Alfred Schnittke’s 80th Anniversary with Sarita Kwok, violin · Ettore Causa, viola Ole Akahoshi, cello · Wei-Yi Yang, piano
faculty artist series November 19, 2014 • Morse Recital Hall
Robert Blocker, Dean
Faculty Artist Series
Alfred Schnittke’s 80 th Anniversary Wednesday, November 19, 2014 • 7:30 pm • Morse Recital Hall Sarita Kwok, violin • Ettore Causa, viola Ole Akahoshi, cello • Wei-Yi Yang, piano Alfred Schnittke 1934–1998
Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 1 (1963) I. Andante II. Allegretto III. Largo IV. Allegretto scherzando Suite in the Old Style (1972) Transcribed for viola and piano by Dashiel Nesbitt I. Pastorale II. Ballet III. Menuet IV. Fugue V. Pantomime intermission Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 1 (1978) I. Largo II. Presto III. Largo
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.
Notes on the Program
Perhaps more than many of his colleagues, Alfred Schnittke (1934–1998) endeavored to express as fully and thoroughly his observations on the contradiction and paradox of the world around him. Schnittke existed in-between different traditions; he absorbed the intense energy of the musical flow of Russian, Jewish, Viennese, and pop cultures. His music embraces at once levitating purity and vertiginous complexities. Governed by conflicting sensibilities, his voice vacillates between violence and extreme fragility. Some of his unique ideas germinated from his soundtracks and incidental music for more than 60 films. For Schnittke, “serious” and “light” music coexisted and interpreted each other. With his unique musical identity, Schnittke continued down the path paved by Mahler and Shostakovich. Along the way, Schnittke intensified all possible contrasts, and stressed strong ambivalence in his own music.
vivre of the Italian Baroque. The Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 1 (1978) is obsessed with fever and tension, which eventually unhinge the piece and plunge the music into a calamitous abyss, only to be salvaged in the piece’s final moments by something that haunts the stratosphere.
In the early 1960s, Schnittke started developing newer compositional techniques and finding new sound perspectives. By contrast, in the 1970s, he produced the well-known polystylistic Symphony No. 1, which exemplified a kaleidoscopic vision and application of stylistically different idioms. A few years later came his First Concerto Grosso that embodied a type of musical hermeneutics, searching for new meanings in old roots. Tonight’s program samples fragments and flavors from these periods. The Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 1 (1963) seems possessed by its countless contrapuntal combinations. While it is cloaked in dodecaphonic guises, it is constantly clawed away in all possible directions by dilemmas in tonalities, or the lack thereof. In his Suite in the Old Style from 1972, Schnittke glanced back nostalgically to the joie de
— Wei-Yi Yang
Charles Ives once said: “Nature creates valleys and hills, and people build fences and attach labels.” It would be impossible to predict how long it might take for Schnittke’s output to be heard properly as an integral part of music history. However, it is clear that he bravely expressed the dramatic and hectic essence of the twentieth century, and that he pushed music out of its local boundaries by demolishing many palisades. Following his fifth stroke, Schnittke died in Hamburg on August 3, 1998. He would have been 80 years old this year.
Alfred Schnittke (1934–1998)
Artist Profiles
Wei-Yi Yang · piano Pianist Wei-Yi Yang has earned worldwide acclaim for his captivating performances and imaginative programming. Most recently, he was praised by the New York Times as the soloist in a “sensational” performance of Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie at Carnegie Hall. Gold Medal winner of the San Antonio International Piano Competition, Mr. Yang has also performed at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, and across Europe, Australia, and Asia. A dynamic chamber musician with a diverse repertoire, Mr. Yang has collaborated with the Pacifica, Cassatt, and Tokyo String Quartets; as well as Frederica von Stade, Clive Greensmith, and Richard Stoltzman, among numerous others. Mr. Yang has curated inventive interdisciplinary projects, including a collaboration with actress Miriam Margolyes as part of the “Dickens’ Women” world tour; lecture-recitals on the confluence of Czech music and literature; and multimedia performances of Granados’ Goyescas with projections of Goya’s etchings. He has given world premieres of new works by contemporary composers, including Howard Boatwright, Jonathan Cole, Daniel Godfrey, and Ezra Laderman. Mr. Yang studied first in the United Kingdom and then with Arkady Aronov in New York. Under the guidance of Boris Berman, he received his D.M.A. from Yale in 2004. Wei-Yi Yang frequently presents master classes and performances in Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Korea, and at Princeton University, Ithaca College, and the Hartt School. He has adjudicated the Isidor Bajic Piano Memorial and the San Antonio International Piano competitions, and the Concert Artists Guild auditions. Mr. Yang regularly appears at festivals across the United States, from Norfolk to Napa Valley, and abroad, including Germany, Serbia, Montenegro, Mexico, and Scotland. In 2005 he joined the faculty of the Yale School of Music.
Artist Profiles
Sarita Kwok · violin Sarita Kwok has distinguished herself as one of the most captivating and sophisticated performers to emerge from the ranks of Australia’s classical musicians. A popular and enthusiastically received performer, Sarita has appeared on chamber series and at festivals throughout the United States, including Mistral Music (of which she is an artist member), Temple Emanuel Chamber Series, Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music, and in performances at Weill and Zankel recital halls, Merken Concert Hall, Kitara Hall (Japan), Villa Medici (Italy), and the Theatre du Jeu de Paume (France). Sarita has appeared on the Concert des Lauréats de l’Académie de Lausanne as well as WGBH public radio, Radio Suisse Romande, and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. She has also performed as a guest violinist with the award-winning piano quartet Ensemble Made in Canada. Sarita is a persuasive advocate of contemporary music and frequently seeks out challenging new works to champion. She has debuted works by composers Jerome Combier, Jean Giroud, and John B. Hedges, among others, and has collaborated with both Martin Bresnick and Michael Jarrell. With the Allianza Quartet she recorded the last three string quartets of Ezra Laderman for Albany Records. The former director of the undergraduate lessons program at Yale, Sarita served for eight years on the faculty of the Yale Department of Music. She currently serves as the chair of the music department at Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts, where she is also the college’s artist-inresidence. She has additionally taught master classes at Wellesley and Amherst colleges and at the New Zealand School of Music. Sarita holds both Doctor and Master of Musical Arts degrees from the Yale School of Music, where she was a student of Syoko Aki and the Tokyo String Quartet.
Artist Profiles
Ettore Causa · viola Italian-born violist Ettore Causa is praised for his exceptional artistry, passionate intelligence, and complete musicianship. He was awarded both the P. Schidlof Prize and the J. Barbirolli Prize for the most beautiful sound at the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition. Causa has made solo and recital appearances in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Zurich Tonhalle, Madrid National Auditorium, Salle Cortot (Paris), Tokyo Symphony Hall, and Teatro Colon, and has performed at festivals such as the Menuhin (Gstaad), Salzburg, Tivoli (Copenhagen), Prussia Cove (England), Savonlinna (Finland), Launadire (Canada), and Norfolk (Conn.) Festivals. Mr. Causa is a former member of the Aria Quartet and a current member of the Poseidon Quartet, and has collaborated with such renowned musicians as the Tokyo, Artis, and Elias String Quartets, Pascal Rogé, Boris Berman, Peter Frankl, Thomas Adès, Natalie Clein, Ana Chumachenco, Ani Kavafian, Alberto and Antonio Lysy, Liviu Prunaru, Thomas Demenga, Anthony Marwood, Ulf Wallin, William Bennett, and others. Ettore Causa studied at the International Menuhin Music Academy with Alberto Lysy and Johannes Eskar, and later at the Manhattan School of Music with Michael Tree. After teaching for many years at the International Menuhin Music Academy, Mr. Causa joined the faculty of the Yale School of Music in 2009. His recordings include two Claves CDs: one of the Brahms viola sonata and the other his transcription of Romantic pieces, which was awarded 5 Diapasons. Mr. Causa performs on a viola made for him by Frederic Chaudière in 2003.
Artist Profiles
Ole Akahoshi · cello Cellist Ole Akahoshi from Germany enjoys a concert career before audiences in North and South Americas, Asia, and Europe in recitals, chamber music concerts, and as soloist with orchestras such as the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and Symphonisches Orchester Berlin. He has won numerous competitions, including Concertino Praga and Jugend Musiziert, and is a recipient of the Salon de Virtuosi fellowship award. Mr. Akahoshi has performed in Avery Fisher Hall, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Suntory Hall, Seoul Arts Center, Beijing, Shanghai and Taipei Concert Halls, Wigmore Hall, Wiener Musikverein, and Berliner Philharmonie. His performances have been featured on CNN, NPR, WQXR, Korean Broadcasting, and the major German stations. He has recorded for the Albany, New World, Calliope, Bridge, and Naxos labels. His most recent releases include the string quartet by Behzad Ranjbaran, and the Mendelssohn octet with Gil Shaham. Ole Akahoshi has collaborated with the Tokyo, Michelangelo, and Keller quartets and with Sarah Chang, Cho-Liang Lin, Elmar Oliveira, Leon Fleisher, Garrick Ohlsson, and Elizabeth Parisot, among many others. He has served as faculty at the festivals in Banff, Norfolk, Brazil, and the GMMFS in Korea. He has given numerous classes, most recently at the conservatories in Beijing and Sichuan. At age eleven, Ole Akahoshi was the youngest student to be accepted by Pierre Fournier. He studied with Aldo Parisot at Yale and Juilliard, as well as Janos Starker at Indiana University. Mr. Akahoshi has served as teaching assistant for both Aldo Parisot and Janos Starker. Ole Akahoshi is the principal cellist of the Sejong Soloists. In 1997 he joined the faculty of the Yale School of Music, where he is Assistant Professor of Cello.
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Mingus Big Band
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Angélique Kidjo
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Robert Blocker, Dean