Czech Chamber Music, Feb 22

Czech Chamber Music Kyung Yu, violin ¡ Ole Akahoshi, cello Wei-Yi Yang, piano

faculty artist series February 22, 2015 • Morse Recital Hall

Robert Blocker, Dean

Faculty Artist Series

Czech Chamber Music Sunday, February 22, 2015 • 4:00 pm • Morse Recital Hall Kyung Yu, violin · Ole Akahoshi, cello · Wei-Yi Yang, piano

Josef Suk 1874–1935

Elegie for violin, cello, and piano, Op. 23

Antonín Dvořák 1841–1904

Romantic Pieces for violin and piano, Op. 75 I. Allegro moderato II. Allegro maestoso III. Allegro appassionato IV. Larghetto

Leoš Janáček 1854–1928

Pohádka (Fairy Tale) for cello and piano intermission

Bedřich Smetana 1824–1884

Trio in G minor, Op. 15 I. Moderato assai II. Allegro ma non agitato — Andante — Maestoso III. Finale — Presto

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

Kyung Yu 路 violin Violinist Kyung Yu holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Juilliard School and a Master of Music degree from the Yale School of Music. She has studied with Dorothy DeLay, Paul Kantor, and the late Professor Emanuel Zetlin. Ms. Yu was concertmaster of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra from 1988 until 1999. She has appeared as a soloist with the Seattle Symphony, the New Haven Symphony, and Yale Philharmonia orchestras, and has performed numerous recitals in New York City, Seattle, Aspen, and throughout Korea. She gave her New York debut concert in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall as a winner of the Artists International Competition. Ms. Yu has taught at the Aspen Music Festival and was an assistant to Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard pre-college division. She served on the Fulbright Scholarship Screening Committee for Strings from 1999 to 2002. Ms. Yu has taught violin students at Lehigh University and Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania.

She has served on the faculty at Yale since 1988.

Ms. Yu performs extensively with pianist Elizabeth Sawyer Parisot, with whom she has recorded the Strauss and Prokofiev sonatas, and appeared on Albany Records in The Music of Ezra Laderman. She performed the Beethoven Triple Concerto with Elizabeth Parisot and cellist Ole Akahoshi with the Yale Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Shinik Hahm. With Elizabeth Parisot, Ms. Yu has played numerous recitals throughout Connecticut and Pennsylvania, and has performed to acclaim in concert tours of Korea and Italy.

Artist Profile

Ole Akahoshi · cello Hailed by the Los Angeles Times for his “technical solidity, perfect intonation, and large edgeless tone of buttered-rum quality,” German cellist Ole Akahoshi has concertized on four continents in recitals and as soloist with orchestras, such as the Orchestra of St. Luke’s under Yehudi Menuhin and Symphonisches Orchester Berlin. He has won numerous competitions, including Concertino Praga and Jugend Musiziert, and is a recipient of the fellowship award from Charlotte White’s Salon de Virtuosi. Mr. Akahoshi has performed in such venues as Avery Fisher Hall, Benaroya Hall, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Suntory Hall (Tokyo), Seoul Arts Center, National Center for Performing Arts (Beijing), Shanghai Concert Hall, Wigmore Hall (London), Wiener Musikverein, and Berliner Philharmonie. His performances have been featured on CNN, NPR, WQXR, Korean Broadcasting, and all the major German stations. He has recorded for the Albany, New World, CRI, Calliope, Bridge, Sanga, and Naxos labels. His 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 Shmuel Ashkenasy, Sarah Chang, Cho-Liang Lin, Gil Shaham, Chee-Yun, Lawrence Dutton, Nobuko Imai, Myung Wha Chung, Edgar Meyer, Jian Wang, Leon Fleisher, Garrick Ohlsson, and Yo-Yo Ma, among many others. He has performed and served as faculty at the Banff Centre, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Appalachian Summer Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Festival des Artes Brazil, and the Great Mountains Music Festival in Korea. He has been a guest artist with the Seattle Chamber Music Society and the Ensemble for the Romantic Century. He has given numerous master classes, most recently at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Mr. Akahoshi has served as a judge for the Juilliard Concerto Competition and the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Competition, among others. At age eleven, Ole Akahoshi was the youngest student to be accepted by Pierre Fournier. He received a bachelor’s degree from Juilliard and a master’s degree from Yale, where he studied with Aldo Parisot, as well as an artist diploma from Indiana University under János Starker. Mr. Akahoshi has served as teaching assistant for both Aldo Parisot and János Starker. Ole Akahoshi is the principal cellist of the Sejong Soloists and a member of the Saito Kinen Orchestra. He has been teaching at the Manhattan School of Music since 2004. He is an assistant professor of cello at the Yale School of Music.

Artist Profile

Wei-Yi Yang · piano Pianist Wei-Yi Yang has performed worldwide as soloist, recording artist, and chamber musician to critical acclaim. Winner of the gold medal in San Antonio International Piano Competition, he has appeared on the stages of Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, and major venues across America, Asia, Europe and Australia. Most recently, he was praised by the New York Times in a “sensational” performance of Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie at Carnegie Hall.

Wei-Yi Yang’s performances have been featured on NPR, PBS, ARTE (Association Relative à la Télévision Européenne), and ABC (Australian Broadcasting Company), and on recordings by Ovation, Albany Records, Renegade Classics, and the Holland-America Music Society. Yang is a frequent guest artist at the festivals of Novi Sad, Serbia; Monterrey, Mexico; Konstanz, Germany; Kotor, Montenegro; La Jolla and Napa, California; and Norfolk, Connecticut.

A dedicated chamber musician, Wei-Yi Yang has collaborated with many distinguished musicians, including the Alexander, Cassatt, Pacifica, and Tokyo String Quartets; mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade; soprano Dawn Upshaw; clarinetists Richard Stoltzman and David Shifrin; violists Roger Tapping, Ara Gregorian, and Ettore Causa; and violinist Axel Strauss, among many others. With cellist Clive Greensmith, he recently performed Mendelssohn’s complete duos for cello and piano on the 1884 Erard Grand piano at the Yale Collection of Musical Instruments.

Born in Taiwan of Chinese and Japanese heritage, Mr. Yang studied first in the United Kingdom, and then in America with renowned Russian pianists, Arkady Aronov at the Manhattan School of Music and Boris Berman at Yale. Mr. Yang has also worked with eminent pianists Claude Frank, Peter Frankl, Vera Gornostaeva, Hans Graf, Byron Janis, and Murray Perahia.

In demand as a committed teacher, Wei-Yi Yang has presented master classes and performances in Scotland, Ireland, Germany, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Korea, Serbia, and Montenegro. He has adjudicated at the Isidor Bajic Piano Memorial Competition, the San Antonio International Piano Competition, and the Concert Artists Guild auditions.

In 2004, he received his doctorate from Yale, where he joined the faculty in 2005, and serves as Associate Professor of Piano, Chair of DMA committee, and a Jonathan Edwards Fellow.

Notes on the Program

josef suk Elegie, Op. 23

antonín dvorák Romantic Pieces for violin and piano

Josef Suk studied composition under Dvořák before becoming his son-in-law. Suk’s work as a composer was initially influenced by Dvořák and Czech folk music, but later developed an individual perspective adopting a more sombre, troubled character. The Elegie, Op. 23, was composed in 1902 and is a memorial tribute for Julius Zeyer (1841– 1901), an author of novels and epic poems rooted in Bohemian history and legends.

Right after New Year, 1887, Antonín Dvořák composed an unusual Terzetto for his violinist friend Pelikan and a student, with a viola part for himself. The second violin part soon proved too difficult for the student, and Dvořák quickly refashioned the piece for violin and piano. Renamed the Four Romantic Pieces, Op. 75, the suite occupies an unique niche between a set of dances and a full sonata. It is a pity that the composer withdrew the individual titles — Cavatina, Capriccio, Romanza, and Elegia — which were so descriptive of the movements’ character.

Originally scored for violin, cello, string quartet, harp, and harmonium — a Romantic approximation of ‘Antiquity’ — the Elegie was soon arranged for violin, cello, and piano.

It is in A-B-A form: the first section (Adagio) presents a melancholy melody shared by strings, followed by a brief second section (Poco più mosso), in which the more solemn and imposing piano part looms, whilst the third section returns to the meditative atmosphere of the opening. A coda contains an echo of the middle section and provides a peaceful repose.

leoš janácek Pohádka (Fairy Tale) for cello and piano Leoš Janáček’s Pohádka (A Fairy Tale), written between 1907 and 1910, was inspired by Zhukovsky’s Tale of Tsar Berendyey — one of several works of Russian literature which stimulated Janáček’s imagination. However, the connection with this source became gradually weaker as the composition progressed.

It is in three movements. The first movement sets the scene. Plunged into the fairytale world, we experience the liberating climax of the story in the second movement.

The third movement is totally dominated by folk music and rusticity, with intertwining melodic fragments of deep fervor and verve.

Notes on the Program

bedŘich smetana Trio in G minor, Op. 15 The G minor Piano Trio by Bedřich Smetana was fueled by a major family tragedy: between 1854 and 1856, three of Smetana’s four daughters died. The four-year-old Bedřiška was particularly close to her father; in later years, he always mentioned her when discussing the Piano Trio, into which Smetana poured his grief.

The mood of tragedy pervades the opening movement, relieved only by the B-flat major second theme introduced by the cello, which the composer said was a favorite tune of his daughter. Sorrow intensifies as the music develops to its climax, ceaseless until the closing bars. The second movement, Allegro ma non agitato, was described by Zdenek Nejedlý, Smetana’s first biographer, as a portrait of the child, its mood darkened by the knowledge of her approaching death. The two ‘alternativo’ sections complete her musical portrait: a delicate Andante with a naïve melody, and a Maestoso in a dotted rhythm that intensifies as it reaches a glowing arch.

The Finale is a dramatic rondo. Its opening theme, apparently of folk extraction, in fact

originated in a piano sonata that Smetana had composed in 1846. The first intercepting episode presents a warm duet, perhaps a loving hymn from father to daughter. After a reprise, which is interrupted by a second episode (Grave quasi marcia), looms a funeral procession. A distant bell then tolls as the grief-stricken duet theme is heard for the last time, perhaps as the parent bids his farewell to the child. The agitated G minor first theme returns and soars, then whirls away to a sudden end.

Smetana was the pianist in the first performance of this, his only piano trio, given in Prague on December 3, 1855.

—Wei-Yi Yang

Upcoming Events

Philharmonia in Sprague Hall

Bryce Dessner, guest composer

february 27 Morse Recital Hall | Friday | 7:30 pm Yale Philharmonia Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 in C minor Mozart: Bassoon Concerto, with soloist Darren Hicks; Bartók: Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta. Shinik Hahm, Louis Lohraseb, Heejung Park, conductors Tickets start at $10 • Students $5 $3 surcharge for purchases at the door

march 5 Morse Recital Hall | Thursday | 7:30 pm New Music New Haven Featuring Dessner’s Tenebre and Murder Ballads. With Sandbox Percussion. The program also includes works by graduate students in the School’s composition program Tickets $10–$15 • Students $5

Music ad Rhenum march 3 Morse Recital Hall | Tuesday | 7:30 pm Oneppo Chamber Music Series & Yale Collection of Musical Instruments Music of J.S. Bach, including the Suite in B minor, bwv 1067; Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue, bwv 903; and more Tickets start at $26 • Students $13

Lunchtime Chamber Music march 4 Yale Art Gallery | Wednesday | 12:30 pm YSM Student Ensembles Music for a variety of chamber ensembles Wendy Sharp, director Free Admission

The American Jazz Century march 6 Morse Recital Hall | Friday | 7:30 pm YSM Student Ensembles Willie Ruff, narrator. Aaron Diehl, piano; Paul Sikivie, bass, and Lawrence Leathers, drums.

With Amanda Kemp and Michael Jamanis performing The Chaconne Emancipated Tickets start at $12 • Students $6

Handel: La Resurrezione march 24 Battell Chapel | Tuesday | 7:30 pm Faculty Artist Series James Taylor, tenor; Robert Mealy, violin; and Avi Stein, harpsichord Co-sponsored by the Yale Institute of Sacred Music and the Helicon Foundation Free Admission

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Robert Blocker, Dean