Robert Blocker, piano, May 8, 2019

horowitz piano series Boris Berman, artistic director

Robert Blocker

Wednesday, May 8, 2019 | 7:30 pm Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall

Robert Blocker, Dean

Program Domenico Scarlatti 1685–1757

Sonata in F minor, K. 274 Sonata in F major, K. 69 (336) Sonata in B-flat major, K. 551

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1756–1791

Sonata No. 10 in C major, K. 330 I. Allegro moderato II. Andante cantabile III. Allegretto

intermission

Johann Sebastian Bach 1685–1750

Toccata in D major, BWV 912

Frédéric Chopin 1810–1849

Nocturnes, Op. 27 No. 1 in C-sharp minor. Larghetto No. 2 in D-flat major. Lento sostenuto

Chopin

Fantaisie in F minor, Op. 49

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 Robert Blocker, piano An internationally acclaimed concert pianist, Robert Blocker has been described by the Los Angeles Times as an artist of “great skill and accomplishment” who performs with “a measurable virtuoso bent and considerable musical sensitivity.” He has performed in the United States, Europe, Mexico, China, South Korea, Thailand, and elsewhere.

Recent orchestral engagements have included appearances with the Beijing Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony, Houston Symphony, Monterey Philharmonic, Prague Chamber Orchestra, Moscow Chamber Orchestra, Korean Symphony Orchestra, and Daejeon Symphony Orchestra (South Korea). Blocker earned his bachelor of arts degree from Furman University and his master of music degree and doctor of musical arts degree from the University of North Texas, under the tutelage of the eminent American pianist Richard Cass.

In addition to recital, chamber music, and concerto appearances, Blocker presents master classes and coaches various ensembles in the United States and abroad. He has worked with such renowned groups as the Tokyo String Quartet, Artis Quartet, Brentano String Quartet, and Shanghai Quartet. At Yale University, where he is the Henry and Lucy Moses Dean of Music, Blocker teaches and performs alongside students, alumni, and faculty colleagues.

Program Notes Keyboard sonatas scarlatti Patrick Campbell Jankowski

Piano Sonata No. 10 in C major, K. 330 mozart Patrick Campbell Jankowski

One of the most inventive composers for the keyboard, and a pioneer of solo keyboard music, Domenico Scarlatti showcased the multitude of characters and moods that could be drawn from ten fingers. He wrote his 555 known sonatas primarily for the harpsichord, yet his gestures translate naturally into the modern piano family.

Contrapuntal fugues are often juxtaposed against spirited dances, sometimes in a decidedly Spanish character. His father, Alessandro, was a brilliant composer particularly for the voice, and helped to codify early Italian operas. Domenico, born in Spanish-ruled Naples, spent much of his life as a court composer in Portugal and later in Spain, where he remained in the final decades of his life.

Among the most remarkable features of this particular sonata is the intricate and clever interaction between the left (accompanying) and right (melodic) hands. Mozart finds moments to play with this dichotomy, creating a work that moves fluidly between passages of intricate counterpoint, and the “traditional” melody-with-accompaniment dynamic. The principles of Alberti bass are here (broken chords and a zig-zag lilt), but notice when Mozart breaks the patterns, introducing elements of triples or more dense chordal eighth notes. We so often focus on melodies that we sometimes lose sight of the invention underneath. The central andante begins with an elegant three-note pick up, as though inhaling slightly, and a bit... hesitantly, before breathing out. In the closing movement, Mozart’s left hand becomes especially capriccious. Notice how the bass notes storm in like bulls in a china shop, disturbing yet somehow not disrupting the levity of the simple dance. Its construction resembles the interactions between piano and orchestra in a concerto: in its grander, more expansive episodes, you can almost hear an imaginary ensemble taking over. As in the preceding movements, the composer plays with rhythmic subdivisions, introducing spontaneous bursts of triplets to heighten the music’s liveliness.

His sonatas are single movements, yet pave the way for later developments in “sonata-allegro” form, which would become critical to instrumental music from the classical era onward. His movements follow a trajectory from a place of stability to some other harmonic area, before making their way back. This simple motion away from “home” and then back again underlines so much of the music that we encounter, and Scarlatti, whether intentionally or not, did a great deal to forecast that trajectory.

Toccata in D major bach Patrick Campbell Jankowski

Nocturnes, Op. 27 chopin Patrick Campbell Jankowski

This toccata has been published under several titles, yet the most accurate and all-encapsulating is probably “Fantasia and Fugue.” In this two-part construction, the work showcases two manifestations of creativity. It opens in a free and almost improvisatory style, with unexpected turns from rocketing scales to quaking tremolos.

A central adagio exhibits the natural declamation of recitative: the mimicry of a human voice, with its all organic fluidity.

At other times, as in the jocular fugue that closes the work, Bach demonstrates another form of creativity. Here, the strategy of careful craftsmanship is essential in bringing the multiple contrapuntal voices together harmoniously. Whereas the fantasy sections abound with instantaneous creation, we can hear Bach’s plan gradually unfold in the fugal passages. The composer disguises his closing polyphonic showpiece as a gigue, so that even when the craft demands rigidity and scaffolding, he constructs a joyous dance. Bach was a young man in his early twenties at the time of its composition.

We can hear enthusiasm and the pleasures of experimentation taking shape in this Toccata, which provides a refreshing contrast to the image (however incomplete) of Bach as a wise, paternal genius.

The multiplicity of human emotions and mental states is a common theme in Romantic art, and emerges in unexpected places, even in purely abstract works. The Opus 27 Nocturnes are fine pieces on their own – each a pristine example of the nocturne form as rendered by Chopin – but when joined together, they take on an irresistable doppelgänger dynamic. The pair are enharmonically linked, meaning that they share they same tonal center, while one stretches from its core into the minor mode, and the other into the major. Beyond that, they each display the common features of the nocturne: a mostly simple and unobtrusive accompaniment, evoking a plucked guitar or lute; a free and expansive melodic line atop the accompaniment; a contrasting middle section and a “return” to the opening theme. It is how they differ that holds real interest.

The first begins ominously, with a murky bass murmur in the accompanying strum.

Half-steps sneak into the melodic line as it slides between minor and major harmonies.

From a gentle whisper, the dynamic builds to an intense high. The strumming becomes more active, and the melody unfolds into a moment of joy at its core. It almost appears for a time to take on the spirit of a folk dance.

Chopin dissolves everything away, leaving an austere plunge to the depths of the piano.

The opening theme returns, yet adopts a note of tenderness in its final breaths, including a chordal “Amen.”

Program Notes, cont.

The companion, in D-flat major, is among Chopin’s most popular compositions. Its melody floats effortlessly, decorated with descending arpeggios that skip like a stone across a pond. The composer thickens the texture with silky, sweet chordal thirds and sixths. Whereas the C-sharp minor nocturne transforms at its core before returning to its opening, the D-flat major seems to continuously rhapsodize around the same few ideas. It becomes more free and decorated, yet retains its thematic cohesion.

Fantaisie, Op. 49 chopin Patrick Campbell Jankowski A fantasy can take many forms. Its free spirit and unpredictability is part of its appeal, after all. When hearing (or playing) a fantasy, you can imagine composers asking themselves “what should I do next?” at each turn, growing a piece from some germinal seed. Unlike a theme and variations, for instance, the starting place is not a common thread binding each episode together, but the source of inspiration from one moment to the next. A composer may refer to and return to their opening ideas, develop them, or discard them. Fantasies allow us to live and listen in the moment.

Chopin’s fantasy opens in the style of a march. If not funereal, it is at the very least serious in tone. An unadorned descent down a forth is followed in response by regal chords. The martial style eventually gives way to rolling momentum and heavily syncopated push-and-pull between melody and accompaniment. It resolves into a sort

of noble, folksy melody that pulls against the more angsty music. A placid triple-meter section is harmonized with rich chords giving it an almost hymn-like quality. The stormy and spirited passages return, eventually making way for a delicate soliloquy in the right hand. The form is more of an exploration than a structure, and it holds a surprise at each turn, including as Chopin rounds the last corner.

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