Melvin Chen, piano, January 18, 2023

horowitz piano series

Melvin Chen

Wednesday, January 18, 2023 | 7:30 pm Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall

Boris Berman, artistic director Robert Blocker, Dean

Anton Diabelli

1781–1858

Lori Laitman b. 1955

Carl Czerny

1791–1857

Timo Andres b. 1985

Franz Schubert 1797–1828 Liliya Ugay b. 1990

Johann Nepomuk Hummel 1778–1837

Aaron Jay Kernis b. 1960

Franz Liszt 1811–1886 Krists Auznieks b. 1992

Programdiabelli variations new and old

Theme from Vaterländischer Künstlerverein (1819)

Across Time (2020)

Variation No. 4

Framing Device Variation No. 38, D. 718

Variation on Diabelli’s Theme: Precise, graceful — dance-like Variation No. 16, S. 161

Give Us Two Beautiful Bells Variation No. 24, S. 147, Allegro Sphinx (after Diabelli)

intermission

Ludwig van Beethoven 1770–1827

33 Variations on a Waltz by Anton Diabelli, Op. 120 Variation I. Alla marcia maestoso Variation II. Poco allegro Variation III. L’istesso tempo Variation IV. Un poco più Variation V. Allegro vivace Variation VI. Allegro na non troppo e serioso Variation VII. Un poco più allegro Variation VIII. Poco vivace Variation IX. Allegro pesante e risoluto Variation X. Presto Variation XI. Allegretto Variation XII. Un poco più vivace moto Variation XIII. Vivace Variation XIV. Grave e maestoso Variation XV. Presto scherzando Variation XVI. Allegro Variation XVII. Allegro Variation XVIII. Poco moderato Variation XIX. Presto Variation XX. Andante Variation XXI. Allegro con brio Variation XXII. Allegro molto Variation XXIII. Allegro assai Variation XXIV. Fughetta. Andante Variation XXV. Allegro Variation XXVI. Piacevole Variation XXVII. Vivace Variation XXVIII. Allegro Variation IXXX. Adagio ma non troppo Variation XXX. Andante, sempre cantabile Variation XXXI. Largo, molto espressivo Variation XXXII. Fugue. Allegro Variation XXXIII. Tempo di Minuet moderato

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

Melvin Chen, piano

A native of Tennessee, Dr. Melvin Chen has received acclaim for solo and chamber performances throughout the United States, Canada, and Asia. Chen’s performances have been featured on radio and television stations around the world, including KBS television and radio in Korea, NHK television in Japan, and NPR in the United States.

As a Professor in the Practice of Piano, Chen teaches a studio of graduate and undergraduate piano students. In addition, he is the Deputy Dean at the Yale School of Music, a role that involves overseeing academic affairs and general institutional management, and also serves as Director of the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival–Yale Summer School of Music, where he also performs. Previously, Chen was Associate Director and on the piano faculty at the Bard College Conservatory of Music and served as Artistic Director of the chamber music program at the Hotchkiss School Summer Portals.

Chen earned a doctorate in chemistry from Harvard University and holds a double master’s degree from The Juilliard School in piano and violin. He received his bachelor of science degree in chemistry and physics from Yale University, where he studied with Boris Berman, Paul Kantor, and Ida Kavafian.

Chen’s notable solo recordings include Beethoven’s “Diabelli” Variations (Bridge Records), which the American Record Guide described as “a classic,” piano music by

Joan Tower (Naxos Records), and sonatas and other pianos works by Shostakovich (Bridge Records), among others.

Program Notes

Diabelli Variations New and Old various

Remarks will be given from the stage.

Diabelli Variations

beethoven Patrick Campbell Jankowski

The subtext throughout the entirety of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations is that the source material upon which it is based is nothing special. One might even call this transfiguration of the trivial to the sublime a “running joke” of sorts. The publisher and composer Anton Diabelli penned this little waltz theme and sent it to a number of composers asking for one variation each so that he might compile them all. Several did, but Beethoven went way beyond the assignment, sending back 33 variations, albeit somewhat late. What resulted is among the greatest examples of variations in the repertoire. Each of Beethoven’s thematic detours is fresh and inventive, running the gamut of styles from marches to fugues to sprightly dances, and culminating somewhat surprisingly in a simple minuet that follows a more complex contrapuntal variation that we might think to be a closer. Within these variations, the composer explores extremes of range, dynamic, tempo, and meter, stripping Diabelli’s theme of its “waltziness.” The satirical, absurdly capricious “Vivace” of the thirteenth variation leads abruptly to the solemn, expansive “Grave” of the fourteenth, which then moves into a skittering duple-meter dance in the “Presto Scherzando.” In the quietly hypnotic

twentieth variation, rhythm seems to disappear entirely as each tone sounds at equal value, like the steady tolling of a bell; although the melodic outline of Diabelli’s theme is clear, its harmonic and rhythmic context is opaque. In this moment, Beethoven knows he’s lured you in, striking with fortissimo hammer blows in the lower register and vibrant trills in the right hand at the start of the following variation. This free-wheeling set is desert island material: a veritable encyclopedia of what can be done with the piano, a simple melody, and a lot of skill.

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