Alvin Wong, cello

yan ming alvin wong cello

doctor of musical arts recital Morse Recital Hall November 13, 2014 • Thursday at 7:30 pm

Robert Blocker, Dean

Doctor of Musical Arts Degree Recital

yan ming alvin wong Thursday, November 13, 2014 • 7:30 pm • Morse Recital Hall With Lindsay Garritson, piano

Ludwig van Beethoven 1770–1827

Seven Variations on “Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen,” WoO 46

Sergei Prokofiev 1891–1953

Sonata in C major, Op. 119 I. Andante grave II. Moderato III. Allegro, ma non troppo intermission

Augusta Read Thomas b. 1964

Spring Song (1995)

CHEN Yi b. 1953

Memory (2010)

ZHOU Long b. 1953

Wild Grass (1993) for Cello and Tape (Recitation of the poem in Chinese by the composer)

Bohuslav Martinů 1890–1959

Variations on a Theme of Rossini, H. 290

This performance is in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree.

As a courtesy to the performers and audience, please silence all electronic devices.

Please do not leave the hall during selections. Photography or recording of any kind is prohibited.

Artist Profile

Yan Ming Alvin Wong · cello

Lindsay Garritson · piano

Hailed by the press for his tone that “filled the hall” with “soothing richness” and “moments of magic” in his playing, cellist Alvin Wong has appeared in concerts across five continents in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Seoul Arts Center, and the Hong Kong Cultural Center, and in music festivals such as Atlantic (USA), iPalpiti (USA), Carvalho (Brazil), Mimir (Australia), Thailand International Composition Festival, and Intimacy of Creativity (Hong Kong).

Pianist Lindsay Garritson has performed throughout the United States and abroad since the age of four. She has appeared as a soloist with the Orchestre Métropolitain (Montreal), the Orquestra Sinfônica Barra Mansa (Brazil), the Yale Philharmonia, the European Philharmonic Orchestra (France), St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra, University City Symphony, Alton Symphony, Belleville Philharmonic, and the Principia College Orchestra.

An enthusiast of new music, Alvin has premiered concerti written for him by Barry Conyngham, Angel Lam, and James Ogburn, and cello works by composers such as Chen Yi, Stuart Greenbaum, Norbert Palej, and Federico Garcia. He holds degrees in music from Eastman, Indiana, and Yale, where he received an Artist Diploma. His major teachers are Aldo Parisot and Janos Starker.

Alvin is currently on faculty at the University of Melbourne’s Conservatorium of Music since January 2014.

An award-winning performer, Lindsay has received top prizes at the 2011 Montreal International Piano Competition, the 2011 Woolsey Concerto Competition at Yale, the 2010 Mozarteum International Chopin Competition (Salzburg), the Fite Family Competition, the St. Louis Artist Presentation Society, the Sarasota Artist Series Competition, the Connecticut Music Teachers Young Artist Competition, and the Music Teacher National Association’s Young Artist’s Competition.

Lindsay holds degrees from Principia College (B.A. in music) and Yale School of Music (M.M. and Artist Diploma). Her piano teachers include Boris Berman, Luiz de Moura Castro, Zena Ilyashov, Emilio Del Rosario, the late Jane Allen, and Jennifer Lim.

Notes on the Program

ludwig van beethoven Seven Variations on “Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen,” WoO 46 The recital opens with the last of Beethoven’s three sets of variations for piano and cello, Seven Variations on “Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen,” WoO 46, written circa 1801.

The theme is taken from the aria of the same title (which means “In men, who feel love”) from Mozart’s famous opera The Magic Flute, sung by Pamina and Papageno individually expressing their longing for love and celebrating marriage. Mozart had been a prime influence on Beethoven since he was a boy. The two eventually met in Vienna in 1787 and upon hearing Beethoven’s improvisation, Mozart was reported to have been very impressed and told bystanders, “Keep your eyes on him; some day he will give the world something to talk about.”

The Magic Flute was one of Beethoven’s favorite Mozart operas, and he had already written a set of twelve variations for piano and cello on another aria sung by Papageno some three years earlier. While the cello plays an obbligato role in the previous two sets, Beethoven gave relatively equal weight to both instruments in this set as if they are engaged in a dialogue throughout the work. The Andante theme starts with an expressive duet between the piano and the cello, but immediately moves into a lighthearted variation characterized by a three 16 th-note pickup figure. Each subsequent variation has a unique rhythmic motive that brings out their individual character. While some of them are playful and humorous, and others are sweet and loving, the fourth variation in the parallel minor certainly stands out. The work finishes in a joyful 6/8, very much in the spirit of Papageno.

sergei prokofiev Sonata in C major, Op. 119 Sergei Prokofiev composed his Cello Sonata in C Major, Op. 119 for the great Russian cellist Mstislav (“Slava”) Rostropovich in 1949, who was then only 22 years old. Prior to meeting Slava, the composer did not write a great deal for the instrument—only the Cello Concerto, Op. 58, which he was not happy about. (Eventually he re-wrote the work for Slava into the now cornerstone Sinfonia Concertante, Op. 125.) At this time, much of Prokofiev’s work had been banned from public performance under the Soviet policy for art. Luckily, the cello sonata was an exception; it was permitted to receive a public premiere in 1950, performed by Rostropovich and his long-time musical partner, pianist Sviatoslav Richter.

The work was written in the spirit of neoclassicism in aspects such as formal design, tonality, textural clarity, and balance. The opening movement in sonata form presents its first theme marked piena forte (full voice). After a moment of agitation of fierce pizzicato matching big block chords in the piano, a hopeful second theme in the dominant key spins out a seemingly neverending melody—one of Prokofiev’s greatest gifts and a prominent feature throughout this sonata. Without a real development, the middle section begins with a folky dance-like theme but only in fragments, as if they are flashbacks from the composer’s childhood in the countryside of what is now Ukraine. The movement closes with a stormy virtuosic passage in the cello, followed by calm, bell-like sonorities in the piano.

Notes on the Program

The second movement is a Scherzo-andtrio, another popular form in the late 18 th century. Scherzo, which means “joke,” shows the more humorous side of the composer.

Listeners may relate musical gestures, such as playful pizzicato, slides, descending chromatic lines and “wrong” notes in the otherwise functional tonal harmony, to clowns playing funny tricks. Elaborate long-line melody comes back in the Trio section, once again showcasing the singing quality of the instrument in different registers of a broad range. The reprise of the Scherzo, a common practice of the form only written out and slightly modified in this case, ends with sparkles in the air.

The last movement is in sonata form with several distinctive themes: a joyful lyrical melody, a folk-like peasante dance, and an angular, sometimes frantic statement with humorous accents. The middle section features a slow, expressive but muted melody suggesting a blurred, distant sonority. The sonata closes with the return of the opening theme from the first movement, only this time reinforced with octaves in the piano and filled with substantial scales, arpeggios and double-stops, that reminds listeners of the grandeur of a Russian cathedral. augusta read thomas Spring Song (1995) The second half of the recital features three works for solo cello by living composers. I met Augusta Read Thomas, who also graduated from Yale, at the Thailand International Composition Festival this past summer.

A profile composer, Thomas is particularly fond of the cello and has written nine works featuring the cello, including three concertos and two solo works. Spring Song is one of her early works that remains in the catalog when she first signed on to the publisher Schirmer (she destroyed/withheld nearly 400 works at that time).

According to Thomas, pitch, rhythmic contexts and syntaxes, and a colorful palette are the three characteristics of her works.

Cello is certainly a melodic instrument for her. In this piece, pitches are organized in such a way that they go around the tonal center but often avoid it. Hence melodies may sound dissonant and unpredictable in the first hearing; but with their repeated appearances the anchoring pitches gradually become apparent. When I played for Thomas, she explained to me that the melodies are not continuous lines; rather they are fragments that interrupt each other as if they are engaged in a lively conversation.

Further, in the composer’s words, “The double-stop passages evoke a carillon of bells, all ringing in a flurry, atop a large cathedral.”

Although this description portraits a similar picture to that of Prokofiev’s sonata, the resulting sound is vastly different. She continues, “At times the piece is very intimate, and other times bold and energized. Much of the piece is in the high register, so that when it finally falls down to the low C string, one feels as if one has landed back on the earth, if only for a while.”

Notes on the Program

chen yi Memory (2010) zhou long Wild Grass (1993) Husband and wife Zhou Long and Chen Yi are among today’s most important composers of Chinese descent. Born in musical families, both composers were exposed to Western and Chinese music at an early age.

During the Cultural Revolution in China (1966–76), they were sent to the countryside to be “re-educated” through labor work.

Subsequently they enrolled in the Central Conservatory of Music, where they met, and ended up at Columbia University for their doctoral studies. Drawing inspiration from both Chinese and Western musical traditions, their music is widely successful with a unique sound of incorporating Chinese folklore in a dissonant language.

Memory (or more appropriately, “in remembrance”), originally for solo violin, was written for the anniversary of the passing of Chen Yi’s violin teacher, the famous pedagogue Professor Lin Yaoji. Chen Yi is a professional violinist, and was the concertmaster of a “Model Opera” orchestra during the Cultural Revolution years. I love Chen Yi’s works, and upon hearing this piece I requested her permission to transcribe it for cello. To date, she has written two concertos for the instrument but produced no solo work. The transcription received the composer’s approval and was premiered in Tianjin in her presence.

Memory opens with an ornamented threenote rising motive (a-d-e), each corresponding to the relative inflection of the address “Teacher Lin” in the Cantonese dialect (phonetically lum-lo-see), which is the mother tongue of Prof. Lin, Chen Yi and myself. The motive continues to develop in the manner of a rhapsody but in the styles of Chinese operas. As the piece unfolds, the frequent shift of tonal centers and fragmentation of the melody eventually give way to the return of the theme, which builds up to the climax with momentary polyphony and parallel motion of dissonance. In the composer’s heavy words, “Dear Prof. Lin: Wish you could hear I use our mother tongue dialect yearning for you. Your student uses music to express her constant thinking of you with a heavy heart. You are like a father to us, always patiently teaching us and encouraging us to keep improving. Your thoughtful smile will be with us always.”

Zhou Long frequently references Chinese literature for his music. Wild Grass is based on the Foreword to the poem of the same title by Lu Hsun (1881–1936), the father of contemporary Chinese literature, who was not only a great writer but also a great revolutionary thinker. Here is an English translation, by Feng Yu-sheng (1931), of the poem you hear recited by the composer himself (recorded specially for this recital):

Notes on the Program

When I am silent, I feel replete; as I open my mouth to speak, I am conscious of emptiness.

The past life has died. I exult over its death, because from this I know that it once existed.

The dead life has decayed. I exult over its decay, because from this I know that it has not been empty.

From the clay of life abandoned on the ground grow no lofty trees, only wild grass.

For that I am to blame.

Wild grass strikes no deep roots, has no beautiful flowers and leaves, yet it imbibes dew, water and the blood and flesh of the dead, although all try to rob it of life. As long as it lives it is trampled upon and mown down, until it dies and decays.

But I am not worried; I am glad. I shall laugh aloud and sing.

I love my wild grass, but I detest the ground which decks itself with wild grass.

A subterranean fire is spreading, raging, underground. Once the molten lava breaks through the earth's crust, it will consume all the wild grass and lofty trees, leaving nothing to decay.

But I am not worried; I am glad. I shall laugh aloud and sing.

Heaven and earth are so serene that I cannot laugh aloud or sing. Even if they were not so serene, I probably could not either. Between light and darkness, life and death, past and future, I dedicate this tussock of wild grass as my pledge to friend and foe, man and beast, those whom I love and those whom I do not love.

For my own sake and for the sake of friend and foe, man and beast, those whom I love and those whom I do not love, I hope for the swift death and decay of this wild grass. Otherwise, it means I have not lived, and this would be truly more lamentable than death and decay.

Go, then, wild grass, together with my foreword!

bohuslav martinů Variations on a Theme of Rossini Bohuslav Martinů wrote the Variations on a Theme of Rossini for another great Russian cellist, Gregor Piatigorsky. The theme of this work is actually taken from the first variation of Niccolò Paganini’s Moses Fantasy on G String for violin and piano, which in turn is based on the theme “Dal tuo stellato soglio” (“From your starry throne”) from Rossini’s opera Moses in Egypt.

Martinu takes very small fragments of the theme and turns them into imaginative variations to show off the cellist’s virtuosity.

In the slow variation he cleverly inverts the thematic element in the parallel minor key and creates a mysterious movement that ends with an unexpected turn. Towards the end, the primary theme comes back heroically after some chasing around between the two instruments.

— Alvin Wong

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