Roy Eaton

Piano

Quantum of Preludes

    PROGRAM

Brahms - Sonata No. 1 in G Major for violin and piano

Schubert - Impromptus for solo piano, Op. 90 and Op. 102

    INTERMISSION

Bach - Sonata No. 1 in g minor for solo violin

John Adams - Road Movies

Tricia Park is a recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant and was selected as one of “Korea’s World Leaders of Tomorrow” by the Korean Daily Central newspaper. Since appearing in her first orchestral engagement with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Ms. Park has performed with the English Chamber Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, and National Symphony Orchestra of South Africa; the Montreal, Dallas, Cincinnati, Seattle, Honolulu, Nevada, and Lincoln Symphonies; and the Calgary, Buffalo, and Westchester and Naples Philharmonics. She has also given recitals throughout the United States, including a highly acclaimed performance at the Ravinia Rising Stars series. Recent season highlights include a recital debut at the Kennedy Center, appearances at the Lincoln Center Festival in Bright Sheng’s The Silver River, and collaborations with composer Tan Dun, Cho-Liang Lin, Paul Neubauer, Timothy Eddy and Steven Tenenbom. Other recent highlights include performances with the Seattle Symphony under Gerard Schwarz, appearances with the Northwest Chamber Orchestra, her Korean debut performance with the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) Orchestra and a tour of New Mexico under the auspices of the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. Tricia Park received her Bachelor and Master of Music from the Juilliard School where she studied with Dorothy DeLay. Ms. Park is a recipient of the Starling-DeLay Teaching Fellowship at the Juilliard School. Currently, Ms. Park is First Violinist of the Maia Quartet, Faculty Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Iowa in Iowa City.

An active performer and versatile musician, Conor Hanick’s performances have been hailed by the New York Times and Gramophone magazine as “excellent,” “brilliant,” “astounding” and “colorful,” demonstrating “technical precision and musical conviction,” and, in a recent performance of Olivier Messiaen’s Couleurs de l’Cite Celeste, reminded head Times critic Anthony Tomansini of “a young Peter Serkin.” 

As soloist, chamber musician and ensemble member, Mr. Hanick has been heard in the United States, Europe and Japan, and has performed in Alice Tully Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Kennedy Center, Lucerne Hall and Kyoto Concert Hall. He has appeared with Pierre Boulez, James Conlon, and David Robertson, covering in these performances an enormous variety of repertoire ranging from Franz Schreker and Francis Poulenc to Olivier Messiaen and Boulez, whose Derive I Mr. Hanick has performed several times under the baton of the composer. Mr. Hanick has also worked with the pianists Alfred Brendel, Peter Serkin, Jerome Lowenthal and members of Ensemble InterContemporain.

In 2009 Mr. Hanick was invited to perform the inaugural concert of Alice Tully Hall’s reopening celebration under Maestro Robertson and the Juilliard Orchestra, playing Messiaen’s ninety minute piano concerto Des Canyons aux Etoiles…, a work he also performed in 2008 with Jeffery Milarsky and the AXIOM ensemble in Lincoln Center. In addition to his appearances with the Juilliard Orchestra and the AXIOM Ensemble, Mr. Hanick has been a soloist with the Brooklyn String Orchestra in the concertos of Johann Sebastian Bach, Orchestra Iowa in Sergei Prokofiev’s Third Concerto, the New Juilliard Ensemble in the opening concert of the 2007 FOCUS! Festival in György Kurtág's piano concerto, ...quasi una fantasia.…, the Des Moines Symphony, and the Eastern Symphony Orchestra. Also this year Mr. Hanick performs again with the Juilliard Orchestra, in the world premiere of Hyeon Joon Sohn’s Piano Concerto, and later with the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra in an all-John Adams program. 

A devoted promoter of contemporary music, Mr. Hanick has collaborated with, commissioned, and performed works of composers from Northwestern, Princeton University, Yale University, the Aspen Music Festival, Manhattan School of Music, and Juilliard, where in 2007 he performed solo piano works and collaborated with Pulitzer Prize winning composer David Lang in a series of concerts at Peter Jay Sharp Theater. Last summer, as part of the Lucerne Festival, Mr. Hanick worked with Pierre Boulez and the Ensemble InterContemporain in works by Elliott Carter, Boulez, Luciano Berio, and a world premiere by Johannes Borowski. Mr. Hanick is a member of The Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, AXIOM, the New Juilliard Ensemble, and has performed with the Metropolis and the NOW ensembles.  

At the age of eight Mr. Hanick began studying violin and viola in the Iowa City Community School District before starting piano at age 10, two years later beginning studies at the University of Iowa with Daniel Shapiro and Rene Lecuona. In 2005 Mr. Hanick graduated with honors in piano and journalism from Northwestern University, studying piano with Alan Chow and chamber music with Ursula Oppens. Now a student at the Juilliard School, where he completed his Master’s degree in 2008 and was awarded the Helen Fay Prize in piano, Mr. Hanick is a full-scholarship C.V. Starr Doctoral Fellow, studying with Yoheved Kaplinsky and Matti Raekallio.

Mr. Hanick resides in New York City.

Tickets $15 general.  $12 students, seniors 65 yrs,

IA Course participants, children (under 12 yrs free).

Call the Sondheim Center box office at 641-472-2787.

www.sondheimcenter.com

PROGRAM NOTES

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Violin Sonata No. 1 in G Major, Op.78

The Violin Sonata No. 1 in G Major, Brahms' first published work in this genre, was completed during the summer of 1879. (It is interesting to note that in the original published edition the title of the work is listed as: Sonata for Piano and Violin in G major, Op. 7, emphasizing the importance of the piano as had Mozart and Beethoven.) Brahms, inspired to write for the violin by his friend the great violinist Joseph Joachim, belatedly composed only three violin sonatas. Before publishing the G-major work, he had attempted a number of such sonatas.  In 1850 he had finished a violin sonata in A- minor that he seriously considered for publication along with some piano sonatas and early songs. However, Brahms destroyed the violin piece, as was his habit with other works that he had had belabored over only to reject as failures in his own mind. The G-Major sonata followed on the heels of the Violin Concerto (1878) dedicated to Joachim, his collaborator on the work. The Sonata No. 1 work became popularly known as the Regenliedsonate (Rain-song Sonata) because of the "dotted rhythm"(long-short) nature of fragments of the melodies used in the opening and final movements. In Brahms' times, the dotted rhythm structure in music was used to be evocative of thoughts about a gentle rain, tears, or flowing water. The subtitle is drawn from the name of one of a pair of "rain songs" from Opus 59 that were composed by Brahms in 1873 to settings of poems by Klaus Groth (1819-1899). The poems generally recall the long-lost days of youth.

The first movement (Vivace ma non troppo), in sonata form, develops from interlocking themes.  A dotted rhythm sequence with the uneven overlapping beats of both instruments opens the movement and is sporadically repeated throughout its development. The thematic melodies lend a lyrically harmonious quality to the music tempering the fast tempo. The second movement, a three-part Adagio, is regarded as an evocation of the memory of Clara and Robert Schumann's young son Felix who died several years earlier. (The support for this view of the origin of the adagio movement is based on the contents of a letter that Brahms had written to Clara). The Adagio opens with a tender expressive piece that is followed by a somber funeral march and a return to the warmth of the opening mode.  The final movement (Allegro molto moderato) is structured in a quasi sonata-rondo form.  The opening melody is a direct quotation from one of the rain songs that merges with a melodic theme from the preceding adagio movement. The blend develops into an intense and triumphant-sounding passage as the opening melody is reinserted. The work draws to a quiet and tender conclusion.

— Arthur Canter

Franz Schubert, Impromptu no.2 in A-flat major, D.935, Allegretto

Franz Schubert, Impromptu no.4 in A-flat minor, D.899, Allegretto

Many critics hear the two sets of Impromptus as Schubert’s “last word” as a keyboard composer despite the unquestionable greatness and deep profundity of his final three piano sonatas written just months before his death. This view, unconcerned with chronology, is doubtlessly a comment on the nature of Schubert’s genius, that these short pieces in ternary form, in their identity of form and content, mastery of monothematic procedures, tonal freedom and regularity of pulse and phrase length, stand as the definitive expression of Schubert’s particular brilliance as a keyboard composer. Their intimate, confidential tone of voices is the one that best suits a composer who always seemed to be more at home writing to please himself and his attentive company than in the opera house or concert hall, and whose natural medium was the monothematic lied rather than the more complex procedures of sonata form.

It was not Schubert but the publisher Tobias Haslinger who attached the name “impromptu” to the the first set, published as opus 90 in 1827, likely to avoid a less appealing title like “sonata”, which compared to fantasies, impromptus, and airs varies did not appeal to the growing mass of amateur pianists. The final Impromptu in A-flat minor comes nearest in style perhaps to an improvisation. It begins in the minor with rippling figures that Arthur Schnabel compared to a “ballroom dance at midnight with feet scarcely touching the ground,” punctuated by a two-bar theme in vertical chords. The music moves into remote tonal country before the arpeggios return in A-flat major and a cello-like tune emerges in the left hand to give new shape and direction to the arpeggiations. The Trio moves enharmonically into C-sharp minor.

The second set of impromptus (D 935) were written in December 1827, and this time Schubert numbered the four pieces 5-8 and headed them with the title “Four Impromptus”, leaving no doubt that he envisaged them as a sequel to the earlier set. There is also greater tonal and motivic unity between the pieces and spurred Robert Schumann to conclude that a genuine sonata form was in disguise. The second Impromptu in A-flat major, then, serves as the collection’s minuet and trio. The opening theme is wistful and carefree, requiring precise voicing and melodic continuity, while the trio section is searching and contemplative, utilizing churning triplet figures in the right hand.

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Sonata No. 1 in G minor , BWV 1001

Bach's  six works for solo violin without accompaniment, The  Sonatas and  Partitas, BWV 1001-06, were completed in 1720 while the composer was employed at the Cöthen court. This period also saw the completion of the Brandenburg Concertos, the violin and keyboard concertos, the orchestral suites and the first part of the Well-Tempered Clavier, among other works. The first of the set of six, the Sonata No.1 in G minor, while the shortest and technically the least demanding of the group, is considered as rich and deep as any of them. In all his solo works, Bach demanded as much from the performers as he did of himself as a string player or keyboard artist. The notations in his manuscripts indicated every precise detail to meet his requirements for precise performance. The works for solo violin require frequent alternations between chords and single line melody. It has been said that where Bach demanded a chord, he meant a chord and not an arpeggio, although the latter may have more appeal. ( It has been noted that the kind of bow (Italian vs. German) used by the performer may affect the ability to follow Bach's stricture about chords )

The G-minor sonata is in the form of a Sonata Chiesa  (Church sonata), so named for its serious character in keeping with ecclesiastic settings. Such Italian-style baroque sonatas were standardized by Corelli to have four movements in slow-fast-slow-fast sequence, with a fugue for the second movement.  In contrast the Partitas are in the form of a Sonata Camera (Chamber Sonata) with an introduction followed by a series of dance movements.

The opening movement of the G-minor sonata, the Adagio, is a very elegant progression of harmonies with little turns and slight arpeggios that may leave the impression of improvisations but were written that way by Bach.  The compact Fuga is in the form of the short-circuit style of fugue used in the Baroque concertos of the time. ( Bach later transcribed this movement for solo lute, BWV 1000). The third movement, Sicilianna, is a gently swaying slow piece based on the popular Sicilian dance. Its main melody is played in the low register of the violin embellished with "commentary" in the upper register. The finale, marked Presto, is fast-moving (moto perpeuto) with hints of cross-rhythms and runs the risk of getting out of control!

John Adams, Road Movies (1995)

Despite his immense compositional virtuosity, chamber music never came naturally to Johan Adams, or at least he has never favored the medium. After the first two decades of his career, however, when he admitted to be “studiously avoiding the chamber music format,” Adams began composing for smaller ensembles in earnest with the Chamber Symphony written in 1992, quickly followed by his first string quartet John’s Book of Alleged Dances, and in 1995 Road Movies, his first and to date only work for violin and piano.

Much of Adams’ compositional reluctance for writing chamber music stemmed from the nature of his output in the 80s, huge orchestral works exploiting massed sonorities and the physical and emotional potency of walled triadic blocks. These gestures, however, were not germane to chamber music, with its inherent requirement for timbral delicacy and democratic parceling of musical roles. Adams wrote, “Fortunately, a breakthrough in melodic writing came about during the writing of The Death of Klinghoffer [his second opera], a work whose subject and mood required a whole new appraisal of my musical language.”

Road Movies was born from this reappraisal and serves as one of the composer’s most concise and potent scores, teeming with visceral energy, rhythmic drive and contemplative daydreaming. In his program note on Road Movies Adams writes:

“The title ‘Road Movies’ is total whimsy, probably suggested by the ‘groove’ in the piano part, all of which is required to be played in a ‘swing’ mode (second and fourth of every group of four notes are played slightly late).

“Movement I is a relaxed drive down a note unfamiliar road. Material is recirculated in a sequence of recalls that suggests a rondo form. Movement II is a simple meditation of several small motives. A solitary figure in an empty desert landscape. Movement III is for four wheel drives only, a big perpetual motion machine. It is very difficult for violin and piano to maintain over the seven-minute stretch, especially in the tricky cross-hand style of the piano part. Relax, and leave the driving to us.”

Design and copyright 2009 Freddy Niagara Fonseca

Fairfield Creates

Maia

Quartet

Roy Eaton

Piano

Quantum of

Preludes