horowitz piano series
Boris Berman, artistic director
Ran Dank
Wednesday, September 25, 2024 | 7:30 pm
Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall
José García-León, Dean
Program
Franz Liszt 1797–1828
Matan Porat b. 1982
Liszt arr. Ran Dank
“Bénédiction de Dieu dans la Solitude” from Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, S. 173
It Seems Like You’ve Reached The End piano fantasy on a passacaglia Commissioned by and dedicated to Ran Dank with support from Ann and Harry Santen. World Premiere.
Mephisto Walz No. 1, S. 514
Sergei Rachmaninov 1873–1943
intermission
Six Moments Musicaux, Op. 16
I. Andantino
II. Allegretto
III. Andante cantabile
IV. Presto
V. Adagio sotenuto
VI. Maestoso
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
Ran Dank, piano
A rare blend of virtuosity and intellectual prowess, pianist Ran Dank has proven himself as one of the most thoughtful, and engaging pianists of our time.
Mr. Dank’s past seasons performances have included recitals at the San Francisco Performances Series, Gilmore, Ravinia, Carnegie Hall’s Zankel and Weill Halls Steinway Hall, Gardner Museum, Kennedy Center, Town Hall, Yale School of Music, Philips Collection, Morgan Library, Pro Musica in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, Portland Ovations, and have garnered critical acclaim from the New York Times and The Washington Post. Mr. Dank has performed as a soloist with the orchestras of Cleveland, Sydney, St. Luke’s, Portland, Eugene, Toledo, Hawaii, Kansas City, Vermont, Charleston, Jerusalem, Valencia, Phoenix, Hilton Head, among others, working under the batons such as Michael Stern, Jahja Ling, Michael Christie, Kirill Karabits, Jun Märkl, Pinchas Zukerman, Jorge Mester, Jaime Laredo, and KenDavid Masur. Mr. Dank’s recent performance of the monumental set of variations The People United Will Never Be Defeated! at the University of Chicago has been selected as one of the top ten performances of 2017 by the Chicago Classical Review.
Mr. Dank is also an ardent advocate for contemporary music, and has performed in recent seasons Kevin Puts’ piano concerto Night, the Tobias Picker concerto, Keys to the City, Frederic Rzewski’s The People United Will Never Be Defeated, William Bolcom’s Pulitzerwinning set of Twelve New Etudes, and has given, alongside pianist and wife, Soyeon Kate Lee, the world premieres of Frederic Rzewski’s Four Hands, and Alexander Goehr’s Seven Impromptus. Mr. Dank and Soyeon Kate Lee have also featured the world premiere of multiple Grammy-nominated pianist and composer’s Marc-André Hamelin’s Tango for piano four-hands.
The recipient of numerous honors, Ran Dank won a coveted place on the Young Concert Artists roster in 2009 and subsequently made his New York recital and Kennedy Center debuts. He has also won top prizes at the the Cleveland International Competition, the Naumburg International Piano Competition, the Sydney International Piano Competition, and the Hilton Head International Piano Competition.
www.esm.rochester.com
Program Notes
“Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude,” from Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, S. 173 liszt
Patrick Campbell Jankowski
Liszt made no secret of his religious devotion, and this piece, one of a number of Poetic and Religious Harmonies eventually published as a set for solo piano, is a perfect example of the emotive, passionate, and sensuous music through which he expressed faith. The title of the set may be understood to refer to the harmony between poetic expression and religious feeling. Liszt included excerpts of poetry throughout the set, which act not as lyrics to songs without words, but rather as expressive companions to the music, in the same way that the composer’s instrumental tone poems were often wedded to rich poetic texts and descriptions. A poem from Lamartine is joined to this Benediction:
“From where does it come, my God, this peace that overwhelms me? Whence comes this faith in which my heart abounds?
To me, who just now, uncertain, agitated, And tossed by winds on waves of doubt, Sought righteousness and truth in the dreams of the wise, And peace in hearts resounding with fury.
When before my face only a few days have slipped by, It seems that a century and a world have passed;
And that, separated from them by a great abyss, A new man is born again within me and begins anew.”
Though purely instrumental, the work bears the undeniable character of vocal music. For much of the opening passage, the melody is rooted deeply in the piano’s tenor voice. The tune bears the simplicity and unadorned quality of a folk song known by heart. Above it, Liszt casts faint undulating figures which gleam like rays of celestial light filtered through mist. A response-like gesture sounds, surprisingly, from far above in the soprano range. Marked dolce espressivo, these magical measures give voice to some new, ethereal being. The melody dissolves away momentarily, and returns in a higher range. From each note of the transfigured tune, a gentle arpeggio floats upward, towards the divine. As though overcome with ecstasy, the tempo and dynamic increase dramatically, the formerly subdued accompaniment becomes equal to the melody’s intensity, and the theme is voiced in octaves, later harmonized with rich chords in full four-part harmony. The lonely song of devotion has been joined by a choir of angels, and solitude becomes a welcome joy.
It Seems Like You’ve Reached The End piano fantasy on a passacaglia porat
A note from the composer
The piece “It seems like you’ve reached the end” draws its musical inspiration mainly from three musical giants- Bach, Chopin and Schoenberg, and is trying to find an original voice while following traditional forms and ideas.
Although its polyphonic syntax might seem complex and hard to percieve at a first glance, the music is nevertheless highly expressive at all times and its clear form and sense of melody helps the listener to follow an otherwise obscure path.
Thematically, the piece is a hybrid between a classical sonata and a free fantasy, featuring a constant passacaglia line that can be heard in the bass at the beginning. As in a traditional sonata, there are two distinct themes, but the development section delves into other forms- canons, toccata and a dreamy section with the title “mystic ragas”, before going back to the recapitulation. The constant passacaglia line and the continuous spiral movement of the piece made me think of a never-ending depth of the internet and of search engines in particular. One day as I was searching for something online I received the message in the title, hinting at a mysterious end that was never expected or earned.
The piece was commissioned by and dedicated to Ran Dank and was composed in Berlin in winter 2023.
Mephisto Waltz liszt/dank
Patrick Campbell Jankowski
There is a wedding feast in progress in the village inn, with music, dancing, carousing. Mephistopheles and Faust pass by, and Mephistopheles induces Faust to enter and take part in the festivities. Mephistopheles snatches the fiddle from the hands of a lethargic fiddler and draws from it indescribably seductive and intoxicating strains. The amorous Faust whirls about with a full-blooded village beauty in a wild dance; they waltz in mad abandon out of the room, into the open, away into the woods. The sounds of the fiddle grow softer and softer, and the nightingale warbles his love-laden song. That note is included in the printed score to Liszt’s first Mephisto Waltz, detailing the narrative that the composer traces purely through music, his inspiration being the poet Nikolaus Lenau’s setting of Faust in verse. Liszt contrasts the lively fiddle music of Mephistopheles with a slower, more opulent waltz theme that suspends the frenzied scene even if only imagined, like the dance hall scene in West Side Story where the two Romantic leads lock eyes, or in the Berlioz’s Ball scene from Symphonie fantastique. The two themes converse at the end as the raucous music fades away and Faust wanders into the woods, still dancing.
Program Notes, cont.
Six Moments Musicaux Op 16 rachmoninov
Patrick Campbell Jankowski
Inspiration and pressure not only coexist in the creative process, but often complement one another. Just a few years out of his studies at the Moscow Conservatory, Sergei Rachmaninoff was traveling by train when his money was stolen. In need of cash in short order, the composer shifted his focus away from more grand projects and wrote these six marketable pieces to sell to a publisher within a matter of weeks. His challenges yielded imaginative results. The character pieces are a nod to different musical forms that were popular among solo piano music in the nineteenth century. The first, with its floating melody and strumming accompaniment, is a set of variations on the nocturne, made most popular by Chopin. After an etude comes a sort of song without words, a concept often associated with Mendelssohn, this one with a particularly funereal tone. A virtuosic etude follows as does a barcarolle, or gondolier’s song. The final piece is the grandest of all, with a rich texture of storming chords atop churning arpeggios.
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