ZLATOMIR FUNG & RICHARD FU — PROGRAM NOTES
Program Notes by Eric Bromberger
Cello Sonata No. 1 in D Minor, Opus 109
GABRIEL FAURÉ Born May 13, 1845, Pamiers, France Died November 4, 1924, Paris Composed: 1917 Approximate Duration: 19 minutes
Fauré and Debussy might seem at first quite different as men and composers: one was quiet and restrained, classical by training and inclination, while the other was a revolutionary, fiery and anti-establishment. Yet their final years (they died within six years of each other) show some surprising parallels. Both men suffered physically (Fauré from deafness, Debussy from cancer); both were terribly distressed by World War I; and both turned to chamber music, the most intimate and disciplined of forms, during their difficult final years. Debussy embarked on a cycle of six sonatas (he completed only three), while Fauré wrote six major chamber pieces in the last seven years of his life. Fauré composed his Cello Sonata No. 1 in 1917, just as Debussy was completing his final work, the Violin Sonata. It is hard not to believe that some of the anguish of the war years makes its way into these works, and the Fauré sonata in particular is austere and somber. Gone are the lush sounds and harmonies and the “tunefulness” of Fauré’s early music; in their place is a lean sonority, an abstract manner, and a refusal to rely on instrumental color or overt gestures. The very beginning of the opening Allegro brings an unusual sound—a percussive piano part that will pound quietly throughout the movement; this percussive beginning quickly gives way to a lyric main idea, followed by a dolce second subject. Throughout, the mood is somber, and Fauré makes his argument subtly. The coda is impressive: both cello and piano take up the quiet, percussive strike that has underpinned much of the movement, and on this sound the music drives to its close. One of the most striking features of the Andante, in G minor, is the simplicity of its themes: the cello sings its gentle song over a quiet triplet accompaniment, then repeats it quietly. Some of the same mood extends to the finale, Allegro commodo, where the singing main idea is marked con grazia and once again Fauré accompanies the cello with a quietly rippling piano line. An unusual feature of this movement is Fauré’s setting the cello and piano in unison in some passages; the coda, with its crescendo chords, is one of the most striking of these.
Selections from Duo for Cello and Piano
ARTHUR BERGER Born May 15, 1912, New York City Died October 7, 2003, Boston Composed: 1951 Approximate Duration: 12 minutes
Arthur Berger was many things over the span of his 91 years: pianist, composer, teacher, critic, and theoretician. Trained originally at New York University and Harvard, Berger studied briefly with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, then returned to the United States and taught at Mills College in Oakland. After four years there, he made abrupt change, moving to New York City and serving for ten years as music critic for the New York Sun and the Herald-Tribune. Then in 1953 he went back to teaching, first at Brandeis and finally at the New England Conservatory, where he taught into his mid-eighties. Very early in his career Berger met Aaron Copland, and the two remained friends for life. Berger was one of the original members of Copland’s Young Composers Group and advocated strongly for their progressive ideas about music and politics. Berger was heavily influenced by Stravinsky’s neo-classicism, and in the early 1950s he became interested in serial composition at just the same time that Stravinsky took up that technique. Berger wrote extensively about serial music and incorporated many of its procedures in his own music, though he managed to sustain a tonal base in that music. In his review of the Duo for Cello and Piano heard on this program, Milton Babbitt described Berger as a “diatonic Webern,” and that has become the standard phrase to describe Berger, though it might not offer the best approach to his music. Berger composed the Duo for Cello and Piano in 1951, a crucial moment for him. He was in his late thirties, he was nearing the end of his tenure as critic for the Herald Tribune, and he was becoming interested in serial procedures, including the use of pitch cells. The Duo is in two movements that total about twelve minutes, and listeners may at different moments detect the major influences on Berger’s music: Copland, Stravinsky, and Schoenberg. The two movements—one slow, the other somewhat faster—are built on a quite specific sonority: clean, clear, angular, spiky. That sonority is almost pointillistic: the piano plays with a sharp staccato, and the cello part is often played pizzicato. All this may make the Duo sound cerebral and threatening, but this is instantly attractive music, graceful, full of rhythmic energy, and always on the edge of dancing. In fact, the Duo would probably make an ideal score for dancers.
24 | LA JOLLA MUSIC SOCIETY at THE CONRAD PREBYS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
