music @ main: Boyan Bonev

Showing posts with label Boyan Bonev. Show all posts

Friday, July 3, 2015

June 12, 2016

JiWon Hwang, violin
Boyan Bonev, cello
Mimi Noda, piano

* SARASATE: Romanza Andaluza, Op. 22, No. 1
* LEIN: Nocturne
* PIAZZOLLA: Libertango
* POPPER: Hungarian Rhapsody, Op. 68
* BRAHMS: Piano Trio No.1 in B Major Op.8

Allegro con brio
Scherzo - Allegro molto
Adagio
Allegro

Korean violinist Ji Won Hwang earned her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from Sookmyung Women's University in Seoul, Korea, where she also taught, in addition to conducting the Soongsil Boy's Orchestra. After moving to the United States she became a teaching assistant at The Florida State University while working on her Doctor of Music degree under the guidance of violinist Eliot Chapo. She has performed as a solo artist and with a variety of ensembles in the Big Bend area, including as violinist with the Eppes String Quartet under the sponsorship of Pulitzer-Prize-winning composer Ellen Taafe Zwilich. Winner of the top prize of the Korea Germany Brahms Association Competition in 2004, Dr. Hwang has performed throughout Asia, Europe and North America, and recently gave a concert entitled "Russia in New York" at Carnegie Hall. In addition to her solo engagements, she plays for symphony orchestras in Florida, Alabama, and Georgia.

Award-winning Bulgarian cellist Boyan Bonev teaches cello and double bass at the University of West Florida in Pensacola, and previously taught in Georgia at Albany State University and Darton College. Dr. Bonev is on the faculty of the Florida State University Summer Music Camps, and performs with the Tallahassee, Pensacola, Mobile, Florida Lakes, and Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestras. Active as a solo and chamber musician, Boyan Bonev has appeared in concert and educational programs for Bulgarian National Television and Radio, in performance at Carnegie Hall (Weill Recital Hall), and as soloist with orchestras in the United States and Europe. Dr. Bonev holds Doctor of Music and Master of Music degrees from the Florida State University, and a Bachelor of Music degree from the National Music Academy in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Mimi Noda was a collaborative pianist with the Japanese Choral Association before relocating to the United States in 1998 to pursue graduate studies. While earning degrees at the University of Georgia (MM) and Florida State University (DM), she was awarded a number of prizes and scholarships in piano performance, and also taught Japanese in FSU’s Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics. Now an Associate Professor of Music at Georgia's Albany State University, in addition to annual faculty recitals, other recent solo engagements have included a recital in Tokyo, Japan. Apart from responsibilities in the Music Dept., Dr. Noda has established a course in Japanese at ASU, and will be teaching Japanese through the Study Abroad Program for the University System of Georgia. Her volunteer activities include performing at Albany's Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, and giving piano lessons to children at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Tallahassee.

PROGRAM NOTES

Spanish violinist Pablo de Sarasate (1844-1908) was a popular virtuoso whose light touch and flawless tone inspired several of the Romantic period's enduring showpieces, including Lalo's Symphonie espagnole, Saint-Saens' Introduction & Rondo Capriccio and Bruch's Scottish Fantasy, not to mention concertos by these and other composers. As an eight-year old Sarasate already was giving concerts, and after winning the Paris Conservatory's top performance prize at age 17, he began an international solo career that continued unabated for four decades--his star shone so brightly that even Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson went to hear him play! Composed in 1879, Romanza Andaluza (op. 22, no. 1) is the third of Sarasate's eight "Spanish Dances" for violin and piano. Paying obvious tribute to the music of his homeland, Sarasate capitalizes on the violin's low register while introducing his folk-like original tunes, then harmonizes them with persistent double-stops that enhance the music's dancing lyricism with virtuosic flair.

SCORE (pdf)
Hear it on YouTube

Florida native Edward Lein (b. 1955) holds master's degrees in Music and Library Science from Florida State University. Early in his career he appeared throughout his home state as tenor soloist in recitals, oratorios and dramatic works, and most of his early compositions feature voices. Following performances by the Jacksonville Symphony of his 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. The Nocturne is the second movement from his Sonatina (2007). It presents a languid tune that alternates with a hymn-like chorale, perhaps suggesting a quiet boat ride down the St. John's River at dusk.

SCORE (pdf)[Beginning at p.8]
Hear it on Instant Encore

With an estimated catalog of over 3,000 compositions, Ástor Piazzolla (1921-1992) pretty much single-handedly reinvented the tango. Born in Argentina, Piazzolla spent most of his childhood in New York, where he developed a fondness for jazz and classical music. His father taught him to play the bandoneón, a concertina common to Argentine tango ensembles, and when he returned to Buenos Aires in 1937 he played with some of the leading bands. He also began composition studies with Alberto Ginastera and won a grant in 1953 to study in Paris with legendary composition teacher Nadia Boulanger. Returning to Argentina in 1955, Piazzolla infused the traditional national dance with characteristics of jazz and formal elements from his classical studies. Although this nuevo tango ("new tango") style was met with resistance in his homeland, it captivated Europeans and North Americans and his international career blossomed. Libertango reflects his "liberation of the tango," and has been recorded over 500 times since originally recorded and published in 1974.

Hear it on YouTube

Called "the Rostropovich of the 19th century," David Popper (1843-1913) was born in the Jewish ghetto of Prague and became one of Europe's most celebrated cellists. In addition to holding prestigious orchestral positions, Popper was well-known as both solo virtuoso and chamber musician, partnering with a number of high-profile pianists, including his wife Sophie Menter (whom Liszt cited as the world's greatest woman pianist), Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms. Also a highly respected teacher, Popper joined the faculty of the Budapest royal conservatory in 1896, and his influence continues to this day through the High School of Cello Playing, Op. 78 (1901-05), something of a bible for advanced cello students. A gifted melodist, most of Popper's compositions showcase the expressive and technical capabilities of his instrument, amply demonstrated in the Hungarian Rhapsody, Op. 68 (1894), likely his best-known work.

SCORE (pdf)
Hear it on YouTube

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. Originally composed in 1854, Brahms revised his Piano Trio No. 1, op. 8 in 1889, but, remarkably, he allowed both versions to remain in print (although, not surprisingly, it's the revision that's almost always performed). Another remarkable thing about the Trio is that it's one of very few multi-movement instrumental works composed during the 400 or so years comprising the Baroque through Romantic periods that begin in a major key and end in a minor one.

SCORE (pdf)
Hear it on YouTube

SELECTED RELATED LIBRARY RESOURCES

CD VIOLIN S525 R758 DG
Romances [sound recording] / Gil Shaham, violin (featuring Sarasate : Romanza andaluza).
CD P584 I59se SONY
Soul of the tango [sound recording] : the music of Astor Piazzolla.
780.92 P584Az, 2000
Le grand tango : the life and music of Astor Piazzolla / by María Susana Azzi.
CD STRING P831 I59se NAXOS
Romantic cello showpieces [sound recording] / David Popper.
780.92 NEUNZIG
Brahms / by Hans A. Neunzig.
CD B813 T834 TELDEC
The piano trios [sound recording] / Brahms (Trio Fontenay).

October 11, 2015

Boyan Bonev, cello
Mimi Noda, piano

CANCELED!

Luigi Boccherini
Sonata for Cello and Piano in A Major G. 4
Adagio - Allegro

Franz Schubert
Sonata "Arpeggione" for Cello and Piano, D. 821 in A Minor
Allegro moderato - Adagio - Allegretto

Pancho Vladigerov
Song from Bulgarian Suite, Op. 21

David Popper
Hungarian Rhapsody, Op. 68

Award winning cellist Dr. Boyan Bonev is a native of Bulgaria. He holds Doctor of Music and Master of Music degrees from the Florida State University, and Bachelor of Music degree from the National Music Academy in Sofia, Bulgaria. His cello teachers include Gregory Sauer, David Bjella, Lubomir Georgiev, Anatoli Krastev, Venzeslav Nikolov, and Tatcho Tatchev. Bonev has participated in master classes with Jon Kimura Parker, AndrÃ©s DÃaz, Felix Wang, Christopher Rex, Norman Shetler, Carsten Eckert, Christoph Richter, Robert Cohen, and Michail Homitzer. He has performed in a number of prestigious music festivals and conferences in Europe and USA such as College Music Society Southern Regional Conference and Florida Music Educators' Association Conference in Tampa, FL, "Varga Celebration" in Greensboro, NC, "Seven Days of Opening Nights" and Festival of New Music in Tallahassee, FL, "Musica Nova" and "New Bulgarian Music" in Sofia, Bulgaria, "Varna Summer" in Varna, Bulgaria, and "March Music Days" in Rousse, Bulgaria.
Bonev is an active performer of solo and chamber music, was featured as a soloist of the Florida Lakes Symphony Orchestra and the Stara Zagora Symphony Orchestra, and performed at Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall. He is a prize winner from the Bulgarian National Competition for Singers and Instrumentalists, and the International Competition "Music and Earth."
Bonev performs with the Tallahassee, Pensacola, Albany, Florida Lakes, Sinfonia Gulf Coast and Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestras. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of West Florida, he taught cello and double bass at the Albany State University and Darton College. Bonev is on the faculty of the Florida State University Summer Music Camps and taught cello and chamber music as a Graduate Teaching Assistant at the Florida State University.

Dr. Mimi Noda was a collaborative pianist with the Japanese Choral Association before relocating to the United States in 1998 to pursue graduate studies. While earning degrees at the University of Georgia (MM) and Florida State University (DM), she was awarded a number of prizes and scholarships in piano performance, and she also has taught Japanese in FSU’s Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics. In addition to her responsibilities as Assistant Professor at Albany State University, Dr. Noda is a keyboardist with the Albany Symphony Orchestra, and she regularly volunteers keyboard performances at Albany's Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital. She also enjoys singing as a member of the Albany Chorale.

Friday, June 20, 2014

Tuesday Serenade : May 19 @ 7pm

Ji Won Hwang, violin
Boyan Bonev, cello (UWF Faculty Artist)

Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962)
Recitativo and Scherzo for Solo Violin, Op. 6

Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)
Sonata for Solo Violin in D Major, Op. 115
I. Moderato
II. Andante dolce
III. Con brio

Zoltan Kodaly (1882-1976)
Sonata for Solo Cello, Op. 8
I. Allegro maestoso ma appassionato
II. Adagio (con grand' espressione)
III. Allegro molto vivace

INTERMISSION

Edward Lein (b.1955)
"Dark Eyes" for Violin and Cello

Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)
Sonata for Violin and Cello
I. Allegro
II. Très vif
III. Lent
IV. Vif

Friedrich "Fritz" Kreisler (1875-1962) is regarded among the greatest violinists of all time. Born in Austria, he moved permanently to the United States during World War II and gained U.S. citizenship in 1943, two years after having been in a week-long coma following a traffic accident in New York City. Although he wrote a couple of operettas and a string quartet, as a composer it is for his solos, cadenzas and encores that he wrote to perform himself that he is most remembered. His Recitativo and Scherzo, Op. 6 is his only work for unaccompanied violin. Published in 1911, Kreisler dedicated the piece to his friend, Belgian virtuoso Eugene Ysaÿe.

Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) was a great Russian composer, pianist and conductor admired as one of the finest composers of the 20th century, whose music, including the delightful Peter and the Wolf and the exuberant Classical Symphony, is widely performed and recorded. Prokofiev wrote the Sonata for Solo Violin in D Major, Op. 115 in 1947. Having been preceded by two violin concertos and two violin sonatas, as well as by a Sonata for two unaccompanied violins, his Opus 115 became his last work for the violin as a solo instrument. But, unusually, it was first performed as a piece for unison violins by a group of student players!

Hungarian composer and educator Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967) was a pioneering ethnomusicologist who worked closely with his friend Béla Bartók to collect and codify the folk music of Eastern Europe in the early part of the 20th Century. Kodály gained international fame with his 1923 oratorio Psalmus hungaricus, and the orchestral suite from his 1926 opera Háry János continues to hold its place in the world’s concert halls. The influence of Kodály’s immersion in Hungarian folksong is evident in his Sonata for Cello Solo, op. 8 (1915), one of the most demanding pieces written for the instrument, and one which requires scordatura re-tunings of the two lower strings.

Florida native Edward Lein (b. 1955) holds master's degrees in Music and Library Science from Florida State University. Early in his career he appeared as tenor soloist in recitals, oratorios and dramatic works, and the majority of his early compositions are vocal and choral works. Following performances by the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra of his 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. This concert marks the first performance of the violin-cello arrangement of Dark Eyes, originally written for piano trio in 2010. Tongue-in-cheek and occasionally bordering on campy, these "Variations in the Form of a Sonatina" are based on Florian Hermann's famous waltz tune, Occhi chorni (Очи Чёрные), popularized by Russian gypsies.

Maurice Ravel (1875–1937) was a French composer and master orchestrator who maintains a place among the most performed and recorded composers of all time. He is often identified with Claude Debussy (1862-1918) as a chief proponent of musical Impressionism, but Ravel melded exotic harmonies with classical formal structures to create a personal, refined style that transcends a single label. The first movement of Ravel's Sonata for Violin and Cello appeared in December 1920 in a special commemorative supplement to the journal La Revue musicale honoring Debussy, and the rest of the movements were premiered two years later. Ravel uses recurring thematic elements throughout the movements as a unifying feature, and he also pays tribute to Kodály's 1914 Duo for Violin and Cello. In describing his Sonata himself, Ravel wrote, "The music is stripped to the bone. ... Harmonic charm is renounced, and there is an increasing return of emphasis on melody."

Friday, August 30, 2013

Tuesday Serenade, December 3, 2013 @ 7pm

Dr. Boyan Bonev, cello

Please join us on Tuesday, December 3, at 7 p.m., when Jacksonville Public Library will host a free recital featuring cellist Boyan Bonev, a faculty artist from the University of West Florida. Making his fifth Music @ Main appearance, Dr. Bonev will perform virtuoso works for unaccompanied cello by J.S. Bach, Dimitar Tapkoff, Georg Philipp Telemann, and Petar Christoskov.

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Suite for Solo Cello No. 3 in C Major, BWV 1009

Prelude - Allemande - Courante - Sarabande - Bourree I & II - Gigue [YouTube performance][Score at imslp.org]

Dimitar Tapkoff (1929-2011)

Sonata for Solo Cello (1990)

Allegro - Cantabile - Rondo

Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)

Sonata in D Major, for unaccompanied Viola da Gamba, TWV 40:1 (from Der getreue Musikmeister, 1728)

Prelude - Courante - Recitativo and Aria - Minuet [DailyMotion performance][Score at imslp.org]

Petar Christoskov [aka Hristoskov] (1917-2006)

Aria for Solo Cello (1999)

Fantasia, op. 15 [YouTube Performance]

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Award-winning Bulgarian cellist Boyan Bonev teaches cello and double bass at the University of West Florida in Pensacola, and previously taught in Georgia at Albany State University and Darton College. Dr. Bonev is on the faculty of the Florida State University Summer Music Camps, and performs with the Tallahassee, Pensacola, Mobile, Florida Lakes, and Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestras. Active as a solo and chamber musician, Boyan Bonev has appeared in concert and educational programs for Bulgarian National Television and Radio, in performance at Carnegie Hall (Weill Recital Hall), and as soloist with orchestras in the United States and Europe.

Dr. Bonev holds Doctor of Music and Master of Music degrees from the Florida State University, and a Bachelor of Music degree from the National Music Academy in Sofia, Bulgaria.

PROGRAM NOTES

Once dismissed by many of his contemporaries as being too old-fashioned, the works of the great German Baroque master Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) probably have been studied more than those of any other composer, making him perhaps the most influential musician of all time. Among works written for unaccompanied cello there is no doubt that Bach’s six Suites are the best known. Current research suggests that they were composed between 1717-1723, while Bach was Kapellmeister in the court of Prince Leopold (1694-1728) at Cöthen. Bach’s own manuscripts of the Cello Suites have never been found, but it is believed that they predate his well-known Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin, which were written in 1720. All six of the Cello Suites follow a standard six-movement pattern, but with the fifth movement dance types varying among minuets (in Suites 1, and 2) bourrées (in 3 and 4), and gavottes (in 5 and 6). For his Suite No. 3 in C major, BWV 1009, Bach takes full advantage of the Cello's sonorous open strings (C-G-D-A), weaving a rich tapestry from the stylized, dancing rhythms.

Among numerous cultural positions, Bulgarian composer and pedagogue Dimitar Tapkoff (aka Tapkov and Tupkov,1929-2011) worked for Bulgarian National Radio, was Secretary General of the Union of Bulgarian Composers, and was Director of Sofia Opera. He was a professor at his alma mater, Bulgaria's State Academy of Music, and also taught at the Academy of Music and Dance Art. His compositional output includes works for symphony and string orchestra, chamber music, choral music, and music for the stage. Tapkoff's Sonata for Solo Cello (1990) was given as a 60th birthday gift to Bulgarian cellist Zdravko Yordanov (1931-2004). (Yordanov is regarded as the patriarch of the Bulgarian cello school, whose students included Boyan Bonev's teacher at Florida State, Lubomir Georgiev; Dr. Bonev himself had the privilege of knowing Yordanov while at the conservatory in Sofia.) Tapkoff's relatively short movements (2-3 minutes each) demonstrate the composer's capacity for lyric expression mixed with rhythmic vigor. Although the composer uses the highly-charged chromaticism typical of many composers of his generation, he also finds inspiration in Bulgarian folksong. This is especially evident in the concluding Rondo, with irregular rhythms reminiscent of Bulgarian folk dances.

Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) earned a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most prolific composer in history, with over 3,000 pieces including 1000+ church cantatas and 600+ suites, plus numerous operas (many now lost) and virtually every sort of composition there was. He became the most famous musician in Germany, and his popularity extended throughout Europe. By all accounts the generous and affable Telemann was a man of great humor, and a personal friend of George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) and J.S. Bach (1685-1750), even becoming godfather to C.P.E. Bach (1714-1788), one of J.S.'s famous sons. Largely self-taught, Telemann played a wide variety of keyboard, wind, and string instruments, and was involved in publishing as well, issuing both his own poetry and music. Between November 1728 and November 1729, he published a bi-weekly periodical called Der Getreue Music-Meister (The Faithful Music Master). The 35 lessons were designed to provide amateur musicians with new pieces while improving their skills, and each issue included one large-scale piece for 1-6 instruments, plus, as space permitted, smaller pieces and counterpoint exercises. Telemann composed most, but not all, of the music himself, and mostly tailored the chamber music to skill levels of non-professional musicians. But several of the pieces, especially those for solo harpsichord or solo string instruments, require more advanced technical skills, and among these is the Sonata in D Major, for unaccompanied Viola da Gamba, TWV 40:1. (The viola da gamba is an archaic, bowed instrument that looks vaguely like a cello, but with six strings and frets similar to those on a guitar; modern performances of gamba music are frequently performed on the cello.)

Petar Christoskov [aka Hristoskov] (1917-2006) was a Bulgarian violinist, composer and pedagogue. Having completed studies at the Bulgarian State Academy of Music in 1936, between 1940-1943 he continued is education in Berlin, and extended his performance experience in Germany and Austria. After moving back to Bulgaria, he toured Europe and Asia, and in 1950 he joined the faculty of the State Academy of Music. Christokov's orchestral works include solo concertos for piano, violin, and cello; a double concerto for violin and cello; and a triple concerto for violin, cello and piano. Most of his chamber music is for the violin, but he also wrote Improvisation and Presto for viola and piano, op.14, and the two works for unaccompanied cello performed this evening. Christoskov's Aria for Solo Cello was composed in 1999, and like the Tapkoff Sonata, it is dedicated to Bulgarian cellist Anatoli Krastev. The Fantasia, Op. 15, dates from 1967.

Friday, October 12, 2012

Promenade! Art Walk Concert, 1/2/2013 @ 7 p.m.

Boyan Bonev, cello

Shaun Bennett, horn

Austin Clark, piano

Katherine Adams, piano

BACH: Suite for Solo Cello No. 1 in G major, BWV 1007

MOZART: Horn Concerto No. 3 in E-flat major, K. 447

MOZART: Piano Sonata No. 16 in C Major, K. 545

CASSADO: Suite for Solo Cello

MOZART: Piano Fantasia No. 3 in D Minor, K. 397

Bulgarian cellist Boyan Bonev has participated in numerous master classes and music festivals in the United States and Europe. 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 teaches cello and double bass at the University of West Florida, and previously taught at Albany State University and Darton College. He is on the faculty of the Florida State University Summer Music Camps, and he taught cello and chamber music as a Graduate Assistant at FSU while working on his doctorate there. Dr. Bonev performs with the Tallahassee, Pensacola, Mobile, Florida Lakes, and Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestras. 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). This program marks his fourth appearance in concerts for Jacksonville Public Library.

Horn player Shaun Bennett is a member of the Coastal Symphony of Georgia in Brunswick, and he is the brass instructor at North Florida Music Academy in Orange Park. He earned his degree in Music Theory and Composition from Jacksonville University, and he also studied at the New Zealand School of Music in Wellington, New Zealand.

Jacksonville native Austin Clark is an Organ Scholar at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd and an accompanist for the Choral Department at the University of North Florida. He attended Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, and is a graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan. Mr. Clark is pursuing a degree in Piano Performance at UNF.

Pianist Katherine Adams began studying piano when she was five years old. She pursued her degree in Piano performance at Jacksonville University, where she was a student of Dr. Scott Watkins. She now resides in her hometown of Brunswick, Georgia, where she is a church musician at The Episcopal Church of Our Savior, Honey Creek. She also maintains a private studio, and teaches voice in addition to piano.

Once dismissed by many of his contemporaries as being too old-fashioned, the works of the great German Baroque master Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) probably have been studied more than those of any other composer, making him perhaps the most influential musician of all time. And among works written for unaccompanied cello there is no doubt that Bach’s six Suites are the best known. Bach’s own manuscripts of the Cello Suites have never been found, but current research suggests that they were composed while Bach was at Cöthen, where he served as Kapellmeister from 1717-1723 in the court of Prince Leopold (1694-1728), and that they pre-date Bach’s well-known Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin, which were written in 1720. All six of the Cello Suites follow a standard six-movement pattern, but with the fifth movement dance types varying among minuets (in Suites 1, and 2) bourrées (in 3 and 4), and gavottes (in 5 and 6). Among all 36 movements of the six Suites, the popular Prelude from Suite No. 1 has had the most exposure: it’s been used as background music in television commercials hyping everything from sports cars and insurance to dog food.

YouTube Performance

Austrian-born Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791), unquestionably one of the greatest composers in history, began his career as a 6-year-old piano prodigy touring Europe with his father (Leopold, 1719-1787) and sister (Maria Anna, or "Nannerl," 1751-1829), and he absorbed and mastered all the contemporary musical trends he was exposed to along the way. When Mozart reached the ripe old age of 7, he made the acquaintance of Joseph Leutgeb (1732-1811), one of his father's colleagues and a leading horn virtuoso of the day. Leutgeb remained a lifelong friend, and Mozart wrote his four horn concertos specifically for Leutgeb; the autograph copies of the solo horn parts even include personal messages from the composer to the performer. The four horn concertos date from the last eight years of Mozart's short life, beginning with "No. 2" in 1783, and ending with "No. 1" in 1791, not long before his death. Mozart kept a catalog of his works, but it did not include what we know as Horn Concerto No. 3, K. 447 (it may have been second in order of composition). So exactly when it was completed is not known, but the mid-1780s is the likely timeframe. All four concertos have held places in the repertoire of virtually all professional horn players, and they certainly attest to the skill of Herr Leutgeb--the piston and valve horn we have today had not yet been invented, so performance on the "natural" horn requires a prodigious amount of hand and lip manipulation to play any tones outside the instrument's natural harmonic series.

YouTube Performance (with orchestra)

Mozart’s graceful and charming Piano Sonata No. 16 in C major, K. 545, is likely the one that first comes to mind when his 18 works in the genre are mentioned. Despite its present-day popularity, the Sonata, dating from 1788, remained unpublished while Mozart was alive, not appearing in print until 1805. The clear-cut themes and formal structure are about as “Classical” as you can get, but the first movement sonata-form (i.e., using an "exposition-development-recapitulation" structure) boasts one anomaly: the recap begins in F major (the subdominant key) rather than in the expected home key of C major. Schubert and other later composers picked up on the idea, but it was very unusual when Mozart used it.

YouTube Performance (1st mvt.)

Left unfinished, Mozart’s Piano Fantasia in D minor, K. 397, is thought to have been composed in 1872, around the same time as the Prelude (Fantasy) and Fugue in C major, K. 394, and the Fantasy in C minor, K. 396. The manuscript of the D minor Fantasy ended on a dominant 7th chord, and Mozart originally may have planned to follow it with a fugue, as in K. 394. It was first published in its original, incomplete form in 1804, but a new edition came out two years later that included an additional 10 measures added by the publisher so the work could be performed without leaving the audience hanging. Comprised of three contrasting sections, The Fantasy has become one of Mozart’s most popular piano pieces. It opens with an Andante section reminiscent of Baroque-era preludes, replete with arpeggios. The second section, the longest of the three, is a melancholy Adagio that is interrupted by a couple of unmeasured cadenzas, and the final section is a spritely Allegretto in D Major.

YouTube Performance

By virtue of a scholarship from his hometown of Barcelona, Spain, 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.

YouTube Performance

Friday, September 7, 2012

Promenade! Art Walk Concert, 12/05/2012 @ 7pm

Larger View

MinYoung Cho, violin
Boyan Bonev, cello
Eun Mi Lee, piano

MOZART: Trio in B-flat Major for Piano, Violin and Cello, K.502
PIAZZOLLA: The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires
SHOSTAKOVICH: Trio No.2 in E Minor for Piano, Violin and Cello, Op.67

Dr. MinYoung Cho is a native of Seoul, Korea, and she has performed with many orchestras in her homeland, including the Korean-American Youth Orchestra, Gwacheon Youth Orchestra, Seoul National Symphony Orchestra, Korean Philharmonic Orchestra and Gangneung Philharmonic Orchestra. Her talent as an ensemble player remains much in demand, and she often serves as concertmaster or assistant concertmaster for many of the orchestras she plays with. She regularly performs with a number of chamber and symphony orchestras in North Florida, including Tallahassee Bach Parley, Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra, Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra and Sinfonia Gulf Coast, as well as with the Pensacola Symphony Orchestra and Panama City Pops Orchestra. As a guest solo artist, recent recital engagements have included appearances at Chipola College (Marianna, Florida) and Valdosta State University (Valdosta, Georgia).

As a winner of the American Fine Arts Festival earlier this year, Dr. Cho performed at Carnegie Hall (Weill Recital Hall), and also was awarded an AFAF Summer Music Courses in Europe scholarship. Other competition wins include the Korea Music Competition, the Chungbu Conservatory Competition, and the Music World Newspaper Company’s Competition. Dr. Cho received her Bachelor of Music degree from Dankook University in Korea, and both her master's and doctoral degrees from Florida State University, where she also has taught as a Graduate Assistant. Her principal teachers have included Corinne Stillwell, Karen Clarke and Daesik Kang.

Bulgarian 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). He was featured twice in Jacksonville Public Library's Intermezzo Sunday Concert Series, in March 2011 with pianist Hristo Birbochukov, and in March 2012 as a member of the Flint River Trio.

Dr. Bonev teaches cello and double bass at the University of West Florida, and previously taught at Albany State University and Darton College. He is on the faculty of the Florida State University Summer Music Camps, and he taught cello and chamber music as a Graduate Assistant at FSU. Dr. Bonev performs with the Tallahassee, Pensacola, Mobile, Florida Lakes, and Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestras.

In her native South Korea, Eun Mi Lee received a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano from Ewha Women’s University, and a Master of Music degree in Piano Accompanying on scholarship at Sungshin Women’s University. A passionate accompanist and teacher, she has worked with faculty artists and student performers at Baekseok Conservatory, Muyngji University, and University of Seoul, and she has been a member of Korea Collaborative Pianists Association since 2002.

In 2007, Ms. Lee was accepted into the Master’s program in Florida State University's College of Music, working closely with Valerie M. Trujillo, the Grammy-nominated associate professor of vocal coaching and accompanying. Much in demand as a collaborative artist, Ms. Lee has pursued an interest in performing new music, and recorded Soo Jin Cho's 2-piano work, Exodus, released by the Society of Composers, Inc., in March 2010, on an album entitled Mosaic. Eun Mi Lee is currently a doctoral candidate at FSU.

PROGRAM NOTES by Edward Lein, Music Librarian

JAXCAT entries for W.A. Mozart

MOZART: Piano Trio in E Minor, K. 502 [PDF Score]
On YouTube: 1. Allegro | 2. Larghetto | 3. Allegretto

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 is seldom, if ever, called “The Father of the Modern Piano Trio,” but he well might be as he was the first composer to treat the violin and cello as partners independent of the keyboard. Earlier works for the ensemble, and even those by Haydn written after Mozart had died, mostly relegated the strings as optional parts that merely doubled and reinforced the piano or harpsichord, which was still a popular household instrument among amateur players. Mozart wrote the first three of his six piano trios in the summer of 1786, and the rest in 1788. The B-flat major Piano Trio, K. 502, was the third one composed, and it is considered his finest—most of the others were intended for amateur musicians, whereas he intended to perform this one himself. It is one of the few works for which his working sketches survive, and from them it is clear that he took the challenge of achieving the proper balance among the instruments very seriously. But, of course, being Mozart there is little wonder that he succeeded so perfectly.

JAXCAT entries for Ástor Piazzolla

PIAZZOLLA: Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas
On YouTube: Primavera Porteña | Verano Porteño | Otoño Porteño | Invierno Porteño

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 City, where he was exposed to American jazz. When he returned to Argentina in 1937 he played with some of the leading dance bands, and he began studying with noted composer Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983). In 1953 Piazzolla won a grant to study in Paris with legendary teacher Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979), who found Piazzolla's music well-crafted but derivative. But when she finally got him to show her some of the music he wrote for his cabaret band, she convinced him to toss out his other works and concentrate on what was uniquely his own. He returned to Argentina in 1955, introducing his "new tango” which infused traditional elements with characteristics of jazz and techniques adapted from his classical studies. It is estimated that he composed over 3,000 pieces, and he recorded about 500 of them himself. Although perhaps inspired in some way by Vivaldi’s famous concertos, the movements of Piazzolla’s Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas (The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires) originally were not conceived as a suite. The Spring movement was composed in 1965, Autumn in 1969, and Summer and Winter both in 1970, and they were originally scored for violin (viola), piano, electric guitar, double bass and bandoneón. The piano trio version is by José Bragato (b.1915), a cellist who often performed with Piazzolla.

JAXCAT entries for Dmitri Shostakovich

SHOSTAKOVICH: Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67
On YouTube: I. Andante. II. Allegro non troppo. -
III. Largo. - IV. Allegretto - beginning / - ending

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, so he 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 musicians who wielded their own brand of artistic totalitarianism, dismissing works by any 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 20th-Century composers. Written in 1944 while the world was at war, Shostakovich’s Piano Trio No. 2, Op. 67, definitely falls into the “personal” category. Not only does it encapsulate the tragedy of war, beginning with an other-worldly fugue and ending with a klezmer-like dance of death, but it also became reflective of the composer’s immediate grief: the Trio is dedicated to the memory of Ivan Sollertinsky (1902-1944), a musicologist and close friend of the composer who died of a heart attack during the time that Shostakovich was writing the work.

Monday, February 13, 2012

Intermezzo Sunday Concert, 3/11/2012 @ 2:30pm

CLICK HERE for a larger view

Flint River Trio

Russell Brown, clarinet
Boyan Bonev, cello
Mimi Noda, piano

Bohuslav Martinů : Variations on a Theme of Rossini, H. 290, for Cello & Piano
1. Theme: Poco allegro - Allegro moderato
2. Variation I: Poco allegro
3. Variation II: Poco piu allegro
4 .Variation III: Andante
5. Variation IV: Allegro
6. Theme: Vivo. Moderato maestoso
Robert Schumann : Fantasiestücke, Op. 73, for Clarinet & Piano
SCORE (PDF, from imslp.org)
1. Zart und mit Ausdruck (Tenderly and with expressiveness)
2. Lebhaft, leicht (Lively, delicately)
3. Rasch und mit Feuer (Rapidly and with fiery passion)
Ludwig van Beethoven : Trio in Eb Major, Op. 38
SCORE (PDF, from imslp.org
YouTube recordings:
1. Adagio - Allegro con brio
2. Adagio cantabile
3. Tempo di minuetto
4. Tema con variazioni: Andante
5. Scherzo: Allegro molto e vivace
6. Andante con moto alla marcia; Presto

DOWNLOAD CONCERT PROGRAM NOTES (pdf)

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Russell Brown is Assistant Professor of Woodwind Studies at Albany State University in Albany, Georgia. He also serves as faculty advisor of the Rho Delta chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, and is himself a member of the Pi Kappa Lambda Honor Society. Mr. Brown holds an MM in Music Composition from the University of Florida, an MM in Music Performance from The Ohio State University, and a BM in Music Performance from Valdosta State University. He is a current PhD Candidate (ABD) in Music Composition at the University of Florida. Mr. Brown regularly performs contemporary music in various chamber groups. In Georgia, he also performs with the Albany Symphony Orchestra and the Valdosta Symphony Orchestra, and in Florida he has performed with The Florida Orchestra (Tampa), the Gainesville Chamber Orchestra, and the Ocala Symphony Orchestra. Russell Brown's compositions have been performed in venues across the country, including performances by the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, and by the R20 Chamber Orchestra, from Wroclaw, Poland.

Award-winning Bulgarian cellist Boyan Bonev holds DM and MM degrees from the Florida State University, and a BM degree from the National Music Academy in Sofia, Bulgaria. Dr. Bonev teaches cello and double bass at Darton College (Albany, Georgia), is the orchestra director at Leon High School in Tallahassee, and is a faculty member of the FSU Summer Music Camps. He performs in Georgia with the Albany Symphony, and in Florida with the Tallahassee, Pensacola, Florida Lakes, Sinfonia Gulf Coast, and Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestras. Dr. Bonev is also an active performer of solo and chamber music, and his repertoire includes wide variety of solo and chamber music works from the Baroque and Romantic eras, contemporary compositions, and virtuoso show pieces. He has been a featured soloist with the Florida Lakes Symphony Orchestra and the Stara Zagora Symphony Orchestra (Bulgaria), and he has performed in the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. A prize winner from the Bulgarian National Competition for Singers and Instrumentalists, and the International Competition "Music and Earth," Dr. Bonev took part in various programs for the Bulgarian National Television and Radio, and he has performed in a number of prestigious music festivals in the United States and Europe.

Mimi Noda, Assistant Professor of Piano at Albany State University, holds a DM in Piano Performance, Chamber Music, and Accompanying from Florida State University. Her BM is from the Kunitachi College of Music in Tokyo, Japan, and after being graduated she was pianist for the Japanese Choral Association for six years. In 1998, she began her graduate studies at the University of Georgia, and the following year she received the Director’s Music Excellence Award, and was winner of the annual UGA concerto competition. She received her MM in Piano in 2000, and then moved to Lubbock, Texas, as Senior Staff Accompanist for the School of Music at Texas Tech University. In 2002, she began her doctoral studies in Tallahassee, and while there she received the Tallahassee Music Guild Scholarship and the Florida-Japan Institute Scholarship, and she was inducted into Pi Kappa Lambda, the National Music Honor Society. She also taught Japanese in FSU’s Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics from spring 2006 until spring 2009. In addition to her faculty responsibilities at Albany State, Dr. Noda is a keyboardist with the Albany Symphony Orchestra, and she regularly volunteers keyboard performances at Albany's Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital. She also enjoys singing as a member of the Albany Chorale.

PROGRAM NOTES, by Ed Lein, Music Librarian

JAXCAT entries for Bohuslav Martinů

Continuing the line of Czech composers from Dvořák through Smetana and Janáček, Bohuslav Martinů (1890-1959) is the best-known Czech composer of the mid-20th Century. Both prolific and versatile, Martinů wrote over 400 works in virtually all genres, including more than a dozen operas, 6 symphonies, and 28 works for solo instruments and orchestra.

His father was a poor shoemaker and church bell-ringer, and, owing to a rather frail constitution, young Bohuslav spent most of his childhood confined to the bell tower where his family lived. But his musical gifts were nonetheless recognized early on, and he began taking violin lessons when he was six or seven years old, and also began to compose around the same time. With the backing of his entire hometown of Polička, on the Bohemian-Moravian border, he moved to Prague in 1906, and entered the Conservatory there. Perhaps because of the introversion his childhood isolation had encouraged, he discovered he was not cut out to be the violin virtuoso his town folk were counting on--he was expelled from the Conservatory in 1910, due to what his teachers deemed "incorrigible negligence." Somewhat ironically, by the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Martinů himself had become a teacher, which, together with his health issues, exempted him from military service. But as other young musicians were conscripted, Martinů began playing violin with the Czech Philharmonic, and the orchestra performed some of his compositions. More importantly, he was exposed to a wide variety of musical styles, including especially the music of Debussy, which he said profoundly influenced his development as a composer.

Martinů moved to Paris in 1923 to study with French composer Albert Roussel (1869-1937), and to absorb the influences of Stravinsky, American jazz, and everything else that was churning in the Arts Capital of the World. Throughout his life, Martinů carried a picture postcard of the church he grew up in, and, perhaps inspired by his nostalgic homesickness, rhythmic and melodic elements of Czech folk music became integrated into his increasingly neoclassical style. But in 1941, not long after the 1940 German invasion of France, he and his French wife found themselves living in the United States, unable to speak English and with no job prospects. Fortunately, as with Bartók and a few other ex-patriot composers fleeing from the Nazis, Boston Symphony Orchestra conductor Serge Koussevitsky (1874-1951) was able to assist Martinů getting commissions and performances, and the virtually unknown Czech exile soon achieved a growing reputation among the Yanks. All six of Martinů's symphonies were written and fairly widely performed in America, and they prompted the internationally-famous Swiss conductor Ernest Ansermet (1883-1969) to declare Martinů the greatest living composer of symphonies.

Written in 1942, Martinů's Variations on a Theme of Rossini was among the first compositions he completed in the U.S., and it was composed for the virtuoso cellist Gregor Piatigorsky (1903-1976), for whom Martinů also wrote several other works. The titular "Theme of Rossini" refers to Dal tuo stellato soglio (From Your Starry Throne), from the opera, Mosè in Egitto (Moses in Egypt, 1819 version). But before Martinů got hold of it, Rossini's tune was first used by Italian violin virtuoso Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840), in his Sonata "a Preghiera" ("In Prayer" Sonata), aka, Moses Fantasy, a set of variations written originally for the violin's G-string. Perhaps because Moses was still in Egypt and Commandment VII had yet to be handed down, cellists have shown no remorse in absconding with Paganini's violin piece and moving it to their own A-string. Regardless of whether Martinů heard a cello transcription, or perhaps even studied the violin original during his conservatory days, Paganini's Fantasy, with its transformation of Rossini's reverential prayer into a light-hearted romp, is where Martinů's fanciful flight actually originates. Only, "Variations on a Variation from Paganini's Variations on a Theme of Rossini" does seem a little too long for a title.

JAXCAT entries for Schumann's Fantasiestucke, Op. 73

JAXCAT entries for Schumann Studies

The hopes of the great 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. From childhood he was torn between literature and music, and Schumann's abiding respect for the poet's voice helped make him a master songwriter. He also managed to combine these two loves even in some of his purely instrumental music, by using verse and dramatic narrative to color and direct the musical discourse.

That being said, a work which has no apparent connection with any verbiage is Schumann's three-movement Fantasiestücke (Fantasy Pieces), Op. 73, for clarinet and piano. If Mendelssohn had written these lyric miniatures they might well have been called "Songs without Words," but Schumann himself toyed with the idea of naming them Nachtstücke (Night Pieces). Schumann quickly wrote his would-be nocturnes over the course of two cold days in February, 1849, near the outset of what he would later refer to as "my most fruitful year," and he thought they would be equally effective with violin or cello. The composer instructed that the movements be played without a break, and, as his tempo markings indicate, the first movement is nostalgically dreamy, and the second one sprightly. The third movement becomes a jaunty ride, ever faster and faster in its Coda, so, with apologies to Bette Davis, "fasten your seatbelts ... ."

JAXCAT entries for Beethoven's Septet, Op. 20

JAXCAT entries for Beethoven Studies

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.

To anyone familiar with Beethoven's Septet in E-flat Major, Op. 20, his Trio, Op. 38 will be immediately recognizable as an arrangement of the composer's earlier best-seller. Dating from 1799-1800, Beethoven seems to have used Mozart's six-movement String Trio in E-flat Major, K. 563, as the model for the Septet. Beethoven's serenade became so popular with the music-buying public that others had started selling unauthorized arrangements for different instrumental combinations, so Beethoven made an arrangement for reduced forces himself, and issued it in 1805 with a new opus number. The original Septet was for clarinet, horn, bassoon, violin, viola, cello and string bass, and it was unusual for its time in that the clarinet was treated as an equal to the violin. Beethoven's Trio version allows for either clarinet or violin, with cello and piano.