Larry Weng, piano, Oct 25, 2018

Robert Blocker, Dean

doctor of musical arts degree recital

Larry Weng, piano Thursday, October 25, 2018 | 7:30 pm | Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall

Johann Sebastian Bach 1685–1750 arr. Ferruccio Busoni

Toccata in C major, BWV 564:1

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1756–1791

Piano Sonata in A minor, K. 310 I. Allegro maestoso II. Andante cantabile con espressione III. Presto

Maurice Ravel 1875–1937

Sonatine, M. 40 I. Modéré II. Mouvement de menuet III. Animé

intermission

Robert Schumann 1801–1856

Fantasie, Op. 17 I. Durchaus phantastisch und leidenschaftlich vorzutragen II. Mäßig. Durchaus energisch III. Langsam getragen. Durchweg leise zu halten

This performance is in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree. As a courtesy to others, please silence all devices. Photography and recording of any kind is strictly prohibited.

Please do not leave the hall during musical selections. Thank you.

Artist Profile Larry Weng, piano A laureate of the 2016 Queen Elisabeth International Piano Competition, Larry Weng has been described in The New York Times as playing with “steely power and incisive rhythm.” Of his 2014 New York debut at Weill Recital Hall, the New York Concert Review described him as “an extremely sensitive musician and mature interpreter,” and “mature beyond his years.” Of his “Alborado del gracioso,” Harry Rolnick of ConcertoNet exclaimed, “Radiant and transparent, picturesque and picaresque, wild but with the artistic perfection of wildness.” Mr. Weng is also a laureate of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Concerto Competition, the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition for Young Musicians, The New York International Piano Competition, the Kosciuzsko Foundation Chopin Competition, and the Wideman International Piano Competition.

Mr. Weng has been featured in concert in France, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, China, Japan, Brazil, and Venezuela, and has performed in many of the world’s renowned concert halls, including Boston’s Symphony Hall, New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall, Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Hall, SubCulture, the Salle Cortot, and the Sala Sao Paolo.

He has appeared as soloist with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, the New England Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Orchestra Nationale de Belgique under the baton of Marin Alsop. In 2015, he made his Stern Auditorium debut playing Beethoven’s

Choral Fantasy, with Mark Shapiro leading the Cecilia Choir and Orchestra.

An avid chamber musician and collaborator, Mr. Weng has participated in the Ravinia Steans Institute and the Verbier Academy, and has worked with renowned musicians such as Claude and Pamela Frank, Gabor Takacs, David Shifrin, and David Soyer, amongst others. He is a frequent collaborator at the Lisker Music Foundation concert series in Chicago, as well as the Downtown Music at Grace in White Plains.

As of the 2017 season, Mr. Weng is a full-time member of the Icarus Quartet.

In 2009, Mr. Weng graduated from the highly selective joint degree program between Columbia University and The Juilliard School with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and a Master of Music degree in Piano Performance under the tutelage of Professors Jerome Lowenthal and Matti Raekallio. He continued his studies with Professor Boris Berman at the Yale School of Music, where he has completed the residential portion of their Doctor of Musical Arts degree program and was awarded a Master of Musical Arts degree in May 2014.

During his time at Yale, Mr. Weng served as an instructor in undergraduate piano and secondary piano. He is currently on faculty at the Turtle Bay School of Music, and maintains a private studio in Manhattan, where he resides.

Program Notes Toccata in C major bach Larry Weng Dating from his Weimar period, Bach’s Toccata in C major BWV 564 for organ is a colossal work that dwarves similar organ works of this period by notably having three movements, the first two of which featuring two distinct sections each. The scope and complexity of the work gives testament to Bach’s ability to synthesize the various musical styles of his day, ranging from the Italian concerto to the Northern German organ style. The structure, especially the hauntingly expressive adagio, owes much to Bach’s transcription and reworking of Vivaldi’s music during this period. The influences of the venerated organist and composer Buxtehude are also readily clear from the outset of the first movement. The stupendously long pedal solo, aptly transcribed by Busoni for piano in resonant octaves, displays Bach’s oneupsmanship, surpassing the length and difficulty of the pedal solo from Buxtehude’s Prelude in C major for organ.

Following the almost comical opening is a soaring prelude that clearly contrasts two themes shored up with robust Bachian counterpoint. In the haunting adagio, the emotional core of the piece, are shades of the famed Adagio from Marcello’s oboe concerto; the strains of a solo instrument above a realized ground bass. The epic fugue in three voices that caps off the piece is relatively adventurous in its conception, with entrances of the subject in far flung keys such as the mediant and the supertonic.

Of particular note is the quirky nature of

its subject, replete with rests that are later filled in by the countersubject. As a whole, this Toccata is incredibly rich, ranging from soloistic flair, through incredible pathos, and finally ending in humor and glorious affirmation.

One of many of Busoni’s Bach organ transcriptions, BWV 564 is a muscular and individualized realization of Bach’s work on the modern piano. From using octave doublings to create sound mass to filling out harmonies to simulate the stops and rich overtone content of the organ sound, Busoni’s challenging keyboard style demands not only the utmost virtuosity, but also an incredible sensitivity to the volume that precipitates from such a density of notes.

The result is a spectacular fusion of the breadth and grandeur of the organ, and the expressive nuance of the piano.

Sonata in A minor mozart Larry Weng Mozart’s A minor sonata K. 310 dates from a turbulent time in the young composer’s life. Written during his sojourn to Paris in 1778 in search of employment, K. 310 is one of only two piano sonatas in the minor mode. Although it is tenuous to conflate biographical data with musical content, the death of Mozart’s mother in the same time frame perhaps informs the turbulence and general sense of unrest that permeates through the entire piece.

The first movement is in a concise and terse sonata allegro form. Of particular

note is the economy of melodic material.

The secondary key area, in the expected relative major, is characterized less by a contained theme is in sonatas such as K. 330, but rather an exploration of neighbor motion. The development, beginning with a relative major statement of the first theme quickly descends into a motivically dense development passage. It is here that the listener can most realize the intensely contrapuntal nature of this movement, with three fully realized voices in the right hand alone all utilizing the dotted rhythm of the first theme. Indeed, the entire movement seems to strain against the constraints of a singular performer, from the string quartet writing of the opening to the woodwind dialogues of the secondary key area. Even the closing theme of the exposition and recapitulation give off the air of an orchestral tutti. More so than most other piano sonatas, K. 310 seems to struggle to transcend its instrumentation.

The second movement, as if in response to the paucity of thematic material in the first, is chock full of beautiful thematic material.

Each key area of the exposition features multiple clear thematic ideas ranging from the operatic to the orchestral. Despite the effervescent beauty of the exposition, the dark turbulent ostinato driven mood of the first movement almost immediately takes over the development, with a reversal of roles between the two hands, the pedal point now being taken up in the right hand rather than the left.

The third movement once again returns to the economic thematic means of the first movement. Aside from a middle episode in the relative major that features self-contained

melodic material, the bulk of the rondo alternates between two different configurations of one motive, a dotted two-note figure that seems to combine the rhythmic and melodic profiles of the main material of the first movement.

Sonatine ravel Larry Weng The Sonatine, composed in 1905 originally for a competition, bears testament to the conservative side of Ravel’s aesthetics. Set in three movements, the piece is perhaps the most eloquent summation of Ravel’s inclination towards classical forms.

All three movements display the diminution of sonata form that characterizes the sonatina. The first movement pares down transitional material, sparing a grand total of two bars between the first and second tonal areas, the second movement does away with a self-contained middle section, opting for a retransitional phrase built upon a pedal point, and the third jettisons a fully-realized return to the tonic until the coda.

Despite the adventurous tonal surface (modal mixtures, whole tone passages and the like), the fundamental action of the movement is still predicated on the movement of the bass, firmly linking back to the classical understanding of harmonic motion and the expressive arch that is achieved through the wedding of tonal conflict and motivic contrast.

Program Notes cont.

Furthermore, the Sonatine is, similar to the Mozart sonata, remarkably lean in its motivic material. The falling fourth of the first movement inverts to the rising fifth of the second movement and then finally morphs into the rising fourths of the last movement. Even more complete manifestations of the first thematic material appear in the transitional material in the second movement and as the melodic material of the secondary key area of the third movement.

Originally written as a single movement work entitled “Ruines” dating from 1836, the piece that would become Op. 17 gained two additional movements as part of a contribution to raise funds for the creation of a monument to Beethoven in Bonn. After many rounds of modifying the names of the movements, (Ruins, Trophies, Palms to Ruins, Arches, Constellations), the subtitles were dropped entirely in favor of the overarching Fantasie.

It is then no wonder that Stravinsky had once, in a rather backhanded way, referred to Ravel as a Swiss watch-maker. Slight aside, the statement shows the begrudging acknowledgement of the compositional craft at its highest level. Through this Sonatine, with its deceptively diminutive size and economy of means, Ravel is able to extract an astounding wealth of colors and sentiments, with nary a note to add or spare.

Despite the troubled state of this piece’s contribution to the funding of the Beethoven monument, the connections with the composer were deeply rooted in the music.

The “soft sound” that is referred to in Schumann’s epigraph points poignantly to the many layers of reference to Beethoven and beyond scattered throughout the music. Most clear is the quotation of the Sixth and last song of Beethoven song cycle, An die ferne Geliebte (To the Distant Beloved), Op. 98 that appears at the very ending of the first movement.

Fantasie schumann Larry Weng Durch alle Töne tönet Im bunten Erdentraum Ein leiser Ton gezogen Für den, der heimlich lauschet.

Through all the notes In Earth’s many-coloured dream There sounds one soft long-draw note For the one who listens in secret.

- Fr. Schlegel Trans. Nicholas Marston

The double reference, at once to Beethoven and to Clara Wieck, Schumann’s distant beloved of the time, is only made clearly evident by the end of the first movement with this quotation. The real genius of the movement, however, is the organic arrival to this borrowed melody, as if it emerged from the disparate elements of the music that preceded it. Indeed, Schumann, in almost all of the thematic material of the first movement, borrowed and altered parts of the Beethoven melody until it’s ultimate arrival at the close in its purest form is a foregone conclusion of a process of thematic distillation.

The second movement, a triumphant march, and the third, an inward rumination, are both laden with more nebulous references to Beethoven. The monomaniacal repetition of the dotted rhythm of the second movement is perhaps a reference to the similarly dotted second movement of Beethoven’s Op. 101, while the descending scalar passages of the third seem to recall the piano entrance of the adagio of Beethoven’s fifth piano concerto.

Despite the layers of reference and literary and musical allusions embedded in the music (or perhaps because of them?), the Fantasie remains one of Schumann’s most successful attempts at large-scale structuring in his music, especially the chimerical first movement.

Upcoming Events Oct 26 Jean-Marie Zeitouni, guest conductor Yale Philharmonia

Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique and works by Saint-Saëns and Debussy.

7:30 p.m. | Woolsey Hall Tickets start at $12, Yale faculty/ staff $8, students $5 $3 surcharge at the door Oct 27 Yale Choral Artists

YSM Ensembles 7:30 p.m. | Christ Church

Free oct 30 The Sebastians

Collection of Musical Instruments The Collection’s ensemblein-residence performs works

by Baroque and Classical composers.

7:30 p.m. | Collection of Mus. Inst.

Tickets $30, Yale staff and seniors and museum associates $25, students $15

nov 1 Trombone Studio Recital YSM Ensembles 4:30 p.m. | Sudler Recital Hall

Free nov 2-3 Fall Scenes

Yale Opera

A variety of scenes from beloved comic and tragic operas.

7:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall

Tickets start at $12, Students $5 nov 5 Hannah Lash, composition, and Friends

Faculty Artist Series 7:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall

free nov 7 Wei-Yi Yang, piano

Horowitz Piano Series

Faculty pianist Wei-Yi Yang plays an all-Schumann program that includes Kinderszenen, Kreisleriana, and the Fantasie.

7:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall Tickets start at $15, students $7

oct 31 Lunchtime Chamber Music

12:30 p.m. | Center for British Art

Free

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