music @ main

Music of the Civil War, Wednesday, 2/1/2012 @ 6:45pm

2012-01-24T10:22:00.000-08:00

Douglas Anderson Schools of the Arts
Piano Chamber Music Class

Vera Watson, director

This program is presented in conjunction with Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War, a travelling exhibition for libraries organized by the National Constitution Center and the American Library Association Public Programs Office. The exhibition is on display on the third floor at the Main Library.

C. Grobe: The Battle of Roanoke Island
Cameron Michael, piano; Meghan Slowik and Theo Boldt, narrators
Traditional: Aura Lee
Forrest Christoffers, piano; Natalie Comeaux, vocals
Lambert/arr. S. Snowden: When Johnny Comes Marching Home
Samira Snowden
Crouch: Kathleen Mavourneen
Meghan Slowik
Spiritual/arr. H.T. Burleigh: ‘Tis me, O Lord
Cameron Michael, piano, Nemia Noble, vocals
Grieg: Lyric Pieces Op. 12. No. 1 ; No. 3
Peyton Breault, piano
J. P. Webster: Lorena
Rebecca Collins, piano, Samira Snowden, vocals
Rossini/arr. L.M. Gottschalk: William Tell Overture
Samira Snowden and Nemia Noble
Brahms: Sonata for Piano and Cello in e minor, Op. 38. I. Allegro non troppo
Brittany Maroney, cello, Cameron Michael, piano

Intermezzo Sunday Concert, 2/12/2012 @ 2:30 p.m.

2011-12-29T03:18:00.000-08:00

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UNDER CONSTRUCTION--PLEASE CHECK BACK LATER!

Sarah Wilson MacMillan, soprano
Louis Poeltl, tenor
Bonita Sonsini Wyke, piano

Songs, Folksongs, Arias & Duets
featuring selections from Opera & Musical Theater

Ms. MacMillan & Ms. Wyke:

Traditional/Brown: He's Got the Whole World in His Hand
Gershwin: Summertime (Porgy and Bess)
Floyd: The Trees on the Mountains (Susannah)

Mr. Poeltl & Ms. Wyke:

Tosti: Ideale
De Curtis: Torna a Surriento
Di Capua: O Sole Mio

Ms. MacMillan, Mr. Poeltl & Ms. Wyke:

Puccini: O Soave Fanciulla (La boheme)

Mr. Poeltl & Ms. Wyke:

Kander: Wilkommen (Cabaret)

Ms. MacMillan & Ms. Wyke:

Kohn: Ten Thousand Miles Away (American Folk Set)
Kohn: On the Other Shore (American Folk Set)
Kohn: Wanderin' (American Folk Set)
Kohn: Red Iron Ore (American Folk Set)

Mr. Poeltl & Ms. Wyke:

Schonberg: Bring Him Home (Les Miserables)
Sondheim: Being Alive (Company)

Ms. MacMillan & Ms. Wyke:

Lloyd Webber: Another Suitcase Another Hall (Evita)
Lloyd Webber: Don't Cry for Me, Argentina (Evita)
Lloyd Webber: Think of me (Phantom of the Opera)

Ms. MacMillan, Mr. Poeltl & Ms. Wyke:

Lloyd Webber: All I Ask of You (Phantom of the Opera)

Beginning with her solo debut at Teatro Municipal de Bahía Blanca, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the singing career of soprano Sarah Wilson MacMillan has encompased three continents. In addition to return engagements in Argentina, a solo recital at La Cultura Inglesa in Sao Paulo, Brazil, was broadcast throughout the region. In the United States and the United Kingdom she has appeared in solo and chamber music recitals, as well as in opera performances, including as "Queen of the Night" (The Magic Flute), "Susanna" (The Marriage of Figaro), "The Blonde" (The Abduction from the Seraglio), "Ilia" (Idomeneo), and "Mrs. Heartmelt" (The Impresario). Her varied solo repertoire ranges from works by J.S. Bach to contemporary composers, such as Grammy winner Libby Larsen and Jacksonville's own Bob Moore. Before pursuing graduate studies at the Kansas City Conservatory of Music in Missouri, Ms. MacMillan completed her undergraduate work at Occidental College in Los Angeles, California. Locally, she performs in concert series throughout the First Coast, including recent engagements with the Mayo Clinic, Penney Farms Retirement Community, and the Cathedral Basilica in St. Augustine. She teaches under her married name, Sarah Sasen, and is a member of the North Florida Chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing.

Tenor Louis Poeltl was a 1995 Regional Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and subsequently he appeared with the National Opera Company in 175 performances in over 40 states, in such diverse roles as "Fenton" and "Slender" in The Merry Wives of Windsor, "Paolino" in The Secret Marriage, "Pozzo" and "Verada" in El Capitan, "Count Amalviva" in The Barber of Seville, and "Rodolfo" in La Boheme. He also sang the leading role of "Ollantay" in William Hollister's opera, The Inca’s Chosen Bride, recorded with the Bulgarian National Symphony and Chorale. Mr. Poeltl has performed with numerous symphonies, and his appearances have included recitals and concerts throughout Europe. Most recently, Mr. Poeltl has brought his artistry to the concert stage in recitals throughout the Eastern United States. A native of Waterbury, Connecticut, Louis Poeltl holds a BA in Psychology from Central Connecticut State University, a Master's Degree in Counseling from Webster University, and is pursuing a PhD in Counseling at Barry University. He continues his professional musical studies with Betti McDonald, Founder and Director of the Institute for Musical Arts.

Bonita Sonsini Wyke has been an active part of the Jacksonville music community since 1985, and in working with many of the First Coast's leading vocalists, instrumentalists and musical ensembles she has earned the reputation as a musician of unsurpassed sensitivity, technical skill and artistry. Originally from Los Angeles, California, she has performed for more than thirty years as a collaborative pianist and harpsichordist for choral groups, and orchestral and instrumental ensembles. She has been the music director for a wide variety of stage productions, including opera, musical theater and ballet, and for several years was an integral participant in staged productions at Jacksonville University. While at JU she also performed with the Concert Choir and Chamber Singers, as well as for student and faculty recitals. A founding member of the San Marco Chamber Music Society, Ms. Sonsini Wyke is a seasoned chamber player, and especially enjoys four-hand piano literature.

Intermezzo Sunday Concert, 1/8/2012 @ 2:30 p.m.

2011-12-08T10:37:00.000-08:00

Tuğçe Tari, piano

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Bach: Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue, BWV 903
[Hear it on YouTube] | Score (PDF at imslp.org)
Bach-Busoni: Chaconne in D Minor
[Hear it at InstantEncore] | Score (PDF at imslp.org)
Mozart: Sonata in A Major, K. 331 "Alla Turca"
[Hear mvts. 1-2 on YouTube | [Hear mvt. 3 on YouTube | Score (PDF at imslp.org)
1. Andante grazioso
2. Menuetto
3. Alla Turca: Allegretto
Debussy: Preludes, from Book I
[Hear them at InstantEncore] | Score (PDF at imslp.org)
No. 3. Le vent dans la plaine (The wind over the plains)
No. 6. Des pas sur la neige (Footprints in the snow)
No. 11. La danse de Puck (Puck's Dance)
No. 7. Ce qu'a vu le vent d'Ouest (What the West Wind saw)

At the age of five, Tuğçe Tari (TOO-tchay TAH-ree) took the entrance exam for the Istanbul University State Conservatory, and she was one of only twenty accepted from among more than 600 applicants. She was the only applicant who got a perfect score on the exam, and by the age of six she was performing publicly. In her teens, Tuğçe won the 26th International Istanbul Music Festival, and her Festival performance and interviews were conducted on national television, earning her rave reviews.

After completing her Bachelor of Music degree from the Istanbul University State Conservatory--in one and a half years instead of the usual four--Ms. Tari moved to the United States. She was awarded scholarships and grants to study at the Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, where she earned her Master of Music degree in piano performance under Boris Slutsky. In addition to Turkish and English, Ms. Tari is fluent in French, and she pursued further post-graduate performance studies with Huseyin Sermet at the École Normale de Musique (National School of Music) in Paris, France. She has participated in numerous international music festivals, and in over 20 master classes conducted by many of the world's foremost pianists, including Leon Fleisher, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Vladimir Feltsman, and Alexander Korsantia.

Her international career includes chamber music collaborations as well as solo performances, and she was featured in a 90-minute television program, Kunst Tempel ("Temple of Art"). The program, which included a live solo concert and interview, was hosted by Turkish composer Betin Güneş, the conductor of Symphony Orchestra Cologne (Germany), and was broadcast several times in 2008-2009. Among Ms. Tari's solo recitals have been several command performances at the Turkish Embassy in Washington, D.C., at the request of the Turkish Ambassador, and also a 2005 command performance at the Mayport Naval Station for Britain's Royal Navy and the United States Navy, at the request of Queen Elizabeth II.

Ms. Tari was on the board of the Steinway Society from 2003-2008, and during this time she gave a benefit concert which raised $1,500 for financial assistance to young artists. In 2009, she performed a benefit concert for the Princes' Islands Government (Istanbul, Turkey), raising $15,000.

Tuğçe Tari has been teaching privately since she was 14 years old, and she also taught several undergraduate courses during her time at the Peabody. She has been invited to teach masterclasses at Philadelphia's famous Curtis Institute of Music, as well as at Stetson University. In addition to her concerts in the U.S. and abroad, Ms. Tari maintains a piano studio in Jacksonville, and her devotion as a teacher has prepared many of her students for acceptance into the music programs at such prestigious universities as Yale, Wesleyan, Auburn, and Florida State.

PROGRAM NOTES by Ed Lein, Music Librarian

JAXCAT entries for Bach's Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue

JAXCAT entries for Bach Biographies

Once dismissed by many of his contemporaries as being too old-fashioned, the great German composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) now ranks with Beethoven (who himself studied Bach’s music) as the most influential composers of all time. From 1717-1723, Bach was employed by Prince Leopold of Cöthen, and it was during this period that he wrote the Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue, BWV 903. Although Bach had become famous as a church organist, Cöthen was essentially a Clavinist town, so instrumental music was not usually a part of religious services there. But Leopold was a great lover of music and a very capable performer, and he encouraged Bach to write music for the enjoyment of the court. It was during this time the Bach wrote much of his famous secular music, including the The Well-tempered Clavier (Book I), the Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin, the six Suites for solo cello, the four Orchestral Suites, and the famous Brandenburg Concertos. Even though Cöthen lacked any fine church organs, Bach obviously kept up his keyboard skills on the harpsichord, as demonstrated by the improvisatory, virtuosic display of the Chromatic Fantasy. Its companion 3-voice Fugue is in 3/4 time, and is one of the longest fugues Bach ever wrote.

JAXCAT entries for Bach-Busoni Chaconne in D Minor

JAXCAT entries for Busoni Studies

Italian composer Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924) was a child prodigy who made his public debut as a pianist at age seven, and who, at twelve conducted a performance of a Stabat Mater he had composed. During his life he was best known as a virtuoso pianist of the highest order, but he also was respected internationally as a composition teacher--among his famous students are Kurt Weill, Edgard Varèse, Percy Grainger, Dimitri Tiomkin, and Stefan Wolpe. Busoni called J.S. Bach's keyboard works "the foundation of pianoforte playing," and he began adapting and editing Bach's music in 1888, continuing the practice throughout his career. Busoni's famous transcription of Bach's Chaconne (originally Ciaconna) was undertaken in 1892, during his brief professorship at the New England Conservatory in Boston. Busoni's is one of several adaptations for piano of the monumental piece, including one for the left hand alone by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897). Like the Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue, the Chaconne was written during Bach's Cöthen years, circa 1720, and it is the fifth and final movement of the Partita in D minor, for solo violin (BWV 1004). Its 3-part form is built over a repeated four-measure bass pattern, D | D-C# | D-B flat | G-A(-C#), with its middle section in D major. Brahms observed about the original violin composition:

On one stave, for a small instrument, the man writes a whole world of the deepest thoughts and most powerful feelings. If I imagined that I could have created, even conceived the piece, I am quite certain that the excess of excitement and earth-shattering experience would have driven me out of my mind.

JAXCAT entries for Mozart's Sonata in A major

JAXCAT entries for Mozart Biographies

Austrian-born Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791), unquestionably one of the greatest composers in history, began his career touring Europe as a 6-year-old piano prodigy, and he absorbed and mastered all the contemporary musical trends he was exposed to along the way. Mozart wrote 22 operas, as well as 40 symphonies (“No. 37” is by Michael Haydn, but with a new introduction by Mozart), 27 concertos, chamber music, sonatas, and choral pieces, numbering over 600 works all together. Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major, K. 311, gets it's "Alla Turca" nickname from the famous last movement, which is often performed on its own as Turkish Rondo or Turkish March. The "Turkish" style was meant to conjure the sound of Janissary bands which had become quite the rage throughout Europe--Haydn and Beethoven, among others, also imitated the style in several pieces. Mozart's first movement is a theme with six variations. Following the 2nd-movement (minuet with trio), the Alla Turca rondo tune has been described as beginning like a 7th variation of the first-movement theme, perhaps providing the whole Sonata with a cyclic unity unusual for the time.

JAXCAT entries for Debussy's Preludes

JAXCAT entries for Debussy Biographies

This year [2012] marks the 150th birth anniversary of Achille-Claude Debussy (1862-1918), a quintessentially French composer, pianist and music critic whose own revolutionary music ushered in many of the stylistic changes of the 20th Century. Debussy, whose teachers included César Franck, is usually identified as the chief proponent of musical “Impressionism,” but he did not approve of that label himself. Debussy was a great fan of Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849) and he even edited a French edition of the Polish composer’s piano music for publication. Debussy proved himself to be a true successor of Chopin in writing for the piano, and his 24 Préludes, composed between 1909 and 1913 and grouped into two books of 12 each, may be regarded as a tribute to the Pole. Like Chopin, Debussy continued a Baroque tradition with his Préludes while expanding the harmonic language and piano technique of his contemporaries in ways previously unimagined.

Tuğçe Tari performing
Chopin: Revolutionary Etude, and
Beethoven: Appassionata Sonata, 3rd Movement

Intermezzo Sunday Concert, 12/11/2011 @ 2:30 p.m

2011-11-03T10:08:00.000-07:00

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The Sterling Brass

Music of the Season & Year-round Classics

JASON BODDIE trumpet
BRUCE BYRD trumpet
SHAUN BENNETT horn
AMY SCOTT trombone
PAUL MULLEN tuba

TIMELESS CLASSICS

Serenade (1st movement from Eine kleine Nachtmusik, by W.A. Mozart, arranged by Jeff Tomberg)
Nessun Dorma (from Turandot, by Giacomo Puccini, arranged by Angelo Anton)
3 Elizabethan Madrigals (by Thomas Morley and John Dowland, arranged by Walter Barnes)
1. Morley: My Bonnie Lass -- 2. Dowland: Come Again, Sweet Love Doth Now Invite -- 3. Morley: Now is the Month of Maying
Gloria (from Nelson Mass, by Joseph Haydn, arranged by Walter Barnes)
Rondeau (by J.J. Moret, arranged by Walter Barnes)
My Heart Ever Faithful (by J.S. Bach, arranged by Walter Barnes)
March (1st movement from Second Suite in F, by Gustav Holst, arranged by Jerry Nowak)

HOLIDAY FAVORITES
From A Celebration of Carols, arranged by Lani Smith
Joy to the World -- O Come, All Ye Faithful -- The First Nowell
Sleigh Ride (by Leroy Anderson, arranged by Tim Jameson)
From A Celebration of Carols, arranged by Lani Smith
Angels We Have Heard On High -- Away in a Manger -- Silent Night (F.X. Gruber) -- We Wish You a Merry Christmas
Hallelujah Chorus (from Messiah, by. G.F. Handel, arranged by Walter Barnes)

The Sterling Brass was formed in May 2010, and in addition to providing music for weddings and other private functions, the quintet is committed to introducing audiences to new music for brass quintet, and especially to introducing the genre to young audiences and inspiring young performers.

By day, Jason Boddie (trumpet) is in the Financial Services industry, but musically he is a regular at Frankie's Jazz Jam in Fernandina Beach, and he is a mentor to beginning brass players.

Fernandina Beach native Bruce Byrd (trumpet) plays both the trumpet and cornet in the Nassau Community Band, and he is graciously sitting in with The Sterling Brass while trumpeter Megan Yates is on Maternity leave. Bruce is a Process Control Engineer, and some of his hobbies, in addition to music, are fishing and his grand kids.

Shaun Bennett (horn) has a degree in Music Theory and Composition from Jacksonville University, and his studies also included a semester at the New Zealand School of Music in Wellington, New Zealand. In addition to playing horn with the Coastal Symphony of Georgia in Brunswick, Shaun is the brass instructor at North Florida Music Academy in Orange Park.

Amy Scott (trombone), a graduate of the University of Indianapolis, is a music educator and professional trombonist. She is the conductor of the Nassau Community Band at the Amelia Arts Academy in Fernandina Beach.

Paul Mullen (tuba) holds a Masters in Music Composition from the University of Missouri, and a degree in Music Theory from Stetson University. Paul teaches privately and is active as a clinician, and also plays with the Nassau Community Band.

Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924) came from a long line of Italian church musicians, and it was assumed he’d inherit the “family business” in Tuscany. But a fateful trek from Lucca to Pisa to see Verdi’s Aïda convinced Puccini to give up organ pedals for footlights, and he became the only real successor of Verdi in the realm of Italian opera. When he died of throat cancer the whole of Italy went into mourning, and no opera composer since has enjoyed the same kind of sustained international following that Puccini still has. Based on a folktale from The Arabian Nights, Puccini’s exotic final opera, Turandot, was left unfinished at his death, but that hasn’t stopped its 3rd-act aria, Nessun dorma (“None shall sleep”), from becoming the biggest-ever “crossover” hit, owing primarily to the international commercial success of Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti (1935-2007). Although he rarely performed in stage productions of the entire opera, Nessun dorma became Pavarotti’s signature song, and when he was too sick to receive his Lifetime Achievement Award during the 1998 Emmy broadcast, the legendary Aretha Franklin (b. 1942) stepped in and provided a soulful live tribute performance of the aria (in the original key!), in a thrilling, non-operatic style uniquely her own.

Walter H. Barnes has made numerous arrangements for brass instruments in association with what is perhaps the most famous brass quintet of all, the Canadian Brass. For 3 Elizabethan Madrigals, Barnes chose works by two of the most famous English composers of the late Renaissance, Thomas Morley (1557?-1602) and John Dowland (1563-1626), and adapted three of their pieces that still enjoy frequent performances in a wide variety of arrangements. English madrigals were inspired by contemporary Italian part-songs on secular texts, and they were composed primarily for amateur singers and instrumentalists. They became the predominant form of popular music in England from the late 1580s until about 1630, and Morley more than any other is credited with driving the "craze." Dowland (pronounced "DOO-land" during his time) was famous throughout Europe for his singing and lute-playing, and Come Again, like many of his "Songes or Ayres," was published for performance by one to four voices, with or without lute accompaniment.

Genial Austrian composer (Franz) Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) is the musician most credited with establishing the “Classical” style that his two younger contemporaries, Mozart and Beethoven, built upon, and by the time of his death "Papa" Haydn had become the most widely celebrated composer in Europe. Nicknamed the “Nelson Mass” in honor of Britain’s Admiral Horatio Nelson, Haydn’s Missa in Angustiis ("Mass for troubled times," Hob. XXII:11) premiered in 1798, shortly after Lord Nelson had dealt the first hard blow to Napoleon’s intended world domination. The Mass has been singled out as Haydn’s finest work, and its second movement Gloria has rightly been called an unqualified “song of exultant praise.”

By the time he was in his twenties, French Baroque composer Jean-Joseph Mouret (1682-1738) had become one of the most successful musicians living in Paris. But then, as now, musical styles were ever-evolving, and Mouret could neither adapt to changing musical tastes nor cope with his eventual fall from fashion, and when he died he was penniless and confined to an insane asylum. Although the majority of his works remain virtually unknown, today one would be hard-pressed to name another piece from the French Baroque more recognized than this Rondeau, thanks to its becoming the trademark theme music for PBS's Masterpiece Theatre in 1971.

Although he was dismissed by many of his contemporaries as being too old-fashioned, the great German composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) now ranks with Beethoven (who himself studied Bach’s music) as the most influential composers of all time. My Heart Ever Faithful is the English title of Mein gläubiges Herze, from Bach’s Cantata No. 68 (Also hat Gott die Welt geliebt). Originally sung by solo soprano, it is one of Bach's most popular arias.

British composer Gustav Holst (1874-1934) composed over 200 works, but in America his fame with the general public rests squarely on his brilliant orchestral suite, The Planets (1920). That being said, Holst's two Suites for Military Band (1909 and 1911, respectively) remain cornerstones of the band repertoire. The Second Suite, Op. 28, no. 2, makes use of British folk tunes, with the 1st movement March including Glorishears (Morris Dance), Swansea Town, and Claudy Banks.

Equally at home in pop and jazz, as well as classical styles, Lani Smith is a graduate of the College-Conservatory of Music of the University of Cincinnati, with Bachelor and Master degrees in composition. He has composed and arranged thousands of organ, choral and piano pieces, and has composed over 30 cantatas. A recipient of a Rockefeller Foundation grant, he has received numerous commissions and awards, including Columbia University's Bearns Prize in Composition. For his A Celebration of Carols, for brass quintet, Mr. Smith arranged 10 holiday favorites, seven of which are included on today's program.

American composer Leroy Anderson (1908-1975) studied music at Harvard University, earning both bachelor's and master's degrees. But his doctoral work at Harvard was in German and Scandinavian languages, and during World War II he became a translator for the Army, eventually (in 1945) ending up in the Pentagon as Chief of the Scandinavian Desk of Military Intelligence. Of course now he is most remembered as one of the best American composers of light orchestral music, largely thanks to the championship of his works by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra. Sleigh Ride became something of a signature song for the Boston Pops, and even as recently as last year, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) announced it as their "Most-Played Holiday Song."

Intermezzo Sunday Concert, 11/13/2011 @ 2:30 p.m.

2011-09-29T06:40:00.000-07:00

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Ruxandra Marquardt, violin
Christine Clark, piano

SCHUBERT: Sonata in A major ("Duo"), Op. post., D. 574

Allegro moderato [YouTube performance]
Scherzo Presto [YouTube performance]
Andantino [YouTube performance]
Allegro vivace [YouTube performance]
{YouTube: Movements 1-2 together]
{YouTube: Movements 3-4 together]
Score (pdf), from imslp.org

DVORAK: Romantische Stücke ("Romantic Pieces"), Op. 75

Allegro moderato
Allegro maestoso
Allegro appassionato
Larghetto
[YouTube perfromance, Pieces 1-2]
[YouTube perfromance, Pieces 3-4]
Score (pdf), from imslp.org

FALLA/KREISLER: Danse espagnole (Spanish Dance, from La vida breve)
[YouTube performance]
Score (pdf) transcribed for piano solo, from imslp.org

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Violinist Ruxandra Marquardt is the Principal Second with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, which she joined in 2002, but her hometown is Bucharest, Romania. At age six she entered the George Enescu School of Music, where she studied both violin and piano, but she began to concentrate on violin because "there were too many pianists around." She continued her musical education at the Bucharest Conservatory of Music and the Indiana School of Music.

At age ten, Ms. Marquardt began performing solo recitals and chamber music throughout Eastern Europe under the guidance of her teacher, Stefan Gheorghiu. She since has won an impressive array of competitions, including the Wieniawski International Competition (Poland), the Spring (Prague), the Tibor Varga Prize (Switzerland), the Yehudi Menuhin Competition (London), the Richard Wagner International Festival (Bayreuth), and two consecutive years of First Prizes at the All-Romania Competition. She has been a featured soloist with the Bucharest Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de La Suisse Romande, and the Syracuse Symphony, where she served as Associate Concertmaster prior to moving to Jacksonville with her husband, composer Paul Marquardt. In addition to the JSO, Ruxandra is a frequent performer with the San Marco Chamber Music Society, and she has participated in the Eastern Music Festival and the Grand Teton Music Festival.

A native of Jacksonville, Florida, Christine Armington Clark began piano studies with James Crosland, and continued her professional training at Oberlin Conservatory. She received a Master's degree in piano performance from the University of Illinois, and studied with Leon Fleisher in the Peabody Conservatory Artist Diploma Program upon the recommendation of legendary concert pianist Lorin Hollander. Ms. Clark was national finalist in the Collegiate Artist Competition sponsored by the Music Teachers National Association, and attended the Aspen Music Festival on a piano performance and accompanying scholarship. She competed in the Maryland International Piano Competition, and won the Boca Raton Piano Competition. A versatile musician, Ms. Clark played keyboard with Trap Door, a local rock group, and toured Europe under the aegis of Proclaim! International. She taught piano at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey, and her chamber music performances include an appearance at the Goethe Institute in San Francisco.

Well known along the First Coast, Ms. Clark has appeared with the Jacksonville Starlight Symphonette and the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, and appears frequently with many of the areas finest instrumentalists and vocalists. She also has served on the boards of several arts organizations, is a past President of Friday Musicale, and is on the faculty of Prelude Chamber Music camp. While working as a law clerk in Washington, D.C., Christine gave perhaps her most unusual recital, performing in the United States Supreme Court at the request of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

PROGRAM NOTES by Edward lein, Music Librarian

JAXCAT entries for Schubert's Violin & Piano Sonatas

JAXCAT entries for Schubert Biographies

Schubert's father was a dedicated amateur musician who wasted little time in drafting his young'uns into the family consort. From the age of 5, Franz's routine began to include lessons in singing, violin, viola, piano and organ. In 1804, It was his dulcet singing tones that brought him to the attention of Antonio Salieri (1750-1825), then the most influential musician in Vienna. By 1808, Schubert had entered the imperial seminary on a choir scholarship, and it wasn't too long after that that Salieri was giving him private composition lessons.

An early champion and Schubert's very first publisher was Anton Diabelli (1781-1858), who issued Schubert's famous song, Der Erlkönig (literally "The Alder-King," but often translated as "The Elf King"), in 1821. Their association ended in 1823 when Schubert had a falling-out with Diabelli's business partner, Pietro Cappi. But after Schubert died, Diabelli (who had himself split with Cappi in 1824) bought a large portion of Schubert's manuscripts from Schubert's brother, and for about 30 years after the composer's death, Diabelli was still publishing "new" works by Schubert.

Austrian musicologist Otto Erich Deutsch (1883-1967) prepared a chronological thematic catalog of Schubert's total output (hence the "D." for "Deutsch" numbers), which now includes 998 pieces altogether. Considering the generous bulk of Schubert's oeuvre, it is surprising that only eight of the nearly 1,000 works are for a solo instrument with piano. Of the six duos from among these that are for violin and piano, four are sonatas, and, given Schubert's proficiency on the violin as well as piano, they are perfectly idiomatic to the forces at hand. In 1836, Diabelli issued the first three sonatas, all composed in March and April 1816, renaming them Sonatinas, Op. 137, probably better to whet the growing appetites of amateur players. In 1851, Diabelli finally issued the fourth sonata, composed in 1817, as "Duo" Sonata, Op. 162, adding the nickname that indicates the full partnership between the two instruments. Now often also called the "Grand Duo," this work of Schubert's early maturity withholds none of its composer's characteristically singing lyricism.

JAXCAT entries for Dvořák's Romantic Pieces, Op 75

JAXCAT entries for Dvořák Biographies

A few years prior to the American sojourn, the Dvořáks were living with Antonín's mother-in-law in Prague. It was there, in January 1887, that Dvořák composed a set of four "Miniatures" for two violins and viola, after he overheard Jan Pelikán, a violinist from the orchestra of the National Theatre, giving lessons to Josef Kruis, a chemistry student renting a room in Dvořák's building. Dvořák was an accomplished violist, and he first wrote the lovely Terzetto in C Major, Op.74, intending that the three of them should play it together. The Terzetto certainly demonstrates that Dvořák's mastery of writing for strings extended to intimate settings as well as to the concert hall, but it proved to be too challenging for the student fiddler, so Dvořák scaled things back a little with the Miniatures. The individual movements of the newer trio were entitled Cavatina (Moderato), Capriccio (Poco allegro), Romance (Allegro), and Elegy or Ballad (Larghetto), and Dvořák wrote to his publisher that he enjoyed working on them as much as working on a full-scale symphony. Despite his delight with the trio format, he immediately adapted the pieces for solo violin and piano, dropping the more descriptive movement titles in the process. The violin-piano version was published that same year as Romantic Pieces, Op. 75 (or, Romantické kusy in Czech), and Dvořák himself played the piano for the work's public premiere.

JAXCAT entries for
Falla's Danse espagnole

JAXCAT entry for Falla Biography

During the early decades of the 20th Century, Manuel de Falla (1876-1946) gained an international reputation as the leading Spanish composer of his generation. Infused with the rhythms and harmonies of the folk songs and dances of his native Andalusia, Falla’s music has been described as representing “the spirit of Spain at its purest” (Encyclopaedia Britannica). Among his best-known works are the ballets El amor brujo (Love, the Magician, 1915) and El sombrero de tres picos (The Three-cornered Hat, 1917), and the beautiful Noches en los jardines de España (Nights in the Gardens of Spain, 1916), for piano and orchestra. But his first major work was the prize-winning verismo opera, La vida breve (The Brief Life, 1905/revised 1913), unusual in that its instrumental music is as significant as the singing, including a sometimes wordless chorus treated like a part of the orchestra. Although the complete opera is seldom staged, there are frequent performances of the orchestral Interlude and Dance, and also Danse espagnole, not only in this bravura adaptation for violin and piano by the famous violinist Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962), but in other arrangements as well, including for two guitars.

Intermezzo Sunday Concert, 10/9/2011 @ 2:30 p.m.

2011-08-29T11:42:00.000-07:00

CLICK for a larger view

Shawn I. Puller, tenor
Read Gainsford, piano

Faculty artists from Albany State University and Florida State University team up for an afternoon of song!
PROGRAM SELECTIONS

Roger Quilter
5 Shakespeare Songs (Second Set), Op. 23

Fear no more the heat o' the sun
Under the greenwood tree
It was a lover and his lass
Take, o take those lips away
Hey, Ho, the wind, and the rain

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Dalla sua pace (from Don Giovanni)

Vincenzo Bellini

Il fervido desiderio
Dolente immagine di Fille mia

Franz Liszt

Du bist wie eine Blume
Im Rhein im schönen Strome
Hohe Liebe

Sergei Rachmaninoff

Lilacs (Op. 21, No. 5)
A Dream (Op. 8, No. 5)
Here All is Just Right (Op. 21, No. 7)

Juan Bautista Plaza
from Siete canciones venezolanas

Por estos cuatro caminos
Hilando el copo del viento
Cuando el caballo se para

John W. Work III
          Soliloquy

Richard Pearson Thomas
          I Never Saw a Moor

Undine S. Moore
          Love let the wind cry...How I adore thee!

Tenor Shawn Puller (Ph.D) is an Assistant Professor of Music at Georgia's Albany State University, and has taught in New York at SUNY Cortland and Ithaca College, as well as at Florida State University, where he is on the faculty of their Summer Music Camps. As director of both bands and choruses his teaching experience includes instruction of children as well as young adults, and as a vocal soloist, in addition to art-song literature, his repertoire includes opera, oratorio, and other large-scale choral works. Shawn has directed the music programs of several churches, and also has served as the Assistant Director of the Heifetz International Music Institute, in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. Among other professional organizations, Dr. Puller is an active member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, and serves as the head Archivist of the Georgia Chapter of NATS.

Pianist Read Gainsford (D.M.) has performed widely in the USA, Europe, Australia, South Africa, and his native New Zealand as solo recitalist, concerto soloist and chamber musician. He has made successful solo debuts at the Wigmore Hall and Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, and has performed in many other prestigious venues, including the Kennedy Center, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Barbican Centre, Fairfield Halls, Birmingham Town Hall and St.-Martin-in-the-Fields. Dr. Gainsford has recorded for the Amoris label, BBC Radio Three, Radio New Zealand's Concert Programme, and has broadcast on national television in New Zealand, the UK, and Yugoslavia. Since moving to the United States in 1992, Read has been a guest artist for the American Music Teachers Association, has appeared at the Gilmore Keyboard Festival and the Music Festival of the Hamptons, and spent several summers as a member of the collaborative pianist faculty at the Heifetz International Music Institute. He is a member of the contemporary music group Ensemble X, the Garth Newel Chamber Players, and, in addition to providing our opener with Dr. Puller in 2010, he has performed on Music @ Main programs twice as the pianist with FSU's Trio Solis. Formerly on the faculty of Ithaca College where he received the college-wide Excellence in Teaching Award in 2004, Dr. Gainsford became Associate Professor of Piano at FSU in 2005.

PROGRAM NOTES, by Ed Lein, Music Librarian

JAXCAT entries for Roger Quilter

In 1905, Quilter's Three Shakespeare Songs, Op. 6, provided an early success, but he waited until 1919 to return to The Bard for inspiration, composing a song (Under the Greenwood Tree) and a duet (It was a Lover and His Lass) on lighthearted texts from As You Like It. In 1921, Quilter included these as the second and third selections in his Five Shakespeare Songs, Op. 21, recasting the duet as a solo. The text for the elegiac first song, Fear No More the Heat o' the Sun, is from Cymbeline. The beautiful and concise 4th song, Take, O Take Those Lips Away, which is from Measure for Measure, was later adapted for piano quartet by the composer. The cycle ends with Hey, Ho, the Wind and the Rain, the song which likewise provides the conclusion for its source, Twelfth Night.

Hear them on YouTube

Complete Score (pdf), from imslp.org.

Fear No More the Heat o' the Sun
Fear no more the heat o' the sun,
     Nor the furious winter's rages;
Thou thy worldly task hast done,
     Home art done, and ta'en thy wages:
Golden lads and girls all must,
As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.

Fear no more the frown o' the great;
     Thou art past the tyrant's stroke;
Care no more to clothe and eat;
     To thee the reed is as the oak:
The Sceptre, Learning, Physic, must
All follow this, and come to dust.

Fear no more the lightning-flash,
Nor the'all-dreaded thunder-stone;
Fear not slander, censure rash;
Thou hast finished joy and moan:
All lovers young, all lovers must
Consign to thee, and come to dust.
No exorciser harm thee!
Nor no witchcraft charm thee!
Ghost unlaid forbear thee!
Nothing ill come near thee!
Quiet consummation have,
And renownèd by thy grave!
Under the Greenwood Tree

UNDER the greenwood tree,
Who loves to lie with me,
And turn his merry note
Unto the sweet bird's throat,
Come hither, come hither, come hither:
     Here shall he see
     No enemy
But winter and rough weather.

     Who doth ambition shun,
     And loves to live i' the sun,
     Seeking the food he eats,
     And pleased with what he gets,
Come hither, come hither, come hither:
     Here shall he see
     No enemy
But winter and rough weather.
It was a Lover and his Lass

IT was a lover and his lass,
     With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
That o'er the green corn-field did pass,
     In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding;
Sweet lovers love the spring.

Between the acres of the rye,
     With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
These pretty country folks would lie,
     In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding;
Sweet lovers love the spring.

This carol they began that hour,
     With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
How that life was but a flower
     In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding;
Sweet lovers love the spring.

And, therefore, take the present time
     With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
For love is crownèd with the prime
In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding;
Sweet lovers love the spring.

Take, Oh Take Those Lips Away

Take, oh take those lips away,
     That so sweetly were forsworne,
And those eyes: the breake of day,
     Lights that doe mislead the Morne;
But my kisses bring againe, bring againe,
Seales of love, but seal’d in vaine, seal’d in vaine.
Hey, ho, the Wind and the Rain
     [NOTE: Quilter omits Shakespeare's original 4th verse, also omitted here]

When that I was and a little tiny boy,
     With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
A foolish thing was but a toy,
     For the rain it raineth every day.

But when I came to man’s estate,
     With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
‘Gainst knaves and thieves men shut the gate,
     For the rain it raineth every day.

But when I came, alas! to wive,
     With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
By swaggering could I never thrive,
     For the rain it raineth every day.

A great while ago the world begun,
     With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
But that’s all one, our play is done,
     And we’ll strive to please you every day.

JAXCAT entries for
Mozart: Tenor Arias
JAXCAT entries for Mozart Biographies

Of all the different versions of the Don Juan legend, Mozart’s comic opera, Don Giovanni (1787), on a libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte (1749-1838), is among the best known and most discussed. The Don is an unrepentant rake who lives solely for his own selfish pleasures, with utter disregard for how his behavior might affect others. Mozart’s opera picks up as Giovanni’s luck finally begins to fade and his past begins to catch up with him. He is on the run after dueling with and killing the father of Donna Anna, a would-be romantic conquest. Anna asks Don Ottavio, her fiancé, to avenge her father's death, and when left alone Ottavio sings Dalla sua pace, reflecting, basically, that her wish is his command.

Hear it on YouTube

Dalla sua pace

Dalla sua pace la mia dipende;
Quel che a lei piace vita mi rende,
Quel che le incresce morte mi dà.

S'ella sospira, sospiro anch'io;
È mia quell'ira, quel pianto è mio;
E non ho bene, s'ella non l'ha.

--Don Octavio's Act I aria from Don Giovanni
Libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte On Her Mind's Peace

On her mind’s peace my peace depends;
That which her pleaseth, new life me sends,
That which her grieveth, my death shall be.

If she doth sigh, so shall I sigh also;
Her wrath shall be mine, as mine her sorrow;
And no joy have I, if none hath she.

--English version ©2011, by E. Lein

JAXCAT entry for Vincenzo Bellini Ariettes
JAXCAT entries for
Bellini Biographies

Along with the operas of Rossini and Donizetti, those of Italian composer Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835) have come to epitomize the essence of the lyrical vocal style we now call bel canto (i.e., "beautiful singing"), as opposed to the more forceful and declamatory style represented by Wagner. Bellini, whose operas include Norma (1831), La sonnambula(1831), and I Puritani (1835), was born into a musical family, and he showed prodigious talent from an early age. Little Vinnie reportedly was singing arias before he was two, and before he turned three he had begun to study music theory (remember, kryptonite didn't make an appearance until the 20th Century ...). At age 18, Bellini entered the conservatory in Naples, where, for his graduation in 1825, his first opera was produced; and by the fall of 1827 Il pirata (The Pirate) premiered at La Scala in Milan. Before too long, Bellini went from being local sensation to international celebrity, and elements of his style--sensuous, long-flowing melodies and sometimes surprising harmonic shifts--are said to have had a great impact on the young Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849). Bellini's rise was cut short at the height of his popularity, when he grew ill in Paris (on an extended stopover between London and Milan), and died from acute intestinal and liver maladies.

During the first few years after he left the conservatory Bellini composed more than a dozen songs with piano. Among these, Il fervido desiderio and Dolente immagine di Fille mia were published posthumously, along with a third song, as Tre ariette; the authorship of the texts is unknown.

Score for Il fervido desiderio (pdf), from imslp.org
Hear it on MySpace

Il fervido desiderio

Quando verrà quel dì
che riveder potrò
quel che l'amante cor tanto desia?

Quando verrà quel dì
che in sen t'accoglierò,
bella fiamma d'amor, anima mia?
The Fervent Desire

When might that day arrive
When I again might see
That which the loving heart doth much desire?

When might that day arrive
Wherein my breast may welcome thee,
My soul, love's beauteous burning fire?

--English version ©2011, by E. Lein

Score for Dolente immagine di Fille mia (pdf), from imslp.org
Hear it on YouTube

Dolente immagine di Fille mia

Dolente immagine di Fille mia,
perché sì squallida mi siedi accanto?
Che più desideri? Dirotto pianto
io sul tuo cenere versai finor.

Temi che immemore de' sacri giuri
io possa accendermi ad altra face?
Ombra di Fillide, riposa in pace;
è inestinguibile l'antico ardor.
Mournful Image of Phyllis Mine

Mournful image of Phyllis mine,
Why linger drearily beside me here?
What more desirest thou? A flood of tears
Have yet I poured on ashes from thy pyre.

Fear ye that I, forgetful of our holy vows,
Might be enkindled by another flame?
O shade of Phyllis, at peaceful rest remain:
Inextinguishable is our old passion's fire.

--English version ©2011, by E. Lein

JAXCAT entries for Liszt Songs
JAXCAT entries for Liszt Biographies

Hungarian- composer Franz Liszt (1811-1886) is widely regarded as the greatest pianist of all time, and his performances excited an hysteria that today is reserved for only the most popular of rock stars. Despite great fame following a sometimes impoverished youth, Liszt remained unspoiled and donated great sums of his concert earnings to a wide variety of charitable causes, and in later life he even took orders in the church. His generosity extended to helping increase the fortunes of struggling musicians, among them Hector Berlioz and Liszt’s future son-in-law, Richard Wagner. An innovative composer, Liszt is credited with creating the symphonic tone poem as a form, developing the technique of thematic transformation, and he even anticipated some of the harmonic devices of Impressionist composers.

Heine's poem, Du bist wie eine blume, has been set by dozens of different composers (including a Russian version by Rachmaninoff), and, along with Robert Schumann's setting, Liszt's is among the most famous. This year marks the 200th anniversary of Liszt's birth, and, fortunately for him, good penmanship is not a criterion for immortality, as the autograph manuscript of the song (1843?) attests. A solo piano version of the song was prepared by Joachim Raff (1822-1882--Raff would become Liszt's music copyist for a time ...), which Liszt performed. Liszt himself prepared a concert arrangement for solo piano of Im Rhein, im schönen Strome (1840?/1854), as well as of Hohe Liebe (1850), which became the first of Liszt's three Liebesträume (Dreams of Love).

Du bist wie eine Blume Du bist wie eine Blume so hold und schön und rein; ich schau' dich an, und Wehmut schleicht mir ins Herz hinein. Mir ist, als ob ich die Hände aufs Haupt dir legen sollt', betend, daß dich Gott erhalte so rein und schön und hold. --Text: Heinrich Heine (1797-1856)	Thou Like a Budding Flower Art Thou like a budding flower art, So fair and sweet and pure; I gaze on thee, and longing Invades my true heart's core. It seems to me as though my hands Should on thy head rest there, Whilst praying God might keep thee Ever pure and sweet and fair. --English version ©2011, by E. Lein
Hear it on YouTube	Score from imslp.org (pdf)
Im Rhein Im Rhein, im schönen Strome, Da spiegelt sich in den Wellen Mit seinem großen Dome Das große, das heil'ge Köln. Im Dom da steht ein Bildnis, Auf goldnem Leder gemalt; Ach, In meines Lebens Wildnis Hat's freundlich hinein gestrahlt. Es schweben Blumen und Englein Um unsre liebe Frau; Die Augen, die Lippen, die Wängelein, Die gleichen der Liebsten genau. --Text: Heinrich Heine (1797-1856), altered slightly	In the Rhine In the Rhine, in whose beauteous swirl, In whose waves it lies reflected With its towering cathedral, Is Cologne, the great, the sacred. In the cathedral an Icon stands, Rendered upon gilded leather; Ah, into my life’s wild wastelands Its friendly light would glimmer. Blossoms and cherubs do hover there Above our belovéd Dame; The eyes, the lips, and the cheeks so fair Of my belovéd are just the same. --English version ©2011, by E. Lein
Hear it on YouTube	Score (2nd version) from imlsp.org (pdf) Score (1st version) from imlsp.org (pdf)
Hohe Liebe In Liebesarmen ruht ihr trunken, Des Lebens Früchte winken euch; Ein Blick nur ist auf mich gesunken, Doch bin ich vor euch allen reich. Das Glück der Erde miss' ich gerne Und blick, ein Märtyrer, hinan, Denn über mir in goldner Ferne Hat sich der Himmel aufgetan. --Text: Johann Ludwig Uhland (1787-1862)	Exalted Love Drunk, rest ye all in the arms of romance, Yon fruits of life do thee beckon and call; Though on me was cast but a single glance, Far richer still am I than all. The joys of earth I do gladly disown And look ahead, yet a martyr, For over me in the golden beyond The heavens above have parted. --English version ©2011, by E. Lein
Hear it on YouTube	Score from imslp.org (pdf)

JAXCAT entries for Rachmaninoff Songs
JAXCAT entries for Rachmaninoff Biobraphies

Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) was a Russian composer and conductor, and one of the greatest pianists of all time. Although of the 20th Century, Rachmaninoff's music remained firmly rooted in 19th-Century Russian Romanticism. For a time some post-World War II critics foolishly dismissed him as old-fashioned, but the lush harmonies and sweeping melodies that characterize his music assure it a continuing place in the world’s concert halls. Astonishingly, Rachmaninoff had what might be called a "phonographic" memory in that upon hearing virtually any piece he could play it back at the piano, even years later—and if he liked the piece it would sound like a polished performance!

Rachmaninoff composed songs throughout his career, and his choral music has a devoted following among aficionados. His melodic talent was perfectly suited to vocal music so it is surprising that his songs are not better known. Rachmaninoff completed his six Romances, Op. 8, in 1893, and the 12 Romances, Op. 21, in 1902, and he adapted both Lilacs and Here All is Just Right (often translated as "How fair this spot") as pieces for piano solo.

Сирень (Op. 21, No. 5) По утру, на заре, По росистой траве, Я пойду свежим утром дышать; И в душистую тень, Где теснится сирень, Я пойду свое счастье искать... В жизни счастье одно Мне найти суждено, И то счастье в сирени живёт; На зелёных ветвях, На душистых кистях Моё бедное счастье цветёт... --Text: Ekaterina Andreyena Beketova (1855-1892) Hear it on YouTube	Lilacs Come tomorrow, at dawn, Across the dewy lawn, I shall breathe in morning's freshness; And in the shade's perfume, Where the crowding lilacs bloom, I shall seek my happiness ... For in this life one joy alone Would the fates but let me own, And my joy finds life within that lilac bower; Among their verdant branches, Mid fragrant petaled bunches Goes my poor luck there, to flower ... --English version ©2011, by E. Lein Complete score (pdf), from imlsp.org
Сон (Op. 8, No. 5) И у меня был край родной; Прекрасен он! Там ель качалась надо мной... Но то был сон! Семья друзей жива была. Со всех сторон Звучали мне любви слова... Но то был сон! --Text: Aleksey Nikolayevich Pleshcheyev (1825-1893, after Heine) Hear it on YouTube	A Dream And I had a motherland-- So beautiful was she! There spruce trees swayed above ... But it was a dream! There our family friends still lived. From every side about me Were heard sweet words of love ... But it was a dream! --English version ©2011, by E. Lein Complete score (pdf), from imlsp.org
Здесь хорошо (Op. 21, No. 7) Здесь хорошо... Взгляни, вдали Огнём горит река; Цветным ковром луга легли, Белеют облака. Здесь нет людей... Здесь тишина... Здесь только Бог да я. Цветы, да старая сосна, Да ты, мечта моя! --Text: Glafira Adol'fovna Galina (1873-1942) Hear it on YouTube Hear it again on YouTube	Here All is Just Right Here all is just right ... Look off yonder, far away, With fire the river comes alight; Gay colored rugs the meadows lay, Clouds turn a brighter white. Here none comes nearby ... Here is mute tranquility ... Here are only God and I, Flowers, yes, this old pine tree, And you, blest dream of mine! --English version ©2011, by E. Lein Complete score (pdf), from imlsp.org

JAXCAT entry for Juan Bautista Plaza

At the tender age of 16 years, Venezuelan composer, educator and ethnomusicologist Juan Bautista Plaza (1898-1965) was appointed choirmaster at his school in Caracas, and he continued in that post even after he entered University, ostensibly to study law and medicine. But music won out, and in 1920 he was sent on scholarship to Rome, Italy, becoming a Master of Sacred Composition (1923). He returned to Caracas as the choirmaster of the cathedral (1923-1947), and was also a professor at the Escuela Nacional de Musica (1924-28/1936-62). In 1936, Plaza began studying and cataloging a large collection of Venezuelan colonial music, eventually published in 12 volumes in 1943, making him a central figure in the growth of Venezuelan Nationalism. He was a prolific writer and lecturer, and produced daily newspaper articles and hundreds of radio talks for the general public.

Plaza's Siete canciones venezolanas (Seven Venezuelan Songs) (1932) are on Spanish texts by Venezuelan poet Luís Barrios Cruz (1898-1968). The songs are an example of Plaza's brand of música criolla, drawing on popular Venezuelan songs and dances of partially European origin, and they may well have been inspired by Siete canciones populares españolas (1914), by Spanish composer Manuel de Falla (1876-1946).

The three mp3s following each English version are from /www.fundacionjuanbautistaplaza.com

Por estos cuatro caminos (Over These Four Roads)

     Over these four roads flew four wild macaws,
     Over these four roads through the sun-parched plain.

     Over these four roads four egrets got lost
     In search of a green pool that the scrub brush drank.

     Over these four roads of the forlorn guitar,
     Over these four roads I will find my soul.

--English version ©2011, by E. Lein

CLICK HERE for the original Spanish text (still under copyright) and an excerpt from the score.

No 5. Por estos cuatro caminos (MP3)

Hilando el copo del viento (Spinning the Puff of Wind)

      The palm trees are spinning,
      Spinning the puff of wind
      To make a fine suit
      For the January Bride's moon.

      The palm trees are spinning,
      Spinning the puff of wind
      To knit some bootees
      For the newborn morning stars.

      The palm trees are spinning,
      Spinning the puff of wind
      For the white shroud
      Of my dead dreams.

--English version ©2011, by E. Lein

No 4. Hilando el copo del viento (Excerpt--MP3)

Cuando el caballo se para (When the Horse Stops)

     Across the scorched plain
     Is the path that it travels.
     Look how it goes on alone
     When the horse stops.

     Little road, little road, little road,
     Who gave you all that savannah?
     And who gave you so much leg?
     Road, don't you ever grow weary?

     But I'll die of heartache
     If I ignore your gall:
     Road that still goes on alone,
     Even though the horse has stopped.

--English version ©2011, by E. Lein

No 3. Cuando el caballo se para (Excerpt--MP3)

JAXCAT entries for
John W. Work III

Both John Wesley Work III (1901-1967) and his brother, Julian, became the third generation of professional musicians in their family: their grandfather, the first John Wesley Work, was a Tennessee church musician and choral arranger; their father, John Wesley Work II, was a singer, ethnomusicologist and professor at Fisk University, in Nashville; and their mother, Agnes Haynes Work, was a singer and choral director at Fisk. In addition to composing, John W. Work III followed extremely closely in both his parent's footsteps, becoming an important ethnomusicologist, as well as both choral director and professor of music theory and composition at Fisk, eventually becoming chair of the music department there in 1950. He began composing as a high school student, and throughout his career wrote over 100 works in a variety of genres, with songs and choral music dominating his output. In 1946 he won first prize from the Federation of American Composers' competition for a cantata, The Singers, and the following year he received an award from the National Association of Negro Musicians. Also dating from 1946, Soliloquy is a setting of a text by Myrtle Vorst Sheppard--still under copyright, so it cannot be reprinted in its entirety, but the beginning and ending lines aptly convey the sentiment of the whole song:

If death be only half as sweet as life, I will not fear, I'll shed no tear,
Nor will I ask my friends to weep;
...
If death be only half as sweet as life, I will not fear to go.
I love life so! I love life so!

Hear it on YouTube

The versatile New York pianist and composer Richard Pearson Thomas (b. 1957) is at home in both the musical theater and the concert hall. In addition to accompanying recitals with singers at major U.S. and international venues, he composes for films and the stage, including the Off-Off-Broadway shows Parallel Lines (2005) and Ladies in a Maze (1996). The Montana native is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music and the University of Southern California, was on faculty at Yale and the University of Central Florida, and currently is on the faculty at Teachers College/Columbia University. He has composed more than 80 operas with students in New York City public schools as composer-in-residence of the Gold Opera Project, Young Audiences/New York.

I Never Saw a Moor (1991) is a setting of a poem by Emily Dickenson (1830-1886).

Hear it on the Composer's website

I never saw a moor,
I never saw the sea;
Yet know I how the heather looks,
And what a wave must be.

I never spoke with God,
Nor visited in heaven;
Yet certain am I of the spot
As if the chart were given.

JAXCAT entry for
Undine S. Moore

Sometimes called "Dean of Black Women Composers," Undine Smith Moore (1904-1989) was graduated cum laude from Juilliard in 1926, became supervisor of music for the Goldsboro, North Carolina public school system in 1926, and joined the faculty of Virginia State College (now Virginia State University) in 1927 until her retirement in 1972. She earned an MA degree from Columbia University (1931), and was awarded honorary Doctor of Music degrees from both Virginia State College (1972) and Indiana University (1976). In 1977 she was named Music Laureate of Virginia, and other honors include the National Association of Negro Musicians Distinguished Achievement Award (1975), the National Black Caucus Award (1980), and the Virginia Governor’s Award in the Arts (1985). Moore, who modestly referred to herself as a teacher who composed, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1982 for her cantata, Scenes from the Life of a Martyr (1980), based on the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., following the work's premiere in Carnegie Hall.

Moore's song, Love Let the Wind Cry, How I Adore Thee, sets five (of six) verses from an untitled poem adapted by Bliss Carman (1861-1929), published as No. 31 in Sappho: One Hundred Lyrics.

Hear it on YouTube

Love let the wind cry
On the dark mountain,
Bending the ash trees
And the tall hemlocks
With the great voice of
Thunderous legions,
How I adore thee.

Let the hoarse torrent
In the blue canyon,
Murmuring mightily
Out of the gray mist
Of primal chaos
Cease not proclaiming
How I adore thee.

Let the long rhythm
Of crunching rollers,
Breaking and bursting
On the white seaboard
Titan and tireless,
Tell, while the world stands,
How I adore thee.

Love, let the clear call
Of the tree cricket,
Frailest of creatures,
Green as the young grass,
Mark with his trilling
Resonant bell-note,
How I adore thee.

But, more than all sounds,
Surer, serener,
Fuller of passion
And exultation,
Let the hushed whisper
In thine own heart say,
How I adore thee.

Intermezzo Sunday Concert, 6/12/2011 @ 2:30 p.m.

2011-04-19T13:27:00.000-07:00

Max Huls, violin solo

Spiritual Flights / Spanish Flair

Jean-Delphin Alard (1815-1888)
Étude-caprice, op. 41, no.24 ("Boléro")

Henri Vieuxtemps (1820-1881)
6 Morceaux, Op. 61
--No. 1. Andante
--No. 2. Moderato
--No. 3. Prélude (Andante)
--No. 4. Tempo di Minuetto
--No. 5. Andante
--No. 6. Introduction et fugue

Eugène Ysaÿe (1858-1931)
Sonata No. 6 ("Manuel Quiroga")

Violinist Max Huls joined the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra in 1993 and was introduced to the First Coast as soloist in Bartók’s Second Rhapsody, for violin and orchestra. Mr. Huls is on the faculty of the Prelude Chamber Music Camp, is a violin coach for the Jacksonville Symphony Youth Orchestra, and, in addition to his core membership in the JSO, he is Concertmaster of the Coastal Symphony of Georgia. He appeared variously as concertmaster, soloist and conductor with the Savannah Symphony, and was concertmaster of the Memphis Symphony and Opera Memphis. Max was on the faculty of the University of Memphis and Rhodes College, and while living in Tennessee was much sought after as a studio musician, working with the rock group The Replacements, and soul legends Patti LaBelle and Al Green, among many others

Since 1983, Max has played principal second violin for Peninsula Music Festival in Wisconsin. He also has participated in the Aspen Music Festival, Colorado Music Festival in Boulder, Missouri Symphony Society, Eastern Music Festival, and Memphis Chamber Music Society.

Since age 16, Max has shared the solo violin's celebrated masterpieces and forgotten treasures in recital. Repertoire includes Bach's Six Sonatas and Partitas, the Six Sonatas by Eugène Ysaÿe, and the works of Bartók, Nielsen, Franck and Paganini. He appears frequently in local concerts and recitals, and has regularly contributed his time and talent to Jacksonville Public Library's Intermezzo and Music@Main concert series. As a member of Duo Proto, Max plays alongside his son Victor Minke Huls, who in turn plays a number of instruments including flute, cello, mandolin and piano. As a member of The Huls Clark Duo, Max performs in recital with pianist Christine Clark.

Hometown: Jefferson City, Missouri
Education: Bachelor of Fine Arts in Music and Philosophy from Stephens College; Master of Music from University of Memphis

PROGRAM NOTES, by Ed Lein, Music Librarian

Both as a performer and as a teacher, Jean-Delphin Alard (1815-1888) achieved fame as the foremost representative of the modern French school of violin playing of his generation. Born in the French Basque town of Bayonne, very near the Spanish border, a 10-year-old Delphin so impressed his neighbors with a prodigious public performance of a violin concerto by Viotti that the whole town chipped in to send the poor lad to Paris, where, at age 12, he entered the Paris Conservatory. By 1831, Alard had begun accumulating prizes for his playing, earning the reputation as a great performer; in 1840 he was appointed solo violinist in King Louis Philippe's Royal Band; and from 1843 until his retirement in 1875, he returned to the Conservatory as a leading professor whose students included the brilliant Spanish violinist and composer Pablo de Sarasate (1844-1908). Alard was made a Chevalier of France's Légion d'honneur in 1850, and was 1st violinist in the Imperial Chapel from 1853 until the fall of Napoleon III, in 1873.

Alard's compositions are now mostly forgotten, but they were very popular in France during his lifetime. Not surprisingly, they mostly showcase the violin, and include bravura concertos and concert pieces, duos for two violins, and exercises and studies for violin students. His pedagogical treatise, Ecole du violon (School of the Violin) was adopted by the Paris Conservatory, and was translated into several languages, becoming a standard guide for aspiring virtuosi throughout Europe.

For the most part, the two books comprising Alard's 24 Études-caprices, op. 41, are perhaps better suited to the practice room than to the concert hall. But the concluding Boléro, the only study in the second book given a title, is an exception that recalls the composer's Basque heritage, with his home-region's ties to Spanish culture.

Score (pdf)--Alard: Etudes-caprices Nos. 13-24

Much like his contemporary Alard, the Belgian composer and violinist Henri Vieuxtemps (1820–1881) was a child prodigy who famously performed a concerto at age six, and who likewise went on to gain an international reputation as both performer and teacher. Vieuxtemps was a student and eventually professor at the Brussels Conservatory, and he represented the Franco-Belgian school of violin playing. He lived in Russia for five years (1846-51), where he founded the violin school at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, while also serving as principal violinist in the court of Czar Nicholas I. Vieuxtemps' solo performances throughout Europe brought him into friendly and admiring contact with the likes of Schumann, Berlioz, Wagner and Paganini, and he also toured the United States. He was widely admired as a performer of chamber music, particularly of string quartets by Beethoven.

In 1871, Vieuxtemps accepted an appointment at the Brussels Conservatory, but he suffered a stroke that affected his bowing arm, effectively ending his concert career and interrupting his teaching. A second stroke in 1879 made even teaching impossible, and he retired to Algeria to be near his daughter and son-in-law, but he still continued to compose. Most of Vieuxtemps' compositions feature the solo violin, and he is most remembered for his seven violin concertos, with which he helped redefine Romantic concertos as works of symphonic scope rather than merely vehicles for virtuosic display. Other works of note include two cello concertos, three string quartets, and several works featuring the viola, another instrument of which Vieuxtemps had been a master.

Among these is Capriccio in C minor "Hommage à Paganini" for Viola Solo, Op. 55, which was published posthumously with the Six Morceaux (Six Pieces) for solo violin featured on today's recital, as 6 Morceaux suivis d'un capriccio (Six Pieces followed by a Capriccio). Although publishers have used “Op. 55” for the entire collection, The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and other sources identify the combined set as “Op. 61,” his highest opus number, suggesting that it is the composer's valedictory composition.

Score (pdf)--Vieuxtemps: 6 Morceaux

Considered one of the greatest violinists of all time, the Belgian Eugène Ysaÿe (1858–1931) began lessons with his father at age five, and entered the Royal Conservatory in his hometown of Liège two years later. But, unlike Alard and Vieuxtemps, Ysaÿe was not a prodigious success, and he was soon asked to leave when his lessons did not progress satisfactorily--it seems that in order to help support his impoverished family, young Eugène had to play full-time in two local orchestras, unfortunately leaving little time to practice. But he continued studying on his own, and, as the story goes, by chance Henri Vieuxtemps passed by where Ysaÿe was practicing and, so impressed by what he heard, he got the 12-year-old youth readmitted to the Conservatory. Ysaÿe’s teachers included the Polish virtuoso and composer Henryk Wieniawski (1835-1880) as well as Vieuxtemps himself, but Ysaÿe credited his father as the teacher who had the greatest impact on the way he performed.

Ysaÿe began his post-student career as concertmaster of Benjamin Bilse's orchestra (which would later become the Berlin Philharmonic). His playing impressed many of the day's leading musicians, including Anton Rubinstein (1828-1894), and the famous pianist invited the young violinist to accompany him on tour. But Ysaÿe's solo career really took off in 1885, when he was invited to perform works by Lalo and Saint-Saëns in Paris, and Ysaÿe soon became a favorite of many leading composers, including Debussy and Franck. From 1886-1898 Ysaÿe was a professor at the Brussels Conservatory, and he continued to expand his fame as a performer. Even after leaving the Conservatory he continued to teach into his final years, and he also gained fame as a conductor. Ysaÿe was invited to lead the New York Philharmonic in 1898, but he declined due to the demands of his solo career. But as health issues began to affect his playing more and more, he accepted the conductorship of the Cincinnati Symphony from 1918-1922, and he devoted more time to composing.

Among the best-known of Ysaÿe’s compositions are the technically demanding Six Sonatas for Solo Violin, Op. 27, composed in 1923. In addition to incorporating contemporary compositional techniques such as the use of microtones and whole tone scales in some of them, each sonata is dedicated to a different virtuoso whose playing inspired the style of the sonata. Sonata No. 6 takes the form of a one-movement habanera, and is dedicated to the Spanish virtuoso Manuel Quiroga Losada (1892-1961), who, however, apparently never performed the sonata that is identified with him.

Eugène Ysaÿe: Sonata No. 6 on YouTube (Hilary Hahn performing)

Intermezzo Sunday Concert, 5/8/2011 @ 2:30 p.m.

2011-04-19T07:59:00.000-07:00

Marion Wilkinson Scott & Rosa Villar Scott

Music for Piano Solo & Piano 4-Hands

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Fantasiestücke, Op.12 (1837)
1. Des Abends (In the Evening)
2. Aufschwung (Soaring Upward)
3. Warum? (Why?)
4. Grillen (Whims)
5. In der Nacht (In the night)
6. Fabel
7. Traumeswirren (Troubled Dreams)
8. Ende vom Lied (End of the Song)
Marion Wilkinson Scott

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Piano Sonata No. 1 in C Major, Op. 1
Rosa Villar Scott

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Fantasia in F Minor for Piano Duo, D.940
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Hungarian Dances, Nos. 1-2
Waltzes, Op. 39, Nos. 1-5
Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)
3 Slavonic Dances, from Op. 46
Marion and Rosa Scott

Jacksonville native Marion Wilkinson Scott made his debut at the age of 14 under the baton of Roger Nuremberg. Since that time, Mr. Scott has established himself as a leader among a new generation of young pianists. In 2006 his musicality and technical prowess earned first prize at the Thousand Islands International Piano Competition and second prize at the Zimmerli Foundation International Piano Competition. Most recently, Mr. Scott was named the winner of the 2010 International Piano Competition hosted by the Steinway Society of Massachusetts.

In addition to solo performance, Mr. Scott is an enthusiast for chamber music playing. As a member of the Trio d’Exuberance, he has also performed in noted concert halls such as Carnegie Hall, Kilbourn Hall and Crouse Hall.

As an advocate for music outreach programs, Mr. Scott has given numerous solo and chamber music concerts in community venues such as libraries, elementary schools and nursing homes. As an educator, Mr. Scott has served as a teaching fellow for the Piano Minors program at the Juilliard School and as a teaching assistant for theory classes at the Juilliard School and the Brevard Music Center. He has also received such prestigious scholarships as the Irene Diamond Scholarship (The Juilliard School) and the Howard Hanson Scholarship (The Eastman School of Music).

Mr. Scott holds a Masters Degree from the Juilliard School and a Bachelors Degree from the Eastman School of Music. His primary teachers at these schools include noted pedagogues Martin Canin (The Juilliard School) and Douglas Humpherys (The Eastman School of Music). Currently, Mr. Scott is a Doctoral Candidate at the Frost School of Music under the instruction of the concert pianist Tian Ying. Mr. Scott is married to the brilliant and beautiful pianist Rosa Villar. Together, they enjoy performing duo concerts and making wonderful music.

Since her debut with the National Orchestra of Peru at the age of twelve, Rosa Villar Scott has performed in concert halls across the Americas and Europe as recitalist, orchestral soloist, and chamber musician. The Peruvian-Spanish pianist has won many awards in the United States, including prizes in the Bradshaw & Buono International Competition, National Society of Arts and Letters (Florida Chapter), the Central Florida Symphony Concerto Competition, the NYU Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition, and Tutte le Corde (Music after 1950). Additionally, in her Peruvian homeland she garnered first prize in the National Concerto Competition, and received the Southern Perú Corporation Music Award in recognition of her accomplishments.

Rosa Villar Scott has appeared in master classes given by such world-renowned artists as Vladimir Feldsman, Mischa Dichter, John Perry, Arthur Pizarro, Glenn Dicterow, Daniel Epstein, Ursula Oppens, Donald Berman, Seymour Bernstein, Joaquin Achucarro, Mark Durand, Julian Martin, Robert McDonald, Ann Schein, and Isaac Stern. She has been awarded scholarships to participate in noted music festivals, including Marguess International Music Festival in Switzerland, the Gijón Festival in Spain, the International Institute for Young Musicians in Kansas City, the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado, and the International Keyboard Institute and Festival at Mannes School in New York.

Elena Ichikawa at the National Conservatory of Music in Peru was Rosa’s first piano teacher in her home city of Lima. Since moving to the U.S., her teachers have included Susan Starr, Kemal Gekic, and Nina Svetlanova. She also spent two years in Italy studying with the French pianist Marylene Mouquet and the Italian pianist Sergio Perticaroli, and while there was awarded a music grant by the province of Rome. Upon returning to New York, she received scholarships from the Marion and Eubie Blake scholarship award, and the Steinhardt department at NYU to study with Miyoko Lotto. She attended the Manhattan School of Music and New York University for her Master's degree, and recently was awarded a scholarship to study with Dr. Jonathan Bass at the Boston Conservatory.

Last year Rosa married award-winning pianist Marion Scott, and the pair now perform as a duo throughout the United States and abroad. This recital marks her Jacksonville debut.

The hopes of German Romantic composer Robert Schumann (1810-1856) to become a concert pianist were dashed in his early twenties when he permanently damaged his hand, so he redirected his energies to both composing and music criticism, and excelled in both pursuits. Schumann identified two separate (but complimentary) aspects of his personality that directed his composing, and went so far as to name them: “Eusebius” was the name for his lyrical, reflective self; and “Florestan” was his passionate side. In Schumann’s eight Fantasiestücke, Op. 12, he credits Eusebius with the 1st and 3rd pieces, and Florestan with the 2nd and 4th, with the remaining pieces bringing the two together (but with Eusebius having the final say). Composed in 1837, the Fantasiestücke were dedicated to Scottish pianist Anna Robena Laidlaw (1819–1901), but the real inspiration was the celebrated pianist Clara Wieck (1819-1896), who became Mrs. Robert Schumann in 1840. When Schumann wrote the Fantasiestücke the proposed union was by no means a certainty—Friedrich Wieck, the father of the teenaged Clara (and Robert’s former piano teacher), refused his consent, so the matter was tied up in the courts. Robert described the concluding End of the Song movement as combining wedding bells with funeral knells, which was, as he explained in a letter to Clara, the result of his anxiety over their as yet undetermined fate.

At a time when it was fashionable to write programmatic music that illustrated specific scenes, poems or stories, the great German composer Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) was recognized by his admirers as “Beethoven’s true heir” (Grove Concise Dictionary of Music) by demonstrating that established abstract formal procedures could still be used to organize musical discourse without sacrificing the passion and deeply individualistic expression that defines music of the Romantic period.

The opening measures of Brahms’ Piano Sonata No. 1 in C Major, Op. 1 (1853), pay obvious homage to Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier” Sonata, and upon hearing Brahms, the famous composer and influential music critic Robert Schumann (1810-1856) became the first to publicly hail the young and unknown composer as Beethoven’s heir apparent. Brahms was himself a virtuoso pianist, so it is not surprising that his earliest works are for his own instrument. But despite its being published as the composer’s “Opus 1,” the C-major Sonata was not Brahms’ actual “first work”—it was written after both the Scherzo, Op. 4 (1851), and the Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 2 (1853). Since it was Schumann who recommended Brahms to the music publisher Breitkopf und Härtel, it was perhaps also Schumann who first suggested that the “stronger” C-major Sonata be published first, to better introduce Brahms to the public with a work that would readily bring Beethoven to mind. Like Beethoven, Brahms was a master of the variation form which he demonstrates in his 2nd movement Andante, using as the theme the old German song, Verstohlen geht der Mond auf (The Moon Steals Out). And, also like Beethoven, Brahms inserts a Scherzo movement before the rondo Finale, which in turn uses a principal theme derived from the Sonata’s first movement.

For the most part, Brahms arranged his 21 Hungarian Dances from existing tunes (only nos. 11, 14 and 16 are not adaptations), so he didn’t assign an opus number to them—but they still out-sold any of his other works!

Brahms originally wrote his 16 short Waltzes, Op. 39, in 1865 for piano 4-hands, and by the time they were published in 1867, he also had prepared two different solo piano versions (one easy, the other harder). Brahms wasn’t expecting much of a reaction from the public—after all, he was competing with the “Waltz King” Strausses—so he was pleasantly surprised by the successes he had with all three versions.

In addition to numerous symphonies, chamber works, masses, and solo piano music, the Austrian composer Franz Schubert (1797-1828) composed over 600 songs in his short life. His music was performed regularly in private concerts for Vienna’s musical elite, and his genius was touted by no less than Beethoven (although the two masters apparently never met). Still, Schubert was never able to secure a publisher for the bulk of his masterworks, so he depended on his devoted circle of friends for maintaining his finances. Schubert’s Fantasie in F Minor, D. 940, was written during the last year of his life, and it is widely regarded as among his finest works. Similar in structure to Schubert’s famous Wanderer Fantasy for piano solo, the four movements of the 4-handed work are connected, with no breaks between the movements. This formal device is said to have had particular influence on the compositions of Franz Liszt (1811-1886), and in the development of the tone poem as a “new” musical form.

Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904) is an immensely popular Czech composer who fused melodic and rhythmic elements of Bohemian folk music with classical symphonic forms. Brahms was an early supporter of, and mentor to Dvořák, and in 1878 he was instrumental in getting the younger composer his first publishing deal, for the Moravian Duets for voices with piano. With the success of the of Duets, the publisher (Franz Simrock) requested a lively dance piece to follow-up, which resulted in the 4-handed piano Slavonic Dances, Op. 46. Although Dvořák took the Brahms Hungarian Dances as a model, Dvořák, unlike Brahms, composed original tunes for all eight dances of his Opus 46. The work so impressed Simrock that he immediately asked for orchestral arrangements, and both versions rather suddenly brought the virtually unknown composer to international prominence. Among the many successes that followed, Dvořák was invited to New York City to become the director of the National Conservatory of Music from 1892 to 1895, during which time he wrote the famous New World Symphony.

Intermezzo Sunday Concert, 4/17/2011 @ 2:30 p.m.

2011-03-18T08:34:00.000-07:00

Krzysztof Biernacki, Baritone
Denise Wright, Piano

Dr. Krzysztof Biernacki, renowned baritone and head of vocal studies at UNF, is joined by pianist Denise Wright, one of the First Coast's most sought-after collaborative artists, for an afternoon of art songs sung in German, Polish, Russian, and English.

Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)
Sechs Lieder, Op. 48
1. Gruß
2. Dereinst, Gedanke mein
3. Lauf der Welt
4. Die verschwiegene Nachtigall
5. Zur Rosenzeit
6. Ein Traum

Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937)
Łabędz, Op. 7
We Mgłach, Op. 2, No. 3
Czasem gdy długo na pól sennie marzę, Op. 2, No. 4

Piotr Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Нет, толко тот, кто знал, Op. 6, No. 6
Средь шумного бала, Op. 38, No. 3
Растворил я окно, Op. 63, No. 2

Roger Quilter (1877-1953)
My life’s delight, Op. 12, No. 2
Damask roses, Op. 12, No. 3
Fair house of joy, Op. 12, No. 7

Baritone Krzysztof Biernacki has established a strong reputation as a powerful performer, versatile stage director, and talented teacher. Born and raised in Poland, his professional credits include opera, oratorio, concert, and recital performances in Canada, the United States, and Europe. Dr. Biernacki has sung principal roles with Vancouver Opera, Manitoba Opera, Calgary Opera, Orchestra London Canada, Theater of Usti nad Labem (Czech Republic), as well as opera ensembles of University of British Columbia and University of Western Ontario. Dr. Biernacki’s commitment to contemporary music is highlighted by world premiere performances heard on CBC Radio and CBC Saturday Afternoon at the Opera, including a highly acclaimed production of Filumena, co-produced by the Calgary Opera and Banff Centre for Performing Arts. Dr. Biernacki frequently performs song recitals with repertoire ranging from Haydn to Szymanowski, Shostakovich, and Britten. Dr. Biernacki made his Carnegie Hall debut with th UNF Wind Ensemble performing works of Tchaikovsky and Tosti, and was reengaged for a recital of opera arias and duets at Carnegie Zankel Hall. His summer engagements have included solo recitals in Italy and Poland, concerts with North Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, and stage directing engagements at the European Music Academy in the Czech Republic. Dr. Biernacki holds degrees from the University of Manitoba (B. Mus.), University of Western Ontario (M. Mus.), and University of British Columbia (D.M.A). He is the head of Applied Voice and Director of UNF Opera Ensemble at the University of North in Jacksonville.

Jacksonville native Denise Wright received her Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance from Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, and her Master of Music in Piano Performance from Indiana University. As a young artist, Ms. Wright was active in a myriad of events sponsored by the Jacksonville Music Teachers Association. While at Samford, she served as a pianist for the Baptist Festival Singers European Tour. she was a Professor of Piano at Bethel College, and was accompanist at both Indiana University and at St. Mary’s College. Returning to Jacksonville in 1991, Ms. Wright assumed the position of pianist at First Baptist Church. Highly sought after as accompanist, she joined the staff of the University of North Florida where she is the accompanist for several voice studios, as well as for the UNF Opera Ensemble. She also serves as accompanist at Douglas Anderson Scool of the Arts, Jacksonville University, and for RC Arts Management. Ms. Wright balances her many artistic endeavors with raising her five children: Sarah, Victoria, Joshua, Anna, and Daniel.

PROGRAM NOTES, by Ed Lein, Music Librarian

Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) was a nationalistic Norwegian composer and virtuoso pianist best known for his Piano Concerto in A minor, and the incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play, Peer Gynt. Among his most original works are the Lyriske stykker ("Lyric Pieces") for piano solo, for which he became touted as "The Chopin of the North." But Grieg’s 170 songs likewise demonstrate his originality, and Grieg wrote that he considered song writing central to his work as composer. His wife, Nina, was a talented singer, and Grieg credited her as the primary inspiration for his songs. The majority of them are in Norwegian, which perhaps explains why they are not better known here in the United State. Of Grieg's settings of German poetry, the 6 Lieder, Op.48 (1884-88, pub. 1889), are regarded as among the very finest. The were dedicated to the Swedish dramatic soprano Ellen Norgren, who became internationally famous under her married name, Ellen Gulbranson, and who also eventually became a Norwegian citizen.

Sechs Lieder, Op. 48 (English translation versions ©2011, by E. Lein)

Gruß (Text: Heinrich Heine) Leise zieht durch mein Gemüt Liebliches Geläute, Klinge, kleines Frühlingslied, Kling hinaus ins Weite. Zieh hinaus bis an das Haus, Wo die Veilchen sprießen, Wenn du eine Rose schaust, Sag, ich laß sie grüßen.	Greeting Soft-perfused throughout my being Wafts sweetly mellow bell-song; Resound, thou pithy song of Spring, Ring through the great beyond. Venture forth to that abode Where violets are sprouting; If thou shouldst espy a rose, Say, I send love's greeting.
Dereinst, Gedanke mein (Text: Emanuel von Geibel) Dereinst, dereinst, Gedanke mein, Wirst ruhig sein. Läßt Liebesglut Dich still nicht werden, In kühler Erden, Da schläfst du gut, Dort ohne Lieb' Und ohne Pein Wirst ruhig sein. Was du im Leben Nicht hast gefunden, Wenn es entschwunden, Wird's dir gegeben, Dann ohne Wunden Und ohne Pein Wirst ruhig sein.	One Day, My Troubled Mind One day, someday, My troubled mind, Peace thou shalt find. Love's burning heat Peace doth disavow; In frigid earth thou Shalt soundly sleep, There, without love And without pain, At peace remain. What by thou whilst living Could not be found, When from life unbound, To thee shall be given; Then, without a wound And without pain, At peace remain.
Lauf der Welt (Text: Ludwig Uhland) An jedem Abend geh' ich aus Hinauf den Wiesensteg. Sie schaut aus ihrem Gartenhaus, Es stehet hart am Weg. Wir haben uns noch nie bestellt, Es ist nur so der Lauf der Welt. Ich weiß nicht, wie es so geschah, Seit lange küss' ich sie, Ich bitte nicht, sie sagt nicht: ja! Doch sagt sie: nein! auch nie. Wenn Lippe gern auf Lippe ruht, Wir hindern's nicht, uns dünkt es gut. Das Lüftchen mit der Rose spielt, Es fragt nicht: hast mich lieb? Das Röschen sich am Taue kühlt, Es sagt nicht lange: gib! Ich liebe sie, sie liebet mich, Doch keines sagt: ich liebe dich!	The Way of the World Each evening I go heading out Along the meadow lane. She gazes from her summer house, Which stands beside the way. We've neither wondered why 'tis so, 'Tis but the way the world doth go. I know not how, it happens thus, At length I kiss her so, I ask her naught; she says not, "Yes!" But neither says she, "No!" If lip on lip doth wish to rest, We stop them not, we think it best. The gentle breeze plays 'mid the roses, But, "Lovest thou me?" it asks them not. When cooling dew embraces those posies, They seldom say: "Please stop!" I do love her, she doth love me, Yet neither says: "I do love thee!"
Die verschwiegene Nachtigall (Text: Karl Joseph Simrock) Unter der Linden, an der Haide, wo ich mit meinem Trauten saß, da mögt ihr finden, wie wir beide die Blumen brachen und das Gras. Vor dem Wald mit süßem Schall, Tandaradei! sang im Tal die Nachtigall. Ich kam gegangen zu der Aue, mein Liebster kam vor mir dahin. Ich ward empfangen als hehre Fraue, daß ich noch immer selig bin. Ob er mir auch Küsse bot? Tandaradei! Seht, wie ist mein Mund so rot! Wie ich da ruhte, wüßt' es einer behüte Gott, ich schämte mich. Wie mich der Gute herzte, keiner erfahre das als er und ich - und ein kleines Vögelein, Tandaradei! das wird wohl verschwiegen sein.	The Secretive Nightingale Under the linden tree upon the heath, where I beside my darling sat, there you just might see how thus, beneath us both, were crush'd both blooms and grass. Sweet came sounds from the wooded vale, "Tan-da-ra-dye!" whence sang yonder nightingale. I had retreated to the river plain, where my love had preceded me. I was greeted like a noble dame, which made me ever so happy. But did he offer me a kiss? "Tan-da-ra-dye!" See, how red are now my lips! While napping, shouldst one know what I had done, merciful God, ashamed I'd be. How I was by my beau embraced, may none ever know, save for him and me - and a dear little bird, "Tan-da-ra-dye!" who'll well keep secret what occurred.
Zur Rosenzeit (Text: Wehmut, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe) Ihr verblühet, süße Rosen, Meine Liebe trug euch nicht; Blühtet, ach! dem Hoffnungslosen, Dem der Gram die Seele bricht! Jener Tage denk' ich trauernd, Als ich, Engel, an dir hing, Auf das erste Knöspchen lauernd Früh zu meinem Garten ging; Alle Blüten, alle Früchte Noch zu deinen Füßen trug Und vor deinem Angesichte Hoffnung in dem Herzen schlug. [NOTE: Grieg setting omits this verse, but instead repeats the first verse] Der auf erste Knöspchen lauernd früh zu seinem Garten ging, ach der Tage denk ich trauernd, als ich Engel an dir hing.	To the Time of Roses (Wistfulness) You are fading, sweetest roses, My love could not keep thee whole; O Bloom then! for that which is hopeless, For him whose sorrow shatters the soul! Sadly, I remember those days, When, Angel, o'er thee I'd attend, On the first dear bud I'd await While early through my garden I'd wend; All blooms, all fruitful abundance Were laid there before thy feet, And there before thy countenance Such hope through my heart yet beat. On that first dear bud I'd await While early through his garden I'd wend, Ah, sadly I remember the days, When, Angel, o'er thee I'd attend.
Ein Traum (Text: Friedrich Martin von Bodenstedt) Mir träumte einst ein schöner Traum: Mich liebte eine blonde Maid; Es war am grünen Waldesraum, Es war zur warmen Frühlingszeit: Die Knospe sprang, der Waldbach schwoll, Fern aus dem Dorfe scholl Geläut - Wir waren ganzer Wonne voll, Versunken ganz in Seligkeit. Und schöner noch als einst der Traum Begab es sich in Wirklichkeit - Es war am grünen Waldesraum, Es war zur warmen Frühlingszeit: Der Waldbach schwoll, die Knospe sprang, Geläut erscholl vom Dorfe her - Ich hielt dich fest, ich hielt dich lang Und lasse dich nun nimmermehr! O frühlingsgrüner Waldesraum! Du lebst in mir durch alle Zeit - Dort ward die Wirklichkeit zum Traum, Dort ward der Traum zur Wirklichkeit!	A Dream Once I dreamt a beautiful dream: I did love a maiden fair; 'Twas in a forest glade of green, With balmy springtime weather there: Fresh buds sprang forth, the brook full-swelled, From the village bells rang sweetly - With great delights we were full-filled, Immersed in bliss completely. And lovelier than once-upon-a-dream In reality did yet occur - 'Twas in a forest glade of green, In balmy springtime weather: The brook full-swelled, new buds had sprung, Bells from the town rang sweetly - I held thee fast, I held thee long And nevermore shall release thee! O forest glade of spring's fresh green! Live thou in me eternally - Whence reality became a dream, Whence the dream became reality!

Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937), sometimes called the father of modern Polish music, is the most important Polish composer of the early 20th Century. He perhaps is best-known in this country for his solo piano music and his Stabat Mater for chorus and orchestra, although now his four symphonies, two violin concertos, chamber music, vocal music, and stage works are becoming better known as new recordings become available. Szymanowski's early works show the decided influences of Chopin, Wagner, Scriabin, Reger and Richard Strauss, but as he traveled extensively through Europe and Mediterranean Africa, the influences from the different cultures he encountered, along with exposure to works by Debussy and Ravel, as well as to Stravinsky's early ballets, began to color his work. In 1926, Szymanowski was appointed director of the Warsaw Conservatory, and as he became enthralled with Polish folk music his later works grew more nationalistic, celebrating his Polish heritage. Suffering from tuberculosis, Szymanowski retired to a sanitorium in Switzerland in 1935, and died there in 1937.

Labedz, Op. 7 (Text: Waclaw Berent, 1873-1940) Obloczna góra ciagnie ptak W bezgwiezdna cisze przyszlych burz, Ponura groza krwawych zórz, W daleki, chmurny zwatpien szlak. Labedziu mój, z tesknoty mórz polotem twym daj bozy znak, Ty, bialych marzen bledny ptak, O dole, dole, moja wróz! Labedziu mój z marzenia wód, We snach sie isci bytu cud I snuje piekno rojem mar! Labedziu mój z nadziei stron, Ty zycia zludy wiescisz skon. I przedmogilnej piesni czar.	The Swan (Translation: Krzysztof Biernacki) A bird is flying in the cloudy heights Into the starless silence of upcoming storms, Through the grim terror of the bloody dawn, Into the distant, cloudy trail of doubts. My Swan, from the yearning of the seas, With your flight give me a divine sign, You, the errant bird of white dreams, Tell me, o tell me my fate! My swan, from waters of fancy, In dreams the wonder of being comes to life And spins beauty with the swarm of phantasms! My swan, from the world of hope, You herald the agony of life’s illusion. And the magic of pre-mortal song!
We mglach Op. 2, No. 3 (Text: Kazimierz Przerwa Tetmajer, 1865-1940) We mglach strumienie szumia wód, po skale biegnac scietej, we mglach wieczorny opadl chlód na sennych fal odmety. We mglach zalobny pomruk z hal i z ciemnych szedl krzesanic, i we mglach splywa zal, ach zal! Bez dna, bez dna, bez granic!	In the mists (Translation: Krzysztof Biernacki) In the mists streams of water murmur, running down the steep, chiseled rock, in the mists the evening chill has fallen over the sleepy waves of the deep. In the mists the mourning murmur from mountain meadows has descended from dark precipices, and in the mists flows my sorrow, oh sorrow! Unfathomable, unfathomable, unbounded!
Czasem, gdy dlugo na pól sennie marze Op. 2, No. 4 (Text: Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer) Czasem, gdy dlugo na pól sennie marze, cudny kobiecy glos mie skads dolata, anielskie spiewajacy piesni, piekniejsze nizeli wszystkie piesni swiata. W glos ten sie cala zasluchuje dusza; serce mi tesknota wyrywa, poszedl bym za nim wszedzie! Nie wiem czy to milosc, czy smierc sie tak odzywa	Sometimes when at length I drowsily dream (Translation: Krzysztof Biernacki) Sometimes when at length I drowsily dream, a beautiful female voice flows to me from somewhere, singing angelic songs, more beautiful than all songs of the world. I listen to this voice with all my soul; nostalgia tears the heart out of my breast, I would follow the voice anywhere! I don’t know if this is love or death that calls me

Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) is an enduringly popular Russian composer whose melodic invention and orchestral brilliance remain unsurpassed. Among his best loved works are The 1812 Overture, Romeo and Juliet Fantasy-Overture, Symphonies No. 4-6, and the ballets Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, and The Nutcracker; plus, his Violin Concerto and Piano Concerto No. 1 are cornerstones of the repertoire. Given his gift for singing melodies, it is not surprising that Tchaikovsky created some memorable songs, and the best-known, at least in the English-speaking world, is None but One Who Knows Longing, frequently performed in English as None but the Lonely Heart, and recorded by the likes of Frank Sinatra and Sarah Vaughan. And among Russians, Amidst the Din of the Ball, is said to be so well-known that just its first few notes are enough to instantly conjur thoughts of “love at first sight” throughout the populace.

Нет, толко тот, кто знал, Op. 6, No. 6
None but One Who Knows Longing
Text: Lev Aleksandrovich Mey (1822-1862), after a German poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
English translation from the Russian version ©2011, by E. Lein

Нет, только тот, кто знал
Свиданья жажду,
Поймет, как я страдал
И как я стражду!

Гляжу я вдаль, нет сил!
Тускнеет око!
Ах, кто меня любил
И знал, далеко!..

Ах, только тот, кто знал
Свиданья жажду,
Поймет, как я страдал
И как я стражду.

Вся грудь горит! Кто знал
Свиданья жажду,
Поймет, как я страдал
И как я стражду.

None, but one who knows
The longing of farewell,
Can know how much I've suffered
And how I suffer still!

I gaze into the distance,
Helpless! The vision fades!
O, the one who loved
And knew me best--e'er far away! ...

Ah, only one who knows
The longing of farewell
Can know just how I've suffered
And how I suffer still.

My whole breast burns! Who knows
The longing of farewell
Knows just how much I've suffered
and how I suffer still.

Средь шумного бала, Op. 38, No. 3
Amidst the din of the ball
Poem by Count Aleksei Konstantinovitch Tolstoy (1817-1875)
English version, ©2011 by E. Lein
Hear it on YouTube

Средь шумного бала, случайно,
В тревоге мирской суеты,
Тебя я увидел, но тайна
Твои покрывала черты.

Лишь очи печально глядели,
А голос так дивно звучал,
Как звон отдалённой свирели,
Как моря играющий вал.

Мне стан твой понравился тонкий
И весь твой задумчивый вид,
А смех твой, и грустный, и звонкий,
С тех пор в моём сердце звучит.

В часы одинокие ночи
Люблю я, усталый, прилечь;
Я вижу печальные очи,
Я слышу веселую речь,

И грустно я, грустно так засыпаю,
И в грёзах неведомых сплю...
Люблю ли тебя, я не знаю,
Но кажется мне, что люблю!

Amidst the din of the ball, by chance,
And by the madding crowd dismayed,
I didst see thee yon, yet thy mood
Lay masked behind thy mysterious gaze.

Through thine eyes alone shown sadness,
For thy voice sounded wondrously sweet,
Like music performed by a distant flute,
Or waves dancing upon the sea.

Thy slender form enthralled me,
As did thy pensive glance,
And thy sad yet musical laughter
Filled my heart, which has sung ever since.

In nighttime's loneliest hours,
When I've grown tired and long for sleep,
I envision thy pensive eyes
And thy merry, lilting speech.

I feel sad then, succumbing to slumber,
And then dreaming mysterious dreams ...
I know not if this means I love thee,
But "in love" is indeed how it seems!

Растворил я окно, Op. 63, No. 2
I Opened Wide My Window
Original poetry by Konstantin Konstantinovich Romanov, Grand Duke of Russia (1858-1915);
English translation ©2011, by E. Lein

Растворил я окно - стало грустно не в мочь,
опустился пред ним на колени,
и в лицо мне пахнула весенняя ночь
благовонным дыханьем сирени.

А вдали где-то чудно запел соловей;
я внимал ему с грустью глубокой...
И с тоскою о родине вспомнил своей;
об отчизне я вспомнил далекой,

Где родной соловей песнь родную поёт
и, не зная земных огорчений,
заливается целую ночь напролёт
над душистою веткой сирени...

I opened wide my window - so stifling had it become -
I sank there before it, onto my knees,
and upon my face the spring night breathed
the fragrant perfume of sweet lilac blooms.

And from afar a wondrous nightingale sang out;
I listened to him then with growing sadness ...
and with longing as my thoughts were carried home;
I remembered my dear Fatherland, so very far away,

Where the native nightingale recites our native lays,
and, unknowing of the sorrows of the world,
he fills as yet the sultry night with song,
perched there upon a fragrant lilac bough ...

Although some of the lighter orchestral pieces by Roger Quilter (1877-1953) are still performed, outside his native Great Britain Quilter's reputation is sustained primarily through his art songs, which number more than a hundred. Quilter began his studies at Eton College, and in the 1890s he continued his musical education in Germany. In addition to Quilter, there were several other English-speaking composers who studied at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt (although not all at the exact same time), including Percy Grainger and Cyril Scott, and together they became known as the "Frankfurt Group." In 1900, Quilter published his first songs, and following performances the next year he quickly became established as a composer with a special gift for creating melodies that enhanced the natural rhythm of the words, while also providing fully-realized accompaniments that nonetheless allowed the singer to make expressive use of rubato. As an interpreter of his own songs, Quilter sometimes provided the piano accompaniment for public performances, and he even recorded several of them. The Seven Elizabethan Lyrics, Op. 12, date from 1908, and contributed favorably to Quilter’s growing reputation.

Three selections from Seven Elizabethan Lyrics, Op. 12

No. 2: My life's delight (Words: Thomas Campion)

Come, O come, my life's delight!
Let me not in languor pine:
Love loves no delay, thy sight
The more enjoyed, the more divine.
O come, o come and take from me
The pain of being deprived of thee.
Thou all sweetness dost enclose,
Like a little world of bliss:
Beauty, beauty guards thy looks:
The rose in them pure and eternal is.
Come then! Come then, o come and make thy flight
As swift, as swift to me as heavenly light!

No. 3: Damask Roses (Words: Anonymous)

Lady, when I behold the roses sprouting,
Which clad in damask mantles deck the arbours,
And then behold your lips where sweet love harbours,
My eyes present me with a double doubting;
For, viewing both alike, hardly my mind supposes
Whether the roses be your lips or your lips the roses.

No. 7: Fair House of Joy (Words: Anonymous)

Fain would I change that note
To which fond Love hath charm'd me
Long, long to sing by rote,
Fancying that that harm'd me:
Yet when this thought doth come
“Love, love is the perfect sum
Of all delight!”
I have no other choice
Either for pen or voice
To sing or write.

O Love! They wrong thee much
That say thy sweet is bitter,
When thy rich fruit is such
As nothing can be sweeter.
Fair house of joy and bliss,
Where truest pleasure is,
I do adore thee:
I know thee what thou art,
I serve thee with my heart,
And fall before thee,
And fall before thee.

Intermezzo Sunday Concert, 3/13/2011 @ 2:30 p.m.

2011-02-09T12:20:00.000-08:00

CLICK for LARGER VIEW

Duo Bonev–Birbochukov

Established in 2007 in Tallahassee, Florida, Duo Bonev-Birbochukov are Bulgarian virtuosi Boyan Bonev (cello) and Hristo Birbochukov (piano). Both artists hold Doctor of Music degrees from Florida State University, and both are graduates from the State Academy of Music in Sofia, Bulgaria. Recognized as a leading cello-piano duo, their repertoire includes virtuoso showpieces and a wide variety of works from the Baroque to the present day.

PROGRAM SELECTIONS

Johann Sebastian Bach
Sonata for Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord in D Major, BWV 1028
Adagio--Allegro--Andante--Allegro
SCORE (PDF)
YouTube Recording (mvts. 1 & 2)
YouTube Recording (mvts. 3 & 4)

Franz Schubert
Sonata for Arpeggione and Piano in A Minor, D. 821
Allegro moderato--Adagio--Allegretto
SCORE (PDF)
YouTube Recording (mvt. 1)
YouTube Recording (mvt. 2)
YouTube Recording (mvt. 3)

Edward Lein
Sonatina (2010, World Premiere Performance)
In one movement
SCORE (PDF--extended excerpt)
Recording (Synthesized)

Frédéric Chopin
Sonata for Cello and Piano in G Minor, Op. 65
Allegro moderato--Scherzo (Allegro con brio)--Largo--Finale (Allegro)
SCORE (PDF)
YouTube Recording (mvt. 1)
YouTube Recording (mvt. 2)
YouTube Recording (mvt. 3)
YouTube Recording (mvt. 4)

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Cellist Boyan Bonev has participated in numerous master classes and music festivals in the United States and Europe, including Florida Music Educators’ Association Conference, Varga Celebration, Seven Days of Opening Nights, March Music Days, and Varna Summer. An active performer of solo and chamber music, Dr. Bonev has taken part in concert and educational programs for the Bulgarian National Television and Radio, and is a prize winner of national and international competitions. He has been a featured soloist with the Florida Lakes Symphony Orchestra and the Stara Zagora Symphony Orchestra, and he has performed at Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall. Dr. Bonev teaches cello and double bass at Darton College, serves as the orchestra director at Leon High School, and performs with the Tallahassee, Pensacola, Albany, Panama City and Florida Lakes Symphony Orchestras. As a Teaching Assistant he taught cello and chamber music at FSU, and he is on the faculty of the Florida State University Summer Music Camps. He also maintains a private studio.

Pianist Hristo Birbochukov has performed as guest soloist with numerous orchestras and has appeared in many solo and chamber music performances in Bulgaria and in the United States. He has participated in prestigious international music festivals and master classes, including the International Festival for Contemporary Piano Music “Pianissimo,” and the Las Vegas Music Festival. Dr. Birbochukov’s many awards and scholarships include the Phi Kappa Phi Artist of the Year Award (FSU Chapter, 2007), Edward Kilenyi Piano Scholarship (2007), Tallahassee Music Guild Scholarships (2005 and 2007), the Liberace Scholar Grant for Las Vegas Music Festival (2003), and he was the winner of the Young Artist Competition (2003) sponsored by the Monroe Symphony League and Monroe Symphony Orchestra, in Louisiana. He was a Teaching Assistant (Piano) at Florida State University, and is an inducted member of both Pi Kappa Lambda Music Honor Society and the Seminole Torchbearers. Dr. Birbochukov’s television and radio appearances have included broadcasts in both Bulgaria and in the United States. In addition to concertizing, he maintains a private piano studio in Tallahassee, Florida.

PROGRAM NOTES, by Ed Lein, Music Librarian

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was dismissed by many of his contemporaries as being old-fashioned, but the works of this great German Baroque master probably have been studied more than those of any other composer, making him perhaps the most influential musician of all time. It seems likely that Bach wrote his three Sonatas for Viola da Gamba with Obbligato Harpsichord (BWV 1027-1029) around 1740, and probably for Carl Friedrich Abel, a virtuoso gamba player and the son of one of Bach’s colleagues during his time in Leipzig. But even early in Bach’s career viols were considered something of a throwback to an olden time, and the sonatas are most frequently performed with the modern cello. The 2nd Sonata in D Major, BWV 1028, retains the slow-fast-slow-fast outline made popular by the sonatas of Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713), but Bach was one of the earliest composers to use the obbligato keyboard as an essentially equal partner with the solo string, rather than treating it as an accompanying harmonic “filler” instrument, as was typical in the continuo parts that prevailed through most of the Baroque period.

In addition to numerous symphonies, chamber works, masses, and solo piano music, the Austrian composer Franz Schubert (1797-1828) composed over 600 songs in his short life, and he has remained unsurpassed in his ability to marry poetry with music. His music was regularly performed in private concerts for Vienna’s musical elite and his genius was touted by no less than Beethoven (although the two masters apparently never met), but Schubert was never able to secure a publisher for the bulk of his masterworks so he depended on his devoted circle of friends for maintaining his finances. After his death (probably from medicinal mercury poisoning) Schubert’s wish to be buried next to Beethoven was honored. Schubert composed his Arpeggione Sonata in 1824, most likely at the request of the instrument’s inventor, the Viennese guitar maker Johann Georg Staufer (1778-1853), who had crafted the six-stringed, fretted instrument that was tuned like a guitar but bowed like a cello. The new-fangled, but rather delicate instrument had almost the range of a string quartet. But it never caught on, and by the time Schubert’s work was published posthumously in 1871, the arpeggione had long since fallen into obscurity. Schubert’s Sonata is the only significant work written specifically for the arpeggione, but his melodic masterpiece is best-known in transcriptions for cello or viola, although arrangements for other instruments are also heard.

Florida native Edward Lein (b. 1955) is the Music Librarian at Jacksonville Public Library's Main Library, and holds Master's degrees in both Music Theory and Library Science from Florida State University. As a tenor soloist he appeared in recitals, oratorios and dramatic works throughout his home state, and drawing on his performance experience the majority of his early compositions are vocal works. But following performances of pieces by the Jacksonville Symphony, including Meditation for cello, oboe and orchestra (2006) and In the Bleak Midwinter (2007), his instrumental catalog has grown, largely due to requests from Symphony players for new pieces. The Sonatina for Cello and Piano (2010) was written in response to such a request, specifically for a 5 (or-so) minute concert piece for a potential radio broadcast performance in Chicago. Though that performance never transpired, the composer is understandably thrilled that the distinguished Duo Bonev-Birbochukov wished to present the world premiere performance in Jacksonville!

The Polish-born pianist Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849) was the first composer to make full use of the expressive qualities and coloristic potential of the piano when it was a still-developing keyboard instrument, and he rightly has been called the "Poet of the Piano." Much of all piano music by subsequent composers shows his influence, and his revolutionary use of chromatic harmonies and unusual key relationships profoundly influenced composers of symphonic music and operas as well, such as Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner — thus Chopin's importance in the development of the "Romantic" style in general can not be overestimated. The vast majority of Chopin’s music is for piano solo, but three of Chopin’s four chamber music pieces are for cello and piano, and the fourth is the Piano Trio, Op. 8, which also includes the cello. Chopin’s Sonata in G minor for Cello and Piano, Op. 65, composed in 1846 and dedicated to the celebrated French cellist and composer Auguste Franchomme (1808-1884), was the last of Chopin's works published before he died. Chopin, already gravely weakened with tuberculosis, gave his final public concert in Paris on February 16th, 1848, and for it he was joined by Franchomme for a performance of the Sonata.

Intermezzo Sunday Concert, 2/13/2011 @ 2:30 p.m.

2011-01-18T13:40:00.000-08:00

CANCELED

Due to a sudden illness the pianist is unable to travel and perform in Jacksonville this weekend. We regret any inconvenience this cancellation my cause, and wish the pianist a speedy recovery.

Rosa Villar Córdova, piano

Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897)
Klavierstücke, Op.118
--No. 1. Intermezzo in A minor (Allegro non assai, ma molto appassionato)
--No. 2. Intermezzo in A major (Andante teneramente)
--No. 3. Ballade in G minor (Allegro energico)

Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828)
Sonata in A Minor D. 784
Allegro giusto -- Andante -- Allegro vivace

Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897)
Sonata in C Major Op. 1
Allegro -- Andante -- Scherzo (Allegro molto e con fuoco) -- Finale (Allegro con fuoco)

Since her debut with the National Orchestra of Peru at the age of twelve, Rosa Villar Córdova has performed in concert halls across the Americas and Europe as recitalist, orchestral soloist, and chamber musician. The Peruvian-Spanish pianist has won many awards in the United States, including prizes in the Bradshaw & Buono International Competition, National Society of Arts and Letters (Florida Chapter), the Central Florida Symphony Concerto Competition, the NYU Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition, and Tutte le Corde (Music after 1950). Additionally, in her Peruvian homeland she garnered first prize in the National Concerto Competition, and received the Southern Perú Corporation Music Award in recognition of her accomplishments.

Rosa Villar Córdova has appeared in master classes given by such world-renowned artists as Vladimir Feldsman, Mischa Dichter, John Perry, Arthur Pizarro, Glenn Dicterow, Daniel Epstein, Ursula Oppens, Donald Berman, Seymour Bernstein, Joaquin Achucarro, Mark Durand, Julian Martin, Robert McDonald, Ann Schein, and Isaac Stern. She has been awarded scholarships to participate in noted music festivals, including Marguess International Music Festival in Switzerland, the Gijón Festival in Spain, the International Institute for Young Musicians in Kansas City, the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado, and the International Keyboard Institute and Festival at Mannes School in New York.

Elena Ichikawa at the National Conservatory of Music in Peru was Rosa’s first piano teacher in her home city of Lima. Since moving to the U.S., her teachers have included Susan Starr, Kemal Gekic, and Nina Svetlanova. She also spent two years in Italy studying with the French pianist Marylene Mouquet and the Italian pianist Sergio Perticaroli, and while there was awarded a music grant by the province of Rome. Upon returning to New York, she received scholarships from the Marion and Eubie Blake scholarship award, and the Steinhardt department at NYU to study with Miyoko Lotto. She attended the Manhattan School of Music and New York University for her Master's degree, and recently was awarded a scholarship to study with Dr. Jonathan Bass at the Boston Conservatory.

Last year Rosa married award-winning pianist Marion Scott, and the pair now perform as a duo throughout the United States and abroad. This recital marks her Jacksonville debut.

At a time when it was fashionable to write programmatic music that illustrated specific scenes, poems or stories, the great German composer Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) was recognized by his admirers as “Beethoven’s true heir” (Grove Concise Dictionary of Music) by demonstrating that established abstract formal procedures could still be used to organize musical discourse without sacrificing the passion and deeply individualistic expression that defines music of the Romantic period.

The last music Brahms composed for solo piano are the four sets, Opp. 116-119, which together are comprised of 20 pieces written between 1892-1893. Although Op. 118’s six Kalvierstücke (“Piano Pieces”) are often performed as a group, Brahms organized them so that Nos. 1-3 form a self-contained unit, as likewise do Nos. 4-6, and so each group of three is frequently performed as a separate set. The A-minor Intermezzo, Op. 118, No. 1 (in binary form), has an introductory quality and is seldom performed on its own, but perhaps better serves as a prelude to the “tender” A-major Intermezzo, Op. 118, No. 2 (itself a three-part song form), one of Brahms’ best-loved piano pieces. The “energetic” Ballade, Op. 118, No. 3 (also a three-part song form), has an heroic quality characteristic of many finale movements.

PDF score of Brahms Klavierstücke, op. 118

Op. 118, No. 1. Intermezzo in A minor on YouTube &
Op. 118, No. 2. Intermezzo in A major on YouTube
Op. 118, No. 3. Ballade in G minor on YouTube

The opening measures of Brahms’ Piano Sonata No. 1 in C Major, Op. 1 (1853), pay obvious homage to Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier” Sonata, and upon hearing Brahms, the famous composer and influential music critic Robert Schumann (1810-1856) became the first to publicly hail the young and unknown composer as Beethoven’s heir apparent. Brahms was himself a virtuoso pianist, so it is not surprising that his earliest works are for his own instrument. But despite its being published as the composer’s “Opus 1,” the C-major Sonata was not Brahms’ actual “first work”—it was written after both the Scherzo, Op. 4 (1851), and the Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 2 (1853). Since it was Schumann who recommended Brahms to the music publisher Breitkopf und Härtel, it was perhaps also Schumann who first suggested that the “stronger” C-major Sonata be published first, to better introduce Brahms to the public with a work that would readily bring Beethoven to mind. Like Beethoven, Brahms was a master of the variation form which he demonstrates in his 2nd movement Andante, using as the theme the old German song, Verstohlen geht der Mond auf (The Moon Steals Out). And, also like Beethoven, Brahms inserts a Scherzo movement before the rondo Finale, which in turn uses a principal theme derived from the Sonata’s first movement.

PDF score of Brahms: Piano Sonata No. 1, Op.1

Brahms Sonata, Op. 1, 1st movement on YouTube
Brahms Sonata, Op. 1, 2nd movement on YouTube
Brahms Sonata, Op. 1, 3rd movement on YouTube
Brahms Sonata, Op. 1, 4th movement on YouTube

In addition to numerous symphonies, chamber works, masses, and solo piano music, the Austrian composer Franz Schubert (1797-1828) composed over 600 songs in his short life, and he has remained unsurpassed in his ability to marry poetry with music. His music was regularly performed in private concerts for Vienna’s musical elite and his genius was touted by no less than Beethoven (although the two masters apparently never met), but Schubert was never able to secure a publisher for the bulk of his masterworks so he depended on his devoted circle of friends for maintaining his finances.

Schubert wrote this Piano Sonata in A minor in 1823. That same year he learned that he was suffering from syphilis, then an incurable disease, so the bleak fury that pervades some of the writing is not altogether surprising. Even so, he continued to compose works of genius that showcased his increasing originality, and after his death (probably from medicinal mercury poisoning) Schubert’s wish to be buried next to Beethoven was honored.

PDF score of Schubert: Piano Sonata in A Minor, D. 784 (Op.posth.143)

ROSA VILLAR CORDOVA PLAYS Schubert Sonata, D. 784, 1st movement on YouTube
Schubert Sonata, D. 784, 2nd movement on YouTube
Schubert Sonata, D. 784, 3rd movement on YouTube

Intermezzo Sunday Concert, 1/9/2011 @ 2:30 p.m.

2010-12-09T09:32:00.000-08:00

The Sterling Brass

JASON BODDIE trumpet
MEGAN YATES trumpet
SHAUN BENNETT horn
AMY SCOTT trombone
PAUL MULLEN tuba

PROGRAM SELECTIONS

MOURET: Rondeau (from Fanfares for Trumpets, Kettledrums, Violins and Oboes, Book 2)
HANDEL: Where'er You Walk (from Semele)
PACHELBEL: Canon in D
HOLST: Suite No. 2 in F
HANDEL: Three Selections from Water Music
MASCHWITZ & SHERWIN: A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square
HAYDN: Gloria (from Nelson Mass)
TRADITIONAL: Three Spirituals (Arranged by Walter H. Barnes)
CLARKE: Trumpet Voluntary
BLISS: It is Well (with My Soul) (Arranged by Jason Boddie)
PUCCINI: Nessun Dorma (from Turandot)

The Sterling Brass was newly formed in May 2010, and in addition to providing music for weddings and other private functions, the quintet is committed to introducing audiences to new music for brass quintet, and especially to introducing the genre to young audiences and inspiring young performers. More information is available at http://sterlingbrass.vpweb.com, as well as on facebook.com.

By day, Jason Boddie (trumpet) is in the Financial Services industry, but musically he is a regular at Frankie's Jazz Jam in Fernandina Beach, and he is a mentor to beginning brass players.

Besides performing with The Sterling Brass, Megan Yates (trumpet) is a nanny and a proud Navy wife.

Amy Scott (trombone), a graduate of the University of Indianapolis, is a music educator and professional trombonist.

Paul Mullen (tuba) holds a Masters in Music Composition from the University of Missouri, and a degree in Music Theory from Stetson University. Paul teaches privately and is active as a clinician.

PROGRAM NOTES, by Ed Lein, Music librarian

By the time he was in his twenties, French Baroque composer Jean-Joseph Mouret (1682-1738) had become one of the most successful musicians living in Paris. But then, as now, musical styles were ever-evolving, and Mouret could neither adapt to changing musical tastes nor cope with his eventual fall from fashion, and when he died he was penniless and confined to an insane asylum. Although the majority of his works remain virtually unknown, today one would be hard-pressed to name another piece from the French Baroque more recognized than this Rondeau, thanks to its becoming the trademark theme music for PBS's Masterpiece Theatre in 1971.

George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) ranks with J.S. Bach (1685-1750) and Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) as among the most enduring Baroque-period composers. Born in Germany as Georg Friedrich Händel, he settled in London in 1712, anglicized his name and became a naturalized British subject. Handel's sacred oratorio, Messiah (1741), unquestionably contains some of the most-recognized music in the history of Western music and was an immediate success. With Semele (1743), the ever-adaptable Handel hoped to find similar success, advertising the decidedly operatic work as an English "oratorio"--but its mythological subject matter disappointed those Lenten concertgoers hoping for religious edification, and it likewise disappointed opera aficionados who craved both Italian lyrics and elaborate costumes and staging. Despite the blurring of styles, the Act 2 aria, Where'er You Walk, originally sung by Jupiter, is one of Handel's most frequently-performed non-Messiah arias.

Today Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706) is considered among the most important German musicians of the generation preceding Bach and Handel, and even though his influence as a composer was not far-reaching, he enjoyed considerable success as composer, organist and teacher during his lifetime. Originally for three violins and basso continuo and paired with a Gigue movement, Pachelbel's Canon in D became extraordinarily popular during the last couple of decades of the 20th century, most especially after Marvin Hamlisch (b. 1944) adapted it as the theme music for the 1980 film, Ordinary People.

British composer Gustav Holst (1874-1934) composed over 200 works, but in America his fame with the general public rests squarely on his brilliant orchestral suite, The Planets (1920). That being said, Holst's two Suites for Military Band (1909 and 1911, respectively) remain cornerstones of the band repertoire. The Second Suite, Op. 28, no. 2, uses British folk tunes for its thematic inspiration.

Handel composed his famous Water Music as entertainment for a 1717 boating party for England's King George I, who, in Germany as Prince-Elector Georg, had been Handel's employer a few years before the monarch traded up to Buckingham Palace (or wherever it was that he hung his freshly-shined crown). Because Handel had taken residence in London prior to George's British ascendancy, rumor had it that the composer wrote Water Music as a peace offering to his "abandoned" former prince, but in all likelihood Handel probably moved when he did with the future king's sympathetic blessing.

With lyrics by Eric Maschwitz (1901-1969) and music by Manning Sherwin (1902-1974) and Jack Strachey (1894-1972), the World War II-era British ballad, A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square, is a long-established popular standard. Composed in 1939 and introduced to London audiences in a 1940 musical review, the song has been championed by many American performers, including Nat “King” Cole, Frank Sinatra, Bobby Darrin and Harry Connick, Jr., and an arrangement recorded by the Manhattan Transfer won a Grammy in 1981.

Genial Austrian composer (Franz) Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) is the musician most credited with establishing the “Classical” style that his two younger contemporaries Mozart and Beethoven built upon, and by the time of his death "Papa" Haydn had become the most widely celebrated composer in Europe. Nicknamed the “Nelson Mass” in honor of Britain’s Admiral Horatio Nelson, Haydn’s Missa in Angustiis ("Mass for troubled times," Hob. XXII:11) premiered in 1798, shortly after Lord Nelson had dealt the first hard blow to Napoleon’s intended world domination. The Mass has been singled out as Haydn’s finest work, and its second movement Gloria has rightly been called an unqualified “song of exultant praise.”

Walter H. Barnes has made numerous arrangements for brass instruments in association with what is perhaps the most famous brass quintet of all, the Canadian Brass, including this set of African-American Spirituals. Originally published in 1872 by the Fisk Jubilee Singers, Go Down Moses was made especially famous by bass-baritone Paul Robison (1898-1976), and was also used by British composer Michael Tippett (1905-1998) in his 1941 war-time oratorio, A Child of Our Time. The serenely beautiful My Lord What a Morning provided the title for the autobiography of famed contralto Marian Anderson (1897-1997), and the vigorously exuberant Joshua (Fit the Battle of Jericho) is a natural for brass instruments, as it relates the triumphant felling of an enemy’s fortress by the sounding of trumpets!

The best-known piece by British composer and organist Jeremiah Clarke (ca. 1674-1707) was mistakenly identified as “Trumpet Voluntary by Henry Purcell” until the 1940s, when finally it was discovered that this popular choice for wedding processionals was in fact a keyboard piece by Clarke, a younger contemporary of the much more famous Purcell (1959?-1695). Published in 1700 as Prince of Denmark’s March, its good-natured jauntiness belies the composer’s ultimately morbid disposition—unrequitedly unlucky in love, the unhappy composer shot himself when he reportedly was otherwise unable to decide between his two most-preferred suicidal methods, drowning and hanging.

The tune for It Is Well with My Soul was composed by American hymnist Philip Bliss (1838-1876) to words written by Chicago attorney Horatio Spafford (1828-1888) after his four daughters drowned when the steamship Ville du Havre sank en route to Europe in 1873. Apart from its use in churches, Georgia Southern University's Southern Pride marching band plays the song at their sporting events, and rock versions have been recorded by two bands, Audio Adrenaline (in 1999), and Kutless (in 2009).

Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924) came from a long line of Italian church musicians, and it was assumed he’d inherit the “family business” in Tuscany. But a fateful trek from Lucca to Pisa to see Verdi’s Aïda convinced Puccini to give up organ pedals for footlights, and he became the only real successor of Verdi in the realm of Italian opera. When he died of throat cancer the whole of Italy went into mourning, and no opera composer since has enjoyed the same kind of sustained international following that Puccini still has. Based on a folktale from The Arabian Nights, Puccini’s exotic final opera, Turandot, was left unfinished at his death, but that hasn’t stopped its 3rd-act aria, Nessun dorma (“None shall sleep”), from becoming the biggest-ever “crossover” hit, owing primarily to the international commercial success of Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti (1935-2007). Although he rarely performed in stage productions of the entire opera, Nessun dorma became Pavarotti’s signature song, and when he was too sick to receive his Lifetime Achievement Award during the 1998 Emmy broadcast, the legendary Aretha Franklin (b. 1942) stepped in and provided a soulful live tribute performance of the aria (in the original key!), in a thrilling, non-operatic style uniquely her own.

Intermezzo Sunday Concert, 12/12/2010 @ 2:30pm

2010-10-28T06:11:00.000-07:00

Flutation : a Flute Duo

Sunday Matinée at the Opera

Anne McKennon & Gia Sastre, flutes
assisted by Jeanne Huebner, piano

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Der Holle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen
from The Magic Flute, edited by Gerhard Braun for 2 flutes

Franz Doppler
Potpourri on Rossini's "The Barber of Seville"
for 2 flutes

George Gershwin
Summertime
from Porgy and Bess
arranged for unaccompanied flute by Anne McKennon
(Anne McKennon)

Georges Bizet
Carmen Suite
arranged for 2 flutes by Kurt Walther

Introduction

Changing of the Guard, March of the Street Urchins

Habanera

Gypsy Dance and Song in the Tavern of Lillas Pastia

Christoph Willibald Gluck
Minuet and Dance of the Blessed Spirits
from Orphée et Eurydice (1774 French version)
Arranged for flute and piano
(Gia Sastre and Jeanne Huebner)

Franz and Karl Doppler
Rigoletto-Fantaisie, Op. 38
Fantasy and Variations on themes from Verdi's Rigoletto
For 2 flutes and piano

Program Notes, by Ed Lein, Music Librarian

Anne McKennon is a versatile Jacksonville-area flutist who also plays piccolo, tin whistle, and sopranino, soprano and alto recorders. She studied flute locally with Mary Ellen Potter, and she frequently performs with the Chamber Music Society of Good Shepherd, Friday Musicale's Mary L'Engle Ensemble, Innamorati della Musica, and the FSCJ Flute Choir. In addition to playing classical repertoire, her varied background includes performances with a Celtic music group and an acoustic rock group, and she often writes and arranges original flute parts to meet the demands of each performance situation. In the summer of 2010, she arranged Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf for 2 flutes, mainly for classroom performances, but also for children's programs at Jacksonville Public Library.

Miami native Gia Sastre holds degrees from DePaul University in Chicago (MM) and Florida State University (BM), and also pursued a resident course of study in Great Britain with Paul Edmund-Davies, then principal flutist of the London Symphony Orchestra. Prior to moving to Jacksonville, Ms. Sastre spent several years in Chicago as a recitalist and freelance artist. In Illinois, she frequently performed with harpist Ann Laura Tapia as a member of the Abellimento Flute & Harp Duo, and in 2006 the Duo released their debut recording, Abellimento, to critical acclaim. As a soloist, Ms. Sastre won the Musicians Club of Women Farwell Award, and she performed in the Chicago Cultural Center and other venues throughout the Chicago area. In addition to maintaining a private studio, Ms. Sastre served on the Community Music faculty of DePaul University as both flute instructor and flute choir director.

Among the First Coast's most popular collaborative artists, pianist Jeanne Huebner is one whose talents are in constant demand. Holding a degree in music education from San Diego State College with a major in piano, she has taught public school music in California and Florida and has served as an organist and church music director. Currently serving as accompanist for various chamber music ensembles and at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Jacksonville, Ms. Huebner frequently performs for Friday Musicale events and with the Chamber Music Society of Good Shepherd for their monthly concerts.

Austrian-born Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791), unquestionably one of the greatest composers in history, began his career touring Europe as a 6-year-old piano prodigy, and he absorbed and mastered all the contemporary musical trends he was exposed to during his travels. He wrote more than 600 works, including 22 operas and over three dozen symphonies, plus numerous concertos, chamber works, piano pieces, and choral works. An extremely demanding tour de force originally for high (high!) coloratura soprano, Der Holle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen ("Hell's vengeance boils in my heart"), is from the 2nd Act of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte ("The Magic Flute," 1791), the immensely popular Singspiel completed only a few months before the composer's death. Also known as "The Queen of the Night's Vengeance Aria," it famously presents the woefully unmaternal Queen trying to coerce her daughter, Pamina, to surreptitiously stab the Queen's rival, the virtuous Sarastro. Arranger Gerhard Braun (b. 1932) is a German flutist, composer, teacher, and recording artist who is highly regarded especially for his virtuoso recorder-playing.

YouTube version (for Flute & Oboe)

By 1829, when Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868) retired after the premiere of his 39th opera, Guillaume Tell, he had become the most popular composer in the history of music for the stage. Rossini's comic Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville, 1816) retains it's place as one of the most frequently staged Italian operas, so it is no surprise that the virtuoso flutist and composer (Albert) Franz Doppler (1821-1883) included it among the various potpourris of opera tunes for two flutes he wrote for concert performances with his younger brother, Karl Doppler (1825-1900). Born in Lemberg, Poland (the present-day Lvov, Ukraine), the brothers gained fame touring Europe with their flute duo recitals, and both became prominent members of Hungarian orchestras. Karl eventually settled down as the Kapellmeister in Stuttgart (Germany), while Franz moved to Austria as conductor of the Vienna Court Opera. Franz was celebrated as a composer especially for his popular ballets, but today he is most remembered for his works that feature the flute.

George Gershwin (1898-1937) wrote his first song in 1916 and his first Broadway musical in 1919, and he remained a fixture of the New York stage for 14 successive years. In 1924 he enjoyed success in applying jazz idioms to concert works with Rhapsody in Blue, and until the end of his life he produced larger-scale works alongside songs for musicals and films. Gershwin's Porgy and Bess (1935), with lyrics by DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin, remains the only opera by an American composer firmly established in the repertoire. Gershwin began composing the show's most memorable song, Summertime, in December 1933, and he new a good thing when he heard it--the song appears twice in the opera's first act and reappears in the 2nd and 3rd acts as well. Indeed, Summertime is one of the most popular songs ever written: an international group of collectors of recordings of Summertime known as "The Summertime Connection" knows of at least 37,172 public performances of which 29,106 have been recorded (as of 10/01/2010).

As a precocious youngster, Georges Bizet (1838-1875), entered the Conservatoire de Paris a couple of weeks before his tenth birthday and seemed destined for great things, excelling both as pianist and composer, and winning the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1857. But Bizet's adult life was plagued by one setback after another and he never enjoyed the success his great talent should have afforded. His final work, Carmen has become one of the most beloved operas of all time, but the 37-year-old Bizet, weakened by complications from acute tonsillitis (i.e., quinsy, the same affliction that "did in" George Washington), died of a heart attack three months after his masterpiece premiered to a decidedly lukewarm reception at Paris’s Opéra-Comique, and without a clue as to the ultimate popularity his swan song would gain. The perceived immorality of the story by French author Prosper Mérimée (1803-1870), beginning with smoking factory girls (shocking!) and ending with a sexually-charged murder, was a tad racier than the family-friendly theater was accustomed. The theater management even went so far as to insist that the ending be rewritten—it is to Bizet’s credit that he refused to compromise his artistic vision. The rest, as they say, is history.

YouTube version (2 Flutes, different arrangement)

Bohemian by birth and cosmopolitan in life, the early Classic-period composer Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787) spent his adulthood variously in Prague, Vienna, Milan, London, and Paris, and along the way he helped revolutionize the way operas were conceived, and thus laid the groundwork for the music dramas of Richard Wagner (1813-1883). Gluck's mythological Orfeo ed Euridice ("Orpheus and Eurydice," 1762) is generally regarded as the first "modern" opera. With it the composer abandoned the conventions of the prevailing opera seria, a stylized genre that typically introduces secco recitatives (i.e., those "dry," almost spoken passages accompanied only by harpsichord and bass instrument) to explain a situation, followed by florid arias in which the singers offer motionless reflections on said situation while the full orchestra supports their vocal pyrotechnics. Instead, Gluck favored a less contrived, more "naturalistic" dramatic style--except, of course, that everybody still goes around singing. This landmark opera has never left the repertoire, but Gluck did revise it a couple of times, most significantly for the 1774 Paris production, for which it became Orphée et Eurydice. The Parisians had a particular fondness for ballet, so, in addition to adapting the music to a French libretto from the original Italian, Gluck expanded the dance numbers, including adding a D-minor section to the existing F-major Menuet to create the well-known "Dance of the Blessed Spirits." This dance sequence heralds Orpheus's arrival in the Underworld, as he continues on his (ultimately unsuccessful) quest to lead his recently-deceased wife, Eurydice, back into the land of the apparently less-blessed living.

YouTube version

As previously mentioned, early in their careers the brothers Franz and Karl Doppler were famous throughout Europe for their duo flute concerts, and they apparently were quite the picture when they performed: the left-handed Karl held his flute "backwards" as it were, creating a mirror image of his right-handed brother as he stood opposite him. The flute duets they played were usually written or adapted by the elder Franz, but the two brothers collaborated in preparing the Rigoletto-Fantaisie, Op. 38, drawing on tunes from the ever-popular Rigoletto (1851), by Italy's foremost opera composer, Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901). Based on Victor Hugo’s tragic play, Le roi s’amuse (1832), Verdi's title character is the spiteful court jester to the Duke of Mantua. The Duke routinely seduces the wives and daughters of his courtiers, and Rigoletto takes great pleasure in mocking and humiliating the wronged noblemen. But when one of them hurls a father’s curse at Rigoletto, the superstitious jester is horrified--and, as it turns out, with good cause.

YouTube version

Intermezzo Sunday Concert, 11/14/2010 @ 2:30pm

2010-10-14T08:58:00.000-07:00

Sunday Wakening

Piotr Szewczyk, violin

Six pieces from Violin Futura 3

Gary Smart, piano

Blossoms : Solo Piano Improvisations

Two in One!
1. The Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra's Piotr Szewczyk premieres pieces for unaccompanied violin written especially for him by composers from around the world.
2. UNF Professor Dr. Gary Smart presents free-wheeling piano improvisations ... Discard the labels--Expect the unexpected!

Polish-born violinist and composer Piotr Szewczyk (b. 1977) studied composition and violin at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and while earning both Bachelor and Master of Music degrees as well as his Artist Diploma, Piotr served as concertmaster of several of the College-Conservatory's orchestras. He then received a fellowship at the New World Symphony in Miami Beach where he served as rotating concertmaster under Artistic Director Michael Tilson Thomas. The winner of the 2006 New World Symphony Concerto competition, Mr. Szewczyk has appeared as soloist with numerous ensembles, including the Lima Symphony, New World Symphony, World Youth Symphony Orchestra, Queen City Virtuosi, and the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble. Piotr also has given solo and chamber recitals in the United States, Poland, Germany and Austria, and his own award-winning compositions have been performed by numerous orchestral and chamber ensembles, and at the American Symphony Orchestra League Conference by ALIAS Ensemble in Nashville. Mr. Szewczyk’s string quintet, The Rebel, was performed live on the CBS Early Show by the Sybarite Chamber Players, and was also featured on NPR's Performance Today. Piotr joined the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra in September 2007, and in 2008 he won a commission from the Symphony by placing first in its Fresh Ink composition competition. The resulting piece, First Coast Fanfare, was premiered by the Jacksonville Symphony on April 15th of this year.

Mr. Szewczyk's critically-acclaimed Violin Futura project features recitals of short, exciting and innovative solo violin pieces newly-written for him by composers from the United States, Germany, England and Japan. Currently working on the third program group in the series, Szewczyk has performed Violin Futura at numerous festivals and universities including Spoleto Festival USA, Berklee College of Music in Boston, University of Florida, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Santa Fe New Music Festival, University of Cincinnati, University of North Florida, EMMA Lecture Series at Flagler College, Bavarian Academy of Arts in Munich, Germany, New Museum of Art and Design in Nuremberg, Germany and many others.

For this Intermezzo recital, Mr. Szewczyk will perform:

Day Ut Ia Pobrusa - Rodney Waschka II
Memories - Lan-chee Lam
Caprice - Ng Wah-hei
Menuet pour le violon solo - Matthew Davidson
Moto Perpetuo - Jorge Sosa
En Comunión - Douglas Pew

More about Mr. Szewczyk at verynewmusic.com

Gary Smart's career has encompassed a wide range of activities as composer, classical and jazz pianist, and teacher. A true American pluralist, Dr. Smart composes and improvises a music that reflects an abiding interest in world musics, Americana and jazz, as well as the Western classical tradition. Always
a musician with varied interests, he may be the only pianist to have studied with Yale scholar/keyboardist Ralph Kirkpatrick, the great Cuban virtuoso Jorge Bolet, and the master jazz pianist Oscar Peterson.

Smart’s work has been supported by the Guggenheim Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Music Educator's National Conference, the Music Teacher's National Association, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Smart’s music has been performed in major venues in the United States, including the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall, as well as venues in Europe and Asia. His Concordia for orchestra won the Concordia jazz composition award and was premiered at Lincoln Center, New York. His Song of the Holy Ground for string quartet and piano won the 2008 John Donald Robb Musical Trust Composers’ Competition and was premiered at the 2009 Robb Composers’ Symposium at the University of New Mexico.

Smart's compositions are published by Margun Music (G. Schirmer) and his work has been recorded on the Mastersound, Capstone and Albany labels. His CD’s The Major’s Letter, songs for voice and piano, American Beauty – a ragtime bouquet, Hot Sonatas, a collection of jazz-influenced chamber music, and Turtle Dreams of Flight, original music for solo piano performed by the composer, have all been released recently by Albany Records.

Blossoms, a recording of his solo piano improvisations, is currently in production.

Dr. Smart spent two residencies in Japan, teaching in programs at Osaka University and Kobe College. He also taught in Indonesia as "Distinguished Lecturer in Jazz" under the auspices of the Fulbright program. From 1999-2003, he served as Chairman of the UNF Music Department. Gary Smart is currently a Presidential Professor of Music at the University of North Florida.

More about Dr. Smart at garysmart.net

Intermezzo Sunday Concert, 10/10/2010 @ 2:30pm

2010-09-21T12:31:00.000-07:00

A Romantic Sampler

Shawn I. Puller, tenor [Jacksonville Debut]
Read Gainsford, piano

Faculty artists from Albany State University and Florida State University team up for an afternoon of song and solo piano music!

PROGRAM SELECTIONS

Stefano Donaudy (1879-1925)
Sento nel core -- Ah, mai non cessate -- Quando ti rivedrò -- O del mio amato ben
Franz Schubert (1798-1828)
Impromptu in B-flat major, D. 935 No.3
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Der Jüngling an der Quelle -- Der Jüngling am Bache -- Der Jüngling und der Tod
Fernando Obradors (1897-1945)
Selections from Canciones clásicas españolas
La mi sola, Laureola -- Del cabello más sutil -- Al amor
Enrique Granados (1867-1916)
La Maja y el Ruiseñor
Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)
Lydia -- Içi-bas -- Adieu
Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)
Ballade No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 52

PROGRAM NOTES, by Ed Lein, Music Librarian

Pianist Read Gainsford (D.M.) has performed widely in the USA, Europe, Australia, South Africa, and his native New Zealand as solo recitalist, concerto soloist and chamber musician. He has made successful solo debuts at the Wigmore Hall and Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, and has performed in many other prestigious venues, including the Kennedy Center, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Barbican Centre, Fairfield Halls, Birmingham Town Hall and St.-Martin-in-the-Fields. Dr. Gainsford has recorded for the Amoris label, BBC Radio Three, Radio New Zealand's Concert Programme, and has broadcast on national television in New Zealand, the UK, and Yugoslavia. Since moving to the United States in 1992, Read has been a guest artist for the American Music Teachers Association, has appeared at the Gilmore Keyboard Festival and the Music Festival of the Hamptons, and spent several summers as a member of the collaborative pianist faculty at the Heifetz International Music Institute. He is a member of the contemporary music group Ensemble X, the Garth Newel Chamber Players, and as the pianist with FSU's Trio Solis he has performed here twice previously for our Music @ Main programs. Formerly on the faculty of Ithaca College where he received the college-wide Excellence in Teaching Award in 2004, Dr. Gainsford became Associate Professor of Piano at FSU in 2005.

Don't feel too badly if you don't recognize the name of Stefano Donaudy (1879-1925)--although the Sicilian-born composer rates a place in Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (2001), there is no entry for him in the 2nd edition of New Grove Dictionary (also 2001). As a precocious "tween" Donaudy wrote Folchetto (1892), the first of his six operas. He enjoyed early successes with both his songs and operas, and he also composed a few purely instrumental pieces, including a symphonic poem, Le Rêve de Polysende. But his luck ran out with his poorly-received final opera, La Fiamminga (Naples, 1922), and the disappointment at its failure (apparently coupled with declining health) caused him to abandon composing for his few remaining years. Despite the composer's relative obscurity, several of Donaudy's three dozen Arie di Stile Antico ("Arias in Antique Style") have been championed from the early recorded era to the present day by many the world's foremost singers, including the famous tenors Enrico Caruso, Beniamino Gigli, Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo, José Carreras, and Andrea Bocelli.

Sento nel core (36 Arie di Stile Antico, no. 9, 1918) Text: Anonymous Sento nel core certo dolore, che la mia pace turbando va. Splende una face che l'alma accende, se non è amore, amor sarà.	I feel in my heart (English version ©2010, E. Lein) I feel such aching in my heart Which so disturbs my peace. A shining torch inflames my soul— If this be not love, then love it shall become!
Ah, mai non cessate dal vostro parlar (36 Arie di Stile Antico, no. 7, 1918) Text: Alberto Donaudy (1880-1941) Ah, mai non cessate dal vostro parlar, o labbra desiate ond'io folle vo' col miel delle vostre parole vo' far un dolce guanciale su cui dormirò. O sonni beati da niun mai sognati che su quel guanciale dormendo farò, dormendo e sognando, vicino al tuo cor, il dolce, desiato mio sogno d'amor. Ah! dormendo, sognando, sognando d'amor!	Ah, never cease thy speech (English version ©2010, E. Lein) Ah, never cease thy speech, O longed-for lips for which I madly yearn, For from thy honeyed words I wish to form A pillow sweet upon which I may sleep. O blessèd dream that yet not one hath dreamt: Upon that pillow, there shall I repose, Asleep and dreaming, close yet to thy heart, That sweet and longed-for dream of love. Ah! Sleeping, dreaming, dreaming of love!
Quando ti rivedrò? (36 Arie di Stile Antico, no. 22, 1918) Text: Alberto Donaudy (1880-1941) Hear onYouTube Quando ti rivedrò, infida amante che mi fosti sì cara? Tante lagrime ho piante or che altrui ci separa, che temo sia fuggita ogni gioia per sempre di mia vita. Eppur più mi dispero, più ritorno a sperare. Più t'odio nel pensiero e più ancora l'anima mia ti torna ad amar. Quando ti rivedrò, infida amante che mi fosti cara così?	When might I see thee once again? (English version ©2010, E. Lein) When might I see thee once again, Thou faithless love whom once I found so dear? Countless the tears that I have wept Now that another doth us separate. I fear that every joy hath fled Forever from my life. Yet when I most despair ‘Tis then hope most returns. The more I hate thee in my thoughts Then even more Returns my soul to loving thee. When might I see thee once again, Thou faithless love, whom once I found so very dear?
O del mio amato ben perduto incanto! (36 Arie di Stile Antico, no. 18, 1918) Text: Alberto Donaudy (1880-1941) Hear on YouTube O del mio amato ben perduto incanto! Lungi è dagli occhi miei chi m'era gloria e vanto! Or per le mute stanze sempre lo cerco e chiamo con pieno il cor di speranze. Ma cerco invan, chiamo invan! E il pianger m'è sì caro, che di pianto sol nutro il cor. Mi sembra, senza lui, triste ogni loco. Notte mi sembra il giorno; mi sembra gelo il foco. Se pur talvolta spero di darmi ad altra cura, sol mi tormenta un pensiero: Ma, senza lui, che farò? Mi par così la vita vana cosa senza il mio ben.	O thou, my most belov’d enchantment, lost! (English version ©2010, E. Lein) O thou, my most belov’d enchantment, lost! From out my sight art thou so far remov’d Who was my glory and my pride! Now through these silent rooms I ever seek and call for him aloud, Yet with my heart still full of hope. But I seek in vain, I call in vain! And yet this weeping is to me so dear, For only tears remain To feed the heart. To me it seems, without him, That sadness looms here all about. The night, to me it seems, becomes the day; And to me frost, it seems, arises out of fire. Though yet I still might hope To take some other cure, I’m tormented by one thought alone: “Without him, what can I do?” To me life seems but vanity Ever thus, without my love.

During his short lifetime the Austrian composer Franz Schubert (1797-1828) composed hundreds of works of astounding lyric beauty, including symphonies, chamber works, masses, solo piano music, and songs. Although his music was regularly performed in private concerts for Vienna’s musical elite, Schubert was never able to secure a publisher for the bulk of his masterworks, so he depended on his devoted circle of friends for maintaining his finances. After his death (probably from medicinal mercury poisoning), Schubert’s wish to be buried next to Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) was honored.

In 1827, Schubert wrote two sets of Impromptus for solo piano, with four pieces in varying musical forms in each set. His Impromptu in B-flat major, D. 935, No.3, is from the second set, published posthumously as his Op. 142. The piece is a theme with variations on a tune derived from his incidental music to the play, Rosamunde (D. 797, 1823), and also used in his String Quartet, No. 13, D. 804 (1824). Hear it on YouTube.

Schubert, who composed over 600 songs, has remained unsurpassed in his ability to marry poetry with music, and his song-writing genius was touted by no less than Beethoven—although the two composers apparently never met, during his final illness Beethoven was given scores to some of Schubert’s songs, and the older master expressed his great admiration for the younger composer’s artistry.

Der Jüngling an der Quelle (D.300, ca.1816?, published 1842) Text: Johann Gaudenz Freiherr von Salis-Seewis (1762-1834) Hear on YouTube	The Youth at the Spring (English version ©2010, E. Lein)
Leise rieselnder Quell! Ihr wallenden flispernden Pappeln! Euer Schlummergeraüsch Wecket die Liebe nur auf. Linderung sucht’ ich bei euch Und sie zu vergessen die Spröde. Ach, und Blätter und Bach Seufzen, Louise, dir nach! Louise! Louise!	Softly rippling spring! Ye wind-toss'd and rustling poplars! Thy whispered sounds of slumber Do but waken my love. 'Twas comfort I sought from thee, And her coldness I'd thought to forget; Ah, and yet brook and leaves Still sigh, Louise, for thee! Louise! Louise!
Der Jüngling am Bache Text (1803): Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805) An der Quelle saß der Knabe, Blumen wand er sich zum Kranz, Und er sah sie fortgerissen, Treiben in der Wellen Tanz. “Und so fliehen meine Tage Wie die Quelle rastlos hin! Und so bleichet meine Jugend, Wie die Kränze schnell verblühn!” Fraget nicht, warum ich traure In des Lebens Blütenzeit! Alles freuet sich und hoffet, Wenn der Frühling sich erneut. Aber diese tausend Stimmen Der erwachenden Natur Wecken in dem tiefen Busen Mir den schweren Kummer nur. Was soll mir die Freude frommen, Die der schöne Lenz mir beut? Eine nur ist's, die ich suche, Sie ist nah und ewig weit. Sehnend breit' ich meine Arme Nach dem teuren Schattenbild, Ach, ich kann es nicht erreichen, Und das Herz ist ungestillt! Komm herab, du schöne Holde, Und verlaß dein stolzes Schloß! Blumen, die der Lenz geboren, Streu ich dir in deinen Schoß. Horch, der Hain erschallt von Liedern, Und die Quelle rieselt klar! Raum ist in der kleinsten Hütte Für ein glücklich liebend Paar.	The Youth by the Brook (English version ©2010, E. Lein) By the brook there sat a youth Winding blooms into a wreath, And he watched them get ripped away-- Snatched up in the dancing waves. “And so too fly my days As doth this restless stream! And so too fades my youth As fast as withers this wreath! “But ask ye not, why I do mourn In this, my life's budding youth! All are filled with joy and hope When Springtime doth renew. And yet these thousand voices Of Nature's wakening morrow Rouse deep within my heart Only reluctant sorrow. “What shall I do with the pious joy That beauteous Spring doth offer? There is but one whom I do seek-- So near is she, and yet e'er afar. Yearning, I stretch forth my arms Toward that most beloved mirage ... Ah! But I cannot grasp hold of it, And my sore heart is unassuaged! “Come hither, ye lovely treasure, And quit thou thy palace grand! These blooms, borne of Springtime, Shall I strew upon thy lap. Hear! The grove echoes with song, And the creek trickles ever-clear! There is room enough in the smallest hut For a happy, loving pair.”
Der Jüngling und der Tod (D. 545, 1817, pub.1872) Text: by Joseph von Spaun (1788-1865) Hear on YouTube Der Jüngling: Die Sonne sinkt, o könnt ich mit ihr scheiden, Mit ihrem letzten Strahl entfliehn, Ach! diese namenlosen Qualen meiden, Und weit in schön're Welten ziehn! O komme Tod, und löse diese Bande! Ich lächle dir, o Knochenmann, Entführe mich leicht in geträumte Lande, O komm und rühre mich doch an!. Der Tod: Es ruht sich kühl und sanft in meinem Armen, Du rufst! Ich will mich deiner Qual erbarmen.	The Youth and Death (English version ©2010, E. Lein) The Youth: The sun doth sink--O could I but with it depart, Fleeing away with its dying rays. Ah! thus to shun this nameless torment And venture far into a fairer place! Come, O Death, and loose these bonds! I do smile upon thee, O ye Bony Wraith, Carry me off, but softly, to those dreamt-of lands. O Come thou and me thus convey! Death: Cool and gently in my arms rest thou, slumbering Ye call! I will take pity on thy suffering.

Fernando Obradors (1897-1945) was a self-taught Catalan composer, pianist and conductor. Although he wrote orchestral music as well as a considerable amount of music for the stage, he is best remembered for his four sets of Canciones clásicas españolas, collected and arranged between 1921-1941. Obradors' settings perfectly capture the essence of the folk-songs, and they remain among the most popular Spanish-language songs in the repertoire of classically-trained singers.

La mi sola, Laureola (Canciones clásicas españolas, no. 7)
Text: Juan Ponce (b.ca.1480)

Hear on YouTube

La mi sola, Laureola
La mi sola, sola, sola…

Yo el cautivo Leriano
Aunque mucho estoy ufano
Herido de aquella mano
Que en el mundo es una sola.

La mi sola Laureola
La mi sola, sola, sola.

Del cabello más sutil (Canciones clásicas españolas, no. 4)
Text: Anonymous

Hear on YouTube

Del cabello más sutil
Que tienes en tu trenzado
He de hacer una cadena
Para traerte a mi lado.

Una alcarraza en tu casa,
Chiquilla, quisiera ser,
Para besarte en la boca,
Cuando fueras a beber.
Ah!

Al Amor (Canciones clásicas españolas, no. 1)
Text: Cristobal de Castillejo (d. 1550)

Hear on YouTube

Dame, Amor, besos sin cuento
Asido de mis cabellos
Y mil y ciento tras ellos
Y tras ellos mil y ciento
Y después de muchos millares--tres!

Y porque nadie lo sienta
Desbaratemos la cuenta
Y contemos--al revés.

My Only Laureola
(English version ©2010, E. Lein)

She's my only Laureola,
My only one and only!

I'm but her captive, Leriano;
And though I'm very proud and grand
I've yet been wounded at her hand--
In this world she is the one and only!

She's my only Laureola,
My only one and only!

From That Finest Hair
(English version ©2010, E. Lein)

From that finest hair
Which thou dost braid
I would craft a chain
To draw thee by my side.

A cup within thy house,
Dear maid, I'd pray become,
Wherein I'd kiss thy mouth
As oft as thou drink from ...
Ah!

To My Love
(English version ©2010, E. Lein)

Give me, Love, kisses as countless
As the hairs that have clung to my head!
And add a thousand and a hundred,
And then a hundred and a thousand,
And to these many thousands--add three!

And as none might agree
Let us rip up that tally
And then count again--only backwards!

Like Obradors, Enrique Granados (1867-1916) was born in the Spanish region of Catalonia, and Granados' music is so characteristically "Spanish" that he is regarded as one of his homeland's most representative composers. His Goyescas (1909-11), a suite of 6 pieces in 2 books and inspired by the paintings of Francesco Goya, ranks with Iberia, by Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909), as the finest piano works from Spain. The famous Quejas, ó la maja y el ruiseñor (“Lament, or, The Maiden and the Nightingale”), is an intricate nocturne with glittering, bird-like trills near its conclusion. Granados himself premiered Goyescas, so it is clear that he was a virtuoso performer as well as composer.

Hear it on YouTube

Gabriel Urbain Fauré (1845-1924) was a composer, organist, pianist and teacher, and he is widely regarded as the greatest master of the French art-song and the foremost French composer of his generation. Although Fauré greatly admired Wagner he remained relatively free of Wagner’s highly-colored influence, and instead led his own harmonic revolution by treating chords with added 7ths and 9ths as consonant and by introducing modal inflections into an essentially diatonic framework; in the process he successfully bridged the styles of Saint-Saëns (his teacher) and Ravel (his student). Fauré’s compositions are distinguished by perfectly crafted melodies floating over rich and radiant backgrounds, and among his best-known works is the hauntingly beautiful choral Requiem.

Lydia (Op.4, no,2)
Text: Leconte de Lisle (1818-1894)

Hear on YouTube

Lydia sur tes roses joues
Et sur ton col frais et si blanc,
Roule étincelant l’or fluide
Que tu dénoues.

Le jour qui luit est le meilleur;
Oublions l’éternelle tombe,
Laisse tes baiser, tes baiser de colombe
Chanter sur ta lèvre en fleur.

Un lys cache répand sans cesse
Une odeur divine en ton sein.
Les délices comme un essaim
Sorten de toi, jeunne déesse.

Je t’amie et meurs, ô mes amour,
Mon âme en baisers m’est ravie!
O, Lydia, rends moi la vie
Que je puisse mourir, mourir toujours!

Ici-bas! (Op.8, no.3), 1874?
Text: R.-F. Sully-Prudhomme (1839-1907)

Hear on YouTube

Ici-bas tous les lilas meurent,
Tous les chants des oiseaux sont courts,
Je rêve aux étés qui demeurent toujours...

Ici-bas les lèvres effleurent
Sans rien laisser de leur velours,
Je rêve aux baisers qui demeurent toujours...

Ici-bas, tous les hommes pleurent
Leurs amitiés ou leurs amours;
Je rêve aux couples qui demeurent toujours!

Adieu (Op. 21, no.3, 1878)
Text: Charles Jean Grandmougin (1850-1930)

Hear on YouTube

Comme tout meurt vite, la rose déclose,
Et les frais manteaux diaprés des près;
Les longs soupirs, les bien-aimées,
Fumées!

On voit, dans ce monde léger,
Changer
Plus vite que les flots des grèves
Nos rêves!
Plus vite que les givre en fleurs
Nos coeurs!

A vous l’on se croyait fidèle,
Cruelle!
Mais hélas, les plus longs amour
sont courts!
Et je dis en quittant vos charmes
Sans larmes,
Presqu’ au moment de mon aveu …
Adieu!

Lydia
(English version ©2010, E. Lein)

Lydia, upon thy rosy cheeks
And o'er thy neck so cool and white,
Tumbles there a glittering liquid gold
Which, unbinding, thou dost set free.

The best is brought with each day's dawning;
So that we may forget the eternal grave,
Let now thy kisses, like kisses from a dove,
Sing forth from thy lips, sweet-blooming.

From a secret lily doth e'er radiate
A heavenly perfume from thy sacred heart,
And all teaming manner of delight
Dost from thou, young goddess, emanate.

I love thee and I die, O mes amour,
Thy kisses have my soul quelled with delight!
O Lydia, return my life,
That I might die, and still die evermore!

Here Below!
(English version ©2010, E. Lein)

Here below all the lilacs do wither,
All the songs of birds are but brief:
I dream of summers that will endure forever ...

Here below lips do softly touch,
Leaving none of their velvety softness:
I dream of kisses which will endure forever ...

Here below, everyone is weeping
For lost friendships or for lost loves:
I dream of couples who will endure forever!

Adieu
(English version ©2010, E. Lein)

How quickly do all things die: the unclosed rose,
And the fresh-grown, stippled cloaks upon the field;
The longing sighs, the dearly-loved:
Wisps of smoke!

We see, across this faded world,
Such change--
Faster than dashing waves upon the shore:
Our dreams!
Faster than frost upon the flowers' blooms:
Our hearts!

To you--having thought us ever true---
So cruel!
Alas, the longest loves
Are but short-lived!
And this I say, as I quit your charms
Without a tear,
As I near the moment of my confession …
Adieu!

The Polish-born pianist Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849) was the first composer to make full use of the expressive qualities and coloristic potential of the piano when it was a still-developing keyboard instrument, and he rightly has been called the "Poet of the Piano." Much of all piano music by subsequent composers shows his influence, and his revolutionary use of chromatic harmonies and unusual key relationships profoundly influenced composers of symphonic music and operas as well, such as Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner--thus Chopin's importance in the development of the "Romantic" style in general can not be overestimated. Among his many achievements, Chopin is credited with establishing the Ballade as an extended instrumental form, and all four of his solo piano works bearing this title are considered among the crowning achievements of the Romantic period. British pianist and composer John Ogdon (1937-1989) called the Ballade No. 4, Op.52, completed in 1842, ”the most exalted, intense and sublimely powerful of all Chopin’s compositions ... it contains the experience of a lifetime.”

Hear it on YouTube

06/16 @ 6:15 p.m.: Huls Clark Duo

2010-05-17T13:26:00.000-07:00

Max Huls, violin
Christine Clark, piano

Jacksonville Symphony violinist Max Huls and award-winning pianist Christine Clark once again join forces for our season finale!

BEETHOVEN Sonata No. 4, Op. 23
SAINT-SAËNS Havanaise, Op. 83
BRAHMS Sonata No. 2, Op. 100

Violinist Max Huls joined the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra in 1993 and was introduced to the First Coast as soloist in Bartók’s Second Rhapsody, for violin and orchestra. Mr. Huls is on the faculty of the Prelude Chamber Music Camp, is a violin coach for the Jacksonville Symphony Youth Orchestra, and in addition to his core membership in the JSO he is Concertmaster of the Coastal Symphony of Georgia. He appeared variously as concertmaster, soloist and conductor with the Savannah Symphony, and was concertmaster of the Memphis Symphony and Opera Memphis. Max was on the faculty of the University of Memphis and Rhodes College, and while living in Tennessee was much sought after as a studio musician, working with the rock group The Replacements and soul legends Patti LaBelle and Al Green, among many others. He has participated in numerous music festivals, and among his many local concerts and recitals, Max performed Paganini's demanding Twenty-four Caprices for Friday Musicale. As a member of Duo Proto he plays violin and viola alongside his son, Victor Minke Huls, and he frequently collaborates with award-winning pianist Christine Clark. The Huls Clark Duo was featured in our season finale concerts in 2007, 2008 and 2009.

A native of Jacksonville, Florida, Christine Armington Clark began piano studies with James Crosland, and continued her professional training at Oberlin Conservatory. She received a Master's degree in piano performance from the University of Illinois, and studied with Leon Fleisher in the Peabody Conservatory Artist Diploma Program upon the recommendation of legendary concert pianist Lorin Hollander. Ms. Clark was national finalist in the Collegiate Artist Competition sponsored by the Music Teachers National Association, and attended the Aspen Music Festival on a piano performance and accompanying scholarship. She competed in the Maryland International Piano Competition, and won the Boca Raton Piano Competition. A versatile musician, Ms. Clark played keyboard with Trap Door, a local rock group, and toured Europe under the aegis of Proclaim! International. She taught piano at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey, and her chamber music performances include an appearance at the Goethe Institute in San Francisco. Well known along the First Coast, Ms. Clark has appeared with the Jacksonville Starlight Symphonette and the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, and appears frequently in solo recitals and in collaboration with many of the areas finest instrumentalists and vocalists. She also serves on the Boards of several arts organizations, is President of Friday Musicale, and is on the faculty of Prelude Chamber Music camp. In addition to being an accomplished pianist, Christine is an attorney, and while working in Washington, D.C., she gave perhaps her most unusual recital, performing in the United States Supreme Court at the request of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

The transcendent German-born composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) began his compositional career essentially imitating the styles and forms he inherited from Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) and W.A Mozart (1756-1791), but during his "middle" period (ca. 1803-1815) Beethoven expanded and personalized this inheritance, creating works that have come to represent the culmination of the Classical style in much the same way that the works of J.S. Bach (1685-1750) represent the culmination of the Baroque. During Beethoven's "late" period (ca. 1815-1827), he discovered new paths toward still more personal, even intimate, musical expression, and, despite the gradual and eventually total degeneration of his hearing, he forged the way beyond the Classical tradition into the Romantic.

Beethoven began work on both his 4th and 5th violin sonatas in the summer of 1800, while he also worked on his Symphony No. 2, Op. 21, and the ballet, The Creatures of Prometheus, Op. 43. The two violin sonatas were intended as contrasting companion pieces and initially were grouped together as the composer’s “Opus 23.” But the violin part of the brightly lyrical Sonata No. 5 in F major (now known as the “Spring” Sonata) mistakenly was printed using an oblong format rather than the tall format used for the darkly dramatic Sonata No. 4. This made it impossible to bind the two sonatas together, and it was cheaper to assign them separate opus numbers rather than re-engraving them. Thus, the fifth sonata became “Opus 24,” while the fourth kept the original work number.

Although Beethoven’s Sonata No. 4 dates from his “early” period, contemporary critics were already making note of the composer’s originality, even when they didn’t quite understand his innovations. The key of A-minor was a rare choice for chamber music compositions, made even more unusual by Beethoven’s retention of the minor mode for the first movement’s “second subject,” which is introduced in E-minor rather than in the “expected” relative major key centered on C. And although Beethoven retains the 3-movement outline favored by his mentors rather than using the 4-movement scheme with an added scherzo movement that he later seemed to prefer (and which he uses in the “Spring” Sonata), he nonetheless interjects the jesting spirit of a scherzo into the slower-paced middle movement.

SCORE (pdf): Beethoven Sonata No. 4, Op. 23

Beethoven Sonata No. 4 on YouTube:
1. Presto — 2. Andante scherzoso, più allegretto — 3. Allegro molto

By the age of three, the French composer and keyboard virtuoso Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) could read and write and had penned his first piano piece; by seven he had learned Latin; and by ten he could perform from memory all 32 of Beethoven’s piano sonatas upon request. An expert mathematician and a successful playwright, he published poetry, scholarly works in acoustics and philosophy, and popular travelogues. He was a confidant of Berlioz, Liszt, and Fauré (his most famous student), and a notorious enemy of Franck, Massenet, and especially of Debussy.

Saint-Saëns’ Havanaise, Op. 83, remains one of the most frequently performed and recorded pieces from among the more than 300 works the composer wrote. “Havanaise” (the French equivalent of the Spanish "habanera") is derived from the name of the Cuban city of Havana (“La Habana” in Spanish), and it identifies the origins of the dance rhythms that infuse Saint-Saëns’ virtuoso showpiece. Originally for violin and piano but soon provided with an orchestral accompaniment, Saint-Saëns composed the piece in 1887 for Raphael Diaz Albertini (1857-1928), a Cuban violinist whom he had accompanied on a concert tour a couple of years before.

SCORE (pdf): Saint-Saëns Havanaise

Saint-Saëns on YouTube:
Havanaise, Op. 83

At a time when it was fashionable to write programmatic music that illustrated specific scenes, poems, or stories, the great German composer Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) was recognized by his admirers as “Beethoven’s true heir” (Grove Concise Dictionary of Music) by demonstrating that established abstract formal procedures could be used to organize musical discourse without sacrificing the passion and deeply individualistic expression that defines 19th-Century Romantic music. Thus, Brahms joined Bach and Beethoven as one of the great “Three B’s” of classical music.

For many of us, summer vacations might provide a good time to "vegetate," in the sense of "idly lulling about." But for Brahms, sunny rural retreats instead sparked his musical inspiration to "bloom and grow" into some of his most ingratiating works, including his three violin sonatas. The first (Op. 78, 1878) was written in response to an Italian sojourn, and both the second (Op. 100, 1886) and third (Op. 108, 1886-88) to stays on Lake Thun in Switzerland, a locality which Brahms reported was "so full of melodies that one has to be careful not to step on any." In August 1886, in addition to the Violin Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 100, Brahms (mostly) completed his Cello Sonata No. 2, Op. 99, and the Piano Trio No. 3, Op. 101. He also wrote several songs, including Komm bald ("Come soon"), Op. 97/5, and Wie Melodien zieht es mir leise durch den Sinn ("It passes through my mind like melodies"), Op. 107/1, both of which provided thematic inspiration for the opus 100 violin sonata.

Considering its birthplace and sunny disposition, it is not surprising that Brahms’ second sonata is sometimes known as the "Thun" Sonata. But surprisingly, it also has appeared with the nickname "Meistersinger," owing to the intervallic similarity between the piano's first three notes with the first sung notes of "Walter's Prize Song" from the last scene in Wagner's 1868 opera, Die Meistersinger—only it is hard to imagine that Brahms would have intentionally paid tribute to his noted rival!

SCORE (pdf): Brahms Sonata No. 2, Op. 100

Brahms Sonata No. 2 on YouTube:
1. Allegro amabile — 2. Andante tranquillo. Vivace — 3. Allegretto grazioso (quasi Andante)

05/18/2010 @ 5:30 p.m.: Piotr Szewczyk, violin

2010-04-21T07:28:00.000-07:00

Violin Futura II

Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra violinist Piotr Szewczyk returns to the Hicks Auditorium, performing new music for solo violin written especially for him by composers from around the country.

Featured composers/works include:

Jason Bahr – Ephemeral Rhapsody
Richard Belcastro - Buyer's Remorse
Tyler Capp - Scatterbrain
Lisa Coons - Coming Undone
Jianjun He - Yang-Ge Dance
Sydney Hodkinson - RUSH
Kari Juusela - Red Bull #3
John Oliver - Tossing and Turning
Philip Pan - Thrash
William Schirmer - Lyric
Adam Schoenberg - Swoosh
Laurence Sherr – Midnight Dance
Gary Smart - Benediction
Suzanne Sorkin – Toward the Other Shore

Polish-born violinist and composer Piotr Szewczyk (b. 1977) studied composition and violin at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and while earning both Bachelor and Master of Music degrees as well as his Artist Diploma, Piotr served as concertmaster of several of the College-Conservatory's orchestras. He then received a fellowship at the New World Symphony in Miami Beach where he served as rotating concertmaster under Artistic Director Michael Tilson Thomas. The winner of the 2006 New World Symphony Concerto competition, Mr. Szewczyk has appeared as soloist with numerous ensembles, including the Lima Symphony, New World Symphony, World Youth Symphony Orchestra, Queen City Virtuosi, and the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble. Piotr also has given solo and chamber recitals in the United States, Poland, Germany and Austria, and his own award-winning compositions have been performed by numerous orchestral and chamber ensembles, and at the American Symphony Orchestra League Conference by ALIAS Ensemble in Nashville. Mr. Szewczyk’s string quintet, The Rebel, was performed live on the CBS Early Show by the Sybarite Chamber Players, and was also featured on NPR's Performance Today. Piotr joined the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra in September 2007, and in 2008 he won a commission from the Symphony by placing first in its Fresh Ink composition competition. The resulting piece, First Coast Fanfare, was premiered by the Jacksonville Symphony on April 15th of this year.

Mr. Szewczyk is the creator and performer of the critically-acclaimed Violin Futura project, featuring recitals of short, exciting and innovative solo violin pieces newly-written for him by composers from the United States, Germany, England and Japan. Currently in its second edition and with a third in the works, Szewczyk has performed Violin Futura at numerous festivals and universities including Spoleto Festival USA, Berklee College of Music in Boston, University of Florida, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Santa Fe New Music Festival, University of Cincinnati, University of North Florida, EMMA Lecture Series at Flagler College, Bavarian Academy of Arts in Munich, Germany, New Museum of Art and Design in Nuremberg, Germany and many others.

More about Mr. Szewczyk at verynewmusic.com

Kansas native Jason Bahr (b. 1972) is an Assistant Professor of Music Theory and a HARP Research Fellow at Mississippi State University. Bahr received his B.M. from the University of Missouri—Kansas City Conservatory of Music, and his M.M. and D.M. from Indiana University. Bahr’s works have been performed in twenty-nine states and eight foreign countries, and he has received awards, grants, and commissions from the Fromm Foundation, the MacDowell Colony, Northridge Composition Prize, Renee B. Fischer Piano Competition, Kubik International Prize, ASCAP, SCI, and the Cambridge Madrigal Singers, among others.

More at http://www.jasonbahr.com/

Philadelphia-based composer Richard Belcastro (b.1976) studied music composition at the University of California in Davis, Brandeis University and the University of Pennsylvania. His works have been performed in such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall and Philadelphia’s Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, and have been featured at the Gothenburg Guitar Society’s new music festival in Sweden, Boston’s COAXIAL festival for Electro-Acoustic Music, and the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. Belcastro has received grants and awards from The Meet the Composer Foundation, ASCAP/SEAMUS, The Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, and New Sounds Music Inc. In addition to composing, he is the Executive Director of the Chamber Music NOW! Annual Concert Series in Philadelphia (www.chambermusicnow.org) and the Artistic Director of the DCCC Performing Arts Concert Series (www.dccc.edu/performingArts). More at http://www.rbelcastro.com/

Tyler Avis Capp (b.1983) is a doctoral candidate at the University of Florida where he is honing his compositional skills under the tutelage of Dr. Paul Richards. Capp earned his B.M. (Composition/Banjo) at the University of Delaware, and his M.A. (Music Composition) at Stony Brook University (New York). His wind ensemble piece, Imminent Rock, was a prize winner in the 2008 Penfield/Wegmans Composition Contest for Wind Ensemble Music, and his Stranger Variations, for solo violin, is available on the Bridge label. More at http://www.myspace.com/tyleraviscapp.

Presently pursuing her Ph.D. at Princeton University, Lisa R. Coons (b.1979) earned her Bachelor's at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and received a Master's from SUNY Stony Brook. Ms. Coons specializes in chamber music and sound art, with recent works including amplified instruments, turntables, and metal percussion sculptures with homemade electronics. For her string quartet, entitled Awkward Music to Play or Listen to, she received the 2005 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Award. More at http://www.myspace.com/lisarcoons.

Jianjun He (b.1958), Jacksonville University's new Associate Professor of Music Theory and Composition, earned his B.A. (Violin Performance) and M.A. (Music Theory) degrees in his native China, and received his D.M.A. (Music Composition) from West Virginia University. Dr. He was the chairperson of the Music Department at Ningxia University (China) before coming to the United States in 1995, and also has taught at West Virginia University, Slippery Rock University (Pennsylvania), Stephen F. Austin State University (Texas), and Casper College (Wyoming). His compositions have been featured at numerous music festivals and conferences, and several have been released on recordings for the ERM, VMM, Mark Masters, and Da Di (China) labels. Dr. He has published books and research papers on music theory, compositional techniques, ethnomusicology, and music education. More at http://www.ju.edu/programs/music/faculty_2820.aspx

Sydney Hodkinson (b.1934) holds the Almand Chair of Composition at Stetson University in Deland, and previously has taught at Universities in Ohio, Virginia and Michigan, as well as at the Eastman School in New York State. He has written over 250 works in a wide variety of genres, and has been awarded numerous grants and prizes from the Guggenheim and Ford foundations, the National Institute of Arts and Letters, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Canadian Council, and other prestigious organizations. His music is widely performed, and recordings have been issued on several labels. More at http://www.stetson.edu/music/faculty/hodkinson.php.

Kari Henrik Juusela (b.1954) is a Finnish/American composer, cellist and educator who is presently the Dean of the Professional Writing Division at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. Prior to his work at Berklee College of Music, Dr. Juusela served as the Associate Dean, Director of Composition and Almand Chair of Composition at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida. Juusela's compositions have won awards in numerous competitions including the 1995 Vienna International Full-Length Opera Competition, the 2003 International Red Stick Composition Competition, and the London Chamber Groups 2003 "Piece of the Year Competition," among many others. More at http://www.composersforum.org/member_profile.cfm?oid=4390

With compositions ranging from orchestral, chamber, vocal and electroacoustic, Canadian composer and guitarist John Oliver (b.1959) came to international attention during the late 1980s when he won a half dozen composition prizes, followed by commissions from leading Canadian ensembles and performances in North America and Europe. In his works, which include the operas Guacamayo's Old Song and Dance (Toronto, 1991) and Alternate Visions (Montreal 2007), Dr. Oliver explores "new and ancient materials and techniques from around the world, creating a perceptually-based, visceral listening experience." More at http://earsay.com/johnolivermusic/

Violinist and composer Philip Pan (b.1961) is a graduate of the Juilliard School (B.M., M.M.) and has been Concertmaster of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra since 1986. In addition to his frequent solo work with the JSO, Mr. Pan has made solo appearances throughout the country, including with the Albany and Schenectady symphonies and the Boston Pops, among many others. With his wife, JSO flutist Rhonda Cassano, Philip has produced local concert series including Bach and Beyond!, Synergy and Sound Effects at MOCA Jacksonville. In addition to classical, he enjoys playing various styles of fiddle music and jazz, and he recently released a 7-song recording with his progressive rock band, The Architect Sound. More at http://www.jaxsymphony.org/musician/Philip-Pan.html

William Louis Schirmer (b.1941), a recently retired Professor Emeritus from Jacksonville University, must be ranked as one of history’s most prolific composers—his ever-growing catalog now numbers over 4,000 works in all genres, and includes at least 258 symphonies, 403 piano sonatas and 217 string quartets! Beginning in 1979, Dr. Schirmer taught music theory and composition and JU, and he received his own training at the Cleveland Institute of Music (BM), the Eastman School of Music (MM), and Ohio State University (PhD).

Adam Schoenberg (b.1980) is a doctoral candidate at the Juilliard School whose works have already been performed throughout the United States by orchestras and ensembles including the Kansas City Symphony, Charleston Symphony, Aspen Music Festival Chamber Orchestra, New World Symphony, IRIS Chamber Orchestra, Juilliard Symphony, Chicago Youth Symphony, American Brass Quintet, New Juilliard Ensemble, and Sybarite Chamber Players, and he is currently working on a commissioned work for the Atlanta Symphony. Schoenberg was the First Prize winner at the 2008 International Brass Chamber Music Festival for best Brass Quintet, and in 2007 he won ASCAP’s Morton Gould Young Composer Award, Juilliard’s Palmer-Dixon Prize for Most Outstanding Composition, and a Meet the Composer Grant from the Southern Arts Federation. Among earlier awards was a 2006 Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. More at http://www.adamschoenberg.com.

Laurence Sherr (b.1953) is Composer-in-Residence and Associate Professor of Music at Kennesaw State University in Atlanta, and his works have been performed throughout North America, Mexico and Europe, as well as in Cuba and Japan. He has been the recipient of numerous awards and grants, including top prize in Jacksonville University's 1995 Delius Composition Contest, and his works have been released commercially on several labels, including Capstone and Ein Klang (Germany). Also an active performer, Dr. Sherr is the founder and clarinetist of the Atlanta band Oy Klezmer! More at http://ksuweb.kennesaw.edu/~lsherr/index.html

The career of Gary Smart (b.1943) has encompassed a wide range of activities as composer, classical and jazz pianist, and teacher. Dr. Smart’s compositions reflect an abiding interest in Americana, jazz, and world music, as well as the Western classical tradition, and he has received support from the Ford and Guggenheim foundations, the Music Educator's National Conference, the Music Teachers National Association, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Smart’s works have been performed in major U.S. venues, including the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, as well as in Europe and Asia. Dr. Smart's compositions are published by Margun Music (G. Schirmer) and his work has been recorded on the Mastersound, Capstone, and Albany labels. Dr. Smart spent residencies in Japan and taught in Indonesia as a Fulbright Distinguished Lecturer in Jazz, and was head of the music department at the University of Wyoming from 1978-1999. From 1999-2003 he served as Chairman of the University of North Florida Music Department, where he currently is the Terry Professor of Music. More at http://www.garysmart.net/

Suzanne Sorkin (b.1974) is an Assistant Professor of Music at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia, where she teaches music composition and music theory. Dr. Sorkin, who received her B.M. from New York University and both her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, has received awards and commissions from the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University, Chamber Music Now, Third Millennium Ensemble, counter)inducation, and ASCAP, among others. Her music is performed throughout the country and has been released commercially on Capstone Records. More at http://www.sju.edu/academics/cas/fineandperformingarts/faculty/ssorkin.html

04/12/2010@ 6:16 p.m.: UNF String Ensemble

2010-03-22T13:04:00.000-07:00

Students from the
University of North Florida Department of Music
performing under the direction of Dr. Simon Shiao

SHOSTAKOVICH Four Preludes
Arranged by Lazar Gosman from 24 Piano Preludes, Op. 34
[No. 10, C# minor] Moderato non troppo - [No. 15, D-flat Major] Allegretto - [No. 16, B-flat minor] Andantino - [No. 24, D minor] Allegretto
SAINT-SAËNS Carnival of the Animals
Selections from among: Introduction - The Royal March of the Lion - The Cocks and Hens - The Wild Animals - The Turtle - The Elephant - The Kangaroo - The Aquarium - The Mule - The Cuckoo in the Wind - The Birds - The Pianists - The Fossils - The Swan - The Grand Finale
DVOŘÁK Serenade for Strings in E Major, Op. 22
I. Moderato - II. Tempo di Valse - III. Scherzo: Vivace - IV. Larghetto - V. Finale

1st violin
Junko Eguchi
Jesse Bueno
Jordan Mixson
Sam Felber
Jeremy Davis
Danielle Greenwald
Rose Francis
Andrea Sheinkopf

2nd violin
Dargen Thompson
Dayna Osan
Christina Erhayel
Sara Boynton
Sukesha Crosdale
Bennett Smith
Brent Gregory
Briana Jung

Viola
Leah Kogut
Joshua Stone

Cello
Brittany Maroney
Ariadna Perez
Sarah Greenwald
Nate Edwards

Bass
Javier Arguello
Emily Whittaker

Piano
Saeko Fukami

Director Dr. Simon Shiao, a versatile performer who has appeared at Carnegie Hall as a recitalist and with both string quartet and orchestra, has played concerts around the world and on broadcasts of CNN's Science and Technology program and Public Radio's Live on WGBH. He has performed as soloist and co-concertmaster with Miami’s New World Symphony, and currently performs with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra and with the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra in Wyoming. At UNF he teaches violin and viola and is Director of Orchestral Studies, and he is the chair of the solo competition for the Florida Chapter of the American String Teachers Association. Dr. Shiao holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music and Masters and Doctoral degrees from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Joining Prokofiev and Khachaturian, Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) is one of few composers of the former Soviet Union to sustain a large following in the West, but his career was far from “smooth sailing.” During his lifetime his music was periodically banned by Stalinist authorities, and he suffered two official denouncements, in 1936 and 1948. However, because of his worldwide popularity the Soviets liked to use Shostakovich as propaganda, so their censures always proved temporary—but he still withheld his more personal works until after Stalin’s death in 1953. Shostakovich likewise has had detractors among many of the West’s avant-garde, centering around composer-turned-conductor Pierre Boulez. Although the influence of the self-styled “cutting edge” has since dulled, from the 1950s into the 1980s the group and its followers wielded their own brand of artistic totalitarianism, insisting that composers abandon familiar musical forms in favor of mathematical or electronic compositional procedures, and dismissing works by those who used tonal idioms to communicate directly with listeners. Ignoring the ideological tyranny on both fronts, performers and listeners have always embraced Shostakovich’s music, and he remains among the most frequently performed and recorded of 20th-Century composers.

Originally for piano solo, four of Shostakovich's 24 Preludes, Op. 34 (1932-33), were arranged for strings by violinist and conductor Lazar Gosman (b.1926) for performance and recording by the Tchaikovsky Chamber Orchestra, a group originally called the Soviet Emigre Orchestra that Gosman founded. Previously a major figure in the musical life of Soviet Russia, Gosman immigrated to the United States in 1977, and the 1984 film, Musical Passage, documents the founding of his orchestra, and also his problems in exiting the USSR. Once here he became associate concertmaster of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, served on the faculties of the St. Louis Conservatory and the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and established and continues to conduct annual concerts by the Kammergild Chamber Orchestra of St. Louis.

By the age of three, the French composer and keyboard virtuoso Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) could read and write and had penned his first piano piece; by seven he had mastered Latin; and by ten he could perform from memory all 32 of Beethoven’s piano sonatas upon request. An expert mathematician and a successful playwright, he published poetry, scholarly works in acoustics and philosophy, and popular travelogues. He was a confidant of Berlioz, Liszt, and Fauré (his most famous student), and a notorious enemy of Franck, Massenet, and especially of Debussy.

Although first performed in 1886, Saint-Saëns withheld from publication all but Le cygne (“The Swan”) from Le carnaval des animaux ("The Carnival of the Animals") until after his death because he felt that the overall comic tone of the suite would diminish his standing as a "serious" composer. Ironically, the imagination and wit on display in its 14 movements have kept The Carnival at the top of the dozen or so of his works (out of over 300!) that are still performed with any regularity.

Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904) is an immensely popular Czech composer who fused melodic and rhythmic elements of Bohemian folk music with classical symphonic forms. Fostered by his friend Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), Dvořák gained international acclaim and was invited to New York City to become the director of the National Conservatory of Music from 1892 to 1895, during which time he wrote the famous New World Symphony.

The five movements of Dvořák's Serenade, Op. 22, were written in just a couple of weeks during May of 1875, and for its sunny disposition Brahms, as yet little more than a stranger to Dvořák, may perhaps be due a little credit: in January of the same year Dvořák had been awarded a stipend for composing from the Austrian government, and Brahms was one of the three jurors who unanimously recommended the Czech for the award. But if one were to discover any actual autobiographical impetus in the Serenade, Anna, Dvořák's bride of less than two years, would likely prove the happy inspiration. The couple had known each other for years (in fact, in 1865 Antonín had tried unsuccessfully to court Anna's sister, Josefina), only Anna's father, Jan Čermák, would not relinquish his daughter's hand to a nearly starving musician. But in March 1873, a month after the would-be father-in-law died, Dvořák enjoyed his first big successes as a composer, so Anna's mother, Klotilda, finally consented to the union and the adorable couple, penniless but hopeful, were married on November 17, 1873. Of course, Klotilda's in vivo grandson, Otakar Dvořák (who was born five months later) might also have helped convince his granny.

03/24/2010 @ 6:15pm: Laura Nocchiero & Krzysztof Biernacki

2010-03-08T16:26:00.000-08:00

Dr. Krzysztof Biernacki, head of vocal studies at the University of North Florida, joins Italian concert pianist Laura Nocchiero for a special evening of music and song.

CLAUDE DEBUSSY
9 Préludes (1er livre)
Danseuse de Delphes (Dancers of Delphi)
Voiles (Sails/Veils)
Le vens dans la plaine (The Wind across the Plain)
Les collines d'Anacapri (The Hills of Anacapari)
La fille aux cheveux de lin (The Girl with the Flaxen Hair)
Ce qu’a vu le vent d’ouest (What the West Wind Saw)
La cathédrale engloutie (The Sunken Cathedral)
La danse de Puck (Puck’s Dance)
Minstrels

CLAUDE DEBUSSY
Pour le piano
Prelude--Sarabande--Toccata

FRANCIS POULENC
Four Mélodies
Voyage à Paris--Mazurka--Hôtel--Rosemonde

Pianist Laura Nocchiero graduated from the A. Vivaldi State Music Conservatory in Novara, Italy, and has performed extensively both as a soloist and as guest artist with numerous international ensembles and orchestras. Touring throughout Europe, the Americas and Japan, Ms. Nocchiero has performed at the Valletta Manoel Theatre (Malta), St. Martin in the Fields (London), St. John Smith Square (London), St. Merry (Paris), Cité internationale universitaire (Paris), New York University, Klavierhaus (New York), Steinway Hall (New York), Cleveland State University, Library and Archives Canada Auditorium (Ottawa), Teatro Alfieri (Turin, Italy), Lilia Hall, Yokohama (Japan), Mainichi Culture Center in Osaka (Japan), Sala Baldini (Rome), George Enescu Museum (Bucharest), Linares Andrès Segovia Museum (Spain), Thessaloniki State Music Conservatory (Greece), Salon Dorado de la Prensa (Buenos Aires) and the Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Montevideo (Uruguay). Some of her concerts have been recorded by State Radio-TV and broadcast in Eurovision. Laura is a member of the Satie Duo, together with the actress Eva Palomares. Since its imception in 2003, the Duo has performed throughout Italy and abroad, winning accolades from audiences and press alike. Mrs. Nocchiero regularly appears as a guest artist and teacher in master classes and as a jurist in international music competitions.

Baritone Krzysztof Biernacki has established a strong reputation as a powerful performer, versatile stage director, and talented teacher. Born and raised in Poland, his professional credits include opera, oratorio, concert, and recital performances in Canada, the United States, and Europe. Dr. Biernacki has sung principal roles with Vancouver Opera, Manitoba Opera, Calgary Opera, Orchestra London Canada, Theater of Usti nad Labem (Czech Republic), as well as opera ensembles of University of British Columbia and University of Western Ontario. Dr. Biernacki’s commitment to contemporary music is highlighted by world premiere performances heard on CBC Radio and CBC Saturday Afternoon at the Opera including a highly acclaimed production of Filumena co-produced by the Calgary Opera and Banff Centre for Performing Arts. Dr. Biernacki frequently performs song recitals with repertoire ranging from Haydn to Szymanowski, Shostakovich, and Britten. Last summer Dr. Biernacki made his Carnegie Hall debut with th UNF Wind Ensemble performing works of Tchaikovsky and Tosti, and was reengaged for a recital of opera arias and duets at Carnegie Zankel Hall. His summer 2009 engagements included solo recitals in Italy and Poland, concerts with North Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, and stage directing engagements at the European Music Academy in the Czech Republic. Dr. Biernacki holds degrees from the University of Manitoba (B. Mus.), University of Western Ontario (M. Mus.), and University of British Columbia (D.M.A). He is the head of Applied Voice and Director of UNF Opera Ensemble at the University of North in Jacksonville.

Achille-Claude Debussy (1862-1918) was a quintessentially French composer, pianist and music critic whose own revolutionary music ushered in many of the stylistic changes of the 20th Century. He is usually identified as the chief proponent of musical “impressionism,” but he did not approve of that label himself. Debussy was a great fan of Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849) and he even edited a French edition of the Polish composer’s piano music for publication. Debussy proved himself to be a true successor of Chopin in writing for the piano, and his 24 Préludes, composed between 1909 and 1913 and grouped into two books of 12 each, may be regarded as a tribute to the Pole. Like Chopin, Debussy continued a Baroque tradition with his Préludes while expanding the harmonic language and piano technique of his contemporaries in ways previously unimagined. Pour le Piano (published 1901) likewise hearkens back to the formal traditions of the Baroque, with a Sarabande dance movement sandwiched between a toccata-like Prélude and the actual Toccata of the the final movement, a virtuoso tour de force. But the suite’s harmonic language, using whole-tone scales and parallel 7th and 9th chords, as well as its effervescent piano figurations, clearly identified it as something entirely new.
CLICK HERE to hear Prélude No. 1 (Book I) on YouTube. (Additional Preludes are linked from the resulting page)
CLICK HERE to hear Pour le piano (mvts. 1-2) on YouTube.
CLICK HERE to hear recording of Pour le piano (Toccata) on YouTube.

Before he had any formal training as a composer, Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) was already famous as one of Les six, six young Parisian composers and pals who were linked to Jean Cocteau and Erik Satie, and who were regarded by their admirers as the antidote to the perceived excesses of both Germanic Romanticism and Gallic Impressionism. Of their group (the others being Honegger, Milhaud, and the virtually forgotten Auric, Durey, and Tailleferre), Poulenc’s music remains the most frequently performed. Although the musical influences of Stravinsky and the Parisian dance-hall are often present, Poulenc’s unpretentious style remains clearly his own, characterized by effortless melody, distinct rhythms, and novel yet gorgeous diatonic harmonies.

His affinity for the human voice makes him Fauré’s successor in the realm of the French art song, and beginning in 1935 Poulenc had a very successful performance career accompanying French baritone Pierre Bernac (1899-1979), for whom he wrote about 90 songs for their recitals. Among Poulenc’s favorite poets was Guillame Apollinaire (1880-1918), and both Voyage à Paris and Hôtel are from the five settings of Apollinaire’s verses included in Poulenc’s 1940 song cycle, Banalités. One might say that the first of these paints the French capital as the “City of Carnival Lights, ” while the seconds paints a languid picture of sun streaming in through partially opened shutters on a slow riser whose ambition is as yet as ill-defined as the smoke circles he blows. Another Apollinaire poem, Rosemonde in which the poet reminisces about, well, stalking a woman through the streets of Amsterdam for a couple of hours, was specifically chosen with the audience for a 1954 Dutch recital in mind.

The final song, Mazurka, is from Mouvements du Coeur (Stirrings of the Heart, 1949), seven songs by six different composers commissioned in commemoration of the 100th death anniversary of Chopin, especially appropriate as we celebrate Chopin’s 200th birth anniversary this year. In it French poet Louise Vilmorin (1902-1969) uses a refrain that recalls the children’s song, Ainsi font (This is How They Go), as she depicts the antics of flirtatious young dancers as if they were predictable movements of puppets.

Voyage à Paris (Guillaume Apollinaire) Ah! la charmante chose Quitter un pays morose Pour Paris Paris joli Qu'un jour dût créer l'Amour.	A Trip to Paris (English translation c2010, E.Lein) Ah! 'Tis such a charming thing To head out from a dreary setting For Paris! Paris fairest Which one day Love had to create.
CLICK HERE to hear Voyage à Paris on YouTube. Hôtel (Guillaume Apollinaire) Ma chambre a la forme d'une cage, Le soleil passe son bras par la fenêtre. Mais moi qui veux fumer pour faire des mirages J'allume au feu du jour ma cigarette. Je ne veux pas travailler - je veux fumer.	Hotel (English version c2010, E.Lein) My room has become like a cage is, Through the window the sun casts his net. But I just want to blow smoky mirages So with the day's fire I light my cigarette. To me work is so like a joke -- I'd rather smoke.
CLICK HERE to hear Hôtel on YouTube. Rosemonde (Guillaume Apollinaire) Longtemps au pied du perron de La maison où entra la dame Que j’avais suivie pendant deux Bonnes heures à Amsterdam Mes doigts jetèrent des baisers Mais le canal était désert Le quai aussi et nul ne vit Comment mes baisers retrouvèrent Celle à qui j’ai donné ma vie Un jour pendant plus de deux heures Je la surnommai Rosemonde Voulant pouvoir me rappeler Sa bouche fleurie en Hollande Puis lentement je m’allai Pour quêter la rose du monde	Rosamond (English translation c2010, E.Lein) Lingering at the steps leading up to The house wherein went the ma'am Whom lately I'd followed for two Happy hours though Amsterdam While my fingers flung kisses But since the canal was deserted As were its banks no one could see Just how my kisses overtook Her to whom my life I'd bequeathed That day for more than two hours The nickname Rosamond for her I chose With the hope of remembering How in Holland her lips like flowers grow Then slowly I departed To seek out the world's own rose

Mazurka ("Les bijoux aux poitrines")
English version c2010, E. Lein, after a 1949 French poem by Louise de Vilmorin

The bejeweled décolletage
And ceilings with bright suns,
The opaline ball-frocks,
Mirrors and violins:
They go like so--go, go, go.

A brooch tumbles out of hands,
The brooch: just an excuse
Out of the hands of maidens
That vanish, and they go,
They go like so--go, go, go.

With a glance that might contain
In the wrinkle on a brow
Fine weather or maybe rain,
And with a roguish sigh
They go like so--go, go, go.

The ball's a whirling cyclone
Or demure and fancy-free,
Just listen to each fickle one
Saying yes, saying no:
They go like so--go, go, go.

In dances thus uncertain
The dance-steps hardly count.
Oh! The soft steps of discretion
Are silent mysteries to those
Who go like so--go, go, go.

A ball may be the first place
Where such burning fires unite.
When lovers thus embrace
The snow melts so,
The snow melts so, so, so.

05/04/2010 @ 6:15 p.m.: Scott Watkins, piano

2010-03-02T15:49:00.001-08:00

Renowned concert pianist Scott Watkin's repeats his 2010 Carnegie Hall recital with performances of
Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 28 in A major, Op. 101, and
Chopin's Waltzes.

Scott Watkins, Assistant Professor of Piano at Jacksonville University, is well known to First Coast audiences for his appearances with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, his numerous solo recitals, and his frequent collaborations with many of the areas finest singers and instrumentalists. His 1985 U.S. debut, an all-Bach recital given in Chicago, was broadcast live nationwide, and has been followed by a steady flow of solo and concerto performances in North and South America, Europe and the Caribbean. He has been heard often in the United States and Canada on National Public Radio and Television, and in South America and Europe on The Voice of America. Performances have included the world premieres of Elie Siegmeister’s From These Shores and Ned Rorem’s Song and Dance.

An active chamber musician, Watkins is a founding member of the Florida Arts Trio and has appeared with the LaSalle Quartet and violinist Eugene Fodor, and a recent performance with violinist Hillary Hahn was broadcast on NPR's Performance Today. Much in demand as an accompanist, he appeared with soprano Elizabeth Futral and baritone Steven White in a recital of Wolff's Italian Song Book in Chicago, and he has released a disc of late romantic lieder with White. Watkins has also released two solo discs, one featuring works from his New York debut at Carnegie Hall, and another, Christmas Cards, featuring music for the holiday season, with works by Bach, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Handel, Grainger, and others.

Professor Watkins is the recipient of numerous awards, including the John Philip Sousa Award for Outstanding American Musicians, Rotary Club of Florida's Annual Artistic Merit Award, and France's Jeunesse Musicales. In 1985, he became the youngest winner ever of The U.S. Department of State's Artistic Ambassador Award. His degrees include a Bachelor of Music from the University of Cincinnati, and Master of Music from University of South Carolina. He is currently pursuing his Doctor of Musical Arts at Florida State University.

Beethoven: Sonata No. 28 in A Major, op. 101

1. Etwas lebhaft, und mit der innigsten Empfindung [Somewhat lively, and with innermost sensitivity]
2. Lebhaft. Marschmäßig [Lively. Moderate march]
3. Langsam und sehnsuchtsvoll [Slow and yearning-full]
4. Geschwind, doch nicht zu sehr und mit Entschlossenheit [Swiftly, but not too much and with determination]

The transcendent German-born composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) began his compositional career essentially imitating the styles and forms he inherited from Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) and W.A Mozart (1756-1791), but during his "middle" period (ca. 1803-1815) Beethoven expanded and personalized this lnheritance, creating works that have come to represent the culmination of the Classical style in much the same way that the works of J.S. Bach (1685-1750) represent the culmination of the Baroque. During Beethoven's "late" period (ca. 1815-1827), he discovered new paths toward still more personal, even intimate, musical expression, and, despite the gradual and eventually total degeneration of his hearing, he forged the way beyond the Classical tradition into the Romantic.

After the passing of his mentor Haydn, Beethoven found little inspiration in the works of his contemporaries, least especially from the batch of Italian operas then sweeping the Continent. Instead, for artistic renewal he seems to have drawn upon two main sources: first, his lifelong affection and admiration for the music of Bach and G.F. Handel (1685-1759), striving in his final years to achieve a satisfying synthesis of Baroque contrapuntal techniques with Classical archetypes; and second, the straightforward lyricism of the folksongs he collected and arranged for Scottish publisher George Thomson (1757-1851). Beethoven's Sonata No. 28 in A major, Op. 101, the first of his five late period piano sonatas, was written during the summer and fall of 1816, and it demonstrates most especially the contrapuntal challenges he set for himself during his final decade. Beethoven dedicated it to Baroness Dorothea von Ertmann (1781-1849), a close friend whom he regarded as a foremost interpreter of his piano music, and who, appropriately enough, was also an admirer of Bach.

Outwardly, Opus 101 manifests the four movements of a "typical" Beethoven sonata, but in its details it becomes anything but ordinary. The gently-flowing melody of the pastoral opening movement unfolds without any marked contrasts, and it is especially unusual that the clear establishment of the home key is delayed until near its end. Its reverie is interrupted by an exuberant march, used in place of the more usual scherzo. The brief, improvisatory third movement is an elegiac adagio that leads--very uncharacteristically--into a restatement of the first few measures of the first movement, which in turn is followed immediately by a boisterous sonata-form finale. Both the March, with its canonic trio, and the finale, with its fugato development, are dominated by complex contrapuntal textures, which, as Beethoven himself joked, might have justified nicknaming the work "The Difficult-to-Play Sonata." So--and especially because of the reprise of the first-movement tune leading into the finale--the overall effect is rather like a "Prelude and Fugue," but with a big interruption in the form of the march. And, granted, it is unlike anything Bach could have imagined on his puny harpsichord.

"But why," one might ask, "does Beethoven throw in a march?" Well ...

In addition to an unparalleled body of musical works, Beethoven left the world a mass of diaries, letters and notebooks that paint a vivid picture of one of the greatest musical minds that will ever walk the earth--despite his appalling penmanship. But, in retrospect, he rather foolishly failed to detail every aspect of his personal life and each source of inspiration, so it has proven irresistible to virtually every writer about the most-written-about composer to fill in the gaps with insights into the hidden meaning behind the musical notes. Like now.

At this point in his lonely life, Beethoven corresponded that he pretty much had given up on the idea of finding the ideal wife (including his "Immortal Beloved"--most likely Antonie Brentano, who was unhappily-married to one of Beethoven's friends). He was, however, hopeful that he'd find some sort of familial contentment rearing his 9-year-old nephew, Karl, the son of his recently-deceased brother, Caspar Carl (not yet knowing that both Karl and his widowed mother, Johanna, would prove to be a continuing source of consternation). In any case, Beethoven was now resolved to fully dedicate his life to his art (despite his hearing loss and persistent problems with his digestive health). Thus, the gentle opening, "with innermost sensitivity," might be seen as the composer's wistful paean and farewell to the idea of warm and quiet domesticity, leading into renewed vigor and commitment to artful pursuits, appropriately exemplified by the "determined," fugue-like finale. But as he was working on the Sonata, Beethoven received a commission to write a march for military band (i.e., WoO 24), and he was happy to set aside work on the Sonata to fulfill it. Thus, a march interrupted his work on the Sonata, much like a march interrupts the prelude-fugue aspects of the first and last movements, allowing one to wonder if perhaps this is a case of "art imitating life."

Or not.

Chopin's Waltzes

No. 5 in A flat major, Op. 42 (1840)
No. 6 in D flat major, Op. 64, No. 1 (1847)
No. 9 in A flat major, Op. 69, No. 1 (1835)
No. 7 in C sharp minor, Op. 64, No. 2 (1847)
No. 11. in G flat major, Op 70, No. 1 (1832)
No. 10 in B minor, Op. 69, No. 2 (1829)
No. 14 in E minor, Op. Posth. (1829)
No. 3 in A minor, Op. 34, No. 2 (1834)
No. 4 in F major, Op. 34, No. 3 (1838)
No. 12 in F minor, Op. 70, No. 2 (1842)
No. 13 in D flat major, Op. 70, No. 3 (1829)
No. 8 in A flat major, Op 64, No. 3 (1847)
No. 1 in E flat major, Op. 18 (1831-32)
No. 2 in A flat major, Op. 34, No. 1 (1835)

Before Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849) settled in Paris in 1831, his permanent exile from his Polish homeland had begun unexpectedly in Vienna the year before. A twenty-year-old Chopin had returned to the Austrian capital in November of 1830 with the hope of recapturing the success as virtuoso pianist and composer he had briefly enjoyed there the summer of the previous year. But very soon after his second arrival in Vienna, back in Warsaw a group of cadets conspired to liberate Poland from the Russian Empire. Chopin wished to hurry home and join the nationalists' fight against tyranny, but his friends wisely convinced the frail youth that he would better serve his homeland through his music. When the November Uprising failed, Chopin, a known sympathizer with the rebels, found it too risky to ever return to Poland. So it was that Chopin spent his first of every remaining Christmas away from his familial home, all alone, and with the chilly weather heralding the proverbial cold shoulders he got from the generally pro-Russian populace and music publishers in the center of the Austrian Empire.

The waltz was by that time all the craze, and the rivalry between Joseph Renner (1801-1843) and Johann Strauss I (1804-1849) to establish preeminence as composer and conductor of the popular entertainment was already underway. At this point one might like to imagine, "... and so in Vienna began Chopin's lifelong love affair with the waltz," only that decidedly was not the case: Chopin complained that he couldn't believe waltz music was discussed as an art form, and suggested that he (ever the snob) would never be able to master the vulgarity demanded to perform such music properly. One suspects that Chopin might have protested a little too much, especially since he had already written piano waltzes in Poland and continued to write them throughout his brief life. Still, the Viennese waltz had not yet attained its pinnacle reached by Johann Strauss II (1825-1899), and Chopin perhaps was parroting the sentiments offered by denizens of propriety, e.g., the influential British musicologist Charles Burney (1726-1814), who pointedly observed (ca. 1805): "The verb walzen, whence this word is derived, implies to roll, wallow, welter, tumble down, or roll in the dirt or mire."

Chopin's own contributions to the genre are about as far removed from the waltz's roots in the provincial ländler--and apparently grimy lederhosen--as one can get, so much so that Robert Schumann (1810-1856) famously quipped that the Pole's aristocratic diversions should be danced only by countesses. Tiaras or no, Chopin never intended his waltzes as ballroom fare, but they were very much intended for the fashionable salons haunted by said countesses, who not only employed him as their piano master, but warmly welcomed the refined and well-educated commoner through the front door of Parisian High Society. Despite their native habitat, it would be a great mistake to characterize Chopin's richly varied waltzes merely as "salon pieces," or to apply Chopin's own disparaging remarks about the artistic shortcomings of the dance. Ranging from bravura showpieces and extroverted frivolity to the most intimate expressions of melancholy longing, it is a marvel that one composer could distill such breadth and depth from the common oom-pa-pa.

Rightly called the "Poet of the Piano," Chopin's influence is seen in much of all piano music by subsequent composers, and his revolutionary use of chromatic harmonies and unusual key relationships profoundly influenced composers of symphonic music and operas as well (e.g., Liszt and Wagner)--thus Chopin's importance in the development of the "Romantic" style in general cannot be overestimated. Many of his Waltzes remain among the most frequently performed piano pieces, and although as a group they are intentionally less daring both structurally and harmonically than many of Chopin's other works, they lend themselves to (and can withstand) a wealth of differing interpretations. In the recorded repertoire this has lead to surprisingly passionate debates about the virtues of one interpretation over another (usually boiling down to Russian vs. Romanian), which demonstrates the depth of feeling Chopin's Waltzes inspire, the common denominator of all great art.

At the top of the recorded heap is a performance by legendary Romanian pianist Dinu Lipatti (1917-1950). Following the advice of incomparable record producer Walter Legge (1906-1979), Lipatti presented the Waltzes not by opus number or date of composition, but in an order suggested by the key relationships among the separate pieces. Scott Watkins likewise follows Legge's advice, and notes:

I'm playing them in the order Dinu Lipatti played them at his last recital, during which he was too weak from leukemia to play the final waltz. So, in my performance, in honor of Mr. Lipatti who was my teacher's (Bela Siki) teacher, I'll take a brief pause before playing the final waltz.

03/10/2010 @ 6:15 p.m.: Kimberly S. Beasley, soprano

2010-02-10T11:12:00.000-08:00

Kimberly is a fine musician who sings with
great sensitivity, offering mature musicianship
and strong performance technique"
-- Sherrill Milnes, baritone

Jacksonville University Assistant Professor of Voice Kimberly Beasley in recital. Collaborating on piano is Bonita Sonsini Wyke.

PROGRAM SELECTIONS

Richard Hundley (b. 1931)
Octaves and Sweet Sounds

Strings in the Earth and Air (text: James Joyce)

Seashore Girls (text: e.e. cummings)

Moonlight’s Watermelon (text: José Garcia Villa)

Straightway Beauty On Me Waits (text: James Purdy)

Well Welcome (text: Gertrude Stein)

Edward Lein (b. 1955)

September (text: Carlos Wilcox)

In the Bleak Midwinter (text: Christina Rossetti)

Carrie Jacobs Bond (1861-1946)

Half Minute Songs

Francesco Paolo Tosti (1846-1916)

La Serenata (text: Giovanni Alfredo Cesareo, 1860-1937)

Ideale (text: Carmelo Errico)

L’alba separa dalla luce (text: Gabriele D'Annunzio)
Plus Arias by request
Selected from...

Pietro Mascagni: Voi lo sapete, o mamma (Cavalleria Rusticana}

Wolfgang A. Mozart: Mi tradi quell'alma ingrata (Don Giovanni)

Giacomo Puccini: O mio babbino caro (Gianni Schicchi)

Giuseppe Verdi: Ritorna Vincitor (Aida)

Giuseppe Verdi: Tacea la notte (Il Trovatore)

Kimberly Beasley is an Assistant Professor of Voice at Jacksonville University, teaching Music and Music Theater students. With undergraduate and Master’s degrees from the University of Colorado and Indiana’s Valparaiso University respectively, she went on to earn a Certificate of Performance in Voice from Northwestern University. Professor Beasley served on the music faculty of her alma mater in Valparaiso from 1998 to 2005, teaching applied theory, keyboard proficiency, opera scenes, and vocal pedagogy, while maintaining a studio of university and high school voice students. A versatile artist, in addition to singing recitals Kimberly has been a featured soloist with orchestras and opera and theater companies throughout the Midwest, where she also directed musical theater productions. Prior to her 2009 appointment as Assistant Professor at Jacksonville University, Ms. Beasley served as adjunct Professor of Voice at both JU and the University of North Florida. In addition to performing in Jacksonville University events, she sings locally with the Chamber Music Society of Good Shepherd and Friday Musicale, and she directed JU's production of Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi in the fall of 2009.

Bonita Sonsini Wyke has been an active part of the Jacksonville music community since 1985, and in working with many of the First Coast's leading vocalists, instrumentalists and musical ensembles she has earned the reputation as a musician of unsurpassed sensitivity, technical skill and artistry. Originally from Los Angeles, California, she has performed for more than thirty years as a collaborative pianist and harpsichordist for choral groups, orchestral and instrumental ensembles, and for stage productions including opera, music theater, ballet and modern dance. In 2007, Bonita joined the Piano Department at Jacksonville University as full-time Staff Accompanist for Opera, Music Theater, Concert Choir, Chamber Singers, and student and faculty recitals. A founding member of the San Marco Chamber Music Society, Ms. Sonsini Wyke is a seasoned chamber player, and especially enjoys four-hand piano literature.

Richard Hundley (b. 1931) was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and even as a child he would make up songs. While in high school he began taking piano lessons at the Cincinnati Conservatory, and at age 16 he performed as a piano soloist with the Cincinnati Symphony. He moved to New York City in 1950 to continue his studies at the Manhattan School of Music, but these were cut short due to financial hardships. But in 1960, Hundley joined the chorus of the Metropolitan Opera, and it was during his four-year tenure there that he began to gain recognition as a composer, especially when several of the Met's star singers, including Anna Moffo and Rosalind Elias, performed some of his songs in recitals. Today he is considered one of America's leading composers of art songs, touted by the journal Musical America (May, 1991) as "... a sort of American Poulenc, expert at creating characterful melodies and illuminating their corners with flashes of harmonic surprise," and he remains a favored composer of such international luminaries as Renee Fleming and Frederica Von Stade.

Octaves and Sweet Sounds was commissioned in 1989 by the University of Minnesota for their Art Song Minnesota festival, and first performed on June 9, 1990. The texts of all but the first song are still under copyright (and so cannot be reprinted here), but the composer includes the following prefatory comments in the score:

In the first song Strings in the Earth and Air I have tried to capture the poet’s vision of love and nature vibrating as music.
String in the earth and air
Make music sweet:
Strings by the river where
The willows meet.

There’s music alon the river
For Love wanders there,
Pale Flowers on his mantle,
Dark leaves on his hair.

All softly playng,
With head to the music bent,
And fingers straying
Upon an instrument.
Seashore Girls is the memory of a sunny day at the seashore shared by four friends, each of whom has a different adventure. The opening theme expresses the viewer’s joy upon seeing the panorama of sky and sea. The theme is later repeated and then transformed.

I was immediately attracted to the poem Moonlight’s Watermelon by the magic sound of the poet’s words. My first consideration in setting this abstract poem to music was to set the words for clarity. In the middle of the song the music wanders onto a surreal path. For me the poem recalls my childhood living with my grandmother in Kentucky when we ate watermelon, fresh from her garden, on summer evenings.

Straightway Beauty On Me Waits is a love song whose music is as rapturous as its subject. The metronome markings are a general guide, and indicate the fluctuating tempi that are necessary for the rhapsodic feeling of the song.

Well Welcome is cast as a dramatic recitative and aria. Though the poem seems obscure, meanings are suggested. I believe the poem is about choice, particularly about the right and the determination of the speaker (singer) to choose the person on whom to bestow love and affection.

Florida native Edward Lein (b. 1955) is the Music Librarian at Jacksonville Public Library's Main Library, and holds Master's degrees in both Music Theory and Library Science from Florida State University. As a tenor soloist he appeared in recitals, oratorios and dramatic works throughout his home state, and drawing on his performance experience the majority of his early compositions are vocal works. Following peformances of pieces by the Jacksonville Symphony, including Meditation for cello, oboe and orchestra (premiered June 2006) and In the Bleak Midwinter (premiered December 2007), his instrumental catalog has grown largely due to requests from Symphony players for new pieces.

September (2008, dedicated to Music @ Main volunteer Betsy Ferraro) is a song composed on a text by American poet Carlos Wilcox (1794-1827). The sustained lyricism of the music, essentially a waltz sandwiched between a contemplative introduction and its reprise, aims to capture the poet’s Romantic mixture of melancholy reflection and awestruck wonder, as the fading summer gives way to shorter days amid the glittering beauty of fall foliage mirrored in a mountain creek. Although September has been performed in an arrangement for clarinet and piano, this is its first performance as a song.

THE sultry summer past, September comes,
Soft twilight of the slow-declining year;--
All mildness, soothing loneliness and peace;
The fading season ere the falling come,
More sober than the buxom blooming May,
And therefore less the favourite of the world,
But dearest month of all to pensive minds.
'Tis now far spent; and the meridian sun,
Most sweetly smiling with attempered beams,
Sheds gently down a mild and grateful warmth.
Beneath its yellow luster groves and woods,
Checker'd by one night's frost with various hues,
While yet no wind has swept a leaf away,
Shine doubly rich. It were a sad delight
Down the smooth stream to glide, and see it tinged
Upon each brink with all the gorgeous hues,
The yellow, red, or purple of the trees,
That, singly, or in tufts, or forests thick,
Adorn the shores; to see, perhaps, the side
Of some high mount reflected far below
With its bright colors, intermixed with spots
Of darker green. Yes, it were sweetly sad
To wander in the open fields, and hear,
E'en at this hour, the noonday hardly past,
The lulling insects of the summer's night;
To hear, where lately buzzing swarms were heard,
A lonely bee long roving here and there
To find a single flower, but all in vain;
Then rising quick, and with a louder hum,
In widening circles round and round his head,
Straight by the listener flying clear away,
As if to bid the fields a last adieu;
[The sultry summer past, September comes,
Soft twilight of the slow declining year--]
To hear, within the woodland's sunny side,
Late full of music, nothing, save, perhaps,
The sound of nutshells by the squirrel dropped
From some tall beech, fast fall-ing through the leaves.
[The sultry summer past, September comes.]

CLICK HERE for the score and recording (instrumental version only)

In the Bleak Midwinter is a 2007 setting of an 1872 poem by Christina Rossetti (1830-1894) that depicts the Christmas story. The music has had performances in its purely orchestral guise, but this is the world premiere of the original version for voice and piano. If the text seems familiar it's because Gustav Holst and Harold Edwin Darke each used the same poem to create famous Christmas carols.

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter, long ago.

Our God, Heav'n cannot hold Him, nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away when He comes to reign.
In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.

Enough for Him, whom cherubim, worship night and day,
A breastful of milk, and a mangerful of hay;
Enough for Him, whom angels fall down before,
The ox and ass and camel which adore.

Angels and archangels may have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim thronged the air;
But only His mother, in her maiden bliss,
Worshipped the beloved with a kiss.

What can I give Him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.

CLICK HERE for the score and recordings (instrumental versions only)

Although hers is no longer a household name, during her lifetime Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee Carrie Jacobs-Bond (1862-1946) was not only internationally recognized, but she became the first woman to earn a million dollars through her sheet music sales. Widowed and penniless at age 33, Jacobs-Bond began submitting songs to publishers hoping to support herself and her young son, but when this didn't work out as well as she'd hoped she started her own publishing company, with the financial support of the popular American contralto Jessie Bartlet Davis. Chiefly penning her own lyrics, Jacobs-Bond is best remembered for I Love You Truly (first published 1901 but written several years earlier) and (The End of) A Perfect Day (1910), but she also collaborated with African American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) on five songs. Jacobs-Bond toured as a singer, including two appearances at the White House (first for Teddy Roosevelt and then for Warren Harding), and she sang in a concert in England that featured famed Italian tenor Enrico Caruso. Carrie performed for the troops in Europe during World War I, and in 1940 she shared the stage in support of the World War II effort with songwriting luminaries including Irving Berlin and George M. Cohan, although, at age 78, she did not sing her songs herself but played the piano accompaniment.

Dating from 1910, Carrie Jaconbs-Bond wrote the advice as well as the music for her charming Half Minute Songs, or, Miniature Songs.

1. Making the Best of It.
What you can’t help,
What you can’t help,
What you can’t help,
Forget!

2. First Ask Yourself.
Before you have said it about them,
Ask yourself if you’d like them to know you said it.

3. To Understand.
To understand a sorrow,
You must have one all your own.

4. Doan’ Yo’ Lis’n.
No mattah w’at dey said,
Keep a-walkin’ straight ahaid,
W’y dey’ll praise yo’ when yo’ daid,
But doan’ yo’ lis’n.

5. How to Find Success.
The man who finds success looks sometimes when he’s tired,
When he’s tired, when he’s tired,
Looks sometimes when he’s tired.

6. The Pleasure of Giving
I’d rather say “You’re welcome” once, than “Thank you” a thousand times.

6. Answer the First Rap.
Opportunity may knock often, but it’s better to answer the first rap!

8. A Good Exercise.
With evil things you’ll always find
It’s best to be deaf, dumb and blind.

9. A Present from Yourself.
A friend is a present you give yourself.

10. Now and Then.
The “lucky” fellow gets up at five (A.M.),
And gen’rally works till ten (P.M.);
But the other fellow not quite so “lucky,”
Works hard–just now and then!

11. When They Say the Unkind Things.
Ain’t it gay that what “they say”
Can’t hurt you unless it’s true?

12. Keep Awake.
Success never comes to the sleeping.

CLICK HERE to hear Patricia Werner Leanse sing them on YouTube.

In the earliest days of his career as a singer-songwriter, Italian composer Francesco Paolo Tosti (1846-1916) had a difficult time making a living, reportedly living on oranges and stale bread for weeks at a time. But his talents eventually lead him into the highest reaches of fashionable society, and he became singing master first to the Queen of Italy, and then, in 1880, to the British Royal family. By the mid-1880s he had become the most popular songwriter in Britain, and he received a professorship at the Royal Academy of Music in 1894. Tosti became a British citizen in 1906, and was knighted by King Edward VII in 1908, but he returned to his homeland in 1913 and spent his remaining years in Rome. Although he never wrote an opera, his finely crafted melodies became a favorite of opera stars during the early years of the recorded era.

La Serenata Vola, O serenata: La mia diletta è sola, E, con la bella testa abbandonata, Posa tra le lenzuola: O serenata, Vola. Splende Pura la luna; L’ale silenzio stende, E dietro i veli dell’alcova bruna La lampada s’accende: Pura la luna Splende. Vola, O serenata: La mia diletta è sola; Ma, sorridendo ancor mezzo assonnata, Torna fra le lenzuola: O serenata, Vola. L’onda Sogna sul lido, E’l vento su la fronda; E a’baci miei ricusa ancora un nido La mia signora bionda! Sogna sul lido L’onda.	Serenade Fly, O serenade: My beloved is alone, And, with her lovely head lying back, Is resting between her sheets: O serenade, Fly. Shining Purely Is the moon; Silence spreads its wings, And behind the veils in the dark alcove A lamp is lighted: The moon is purely Shining. Fly, O serenade: My beloved is alone; But, smiling, still half asleep, She has returned between her sheets: O serenade, Fly. The waves Dream on the shore, And wind blows through the branches; Yet still my kisses are refused shelter By my fair lady! On the shore dream The waves.
CLICK HERE to hear Joan Sutherland sing it on Youtube.
Ideale Io ti seguii com’iride di pace Lungo le vie del cielo: Io ti seguii come un’amica face De la notte nel velo. E ti sentii ne la luce, ne l’aria, Nel profumo dei fiori; E fu piena la stanza solitaria Di te, dei tuoi splendori. In te rapito, al suon de la tua voce, Lugamente sognai; E de la terra ogni affanno, ogni croce, In quel sogno scordai. Torna, caro ideal, torna un istante A sorridermi ancora E a me risplenderà, nel tuo sembiante, Una novella aurora.	The Ideal One I followed you like a rainbow of peace Across the paths of the sky: I followed you like a friendly torch In the veil of the night. I felt you in the light, in the air, In the scent of the flowers; The lonely room was full Of you and your beauty. Entranced by you, by the sound of your voice, I dreamed at length; And all the trouble and anguish of the world Were forgotten in that dream. Come back, dear perfection, come back for a moment And smile on me again, And from your face will shine on me A new dawn.
CLICK HERE to here Pavarotti sing it on YouTube.
L’alba sepàra dalla luce l'ombra L’alba sepàra dalla luce l’ombra E la mia voluttà dal mio desire. O dolci stelle, è l’ora di morire. Un più divino amor dal ciel vi sgombra. Pupille ardenti, o voi senza ritorno Stelle tristi, spegnetevi incorrotte! Morir debbo, Veder non voglio il giorno, Per amor del mio sogno e della notte. Chiudimi, o Notte, nel tuo sen materno, Mentre la terra pallida s’irrora. Ma che dal sangue mio nasca l’aurora E dal sogno mio breve il sole eterno!	Dawn divides the light from the shadows Dawn divides the light from the shadows, My pleasure from my desire. O gentle stars, it is time to die, A more divine love comes from the heavens. Glowing eyes, you sad stars which will not Come again, be extinguished uncorrupted. I must die, I do not want to see the day, For love of my dream and of the night. Enfold me, o night, on your mothering breast, While the pale land grows light. But let the dawn rise from my blood And the eternal sun from my brief dream.

CLICK HERE to here a recording by tenor Jussi Björling on YouTube.

Italian composer and conductor Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945), a classmate of Puccini at the Milan Conservatory, rocketed to international fame following the 1890 premiere of Cavalleria rusticana (Rustic Chivalry). Although he wrote more than a dozen subsequent operas, he was never able to duplicate the same level of international success he achieved with the one-act verismo opera of betrayal and revenge that assures the composer his continuing place in opera history. In Voi lo sapete, o mamma (Now you shall know, o mother) the unhappily jilted (but still hopeful) "Santuzza" explains to "Mamma Lucia," the mother of her beloved, "Turiddu", the backstory that sets up the unfolding tragedy. Upon returning from the army, Turridu, having discovered that his fiancé, "Lola," is now married to "Alfio," sought comfort for his broken heart by seducing Santuzza, only now he has broken Santuzza's heart by entering into an adulterous affair with the twice faithless Lola.

CLICK HERE to hear Tatiana Troyanos sing it on YouTube.

Austrian-born Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791), unquestionably one of the greatest composers in history, began his career touring Europe as a 6-year-old piano prodigy, and he absorbed and mastered all the contemporary musical trends he was exposed to along the way. Of all the different versions of the Don Juan legend, Mozart’s comic opera, Don Giovanni, on a libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte (1749-1838), is among the best known and most discussed. The Don is an unrepentant rake who lives solely for his own selfish pleasures, with utter disregard for how his behavior might affect others. Mozart’s opera picks up as Giovanni’s luck finally begins to fade and his past begins to catch up with him. In Mi tradi quell'alma ingrate (That ungrateful wretch betrayed me), "Donna Elvira," one of the Don's betrayed victims, reflects on the torn emotions he evokes in her. She cannot deny that his guilt deserves the wrath of heaven, but at the same time, realizing that she still has feelings for him, she is fearful at the thought of him being harmed.

CLICK HERE to hear Rachel Yakar sing it on YouTube.

Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924) came from a long line of Italian church musicians, and it was assumed he’d inherit the “family business” in Tuscany. But a fateful trek from Lucca to Pisa to see Verdi’s Aïda convinced Puccini to give up organ pedals for footlights, and he became the only real successor of Verdi in the realm of Italian opera. Gianni Schicchi, Puccini’s only comic opera, was fleshed out from a few cryptic lines in Dante’s Inferno, and it tells the tale of a crafty Florentine who helps a dishonest
family fake a counterfeit will when the lately deceased head of their clan bequeaths his fortune to a monastery rather than to the greedy relatives. At first Gianni is unwilling to assist the disagreeable bunch, but he finally relents at the behest of his daughter, “Lauretta,” who otherwise will be unable to marry the beloved nephew of the elderly cousin of the deceased. Of all Puccini’s soprano arias, Lauretta’s entreaty, O mio babbino caro (O my darling daddy), has become perhaps the most familiar (at least among non-opera goers), thanks largely to its inclusion in the 1986 film, A Room with a View.

CLICK HERE to hear Angela GHEORGHIU sing it on Youtube.

Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901) is the foremost Italian composer of operas. Among his early triumphs are the ever-popular Rigoletto (1851), Il Trovatore (1853) and La Traviata (1853), and by the time of Aïda (1871) all the elements of his youthful style had reached full maturity—and his achievement seemed unsurpassable. But after a 16-year hiatus a 73-year-old Verdi surpassed even himself with Otello (1887), a supreme masterpiece that for many represents the culmination of Italian grand opera. Then, in 1893, came his comic masterpiece, Falstaff, proving that the octogenarian's genius never waned.

In Aida, Verdi tells the tragic tale of the titular Ethiopian princess who has been captured into slavery by the Egyptian army, lead by "Radames," with whom, ironically, she is desparately in love. In her Act I soliloquy, Ritorna vincitor (Return a conqueror), Aida struggles with her breaking heart and impossibly conflicted emotions--her love for Radames on one hand, versus her love for her father and homeland on the other.

CLICK HERE to hear Karita Mattila sing it on YouTube.

In Il Trovatore (The Troubador), Verdi takes a hopelessly tangled plot--fueled by jealousy, hapless coincidence, and a Gypsy's dying curse--and sorts out the melodrama with some of the most magnificent music in all of opera. In the first act cavatina, Tacea la notte placida (Quiet was the peaceful night), "Leonora," a lady-in-waiting to the Princess of Aragon, relates to her maid how she went to a balcony overlooking the moonlit garden to find out who was serenading her, and there discovered and fell passionately in love with Manrico, the same knight in black armor whom she had once crowned victorious in a joust.

CLICK HERE to hear Leontyne Price sing it on YouTube.

02/13/2010 @ 2 p.m.: The Amazing Life of Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges

2010-02-08T15:11:00.000-08:00

Friday Musicale of Jacksonville Florida presents
A Concert for the Whole Family!

Violinist Tyrone Tidwell narrates the life of Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges interspersed with several works by the 18th century composer, closing with the Symphony Concertante in E-flat for two violins and orchestra.

A free picture book about Le CHEVALIER de SAINT-GEORGES will be given to the children in the audience for this special program!

Other featured musicians include:
Timothy Edwards, violin
Max Huls, violin
Swantje Biernacki, violin
Angelo Goderre, viola
Larry Rawdon, cello
Jamar Woods, keyboard
Gabrielle Williams, soprano

The narration was prepared by JU Professor Emeritus of Humanities, Dr. Sharon Scholl.

JOSEPH BOLOGNE: LE CHEVALIER DE SAINT-GEORGES

Violinist Tyrone Tidwell
as Joseph Bologne

The Chevalier is the first known figure of African-American descent in the Western classical music tradition. Born Joseph Bologne on the island of Guadeloupe in 1745 of an African slave mother and a French plantation owner, he was knighted Chevalier de Saint-Georges by King Louis XV for his prowess both as France's foremost swordsman and foremost violinist/composer. He was the leading violinist and composer in late 18th century Paris and wrote numerous symphonies, concertos, quartets and operas.

In addition he was the music director and conductor of the Orchestre des Amateurs de Musique whose fashionable concerts took place before an audience of 2000 in the palace of the Duc de Soubise and for which he commissioned and premiered the six Haydn 'Paris' Symphonies. During the French Revolution, which freed the slaves throughout the French Empire, he organized and led an army against the Royalists and won all of his battles. He is also thought to have aided the anti-slavery movements in England and Haiti. He died in 1799. His name continues to be legend in fencing circles.

Sponsored by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida

02/22/2010 @ 6:15 p.m.: Noteworthy Duo

2010-01-26T10:34:00.001-08:00

Flutist Lisa Schroeder and classical guitarist Michael Nigro present a program of Latin American music.

Lisa Schroeder and Michael Nigro join their musical talents to create Noteworthy Duo. Their vision is to reach a non-classical audience, inspire the classical listener, and to touch just one life with a "noteworthy" performance. Noteworthy’s interest in South American Music can be heard throughout their extensive flute and guitar repertoire.

This past year, the duo toured to 23 states in the U.S., playing concerts, live television programs, and radio shows. Their debut CD, entitled “Between Guitar and Flute” was released in February 2009. Lisa and Michael are both on faculty at Vanguard University of Southern California.

During the course of their concerts, in an informal manner, Michael and Lisa often include commentary, information, and anecdotes about the composers and pieces they are performing. Their striking ability to communicate with their audience makes "Noteworthy" performances seem more like an intimate gathering of friends than a recital for strangers. They have received rave reviews for their concerts across the country, “Noteworthy’s concert was a highlight of our concert season. Michael and Lisa play as if they have performed together forever--with joy, superb musicianship and impressive ensemble. From their first moments on stage through the last piece, Michael and Lisa kept the audience absorbed with their expressive playing and engaging commentary. This was a first-rate concert experience.” (Atonement Lutheran Church Boulder, CO)

PROGRAM SELECTIONS
Piazzolla

Bordel 1900 & Café (from Histoire du Tango)

Cordero

Fantasía Mulata

Cardoso

Milonga & Vals Peruano [Guitar solo]

Machado

Pé de Moleque (samba chorô) & Pacoco (chorô)

Cardoso

Al Compas de la Viguela (Abusete—Brota un Lamento Sentido—Meticuloso)

Piazzolla

Etude No. 3 [Flute solo]

Pujol

Suite Buenos Aires (Pompeya — Palermo — San Telmo — Microcentro)

Flutist Lisa Schroeder is a Los Angeles based performer, teacher, and clinician. As a Solo Artist with Altus Flutes, and as flutist with Noteworthy Duo, Lisa has established herself as a first-rate artist and teacher, performing in Concerts and giving Master Classes across the United States and Europe. She is the winner of the 2009 National Flute Association Convention Performers Competition, and a consecutive winner (2008, 2009) of the Professional Flute Choir Competition in which she performed principal bass flute at the Kansas City and New York City Conventions. Her expressive playing transports the audience into the music and has received praise from the flute community. Gary Schocker, a renowned flutist/composer/pianist, states “Lisa Schroeder is a dynamic performer who brings her own style to the flute.”

As a high school junior, she attended the esteemed Interlochen Center for the Arts and knew from that moment on that she was destined to be a flute performer. Lisa began her collegiate music studies at Eastern Michigan University and later relocated to Nashville, Tennessee where she received her Bachelor of Music degree in flute performance from Middle Tennessee State University. While in Nashville, Lisa gained experience in performing, teaching, and recording session work with area singer/songwriters. She held the piccolo position in the Tennessee Philharmonic and the flute position with the Music City Winds.

In 2002, Lisa performed in the John Barcellona Master Class in Kentucky, after which the internationally acclaimed flute performer/teacher invited her to study with him in Southern California. She in turn received her Master of Music degree in flute performance from California State University Long Beach. Her interest in new music inspired a thesis entitled, “Twentieth-Century Techniques in Flute Literature: Learning and Teaching Multiphonics”.

Lisa Schroeder has performed in Master Classes with Gary Schocker, Peter Lloyd, Michel Debost, Debora Harris, Angeleita Floyd, John Barcellona, Jim Walker and Sir James Galway. Her primary teachers have included Dr. John Barcellona, Dr. Yvonne Chavez-Hansbrough, Dr. Deanna Hahn-Little, Dr. Julie Stone, and Ann Richards of the Nashville Symphony.

Mrs. Schroeder currently teaches flute at Vanguard University of Southern California, Cerritos College, Golden West College, and directs the Rolling Hills Flute Choir. Her passion for teaching has brought about her annual “Flute Loops” camp held in Palos Verdes, CA.

Michael Anthony Nigro showed an interest in the guitar at an early age and began playing by the age of 12. After several years of lessons with local teachers and self-study, he attended the prestigious Indiana University School of Music where he graduated with his Bachelor of Music Degree in 2000 under the direction of Ernesto Bitetti.

After moving back to his native Southern California, he attended California State University, Fullerton and earned a Master of Music degree under the tutelage of David Grimes.

Michael Nigro’s debut recording, “Homage to Piazzolla; Argentine Dances, Songs, and Rhythms,” is released on the label, Music & Arts. The American Record Guide stated, “Nigro has a big sound, a smooth tone, and sure-footed interpretive instincts.” His latest CD, “Guitar Sudamericana,” is released on the Austrian label, Balcon Records and features guitar works by Heitor Villa-Lobos, Antonio Lauro, Adolfo Luna, Jose Luis Merlin, and many others.

As a performer and teacher, Michael has played concerts and Master Classes at many esteemed colleges which include Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, Glendale Community College in Glendale, Arizona, Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York, Marlyhurst College in Portland, Oregon, William Jessup University in Rocklin, California and many others.

Michael is an active member of the guitar community; he is co-founder of the Long Beach Classical Guitar Society, independent reviewer of new music publications for Soundboard Magazine, and sought after teacher and performer.

In January 2006, Michael joined the faculty at Vanguard University of Southern California where he teaches private guitar, class guitar, and guitar ensemble. Mr. Nigro is endorsed by for Savarez Strings exclusively.

Ástor Piazzolla (1921-1992) pretty much single-handedly reinvented the Argentine national dance, the tango, transforming it into a new style aptly called nuevo tango ("new tango"). Born in Argentina, Piazzolla spent most of his childhood in New York, and there he gained exposure to and a fondness for jazz and classical music. But through his father's influence he also gained proficiency on the bandoneón, a type of concertina that is a staple of Argentine tango ensembles, and when he returned to Argentina in 1937 he played with some of the leading bands in Buenos Aires. He also began the serious study of composition with noted composer Alberto Ginastera, and for an early symphony he won a grant in 1953 to study in Paris with legendary composition teacher Nadia Boulanger. Boulanger convinced him to toss out his early works that that sounded derivative of other composers, and concentrate on his own unique style that arose from Argentine dance music. When he returned to Argentina in 1955, his "new tango," which infused traditional elements with characteristics of jazz and incorporated contrapuntal techniques and formal elements adapted from his classical studies, was met with resistance in his homeland, but Europeans and North Americans were captivated by it and his international career blossomed. It is estimated that he composed over a staggering 3,000 pieces, and he recorded about 500 of them himself! The original four movements of flute and guitar suite L'histoire du tango (History of the Tango) trace the development of the tango, beginning with Bordel 1900, inspired by its early roots at the fringes of society, followed by Café 1930, that demonstrates the somewhat more polite style that became the most popular dance throughout the whole of Argentina. Piazzolla’s six Études tanguistiques ("Tango Studies") for solo flute were written in 1987, and have also become popular in a transcription for solo violin. Étude No. 3 is a florid virtuoso piece with quickly shifting textures that sometimes give the impression that more than one flute is playing!

Although composer and guitarist Ernesto Cordero (b. 1946) was born in New York, he grew up in Puerto Rico and joined the guitar and composition faculty at the University of Puerto Rico in 1971. His works often draw inspiration from the folk music of the Caribbean, and particularly from the Afro-Hispanic music of Puerto Rico. Like many guitarists he favors his own instrument when composing, and his catalog includes six concertos (three for guitar, one for violin/mandolin, one for flute-piccolo and one for the Puerto Rican cuatro), a variety of chamber works with guitar, as well as solos pieces. The recipient of several important composition awards, his music is performed and recorded worldwide, and he is in demand as a participant in international competitions and festivals for the guitar.

Argentine composer and musicologist Jorge Cardoso (b. 1949) is internationally renowned as a guitarist and lecturer, and in his spare time he's also a medical doctor! Most of his 350+ solo, chamber and orchestral works naturally feature his own instrument, and, in addition to receiving frequent worldwide performances, many have been recorded by over 100 different guitarists. Considered a leading authority on the music of Latin America, his original compositions are infused with characteristics derived from South America's musical heritage.

CLICK HERE to watch the composer perform Milonga on YouTube.

Celso Machado (b. 1953) has been living in Vancouver since 1989, but he is originally from Brazil. The decision to become a professional musician was an easy one: his father was a guitarist and band leader in Brazil, and five of his six brothers are also musicians. Celso himself began playing in street bands when he was 7 years old, and although he performs internationally as a guitar virtuoso, he plays percussion and other instruments as well. His recordings are critically acclaimed, and for the film In the Company of Fear he won a Canadian Leo Award for Best Musical Score for Documentary in 2000. The music and rhythms of his homeland continue to permeate his music, but he also includes other folk traditions among his influences, and he has collaborated extensively with Chinese pipa (lute) player Qiu Xia He. The chôro form is the oldest and perhaps most important musical form associated with Brazil, and from it developed the popular samba of the 1960s. Even though the term "chôro" originally referred to "a cry of lament," chôros are often happy, lively virtuoso pieces, and they have long been associated with flute and guitar.

In 1989 the Argentine Composers' Union named Máximo Diego Pujol (b. 1957) as their country's "Best Composer of Classical Music," and his harmonically rich works have won composition awards in Colombia, France and Martinique. Pujol is influenced by his homeland's most famous composer of tangos, Ástor Piazzolla, and in his Suite Buenos Aires, Pujol specifies more immediate inspiration. With this work the composer offers a personal tour of his hometown, beginning in the respective working-class and Italian neighborhoods of Pompeya and Palermo, then through the fashionable San Telmo area with its cafés and antique shops, and ending in the bustling Microcentro, the city's business and commercial hub.

CLICK HERE to watch a performance of San Telmo on YouTube.

02/09/2010 @ 6:15 p.m.: Wonkak Kim, clarinet

2010-01-14T10:21:00.000-08:00

Award-winning clarinetist Wonkak Kim has dazzled audiences with playing that is “virtuosic and stirring” (Journal de Morges, Switzerland). Collaborating with Mr. Kim is pianist Grace Eun-Hye Choi.

Program Selections

Gioacchino ROSSINI : Introduction, Theme and Variations (1812)

Edward LEIN : September

Alban BERG : 4 Stücke, Op. 5

François DEVIENNE : Sonata in E-flat, Op. 28, No. 2

Charles-Marie WIDOR : Introduction et Rondo, Op. 72

Hailed by critics around the world as “excellent” (The Washington Post) and as a “tour de force” (Classical Voice of North Carolina), clarinetist Wonkak Kim has quickly established himself at the forefront of his generation, concertizing throughout the United States, Costa Rica, South Korea and Europe. Mr. Kim, who began studying clarinet with Kenneth Lee at the age of fifteen, has been a featured soloist with more than a dozen orchestras, performing concertos by Mozart, Nielsen, Spohr, Weber, and Copland. As a prizewinner of numerous national and international competitions, he has appeared in Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, German Embassy in Washington D.C., and Constitution Hall.

Kim is frequently in demand as a soloist and chamber musician music festivals and artist series, including the Promising Artists of the 21st Century (San Jose, Costa Rica), OK Mozart Festival, William S. Newman Artist Series, Cours International de Music (Morges, Switzerland), Chapel Hill Chamber Music Workshop, Fantasia Cultural Management (Seoul, South Korea) and COEX Artist Series (Seoul, South Korea). He has also performed as a guest principal clarinetist with the Tallahassee Symphony, Albany Symphony (Albany, Georgia), and Sinfonia Gulf Coast Orchestras (Destin, Florida).

An avid chamber musician, Kim is a founding member of enhakē, top-prize-winner of the Yellow Springs Chamber Music Competition (2009), International Chamber Music Ensemble Competition (2008) and the Plowman Chamber Music Competition (2008), which recently made a highly acclaimed debut at Weill Recital Hall (NYC). Kim recently commissioned a work from renowned American composer Libby Larsen, which will be premiered in Carnegie Hall in 2010.

Keen to exploit his artistic talent, Kim has worked with various media to explore new aspects of classical music and visual arts, including a collaboration with Nuria Schoenberg Nono in Arnold Schoenberg: Photo Album with Music (2004) held in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, an appearance in Classical Music and Paintings (2005) broadcast by PBS in South Korea, and with the Tallahassee Ballet Company in its annual production of An Evening of Music and Dance.

As an educator and clinician, Kim has given lectures and master classes at Florida State University, Valdosta State University (Valdosta, GA), Mesa State College, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Costa Rica, and the National Superior Institute of Music (Costa Rica). As a member of enhakē, Kim is an artist-in-residence of the Tallahassee Youth Orchestra and actively participates in local educational outreach program.

Kim holds degrees in Mathematics (BA) and Music (BM) from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with full scholarship. He received a Master of Music in Clarinet Performance at Florida State University as a Teaching Assistant to Dr. Frank Kowalsky, where he was nominated for the University’s Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award for the 2007-8 academic year. Currently a Doctoral candidate at FSU, his major teachers have been Donald Oehler and Frank Kowalsky.

Korean pianist Grace Eun-Hye Choi began playing the piano at the age of six. Choi has won several competitions in her native country and performed extensively as a collaborative pianist, including at the Hi Seoul Festival, COEX Arts Center, National Theatre of Korea, among many other venues. Recently her performance at the Hot Springs Music Festival was broadcasted on NPR’s Performance Today, and she has been invited to serve as a staff accompanist at the Interlochin Academcy’s Summer Arts Camp. Choi studied piano with Andreas Ehret and composition (BM) with Ji-Sun Lim and In-Yong La at Yonsei University in Korea. She is currently completing her Master’s degree in piano accompanying at Florida State University, studying under Dr. Carolyn Bridger.

PROGRAM NOTES by Ed Lein, Music Librarian

By 1829, when Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868) retired after the premiere of Guillaume Tell, his 39th opera, he had become the most popular composer in the history of music for the stage, and his Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville, 1816) retains it's place as one of the most frequently staged Italian operas. In Introduction, Theme and Variations (or, Andante e Tema con variazioni, 1812), the second of his two early sets of variations featuring the clarinet, Rossini follows the introductory section with a lively melody and its five variations to showcase the coloratura capabilities of the clarinet in precisely the same manner he would showcase a singer—Rossini reused the tune in the cavatina for “Malcolm” in his 1819 opera, La donna del lago.

CLICK HERE for a performance on YouTube of the original version with orchestra.

Florida native Edward Lein (b. 1955) is the Music Librarian at Jacksonville Public Library's Main Library, and holds Master's degrees in both Music Theory and Library Science from Florida State University. As a tenor soloist he appeared in recitals, oratorios and dramatic works throughout his home state, and drawing on his performance experience the majority of his early compositions are vocal works. Following peformances of pieces by the Jacksonville Symphony, including Meditation for cello, oboe and orchestra (premiered June 2006) and In the Bleak Midwinter (premiered December 2007), his instrumental catalog has grown largely due to requests from Symphony players for new pieces. September (2008, dedicated to Music @ Main volunteer Betsy Ferraro) is a straightforward arrangement of a song composed on a text by American poet Carlos Wilcox (1794-1827), that begins, “The sultry summer past, September comes, Soft twilight of the slow-declining year.” The sustained lyricism of the music, essentially a waltz sandwiched between a contemplative introduction and its reprise, aims to capture the poet’s Romantic mixture of melancholy reflection and awestruck wonder, as the fading summer gives way to shorter days amid the glittering beauty of fall foliage mirrored in a mountain creek.

CLICK HERE for the complete text of the "September" poem and to hear a recording.

The Austrian Alban Berg (1885-1935) is one of few composers of predominantly “atonal” music (i.e., music that deliberately avoids musical scales and harmonies centering around a specific keynote) who has sustained a following among the concert-going populace, particularly with his ground-breaking operas, Wozzeck (1922, the first full-length atonal opera) and Lulu (1935, the first 12-tone opera), and his moving Violin Concerto (1935). According to social philosopher Theodor Adorno (1903-1969) who studied music composition with Berg in the 1920s, Berg’s atmospheric and freely-atonal Vier Stücke, Op. 5 (“Four Pieces,” 1913), might be regarded as a condensed version of the four-movement sonata archetype as brought to fruition by Beethoven, with Berg’s 7½-minute version appearing “in rudimentary, shriveled form,” and “everywhere and immediately creating, shattering, abandoning, reintroducing, and rounding off remnants” of its musical motifs. It is perhaps easy to suppose that Beethoven (had he been around and not deaf) might have slapped the budding composer for such a conceit, but it is surprising that Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951), Berg’s teacher and adopted father-figure, apparently gave his pupil a brow-beating for not producing more extended compositions, especially since Schoenberg’s own brief piano works served as a model for Berg’s Pieces. Berg took the criticism to heart and abandoned miniature forms in favor of large-scale works, ultimately demonstrating a communicative power his mentor’s own atonal oeuvre has proven unable to match.

CLICK HERE for a performance on YouTube.

French composer François Devienne (1759-1803) joined the Paris Opéra orchestra in the fall of 1779 as its last-chair bassoonist, but over the course of just a few years he had become something of a fixture at the famous Lenten Concert Spirituel series, as composer and as featured soloist on both flute and bassoon. By 1792 he was well established as a flute teacher, and was appointed as flute professor and an administrator at what became the Paris Conservatoire. He penned an influential method for flute performance (1794), and he became famous as an opera composer, especially for Les visitandines (1792) which enjoyed over 200 performances during its first 5 years. Many of Devienne’s 500-plus compositions were published during his lifetime, and as might be expected these include an impressive body of works featuring flute and bassoon. According to New Grove, Devienne’s 12 Sonatas for Clarinet and Continuo were originally for flute, and they exhibit the graceful elegance that has earned him the nickname, “The French Mozart.”

Charles-Marie Widor (1844-1937) was the preeminent organist in Paris at the turn into the 20th Century, and he taught both organ and composition at the Paris Conservatoire to students including Vierne, Dupré, Honegger, Milhaud, and Varèse, as well as Albert Schweizer with whom he annotated an edition of the organ works of J.S. Bach. Although his output includes operas, symphonies, concertos and a variety of chamber music, as a composer Widor is remembered mostly for his 10 symphonies for solo organ, a form he pioneered, and most especially for the famous Toccata finale of his Organ Symphony No. 5, Op. 42, no. 1. His idiomatic and virtuosic Introduction et Rondo, op. 72, was written in 1898 to fill a request from the Paris Conservatoire for a solo de concours (i.e., solo competition piece) for clarinet with piano. It remains a favorite of accomplished clarinetists, allowing the soloist ample opportunity to showcase both versatility and technique by alternating lyrical melodies with bravura passage work.

CLICK HERE for a performance on YouTube.

02/01/2010: Trio Solis with Deborah Bish

2010-01-14T06:15:00.000-08:00

CLICK for larger view

Founded in 2008, Trio Solis combines three dynamic virtuosi:

Corinne Stillwell (violin),
Gregory Sauer (cello), and
Read Gainsford (piano)

Since their Music @ Main concert in January 2009, subsequent performances by the faculty artists from Florida State University's College of Music included an engagement at New York's Carnegie Hall in May 2009, where they played the Trio by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich with the composer in attendance.

Joining Trio Solis is Deborah Bish, Associate Professor of Clarinet at Florida State University.

PROGRAM SELECTION

BIOGRAPHY RESOURCE CENTER articles on ...

Olivier Messiaen

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Olivier Messiaen
Quatuor pour la fin du temps
1. Liturgie de cristal ("Liturgy of crystal")
2. Vocalise, pour l'Ange qui annonce la fin du Temps ("Vocalise, for the Angel who announces the end of time")
3. Abîme des oiseaux ("Abyss of birds", for solo clarinet)
4. Intermède ("Interlude", for violin, cello, and clarinet)
5. Louange à l'Éternité de Jésus ("Praise to the eternity of Jesus", for cello and piano)
6. Danse de la fureur, pour les sept trompettes ("Dance of fury, for the seven trumpets")
7. Fouillis d'arcs-en-ciel, pour l'Ange qui annonce la fin du Temps ("Tangle of rainbows, for the Angel who announces the end of time")
8. Louange à l'Immortalité de Jésus "Praise to the immortality of Jesus", for violin and piano)

Olivier Messiaen in the Library's Catalog

Corinne Stillwell (violin) earned her degrees from The Juilliard School, where she first enrolled at age ten. A versatile musician, she has appeared in recital at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall, on the Dame Myra Hess series in Chicago, and as soloist with numerous orchestras across the United States and on tour in Eastern Europe. Her chamber music activities have included performances at Alice Tully Hall, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Kosciuszko Foundation, the Museum of Modern Art, and at the festivals of Aspen, Norfolk, Skaneateles, the Victoria Bach Festival, and the International Festival-Institute at Round Top in Texas. Frequently heard on WXXI-FM public radio, she has collaborated with David Shifrin, Robert Levin, Pepe Romero, members of the Pro Arte and Cavani quartets, and members of the faculty at the Eastman School of Music. She has served as Assistant Concertmaster of the Rochester Philharmonic and prior to that, was a member of the Harrington String Quartet in Amarillo, Texas. In 2007, Ms. Stillwell joined the faculty at Florida State's College of Music, where she is Assistant Professor of Violin.

TRIO SOLIS

Praised for his versatility, Gregory Sauer (cello) has appeared in numerous solo recitals, including performances at the Old First Concert Series in San Francisco, the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento and the Brightmusic Concert Series in Oklahoma City, and numerous chamber music performances have included appearances at Tanglewood, Aspen Music Festival, Santa Fe Promusica, and the Boulder Modern Music Festival, among many others. Greg has performed concertos with the Houston Symphony, Hudson Valley Philharmonic, the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra, the Quad City Symphony, and Oklahoma City Philharmonic, to name only a few. A Prizewinner in the Hudson Valley Philharmonic and Ima Hogg national competitions, he served nine seasons as principal cellist of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic Orchestra. Mr. Sauer is Assistant Principal Cello of the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, and, prior to joining the Florida State University music faculty in 2006, he taught at the University of Oklahoma for 11 years, where he was named Presidential Professor in 2005.

TRIO SOLIS

Read Gainsford (piano) has performed widely in the USA, Europe, Australia, South Africa, and his native New Zealand as solo recitalist, concerto soloist and chamber musician. He has made successful solo debuts at the Wigmore Hall and Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, and has performed in many other prestigious venues, including the Kennedy Center, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Barbican Centre, Fairfield Halls, Birmingham Town Hall and St.-Martin-in-the-Fields. Dr. Gainsford has recorded for the Amoris label, BBC Radio Three, Radio New Zealand's Concert Programme, and has broadcast on national television in New Zealand, the UK, and Yugoslavia. Since moving to the United States in 1992, Read has been a guest artist for the American Music Teachers Association, has appeared at the Gilmore Keyboard Festival and the Music Festival of the Hamptons, and has spent several summers at the Heifetz International Music Institute. He is a member of the contemporary music group Ensemble X, and also the Garth Newel Chamber Players. Formerly on the faculty of Ithaca College where he received the college-wide Excellence in Teaching Award in 2004, Dr. Gainsford became Associate Professor of Piano at FSU in 2005.

TRIO SOLIS

Deborah Bish is Associate Professor of Clarinet at Florida State University. Before moving to Tallahassee in 2001, she served as the professor of clarinet at Henderson State University. She has performed with orchestras throughout the United States, including the Arizona Opera (most notably in a production of Wagner's Ring Cycle), the Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra, the Phoenix Symphony, the North Carolina Symphony, and the Arkansas Symphony, and she now performs with the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra. She has been featured as a recitalist, clinician, and chamber musician at several prestigious festivals and conventions, including a 2004 performance at Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall. Bish is very active in the commission, research, and performance of new works, including an upcoming recording of the works of Gregory Wanamaker and a biography of clarinetist and composer William O. Smith. Prof. Bish holds degrees from Arizona State University and Florida State University.

TRIO SOLIS

Program Notes by Ed Lein, Music Librarian

Among the most significant composers of the 20th Century, France’s Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) was also a noted organist, music theorist, and extremely influential teacher. He entered the Paris Conservatory in 1919 (at age 11), was organist at Église de la Sainte-Trinité in Paris from 1931 to 1978, and joined the faculty of the Paris Conservatory in 1941. Just prior to this latter appointment, Messiaen, who had been serving in the French army's medical auxiliary, was imprisoned in a concentration camp when the Germans occupied France in 1940, and it was while he was a prisoner that he composed and first performed his best-known work, Quatuor pour la fin du temps ("Quartet for the End of Time"). The instrumentation was determined by the players who were available (also prisoners), and Messiaen, a devout Roman Catholic, states in the score that the work is directly inspired by passages from the Biblical Book of Revelation:

And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire, and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth. And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and swore by him that liveth for ever and ever that there should be time no longer: But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished.

Of its eight movements, the 1st, 2nd, 6th and 7th use the full quartet, while the others use one to three instruments from the ensemble. The 3rd is a demanding slow movement for clarinet solo, and the 4th is a scherzo-like movement that omits the piano. The 5th, for cello and piano, and the 8th, for violin and piano, were both adapted by Messiaen from earlier pieces.

Like most of Messian's works, the Quartet is rhythmically complex, and the melodies and harmonies make use of non-traditional scales which deliberately avoid definite tonal centers. Messiaen considered himself as much an ornithologist as a musician, and birdsong often plays a key role in his music, as in the first movement which includes imitations of blackbirds (in the clarinet) and nightingales (in the violin). The unison instruments in the 6th movement are meant to imitate gongs and trumpets, and the movement illustrates the composer's fascination with augmented and diminishing rhythmic patterns. The 2nd and 7th movements share thematic materials, and the rainbows that Messiaen describes as accompanying the angel were more than mere fancy for the composer--he had a benign neurological condition called synaesthesia which caused him to experience colors when he heard music.

Listen at Youtube.com to the 1st movement; 2nd movement; 6th movement; 7th movement

TRIO SOLIS

12/16/2010 @ 10:30 a.m.: Freedom, Slavery and the Roots of American Music

2009-12-29T12:35:00.000-08:00

A lecture presented by Ray Kamalay on the influence of slavery on American popular music.

12/14/2009 @ 6:16pm: Linda Minke & Edith Moore-Hubert

2009-11-12T08:30:00.000-08:00

Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra cellist Linda Minke and Community Foundation of Jacksonville's 2008 Artist Award winner Edith Moore-Hubert team up for an evening of music for cello and piano or harpsichord.

A. Vivaldi: Sonata No. 3 in A minor, RV 43

J. S. Bach: Viola da Gamba Sonata II in D major

Claude Debussy: Romance

G. Faure: Sicilienne, op. 78 ; Apres un Reve ; Au bord de l'eau

Alan Hovhaness: Suite for Cello and Piano, op. 193

Christopher Norton: Selections from Microjazz

The harpsichord for this recital is an Italian style instrument built in 2003 by Paulo Maurici, New York, courtesy of Henson Markham.

Cellist Linda Minke has been an active performer and teacher in the Jacksonville area since 1993. Ms. Minke teaches cello at Jacksonville University, performs with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, and is a member of the Magnolia String Quartet. She plays contemporary music with Ponte Vedra singer/songwriter Mark Williams, frequently performs at Friday Musicale, and has been an active member of the Chamber Music Society of Good Shepherd since its inception in 2003. Additionally, every August since 1983, Linda has had the privilege to play with the Peninsula Music Festival in Door County, Wisconsin.

Having served as Assistant Principal Cello with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra from 1983-1993, Minke was also a founding member of the Rhodes College Piano Trio. Linda's Master's degree in Cello Performance was earned at University of Memphis (formerly Memphis State University,) where she also received extensive training in Suzuki Violin and Cello Pedagogy. Minke holds two bachelors degrees (one in Cello performance and the other in Music Education) from Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Michigan.

While home-schooling her son Victor, Linda became well acquainted with the Waldorf Education method, and has integrated Suzuki and Waldorf into her teaching style. She teaches class violin for the Childrens' Enrichment Workshop at the Church of the Good Shepherd and for Jacksonville Symphony's Jumpstart Strings program at Reynolds Lane Elementary. Minke also maintains an active private teaching studio in her home.

After completing her bachelor’s degree with Hugh Thomas at Birmingham-Southern College, Edith Moore-Hubert continued her piano studies with Herbert Stessin of the Juilliard School. She obtained her master’s degree in piano performance from Manhattan School of Music, where her professors included Solomon Mikowsky, Robert Abramson, Raymond Lewenthal, Gary Graffman and Earl Wild. She has been a member of the music faculties at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Birmingham-Southern College Conservatory, and currently teaches at Jacksonville University and Florida State College at Jacksonville.

A 2008 winner of an Individual Artist Award from The Community Foundation of Jacksonville, Edie has performed as accompanist in Leipzig, Weimar, Nurnberg, Bern, Strasbourg, New York, Philadelphia, and throughout the Southeast. She is an active chamber musician, performing recently with the San Marco Chamber Music Society and St. Augustine Music Festival, and is organist/pianist at the Fourth Church of Christ, Scientist.

Edie is working toward a Certificate in the Arts in Healthcare from the University of Florida. Her CD, Music for Body and Soul, funded through the generosity of The Community Foundation of Jacksonville and Polymusic Studios in Birmingham, Alabama, is a collection of classical works suitable for the healthcare setting.

Program Notes by Ed Lein, Music Librarian

Music historians often refer to the Venetian violin virtuoso Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) as the composer most representative of the mature Italian Baroque style, and in addition to sonatas and sacred choral music he wrote nearly four dozen operas and over 500 concertos. Nicknamed il Prete Rosso ("The Red Priest") owing to his hair color and day job, as the composer of "The Four Seasons" Vivaldi wrote what have become among the most recognized violin concertos of any era, so it is perhaps surprising that after he died his music remained virtually unknown until the 20th Century. Vivaldi is among the earliest composers to treat the cello as a solo instrument, with almost 30 cello concertos and nine (or so) cello sonatas with continuo accompaniment. This Sonata in A minor, RV 43, is one of six published together in 1740 as “Opus 14,” but it is doubtful that Vivaldi himself had anything to do with their grouping or publication. The movements follow the “slow-fast-slow-fast” pattern of the typical Baroque sonata da chiesa (i.e., “church sonata”), providing the soloist opportunity to display in alternation contemplative elegance and sprightly good humor.

Although he was dismissed by many of his contemporaries as being too old-fashioned, the great German composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) ranks with Beethoven (who himself studied Bach’s music) as among the most influential composers of all time. Bach composed three sonatas featuring the viola da gamba, an instrument typically with guitar-like frets and six strings that was very popular during the Renaissance and was already somewhat archaic in Bach’s time. But the “duo sonata” texture, with the harpsichord sharing in the presentation of thematic material as an equal soloist (rather than merely providing harmonic support as a continuo instrument) was then a new thing. Like Vivaldi, Bach casts Sonata No. 2 in D major, BWV 1028, in the four-movement layout of the sonata da chiesa.

Composer, organist, pianist and teacher Gabriel Urbain Fauré (1845-1924) was the foremost French composer of his generation. Although he greatly admired the chromatic music of Richard Wagner, Fauré remained relatively free of Wagner’s highly-colored influence and instead led his own harmonic revolution by treating chords with added 7ths and 9ths as consonant and by introducing modal inflections into an essentially diatonic framework. The cello and piano version of Fauré’s Sicilienne, Op.78, was completed by the composer in 1898, salvaged from the incidental music begun in 1893 for an unproduced play, and ironically it became one of its composers best-known works after being orchestrated and inserted into the incidental music for an 1898 production of a different play, Pelléas and Mélisande. Fauré is widely regarded as the greatest master of the French art-song, and the heart-wrenching Après un rêve (“After a Dream”) is perhaps his greatest song. Au bord de l'eau (“On the Bank of the River,” 1875) demonstrates Fauré’s uncanny ability to marry music to words, as the flowing melody and accompaniment conjure the image of the flowing water, and the subtle shifts between major and minor echo doubts about the permanence of love while watching passing clouds and distant smoke dissolve and observing how a flower’s fragrance dissipates--but the belief in love is ultimately affirmed in the optimism of a major chord.

American composer Alan Hovhaness (born Alan Vaness Chakmakjian, 1911-2000) is perhaps best known for his early works that reflect his Armenian heritage, but his evolving, highly original style eventually incorporated influences from a wide variety of ethnic music from around the world, especially from India and the Far East. With over 500 works to his credit, he was among the first composers to include aleatoric or “chance” passages in some of his works, and he has been credited with anticipating both the minimalist techniques of composers such as Philip Glass and Steve Reich, and the mysticism of John Taverner, Arvo Pärt, and Henryk Gorécki. Hovhaness believed that melody was the most important musical element, and he maintained that good music should communicate directly with all listeners and not only with academically trained music theorists. Consequently, during the early days of his career many "establishment" musicians dismissed him, but his supporters included composers as diverse as John Cage and Howard Hanson, and he maintained a lasting relationship with his daughter’s godfather, Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. Hovhaness's three-movement Suite, Op. 193, was first published in 1962, and lasts about five minutes.

Following early successes as a composer, concert pianist and rock musician in his native New Zealand, Christopher Norton (b.1953) moved to the United Kingdom in 1977 to study composition at York University. Also a successful arranger and record producer, his compositional output includes a wide variety of music styles ranging from orchestral pieces and ballets to pop songs and music for television programs, but he is most famous for his best-selling Microjazz series, called a “stimulating blend of contemporary popular genres and classical values.” Beginning as a series of piano pieces, the composer has expanded Microjazz to include works featuring the entire range of orchestral instruments.

11/16/2009 @ 6:15 p.m.: Jacksonville University Chamber Strings

2009-10-22T06:20:00.000-07:00

JACKSONVILLE UNIVERSITY CHAMBER STRINGS
Marguerite Richardson, conductor

PROGRAM SELECTIONS
Antonio Vivaldi: L’Estro Armonico, Op. 3: Concerto No. 8 in A minor for two violins and strings, RV 522
Piotr Szewczyk: Summer Music
Edward Lein: Hoodoo
Jacksonville University Chamber Strings

Antonín Dvořák: Quartet in F Major, Op.96, "American" (1st Movement)
Jacksonville University Honors String Quartet (Ronald Lagarde & Mallory Bray, violins; Peter Dutilly, viola; Joseph Engel, violoncello)

Peter Warlock: Capriol Suite
Edvard Grieg: Holberg Suite, Op.40
Jacksonville University Chamber Strings

The JACKSONVILLE UNIVERSITY CHAMBER STRINGS are:

VIOLIN I
Sam Lagarde,
concertmaster
Mallory Bray,
associate concertmaster
Stephanie Dierickx
Ashley Thorns
David Reynolds
Breana Mock

VIOLIN II
Philip Sanders, principal
Sarah Morris
Ali Villella
Steffani Schmidt
VIOLA
Peter Dutilly, principal
Jake Campbell
Erick Crow

CELLO
Joe Engel, principal
Victor Minke Huls
Christopher Davis
Philip Holman
BASS
Max Coley, principal
Ray Davis
HARP
Carolyne Scott

A member of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra since 1990, violinist Marguerite Richardson began her violin studies at the age of four. Ms. Richardson has performed symphonic and chamber music throughout the United States, Germany, Italy, Great Britain, and Central America, and performs locally with the Florida Arts Trio. Between 1995 and 2003, Ms. Richardson began and developed the String Program at the University of North Florida, where she maintained a studio of violin and viola students and conducted the UNF Orchestra.

Currently, Ms. Richardson maintains a private teaching studio and serves as Chamber Music Coordinator and Premiere Strings Orchestra conductor for the Jacksonville Symphony Youth Orchestra. At Jacksonville University she is an Assistant Professor, teaching violin and viola, directing the Orchestra and coaching string chamber ensembles.

She holds a Bachelor of Music from the Cleveland Institute of Music, a Master of Music from the University of South Carolina, and is currently completing her Doctor of Music degree from Florida State University.

Program notes by Ed Lein, Music Librarian

Musical works by Polish composer Piotr Szewczyk (b. 1977) have won a number of international composition contests, and have been featured on NPR and at the American Symphony Orchestra League Conference in Nashville. His music has been performed by numerous orchestral and chamber ensembles, and his recently published string quintet, The Rebel, was performed live on the CBS Early Show by the Sybarite Chamber Players, and also was featured in January 2009 on NPR's Performance Today. To fulfill the commission he earned as winner of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra’s 2008 Fresh Ink composition competition, Mr. Szewczyk has composed First Coast Fanfare which will receive its world premiere by the JSO this coming spring. About his Summer Music (2009) the composer writes:

Summer Music for string orchestra was commissioned by Prelude Chamber Music Camp in Jacksonville. It is inspired by the joy and fun of summer days. While playful and energetic at first the piece transforms in the middle into a slow, meditative section, like the slower summer days we use for self-reflection and relaxation. Right after the slow section dissolves, the piece launches into an energetic ride that doesn’t let go to the very end, speeding up to the fiery finale. This version of the piece includes an optional harp part that adds a distinct color and flavor to the string orchestra ensemble.

A virtuoso violinist as well as a member of the Jacksonville Symphony since September 2007, Mr. Szewczyk is the creator and performer of a critically-acclaimed recital of exciting and innovative solo pieces called Violin Futura. Piotr will return to Music@Main on May 18, 2010, to present another installment of Violin Futura featuring all new works written especially for him by composers from around the globe.

More at http://www.verynewmusic.com/

Florida native Edward Lein (b. 1955) is the Music Librarian at Jacksonville Public Library's Main Library, and holds Master's degrees in both Music and Library Science from Florida State University. As a tenor soloist he appeared in recitals, oratorios and dramatic works throughout his home state, and drawing on his performance experience the majority of his early compositions are vocal works. Following peformances of pieces by the Jacksonville Symphony, including Meditation for cello, oboe and orchestra (premiered June 2006) and In the Bleak Midwinter (premiered December 2007), his instrumental catalog has grown largely due to requests from Symphony players for new pieces, and he endeavors to imbue his instrumental works with the same singing lyricism found in his vocal music. Hoodoo, a samba, is the first movement of a four-movement suite called Un Dulcito ("A Little Sweet"), and was first performed in the summer of 2009 by students and faculty from the Prelude Chamber Music Camp. The entire suite, based on Latin American dances, entered the repertoire of the Vero Beach High School Orchestra for the first complete performances of Un Dulcito on November 7-8, 2009, under conductor Matt Stott.

Listen to Hoodoo:

More at http://sites.google.com/site/edwardlein/

Peter Warlock (1894-1930) was born in London as Philip Arnold Heseltine and had a successful career as a music critic under his real name. But he is better known by the bewitching pseudonym he used for his musical compositions, and it also reflects his interest in the occult. Providing inspiration for a number of British authors including Aldous Huxley and D.H. Lawrence, at age 36 Warlock's colorful personal life ended by gas poisoning, under suspicious circumstances. Although he devoted most of his compositional efforts toward writing songs, Warlock's instrumental Capriol Suite (1926) has become his best-known work. Originally for piano duet and inspired by Orchésographie, a manual of Renaissance dances by Thoinot Arbeau (1519-1595), the composer also prepared a version for full orchestra in addition to this one for strings.

Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) was a Norwegian composer and virtuoso pianist best known for his Piano Concerto in A minor and the incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt, and the originality of his Lyriske stykker ("Lyric Pieces") for piano solo lead some to call him "The Chopin of the North." Grieg's Holberg Suite, Op. 40 (1884) , or, Fra Holbergs tid ("From Holberg's Time"), was originally a "Suite in Olden Style" for piano solo, but it has become more popular in the composer's own version for string orchestra. The five movements were composed to commemorate the 200th birth anniversary of Danish-Norwegian playwright Ludvig Holberg (1684-1754).

1/16/2010 @ 3:30 p.m.: Jayoung Kim, cello

2009-10-21T13:13:00.000-07:00

Assisted by JooHyun Lee, piano

With concert appearances throughout the United States, Costa Rica, and South Korea, cellist Jayoung Kim enjoys an active performing career as both chamber musician and soloist. A native of Korea who took up the cello at age 10, she has appeared in music festivals and artist series including Promising Artists of the 21st Century (San Jose, Costa Rica), OK MOZART International Music Festival (Bartlesville, OK), Young-San Artist Series (Seoul, Korea), and The Varga Celebration (Greensboro, NC), and was soloist at the University Orchestra Festival with Ewha University Orchestra.

As a member of the chamber ensemble enhakē she has captured numerous prizes including the Grand Prize at the Yellow Springs Chamber Music Competition (2009), Gold Medal at International Chamber Music Ensemble Competition (2008), and Judge’s Special Recognition Award at Plowman Chamber Music Competition (2008). She has given recitals and master classes at Valdosta State University, Texas A&M University, Mesa State College (Grand Junction, CO), and University of Costa Rica, and in addition to touring France and America, upcoming engagements include the world premier of a work by Libby Larsen commissioned by enhakē.

Ms. Kim has served as principal cellist of Florida State University Symphony Orchestra and Ewha University Orchestra, and as guest principal cellist of Sinfonia Gulf Coast and Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra. She received a B.M. degree from Ewha University with Ewha Honor Scholarship, an M.M. from the Eastman School of Music, and is now a doctoral candidate at Florida State University. Her teachers have included Gregory Sauer, Alan Harris, David Bjella, and Il-Whan Bae, and she has participated in master classes with Lynn Harrell, Fred Sherry, Mihai Tetel, Andres Diaz, Edward Aaron, and Thomas Landshoot.

A native of Seoul, Korea, Pianist JooHyun Lee earned a doctoral degree in Piano Accompanying and Chamber Music at the Eastman School of Music, where she studied with Jean Barr and solo piano with Nelita True as her minor field. Ms. Lee also received Masters degree at Eastman School of Music following her undergraduate degree studies in Piano Performance at Seoul National University.

She has enjoyed great success as a vocal accompanist, playing for major voice competitions in Korea, the United States, and Germany. Recent honors include the Barr Award in accompanying which is given to an outstanding collaborative pianist, the excellence in accompanying, second prize in the Jessie Kneisel Lieder competition, Eastman’s prestigious Brooks Smith Fellowship in Piano Accompanying and Chamber Music, and the Barbara M.H Koeng Award given to an accompanist who has a passion for working with singers. In addition to these collaborations, Ms. Lee also enjoys partnering instrumentalists, and for two summers participated in The Quartet Program where she performed with violinist Charles Castleman and violist Allyson Dawkins. She is currently a staff pianist at Eastman School of music and Bowdoin International Music Festival.

Program Notes by Ed Lein, Music Librarian

The music of the transcendent German composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) formed the culmination of the Classical style and the foundation of the Romantic. Along with J.S. Bach, Beethoven is arguably the best known Western classical composer, but over the past few decades works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) have become almost as recognizable, especially after the success of the 1984 movie of Peter Shaffer’s play, Amadeus. Himself a big fan of Mozart, Beethoven used the show-stopping Act 1 duet between Pamina and Papageno from Die Zauberflöte ("The Magic Flute") as the inspiration for Seven Variations on Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen, WoO 46. By 1801, the year Beethoven wrote these Variations, the 31-year-old composer had already suffered acute hearing loss, which he described in his letters. For the last decade of his life Beethoven was completely deaf, but he continued to produce revolutionary masterworks that still provide benchmarks other composers strive to attain.

By virtue of a scholarship from his hometown of Barcelona, a nine-year-old Gaspar Cassadó (1897-1966) was able to accept an invitation to study in Paris with the legendary Catalan cellist Pablo Casals, where, in addition to his cello lessons, Cassadó studied composition with both Manuel de Falla and Maurice Ravel. After World War I, Cassadó began a successful international career as both cellist and composer, including several concerts with Casals. During the1920s Cassadó settled permanently in Florence, Italy, and after World War II his reputation and career, not to mention his personal morale, suffered tremendously when his mentor unjustly accused him of sympathizing with Mussolini’s fascist regime, despite Cassadó’s continuing friendship and collaboration with perhaps the most vocal of Italy’s anti-fascist composers, Luigi Dallapicolla. The rift between teacher and protégé was finally reconciled during the mid 1950s through the efforts of a mutual friend, the British violinist Yehudi Menuhin, but Cassadó’s career never fully recovered. The 1926 Suite for Solo Cello remains one of Cassadó’s best known works. Its modal inflections and folk-dance rhythms attest to the composer’s Catalan heritage, and the rhapsodic first movement acknowledges other influences, with direct references to Zoltán Kodály’s Sonata for Solo Cello, Op. 8, and Ravel’s ballet, Daphnis et Chloe.

Joining Prokofiev and Khachaturian, Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) is one of few composers of the former Soviet Union to sustain a large following in the West, but his career was far from “smooth sailing.” During his lifetime his music was periodically banned by Stalinist authorities, and he suffered two official denouncements, in 1936 and 1948. However, because of his worldwide popularity the Soviets liked to use Shostakovich as propaganda, so their censures always proved temporary—but he still withheld his more personal works until after Stalin’s death in 1953. Shostakovich likewise has had detractors among many of the West’s avant-garde, centering around composer-turned-conductor Pierre Boulez. Although the influence of the self-styled “cutting edge” has since dulled, from the 1950s into the 1980s the group and its followers wielded their own brand of artistic totalitarianism, insisting that composers abandon familiar musical forms in favor of mathematical or electronic compositional procedures, and dismissing works by those who used tonal idioms to communicate directly with listeners. Ignoring the ideological tyranny on both fronts, performers and listeners have always embraced Shostakovich’s music, and he remains among the most frequently performed and recorded of 20th-Century composers. Shostakovich wrote is Sonata in D Minor for Cello and Piano, Op. 40, in 1934, before the 28-year-old composer experienced government interference, or, for that matter, artistic browbeating.

The Polish-born pianist Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849) was the first composer to make full use of the expressive qualities and coloristic potential of the piano when it was a still-developing keyboard instrument, and he rightly has been called the "Poet of the Piano." Much of all piano music by subsequent composers shows his influence, and his revolutionary use of chromatic harmonies and unusual key relationships profoundly influenced composers of symphonic music and operas as well, such as Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner--thus Chopin's importance in the development of the "Romantic" style in general can not be overestimated. The vast majority of Chopin’s music is for piano solo, and his few other works all feature the piano. Chopin’s four chamber music pieces likewise include parts for the solo cello, and the earliest of these is the Introduction and Polonaise brilliante, Op. 3, dating from 1829. Patterned after a stately Polish dance that has become closely identified with Chopin, the Polonaise brillante was originally written as a diversion for a piano-playing princess and her cello-playing father. It demonstrates that the 19-year-old composer had already found a compositional voice which was not merely an imitation of other composers—in this regard Chopin’s precociousness surpassed even Mozart’s. Chopin added the Introduction the following year for his own public performances of the showpiece.

music @ main

Music of the Civil War, Wednesday, 2/1/2012 @ 6:45pm

Douglas Anderson Schools of the ArtsPiano Chamber Music Class

Intermezzo Sunday Concert, 2/12/2012 @ 2:30 p.m.

Sarah Wilson MacMillan, sopranoLouis Poeltl, tenorBonita Sonsini Wyke, piano

Songs, Folksongs, Arias & Duetsfeaturing selections from Opera & Musical Theater

Intermezzo Sunday Concert, 1/8/2012 @ 2:30 p.m.

Tuğçe Tari, piano

Intermezzo Sunday Concert, 12/11/2011 @ 2:30 p.m

The Sterling Brass

JASON BODDIE trumpetBRUCE BYRD trumpetSHAUN BENNETT horn AMY SCOTT trombonePAUL MULLEN tuba

Intermezzo Sunday Concert, 11/13/2011 @ 2:30 p.m.

Ruxandra Marquardt, violinChristine Clark, piano

SCHUBERT: Sonata in A major ("Duo"), Op. post., D. 574

DVORAK: Romantische Stücke ("Romantic Pieces"), Op. 75

FALLA/KREISLER: Danse espagnole (Spanish Dance, from La vida breve) [YouTube performance] Score (pdf) transcribed for piano solo, from imslp.org

Intermezzo Sunday Concert, 10/9/2011 @ 2:30 p.m.

Shawn I. Puller, tenor Read Gainsford, piano

Du bist wie eine Blume

Thou Like a Budding Flower Art

Im Rhein

In the Rhine

Hohe Liebe

Exalted Love

Сирень (Op. 21, No. 5)

Lilacs

Сон (Op. 8, No. 5)

A Dream

Здесь хорошо (Op. 21, No. 7)

Here All is Just Right

Intermezzo Sunday Concert, 6/12/2011 @ 2:30 p.m.

Max Huls, violin solo

Spiritual Flights / Spanish Flair

Intermezzo Sunday Concert, 5/8/2011 @ 2:30 p.m.

Marion Wilkinson Scott & Rosa Villar Scott

Intermezzo Sunday Concert, 4/17/2011 @ 2:30 p.m.

Krzysztof Biernacki, BaritoneDenise Wright, Piano

Intermezzo Sunday Concert, 3/13/2011 @ 2:30 p.m.

CLICK for LARGER VIEWDuo Bonev–Birbochukov

Intermezzo Sunday Concert, 2/13/2011 @ 2:30 p.m.

CANCELED

Due to a sudden illness the pianist is unable to travel and perform in Jacksonville this weekend. We regret any inconvenience this cancellation my cause, and wish the pianist a speedy recovery.

Rosa Villar Córdova, piano

Intermezzo Sunday Concert, 1/9/2011 @ 2:30 p.m.

The Sterling Brass

Intermezzo Sunday Concert, 12/12/2010 @ 2:30pm

Flutation : a Flute Duo

Sunday Matinée at the Opera

Intermezzo Sunday Concert, 11/14/2010 @ 2:30pm

Piotr Szewczyk, violin

Gary Smart, piano

Intermezzo Sunday Concert, 10/10/2010 @ 2:30pm

A Romantic Sampler

Shawn I. Puller, tenor [Jacksonville Debut]Read Gainsford, piano

06/16 @ 6:15 p.m.: Huls Clark Duo

05/18/2010 @ 5:30 p.m.: Piotr Szewczyk, violin

Violin Futura II

04/12/2010@ 6:16 p.m.: UNF String Ensemble

Students from the University of North Florida Department of Musicperforming under the direction of Dr. Simon Shiao

03/24/2010 @ 6:15pm: Laura Nocchiero & Krzysztof Biernacki

05/04/2010 @ 6:15 p.m.: Scott Watkins, piano

Beethoven: Sonata No. 28 in A Major, op. 101

Chopin's Waltzes

03/10/2010 @ 6:15 p.m.: Kimberly S. Beasley, soprano

02/13/2010 @ 2 p.m.: The Amazing Life of Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges

02/22/2010 @ 6:15 p.m.: Noteworthy Duo

02/09/2010 @ 6:15 p.m.: Wonkak Kim, clarinet

02/01/2010: Trio Solis with Deborah Bish

12/16/2010 @ 10:30 a.m.: Freedom, Slavery and the Roots of American Music

12/14/2009 @ 6:16pm: Linda Minke & Edith Moore-Hubert

11/16/2009 @ 6:15 p.m.: Jacksonville University Chamber Strings

1/16/2010 @ 3:30 p.m.: Jayoung Kim, cello

Assisted by JooHyun Lee, piano

Douglas Anderson Schools of the Arts
Piano Chamber Music Class

Sarah Wilson MacMillan, soprano
Louis Poeltl, tenor
Bonita Sonsini Wyke, piano

Songs, Folksongs, Arias & Duets
featuring selections from Opera & Musical Theater

JASON BODDIE trumpet
BRUCE BYRD trumpet
SHAUN BENNETT horn
AMY SCOTT trombone
PAUL MULLEN tuba

Ruxandra Marquardt, violin
Christine Clark, piano

FALLA/KREISLER: Danse espagnole (Spanish Dance, from La vida breve)
[YouTube performance]
Score (pdf) transcribed for piano solo, from imslp.org

Shawn I. Puller, tenor
Read Gainsford, piano

Krzysztof Biernacki, Baritone
Denise Wright, Piano

CLICK for LARGER VIEW

Duo Bonev–Birbochukov

Shawn I. Puller, tenor [Jacksonville Debut]
Read Gainsford, piano

Students from the
University of North Florida Department of Music
performing under the direction of Dr. Simon Shiao