Robert Blocker, Dean
doctor of musica l a rts r ecita l
Suzana Bartal piano
Thursday, October 26, 2017 • 7:30 pm Morse Recital Hall
doctor of musical arts recital
Suzana Bartal, piano October 26, 2017 • Morse Recital Hall
Felix Mendelssohn 1809–1847
Prelude and Fugue in E minor, Op. 35, No. 1
Kaija Saariaho b. 1952
Prelude (2007)
Mendelssohn
Variations sérieuses, Op. 54 intermission
Claude Debussy 1862–1918
Préludes, Book II I. Brouillards. Modéré II. Feuilles mortes. Lent et mélancolique III. La Puerta del Vino (La porte du vin). Mouvement de Habanera IV. “Les fées sont d’exquises danseuses.” Rapide et léger V. Bruyères. Calme VI. Général Lavine — Eccentric. Dans le style et le mouvement d’un Cake-walk VII. La terrasse des audiences du clair de lune. Lent VIII. Ondine. Scherzando IX. Hommage à S. Pickwick Esq. P.P.M.P.C. Grave X. Canope. Très calme et doucement triste XI. Les tierces alternées. Modérément animé XII. Feux d’artifice. Modérément animé
artist profile · notes on the program
Suzana Bartal, piano
Felix Mendelssohn Prelude and Fugue in E minor, Op. 35, No. 1
Hailed as a “brilliant, full of shades and virtuosic” artist (Bonner Anzeiger), Suzana Bartal has performed at prestigious venues A tremendous admirer of Bach’s music, such as Salle Pleyel and Radio France Mendelssohn largely contributed to the (Paris), Beethoven-Haus (Bonn), Merkin revival of his music in the nineteenth Hall (New York), Palazetto Bru Zane century. The Berlin performance of the (Venise), and Schloss Elmau. She has made St. Matthew Passion in 1829 was a clear recordings on France Musique and the milestone in Mendelssohn’s desire to WDR (West Deutscher Rundfunk). Suzana reverse the tendency through which has given concerts in most European Bach’s works had fallen into oblivion countries as well as the United States, Japan, after his death. The Six Preludes and and China. Her first album with solo works Fugues, Op. 35 (composed over several by Schumann was released in March 2016 years and completed in 1837) show an by Paraty (Harmonia Mundi distribution) overt tribute to Bach’s Well-Tempered and has been warmly reviewed by critics. Clavier, all the more since Mendelssohn intended them originally as a collection An enthusiastic advocate of contemporary of études and fugues, but later decided to music, Suzana has worked with some of replace “étude” with “praeludium.” When the most significant composers of our Mendelssohn performed the cycle for day, such as Thomas Adès and Eric Tanguy. Schumann in 1837, the latter was immediately enthusiastic, praising not only his Born in Romania into a Hungarian mastery in constructing the fugues, but family, Suzana studied in Paris and Lyon also the poetry within the pieces. at the CNSMD and the Yale School of Music with Peter Frankl. She has The Prelude in E minor, Op. 35, No. 1, received the Harriet Gibbs Memorial marked Allegro con fuoco, combines Prize for excellency in studies from Yale. scintillating arpeggios with a very lyrical melody unfolding simultaneously in the » suzanabartal.com middle register. It is paired with a Fugue written years earlier at the bedside of Mendelssohn’s dying friend August Hanstein. The theme of the Fugue appears in the beginning in a slow tempo, legato and has a plaintive character. Later the theme is exposed “in mirror” and with a completely different articulation (notes detached with staccato dots) and character (much more joyful), as well as a faster tempo as part of a general accelerando that leads into a climactic octave passage and a glorious chorale at the end of the
notes on the program
piece (very much like the ones used by Bach, although this one was composed by Mendelssohn himself). The conclusion of the Fugue is a quiet reiteration of the original form of the theme, but this time in a peaceful E major. Kaija Saariaho Prelude (2007) Written in 2007, Prelude was dedicated to Finnish pianist Tuija Hakkila, a professor at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. Five years earlier (in 2002), Hakkila had premiered Kaija Saariaho’s song-cycle Quatre Instants (on poems by Amin Maalouf) with Finnish soprano Karita Mattila. In memory of that performance, Saariaho consciously used materials from the song cycle in her Prelude, both being premiered by the same pianist. The piece explores modally oriented harmonies characteristic of Saariaho’s writing, as well as regular repeating patterns. Several aural layers evolve simultaneously: a background canvas of fast thirty-second notes, a rising succession of large interval leaps, and a quarter-note triplet ostinato (centering mostly around C sharp and the half-step C sharp/D). All of these elements return regularly throughout the piece, on different pitches. Saariaho’s notation of the dynamic levels is very precise, allowing for a refined transparency in shaping the different layers. Trills, glissandi, and tremolos color further the subtle sound world of the piece.
Felix Mendelssohn Variations sérieuses, Op. 54 Early in 1841, publisher Pietro Mechetti asked several composers to submit their musical contribution to a “Beethoven Album” as part of a campaign to raise funds for the erection of a large, bronze Beethoven statue in his hometown, Bonn. Composers such as Chopin, Czerny, Liszt, Moscheles, and Thalberg responded to his request. On his part, Mendelssohn decided to compose a set of 17 variations on a theme in D minor, which he completed on June 4, 1841. The title Variations sérieuses seems to be a direct indication of how Mendelssohn wanted to separate his work from the mass production of Variations brillantes of his time (sharply criticized in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik). While many of the variations are a typical display of the Romantic style, other variations show yet again, through their contrapuntal inventiveness, Mendelssohn’s admiration for Baroque keyboard music and Bach. The theme has an almost hymnlike gravity, which comes close to a chorale also in its four-part writing. The polyphonic texture of the first variation or the fugato in the tenth variation clearly evokes Bach’s music. However, virtuosic and powerful passages in the later variations culminate in several highly dramatic ones, before abruptly collapsing back into the original mood in the final chords of the piece.
notes on the program
Claude Debussy Préludes, Book II Debussy wrote two sets of twelve Préludes: Book I (published in 1910) and Book II (published in 1913). In writing preludes, he continued the natural evolution of this form, from its classical position as a preliminary movement or introduction to the main body of a composition to Chopin, who gave it the completeness of a single, independent movement with a rich, poetic, and imaginative role. Debussy brought this independent prelude to unprecedented heights by a new complexity of the materials and completeness of form. The pianistic style of the Préludes evokes Debussy’s heritage from Rameau or Couperin through the clarity of style, the rhythmic precision, or the simplicity of the form (basically ternary). As part of his novel approach, Debussy placed the titles of his Préludes at the end of each piece (in parentheses), thus making clear that the music by itself is of first importance and the title should only be an afterthought as a suggestion for those who would need it in addition to their own thoughts. Throughout his Préludes, Debussy manages to create a very unique mood in each of them, while encompassing a large diversity of subjects in the cycle. In Book II, the subjects depict the exoticism of a Spanish piazza, a portrait of a well-known American clown, the mystery of a foggy day, a magical dance of fairies, or the explosive fireworks on Bastille Day, among others.
In its compositional style, Book II is even more advanced in language than Book I, already foreshadowing Debussy’s next (and last) solo piano cycle, the Études (1915). —Suzana Bartal
Robert Blocker, Dean
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