Roman Rabinovich, Piano

Transcription

1 The Program Sunday Morning, April 3, 2016, at 11:00 Sunday Morning Coffee Concerts Roman Rabinovich, Piano HAYDN Sonata in E minor, Hob. XVI:34 (c. 1780) Presto Adagio Finale: Molto vivace MICHAEL BROWN Surfaces ( ) (World premiere) HAYDN Sonata in C major, Hob. XVI:48 (1789) Andante con espressione Rondo: Presto SCHUMANN Faschingsschwank aus Wien ( ) Allegro Romanze Scherzino Intermezzo Finale 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 GREAT PERFORMERS EVENTS: Saturday Evening, April 9, 2016 at 7:30 in Alice Tully Hall Richard Goode, Piano ALL-BACH PROGRAM Preludes and Fugues Nos. 1 and 11, from the Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II French Suite No Sinfonias Partita No. 2 Italian Concerto Sunday Afternoon, May 8, 2016 at 3:00 in David Geffen Hall Murray Perahia, Piano HAYDN: Variations in F minor MOZART: Sonata in A minor, K.310 BRAHMS: Ballade in G minor, Op. 118 BRAHMS: Two Intermezzos, Op. 119 BRAHMS: Intermezzo in A major, Op. 118 BRAHMS: Capriccio in D minor, Op. 116 BEETHOVEN: Sonata No. 29 in B-flat major ( Hammerklavier ) 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 and Michael Brown (Surfaces) Sonata in E minor, Hob. XVI:34 (c. 1780) Sonata in C major, Hob. XVI:48 (1789) JOSEPH HAYDN Born March 31, 1732, in Rohrau, Austria Died May 31, 1809, in Vienna Approximate length: 21 minutes total In 1761 Haydn joined the musical establishment of the princely Esterházy family. As music director of a growing ensemble and a sphere of activity that included palaces in Vienna, Eisenstadt (Austria), and Eszterháza (Hungary), Haydn produced a prodigious amount of music for all kinds of entertainment. Most of his symphonies, chamber works, and operas were designed for private performances within the Esterházy circle; indeed, his earliest contracts stipulated that his music was the property of his employer. Only in 1779 was he granted explicit permission to negotiate with publishers and to circulate his music in the world at large. Given the rapidly expanding number of amateur keyboard players throughout Europe, there was a lively and competitive market for new sonatas and other keyboard pieces. It is thus not surprising that many of Haydn s first publications were keyboard sonatas. Haydn himself, though a fluent keyboardist, was not a virtuoso in the Mozartean mold. When asked in later years by a biographer about influences on his keyboard music, he acknowledged a debt to Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, one of J.S. Bach s older sons. He states that in his youth he encountered C.P.E. Bach s first six sonatas and did not leave my clavier until I had played through them, and whoever knows me thoroughly must discover that I owe a great deal to Emanuel Bach, that I understood him and have studied him with diligence. In 1780 the harpsichord was apparently still the primary keyboard instrument in Haydn s musical realm, but he was well aware that many people were acquiring new fortepianos, and would shortly acquire one of his own. His sonatas therefore reflect a transitional period when many kinds of keyboard instruments were in use, and offer a readily adaptable range of idioms and expressive possibilities. Haydn s E-minor Sonata, Hob. XVI:34, likely dates from around It was actually published in London in 1784 without the composer s permission, a frequent hazard in an era of freely circulating manuscript copies and no copyright protections. The sonata opens with a swift Presto movement that contrasts crisp staccato bass figures with smooth treble responses. Haydn punctuates larger contrasting sections with surprisingly long, potent silences, and creates startling harmonic momentum in the development with chords of increasingly dissonant

4 Great Performers I Notes on the Program intensity. The urgency of the first movement is answered by a luxuriant G-major Adagio, in which the right-hand voice unfurls an elaborate flow of beautifully shaped fioritura. The sonata concludes with a rondo featuring a rather tender E-minor theme set over a conventional Alberti-bass accompaniment; a repeating episode in E major neatly varies the melody of the main theme. In January 1789, Leipzig publisher Christoph Gottlob Breitkopf asked Haydn for a new keyboard sonata that he could print together with other works in a collection that he was assembling. Haydn promised to write one, and sent off the new sonata that April; its appearance in Breitkopf s Musikalisches Pot-Pourri represented Haydn s first publication in Germany. This large and striking sonata in C major also marked a turning point in Haydn s writing for the keyboard. Its full textures, exploitation of the lower range, and profusion of dynamic markings indicate Haydn s embrace of piano rather than harpsichord idioms. In 1788 he had purchased a new fortepiano by respected Viennese builder Wenzel Schanz that he would retain throughout the rest of his career. Recommending Schanz to a friend, he wrote, his fortepianos are particularly light in touch and the mechanism very agreeable. The arresting opening passage of the sonata, with its emphatic expression and contrasting dynamics, suggests a vigorous engagement with the new instrument. Both movements explore C major and minor, with especially rich harmonic coloring in the Andante. Particularly in the Rondo finale, the full chords, bass octaves, and dramatic style foreshadow the Romantic piano music of Beethoven. Surfaces ( ) (World premiere) MICHAEL BROWN Born June 18, 1987, in Oceanside, New York City Approximate length: 8 minutes Surfaces is written for pianist and visual artist Roman Rabinovich and is inspired by his series of four paintings by the same title. I met Roman at the Ravinia Festival in the summer of 2008, and we immediately became great friends and musical comrades. I was struck by his multifaceted artistic talents, and the idea of my writing a piece for him based on his own paintings had been brewing for some time. Roman s four paintings are closely related to one another visually and thematically, and similarly my work is cast in four movements, performed together without any pause between them. Before starting to compose, I spent a lot of time analyzing and studying Roman s Surfaces, digesting its essence and finding interesting links uniting the series together. Inspired by the concept of thematic unity, the first movement of my Surfaces presents recurring pitches and gestures that develop and transform throughout the entire composition. Two or more voices often play the same material in imitation, resulting in canons that resurface throughout. This idea comes directly from Roman s paintings, where I see different yet related brush strokes layered on top of each other and presented simultaneously.

5 Great Performers I Notes on the Program The first movement of Surfaces features a hushed sonority that fades away into the distance, while the contrasting second movement employs a crisper and spiky texture at a brisk tempo. Toward the end of this movement, new musical material emerges, leading into the static third movement marked by a series of repeated staccato chords. An insistent triplet motive then appears and propels the music into the final movement, where all the main themes are reprised, transformed, and presented anew. Surfaces was commissioned by the Shriver Hall Concert Series, made possible by the David and Barbara Rodbell Kornblatt Commissioning Fund. Following its world premiere today on Lincoln Center s Great Performers series, it will be performed in Shriver Hall in Baltimore on September 24, Michael Brown Faschingsschwank aus Wien ( ) ROBERT SCHUMANN Born June 8, 1810, in Zwickau, Germany Died July 29, 1856, in Endenich, Germany Approximate length: 20 minutes Robert Schumann grew up, like Bach, in northern Germany and was fully aware of its important keyboard traditions; indeed, Bach s works were a significant source of study and inspiration for him. As a youth, Schumann was equally passionate about music and literature, and studied piano with well-known pedagogue Friedrich Wieck even while tackling various literary projects. But Schumann was intensely aware of his pianistic shortcomings, exacerbated in his early twenties by a mysterious injury to one of his hands. His compositions for piano, which show an intense preoccupation with virtuosity as well as poetry, thus became increasingly important to him. His teacher s daughter, the great pianist Clara Wieck, was the primary inspiration for Schumann s piano music, and after their marriage in 1840 she became his pianistic voice and the chief promoter of his work. Schumann wrote an abundance of piano music, including large-scale forms but also many pieces arranged in series or cycles, and laced with all kinds of personal and literary allusions. They contain frequent references to the composer s private masks, his stormy extrovert Florestan and his more sensitive Eusebius, whom Schumann had invented in 1831 to represent two sides of his personality. His sparkling work Faschingsschwank aus Wien (Carnival Farce from Vienna) suggests yet other masks, as might appear at the Carnival balls and festivities of the winter season. When he began work on this cycle of fantasy pieces for piano in 1839, Schumann was residing in Vienna, where he hoped eventually to settle with Clara. Though that plan did not reach fruition, he nonetheless enjoyed his contact with the city s vivid musical culture and found it a spur to his creativity.

6 Great Performers I Meet the Artists The lengthy and discursive opening Allegro is in rondo form, with an exuberant theme in B-flat that serves as recurring refrain between contrasting episodes, including a surprising quotation from the revolutionary Marseillaise. At the heart of the work lies a series of three brief pieces, each with a distinctive character. The G-minor Romanze is openly sad, with a terse little chordal passage in C major in the center. This is followed by a playful, lightly textured Scherzino, and a stormy Intermezzo in the dark key of E-flat minor. The Finale returns to a more extroverted form of expression, in a sonata form with dazzling virtuosity and an impressive stampede to the finish. Musicologist Kathryn L. Libin teaches music history and theory at Vassar College. Copyright 2016 by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc.

7 Great Performers I Meet the Artist Meet the Artist Roman Rabinovich BALAZS BOROCZ Winner of the 2008 Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition, Roman Rabinovich has performed throughout the U.S., Europe, and Israel in such prestigious venues as Wigmore Hall, Zankel Hall, Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center, Leipzig s Gewandhaus, Cité de la Musique in Paris, and the Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory, as well as at the Lucerne and Prague Spring festivals. Highlights of the season include performances of Rachmaninoff Concerto No. 3 with the KBS Symphony Orchestra and Yoel Levi, as well as return appearances with the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra and the Dohnányi Orchestra Budafok. Recital engagements include Vancouver Recital Society, Cincinnati s Matinée Musicale series, the Chopin Society in St. Paul (Minnesota), and the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff. Mr. Rabinovich s chamber partners this season include the Doric and Ariel string quartets. In addition, he collaborates with violinist Liza Ferschtman for a marathon of Brahms chamber music in Tel Aviv. Other past highlights include a recital at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival and the complete Beethoven sonatas for violin and piano with Ferschtman in March Born in 1985 in Uzbekistan, Mr. Rabinovich began his piano studies at the age of six with his mother, Mira. In 1994 he and his parents immigrated to Israel. He is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and earned his master s degree at The Juilliard School, where he studied with Robert McDonald. At age 10 he made his Israel Philharmonic Orchestra debut under the baton of Zubin Mehta, with return appearances in 1999 and In addition to Mehta, Mr. Rabinovich has worked with such conductors as JoAnn Falletta, Joseph Swensen, Rossen Milanov, David Amado, Yoav Talmi, Noam Sheriff, Uri Segal, Arie Lipsky, Tomasz Golka, and Avner Biron. Mr. Rabinovich also excels as a gifted artist. He often combines his concerts with exhibitions of his paintings. Besides traditional painting, Mr. Rabinovich draws on his ipad.

8 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 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 Mauricio Lomelin, Producer, Contemporary Programming Regina Grande, Associate Producer Amber Shavers, Associate Producer, Public Programming Nana Asase, Assistant to the Artistic Director Luna Shyr, Senior Editor Jenniffer DeSimone, Production Coordinator Olivia Fortunato, House Seat Coordinator Mr. Rabinovich s representation: Arts Management Group