©Eugene Langan
NCH LIVE STREAM SERIES
Barry Douglas
piano
FRIDAY 19 JUNE 2020
Welcome to tonight’s recital by Barry Douglas, streamed live from the stage of the National Concert Hall. As we continue to be unable to bring you, our audience, to our treasured venue due to the Covid-19 restrictions, we are delighted to be bringing such a world-renowned Irish artist into your home for you to listen to and watch in high-quality sound and vision. Barry Douglas is one of a very select handful of classical musicians from this island that has established a truly worldwide career and reputation, with an assured place among the top echelon of pianists performing today. His programme this evening demonstrates the breadth of his musical personality, reflecting his native Northern Ireland through his arrangements of My Lagan Love and Carrickfergus, his deep understanding of the great classics in music by Schubert and his special relationship with Russian romantic repertoire in music by Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky and - in particular - in his renowned interpretation of Mussorgsky’s ground-breaking masterpiece, Pictures of an Exhibition. We are in for a musical treat of the very highest quality! Our thanks to Davy, our innovation partners, for their support of our NCH Livestream initiative; The Irish Times, our print media partners; to the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht; RTÉ and to Culture Ireland and to the Department of Foreign Affairs in supporting the international dissemination of our livestreams. Finally, thank you to you – whoever and wherever you are – for joining us live for this special evening and we trust you will take musical and personal inspiration from this wonderful programme played by one of Ireland’s finest artists.
Maura McGrath Simon Taylor Chairman CEO Board Of Directors Maura McGrath Chair • James Cavanagh • Rebecca Gageby Gerard Gillen • Eleanor McEvoy • Máire O’Connor John Reynolds • Don Thornhill Patron Michael D. Higgins President of Ireland
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Traditional (arr. Barry Douglas)
My Lagan Love
Schubert Moments Musicaux No.s 1, 2 Rachmaninov Moments Musicaux Op. 16 No.s 4, 5 Tchaikovsky ‘February’, ‘December’ from The Seasons Traditional (arr. Barry Douglas)
Carrickfergus
Mussorgsky
Pictures of an Exhibition
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Barry Douglas
ŠBenjamin Ealovega
NCH Live Stream Series
PIANO
Barry Douglas has established a major international career since winning the Gold Medal at the 1986 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition, Moscow. As Artistic Director of Camerata Ireland, the only all-Ireland orchestra, and the Clandeboye Festival, his aim is to nurture new young talent from Ireland whilst also maintaining a busy international touring schedule. 4
Barry regularly tours with Camerata Ireland throughout the world and visited the US in the spring of 2018. Highlights of past seasons were Camerata Ireland’s debut at the BBC Proms in London and a world premiere of a new cantata commissioned by The Honourable The Irish Society, “At Sixes and Sevens”, alongside the London Symphony Orchestra to celebrate Derry-Londonderry becoming City of Culture 2013. Most recently they completed a residency at the National Concert Hall in 2019/2020 coinciding with their 20th anniversary. Recent tours for Barry as pianist have included Argentina, Brazil, Australia, Poland, Russia, UK, Italy, Japan, Ireland and the USA. In 16/17, he marked the 30th anniversary of his Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition win with Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto performances with the London Symphony Orchestra, with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland in Dublin and the Ulster Orchestra in Belfast. A highly sought after recitalist and chamber musician, he has given performances across the globe from Royal Albert Hall, Barbican and Wigmore Hall and the Verbier Festival to the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing, Grand Theatre in Shanghai and other cities in China. Barry is an exclusive Chandos recording artist. He recently completed a six-album recording of the complete solo piano works of Brahms. His current recording projects focus on solo piano works of Schubert, Tchaikovsky and other Russian composers. Also with Chandos Barry is exploring Irish folk music through his own arrangements: Celtic Reflections (2014) and Celtic Airs (2016). Barry Douglas received the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2002 New Year’s Honours List for services to music.
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My Lagan Love (arr. Barry Douglas) ‘My Lagan Love’ is a song to a traditional air which had been passed down aurally for generations before the musicologist and collector Herbert Hughes transcribed it in the early twentieth century. The song, NCH Live Stream Series
set the words of Joseph Campbell, refers most likely to the River Lagan in Belfast although some say the Lagan refers to a stream that empties into Lough Swilly in Donegal, not far from where Herbert Hughes collected the song. It was later arranged in the classical style by Hamilton Harty. The well-known song and tune has been recorded many times since by such names as Lisa Hannigan and The Chieftains, Phil Coulter, Van Morrison, Sinead O’Connor and Mary Coughlan. Tonight Barry Douglas performs his own unique arrangement of the tune for piano which he composed and recorded on Celtic Reflections (2014), breathing new life in to this well-known air.
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Franz Schubert (1797 – 1828) Six Moments Musicaux, D. 780 (Op. 94) Nos 1 and 2. Prodigiously talented, Franz Schubert left behind a vast body of work, including more than 600 secular vocal works, seven symphonies, sacred music, operas, incidental music and a large amount of piano and chamber music. His Six Moments Musicaux, written between 1823 and 1828, were published in 1828 (the same year that Schubert died). Translated as “musical moments”, these piano pieces, together with his Impromptus, are among the most frequently played of all his piano music, and have been recorded many times. They have often been compared to Beethoven’s Bagatelles for their concise yet dreamy qualities. It is suggested his Six Moments Musicaux were most likely written to satisfy the growing appetite amongst the Viennese public for short pieces that could be enjoyed and played at home or for informal gatherings. “Moments Musicaux are supreme examples of Schubert’s ability to suggest the subtlest nuances of emotion which shift and alter, literally in a moment. Even in their bigger, louder gestures, these pieces are intimate, almost confidential in tone, private and mysterious, their kaleidoscopic, fleeting yet profound emotions revealed in the apparent simplicity of the music.” (Interlude) The first Moment, in C major, opens with a sweet but also haunting fanfare before the mood changes heralded by the C minor chords. It is these harmonic shifts which gives the music a sense of dreaminess, while the returning triplets inject a sense of playfulness, albeit in the minor key. The constant key changes create a sense of drama in this short piece which also showcases the poignancy of Schubert’s writing which is so characteristic of his style. 7
The second Moment in A flat major is structured in ABABA, with the A section returning each time with slight variations. Unexpected harmonies and modulations give the music a dramatic intensity; the f-sharp minor sections are achingly sad, in particular the second one, the plaintive melody now accentuated by the accentuated chords. The A-flat major section returns once more before the shadow of sadness descends again, though without any sense of regret.
Sergei Rachmaninov (1873 – 1943) Moments Musicaux Op. 16 No.s 4, 5 Sergie Rachmaninov was a Russian-American composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor of the
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late Romantic period. His Moments Musicaux Op. 16 are a set of six solo piano works written between October and December 1896 when Rachmaninov was aged just 23-year-old and already in the middle of his career (he wrote his first piano concerto at the age of 18). The naming of his piece is said to have been inspired by Franz Schubert's collection of six short piano pieces, also called Six Moments Musicaux (Op. 94, 1828). By the Autumn of 1896 Rachmaninov's financial status was precarious, not helped by his being robbed on an earlier train trip. Even though Moments Musicaux were written in hasty circumstances given his need for financial security, the work is described as ‘revolutionary and grand in style’. It is said that the pieces reveal the charm of his early works while also showcasing sophistication and quality, a defining feature of his future works not least his Preludes (Op. 23) and Études-Tableaux (Op. 33). In an interview in 1941, Rachmaninov said, "What I try to do, when writing down my music, is to make it say simply and directly that which is in my heart when I am composing.”
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The Moments Musicaux are said to be both ‘Rachmaninov's return to and revolution of solo piano composition’. Although composed as part of a set spanning a variety of themes ranging from the funeral march of number three, to the canon of number six, each piece stands on its own merit as a concert solo. The set opens with the Andantino which features a long, reflective melody that develops into a rapid climax. The second piece, Allegretto, is the first of the few in the set that reveals his mastery of piano technique. Andante cantabile is a contrast to its two surrounding pieces, explicitly named "funeral march" and "lament.” Presto draws inspiration from several sources, including the Preludes of Frédéric Chopin, revealing Rachmaninov’s melodic intensity. The fifth, Adagio sostenuto is a respite in barcarolle form, before the finale Maestoso, which closes the set with its dense three-part texture.
Piotr Ilytch Tchaikovsky (1840 – 1893) The Seasons (‘February’ and ‘December’) In 1875, Tchaikovsky was commissioned by the editor of the St. Petersburg music magazine Nouvellis Nikolay Mayveyevich Bernard, to write The Seasons, a set of twelve short piano pieces. Bernard promised readers of the magazine a new Tchaikovsky piece, one for each month of the year, to be published throughout 1876. Tchaikovsky, in need of financial support, accepted the commission and commenced shortly after the premiere of Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto, and continued while he was completing his first ballet, Swan Lake. The January and February pieces were written in late 1875 and sent to Bernard in December, for review. Tchaikovsky was keen to ensure the pieces were written in the style Bernard was after before proceeding. March, April and May appear to have been composed separately; however, the remaining seven pieces were all composed at the same 9
time and written in the same copybook with evidence suggesting they were written between 22 April and 27 May. The epigraphs that appeared on publication of the pieces were chosen by Bernard, not by Tchaikovsky. Some ten years later, in 1886, the publisher P. Jurgenson acquired the rights and republished The Seasons as Op. 37a. The piece has been reprinted many times. The 12 pieces with their subtitles are: January: At the Fireside (A major) February: Carnival (D major) March: Song of the Lark (G minor) April: Snowdrop (B-flat major) May: Starlit Nights (G major) June: Barcarolle (G minor) July: Song of the Reaper (E-flat major) NCH Live Stream Series
August: Harvest (B minor) September: The Hunt (G major) October: Autumn Song (D minor) November: Troika (E major) December: Christmas (A-flat major) Troika (November) was a favourite encore of Sergei Rachmaninov who often performed the premier of his own piano pieces, and Barcarolle (June) was enormously popular and appeared in many different arrangements. Indeed French composer Philippe Sarde arranged the Barcarolle as a main theme for the 1988 movie The Bear. Most recently, a new arrangement of The Seasons was performed in January 2020 at Carnegie Hall by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.
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Carrickfergus (arr. Barry Douglas) Carrickfergus is an Irish folk song, named after the town of Carrickfergus in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It was first recorded, under the name The Kerry Boatman, by Dominic Behan on an LP called The Irish Rover, released in 1965. An almost identical version was recorded soon afterwards by the Clancy brothers. The song has been recorded by many well-known performers and in 1999 it was played at the funeral of John F. Kennedy, Jr. More recently it was performed by Loudon Wainwright III over the closing credits of an episode of HBO's series Boardwalk Empire. Tonight we hear a unique arrangement of the piece for piano solo by Barry Douglas which he recorded on his album Celtic Reflections (2014).
Modest Mussorgsky (1839 – 1881) Pictures of an Exhibition Modest Mussorgsky, was an innovator of Russian music in the romantic period who strove to achieve a uniquely Russian identity in his music, with many of his works – Boris Godunov, Night on a Bald Mountain and Pictures of an Exhibition - inspired by Russian history and folklore. 'Pictures at an Exhibition’, is a suite of ten pieces (and a recurring Promenade) composed for piano in 1874 and dedicated to the prominent Russian critic and journalist Vladimir Stasov. (It was Stasov who organised the memorial exhibition of Hartmann's work in February 1874). The piece was inspired by a visit to an art exhibition of Hartmann’s work. (Viktor was Mussorgsky’s friend, who had died at the peak of his career, aged just 39). The piano pieces take the form of a series of impressions of Hartmann’s paintings, interspersed with the recurring and developing Promenade theme, which represents Mussorgsky walking from one picture to the next through the gallery. 11
Although composed very rapidly, the work did not appear in print until 1886, five years after the composer's death, when an edition by the composer's friend and colleague Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov was published. Originally composed for solo piano, it became better known as an orchestral piece, in particular the arrangement by French composer Maurice Ravel, which was completed in 1922. Other orchestral arrangements have been composerd by Sir Henry J. Wood (1918), Leopold Stokowski (1939), and the famed pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy (1982). Tonight however we have the opportunity to hear it in its original form, as it was intended by the composer.
1st Promenade The piece begins with the promenade before beginning with the first NCH Live Stream Series
depiction entitled ‘Gnomus’ or Gnome. Gnomus. Hartmann’s drawing, which has since been lost, was according to Stasov "A sketch depicting a little gnome, clumsily running with crooked legs." The lurching music, in contrasting tempos with frequent stops and starts, suggests the movements of the gnome.
2nd Promenade 2. The Old Castle. Stasov's comment: "A medieval castle before which a troubadour sings a song." Two drawings of medieval castles are listed in the catalog, both sketched while Hartmann was in France, just before he met Mussorgsky. Mussorgsky’s melody, which Ravel gave to the alto saxophone, is inspired by Russian folk music.
3rd Promenade 3. Tuileries: Hartmann’s picture is of the Jardin des Tuileries near the Louvre in Paris (France) is now lost. He lived in Paris and became familiar with the well-known Tuileries Gardens with its playful children and their minders. Mussorgsky’s music is suggestive of both playtime and the serenity of the gardens. 12
4. Bydlo. Stasov's comment: "A Polish cart on enormous wheels, drawn by oxen." (“bydlo” is Polish for cattle). Mussorgsky's piano version of this movement is in sharp contrast to the lightness of the previous Tuileries. It begins fortissimo suggestive of the lumbering oxcart's journey, with the listener in the foreground. After reaching a climax, the dynamics change, descending into a diminuendo and pianissisimo, suggesting the oxcart receding into the distance.
4th Promenade 5. Ballet of the Chicks in their Shells. Stasov's comment: "Hartmann's design for the décor of a picturesque scene in the ballet Trilby." The music depicts a scene where a group of young children dressed as canaries and eggs, descend on to the theatre stage. 6. Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle. Stasov's comment: "Two Jews: rich and poor". Mussorgsky owned these two drawings entitled “A Rich Jew in a Fur Hat” and “A Poor Jew,” to which he gave proper names; Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle. The movement is thought to be based on two separate extant portraits with the use of augmented second intervals suggestive of Jewish modes such as the Phrygian dominant scale, adding to the musical depiction of the subject matter.
5th Promenade 7. The Market Place at Limoges. Stasov's comment: "French women quarrelling violently in the market." Hartmann did more than a hundred and fifty watercolors of Limoges in 1866, including many genre pictures. Mussorgsky originally provided two paragraphs in French that described a marketplace discussion (the 'great news'), but subsequently crossed them out in the manuscript. This scherzo is rhythmic and hurried, suggestive of the multiple and excited conversations of the marketplace.
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8. Catacombs: Stasov's comment: "Hartmann represented himself examining the Paris catacombs by the light of a lantern". This piece is in two sections, with the first alternating block chords evoking the grandeur, stillness, and echo of the catacombs. The second section is a more melancholic Andante. At the end of Catacombs, Mussorgsky penciled in his manuscript: “Con mortuis in lingua mortua” (With the dead in a dead language), signaling the start of this mournful rendition of the Promenade. 9. The Hut on Hen’s Legs (Baba-Yaga). Stasov's comment: "Hartmann's drawing depicted a clock in the form of Baba Yaga's hut on fowl's legs”. Once again, this musical depiction which starts as a scherzo marked Feroce with a slower middle section is inspired by Russian literature. Motifs in this movement evoke the bells of a large clock as signaled by the metronome marking (indicating a tempo of NCH Live Stream Series
one bar per second). 10. The Great Gate of Kiev. Stasov's comment: "Hartmann's sketch was his design for city gates at Kiev in the ancient Russian style with a cupola shaped like a Slavonic helmet." It is said that Hartmann modeled his gate on the traditional headdress of Russian women, with the belfry shaped like the helmet of Slavonic warriors. It begins with a majestic processional with the additional bell sound before returning to the Promenade theme and then the movement’s resplendent finale.
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