V IVA M ÉXICO !
One Hundred Years of Mexican Piano Music
Max Lifchitz, piano
Concert made possible in part with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts administered by North/South Consonance, Inc
Tuesday, September 19, 2023 at 7pm
Recital Hall UAlbany
Performing Arts Center
Manuel M. Ponce Intermezzo (1900) Gavota (1903) Romanza de amor (1905) Scherzino Mexicano (1907)
Silvestre Revuletas Canción y Alegro (1939)
María Teresa Prieto 12 Variaciones Tonales (1961) *
Carlos Chávez Tercera Sonata (1928)
I. Moderato
II. Un poco mosso
III. Lentamente
IV. Claro y Conciso
Manuel Enríquez Maxienia (1988) +
Max Lifchitz Cinco Preludios (1964)
I. Prólogo (Prologue)
II. Nostalgia (Nostalgic)
III. Remembranza (Remembrance)
IV. Nocturno (Nocturne)
V. Trágico (Tragic)
Tema con Variaciones (1965)
Ricardo Castro Vals de Concierto Op. 25 (1899) *
Program
* US Premiere + Written for Mr. Lifchitz
Pianist Max Lifchitz has appeared on concert stages throughout Europe, Latin America, and the US. THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE described him as "a stunning, ultrasensitive pianist" while THE NEW YORK TIMES praised him for his "clean, measured and sensitive performances."
A graduate of The Juilliard School and Harvard University, Lifchitz was invited to join UAlbany’s teaching staff in 1986. He received the University at Albany Award for Excellence in Research in 2005 and the 2012 Distinguished Professor Award from Fuerza Latina – the University at Albany’s Latino Student Association. During the fall of 2006 Lifchitz served as the Elena Díaz-Verson Amos Eminent Scholar in Latin American Studies at the Columbus State University’s Center for International Education in Columbus, GA. His many recordings are widely available through Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon, YouTube and other commercial music streaming services.
About the Composers and Their Music
Program Notes Compiled and Edited by Max Lifchitz
Today's concert aims to introduce the listener to some of the most significant examples of piano music written by Mexican composers during the 20th century. The selected works represent a wide variety of aesthetic leanings including the unbridled romanticism of the early 1900’s, the ethnic nationalism of the 1920’s and 1930’s and the rampant experimentation prevalent during the second half of the 20th century.
Brief biographical sketches and program notes for each of the composers and works being featured today follow:
Manuel M. Ponce (1882-1948) is widely regarded as the father of Mexican musical nationalism. Ponce's style was greatly influenced by his research in creole and mestizo Mexican folklore as well as by his contact with Cuban music. Educated in Italy
Meet the Performer
and France, he was active as teacher and administrator while at the same time editing the influential journal Cultura Musical, a publication that exerted tremendous influence over the musical life of México City during the 1930's and 1940's. The Ponce pieces heard this evening – Intermezzo, Gavota and Romanza de amor (Love Romance) – were written during the first decade of the 20th century. Heartfelt compositions, they illustrate Ponce’s romantic beginnings. Written on the eve of the Mexican Revolution, the Mexican Scherzino is a delightful work that incorporates the rhythmic inflections and harmonic idiosyncrasies derived from Mexican folk music.
Silvestre Revueltas (1899-1940) began his career as a violinist and conductor turning to composition during the last ten years of his life. Trained early on in his native city of Durango, Revueltas spent the later part of his youth studying at Saint Edward College in Texas and at the Chicago Musical College. He settled in México City in 1921 and began concertizing with his colleague, the pianist Carlos Chávez. He attained notoriety as the composer of the masterful scores accompanying the exceptional films made by his brother, the well-known cinematographer José Revueltas during the 1930’s. His style drew freely from the popular music and folk traditions of the México he knew. Revueltas’ spontaneous and good-humored temperament is evident in most of his works.
The piano pieces by Revueltas being heard today — Canción and Allegro are the only two published solo piano works by the Mexican master. Canción (Song) is a despondent Indian sounding melody based on the pentatonic or five-note scale. The Allegro is a quick-witted piece in which each hand plays in a different key: the right hand is mostly in C Major while the left hand is in C minor. Contrasting meters (especially 3/4 and 6/8) are also superimposed creating some jarring moments.
María Teresa Prieto (1896 – 1982) was born in Oviedo a town in the Spanish province of Asturias. Her first music teacher Saturnino del Fresno introduced her to the works of Johann
Sebastian Bach and other Baroque masters. She abandoned her studies at the Madrid Conservatory to join a group of Spanish exiles who left their country for Mexico in 1936 because of the Spanish Civil War. Prieto developed her compositional career in her adopted country furthering her training under the tutelage of Manuel Ponce and Carlos Chavez. During 1946 and 1947 she studied with Darius Milhaud at Mills College in Oakland, California. She returned to Spain briefly in 1958 to receive the Samuel Ross prize for her only string quartet but refused to return to live there permanently.
Prieto’s 12 Variaciones Tonales (Twelve Tonal Variations) are constructed around an intricate original melody heard at the outset of the composition. Eleven contrasting variations built around elements derived from the theme follow before a majestic three-part fugue concludes the set. Prieto employs a rather unique harmonic vocabulary throughout consisting of an amalgam of time-honored harmonic patterns with elements drawn from renaissance modal thinking. While the composition is clearly neoclassical in spirit, Prieto’s harmonic vocabulary reflects the penchant for innovation and artistic freedom characteristic of composers during the 20th century.
Carlos Chávez (1899-1978) is one of Latin America's most famous composers. A powerful figure in México's cultural life, he founded the National Symphony Orchestra and directed México's National Conservatory. In 1947, Chávez became the founding director of the National Institute of Fine Arts. Well known in this country as a conductor and lecturer, he appeared at the helm of most major symphony orchestras and delivered the 1959 Charles Elliot Norton Lectures at Harvard University. His most popular work is the Sinfonía India, an orchestral fresco full of vigorous, obsessive rhythms reminiscent of Aztec dances. His musical output is vast and exhibits great variety and diversity. Chávez is closely identified with the artistic movement known as the "Aztec Renaissance." This movement aimed to revive the music of Pre-Columbian México hence creating a true, non-European, Mexican sound.
Among Chávez's many piano pieces, the monumental Third Piano Sonata stands out as a significant exponent of the composer’s style. In four contrasting movements, the work was written during the winter months of 2028 during the composer’s first visit to NYCity. The composer himself gave the first performance at the recently built Edyth Totten Theatre in NY on 22 April 1928, on the first of the historic Copland-Sessions Concerts.
Spartan textures, angular melodies, a percussive approach to the instrument, abrupt changes of register, rhythmic irregularity, and a harmonic language built on sevenths, and ninths with sudden, stark octaves are the leading features of the sonata. Chávez deliberately avoids overtly expressive elements but uses a fundamentally diatonic polyphony allowing him to achieve the harshest sonorities. The sonata adheres to a neoclassical aesthetic, linked to notions of simplicity, balance, and purity mixing European neoclassical features with a desire to revive pre-Hispanic musical thinking.
Manuel Enríquez (1925-1994) was active as a violinist, arts administrator and composer. He attended The Juilliard School in New York where he studied violin with the world-renowned pedagogue Ivan Galamian. He also studied composition under the direction of Peter Mennin and Stefan Wolpe. He served as director of México's National Conservatory and the Music Department of the National Institute of Fine Arts. Enríquez received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and from Germany's DAAD Institute. Maxienia is an inventive, dramatic work written in December of 1988. Its musical language is highly chromatic and eclectic, incorporating contrasting elements including improvisation. The work exemplifies the decidedly international, non-nationalistic style espoused by this composer throughout his career. It was premiered in February of 1989 by Max Lifchitz in the city of Los Angeles as part of the Monday Evening Concerts series.
Max Lifchitz's Cinco Preludios (Five Preludes) are unabashedly eclectic. They were written in 1964, when as an
adolescent, the thought of becoming a composer first crossed my mind. Their post-romantic language explores opaque harmonies built around modal and polytonal patterns. Each prelude employs a distinct melodic gesture and is cast around a straightforward formal pattern.
Written in 1965, the Tema con variaciones (Theme and Variations) belongs to a collection of works intended for the novice pianist. A lyrical theme introduced by the left hand is followed by five contrasting variations, each built around a gesture derived from the opening melody and freely elaborated.
Ricardo Castro (1864-1907) was the most successful of the Mexican piano virtuosi active at the turn of the century. His works — including a Piano Concerto, a Cello Concerto, and an opera were published in Germany and performed with great success in major European capitals during the early 1900’s. Following the Mexican Revolution of 1910, Castro’s European success, and the support he had received from the deposed political leader Porfirio Díaz made him an easy target of postrevolutionary revisionist doctrine. During the 1920's, his music was denounced as "anti-Mexican", a barren imitation of European models. Castro’s music and that of most of his contemporaries — was practically forgotten until the 1990’s when renewed interest in his life and work led to a re-evaluation of his standing among Mexican composers.
The Concert Waltz being heard today exemplifies Castro’s romantic touch. An enchanting example of the salon music favored by his contemporaries, the work exhibits a strong affinity towards the style of the great romantic European masters Frederic Chopin and Franz Liszt. A virtuosic work, it employs a compound ternary structure capped by a brilliant coda. Interestingly, the Viennese waltz brought to México by Emperor Maximilian during the 1860’s became the most popular dance in all echelons of Mexican society. Its lilting rhythms were simply incorporated into the folk music of most areas of the country.
The UAlbany Performing Arts Center’s six theatres, three lounges and other spaces are available for rental.
The UAlbany Performing Arts Center’s six theatres, three lounges and other spaces are available for rental.
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HOUSE POLICIES
Latecomers will be seated at the discretion of the management and its staff.
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