Olga Kern Program Book

PIANIST

OLGA KERN

2001 CLIBURN GOLD MEDALIST

THURSDAY & FRIDAY I OCTOBER 10 & 11, 2019 KIMBELL ART MUSEUM I RENZO PIANO PAVILION

PERFORMANCES SPONSORED BY

The Board of Directors of the Cliburn salutes with gratitude the generosity of

CONNIE BECK & FRANK TILLEY

MEADOWS FOUNDATION*

for supporting these performances of

OLGA KERN

PA G E

26

*Made possible by a generous gift to the Cliburn Endowment

CLIBURN AT THE KIMBELL Kimbell Art Museum Renzo Piano Pavilion Thursday & Friday, October 10 & 11, 2019 I 7:30 p.m.

OLGA KERN

2001 cliburn gold medalist piano

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ten Variations on “La stessa, la stessissima”

by Salieri, WoO 73 Sonata No. 21 in C Major, op. 53 (“Waldstein”) Allegro con brio Introduzione. Adagio molto Rondo. Allegretto moderato–Prestissimo

George Gershwin

Three Preludes

intermission Sergei Rachmaninov

Moment musical in E Minor, op. 16, no. 4 Barcarolle in G Minor, op. 10, no. 3 Polichinelle in F-sharp Minor, op. 3, no. 4

Pyotr Tchaikovsky

Méditation from 18 Pieces, op. 72, no. 5

Alexander Scriabin

Etude in F-sharp Minor, op. 42, no. 4 Etude in C-sharp Minor, op. 42, no. 5

Mily Balakirev

Islamey (Oriental Fantasy), op. 18

Join us in the lobby following the performance for an artist meet & greet and CD signing.

Olga Kern appears by arrangement with Columbia Artists Management LLC. Olga Kern is a Steinway Artist. Olga Kern records exclusively for harmonia mundi.

Olga Kern’s dresses are designed by Alex Teih.

Steinway & Sons is the official piano of the Cliburn.

This concert is being recorded. Please silence all electronic devices.

OLGA KERN

piano

Russian-American pianist Olga Kern is now recognized as one of her generation’s great pianists. She jumpstarted her U.S. career with a historic gold medal win at the Eleventh Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2001, the first woman to do so in more than 30 years.

First prize winner of the Rachmaninoff International Piano Competition at age 17, Ms. Kern is a laureate of many international competitions. In 2016, she served as jury chairman of both the Seventh Cliburn International Amateur Piano Competition and the first Olga Kern International Piano Competition, where she also holds the title of artistic director. She frequently gives masterclasses and has served on the piano faculty of the prestigious Manhattan School of Music since September 2017.

Additionally, Ms. Kern was selected as the Virginia Arts Festival’s new Connie & Marc Jacobson Director of Chamber Music, beginning with the 2019 season.

In the 2019–2020 season, Ms. Kern will perform with the Allentown, Grand Rapids, Baltimore, Colorado, Toledo, and New West Symphony Orchestras, the New Mexico Philharmonic, and on tour in the United States with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine. International engagements include the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie. She is also a guest soloist for the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center for Leonard Slatkin’s 75th Birthday Celebration. In recital, she will appear in Orford, Sunriver, Fort Worth (Cliburn), Carmel, San Francisco, Sicily, and Calvia. In October, Ms. Kern will host the Second Olga Kern International Piano Competition in Albuquerque, NM, and will also serve on the juries of the Sydney, Gurwitz, and Scriabin International Piano Competitions, as well as the Schumann Prize and Gershwin Piano Competitions, later this season.

In recent seasons, she has performed with the Moscow Philharmonic, Santa Fe Symphony, and St. Louis Symphony, as well as opened the Pacific Symphony’s 2018–2019 season. She was also a featured soloist for the Royal Scottish National Orchestra during its 2018–2019 tour. In the 2017–2018 season, she served as artist-in-residence for the San Antonio Symphony and had her Chinese debut on tour with the National Youth Orchestra of China. Ms. Kern opened the Baltimore Symphony’s 2015–2016 centennial season with Marin Alsop; other season highlights included returns to the Royal Philharmonic with Pinchas Zukerman and Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice with Giancarlo Guerrero.

Ms. Kern’s discography includes a Grammy®-nominated recording of Rachmaninoff’s Corelli Variations and other transcriptions (2004), Brahms Variations (2007), and Chopin Sonatas Nos. 2 and 3 (2010). She was featured in the award-winning documentary about the 2001 Cliburn Competition, Playing on the Edge.

Q&A WITH OLGA KERN

THE CLIBURN: We’re thrilled to welcome you back to open the 2019–2020 Cliburn Concerts season. What are you looking forward to most from this visit?

OLGA KERN: I am looking forward to seeing all my Fort Worth, Cliburn family and friends and perform for them. Every time I come back to this special place I feel at home!

THE CLIBURN: You recently became a U.S. citizen and were awarded with the Ellis Island Medal of Honor—presented to those who “embody the spirit of America in their salute to tolerance, brotherhood, diversity, and patriotism.” What did these mean to you, and what were your experiences like?

OLGA KERN: I am very proud to get an American citizenship and very honored to receive the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. It was unforgettable event, with the fireworks next to the Statue of Liberty. I met extraordinary people, who also received the medal including famous scientists, politicians, artists, activists, and astronauts. My son Vladislav was with me and it was extraordinary to share this amazing moment with him. He is also an American citizen and a New Yorker (he is studying at Juilliard). It was very special for both of us.

THE CLIBURN: You joined the piano faculty at the Manhattan School of Music in fall 2017. Has this experience of teaching changed your approach to your own performances? Tell us about the joys and challenges of teaching.

OLGA KERN: I am so happy to be on the faculty of Manhattan School of Music! It’s a fantastic school, with incredible faculty. continued

Beethoven

PIANO at 250: THE CONCERTOS

SATURDAY, JANUARY 4, 2020 2:30 PM & 7:30 PM BASS PERFORMANCE HALL ONE DAY. TWO CONCERTS. THE FIVE PIANO CONCERTOS.

FEATURING PIANISTS JOYCE YANG I DAVID FRAY I JON NAKAMATSU GEORGE LI I TILL FELLNER AND THE FORT WORTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA MIGUEL HARTH-BEDOYA CONDUCTOR

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Q&A WITH OLGA KERN

(CONTINUED)

continued I love to teach and share my knowledge with young talented pianists. With my own Olga Kern International Piano Competition (second edition this year in Albuquerque, New Mexico!) and being a professor at the Manhattan School, I am trying to help young musicians as much as I can. And in return, I learn so much from them. Because I am performing and touring a lot, I only have a small number of students, but I feel like they are my own children. I care about them and want them to succeed. It’s very rewarding to see them grow as professional pianists!

THE CLIBURN: Tell us about tonight’s recital. How did you choose the program, and what do you hope the audience takes away from it?

OLGA KERN: I would like to present my program to the Cliburn audience, which I have dedicated to Beethoven for the 250th anniversary of his birth. This program is also dedicated to my two beloved countries – America and Russia. To represent America in my program, I will perform works by the incredible American composer George Gershwin. Russia will be represented by my personal favorite, Rachmaninov. I will also perform works by Tchaikovsky, Scriabin, and Balakirev, including Balakirev’s most challenging piece Islamey.

And of course, I will finish my recital with many encores, as it is always one of my favorite parts of the concert, when I get to interact with the audience and share my beloved music with them.

I can’t wait to come back to Fort Worth and perform at the Kimbell Museum on the beautiful Steinway piano (which I chose for this incredible hall.) It will be a great celebration of music, and I am very much looking forward to it!

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PROGRAM NOTES

BY KRISTIAN LIN

Ten Variations on Salieri’s “La stessa, la stessissima,” WoO 73 Ludwig van Beethoven b. December 1770 (Bonn, Germany) d. March 26, 1827 (Vienna, Austria) BEHIND THE MUSIC It’s a myth that Antonio Salieri poisoned Mozart — you can blame that idea on Alexander Pushkin and the stage and film versions of Amadeus. He was a giant as a music teacher, tutoring not only Beethoven, but also Schubert and Liszt, mostly in the art of vocal composition. For this piano work written around 1799, Beethoven took a brief duet from his teacher’s opera Falstaff and worked up 10 variations on the original idea. He evidently didn’t think enough of the work to publish it, but the set does reward a listen.

FOLLOW THE MUSIC • After Salieri’s original music is transcribed for piano, the first variation contains a long B-flat major passage snaking through both the right-hand and left-hand part.

• Variation 2 repeats the melody in 16th notes, while 3 has the left hand play the melody accompanied by syncopated chords in the right. Arpeggiated triplets dominate Variation 4, and 5 changes the key to B-flat minor, while 6 reverts to the original key with a fugal subject that includes some double notes. Variation 7 is a fast study full of rapid scales, while 8 is dreamier, and Variation 9 is spiked with grace notes.

• The final variation is the longest, containing a piece of music that sounds wholly original to Beethoven. Salieri’s melody remains recognizable, but with elements drawn from the previous variations. Presaging the finale of his 30th Piano Sonata, the 10th variation climaxes with a lengthy high trill over thematic material in the left hand, followed by a reprise of Salieri’s original music to show us how far we’ve come.

PROGRAM NOTES

BY KRISTIAN LIN (CONTINUED)

Sonata No. 21 in C Major, op. 53 (“Waldstein”) Ludwig van Beethoven BEHIND THE MUSIC Beethoven had the great good fortune to come of age as a composer at a time when the pianoforte had recently been invented. True, other musical developments happened in his surroundings that he took full advantage of, but the piano allowed him and other musicians to play with a speed and fluidity that hadn’t been possible with previous keyboard instruments, as well as showcase a range of dynamics from loud to soft unlike any that had been heard before. This piano sonata is dedicated to and named after an Austrian count who had failed miserably as a military commander, but had enough musical taste to back Beethoven’s career financially. Though Beethoven had written many keyboard pieces before this, the “Waldstein” Sonata was one of the first instances in which he fully explored the capabilities of the new instrument placed before him.

FOLLOW THE MUSIC • Though most of the first movement is played at either piano or pianissimo levels, the quick chords on the low end of the register that open the sonata (and recur throughout the movement) help create a sense of bustling activity. Over this is laid a series of bright, pointed melodic figures whose restless invention pours out from every corner.

• A brief introduzione serves as the second movement, providing a bit of respite from the opening with a series of calming chords taken at a stately tempo. However, just because it’s quiet doesn’t mean that everything is calm. The section builds to an intense climax without ever speeding up, with curlicues in the bass ratcheting up the tension.

• This leads into the final movement, a rondo that starts with a deceptively calm, lullaby-like melody floating over a gently rocking rhythm. When the melody comes back over another high trill, it takes on a new urgency that leads to the fireworks that we expect, with the left and right hands exchanging strongly marked octaves and quickfire triplets running past.

This leads to a mad dash of notes that alternates with the lullaby theme now declaimed in big chords, then incorporated into an altogether ingenious finish.

Three Preludes George Gershwin b. September 26, 1898 (Brooklyn, New York) d. July 11, 1937 (Los Angeles, California) BEHIND THE MUSIC A greatly talented pianist, Gershwin wrote surprisingly little solo concert music for the instrument. These preludes, in a jazzy vein like much of his other music, make you wish he had lived to write more. They are also good enough to make you wish that more concert pianists took them seriously, instead of leaving them to be played by intermediate piano students. The preludes enjoyed their 1926 world premiere not at a concert hall, but at a hotel in New York.

FOLLOW THE MUSIC • The first prelude begins with a brashly stated five-note blues motif introducing a stomping rhythm in the bass that gives way to a syncopated line. Its bright colors and jaunty mood amount to a statement of intent.

• The second prelude is the longest one, with a bluesy melody playing over a slow “walking” line of bass chords. The middle section, with the melody crossing over into the bass register, is a sheer delight in the hands of a pianist with a feel for the milieu. The piece resolves into a series of ethereal harmonies in the treble.

• The set ends with a return to the energetic, bumptious style of the beginning. Fast, bruising chords introduce a main theme that scuttles in and out of the piece’s jagged rhythms. Gershwin toggles between two key signatures (E-flat Major and E-flat Minor) to uneasy and thrilling effect, as the piece ends with an abrupt fillip.

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PROGRAM NOTES

BY KRISTIAN LIN (CONTINUED)

Moment musical in E Minor, op. 16, no. 4 Sergei Rachmaninov b. April 1, 1873 (Semyonovo, Novgorod, Russia) d. March 28, 1943 (Beverly Hills, California) BEHIND THE MUSIC Among other pianists, Rachmaninov was known for his left hand, which could play with the same power and dexterity as his right. Though he composed this early in his career, his distinctive voice comes through in this virtuoso study.

FOLLOW THE MUSIC • This work is often compared to Chopin’s “Revolutionary” Étude, with its fiery, complex, and taxing runs in the left hand that occasionally take over the right-hand part as well. Double-note figures in the right spell out a melody of tragic purpose.

Barcarolle in G Minor, op. 10, no. 3 Sergei Rachmaninov BEHIND THE MUSIC A barcarolle is defined as a song sung by Venetian gondoliers as they row their boats through the canals. It has often been a feature of opera, but piano composers have written barcarolles as well, most notably Chopin.

Rachmaninov’s item is one of a series of salon pieces written quite early in his career.

FOLLOW THE MUSIC While barcarolles are often jolly affairs, Rachmaninov invests his with a typically more melancholy mood. Listen for: • A gentle rhythmic figure in the right hand opposite the melody in the left, undulating between two notes and a single note for the right thumb to capture the shimmer of the water and the waves in the canal. continued

PROGRAM NOTES

BY KRISTIAN LIN (CONTINUED)

continued

• A faster section dominated by a plaintive rocking figure in the right hand can sound like onrushing rapids in the wrong hands. After this piece of turbulence, the piece eventually pulls into its sad harbor.

Polichinelle in F-sharp Minor, op. 3, no. 4 Sergei Rachmaninov BEHIND THE MUSIC Catching the composer in a rare humorous mood, this piece is named after the character from Italian commedia dell’arte known as Pulcinella (or Punch).

Like all the other pieces in Rachmaninov’s Op. 3 set, this was immediately eclipsed by the success of the Prelude in C-sharp Minor (op. 3, no. 2.)

FOLLOW THE MUSIC • Despite Rachmaninov’s use of heavy bass chords and grotesque grace notes, it’s hard not to notice that other composers were more adroit in using music to evoke a slapstick mood. Rachmaninov follows convention in inserting a slower lyrical section in the middle of two louder, showier ones. The piece takes approximately 4 minutes to play.

Méditation from 18 Pieces, op. 72, no. 5 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky b. May 7, 1840 (Votkinsk, Russia) d. November 6, 1893 (Saint Petersburg, Russia) BEHIND THE MUSIC “I’m continuing to bake my musical pancakes,” Tchaikovsky wrote in a letter about the composition of the Op. 72 pieces. Having just completed work on the “Pathétique” Symphony in the spring of 1893, he cheerfully acknowledged writing this set for the money. The “Méditation” is among the most famous of this set of 18 lyric pieces, and while other pieces in the opus bear the hallmarks of light work, this wanders into greater depths.

FOLLOW THE MUSIC The piece launches straight into a catchy rhythmic figure whose melodic grace is reminiscent of a song. However, without abandoning this figure, the piece wanders into impassioned outbursts in the middle that wouldn’t be out of place in one of Tchaikovsky’s orchestral works. This eventually subsides into a series of high trills (much like Beethoven’s Salieri piece) that bring the music to a quiet end.

Etude in F-sharp Minor, op. 42, no. 4 Alexander Scriabin b. December 25, 1871 (Moscow, Russia) d. April 14, 1915 (Moscow, Russia) BEHIND THE MUSIC This heavily chromatic piece is rather typical of piano works written by other late-19th century Russian composers. Scriabin himself wrote in this vein earlier in his career, but would soon shake this off for the mysticism and experimentation that he is known for. Indeed, an example of this can be seen in the next piece in the program.

FOLLOW THE MUSIC • The melody is played largely by the ring and little fingers of the right hand, while the other fingers of the right play in shifting rhythms and harmonies that give this piece the perfumed delicacy of a hothouse flower.

PROGRAM NOTES

BY KRISTIAN LIN (CONTINUED)

Etude in C-sharp Minor, op. 42, no. 5 Alexander Scriabin BEHIND THE MUSIC This study is marked “affanato,” meaning “breathless,” and performing it may well leave the pianist in that state. Like many other Scriabin pieces, this is an upward-flying exaltation, though it settles gently back down to earth.

FOLLOW THE MUSIC • Among the piece’s treacherous technical hurdles are wide skips in the left hand, melodies over a rhythmic figure with 24 notes to the bar, and hammered repeated chords.

Islamey (Oriental Fantasy), op. 18 Mily Balakirev b. January 2, 1837 (Nizhny Novgorod, Russia) d. May 29, 1910 (Saint Petersburg, Russia) BEHIND THE MUSIC In the early 19th century, the Russian empire had a series of wars with Persia that resulted in much of present-day Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan coming under Russian control, and Russian artists and writers quickly became fascinated (often in problematic ways) by the exotic customs of these people. In 1862, Mily Balakirev took a trip to that part of his nation.

Though Balakirev was a fierce nationalist who believed in putting forth distinctively Russian music to the world, he was enchanted by the wild beauty of the region among the Caucasus mountains and the music that he found there. He was known for dawdling over his compositions for years (thus his sparse output), but this piano piece was composed in a little over a month. This “Oriental fantasy” quickly became the composer’s most famous work, with no less than Franz Liszt demanding that all his students study it.

FOLLOW THE MUSIC As a representation of Caucasian music, this work is little more than a piece of chintzy exoticism. As a showpiece for a pianist, however, it’s extraordinarily effective. Listen for: • A fast tempo and 12/16 time in the opening and closing sections, a Russian replication of the dance rhythms of the region.

• A slower tempo and a shift to 6/8 time in the lyrical middle section.

• Frequent repeated notes, a feature of folk songs of the region, and a challenge for a pianist to play at speed.

• Frequent changes of key and alternating chords and octaves.

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