late teens Schubert became obsessed with setting poetry to music, and in 1814 and 1815 produced dozens of songs in a near miraculous flood of inspiration; some of his most famous songs, such as Gretchen am Spinnrade and Erlkönig, date from that extraordinary time. By 1819, the 22-year-old Schubert had acquired some teaching experience by tutoring two princesses of the Esterházy family in singing and piano, and he began to sketch out some ideas for piano sonatas. Of all the piano genres, it was in the sonata that Schubert confronted his greatest challenges. Over the course of his career he wrote 17 altogether, and several of them have become monuments of their genre. The earlier of his two sonatas in A major, known by the catalogue number D.664, remained unpublished during Schubert s lifetime, but is thought to date from the summer of During a holiday in the Austrian countryside he wrote his famous Trout Quintet in A major, as well as this sonata in the same key. In a letter to his brother, he described his host s young daughter, Josephine von Koller, as a very pretty girl, who plays the piano well, and is going to sing some of my songs. Schubert dedicated his new sonata to her, and its relatively short length and accessibility suggest that he may have tailored it to her gifts. The work opens with a sunny, lyrical theme that unfolds over a gently rippling accompaniment, and though he introduces some turbulence in the development section with a roaring passage in octaves, the essential nature of the movement is serene and tender. The D-major Andante is also very delicate, much of its chordal texture remaining at a pianissimo dynamic level. A light, carefree

4 Great Performers I Notes on the Program style returns in the final Allegro, with 6/8 rhythms and flowing scale passages that lend it dance-like momentum. Selected Études-tableaux, Op. 39 ( ) SERGE RACHMANINOFF Born April 1, 1873, in Oneg, Russia Died March 28, 1943, in Beverly Hills Approximate length: 22 minutes Serge Rachmaninoff was born into an aristocratic but impoverished family in the Novgorod region of Russia, and studied piano with his mother before being sent to both the St. Petersburg and Moscow Conservatories. He was deeply engaged with composition even while developing a prodigiously virtuosic piano technique. By the time of his first American tour in 1909, he had a substantial body of his own work, including the Second and Third Piano Concertos, ready to perform. His career took a decisive turn in 1917 when he left Russia with his family at the dawn of the revolution, eventually settling in New York. Having forfeited their estate and most of their possessions, the family lived on Rachmaninoff s earnings from concert tours. Rachmaninoff himself popularized his three great piano concertos and his many solo piano pieces through hundreds of live performances and one of the earliest recording contracts, signed in 1920 with the Victor Talking Machine Company. He was renowned for his superb technique and for the great accuracy and precision of his playing. In his compositions for piano, Rachmaninoff developed a distinctive personal voice that emphasized lushly chromatic harmonies, extremely broad and passionate melodies, and great sensitivity to color and timbre. Rachmaninoff composed two sets of Études-tableaux, which as the title implies are both virtuosic studies and evocative scenes, though they were not published with descriptions and only later would Rachmaninoff reveal the sources that had inspired some of them. The Op. 39 set originated in , and was thus the last major group of pieces Rachmaninoff wrote in Russia. While both sets of etudes offer robust keyboard challenges, Op. 39 is generally considered the more difficult of the two. Its opening etude in C minor juxtaposes a right hand in relentless motion against boldly syncopated octaves in the left. The E-flat-minor Etude, No. 5, introduces a passionate thread of melody over thick triplet figures that grow increasingly heavy, though the piece concludes with an attenuated texture and a glowing E-flat-major chord. Rachmaninoff told Ottorino Respighi, who orchestrated several of these pieces, that the aggressive A-minor Etude, No. 6 in Op. 39, represented Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf; one can sense a narrative in the extremes of contrast between the growling bass and fleet soprano. No. 7, the longest etude in either set, was meant according to its composer to evoke a funeral march, and it presents the listener with density and dissonance, the tolling of church bells, and a shower of staccato articulations. The final etude is Rachmaninoff s oriental march, and it sweeps the keyboard with martial rhythms and vigorous, ringing timbres.

5 Great Performers I Notes on the Program Sonata No. 3 in A minor, Op. 28 (1917) SERGEY PROKOFIEV Born April 23, 1891, in Sontsovka, Ukraine Died March 5, 1953, in Moscow Approximate length: 8 minutes Sergey Prokofiev began his career as a fiery and brilliant Russian pianist who, like Rachmaninoff, studied with his mother as a child, and then went on to earn highest honors at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. At his graduation in 1914, he took first prize in the piano examinations with a performance of his own Piano Concerto No. 1. He received a trip to London as a graduation present, and there he heard Stravinsky s new ballets, including Rite of Spring, and composed Scythian Suite in response. Prokofiev presented his own works on the Evenings of Contemporary Music series in St. Petersburg, and during the years leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 he revised early works to create his Piano Sonatas No. 3 and No. 4, as well as composing the piano pieces Sarcasms and Visions fugitives, and his Classical Symphony, Op. 25. All of these new works received performances in the city newly called Petrograd before Prokofiev decided that he needed to emigrate. In 1918 he moved to New York and embarked on the next phase of his career. Prokofiev s piano writing extended the rich textures and sonorities of Romanticism, adding his own rhythmic dynamism to the traditional sonata forms of Beethoven and the character pieces of Schumann. It also reflects the virtuosity of his playing, which compelled one critic to remark on the steel of his fingers, wrists, and general technique, as well as the rhythmic vitality and accuracy of his playing. Prokofiev s Sonata No. 3 in A minor originated in 1907 as a student work, but was revised ten years later as Op. 28. It already contains the hallmarks of Prokofiev s mature style: vigorous but uncomplicated rhythms, a combination of fierce dissonance with soaring lyricism, and clearly defined formal structure. The sonata comprises a single, multisectional movement reminiscent in some ways of Liszt s B-minor Sonata, but much more compact and less discursive. A blast of E-major triplets launches the Allegro tempestoso, which settles into a restless, edgy, and dynamic theme. In exquisite contrast, the second theme emerges out of a rising chromatic scale that unfurls, pianissimo and tranquillo, as a beautiful melody over gently moving counterpoint. Both themes undergo development and transformation at the work s center, but only the lyrical second theme returns in a full recapitulation and stirring, climactic coda. Musicologist Kathryn L. Libin teaches music history and theory at Vassar College. Copyright 2016 by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc.

6 Great Performers I Meet the Artists Meet the Artists Alexander Gavrylyuk Alexander Gavrylyuk began his piano studies at age seven and gave his first concerto performance when he was nine. He won first prize and the gold medal at the 1999 Horowitz International Piano Competition, first prize at the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition in Japan in 2000, and in 2005 he took both the gold medal and the award for Best Performance of a Classical Concerto at the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Masters Competition MIKA BOVAN Increasingly in demand for his compelling interpretations, Mr. Gavrylyuk has appeared with the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, and the Warsaw, Moscow, Israel, Rotterdam, and Netherlands philharmonic orchestras, among others. He has toured in Asia, Russia, and Australia, performing solo recitals and appearing with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and the Melbourne and Sydney Symphony Orchestras. Mr. Gavrylyuk has collaborated with conductors such as Herbert Blomstedt, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Vladimir Jurowski, Alexander Lazarev, Osmo Vänska, Andrey Boreyko, and Neeme Järvi. His solo recitals are also highly acclaimed, and he has performed in Vienna s Musikverein, London s Wigmore Hall, Tonhalle Zurich, and Geneva s Victoria Hall. In 2009 Mr. Gavrylyuk recorded the complete Prokofiev concertos with Ashkenazy and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra live at the Sydney Opera House. Other recordings include a recital disc of works by Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, and Prokofiev for Piano Classics. His most recent recording, featuring Musorgsky s Pictures at an Exhibition and Schumann s Kin - derszenen, has been widely praised. Highlights of the season include appearances with Valery Gergiev and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra as part of the Gergiev Festival, and with the Cincinnati, NHK, and Gothenburg symphony orchestras. He also undertakes an extensive tour of Australia and New Zealand. Mr. Gavrylyuk is a Steinway Artist.

7 Great Performers Lincoln Center s Great Performers Celebrating its 50th anniversary, Lincoln Center s Great Performers offers classical and contemporary music performances from the world s outstanding symphony orchestras, vocalists, chamber ensembles, and recitalists. Since its initiation in 1965, the series has expanded to include significant emerging artists and premieres of groundbreaking productions, with offerings from October through June in Lincoln Center s David Geffen Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and other performance spaces around New York City. Along with lieder recitals, Sunday morning coffee concerts, and films, Great Performers offers a rich spectrum of programming throughout the season. Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc. Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (LCPA) serves three primary roles: presenter of artistic programming, national leader in arts and education and community relations, and manager of the Lincoln Center campus. A presenter of more than 3,000 free and ticketed events, performances, tours, and educational activities annually, LCPA offers 15 programs, series, and festivals including American Songbook, Great Performers, Lincoln Center Festival, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Midsummer Night Swing, the Mostly Mozart Festival, and the White Light Festival, as well as the Emmy Award winning Live From Lincoln Center, which airs nationally on PBS. As manager of the Lincoln Center campus, LCPA provides support and services for the Lincoln Center complex and the 11 resident organizations. In addition, LCPA led a $1.2 billion campus renovation, completed in October 2012.

8 Great Performers Lincoln Center Programming Department Jane Moss, Ehrenkranz Artistic Director Hanako Yamaguchi, Director, Music Programming Jon Nakagawa, Director, Contemporary Programming Jill Sternheimer, Director, Public Programming Lisa Takemoto, Production Manager Charles Cermele, Producer, Contemporary Programming Kate Monaghan, Associate Director, Programming Mauricio Lomelin, Producer, Contemporary Programming Regina Grande, Associate Producer Luna Shyr, Programming Publications Editor For the Walter Reade Theater Gregory Wolfe, Stage Manager Jenniffer Desimone, Production Coordinator Mr. Gavrylyuk s representation: Askonas Holt