Program notes by Eric Bromberger

Song without Words in D Major, Opus 109 FELIX MENDELSSOHN

Born February 3, 1809, Hamburg

Died November 4, 1847, Leipzig

Composed: 1845

Approximate Duration: 5 minutes

Between 1830 and 1845 Mendelssohn composed a number of short pieces for piano that he called “Lieder ohne Worte”: “Songs without Words.” That title makes clear that the impulse in this music is fundamentally lyric: a singing melody, usually in the right hand, is supported by a relatively straightforward accompaniment in the left, and many of these pieces are easy enough to suggest that Mendelssohn intended them for the growing number of amateur pianists in the first part of the nineteenth century. But many of them are frankly virtuosic, so difficult that they remain beyond the reach of all but the most talented amateur pianists. All these pieces, though, show Mendelssohn’s virtues—appealing melodies, a nice sense of form, rhythmic vitality, and polished writing for the piano—and they became vastly popular in the nineteenth century.

The Lieder ohne Worte have appeared in arrangements for many instruments, but the Song without Words in D Major, Opus 109 was conceived by Mendelssohn himself for cello and piano. He appears to have composed it in the fall of 1845, shortly after the première of his Violin Concerto, but he had not published it at the time of his death sixteen months later— it was published after his death and assigned the opus number 109 at that time. This brief piece is in the three-part form that Mendelssohn favored in his Lieder: the opening section is indeed song-like in its appealing lyricism, where the middle section is impetuous. Mendelssohn makes a particularly beautiful return to the opening material, and the music draws to a quiet close.

Scarborough Fair

TRADITIONAL (arr. Stephen Hough)

Approximate Duration: 3 minutes

Most American audiences know “Scarborough Fair” in the version sung by Simon and Garfinkel and used in the film The Graduate. In its earliest form, the song was a ballad of lost love that originated in England or Scotland, and it has been sung in many different versions. The present arrangement for cello and piano was made by the English pianist and composer Stephen Hough.

Shenandoah TRADITIONAL (arr. Caroline Shaw)

Approximate Duration: 5 minutes

“Shenandoah” appears to have originated early in the nineteenth century among the boatmen of the American West. It has been set to a number of different texts, but in whatever form the song takes, its haunting main melody has become one of the best-loved of American folk tunes. American composer Caroline Shaw, who in 2012 became the youngestever recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music, has arranged this traditional melody for a variety of ensembles, and it is heard at this concert in a version for cello and piano.

Was It a Dream? (Var det en dröm?), Opus 37, No. 4 JEAN SIBELIUS

Born December 8, 1865, Tavastahus, Finland

Died September 20, 1957, Jarvenpaa, Finland

Composed: 1902

Approximate Duration: 3 minutes

Sibelius composed about one hundred songs for voice and piano, but this significant body of work has been slow to find an audience: most of these songs are in Swedish (Sibelius grew up speaking Swedish, and only five of his songs are in Finnish), and the piano parts are not distinguished— Sibelius was an indifferent pianist, and his accompaniments lack the musical subtlety and psychological insight that characterize the best German lieder. Yet the songs have many virtues: their texts come largely from Scandinavian writers and are not over-familiar, and at their best the songs show some of the compression and expressive power of Sibelius’ symphonies. Sibelius wrote his Five Songs, Opus 37 between the years 1898 and 1902, a period during which he moved from virtual anonymity to an international success with his Second Symphony. Though brief, “Var det en dröm?” (“Was That a Dream?”) is a big, dramatic song about the pain of love. Setting a text by the poet Josef Wecksell, it features an extremely active piano accompaniment, long phrases (the meter is 6/4), and an impassioned vocal line that drives to a sudden ending.

From Jewish Life ERNEST BLOCH

Born July 24, 1880, Geneva

Died July 15, 1959, Portland, Oregon

Composed: 1924

Approximate Duration: 10 minutes

Bloch settled in the United States during World War I, and that move came during a period of intense identification with his Jewish heritage. Bloch noted that it was “the Hebrew spirit that interests me—the complex, ardent, agitated soul that vibrates for me in the Bible,” and over the next few years came a number of works inspired by that spirit: Trois poèmes juifs (1913), Psalm 22 (1914), the Israel Symphony (1916), and Baal Shem (1923). It was in music for the cello, though, that Bloch’s love for his Jewish heritage seems to have found most passionate expression: the greatest of the works from what he called his “Jewish cycle” is Schelomo, A Hebraic Rhapsody for Cello and Orchestra (1916), and he returned to the cello—and to Jewish subjects—in From Jewish Life and Meditation hebraïque, both composed in 1924.

The three pieces that make up From Jewish Life are quite brief (Bloch referred to them as “sketches”) and wellsuited to the rich and expressive sonority of the cello. The noble “Prayer” opens lyrically, but soon gives way to a more animated second section, full of rhythmic point. Over rippling piano accompaniment, the cello presents the powerful main idea of “Supplication,” and this piece remains passionate throughout. The concluding “Jewish Song”—shortest of the three—maintains the intensity of the first two pieces: prayer and song are never far apart in this music.

Four Romantic Pieces, Opus 75 ANTONIN DVOŔÁK

Born September 8, 1841, Muhlhausen, Bohemia Died May 1, 1904, Prague

Composed: 1887

Approximate Duration: 15 minutes

In January 1887, Dvořák set out to write a piece for his young friend Josef Kruis, a chemistry student in Prague and an amateur violinist. It was an unusual piece: the Terzetto, Opus 74 consisted of four brief movements (Dvořák characterized them as “miniatures” or “bagatelles”), scored for two violins and violas. But these pieces turned out to be too difficult for Kruis, and so the following week Dvořák wrote another—somewhat easier—set for the same forces. But he quickly recast this second work as a set of pieces for violin and piano and published them later that year under the name Four Romantic Pieces; the music is heard at this concert in an arrangement for cello and piano.

These brief pieces are pleasing to play and pleasing to hear. Though not terribly difficult, they are full of Dvořák’s wonderful lyricism and an unusual harmonic freedom that has the music slipping effortlessly between shade and sunlight. The violin line sings easily, but beneath it the piano accompaniment is quite active, and while the piano is never obtrusive, much of the charm in this music lies in the piano’s busy accompaniments. All four pieces are sectional, and many of the sections are repeated.

Dvořák originally gave each of the movements a name, but then withdrew the names before publication. Those titles, though, do offer a key to the character of each movement.

The first movement was originally called Cavatina: the haunting melodic part flows easily, and beneath it the piano accompanies with a constant dactylic rhythm. The second movement (originally Capriccio) swaggers along on great rolled chords; later the instruments reverse roles and the cello accompanies the piano. The third movement (Romance) returns somewhat to the manner of the first, though this is more animated music: Dvořák marks the part Allegro appassionato, and the piano’s triplet rhythms propel the music constantly forward. The dark concluding movement (originally called Elegy) is built on a grieving, halting main idea; the movement falls away and fades into silence on a chord marked triple piano.

Dervish ERROLLYN WALLEN

Born April 10, 1958, Belize Composed: 2001

Approximate Duration: 7 minutes

Born in Belize, Errollyn Wallen grew up in New York City and London. She studied music and dance as a child and originally intended to make a career as a ballerina but finally decided to become a composer. She completed her MPhil at King’s College, Cambridge and is currently Visiting Professor of Composition at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She was made a Commander of the British Empire in 2020.

Wallen composed Dervish in 2001, and the première was given by cellist Matthew Sharp and pianist Dominic Harlan at Wigmore Hall on June 29, 2001. That title might seem to suggest an orgiastic piece that concludes in a blaze of rhythmic frenzy, like Ravel’s La valse, but exactly the reverse is true—Wallen has stated that she was aiming for a state of “rapt and still devotion” in this music. Dervish begins in a state of what seems like suspended animation, with its harmonics, glissandos, and knuckles knocked on the wood of both instruments. From out of this static activity come a number of short motifs that are treated in different ways. Gradually Dervish begins to move and suddenly erupts into an outburst of blistering activity. Here, it seems, is the wild activity suggested by the title. But it is not to be: the music breaks off, the opening thematic fragments return, and Dervish comes to a sudden and enigmatic conclusion.

Cristal

Cesar Camargo Mariano

Born September 19, 1943, São Paulo, Brazil

Composed: 1985

Approximate Duration: 3 minutes

Cesar Camargo Mariano grew up in São Paulo as part of a musical family that encouraged his talents, but the boy was almost entirely self-taught as a composer. He was attracted early to jazz and bossa nova, and as a young man he formed and played in a number of ensembles. Mariano made his reputation in Brazil as a pianist, composer, arranger, and producer; since 1994 he has been based in the United States.

The lively Cristal is one of Mariano’s most famous compositions (a tremendous video of the composer performing the solo piano version of Cristal can be found on the internet). This is music of nonstop energy, and it drives ahead furiously on the strength of the pianist’s left-hand ostinatos (Mariano is famous for the agility of his left hand). Over this energetic impulse, the right hand swirls through a kaleidoscope of moods. Cristal is heard at this concert in an arrangement for cello and piano by the Argentinian composer and arranger Jorge Calandrelli.

Libertango (arr. Kathryn Stott)

Soledad

Le Grand Tango

Astor Piazzolla

Born March 11, 1921, Mar de Plata, Argentina

Died July 4, 1992, Buenos Aires

Composed: 1974

Approximate Duration: 20 minutes

As a young man, Astor Piazzolla learned to play the bandoneon, the Argentinian accordion-like instrument that uses buttons rather than a keyboard, and he became a virtuoso on it. But his musical path was not at first clear: he gave concerts, made a film soundtrack, and created his own bands before a desire for wider expression drove him to the study of classical music. He received a grant to study with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, and it was that great teacher who advised him to follow his passion for the Argentinian tango as the source for his own music.

Piazzolla returned to Argentina and gradually evolved his own style, one that combines the tango, jazz, and classical music. In his hands, the tango—which had deteriorated into a soft, popular form—was revitalized. Piazzolla transformed this old Argentinian dance into music capable of a variety of expression and fusing sharply contrasted moods: his tangos are by turn fiery, melancholy, passionate, tense, violent, lyric, and always driven by an endless supply of rhythmic energy.

After returning from his studies with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, Piazzolla had great success in Argentina, but after two decades there (and a heart attack in 1973), he decided to return to Europe. Libertango, composed in Italy in 1974, quickly became a hit in Europe, and it remains today one of Piazzolla’s most popular works. The title of this brief tango is somewhat fanciful (Piazzolla himself described it as “a sort of song of liberty”), and listeners will be taken more by its pulsing rhythm, which functions as an ostinato throughout, and Piazzolla’s sinuous, sensual, and dark main theme.

The middle movement of Piazzolla’s suite Silfio y Ondina, Soledad is most often performed as an individual work. This melancholy meditation on solitude, said to have been written after the composer’s wife left him, has been arranged for a variety of instruments.

Le Grand Tango, which Piazzolla wrote specifically for cello and piano, is one of his few chamber works and one of his few pieces of “classical” music, though it too is driven by the varying moods and vitality of the tango. This is a big piece, and it has become a great favorite of cellists—there are a number of recordings available. Le Grand Tango is episodic in structure: moments of lilting languor alternate with impassioned sequences full of energy, and finally this Tango rushes to its fiery close on a great upward glissando.

PRELUDE 6:30 PM