Peter Serkin, piano, January 16, 2019

horowitz piano series Boris Berman, artistic director

Peter Serkin

Wednesday, January 16, 2019 | 7:30 pm Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall

Robert Blocker, Dean

Program Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1756–1791

Adagio in B minor, K. 540

Sonata No. 17 in B-flat major, K. 570 I. Allegro II. Adagio III. Allegretto

intermission

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Johann Sebastian Bach 1685–1750

“Goldberg” Variations, BWV 988

Theme. Aria I. a 1 clavier II. a 1 clavier III. Canone all’unisono a 1 clavier IV. a 1 clavier V. a 1 ovvero 2 claviere VI. Canone alla seconda a 1 clavier VII. a 1 ovvero 2 claviere VIII. a 2 claviere IX. Canone alla terza a 1 clavier X. Fughetta a 1 clavier XI. a 2 claviere XII. Canone alla quarta XIII. a 2 claviere XIV. a 2 claviere XV. Canone alla quinta XVI. Ouverture a 1 clavier XVII. a 2 claviere XVIII. Canone alla sesta a 1 clavier XIX. a 1 clavier XX. a 2 claviere XXI. Canone alla settima XXII. Alla breve a 1 clavier XXIII. a 2 claviere XXIV. Canone all’ottava a 1 clavier XXV. a 2 claviere XXVI. a 2 claviere XXVII. Canone alla nona XXVIII. a 2 claviere XXIX. a 1 ovvero 2 claviere XXX. Quodlibet a 1 clavier

Theme. Aria da capo

Peter Serkin’s Exclusive Representation: Kirshbaum Associates Inc., 711 West End Avenue, Suite 5KN, New York, NY 10025 www.kirshbaumassociates.com

Artist Profile

Program Notes

Peter Serkin, piano

Adagio in B minor mozart Patrick Campbell Jankowski

Recognized as an artist of passion and integrity, the distinguished American pianist Peter Serkin has performed with the world’s major symphony orchestras, led by such eminent conductors as Seiji Ozawa, Pierre Boulez, Daniel Barenboim, George Szell, Eugene Ormandy, Claudio Abbado, Simon Rattle, and many others. A dedicated chamber musician, Serkin has collaborated with Alexander Schneider, Pamela Frank, Yo-Yo Ma, the Budapest, Guarneri, Orion, Shanghai, and Dover string quartets, and TASHI (known later as the Tashi Quartet), of which he was a founding member.

Serkin has been instrumental in bringing to life the music of Schoenberg, Reger, Webern, Berg, Stravinsky, Wolpe, and Messiaen for audiences around the world.

He has had works written for him by such composers as Toru Takemitsu, Hans Werner Henze, Luciano Berio, Leon Kirchner, Alexander Goehr, Oliver Knussen, and Charles Wuorinen.

Recent summer seasons have featured engagements at the Ravinia, Tanglewood, La Jolla, Chautauqua, and Music Mountain festivals, as well as the BBC Proms, Oxford Philharmonic Piano Festival, and Bellingham Festival of Music. Serkin is Visiting Professor of Piano at the Yale School of Music and teaches at the Bard College Conservatory of Music.

Peter Serkin is a Steinway Artist and has recorded for Arcana, Boston Records, Bridge, Decca, ECM, Koch Classics, New World Records, RCA/BMG, Telarc, Vivace, and Vanguard Classics.

The key of this Adagio is significant, not only for its rarity (only one other movement in Mozart’s repertoire is in B minor), but for its specificity; Mozart even listed the movement’s key in his diary, which he hardly ever made note of. In Mozart’s time, due to the available technologies and trends of temperament, keys had not only different pitches, but different colors and “flavors” depending on the instrument. We can only imagine what color palette led to the choice of B minor for this movement, especially given that the majority of the work, including its surprising conclusion, are actually in B major.

The Adagio is by all accounts a “special” piece; the dramatic and lyrical character of the movement, with a nervous accompaniment pulsating beneath the freely singing melodic line of the right hand, foreshadows to some degree the “nocturne” style of Field and Chopin. In fact, if you inserted this unique miniature, so implacable in musical chronology, into an all-Chopin program, few might bat an eye.

Sonata No. 17 in B-flat major Mozart Patrick Campbell Jankowski

“Goldberg” Variations Bach Patrick Campbell Jankowski

Its ingredients are few, and simple at that, but Mozart’s Sonata No. 17 is rich with flavor and substance. In crystal-clear octaves, Mozart presents a lilting arpeggio gesture at the top. This first “theme,” unadorned yet sturdy, proves perfect for development and transformation (reminding us that Beethoven didn’t materialize out of thin air...). With themes and mottos this distinctive, even the smallest changes yield greater impact.

Some shifts are more overt: chordal hammer strikes pull our attention to new gestures, like the surprising turn into D-flat major. Others are more subtle, as when Mozart resists stability even in the recapitulation of the opening movement.

Even now, centuries after its composition, the Goldberg Variations belong to no single individual, era, or even musical incarnation: just this past December, Glenn Gould’s heavily marked-up print edition sold at auction for upwards of $100,000. Gould’s copy was no manuscript – just a store-bought edition from the 1980’s – but its value derives from the tangible markings of just one of many artists who has made the work their own.

Like any piece of music, there is no definitive version of the Goldberg Variations, nor will there ever be. One performer’s interpretation may inspire controversy or captivation, depending on the degree of expectation and openness one brings to hearing it. When done with conviction, these variations give the musician a script for human expression.

This theme of subtle instability continues in the central Adagio, in which a steadfast chorale melody, with shades of a pastoral horn call, echoes between restless episodes and pulsating accompaniments; the first episode feels uneasy, the second, with its elegant Alberti accompaniment, more carefree. Neither emotional turn manages to shake the chorale theme from its unwavering daydream. Some of the most simple musical ideas in the closing Allegretto are also its most entertaining: halfway through the movement, repeated taps of the same pitch recall the innocent irritation of a woodpecker, or the staccato chuckle that hearing Mozart’s playful sonata might induce.

The aria that bookends the set is itself a beautifully simple script surrounded by a wide margin of interpretive possibilities.

Within this frame are excursions that are often technically intricate and even flashy at times. Moreover, they seem to span the full range of emotions and attitudes. Exuberant showmanship is a recognizable human quality, after all. Many of these thirty variations turn inward rather than project outward, and others still could reflect either introversion or extroversion depending on how a performer renders them. Some are outright tragic in tone, and are followed immediately by a playful companion, as if to say “don’t take this all too seriously.”

How’s that for a reflection of life?

Program Notes cont.

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A first edition of the Goldberg Variations was published during Bach’s lifetime. In it, its title page advertises the work as being written for the enjoyment of Liebhabern, which we might interpret as “musical connoisseurs,” although Bach resists the elitist implications of such terms. There is no shortage of imaginative counterpoint here, but the work is not some sterile, extended think-piece: after the aria and its two companions, it settles into a pattern of threes: a canon, a stylistic dance piece, and a virtuosic contrapuntal showpiece. That triplet repeats nine times throughout – with the interval of the canons gradually growing larger – so that the set simultaneously feels unified as a whole, while varying from piece to piece.

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The Goldberg Variations contain all that one could want from a single composition: something for the mind, something to dance to, and something refreshing and energetic at which to marvel. It is no surprise that the Goldberg Variations have been performed, recorded, and transcribed so many times; in its original incarnation for two-manual harpsichord (with each hand on a separate keyboard and therefore immune from hand crossing), on piano (acrobatic hand-crossing intact), or in any of its many adaptations.

You can never hear “the one true Goldberg,” because it simply does not exist. Whether you have heard the Goldberg Variations once or hundreds of times, each performance is a priceless opportunity for reflection.

charles ives circle $600 & above Victoria Keator DePalma paul hindemith circle $250–$599 Lynn Cooley & Ted Killiam Mr. & Mrs. Douglas Crowley Jennie Jung Dr. Tristen S. Park Patty & Tom Pollard Lorraine D. Siggins Joseph Weicher horatio parker circle $125–$249 Nathan M. Silverstein Richard Sonder & Susan Monserud samuel simons sanford circle $50–$124 Jeffrey Alexander & Morel Morton Laura Berry & Bernard Hulin Judith Colton & Wayne Meeks Sue & Gus Davis Jay & Marjorie Hirshfield William & Irene Miller Sophie Z. Powell gustave j. stoeckel circle $25–$49 Paul Guida & Pat LaCamera Jon Resnik Peter & Wendy Wells List as of January 15, 2019

Horowitz Piano Series

Spring 2019 feb Roberto Prosseda 13 A pianist who commands “a fiery and fluent technique” –Gramophone Mozart: Fantasia in C minor, k. 475 Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 14 in C minor, k. 457 Mendelssohn: Venetianisches Gondollied, Op. 30, No. 6 Mendelssohn: Fantasie, Op. 28 Mendelssohn: Selections from Lieder ohne Worte (Songs Without Words), Op. 30 Mendelssohn: Rondo capriccioso, Op. 14 Schubert: 4 Impromptus, D. 899

mar Robert Blocker 6 An artist of “great skill and accomplishment” –Los Angeles Times Works by Scarlatti and Mozart, and Chopin: Nocturnes, Op. 27 Chopin: Fantaisie in F minor, Op. 49 Bach: Toccata in D major, BWV 912

Piano Master Classes Spring 2019 All master classes take place from 10:30 am to 1 pm in Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall.

Jan 24

Wei-Yi Yang

Feb 14

Roberto Prosseda

Feb 28

Boris Berman

Mar 28

Amy Lin Strasbourg Conservatory

Apr 4

Melvin Chen

Apr 18

Hung-Kuan Chen

MAy Peter Frankl 2 * In the Adams Center Orchestra Room

Upcoming Events jan 18 Peter Oundjian, principal conductor Yale Philharmonia

The Yale Philharmonia performs Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 11, an arresting musical portrait of resistance.

7:30 pm | Woolsey Hall Tickets start at $12, Yale faculty/ staff/ students $5 jan 25 The Pat Martino Quintet Ellington Jazz Series

Guitarist Pat Martino’s playing is at once intellectual and spiritual and marked by a sublime viruosity.

7:30 pm | Morse Recital Hall Tickets start at $22, students $10 jan 26 Arthur Haas, harpsichord, and Friends

Faculty Artist Series 7:30 pm | Morse Recital Hall

free

jan 29 Brentano String Quartet Oneppo Chamber Music Series The Brentano String Quartet, YSM’s outstanding ensemblein-residence, opens the second half of the season.

7:30 pm | Morse Recital Hall

Tickets start at $28, students $13 feb 3 Il flauto magico

Collection of Musical Instruments The recorder ensemble Boreas Quartett Bremen performs works by Tallis, Byrd, Bach, and more, with guest artist Han Tol. 3 pm | Collection of Musical Inst.

Tickets $30, Yale staff and seniors and museum associates $25, students $15 feb 13 Roberto Prosseda, piano

Horowitz Piano Series A performance by guest artist Roberto Prosseda, whom Gramophone has said “has a fiery and fluent technique.”

7:30 pm | Morse Recital Hall

Tickets start at $23, students $11

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