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ALIVEmusica, a collaboration among leading Hudson Valley chamber music presenters, welcomes Alessio Bax and Lucille Chung to the stage of the Howland Cultural Center for a concert of four-hand piano music.
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“I have just come out of the concert, deeply moved. The marvel! Your illustration of the Afternoon of a Faun, which presents a dissonance with my text only by going much further, really, into nostalgia and into light, with finesse, with sensuality, with richness. I press your hand admiringly, Debussy.
Yours, Mallarmé”
While Symbolist poet Stéphane Mellarmé was at first skeptical of having his 1865 poem Afternoon of a Faun adapted to music, he was bewitched when he heard Claude Debussy’s symphonic tone poem Prelude to an Afternoon of a Faun(1891–1894). While Debussy produced many of his mature works in this decade—including Nocturnes, Images, and his String Quartet in G Minor—it is the 10-minute Prelude to an Afternoon of a Faun which remains his most famous work. It was premiered in Paris on December 22, 1894 under the baton of Gustave Doret, was arranged by Maurice Ravel for piano four hands in 1910, and was later adapted to a ballet in 1912 by renowned dancer Vaslav Nijinsky. Today Prelude to an Afternoon of a Faun is considered to have marked the beginning of the Modernist movement, with conductor and composer Pierre Boulez asserting, “It is here that the twentieth century begins.”
Mellarmé’s piece Afternoon of a Faun is a perfect example of Symbolist poetry, with its fantastical trappings of mythological creatures and symbolic imagery in a dream-like setting. The poem tells the story of a faun—a half goat and half man, a symbol of the unbridled spirit—who awakens from a nap and becomes besotted when he sees beautiful nymphs and naiads—maidens of nature—frolicking in the woods. Through the eyes of a dazed faun, the narrative is meandering and opaque. Debussy’s musical adaptation reflects the same nonlinear dreaminess, opening with a languid flute solo:
Like Mellarmé’s poem, Debussy deliberately avoids clear musical motives and functional harmonic progression; rather, he manipulates colors and changing textures, letting melodies emerge and fade away, as in a dream.
IGOR STRAVINSKY
Petrushka
In 1910 at the age of 28, Igor Stravinsky became an over-night sensation in Paris with the premiere of his ballet The Firebird. This was the first of many collaborations with renowned ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev, who had launched his Ballets Russes in 1909. Their partnership led to a number of major works of the early 20th century: Petrushka (1911), Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring, 1913), Le Rossignol (The Nightingale, 1914), Pulcinella (1920), Mavra (1922), Renard (1922), Les noces (The Wedding, 1923), Oedipus Rex (1927), and Apollon musagète (Apollo, 1928).
Early in his career, Stravinsky was inspired by visual imagery; often a piece would first come to him as an image in his mind, which he then transcribed into music. The image of a young girl who danced herself to death in a pagan ritual became the beginning of Le Sacre du printemps, and the image of a puppet who comes to life gave rise to Petrushka. The composer describes his inspiration for Petrushka:
I had in my mind a distinct picture of a puppet, suddenly endowed with life, exasperating the patience of the orchestra with diabolical cascades of arpeggi. The orchestra in turn retaliates with menacing trumpet-blasts. The outcome is a terrific noise which reaches its climax and ends in the sorrowful and querulous collapse of the poor puppet. … One day I leapt for joy. I had indeed found my title — Petrushka, the immortal and unhappy hero of every fair in all countries.
The ballet is comprised of four scenes; the outer two are public, taking place on the Admiralty Square in St. Petersburg in the 1830s, while the two middle scenes are set in private rooms and focus on the ballet’s main characters: the pitiable outcast Petrushka, the lovely and unattainable Ballerina, and the ill-mannered Moor. The ballet opens at the Shrovetide Fair, a bustling pre-Lenten festival that has filled the streets with people, street dancers, and drummers. Rival buskers vie for the crowd’s attention with their music while the Magician, who has imbued his puppets with human emotions, introduces his puppet show.
The two inner scenes involve the three puppets interacting in their cells; Petrushka competes with the Moor for the Ballerina’s love but ultimately loses the contest and is shoved out of the scene. The final scene returns to the busy street fair, but as Petrushka enters the stage with the Moor in pursuit, our protagonist is struck down by the Moor’s saber and dies in front of an aghast crowd. After the Magician insists that the poor Petrushka was merely a puppet, the street empties. At last, we see Petrushka’s ghost on the roof of the theatre thumbing his nose at the oppressive Magician, who flees in horror.
A friend of Stravinsky’s, Nikolai Myaskovsky, opened his review of Petrushka by posing the question, “Is Stravinsky’s Petrushka a work of art? […] For Petrushka is life itself. All the music in it is full of such energy, such freshness and wit, such healthy, incorruptible merriment, such reckless abandon, that all its deliberate banalities and trivialities, its constant background of accordions not only fail to repel but, quite the contrary, carry us away all the more. […] The music of this extraordinary ballet has such integrity, energy, and such inexhaustible humor, that one positively loses all desire to attempt a more detailed analysis …”
About the Artists
Alessio Bax
Combining exceptional lyricism and insight with consummate technique, Alessio Bax is without a doubt "among the most remarkable young pianists now before the public" (Gramophone). He catapulted to prominence with First Prize wins at both the Leeds and Hamamatsu International Piano Competitions, and is now a familiar face on five continents, not only as a recitalist and chamber musician, but also as a concerto soloist who has appeared with more than 100 orchestras, including the London, Royal, and St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestras, the Boston, Dallas, Sydney, and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestras, and the NHK Symphony in Japan, collaborating with such eminent conductors as Marin Alsop, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sir Andrew Davis, Sir Simon Rattle, Yuri Temirkanov, and Jaap van Zweden.
Bax explores many facets of his career in the 2019-20 season. Fall brings the release of Italian Inspirations, his eleventh recording for Signum Classics. Pairing works by Luigi Dallapiccola and Alessandro Marcello with Italian-themed pieces by Rachmaninov and Liszt, the album's program is also the vehicle for Bax's solo recital debut at New York's 92nd Street Y. A further debut follows with the Milwaukee Symphony, where he plays Beethoven's "Emperor" Concerto under Han-Na Chang, and the same composer's Fourth Concerto and Choral Fantasy take him to the Santa Barbara Symphony. Placing especial focus on long-term collaborative projects, this season Bax undertakes Beethoven's complete works for cello and piano at Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS) and on a forthcoming Signum Classics release, both with Paul Watkins of the Emerson String Quartet; plays trios in South America with Berlin Philharmonic concertmaster Daishin Kashimoto and French horn virtuoso Radovan Vlatkovic; and embarks on multiple U.S. and European recital tours with superstar violinist Joshua Bell. After headlining the North Carolina Symphony's season-opening concerts together, Bax and his regular piano partner, Lucille Chung, give duo recitals with CMS, at Atlanta's Spivey Hall, in the Yale Piano Series, and at Sala São Paulo in Brazil. Bax rounds out the season with a full summer of festivals, highlighted by his third season as Artistic Director of Tuscany's Incontri in Terra di Siena festival, which is fast becoming a major international destination for music-lovers.
Bax revisited the two concertos heard on Alessio Bax Plays Mozart for his recent debuts with the Boston and Melbourne Symphonies, both with Sir Andrew Davis, and with the Sydney Symphony, which he led himself from the keyboard. Other 2018-19 highlights include the pianist's Auckland Philharmonia debut, concerts in Israel, a Japanese tour featuring dates with the Tokyo Symphony, U.S. collaborations with Miguel Harth-Bedoya and Edo de Waart, and two solo recitals marking his return to the prestigious Mozarteum Argentino series at Buenos Aires's Teatro Colón. Recent seasons have also seen Bax make his solo recital debut at London's Wigmore Hall, which aired live on BBC Radio 3, and give concerts at L.A.'s Disney Hall, Washington's Kennedy Center, and New York's Carnegie Hall. In 2009, he was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and four years later he received both the Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award and the Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists.
Bax is a staple on the international summer festival circuit, and has performed at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland; the Aldeburgh Festival, Bath Festival, and Southbank Centre's International Piano Series in England; the Risør Festival in Norway; the Salon-de-Provence Festival in France; the Moritzburg Festival, Ruhr Klavier-Festival, and Beethovenfest Bonn in Germany; and Le Pont International Music Festival in Japan. In the U.S., he makes regular appearances at Seattle Chamber Music Festival, Music@Menlo, the Bravo! Vail Music Festival, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival and New York's Bard Music Festival. As a chamber musician, Bax has collaborated with Emanuel Ax, Joshua Bell, Ian Bostridge, Lucille Chung, Sol Gabetta, Steven Isserlis, Daishin Kashimoto, Emmanuel Pahud, Lawrence Power, Paul Watkins, Jörg Widmann, and the Emerson String Quartet, among many others.
Bax's celebrated discography for Signum Classics includes Beethoven's "Hammerklavier" and "Moonlight" Sonatas (a Gramophone "Editor's Choice"); Beethoven's "Emperor" Concerto; Bax & Chung, a duo disc with Lucille Chung that includes Stravinsky's original four-hand version of the ballet Pétrouchka as well as music by Brahms and Piazzolla; Alessio Bax plays Mozart, comprising Piano Concertos K. 491 and K. 595 with London's Southbank Sinfonia and Simon Over; Alessio Bax: Scriabin & Mussorgsky (named "Recording of the Month . and quite possibly . of the year" by MusicWeb International); Alessio Bax plays Brahms (a Gramophone "Critics' Choice"); Bach Transcribed; and Rachmaninov: Preludes & Melodies (an American Record Guide "Critics' Choice 2011"). Recorded for Warner Classics, his Baroque Reflections album was also a Gramophone "Editor's Choice." He performed Beethoven's "Hammerklavier" Sonata for maestro Daniel Barenboim in the PBS-TV documentary Barenboim on Beethoven: Masterclass, available as a DVD boxed set on the EMI label.
Alessio Bax graduated with top honors at the record age of 14 from the conservatory of Bari, his hometown in Italy, where his teacher was Angela Montemurro. He studied in France with Francois-Joël Thiollier and attended the Chigiana Academy in Siena under Joaquín Achúcarro. In 1994 he moved to Dallas to continue his studies with Achúcarro at Southern Methodist University's Meadows School of the Arts. In fall 2019, Bax joins the piano faculty of Boston's New England Conservatory. A Steinway artist, he lives in New York City with Lucille Chung and their five-year-old daughter, Mila. Beyond the concert hall he is known for his longtime obsession with fine food; as a 2013 New York Times profile noted, he is not only notorious for hosting "epic" multi-course dinner parties, but often spends his intermissions dreaming of meals to come.
Lucille Chung
Born in Montréal, Canadian pianist Lucille Chung has been acclaimed for her “stylish and refined performances” by Gramophone magazine, “combining vigor and suppleness with natural eloquence and elegance” (Le Soir).
She made her debut at the age of ten with the Montréal Symphony Orchestra and Charles Dutoit subsequently invited her to be a featured soloist during the MSO Asian Tour in 1989. Since then, she has performed an extensive concerto repertoire with over 70 leading orchestras such as the Philadelphia Orchestra, Moscow Virtuosi, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Flemish Radio Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerífe, Orquesta Sinfónica de Bilbao, Staatskapelle Weimar, Philharmonie de Lorraine, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, Belgrade Philharmonic, Seoul Philharmonic, KBS Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Dallas Symphony, UNAM Philharmonic (Mexico), Israel Chamber Orchestra as well as all the major Canadian orchestras, including Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, National Arts Centre (Ottawa), Calgary, Winnipeg and Metropolitain, among others. She has appeared with conductors such as Krzysztof Penderecki, Vladimir Spivakov, Vasily Petrenko, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Peter Oundjian, Gerd Albrecht and Charles Dutoit.
As a recitalist, she has performed in over 35 countries in prestigious venues such as the Wigmore Hall in London, New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center and Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., the Dame Myra Hess Series in Chicago, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Madrid’s Auditorio Nacional, the Great Hall of the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, and the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. Festival appearances include the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, MDR Sommer Festival in Dresden, Lübecker Kammermusikfest, Santander International Festival in Spain, Felicja Blumental Festival in Israel, Music@Menlo, Montreal International Festival, Ottawa Chamber Festival, Bard Music Festival in NY, International Keyboard Institute and Festival in NYC, ChangChun Festival in China, and the Bravissimo Festival in Guatemala.
In 1989, she was recognized on the international scene as the First Prize winner at the Stravinsky International Piano Competition. She won Second Prize at the 1992 Montreal International Music Competition, at which she also won a Special Prize for the best interpretation of the unpublished work. In 1993, she received the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Governor General of Canada and in 1994 won the Second Prize at the First International Franz Liszt Competition in Weimar. In 1999, she was awarded the prestigious Virginia Parker Prize by the Canada Council for the Arts.
She graduated from both the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School before she turned twenty. She decided to further her studies in London with Maria Curcio-Diamand, Schnabel’s protégée, at the “Mozarteum” in Salzburg with Karl-Heinz Kämmerling and received the Konzertexam Diplom from the Hochschule “Franz Liszt” in Weimar, where she worked with the late Lazar Berman. She also graduated from the Accademia Pianistica in Imola, Italy with the honorary title of “Master” and from Southern Methodist University under Joaquín Achúcarro. Ms. Chung is the recipient of the prestigious Honors Diploma at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, Italy.
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