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 Concert #6 - Saturday, February 23, 2008, 8:00 pm
Lucas Theatre
The power and beauty of Chopin's
music have been applauded worldwide
for 175 years. Today his works
appear on piano recital programs
more than any other composer.
Savannahians will have the unique
opportunity to hear two of his most
celebrated masterworks as played
by the exciting virtuoso:
Dmitri Levkovich, pianist
Dmitri Levkovich was born in 1980 to a family of musicians in the
Ukraine. By the age of 10 he had performed his own works at the Kiev
Contemporary Music Festival and had a reading of his own music by the
National Symphony Orchestra of the Ukraine. In 1990 the Levkovich
family moved to Israel, and in 1993 they emigrated to Toronto, Canada.
Levkovich's early music studies were so successful that he was
awarded a scholarship to the Curtis Institute of Music where he won a
degree in musical composition. His compositions have been performed
by orchestras in Europe and in the United States. He has emerged on
world stages as a top-rated virtuoso pianist with appearances in Austria,
France, Canada, Chile, Japan, Israel, Poland, the United Kingdom,
Ukraine and the U.S. Many of those concerts were with well-known
symphony orchestras.
Since winning the First Prize in the Hilton Head International
Piano Competition which gained him his recital debut in New York's
Carnegie Hall, Levkovich has won high honors in an impressive list of
other competitions — the Bosendorfer, the New Orleans and the
Frederic Chopin Competition in Warsaw. Most recently he was awarded
the Chopin Prize in the 2007 Cleveland Competition, and he won
First Prize as well as the Public Prize in the Viardo International
Piano Competition.
During his comparatively short career, Levkovich has amassed a
bulging file of rave reviews. One of the best tributes came from a veteran
Cleveland critic who heard Levkovich play Chopin's Scherzo No. 2 in
B Flat minor. After an extensive analysis of the performance, phrase by
phrase and section by section, he concluded his review with a simple
sentence, "We've not heard the work better played - ever."
PROGRAM
Sonata in C Major — Haydn
Andante con espressione
Rondo: Presto
Etudes, Opus 2, Nos. 1, 2, 3 — Prokofiev
Sonata No. 3, Opus 58 in B minor — Chopin
Allegro Maestoso
Scherzo: Molto Vivace
Largo
Finale: Presto, non tanto - Agitato
— INTERMISSION —
Metamorphosis II — Weisenberg
Prelude and a Little Pastorale
In Impetuous Mood
Interlude
Perpetuum Mobile
Two Short Sonatas, D Major, F Major — Scarlatti
Five Preludes, Opus 32, Nos. 1, 9, 10, 8, 13 — Rachmaninov
Scherzo Opus 31 in B Flat minor — Chopin
PROGRAM NOTES
Sonata No. 48 in C Major, Hob. XVI — Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
Haydn's 50 plus sonatas were written at a time when that new keyboard
instrument, the piano, was just beginning to make inroads into the realm
that had hitherto belonged to the harpsichord and clavichord. Haydn's
Sonata No. 48 in C Major is one of his more engaging efforts in the genre
of the keyboard sonata. It translates well to the modern piano. An all-too-brief finale rounds out this delightfully witty and dashing romp.
Three Etudes, Opus 2, Nos. 1, 2 & 3 — Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)
Raw vigor and pyrotechnical display abound in these challenging studies by
Prokofiev. Each of these three etudes calls for the highest technical prowess.
Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Opus 58 — Frederic Chopin (1810-1849)
Chopin's Sonata No. 3 in B minor follows traditional sonata allegro form
for the most part. It opens with emphatic chords that lead to a more
lyrical second theme. The development section uses motives derived
from the first theme which lead into the recapitulation that untraditionally
returns with only the second theme. The movement concludes in
the key of B Major. The brief second movement is a scherzo that follows
strict ternary form. The outer sections are brilliant and scintillating with
their right hand runs. The middle is chordal with a quote from the
composer's first ballade. The third movement, a hauntingly beautiful
nocturne-like expression, stands in vivid contrast to the preceding scherzo.
The finale is a finely wrought rondo that gallops its way into the coda
with which the work ends in grand style.
Metamorphosis II — Menachem Weisenberg
Metamorphoses II examines, in a way, the most resonant intervals – the
perfect octave and the perfect fifth. These first two intervals of the overtone
series were almost banned by the strictest followers of atonal and
serial music. Their extreme stand was partly due to their reaction against
the excessive use of octaves in the Romantic piano literature and partly
because the fifth as a delimited interval defined the major and minor
chords, representing the tonal/modal system they sought to abolish. The use of these inherently consonant and stable intervals went against
the sentiments of an epoch that sanctified dissonance and instability.
The very attributes mentioned above are those which attract Mr.
Levkovich's creative imagination, and appeal to his musical sensibility.
He likes the very fact that these intervals are so sonorous, and that their
use seems very idiomatic and natural for the piano.
The very different, even contrasting moods of the consequent movements
conceal the fact that they all share the basic musical material
which undergoes far-reaching changes – in short, a metamorphosis.
Sonata in D Major, K. 45
Sonata in F Major, K. 17 — Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757)
Generally referred to today as sonatas, these little keyboard gems were
also called "essercizi" (exercises) by the great Italian baroque master,
Domenico Scarlatti. Created mainly for the harpsichord, the five hundred
fifty or so binary formed pieces encompass a wide range of expression and
adumbrated many aspects of keyboard technique that followed, such as
wide leaps, passages in thirds, crossing of hands and fast repeated notes.
Preludes, Opus 32, Nos. 1, 9, 10, 8 and 13 — Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943)
These five preludes selected from Rachmaninov's Opus 32 represent the
wide range of musical thought he invested in the short yet eloquent vignettes
of musical expression. Nos. 1, 9 and 8 are the shortest in length and speediest
in tempo, No. 9 barely exceeding three minutes. Nos. 8 and 13 are the
longest and most introspective, each just over 7 minutes long. Each
encapsulates a small but complete unity of thought in miniature format.
Scherzo in B-flat minor, Opus 31 — Frederic Chopin (1810-1849)
The most popular of his four Scherzi, this surreptitious and crafty bit of
humor is perhaps the ultimate achievement in developing the scherzo as
an independent composition. Ever since Beethoven introduced the
scherzo as a replacement for the long established minuet, its appeal has
grown and here we find its apotheosis. The form is still in an ABA format
with a contrasting B section. Technically demanding, it reveals some of
Chopin's best musical thought and inspiration.
Tickets $35, $25, $12.50
Visit SCAD Box Office
www.scadboxoffice.com
216 E. Broughton Street, Savannah, or call
(912) 525-5050. Visa and Mastercard accepted.
Music teachers and students
may order special tickets @$2 by emailing
name & address to dianelboyd@comcast.net
For a free brochure of the 2007-2008 season, email name & address to eoliver524@comcast.net
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