FACULTY ARTIST SERIES
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WENDY SHARP VIOLIN JOEL WIZANSKY PIANO NOV 7 2010 Sprague Memorial Hall Sunday at 4 pm
MUSIC BY Chopin Kernis Mozart Rogerson Schumann Theofanidis
Robert Blocker, Dean
PROGRAM
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART 1756-1791
ROBERT SCHUMANN 1810-1856
Sonata for violin and piano in F major, K. 374d Allegro Andante Rondeau: Allegretto grazioso Sonata for violin and piano in A minor, Op. 105 Mit leidenschaftlichem Ausdruck Allegretto Lebhaft
Intermission
AARON JAY KERNIS
A Dance of Life (after Edvard Munch) (2010)
b. 1960
CHRIS ROGERSON
Lullaby: no bad dreams (2009)
b. 1988
CHRISTOPHER THEOFANIDIS
Violin Fantasy (2009)
b. 1967
FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN 1810-1849
Nocturne in C-sharp minor (Op. posthumous) trans. Nathan Milstein (1903-1992) Nocturne in E-flat major, Op. 9, No. 2 trans. Pablo de Sarasate (1844-1908)
As a courtesy to others, please silence all phones and devices. Photography of any kind is strictly prohibited. Please do not leave the hall during musical selections. Thank you.
WENDY SHARP VIOLIN
Award-winning violinist Wendy Sharp performs frequently as a recitalist and a chamber musician. In demand as a teacher and chamber music coach, she is on the faculties of the Yale School of Music and California Summer Music, and maintains a private studio. Ms. Sharp was the first violinist and a founding member of the highly acclaimed Franciscan String Quartet. As a member of the quartet she toured the usa, Canada, Europe, and Asia, and was honored with many awards including first prize in the Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Press and City of Evian prizes at the Evian International String Quartet Competition. A native of the San Francisco Bay area, she attended Yale University, graduating summa cum laude with Distinction in Music and received her Master of Music degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Ms. Sharp has served on the faculties of the Mannes College of Music, Dartmouth College, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and Choate Rosemary Hall, and has participated in the Aspen, Tanglewood, Chamber Music West, Norfolk, Britten-Pears and Music Academy of the West festivals. Ms. Sharp is currently the director of chamber music at the Yale School of Music, where she has also served on the violin faculty since 1997. Ms. Sharp lives with her husband and their two children in North Haven, Connecticut.
JOEL WIZANSKY PIANO
Joel Wizansky has been acclaimed by audiences and musicians alike for his combination of fiery intensity and probing musicianship. The Washington Post wrote of his “emotional and rich performance, sparkling runs, beautiful phrasing, and dramatic interpretation.” After his debut with the San Francisco Symphony at the age of 17, he went on to win numerous awards, including first prize in the Helen Hart International Piano Competition, first prize in the Yale Gordon Competition, and fifth prize in the prestigious Marguerite Long International Competition. He has performed frequently in recital and with orchestras in the United States, Europe, Taiwan, and Korea and has been heard in broadcast performances in New York, Washington, DC, Baltimore, and Chicago. His first solo compact disc, A Brahms Recital, was released in 2001 on the MRC label. He is also a noted chamber musician and collaborator, and has performed in duo recitals at Carnegie Hall, the National Concert Hall in Taipei, and many other venues. Mr. Wizansky is a graduate of the New England Conservatory, where he studied with Leonard Shure. He completed his studies with Leon Fleisher at the Peabody Conservatory, where he received the Artist Diploma and was awarded the France Graage Scholarship, the school’s highest honor in performance. He has served on the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory and as a staff pianist at the Yale School of Music.
NOTES
Aaron Jay Kernis A Dance of Life painting: Edvard Munch, 1900 music: Aaron Jay Kernis, 2010 I chose to focus on the emotional turbulence at its core of this rich and ghostly painting, pairing contrasts of chromatic whirling and stillness which surge upward from wispy strands of melody to extremes of expression and speed. The piece was a commission from the Vestfold Festival in Sweden and was premiered in July 2010 by violinist Henning Kraggerud alongside the Munch painting at the Haugar Vestfold Kunstmuseum in Tønsberg, Sweden. – Aaron Jay Kernis
Chris Rogerson Lullaby: no bad dreams 2009 When I was a child, I was often afraid of bedtime. Part of this was the darkness, part of it was the knowledge that with darkness came sleep, and with sleep, dreams. Some of those dreams would be nightmares. And when I would have these nightmares, I would wake up in the middle of the night and run to my parents’ room. Being a very practical child, I approached my parents about the problem and we worked something out to solve it. Each night before bed, they would come to my door.
They would say, “No bad dreams?” and I would respond, “No bad dreams.” And then again: “No bad dreams?” “No bad dreams.” Finally, they’d say, “Good night,” I’d say “Good night,” and then we’d each say it one more time. Of course this was pretty tedious so we all spoke quickly. But on many occasions, it soothed me, and I had sleep with no dreams or only good ones. This work for violin and piano recalls those memories of my childhood before bedtime. The opening section is very calm and serene, but it soon gives way to a more playful middle section (perhaps a reflection of the nights on which I had too much sugar). This section leads into the climax of the piece, which harks back to the opening, but now the beginning material is more troubled and anguished, a foreshadowing of the potential nightmares to come. These conflicts are quieted in the ending, but there remains a tinge of darkness as the piece descends into sleep and the magical world of dreams. -Chris Rogerson, November 2009
NOTES
Christopher Theofanidis Violin Fantasy 2009 First performance: Sarah Chang, violin; Andrew Von Oeyen, piano December 2009, Seoul, South Korea. The fantasy for violin and piano is a transcription of the second movement of my violin concerto, which I wrote for Sarah Chang and the Pittsburgh Symphony in 2008. This movement has a particularly personal significance to me. I wrote the main melody, first heard in the solo violin, on the day that my daughter, Isabella, was born. I felt a great sense of tenderness toward her, and this feeling somehow translated into that melody. I also had a wonderful moment with her a few days later at home when I was holding her on my lap at the piano just improvising things when I played a certain chord. As soon as I played this chord, she sat upright, completely still and attentive. I was amazed, and she responded subsequently the same way each time. This chord, and the way I played it – as eight quick notes – is the way I end the piece, and this eight-note figure appears in other harmonies throught the movement, including at the opening, though only in its ‘pure’ form at the very end, as a moment of awakening. The collaborative process can take many shapes, but at its core it is about getting some place you could not get to on your own. I was so
happy to be collaborating with Sarah on this concerto over the past two years- she is an incredibly easy person to work with because her disposition is so continuously sunny, and yet at the same time she exacts of herself the highest artistic standard and works harder than anyone I know. So many times during this process we spoke into the wee hours of the night from the most ridiculous locations, trying thing out back and forth until we were both satisfied. Of the half a dozen or so concerti that I have written, this was the most actively collaborative, and I think the piece benefited enormously from that.
—Christopher Theofanidis
Yale School of Music 203 432-4158 concerts@yale.edu music.yale.edu/media
Wei-Yi Yang Horowitz Piano Series
COMING UP Yale Guitar Music November 8 | 8 pm | Mon Benjamin Verdery, director. Premieres by Ezra Laderman, Jack Vees, Kathryn Alexander, and Samuel Adams, plus music by Martin Bresnick, Ingram Marshall, David Lang, Aaron Jay Kernis, and Verdery.
Yale Baroque Ensemble November 9 | 8 pm | Tues Nuove musiche: seventeenthcentury masterpieces from Italy and Germany. Yale Baroque Ensemble. Robert Mealy, director.
Wei-Yi Yang, piano November 10 | 8 pm | Wed Tickets $12-$22, Students $6 Schubert: Drei KlavierstĂźcke, D. 946; Schubert-Liszt Lieder transcriptions; Chopin: 24 PrĂŠludes.
November 10