6 minute read
Zlatomir Fung & Richard Fu (Wu Tsai QRT.yrd
ZLATOMIR FUNG, cello & RICHARD FU, piano
PRELUDE 2:30 PM
Musical Performance
This performance will be available to stream on-demand until June 23, 2021.
SUNDAY, JUNE 6, 2021 · 3 PM
WU TSAI QRT.yrd
SGAMBATI Serenata Napoletana, Opus 24, No. 2
(1841-1914)
(1770-1827)
Allegro ma non tanto Allegro molto Adagio cantabile; Allegro vivace SERVAIS Fantasie and Variations on Themes from Donizetti’s La fille du
(1807-1866) régiment, Opus 16 Zlatomir Fung, cello; Richard Fu, piano
Born May 28, 1841, Rome Died December 14, 1914, Rome Composed: 1890 Approximate Duration: 3 minutes
Giovanni Sgambati studied piano as a boy and soon attracted the attention of Liszt, who was living in Rome at that time. Sgambati studied with Liszt and eventually became his colleague and lifelong friend. Liszt in turn brought Sgambati to Germany and introduced him to mainstream European classical music, which was then almost unknown in Italy, where opera reigned supreme. Sgambati developed into a virtuoso pianist and played throughout Europe, but he remained based in Rome, where he helped found the Academy of Santa Cecelia. As a conductor, Sgambati introduced much instrumental music to Italy: he conducted the Italian premieres of Beethoven’s Eroica in 1867 and his Seventh Symphony in 1870, and it is telling that those symphonies were not performed in Italy until over sixty years after they were written. Sgambati composed orchestral music, chamber music, sacred settings, and piano pieces, but most of this music has disappeared from concert halls.
Sgambati composed his Two Pieces for Violin and Piano, Opus 24, in 1890, and the second of these two pieces—a “Neapolitan” serenade—remains his most famous work; it is heard at this concert in an arrangement for cello and piano. The Serenata Napoletana is short, lyrical, and charming music, and it was a favorite encore piece of Jascha Heiftetz, who recorded it. At the beginning, Sgambati instructs the pianist to play come chitarra (“like a guitar”), and the tuneful serenade soars above this accompaniment. Throughout, Sgambati repeatedly reminds both performers to play tranquillo and espressivo.
Born December 16, 1770, Bonn Died March 26, 1827, Vienna Composed: 1807-08 Approximate Duration: 25 minutes
The year 1807 found Beethoven extremely busy. During the previous year, he had composed his Fourth Piano Concerto, Fourth Symphony, the three Razumovsky Quartets, and the Violin Concerto, and now he pressed right on, completing the Coriolan Overture in March 1807 and continuing work on his Fifth Symphony. He paused to write the Mass in C Major, then completed the symphony in the fall and began a cello sonata, which he finished early the following year. Beethoven dedicated the sonata to his longtime friend Baron Ignaz von Gleichenstein, who not only handled the composer’s financial affairs but was also a skillful amateur cellist. The first public performance—on March 5, 1809— was given by two distinguished performers who were also friends and colleagues of Beethoven: pianist Baroness Dorothea von Ertmann and cellist Nikolaus Kraft.
The Cello Sonata in A Major is a remarkable work. Given its proximity in time to the Fifth Symphony, one might expect the sonata to be charged with that same molten energy. Instead, it is characterized by nobility, breadth, and a relaxed quality that have made it—by common consent— the finest of Beethoven’s five cello sonatas. Beyond issues of content, this sonata is notable for Beethoven’s solution to a problem that has plagued all who write cello sonatas—how to keep the two instruments balanced. He keeps the cello part in the rich mid-range of that instrument, and while the piano is an active co-participant, it is never allowed to overpower or bury the cello.
The Allegro ma non tanto opens with an unusual touch: all alone, the cello plays the movement’s poised main theme and is joined by the piano only after the theme is complete. Beethoven marks both entrances dolce, and while there is plenty of energy in this lengthy sonata-form movement, that marking might characterize the movement as a whole (characteristically, the marking at the beginning of the development is espressivo). The second movement—Allegro molto—is a scherzo with a syncopated main idea and a doublestopped second theme (also marked dolce). These alternate in the pattern ABABA before a brief coda rounds the movement off; the very ending is a model of ingenuity and understatement. There is no slow movement in this sonata, but the final movement opens with an extended slow introduction marked Adagio cantabile before the music leaps ahead at the Allegro vivace. This is not the expected rondo-finale but another sonata-form movement. It is typical of this sonata that the opening of the fast section is marked pianissimo, and throughout the movement Beethoven reminds both players repeatedly to play dolce.
This sonata may come from the same period as the Fifth Symphony, but its graceful mix of nobility and restraint makes it seem a far different work. Doubtless it brought relief to its composer, and it continues to bring joy to audiences today.
Fantasie and Variations on Themes from Donizetti’s La fille du régiment, Opus 16 ADRIEN FRANCOIS SERVAIS
Born June 6, 1807, Halle, Belgium Died November 26, 1866, Halle, Belgium Composed: 1856 Approximate Duration: 10 minutes
Though his name is almost forgotten today, Adrien Francois Servais was one of the greatest cellists of the nineteenth century. Admired for the richness of his sound and for the fluidity of his playing, Servais was frequently compared with Paganini and Liszt; Berlioz and Rossini were among the many who praised his playing. Servais divided his time between concert tours and teaching at the Brussels Conservatory, and he made extended stays in Russia. Servais played a Stradivarius cello crafted in 1701, and that instrument—considered one of the finest cellos ever made— is now in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution.
One of the popular forms for composer-performers in the nineteenth century was a set of variations on themes from operas of the day: these themes, already familiar to audiences, would provide material for performers to show their skills. Servais wrote a number of such pieces, based on themes from Verdi’s La Traviata, Weber’s Der Freischütz, and others. In 1856 he composed what he called a Fantasie and Variations on themes from one of the most popular operas of the era, Donizetti’s La fille du régiment. That opera, premiered in Paris in 1840, tells of the love between Marie, the canteen girl of the 21st Regiment of the French army, and Tonio, a young soldier. From themes of that opera, Servais fashioned an attractive—and quite lyric—set of variations. This music was originally scored for cello and orchestra, but today it is almost always performed by cello and piano. Servais divides the work into different sections: an introduction, the principal theme, four variations, a romance, and a virtuoso finale. The principal theme comes from Marie’s aria in Act I, “Chacun le sait,” which is in fact the song of the 21st Regiment, and in the opera Marie is cheered on by the soldiers as she sings it. The aria has a very infectious melody (it is a great favorite of sopranos), and from it Servais composes a twelve-minute piece that allows cellists to show off both their lyrical skills and their virtuosity.
