horowitz piano series Boris Berman, artistic director
Wei-Yi Yang
Wednesday, November 7, 2018 | 7:30 pm Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall
Robert Blocker, Dean
Program Robert Schumann 1810–1856
Kinderszenen, Op. 15 I. Von fremden Ländern und Menschen (Of Foreign Lands and Peoples) II. Curiose Geschichte (A Curious Story) III. Hasche-Mann (Blind Man’s Buff) IV. Bittendes Kind (Pleading Child) V. Glückes genug (Quite Happy) VI. Wichtige Begebenheit (An Important Event) VII. Träumerei (Dreaming) VIII. Am Camin (At the Fireside) IX. Ritter vom Steckenpferd (Knight of the Hobby-Horse) X. Fast zu ernst (Almost too Serious) XI. Fürchtenmachen (Frightening) XII. Kind im Einschlummern (Child Falling Asleep) XIII. Der Dichter spricht (The Poet Speaks)
Schumann
Kreisleriana: Phantasien für das Pianoforte, Op. 16 I. Äußerst bewegt II. Sehr innig und nicht zu rasch III. Sehr aufgeregt IV. Sehr langsam V. Sehr lebhaft VI. Sehr langsam VII. Sehr rasch VIII. Schnell und spielend
intermission
Schumann
Fantasie in C major, Op. 17 I. Durchaus fantastisch und leidenschaftlich vorzutragen; Im Legenden-Ton II. Mäßig. Durchaus energisch III. Langsam getragen. Durchweg leise zu halten
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Artist Profiles Wei-Yi Yang, piano Pianist Wei-Yi Yang has earned worldwide acclaim for his captivating performances and imaginative programming. Winner of the gold medal at the San Antonio International Piano Competition, he has appeared on the stages of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and major venues across America, Asia, Europe, and Australia. He was recently praised by The New York Times for his solo part in a “sensational” performance of Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie at Carnegie Hall. Yang is a frequent guest artist at festivals across the United States and abroad, in Austria, Spain, Italy, Serbia, Montenegro, and Mexico. Recent master classes and performances have brought Yang to Scotland, Ireland, Germany, Thailand, Hong Kong, China, and Korea, among other countries. Born in Taiwan of Chinese and Japanese heritage, Yang studied first in the United Kingdom, and then in America with renowned Russian pianists Arkady Aronov and Boris Berman, at the Manhattan School of Music and the Yale School of Music, respectively. Yang has also worked with eminent pianists Claude Frank, Peter Frankl, Vera Gornostaeva, Byron Janis, and Murray Perahia. Yang received his doctor of musical arts degree from the Yale School of Music in 2004, and joined the faculty in 2005.
Program Notes Kinderszenen, Op. 15 Schumann Julia Clancy
Kreisleriana, Op. 16 schumann Patrick Campbell Jankowski
In March 1838, while Schumann was banned from Clara Wieck’s home by her protective father, he wrote to her: “I have been composing a whole book of things – wild, wondrous and solemn. Perhaps they are a response to something you wrote me saying that I often seem like a child… I have selected twelve and called them Kinderszenen.” He began the collection in February 1838 and finished it in March. Originally there were 30 movements, from which Schumann chose 13 to publish as Op. 15, subtitled, “Easy Pieces for the Piano.”
This frenetic outburst of creative energy made it from imagination to page in just four days. The eight-piece fantasy is inspired by Kapellmeister Johannes Kreisler, a character from E.T.A. Hoffman’s fiction. Kreisler is a perfect emblem of Romanticism in music: brilliant, yet plagued by moodiness, mania, and emotional swings. He is also a foil for the composer’s inner psyche: as with Schumann’s Florestan and Eusebius, Kreisler’s complexity and capriciousness resemble his own variety of mental states.
Clara immediately delighted at the “small, droll things,” as Robert described them. Though the subjects and titles are childish, they were intended to be performed by adults looking back nostalgically on the simplicity of childhood. Their apparent simplicity challenges the performer to present a child’s view, but written and expressed through a more sophisticated, adult musical language. Schumann included titles with each individual section intended as interpretative hints for the performer. With the first piece, “Von fremden Ländern und Menschen” (“Of Foreign Lands and Peoples”) the performer must evince nostalgia for home and a fear of strangers, rather than the excitement of exotic new places. In the last piece, “Der Dichter Spricht” (“The Poet Speaks”), Schumann, who considered himself a poet, is figuratively speaking to his beloved and distant Clara.
The first piece opens with an explosive upward launch in fiery arpeggios followed by its polar opposite: a moment of calm. These contrasts between turbulance and tranquility are a hallmark of the entire work. The second piece, which alternates a serene theme with lively, contrasting intermezzos, is the longest and most complex of all, acting as a kind of microcosm for the set as a whole through its free and seemingly improvised immediacy. Throughout Kreisleriana, motives and ideas repeat, as in the remarkably similar third and fifth pieces, with the fourth acting as an informal “trio.” Whether these pieces should be grouped together by form is a question to which there is no true answer. To compose the most of a piece in four days draws the whole thing together into a unified, immediate whole, like the Romantic composer’s version of Kerouac’s On the Road. Like any great work of literature, Schumann’s youthful masterpiece is open to interpretation and exploration, with each new encounter revealing yet more nuance.
Fantasie in C major, Op. 17 Schumann Katherine Balch Schumann’s Fantasie in C major begins with a luscious texture upon which an impassioned melody grows. If this melody evokes a sense of lamentation or longing, it is perhaps because it was originally written in June of 1836, when the father of Clara Weick (Schumann’s wife-to-be) ordered that Schumann return to Clara the love letters she had written him. Separated from his beloved and in anguish, Schumann composed a work entitled Ruines, which became the first movement of this Fantasie. Schumann later added two movements to this first rhapsodic outburst, and dedicated the final product to Liszt in 1839. The second movement, a rondo, begins with an energetic march theme. Episodic digressions recall the emotional anguish and textural complexity of the first movement. The final movement begins with tranquil arpeggios that rise from the depths of the piano’s register. A gentle, but somewhat contorted melody stretches out from this tired ascent, as though the intensity of the preceding two movements causes the music to collapse in exhaustion. Schumann’s preface to the score perhaps explains this idiosyncratic finale: Durch alle Töne tönet Im bunten Erdentraum Ein leiser Ton gezogen Für den, der heimlich lauschet. (Resounding through all the notes In Earth’s colorful dream There sounds a faint long-drawn note For the one who listens in secret.)
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Horowitz Piano Series 2018–2019 Season
About the Horowitz Piano Series
nov 28
Melvin Chen Sibelius: Finlandia and Valse Triste (arr. Sibelius for solo piano) Ravel: Valses nobles et sentimentales Brahms: Symphony No. 3 in F major (arranged for solo piano)
The legendary pianist Vladimir Horowitz chose to leave his papers to Yale upon his death in 1989. Today, Yale honors his legacy through the Horowitz Piano Series, which brings many of the world’s great keyboard artists to Yale and presents the distinguished pianists of the Yale faculty.
jan 16
Peter Serkin Mozart: Adagio in B minor, K. 540 and Sonata No. 13 in B-flat major, K. 570 Bach: “Goldberg” Variations
feb 13
Roberto Prosseda
Mar 6
Robert Blocker
Emanuel Ax, Yefim Bronfman, and Radu Lupu are among the guest pianists who have performed at Yale. The series also presents pianists who are less known in the United States, such as Paul Lewis, Pierre Réach, and Mikhaïl Rudy.
Samplers 2018–2019 Season Save up to 15% off single-ticket prices when you purchase a Pick 3 or Pick 5 package. Samplers are available now.
Upcoming Events nov 13 Escher String Quartet Oneppo Chamber Music Series The Escher String Quartet performs music by Mozart, Korngold, and Beethoven. 7:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall Tickets start at $28, students $13 nov 15 Peter Oundjian, principal conductor Yale Philharmonia Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1, with Sophiko Simsive, and Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra. 7:30 p.m. | Woolsey Hall Tickets start at $12, Yale faculty/ staff $8, students $5 $3 surcharge at the door Special Offer: Buy one, get one free Orchestra seats! nov 28 Melvin Chen, piano Horowitz Piano Series Faculty pianist Melvin Chen performs an arrangement of Brahms’ Symphony No. 3, and works by Sibelius and Ravel. 7:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall Tickets start at $15, students $7
dec 4 Emerson String Quartet Oneppo Chamber Music Series A performance by the legendary Emerson String Quartet, an ensemble The New Yorker has said is “as eminent as ever.” 7:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall Tickets start at $28, students $13 dec 5 Liederabend Yale Opera An evening of Russian song. 7:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall Free dec 6 New Music for Orchestra New Music New Haven A program of new orchestral music by the School’s student composers performed by the Yale Philharmonia. 7:30 p.m. | Woolsey Hall Free dec 12 Guitar Chamber Music YSM Ensembles 7:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall Free
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