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Photo: Ashwini Ramaswamy’s Let the Crows Come by Jake Armour
for a full listing of this season’s events.
Department of Music and Theatre University at Albany presents:
Akina Yura piano
Saturday, March 26, 2022 at 7pm
Recital Hall UAlbany Performing Arts Center
Program from Organ Chorale Preludes, arrangement for piano:
Wachet auf, ruft uns Johann Sebastian Bach/Ferruccio Busoni (1685-1750) / (1866-1924) die Stimme, BWV 645
Widmung
Embraceable You
Barcarole in F-sharp major, op. 60
Petites pièces pour Piano I. II. III. Sans lenteur
Ignis Fatuus
(Mysterious Fires) for Piano
I. Allegretto II. Moderato, delicato e flessibile III. Vivace e leggiero
Prélude, Choral et Fugue
Robert Schumann/Franz Liszt
(1810-1856) / (1811-1886)
George Gershwin/Earl Wild
(1898-1937) / (1915-2010)
Frédéric Chopin
(1810-1849)
Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979)
Adolphus Hailstork (1941-)
César Franck (1822-1890)
About the Performer Pianist Akina Yura has been heard throughout the United States, Europe, and her native Japan. She has appeared as a guest recitalist in numerous concert series, including the Pianodrom International Piano Festival in Albania. As a chamber musician, she has appeared both in the United States and in Japan, including numerous summer appearances as a collaborative pianist for the Castleman Quartet Program. Passionate in exploring a wide range of repertoire, Yura continues to present well-known, new, and underrepresented music. Recently, her debut CD, Mutsuo Shishido Complete Works for Piano (MSR Classics), has been hailed by critics as “first rate” and “fantastic playing… full of sensitive nuances” [American Record Guide]. Fanfare Magazine critic Peter Burwasser wrote: “I cannot imagine a better advocate for this music than the wonderful young pianist Akina Yura…” Dr. Yura also compiled the first full biography of Shishido and analysis of his works. Currently, Yura serves on the piano faculty at The College of Saint Rose (Albany, NY) and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, NY). She is also a co-founder of, co-director of, and frequent performer with Kaleidoscope MusArt, Inc., a nonprofit organization based in Miami, FL, dedicated to the promotion of newly composed and rarely heard works alongside standard masterworks of the classical canon. Yura holds piano performance degrees from the University of Maryland (B.M.), Indiana University Jacobs School of Music (M.M.), and the University of Miami Frost School of Music (D.M.A.). Her previous teachers include Santiago Rodriguez, Edward Auer, Shigeo Neriki, Mikhail Volchok, and Nathan Buckner.
Program Notes from Organ Chorale Preludes Arrangement for piano:
Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 645 Johann Sebastian Bach/Ferruccio Busoni (1685-1750)/(1866-1924) Johann Sebastian Bach’s music acquired its re-emergence starting half a century after his death, and since then, his works have received enduring attention and respect that was far beyond that which he had attained in his own lifetime. This attention gained strength from decade to decade, reaching its peak between the 19th and 20th centuries. Bach’s revival has never ceased in concerts and performance practice and has inspired new compositions to this day. Born in a musical family, Ferruccio Busoni received an early musical education from his parents and was introduced to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach at an early age. Busoni lived as a composer, performer, and aesthetician. He contributed significantly to the development of a pianistic approach to Bach’s music. His transcriptions and compositions revealed a deep understanding of Bach’s music as a composer and a pianist. He experimented boldly with sound, especially with the use of the instrument’s pedals, in contrast to the trends of historically informed performances. Busoni’s transcriptions of ten organ preludes display a wide variety of character as well as compositional techniques and are loved as gems of musical composition. Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme [Awake, the voice is calling us], BWV 645, was originally composed as the fourth movement of Bach’ cantata Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme BWV 140, written for violin, viola, basso continuo, and cantus firmus by the tenors or a tenor soloist. Bach later transcribed the movement for organ as part of an organ prelude. With an organ, pedal point and choral melody can be integrated rather simply as organists can use different stops and manuals. Depicting these differences in voicing and instrumentations are challenging in piano transcriptions, yet Busoni skillfully overcomes these challenges by requiring of different gradations of touches, uses of different manners of articulations, and rolled chords.
Widmung Robert Schumann/Franz Liszt (1810-1856)/(1811-1886) In Robert Schumann’s thirtieth year (1840), and after many years of obstacles and trials, he finally obtained the right to marry his love, Clara. This occasioned a change in his compositional focus from primarily piano music to almost exclusively songs. As with many of his earlier piano works, the lieder of 1840 were closely interwoven with his feelings toward Clara. Drawing from the verses of the finest poets of the late 18th and 19th centuries, his lieder compositions, while overflowing with his love in his compositions, were delicately constructed with singable melodies and decorative accompaniments, painting with subtle nuance the original poems. The voice and piano are equal and imperative partners in these songs, perfecting the genre of lieder for future generations to come. Franz Liszt, a virtuoso pianist and an extremely prolific composer, made many unprecedented advances in piano technique, introducing a new range of technical and expressive possibilities especially during the 1830s and 40th. Many of these early compositions display his greatest piano virtuosic techniques, which matched his sensational and captivating concert personality. Franz Liszt’s over 700 compositions include hundreds of transcriptions that display both his understanding of the original compositions and of the concert stage. In his transcriptions, Liszt not only preserves the original works but goes beyond by expanding the composition with captivating techniques, both drawing audiences’ astonishment and providing formidable challenges for the pianist. Widmung [dedication], one of the most beloved lieder of Schumann, was composed in 1840 as part of a set of lieder, Myrthen, which was dedicated to Clara Wieck as a wedding gift. The text of Widmung, written by Friedrich Rückert, outpours one’s love praising the dedicatee to be his everything, including soul, heart, pain, world, heaven, and peace, and describes youthful love that he devotes himself to with all his heart. In Liszt’s transcription, he develops the repeating theme with
varying textures, followed by a left hand melody section and a middle section with a warm melody and repeated chords. Piece gradually achieves an ecstatic, dramatic outpouring of emotion with arpeggios in the right hand, as if revealing Schumann’s intimate feelings. Embraceable You George Gershwin/Earl Wild (1898-1937)/(1915-2010) George Gershwin’s musical career started as a song plugger in New York’s Tin Pan Alley, and by the time he was twenty, he had established himself as a composer of Broadway shows. By the age of 30, he was America’s most famous and widely accepted composer of concert music as well as a leading songwriter. In addition to his most famous opera, Porgy and Bess, and Rhapsody In Blue, throughout his professional life, George Gershwin was a songwriter, composing hundreds of songs for Tin Pan Alley, Broadway shows, and Hollywood films. Many of his songs were used lyrics written by his brother Ira Gershwin. Earl Wild was one of the most brilliant and celebrated pianists of the twentieth century, representing the twentieth century’s classical music scene in America. He was also a composer especially known for his piano transcriptions, including 14 songs by Rachmaninoff and Gershwin. Originally, Wild wrote six Virtuoso Etudes based on Gershwin songs in the late 1950’s. In 1976, he revised his Virtuoso Etudes based on popular songs including Embraceable You, and added a seventh Etude, Fascinating Rhythm, completing his revised seven Virtuoso Etudes. Embraceable You was originally composed in 1928 as part of an unpublished opera, East is West, and was published and included in the Broadway musical Girl Crazy. Composed as a ballad, Embraceable You is a slow, romantic song with lyrics by Ira Gershwin and remains one Gershwin’s most beloved songs. It is also well known as a jazz standard. In Wild’s transcription of the work in his Virtuoso Etudes, the memorable melody is embedded in elaborate arpeggios played by both hands. The
arpeggios are intertwined in the texture, so each melodic note is connected, painted, and accompanied sensitively, making the transcription one of the most beloved and beautiful yet pianistic and effective. Barcarole in F-sharp major, op. 60 Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849) As a genre, “barcarolle” suggests the songs sung by Venetian gondoliers as they propel their boats through the water. These songs were widely known in the 18th century, and typically had a time signature of 6/8, with a lilting rhythm depicting the movement of a boat. By the early 19th century, “barcarolle” became a general term for charming and romantic character pieces. Chopin wrote his Barcarolle in F-sharp major, op. 60 in 184546 in Nohant, France, during which time he was also composing his cello sonata and Polonaise Fantaisie, Op. 61. During this time, he struggled both with illness and with a relationship with the novelist George Sand, with whom Chopin was romantically involved. Chopin’s barcarolle is composed in 12/8 time, with a continuous ostinato, a beautifully elaborated singing melody, and a colorful harmonic palette. This piece became one of Chopin’s favorites, and he frequently performed it. It has survived as one of the most beloved among Chopin’s compositions today. Petites pièces pour Piano Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979) Nadia Boulanger descended from a long line of musicians; she entered the Paris Conservatory at just ten years of age. She rapidly received recognition and praise from Gabriel Fauré and Charles-Marie Widor, her composition teachers at the Conservatory. She also studied organ privately with Louis Vierne and Alexandre Guilmant, and was promoted as a concert pianist and organist early in her career by virtuoso pianist Raoul Pugno from 1904 to 1914 (the beginning of World War I). She often appeared in Pugno’s concert series as a
pianist, organist, and featured composer. Boulanger’s works include over 30 songs, chamber music, and a Fantaisie variée (1912) for piano and orchestra, written for Pugno. Boulanger stopped composing in the early 1920s. She was greatly affected by the premature death of her sister Lili, whom she considered to be more gifted than herself. Throughout her life, Boulanger promoted her sister’s music. She is most known and remembered as one of the most important composition teachers of the twentieth century as well as the one of the century’s finest female conductors. She taught privately from the age of 16 and her first pupils included her sister Lili. Her later pupils included many of the most celebrated twentieth century composers including Aaron Copland, Elliott Carter, Roy Harris, and Adolphus Hailstork. In 1914, Nadia Boulanger went to Rome to meet her sister, Lili, where they reunited in the gentle spring. Petites pièces pour Piano [The Little Piano Pieces], dated June 5th, is a charming set of short pieces. Like many of her composition, the work was not published during her lifetime, but was published recently. It is worth noting that the piece was composed around the same time Lili’s piano works were composed. Ignis Fatuus (Mysterious Fires) for Piano Adolphus Hailstork (1941-) Adolphus Hailstork has written numerous works for solo instruments, solo voice, chorus, chamber ensemble, band, orchestra, and opera. Originally from Albany, New York, he received his doctorate in composition from Michigan State University where he studied with Owen Reed. He had previously studied at Manhattan School of Music under Vittorio Gianni and David Diamond, at the American Institute at Fontainebleau with Nadia Boulanger, and at Howard University with Mark Fax. Significant performances by major orchestras, including Philadelphia, Chicago, New York, and Boston, have been led by leading conductors such as James de Priest, Paul Freeman, Daniel Barenboim, Kurt Masur, Lorin Maazel, JoAnn
Falletta, David Lockington, and Thomas Wilkins. Hailstork is also a pianist, and his works show his familiarity with the instrument’s capabilities as well as performance techniques. Ignis Fatuus (Mysterious Fires) for Piano, composed in 1976, consists of three movements depicting three contrasting and mysterious fires. The first movement employs series of rests with varying lengths and the use of a near-constantly sustained pedal. The middle section introduces series of trills and tremolos and is composed in canon style. Composed in ABAʹ form, the return of the A section employs slight variations in lengths of rests as well as continuity of the motivic materials. The second movement introduces three musical sections, which are in varied meters as well as textures, at the beginning and at the end. They are combined with transitional material in the middle, which gradually increases in dynamics with changing harmonies expressed with patterned arpeggios and series of notes. The third movement, vivace e leggiero, is a fierce and virtuosic movement of a constant movement. The movement employs constant uses of broken chords, often and suddenly changing in dynamics and harmony. The combinations of these elements are mostly played in parallel with both hands, tied together with scales and occasionally breaking the hands into two separate textures, with the left hand playing rather memorable musical segments. Prélude, Choral et Fugue César Franck (1822-1890) While known as a Belgian-French composer and organist, Franck’s career started as a piano virtuoso. Franck’s musical talent led him to enter Liège Conservatory at the age of eight, and he entered the Paris Conservatory in 1836 at the age of fourteen. He studied with Pierre Zimmermann, the head professor at the Paris Conservatory, and toured with his younger brother, a violinist, earning a living for their family. In 1847, after the decline of his performance’s popularity and disappointing his father, Franck obtained the post of organist at the church of Notre Dame de Lorette and supported his living
with teaching. In 1858, he became organist at the Basillica of St. Clotilde in Paris and held this position until the end of his life. He took a position at the Paris Conservatory in 1872 and produced pupils including Vincent d’Indy, Ernest Chausson, Louis Vierne, and Guillaume Lekeu. Franck wrote most of his significant works toward the end of his life – including the Piano Quintet (1979), the Violin Sonata (1886), the d-minor Symphony (1886-1888), the String Quartet (1889), and the three organ chorales (1890). Written in 1884, Prelude, Choral et Fugue is one of his most inspired and celebrated compositions. While deriving from the form of the Preludes and Fugues, Book I of Bach, as well as using the BA-C-H theme at the beginning of the prelude as a tribute to Bach, Franck aspired to achieve sustained melodic material and compose a monumental work. The work includes the introduction as a chorale, played by rolled chords ranging from the bottom to the top of the keyboard. The work uses the full range of the piano’s resources – there are cadenza-like episodes, improvisational qualities in many sections, as well as the use of wide registral ranges suggestive of that of the organ, especially with the use of octave passages in the bass. After the climax of the fugal section, the broken chords not only break the formality of fugue, but also provide a grand effect and a magical return of the chorale, ending with a very satisfying and majestic tone. The work was an instant success when it was first performed on January 24th, 1885.
Next Music Program Concert A Tale of Two Cities Wednesday, March 30 at 7:30pm Pianist Victoria von Arx and violinist Hilary Walther Cumming cross the English Channel together to perform works from England and France in a program featuring the heroic Elgar Violin Sonata, Opus 82 (1918) alongside the expansive Franck Sonata (1886).
Ashwini Ramaswamy’s
Let the Crows Come “... a work of enchanting beauty, arresting movement, and inventive intelligence.” ~C P
Evoking mythography & ancestry, Ramaswamy’s work is a genre-twisting evolution of movement & music using the metaphor of crows as messengers for the living and guides for the departed while also exploring how memory & homeland channel guidance and dislocation.
Sunday March 27 7:30pm
PERFORMING ARTS CENTER HOUSE POLICIES Latecomers will be seated at the discretion of the management and its staff. . The use of photographic or recording devices of any kind during this performance is strictly prohibited. . There is no food or drink allowed in the theatres, nor is smoking allowed in UAlbany buildings. . To avoid disrupting the performance, kindly disable any noise making electronic devices you may have with you. . Please take time to note the location of the fire exits nearest to you. In the event of an emergency, please proceed to the nearest exit in an orderly fashion and follow the directions of our staff.
Created and produced by the University Art Museum, NYS Writers Institute and UAlbany Performing Arts Center in collaboration with WAMC Public Radio, this popular series features leading figures from a variety of artistic disciplines in conversation about their creative inspirations, their craft and their careers. “Roundtable” host Joe Donahue conducts live on-stage interviews followed by a Q&A with the audience.
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