Upcoming Events
Lopdell House Gallery
| Date: | 29 April 2012 |
| Time: | 7:00 pm |
| Location: | Titirangi |
| Venue: | Lopdell House Gallery, 418 Titirangi Road, Titirangi, Auckland |
Programme
Mozart: Piano Trio in B flat major K502
Bright Sheng (China/USA): Four movements for piano trio
(Short Break)
Anthony Ritchie (NZ): Piano Trio
Gaspar Cassado: Piano Trio
Concert length approx. 75 minutes
Programme Notes
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756- 1791): Piano Trio in B flat major, K. 502 – c. 20’
Allegro
Larghetto
Allegretto
The piano trio had thrived as a genre suited to amateur music-making in eighteenth-century parlours, but it was only when Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart turned his hand to the medium that it was transformed into the ‘art form’ we know today. Emerging from the home into the concert hall, piano parts became significantly taxing (Mozart wrote them for himself to play) and the violin and cello were elevated from accompanying roles to positions of equal prominence.
The Bb major Trio, completed in 1786 in Vienna, is now a well established and much-loved concert piece. The heart of the piece is the exquisite slow movement with its beautiful melodic lines and graceful embellishments. This is flanked by movements of captivating verve and energy.
Bright Sheng (China/USA b. 1955): Four Movements for Piano Trio (1990) – c. 12’
Born in 1955 in Shanghai, China, Sheng began piano studies at the age of four with his mother. After the Cultural Revolution, he moved to New York in l982, and received his MA and DMA. Steeped in the tradition of Western classical music, Sheng’s compositions draw from the fount of late 20th-century contemporary ideas, and the folk music of China and the surrounding-famed Silk Road region. Sheng’s teachers have included Leonard Bernstein (composition and conducting), George Perle, Hugo Weisgall, Chou Wen-Chung, and Jack Beeson. Since 1995, Sheng has been a member of the composition faculty at the University of Michigan, where he now serves as Leonard Bernstein Distinguished University Professor of Music. In addition to composing, Sheng enjoys an active career as a conductor and concert pianist, and frequently serves as music advisor and artistic director to orchestras and festivals. Sheng previously served as the Artistic Advisor to Yo-Yo Ma’s "Silk Road Project.
The composer writes: “Four Movements for Piano Trio is based on musical materials from My Song, a work for solo piano which I composed in 1988. In both works I sought to develop my own concept of “tonality” by unifying my mother tongue (Oriental classical and folk music) and father tongue (Western classical music).
The folkloric style and prelude-like first movement is constructed through the use of heterophony, a device typical of Oriental music. The second movement is based on a numorous and joyful folk song from Se-Tsuan. In the third movement – a savage dance – the melody grows through a series of “Chinese sequences” (a term I use to describe a type of melodic development where each time a motive is repeated its duration is lengthened and its range is widened). The last movement evokes a lonely nostalgia.”
Anthony Ritchie (NZ; b. 1960): Piano Trio (2001) - c. 15’
Maggie Boy, Nice Boy
The Deamon
Hyper-dyper
Anthony Ritchie was born and educated in Christchurch. He received his first commission in 1982, his final year at Canterbury University, resulting in the Concertino for Piano and Strings. Anthony went on to complete a PhD on the music of Bartok, and studied composition with Attila Bozay at the Liszt Academy. He has worked as a freelance composer since 1994 (after being the Composer-in-Residence with the Dunedin Sinfonia in 1993-94), and has written for a wide variety of performers including the NZSO, the Auckland Philharmonia, Michael Houstoun and Wilma Smith, and also choreographers such as Shona Dunlop and Dan Belton. As well as having composed a large variety of vocal and instrumental works he has also written music for theatre and dance. Many of his works have been performed overseas, and a growing number are being recorded and published commercially.
Piano Trio was commissioned by Chamber Music New Zealand, and was a finalist in the SOUNZ Contemporary Award for 2001. The work is in three movements, and in the words of the composer “attempts to suggest psychological states through sound images. It is not directly programmatic but, as the titles of the movements suggest, there are distinct ideas and moods imbedded in the music. The first movement uses imaginary characters from childhood – ‘Maggie Boy’ and ‘Nice Boy’ – as representations of two sides of personality: the bad and the good, or the dark and the light. ‘Maggie Boy’ has music that is barbarous, angular and dissonant, whereas ‘Nice Boy’ appears as a wispy, lyrical theme in the strings. ‘Maggie Boy’ returns in the final section of the movement, dispatching ‘Nice Boy’ to the recesses of the mind. The second movement, ‘The Deamon,’ is concerned with neither good nor bad but rather the nothingness of depression, that caged state of mind where emotions and feelings seem to spiral inwards. Melodic lines twist and turn, trying to find a way out of the psychological cage… The third movement, ‘Hyper-dyper’ is, as its title suggests, ebullient and almost frantically busy. An angular and jazzy opening theme is followed by a nervous, darting second theme; a playful but tense middle section follows, and in the Coda the ‘hyper’ quality dominates and the Trio comes to an end on a crunching discord.
Gaspar Cassadó (Spain; 1897-1966): Piano Trio in C major (1926) – c. 17’
Allegro risoluto
Tempo moderato e pesante
Recitativo: Moderato ed appassionato – Rondo (Allegro vivo)
Gaspar Cassadó was an outstanding Spanish cellist and composer of the 20th century, whose teachers included Pablo Casals, Maurice Ravel and Manuel de Falla. The majority of his compositions were, understandably, for cello, however he also composed three string quartets and this seldom-performed Piano Trio. His musical language is coloured by the folk rhythms and harmonies of his homeland, and his virtuosic flair and bravura style are on full display in the Trio in C major.
The first movement is full of wild contrasts – a declamatory, bold opening (like a matador making an entrance!) soon gives way to mysterious, hushed writing; an exquisite cello melody is answered by the violin, which builds to another outburst – and so the pattern of alternating passion and lyricism continues, gradually letting go to the end.
The middle movement is much darker in mood, coloured with a number of improvisatory and guitar-like effects. Haunting string phrases gradually intensify above an unrelenting rhythmic figure, and a contrasting middle section culminates in a brilliant dialogue between the violin and cello. Each takes turn in an outpouring of sorrow above an even more insistent accompaniment before returning to the brooding material of the opening.
The Finale begins with a short recitativo, which itself is full of mood changes, followed by a joyful, rondo dance. Each instrument takes the lead in rhythmically vibrant yet light-hearted melodies – becoming more elaborate and flamboyant as the movement hurtles towards a frenzied, thrilling finish.
Booking Information
All tickets $15.00 - thanks to sponsorship arranged by Lopdell House Gallery
To book call 09 817 8087
For more information visit www.lopdell.org.nz