Chamber Music New Zealand Presents

Transcription

1 Chamber Music New Zealand Presents

2 From the Tour Donors We are delighted to support this unique quartet combination that showcases pianists Diedre Irons and Michael Endres and outstanding NZSO percussionists Thomas Guldborg and Lenny Sakofsky. New Zealand boasts an extraordinary wealth of creative talent. Our partnerships with Chamber Music New Zealand have previously supported singers Jonathan Lemalu, Anna Leese, Madeleine and Anna Pierard with pianists Terence Dennis and Malcolm Martineau; ensembles Latitude37 and NZTrio; and the innovative multi-media production of Haydn s Seven Last Words. Last year s project brought together The Tallis Scholars with our finest choristers for an unforgettable 40-part musical sensation. We loved that occasion and are looking forward to this tour that presents music rarely heard live in concert. Enjoy! Sir Roderick Deane was awarded a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit last year for his contribution to business, policymaking and for supporting the arts and disability sector for more than 30 years. Trustees Gillian and Roderick Deane were honoured in 2008 for the substantial and sustained generosity they have provided to the arts in New Zealand. They received the annual Arts Foundation of New Zealand Award for Patronage, presented by Perpetual Trust. Deane Endowment Trust Chamber Music New Zealand thanks the following for their assistance with equipment and logistics: in Wellington, Napier, Hamilton, Auckland New Zealand Symphony Orchestra Te Kōkī New Zealand School of Music New Zealand Van Lines Ltd The Performing Arts Foundation of Wellington Jeremy Fitzsimons in Christchurch Christchurch Symphony Orchestra University of Canterbury School of Music Pandemonium Cashmere High School Brett Painter Please respect the music, the musicians, and your fellow audience members, by switching off all cellphones, pagers and watches. Taking photographs, or sound or video recordings during the concert is strictly prohibited unless with the prior approval of Chamber Music New Zealand.

3 Rhythm & Resonance 1 Welcome Programme Wanaka Photography Thanks for joining us this evening. In a concert season that celebrates the intimacy of the string quartet, it is our pleasure to take you on an intense journey with a different quartet combination. I am specially looking forward to hearing the Bartók Sonata live. It is considered to be one of the greatest ensemble works of the 20 th century and is rarely heard in concert. Our four musicians Diedre Irons, Michael Endres, Thomas Guldborg and Lenny Sakofsky are each well-known in their own right and this project brings them together for the first time. We are grateful for the ongoing support of the Deane Endowment Trust and to all our arts partners who have assisted us to make this programme possible. Rhythm and Resonance promises to be a feast for our senses. Euan Murdoch Chief Executive Chamber Music New Zealand Mozart Ravel Interval Bartók Lutoslawski Wellington Napier Hamilton Auckland Christchurch Sonata for Two Pianos in D K448 4 Le Tombeau de Couperin 5 Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion 6 Variations on a Theme by Paganini 8 26 August 28 August 30 August 1 September 5 September The Wellington and Auckland concerts are being recorded for broadcast by Radio NZ Concert

4 2 Chamber Music New Zealand Diedre Irons Michael Endres Lenny Sakofsky Thomas Guldborg piano piano percussion percussion Diedre Irons is one of New Zealand s most distinguished performers and has taught at both the University of Canterbury and Victoria University of Wellington. Born in Canada, she made her debut with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra at the age of 12 and graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music where she then taught for the next seven years. Since moving to New Zealand in 1977 she has performed regularly with the major New Zealand orchestras, toured many times under the auspices of Chamber Music New Zealand, and recorded extensively for Radio New Zealand. She was awarded an MBE in 1989 and an ONZM in 2011 for services to music and has recently left her position as head of classical performance at the New Zealand School of Music to concentrate on performing. German pianist Michael Endres studied in Munich, at the Juilliard School in New York, and in London. Since then he has taught piano at the Cologne Hochschule, the Hanns Eisler Hochschule in Berlin, the University of Canterbury, and is now Head of Piano at the Barrat Due Institute in Norway. A regular performer at festivals around the world, he accompanied the reknowned baritone Hermann Prey for many years, and has worked with the Berlin Philharmonic Soloists, and the Artemis and Fine Arts String Quartets. As a recording artist he has 29 CDs to his credit, including solo works by Schubert, Mozart, Ravel and Gershwin, and has received the Diapason D Or for three of them.

5 Rhythm & Resonance 3 American born Lenny Sakofsky studied at the Manhattan School and Cleveland Institute and was a finalist in the New York Philharmonic concerto competition at the age of 17. He joined the Auckland Philharmonia in 1997, and has been Principal Percussionist with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra since As a soloist he has performed with regional orchestras in the North Island, and in John Psathas View from Olympus with the Christchurch Symphony and Auckland Philharmonia. For six years he was a member of the contemporary ensemble 175 East, and now works with Stroma. Thomas Guldborg studied in Denmark and at the New England Conservatory in Boston, then returned to his home country to work in various orchestras including the Aalborg Symphony. While in America he was a member of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, performed regularly with the Rhode Island Philharmonic, and New World Symphony and was a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center in He spent six years in the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra before taking up the position of Associate Principal Percussionist and Assistant Timpanist with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

6 4 Chamber Music New Zealand Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Born Salzburg, 27 Jan 1756 Died Vienna, 5 Dec 1791 Sonata for Two Pianos in D K448 Allegro con spirito Andante Molto allegro The young Mozart received his musical education from his father Leopold, who was a court musician in Salzburg, and by the time he was five years old Wolfgang was playing the piano and composing. Along with Wolfgang s older sister Nannerl, the family undertook several extended tours of Europe, during which the children were acclaimed as prodigies. Although the travelling conditions were often gruelling, Mozart had the opportunity to meet and be influenced by the music of other composers, including Johann Christian Bach in London. At the age of 17, Mozart was employed at the Salzburg court, but he left there four years later to travel again. He settled for six months in Paris, hoping to obtain employment that would allow him to compose, but he was unsuccessful and eventually returned to Salzburg. Dissatisfaction with both his salary and the musical environment particularly the lack of an opera theatre led to conflict with his employer, the Archbishop, and in 1781 he was dismissed. Against the wishes of his father, Mozart settled in Vienna, where he made a living as a free-lance musician, teaching, composing and giving sold-out recitals. One of his most talented students was Josephine von Aurnhammer, and the Sonata for Two Pianos was composed for performance by teacher and pupil at a concert in The work became very popular at the time, and has remained a favourite in the repertoire. In the 1990s the Sonata gained additional notoriety when it was used in a scientific study that showed some improvement in brain function when listening to it a phenomenon that became known as the Mozart effect. Whether or not the science is robust, this music is deeply attractive and shows that Mozart had reached a new maturity as a composer. Written in the galant style that had been popularised by Telemann, JC Bach and Boccherini, the Sonata for Two Pianos is characteristically elegant, direct and led by its melodies. In addition, it has an engaging sense of fun in the interplay between the two pianists as they support, imitate and chase one another. The sonata form first movement opens with a fanfare, then settles into a busy exposition of three simple melodic ideas. A short central section seems to be more of a linking passage to the recapitulation of the opening than a traditional development of thematic material. The beautiful Andante second movement is a clear demonstration of Mozart s affinity for song-like melodies, and the final rondo closes the sonata on an effervescent note.

7 Rhythm & Resonance 5 Maurice Ravel Born Ciboure, Basses Pyrénées, 7 Mar 1875 Died Paris, 28 Dec 1937 Le Tombeau de Couperin (arr. Guldborg) Prélude Forlane Menuet Rigaudon At 14 years old, Maurice Ravel entered the Paris Conservatoire, intending to become a concert pianist. He emerged instead as a virtuoso orchestrator and one of the 20th century s most innovative composers. His early music was considered revolutionary, and the Conservatoire had problems regarding him as suitable for the prestigious Prix de Rome he was still declared ineligible for it in 1905, by which time his Pavane pour une infante défunte, Jeux d eaux and String Quartet in F had been published. The unfairness of this situation provoked a public protest. Le Tombeau de Couperin was originally written as a suite of six piano pieces in the period and first performed in That same year four of them were orchestrated by Ravel, and it is these movements that will be performed tonight. The music has been arranged for two marimbas by Thomas Guldborg. Tombeau was the term for a memorial piece in the baroque era, and Ravel dedicated the individual movements to friends who had died in World War I. The whole suite, though, also pays homage to the 17 th century French composer Couperin, and although Ravel generally adheres to the form and character of each dance, he also infuses the music with his own personal style and harmony. The Prélude is a bustling moto perpetuo from which melodic fragments emerge, and it is dedicated to Jacques Charlot, who worked for Ravel s publisher. A Forlane is a lilting dance from north-east Italy in a lively 6/8, and the style became popular in France in the late 1600s. Ravel had studied the Forlane from one of Couperin s keyboard suites before writing this movement, though the piece also shows the influence of jazz and blues. It honours a painter friend, Gabriel Deluc. The Menuet was originally danced by couples in a stately in triple time, but it became stylised into a slightly faster piece with a contrasting trio, which Ravel presents as a gentle but emotionally charged central section. Menuet is dedicated to Jean Dreyfus, a friend with whom Ravel stayed when he was discharged from the army. A Rigaudon is a hopping folk dance, which also became popular in the 17 th century French courts, and Ravel adds a simple trio section in the middle. He wrote it in memory of the brothers Pierre and Pascal Gaudin, who were killed on their first day of combat.

8 6 Chamber Music New Zealand Béla Bartók Born Nagyszentmiklós, Hungary (now Sînnicolau Mare, Romania), 25 Mar 1881 Died New York, 26 Sept 1945 Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion Assai lento Allegro molto Lento, ma non troppo Allegro non troppo Bartók was one of the most influential composers of the 20 th century, though he followed a very different path from his contemporaries. He sought an alternative to the conventional major-minor tonal system, but unlike other composers he did not favour atonality. Instead he took inspiration from the melodic and rhythmic characteristics that he found in folk music of the region. In 1908 he and fellow composer Zoltán Kodály began travelling around small villages, eventually collecting over 16,000 recordings on a gramophone with wax cylinders. Many other composers had used actual folk melodies in their compositions, but Bartók wanted to capture the spirit of Hungarian music for use in his. The qualities that he found simple and direct expressiveness, characteristic turns of melody and non-regular rhythms had a profound influence on his writing, which became a ground-breaking fusion of folk music and art music. By 1923 Bartók had become a respected part of Hungarian musical life as a performer, composer and musicologist. His 1924 study of Eastern European music is still regarded as the foundation for ethno-musicological research, and this was followed by publications on Romanian and Transylvanian folksong, essays on peasant instruments, and biographies of Hungarian composers. During the following decade he made several concert tours abroad, building a reputation in both Europe and America as a pianist but also using his concerts to introduce his own compositions. The Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion was commissioned in 1937 for the tenth anniversary of the International Society for Contemporary Music and first performed in Switzerland early the following year, with Bartók and his wife Ditta Pásztory playing the piano parts. It has since become one of his most admired works, and he was even persuaded to produce a concerto version in The work draws together many elements of Bartók s work, including the use of shifting modal melodies, rapidly changing metres that seem to defy barlines, tonal centres, and classical forms and structures. The pianos are frequently used in a percussive way, and he felt that two of them were needed to balance the frequently very sharp sounds of the other instruments. The pitched instruments (xylophone, timpani) interact with the pianos at a melodic level, while the unpitched instruments have a metrical function, contribute rhythmic motifs, and provide added tone colours.

9 Rhythm & Resonance 7 The monumental first movement opens with an introduction that leads, with mounting tension, to the first theme. This is stated in rhythmic unison by the pianos, and begins with three C major chords, offset harmonically and rhythmically by the accompanying tritone (C-F sharp) in the timpani. A more tranquil passage in Piano I introduces the second theme as a descending, metrically irregular melody, elaborated by grace notes. The shifting combination of beats is derived from a typical Bulgarian dance rhythm. Piano II introduces the third theme, a hopping rhythmic idea that gradually takes off into an energetic duet in which the pianos chase each other in contrary motion. In the recapitulation, these three themes reappear in a different order, beginning with the second (in an inverted form) and finishing with a heavily modified version of the first. The second movement is an example of Bartók s night music style, inspired by hearing the obscure sounds of a still night in the countryside. Short staccato motifs dominate the central section, and in the third section Piano II repeats the music played by Piano I at the beginning, although in a highly decorated form. The tuned percussion introduce the melodic material of the last movement, over a background of C major chords. Much of the rest of the music is derived from elements of this modal-sounding xylophone melody, though it is up-ended, fragmented and turned into counterpoint. The exuberant mood eventually dissipates, and the pianos finish on a last C major chord, leaving the cymbal (played with the fingernail, or the blade of a pocketknife, on the very edge ) and the snare drum to have the final say. The instruments cymbals a hand-held pair, plus two suspended tam tam an unpitched, resonant type of gong with a flat face triangle played with an ordinary metal beater, a short and heavy beater, and with a thin wooden stick side drums with snares (which rattle when the drum is beaten), and without snares bass drum timpani three tuned drums, with the pitches altered by use of a foot pedal xylophone a chromatic instrument with a keyboard of wooden bars

10 8 Chamber Music New Zealand Witold Lutoslawski Born Warsaw, 25 Jan 1913 Died Warsaw, 9 Feb 1994 Variations on a Theme by Paganini (arr. Ptaszyńska) Despite family difficulties caused by the First World War, Lutoslawski began his piano studies at the age of six, and was composing by the time he was nine. The influences of Debussy and Stravinsky, as well as the lush post-romanticism of his countryman Szymanowski, were balanced by a rigorous study of form, which his teacher based on the music of Haydn and Beethoven. Lutoslawski graduated in both piano and composition from the Warsaw Conservatory, and his first major work, Symphonic Variations, was performed and broadcast in However, his hopes of further study in Paris were dashed by the start of the Second World War. As a soldier, Lutoslawski was captured by the German army, but he escaped and spent most of the war in Warsaw, earning his living by playing in local venues. He formed a duo with Andrej Panufnik, and the two composers made numerous arrangements for two pianos. Lutoslawski and his family left Warsaw in 1944 to stay with relatives, and shortly afterwards most of his compositions were lost during the destruction of the city in the Warsaw uprising. He had fortunately managed to take a few with him, including the Paganini Variations, which was the only one of his piano duo works to survive. After the war he wrote folk-based music for films, theatre and a local publishing house, while also developing his own musical style. His First Symphony was banned in 1949 by the Stalinist regime, though, and Lutoslawski was forced to keep his more radical musical developments hidden until the late 1950s. The Variations on a Theme by Paganini were written in 1941 and follow a long tradition of using Niccolo Paganini s fiery 24 th Caprice for Solo Violin as the basis for a virtuoso display. In 1978 Lutoslawski wrote a second version of his work for the pianist Felicja Blumenthal, dividing the music between a solo pianist and an orchestra. Tonight s version is the result of a request from the Danish percussion group Safri Duo. Lutoslawski was not able to do the work himself, so the arrangement for two pianos and percussion was made by the Chicago-based Polish composer Marta Ptaszyńska.

11 Board Chair, Roger King; Peter Walls, Paul Baines, Gretchen La Roche, Sarah Sinclair, Lloyd Williams. Staff Chief Executive, Euan Murdoch Business Manager, Jenni Hall Business Support Administrator, Gemma Robinson Operations Coordinator, Rachel Hardie Artist Development Manager, Catherine Gibson Programme Coordinator (Education and Outreach), Sue Jane Programme Writer, Jane Dawson Audience Development Manager, Victoria Dadd Marketing & Communications Coordinator, Candice de Villiers Ticketing & Database Coordinator, Laurel Bruce Design & Print, Chris McDonald Publicist, Sally Woodfield Branches Auckland: Chair, Victoria Silwood; Concert Manager, Ros Giffney Hamilton: Chair, Murray Hunt; Concert Manager, Gaye Duffill New Plymouth: Chair, Joan Gaines; Concert Manager, Susan Case Hawkes Bay: Chair, June Clifford; Concert Manager, Liffy Roberts Manawatu: Chair, Graham Parsons; Concert Manager, Virginia Warbrick Wellington: Concert Manager, Jessica Lightfoot Nelson: Chair, Annette Monti; Concert Manager, Clare Monti Christchurch: Chair, Colin McLachlan; Concert Manager, Jody Keehan Dunedin: Chair, Terence Dennis; Concert Manager, Richard Dingwall Southland: Chair, Shona Thomson; Concert Manager, Jennifer Sinclair Regional Presenters Blenheim, Cromwell, Gisborne, Gore, Hutt Valley, Kaitaia, Kerikeri, Morrinsville, Motueka, Rotorua, Taihape, Tauranga, Te Awamutu, Tokoroa, Upper Hutt, Waikanae, Waimakariri, Waipukurau, Wanaka, Wanganui, Warkworth, Wellington, Whakatane and Whangarei. Regional Concerts & Other Events Stephen De Pledge (piano) Wanaka, 31 August Warkworth, 14 September Faust Quartet (string quartet) Wellington, 31 August Lower Hutt, 2 September Motueka, 4 September Blenheim, 5 September Wanganui, 7 September Rotorua, 10 September Whangarei, 14 September Donizetti Trio (wind & piano trio) Tauranga, 21 September Level 4, 75 Ghuznee Street PO Box 6238, Wellington Tel (04) Fax (04) info@chambermusic.co.nz /ChamberMusicNZ For all Concerts Managers phone 0800 CONCERT ( ) Chamber Music New Zealand 2014 No part of this programme may be reproduced without the prior permission of Chamber Music New Zealand.

12 A Special Thank You to all our Supporters Education: Accommodation: Crowne Plaza Auckland, Nice Hotel New Plymouth, County Hotel Napier, InterContinental Wellington, Kelvin Hotel Invercargill Coffee supplier: Karajoz Coffee Company Chocolatier: de Spa Chocolatier