Jon Kimura Parker November 14, 2014
President's Piano Series November 14, 2014
Jon Kimura Parker
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Beethoven
Piano Sonata in C-sharp Minor, Op. 27, No. 2, "Moonlight" Adagio sostenuto Allegretto Presto agitato
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Schumann
Fantasy in C Major, Op. 17 Durchaus phantastisch und leidenschaftlich vorzutragen Mässig Langsam getragen
Anonymous Nancy D. Alvord Linda Armstrong
Intermission
Katharyn Alvord Gerlich Lynn and Brian Grant Kim and Randy Kerr Mina B. Person
Schubert
Eric and Margaret Rothchild
Fantasy in C Major, "Der Wanderer," D. 760, Op. 15 Allegro con fuoco ma non troppo Adagio Presto Allegro
Dave and Marcie Stone Donald and Gloria Swisher David Vaskevtich Mark Worthington
Hirtz
Bernard Herrmann Fantasy based on themes from Mysterious Island, Psycho and North By Northwest
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Hirtz
Wizard of Oz Fantasy based on themes by Harold Arlen and Herbert Stothart
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About the Program Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp Minor, Op. 27, No. 2 ("Moonlight") Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) Beethoven’s immensely popular C-sharp Minor Sonata owes at least part of its fame to the German poet and music critic Ludwig Rellstab, who in 1836 wrote that the music evoked in him memories of reflected moonlight on Lake Lucerne. Since then, the nickname “Mondschein” (“Moonlight”) has endured as an iconic if unofficial title for a piece the composer originally called “Quasi una fantasia” (almost a fantasy). The “Moonlight” Sonata dates from 1801, by which time Beethoven’s reputation as a composer enjoyed at least equal status to his fame as a pianist. Still, he had to rely in part on teaching to make ends meet, as many a composer has been forced to accept as part of a career in music. Beethoven had just taken on a new student, a 16-year-old young lady named Giulietta Guicciardi. After a few lessons the pair fell in love; some have argued that the relationship led Beethoven to propose marriage, a prospect decisively skewered by the pupil’s justifiably protective parents. Marked Adagio sostenuto, the opening movement serves as an extended introduction for the remainder of the sonata. It is barely in sonata form, lacking a second contrasting theme to its slowly rising threenote motive, and virtually no real central development section. Its quiet A-4 UW WORLD SERIES
mood suggests a poet’s evocation of nocturnal romance, anticipating the private emotional world of Chopin’s nocturnes. However one feels about nicknames, Rellstab’s impression of the piece—really, just the first movement—is dead-on.
Rosen opined of this movement that “it is the most unbridled in its representation of emotion. Even today, two hundred years later, its ferocity is astonishing.” Fantasy in C Major, Op. 17 Robert Schumann (1810–1854)
Franz Liszt likened the ensuing Allegretto as “a flower between two chasms.” Given the enormous contrast in mood between the nocturnal first movement and the furious finale, Liszt’s comment aptly captures Beethoven’s decision to bridge the emotional gap by positing a calming minuet and trio (with a bit of humor suggesting a scherzo) that both clears the air of inchoate romance and allows for the eruption of a powerful and highly motoric finale.
Most of Robert Schumann’s solo piano music derives from the 1830s, including his Fantasy in C major (1836–38), a paean of love to his inamorata and future wife, Clara, née Wieck. His feelings for Clara can be divined in the quotation (from the poet August Wilhelm Schlegel) he affixed to the title page of the score: “Through all the sounds in earth’s motley dream, one soft note can be heard by him who listens stealthily.”
The concluding Presto agitato is as long as the first two movements combined. Its mood is stormy and impassioned, arguably reflecting the intense feelings barely contained in Beethoven’s heart. Two themes constitute the elements of the “story,” a tempestuous motive built upon arpeggios (as is the first movement, of course, though to an entirely different effect) and a comparatively lyrical second melodic idea for contrast. Beethoven cannily isolates and combines the two themes to great effect. Of note is that that the score indicates piano, rather than forte or fortissimo. Fierce emotion is conveyed through emphatic sforzandos and the sheer energy generated by the constituent notes that fly by at breakneck speed. The eminent pianist and commentator Charles
The first movement of the Fantasy, Durchaus phantastisch und leidenschaftlich vorzutragen (“to be performed throughout with fantasy and passion”), captures the dual nature of the composer— personified in his prose writings as Eusebius (Apollo, god of light and measure) and Florestan (Dionysus, god of intoxication and passion). Wild desperation and profound introspection polarize his labile moodshifts (and presage as well the bi-polar nature of the mental illness that would end his life in an asylum). It is a measure of Schumann’s greatness that this tempestuous movement, bursting with contradictory feelings and conveying a palpable sense of making it all up on the spot, is a carefully constructed sonata-like movement. The very opening theme undergoes a
series of modifications until morphing into its inspiring derivation—“Nimm sie bin denn, diese Lieder” (“Take them, beloved, these songs I sang you”) from Beethoven’s song cycle An die Ferne geliebte. After so emotionally strenuous and wide-ranging a first movement, Schumann provides a march listed as Mässig. Durchaus energisch (“moderato, energetic throughout”). This comparatively straightforward essay creates stability, clarity and steadfast consistency. It also provides a good transition to the third and final movement, Langsam getragen. Duchweg leise zu halten (“Adagio sostenuto, sempre piano”). The overall mood here is otherworldly, even spiritual, and expresses the composer’s resignation to separation from Clara. In “real life,” of course, the composer was relentless in his pursuit of his beloved, marrying her in 1840 after a court decided against her father’s attempts to block their union. Fantasy in C Major, Op. 15, D. 760, “Wanderer” Franz Schubert (1797–1828) During the 19th century, Schubert was treated as a kind of magically gifted “natural” composer with faulty technique commensurate with allegedly diminished mental capacity. Similar unfounded charges have been periodically directed toward Dvořák, perhaps because the Czech composer also had a great gift for melody. Interestingly Dvořák wrote an insightful essay on Schubert’s music, found as
an appendix in John Chapham’s biography, simply titled Dvořák. Another bit of nonsense promulgated the myth that Schubert was lazy. In truth, he worked diligently on a remarkably regular daily schedule (from 6 am to 1 pm) to work out his myriad compositions in all the genres of his day save the concerto. He loathed empty virtuosity, and although a musical player himself with a superb understanding of the piano, he was not seduced by the dazzling if empty virtuosity of some of the keyboard lions of the day. The closest he came to writing a showpiece is his “Wanderer” Fantasy, composed the same year as the “Unfinished” Symphony. Schubert was not a virtuoso and, in fact, could not play the finale of the Wanderer Fantasy up to tempo. (He also could not play the left hand part of the accompaniment to his first published song, Die Erlkönig, without simplifying it somewhat.) In common with the “Death and the Maiden” string quartet and the “Trout” Quintet, the “Wanderer” Fantasy’s nickname derives its theme and title from of one of Schubert’s masterly songs, in this case Der Wanderer, D. 493, which Schubert composed in 1816 (and published in 1821). Later publishers added the sobriquet “Wanderer” to stimulate sales. Though cast in one continuous movement the “Wanderer” Fantasy comprises four distinct sections each with its own tempo indication. encore artsseattle.com A-5
The initial section, Allegro con fuoco ma non troppo opens with motive formed by a single repeated pitch; this motto is instantly identifiable as a funeral rhythm and recurs throughout the entire Fantasy. The very opening presentation of the theme galvanizes the entire piece with its emphatic rhythm, coruscating arpeggios and wild scalar passagework. A complementary lyrical theme calms the passions (and reappears in the third section) before the music ascends to a stormy chordbased climax that ebbs to a quiet transition to the ensuing Adagio. In this section Schubert quotes the song’s melody verbatim and puts it through a sequence of four variations. Its initial somber demeanor and dark beauty convey the impression of nocturnal sorrow stressed by its minor key tonality. All is not darkness, however, as Schubert shifts from C-sharp minor to D-flat major to vary the emotional states, drawing on his experience in underlining textappropriate accompaniments to his hundreds of strophic songs. The Presto third section functions as a scherzo that integrates gently ironic iteration of the opening section’s heroics with a waltz-inspired second theme. The concluding Allegro begins boldly with a strongly hammered fugal treatment of the opening section’s forceful rhythm. Increasingly demanding, its cascades of arpeggios and scalar runs challenge modern would-be virtuosos as much as they did to Schubert.
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Bernard Herrmann Fantasy based on themes from North by Northwest, Psycho and Mysterious Island
Wizard of Oz Fantasy based on Themes by Harold Arlen and Herbert Stothart
William Hirtz (b. 1955) Born into a musical family—his parents were violinists in the Pittsburgh Symphony—young Hirtz began his musical life as a pianist. As a student at Juilliard he met Jon Kimura Parker where the two musicians became best friends. At Juilliard Hirtz was asked to write a film score and song for the movie Straight to the Heart, an experience that led him into a career of scoring and songwriting. His album Victima Soycunstance— whose title derived from the signature comment of Curly of the Three Stooges—was released in 2012. Wirtz’s piano trio premiered at the Orcas Music Festival by the Gyphon Trio. He lives in Los Angeles. For the works heard tonight Hirtz had appropriated music from film scores by Bernard Herrmann, Harold Arlen and Herbert Stothart. Showing professional respect and delight for his esteemed predecessors, both of the two imaginative and virtuosic piano works are redolent of the opera paraphrases of Franz Liszt cast in fresh and readily digestible contemporary harmony. The composer shared these thoughts on the music: “The first challenge in composing a fantasy based on another composer's work is what selections to choose. One of the main characteristics to avoid is music
that contains long sustained notes which sound great played by strings but don't translate to the piano. In these cases I used just a fraction of the scores, but hopefully the best ones. In the case of film music I chose to edit much of the music because a film composer has to write to a movie and often has to use a strange number of measures. My ‘Wizard of Oz Fantasy’ was easy in this respect because the songs are virtually all in eight-bar periods. “Here is the order of music in the Herrmann Fantasy: Mysterious Island is the prelude to the piece and is followed by three excerpts from North by Northwest. A transition using music from The Day the Earth Stood Still leads to Walking Distance (a Twilight Zone score). Another transition leads to material from Vertigo. The Fantasy concludes with a race to the finish with a reprise of music from Mysterious Island, Psycho and North by Northwest and a virtuoso ending using motifs from Psycho.” The Herrmann-based piece opens with a brief and quiet introduction that morphs into a rhapsodic and energetic section boasting swirling passages with ascending and descending scales propelled by jabbing notes in the bass region. A central slower episode brings Impressionist harmonies fused with Lisztian passagework. The concluding section features highly motoric and percussive episodes leading to an abrupt ending.
Hirtz composed the Wizard of Oz Fantasy as a duo piano piece in which format it has enjoyed numerous performances here and abroad. Jon Kimura Parker has written: “Several years ago [Hirtz] showed me a piano duet Fantasy that he had composed using several of Harold Arlen’s iconic themes from The Wizard of Oz soundtrack. It was joyous, technically raucous, and seemingly featured dozens of notes all at once.” In jest Parker expressed interest in playing it as a solo piece. “Fast forward several months,” he continued, “one day my fax machine started up and several insanely dotted pages spewed forth. I recognized the music—it was indeed the Fantasy arranged from two hands—but couldn’t imagine how it might be played. I called Bill and complained, ‘Hey, didn’t you know that when you rearrange a four-hand work for two hands, that you’re supposed to leave out some of the notes!’ Here is the Wizard of Oz music in all its glory. It’s one of the most difficult works I’ve played, period.”
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As mentioned, the spirit of Liszt hovers above the music from the very opening rapid accompanying figures that lead to “Over the Rainbow” and other familiar evergreens from that beloved film of 1939. It is definitely a potpourri, but a captivating example of that often maligned genre.
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About Jon Kimura Parker A veteran of the international concert stage, Jon Kimura Parker has performed as guest soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Wolfgang Sawallisch in Carnegie Hall, toured Europe with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Andre Previn, and shared the stage with Jessye Norman at Berlin’s Philharmonie. Conductors he has recently worked with include David Afkham, Pablo Heras-Cassado, Claus Peter Flor, Jeffrey Kahane, Carlos Kalmar, Peter Oundjian, Larry Rachleff, Xu Zhong and Pinchas Zukerman. A true Canadian ambassador of music, Mr. Parker has given command performances for Queen Elizabeth II, the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Prime Ministers of Canada and Japan. He is an Officer of The Order of Canada, his country’s highest civilian honor. He performs as duo partner regularly with James Ehnes, Lynn Harrell, Orli Shaham, and Cho-Liang Lin, with whom he has given world premieres of sonatas by Paul Schoenfield, John Harbison and Steven Stucky. An unusually versatile artist, Mr. Parker has also jammed with Audra McDonald, Bobby McFerrin and Doc Severinsen. As a member of the outreach project Piano Plus, Mr. Parker toured remote areas including the Canadian Arctic, performing classical music and rock’n’roll on everything from upright pianos to electronic keyboards. In commemoration of his special performances in war-torn Sarajevo in 1995, he was a featured speaker A-8 UW WORLD SERIES
alongside humanitarians Elie Wiesel and Paul Rusesabagina at the 50th Anniversary of the relief organization AmeriCares. An active media personality, Mr. Parker hosted the television series Whole Notes on Bravo! and CBC Radio’s Up and Coming. His YouTube channel features the Concerto Chat video series, with illuminating discussions of the piano concerto repertoire. Last season Mr. Parker appeared as soloist with the major orchestras of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, and toured the United States with Bramwell Tovey and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. He also had the honor of being the last guest pianist to work with the Tokyo String Quartet in their final season. Highlights of this season include solo appearances with the St. Louis Symphony with David Robertson, the San Diego Symphony with Jahja Ling, the Seattle Symphony with Ludovic Morlot, the Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra with Larry Rachleff, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra with Hannu Lintu. He appears at the Hong Kong Festival with Gary Hoffman, Vadim Repin and Joyce Yang, and begins three major chamber music collaborations, with the Miró Quartet, in the newly formed Montrose trio with Martin Beaver and Clive Greensmith, and in the special project Off the Score with legendary rock drummer Stewart Copeland.
A committed educator, Jon Kimura Parker is Professor of Piano at The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. His students have won international piano competitions, performed with major orchestras across the U.S., and given recitals in Amsterdam, Beijing, New York and Moscow. He has lectured at The Juilliard School, The Steans Institute, New York University, and Yale University. Mr. Parker is also Artistic Advisor of the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, where he has given world premieres of new works by Peter Schickele and Jake Heggie. Jon Kimura Parker has recorded music of Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Chopin and PDQ Bach for Telarc, Mozart for CBC, and Stravinsky under his own label. His new recording, Fantasy, features not only the Schubert Wanderer Fantasy and the Schumann Fantasy but also William Hirtz’s brilliant fantasy on themes from The Wizard of Oz. “Jackie” Parker studied with Edward Parker and Keiko Parker privately, Lee Kum-Sing at the Vancouver Academy of Music and the University of British Columbia, Robin Wood at the Victoria Conservatory, Marek Jablonski at the Banff Centre, and Adele Marcus at The Juilliard School. He won the Gold Medal at the 1984 Leeds International Piano Competition. He lives in Houston with his wife, violinist Aloysia Friedmann and their daughter Sophie. For further information, please see www.jonkimuraparker. com and www.oicmf.org.