Program 

 Program is subject to change

 Program Notes 

Notes by Joe Gusmano

Sonata in D Minor, L. 108 …………………………………. Doménico Scarlatti                                                                                           (1685-1757)

            Domenico Scarlatti was the sixth of ten children and was born in the same year as J.S. Bach and G.F. Handel. His father, Alessandro, was a well-known and respected keyboard composer. Domenico grew up in Naples, at the time under the rule of Spain. He eventually found work teaching various royals, including the heir to the Spanish crown, Venice, Naples, Rome, and Lisbon. While in Rome, Scarlatti is reported to have defeated Handel in a trial of skill at the harpsichord. Later in life, he would cross himself when describing Handel’s prowess. Scarlatti composed 525 keyboard sonatas and is considered a key figure in the transition between Baroque and Classical styles.

            This sonata begins with a D minor triad in the right hand. Scarlatti then spins out delicate melodies and countermelodies. Like many Baroque composers, his melodies are highly ornamental, full of trills, grace notes, and mordents. Decorations like these likely served a more functional purpose as Scarlatti was composing and performing these works on a harpsichord, rather than a piano. The strings of a harpsichord are plucked rather than struck and the strings are made of less hardy material. Because of this, notes performed on a harpsichord decay much more quickly, so composers would often trill notes to sustain the pitch over a longer period of time. They still sound lovely on a modern piano.  

Piano Sonata in G Major, Op.31 No.1 ………………… Ludwig van Beethoven                                                                                               (1720-1827)
Like Domenico Scarlatti, Beethoven is a giant of both Classical and Romantic concert music and is considered one of the most important transitional figures between the two styles. At this point in his life, Beethoven had moved from his hometown of Bonn to Vienna. He lived in the shadow of Mozart, one of Vienna’s most treasured and well-respected composers, and many of his early keyboard works reflected Mozart’s influence. These pieces were full of relatively light and expressive melodies, clearly separated from their harmonic accompaniment.

By the time he composed this sonata, Beethoven was extremely dissatisfied with the Classical style and set out to create his own musical language. His melodies became increasingly volatile; at times frenetic, then in the blink of an eye very gentle and serene. The first movement of the sonata begins with a light, rapid melodic motive in G major followed by a syncopated harmonic accompaniment. The music unfolds into a flurry of melodic motion inoctaves. The second movement is serene but so full of absurdly long trills and cadenzas that the pianist Andras Schiff argued this movement is actually a parody of the bel canto style of Italian opera, which was popular in Vienna at the time. Beethoven returns to a faster tempo in the final movement, introducing a gentle theme that he varies before finishing with a short coda.

The Firebird Suite ……….………… Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
                                            arr. by Guido Agosti (1901-1989)

            Stravinsky is one of the most well-known Russian modernist composers. He experimented with a wide variety of musical styles throughout his career including neoclassicism and serialism. Stravinsky is most famous for his many ballets, most notably The Firebird. This ballet combines the tale of a Slavic mythological creature, the Firebird, with an unrelated popular antagonist in Russian folklore, Koschei the Deathless, who usually serves as a foil to a male love interest. Stravinsky secured this commission by catching the attention of Sergei Diaghilev, a Russian impresario and the owner of the famous Ballets Russes.

            Guido Agosti arranged a handful of pieces from Stravinsky’s ballet into a suite for solo piano. Agosti was an Italian piano prodigy who studied under Ferrucio Busoni, among many other Italian pianists. He received his diploma at the age of thirteen, but he eventually moved away from public performances because of his nerves. Instead, Agosti focused on teaching, joining the faculty at the Venice Conservatoire, the Santa Cecilia Academy in Rome, the Accademia Chigiana, and eventually the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. He composed The Firebird Suite as a dedication to the late Busoni.

Intermission

Impromptu in B-flat Major, Op. 142, No. 3 ………………………Franz Schubert                                                                                                     (1797-1828)

            Schubert died relatively young at the age of 31 but left behind an enormous catalogue of works. He is best known for over 600 secular vocal works, but he also composed symphonies, operas, and chamber music. Schubert’s music was only well-known by close friends in the musical circles of Vienna, and he often had to rely on the charity of his friends. His music became immensely popular after his death thanks in part to composers like Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt, and Johannes Brahms who championed his music and often made arrangements of his vocal and keyboard works.

            This third impromptu is from a set of eight impromptus composed by Schubert in 1827. The first four were published during his lifetime. The last four, including No. 3, were published after his death in 1828 and included a dedication to Franz Liszt that was added by the publisher. This piece begins with a lyrical theme and is followed by five variations and a slow restatement of the theme in the final coda. Schubert was heavily influenced by Beethoven, and the processes he uses throughout the Impromptu demonstrate this influence clearly. The theme is ornamented, becomes more rhythmically complex, and is accompanied by increasingly dense, syncopated harmonies.

 Réminescenes de Norma……………………………………… Franz Liszt                                                                                            (1811-1886)

            Franz Liszt was one of the most prolific and technically proficient pianists of his day, perhaps of all time. His career spanned six decades, and he is credited with performing the first concert of entirely piano music, inventing the tone poem as an orchestral genre, and even experimenting with music that had no fixed tonal center, or “atonal” music as it would come to be known at the beginning of the 20th century. Liszt’s piano techniques gave composers the ability to sensibly transcribe entire orchestral pieces for solo piano. He was able to give the impression of a third hand performing the music. In actuality he simply expanded the abilities of the weaker fingers of the hand (fingers 3, 4, and 5, or the middle, ring, and pinky for all of you non-pianists) and was able to execute very large leaps around the keyboard with ease.

            Réminescenes de Norma is one of Liszt’s most masterful and demanding orchestral transcriptions. Based on the tragic opera by Vincenzo Bellini, the is piece full of thunderous arpeggios, hand-crossings, and blisteringly fast chromatic runs. Liszt is able to easily transition between these ballistic passages and the softer, more lyrical music of the opera. At the very end of this work, he cleverly combines two of the main themes of the opera.

 About the Artist 

Praised for his “technical mastery and deep sense of lyricism,” (The Durango Herald), pianist Zhu Wang was awarded First Prize in the 2020 Young Concert Artists International Auditions. He is also the first prize winner of the 2nd Zhuhai International Mozart Competition for Young Musicians, 4th Manhattan International Music Competition, Hilton Head Young Artist Piano Competition, and the Juilliard Gina Bachauer International Scholarship Piano Competition, and was a recipient of the Juilliard Mieczyslaw Munz Scholarship. In 2019, Zhu was one of three finalists in the Clara Haskil International Piano Competition, and he has been a featured soloist on WQXR’s Young Artist Showcase and WFMT’s Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts. The world-renowned pianist Fou Ts'ong recognized Zhu as an “excellent pianist with a natural sense of harmony and imagination,” whose sensitive and engaging performances exhibit a remarkable depth of musicianship and poise beyond his age.

This season, Zhu will make his New York debut at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, and in Washington, DC at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater. He will also perform recitals at Hayden’s Ferry Chamber Music Series, Salon de Virtuosi, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.

Zhu has performed all over the world in China, Italy, Poland, Japan, and across the U.S. at prestigious venues including the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Kammermusiksaal of Berliner Philharmonie, Warsaw Philharmonic Concert Hall, Shanghai Concert Hall, Chicago Cultural Center and The Morgan Library. Since his orchestral debut at age 14 with the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra, where he performed Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21, Zhu has soloed with Salzburg Chamber Soloists, Zermatt Music Festival Orchestra, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Brunensis Virtuosi Orchestra, and the Xiamen Philharmonic.

An active chamber musician and champion of new music, Zhu performed the world premiere of American composer Timo Andres’s Moving Études on his national tour. His festival appearances include the Music Academy of the West, Four Seasons Winter Workshop, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, International Piano Academy Lake Como, PianoTexas International Festival & Academy, Shanghai International Music Festival, Music Fest Perugia, and Amalfi Coast Music and Arts Festival in Italy.

Zhu has been honored to study with and perform for many influential pianists, including Gary Graffman, Arie Vardi, Fou Ts'ong, Stephen Hough, Murray Perahia, Jerome Lowenthal, Robert Levin, Matti Raekallio, and Jeremy Denk. He is also the recipient of special prizes for the best Waltz, Preludes, and Mazurka in the 5th International Chopin Young Artist Piano Competition and the 16th Asian Chopin International Piano Competition in Japan.

A native of Hunan, China, Zhu started learning piano at the age of five. He is a graduate of the Music Middle School Affiliated to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Zhe Tang, and Fou Ts'ong. He received a Bachelor of Music degree from The Juilliard School, where he was also the recipient of the Gina Bachauer and Mieczyslaw Munz Scholarship. Zhu is currently pursuing his post-baccalaureate diploma at Curtis Institute of Music, under the tutelage of Robert McDonald. He gratefully acknowledges the support of the Bagby Foundation for the Musical Arts.

Zhu Wang is represented by YOUNG CONCERT ARTISTS, INC.