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Vassily Primakov - Pianist By popular request, the young Russian pianist returns to Savannah for his third appearance. His career continues to grow in the United States and throughout the world. Audiences agree with the New York critic who said, "Everyone left the hall a foot off the ground." Vassily Primakov was born in Moscow in 1979. After early studies with his mother, he entered Moscow's Central Special Music School at the age of eleven. He came to New York to study with Jerome Lowenthal at The Juilliard School at age seventeen. Primakov won the prestigious William Petschek Piano Recital Award, which presented his debut recital at Alice Tully Hall. He received his Bachelor's degree in 2002 and his Master's degree in 2004, from Juilliard. Ten Pieces from "Bunte Blätter", Opus 99 - Schumann Carnaval, Opus 9 - Schumann — INTERMISSION— "Gulliver's Travels: A Voyage to Laputa" for solo piano (2005) Two Choral Preludes from Opus 122 - Brahms / Busoni La Valse Ravel Steinway Piano Alla Borzova Alla Borzova holds degrees from the Moscow Conservatory, and taught composition at the Belarussian Academy of Music before emigrating to the U. S. in 1993. She currently teaches at Lehman College at CUNY, and is completing the Ph.D. at the Graduate Center. A composer of national and international standing, she has received commissions from the Aspen Music Festival, Delius Music Festival, Guggenheim Museum, Da Capo Chamber Players, Luke's Chamber Ensemble and the Belarus Radio-TV Symphony Orchestra, as well as fellowships, grants, and awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship), ASCAP, the Jerome Foundation, the American Music Center and Yaddo. PROGRAM NOTES Ten Pieces from "Bunte Blätter", Opus 99 - Schumann Carnival, Opus 9 - Schumann Préambule Pomp, ceremony and excitement. The tempo markings are MAESTOSO (majestic), and later CON BRIO and PRESTO. Pierrot A clown. Picture him as an unruly child. A parent tries to reason, but he keeps interrupting, "I did not!" Arlequin Another clown making high ballet leaps, tempo vivo. Valse noble The title says it all. Eusebius Schumann, a Gemini, pictured himself as having two sides to his nature. Eusebius is the gentle, poetic one. Florestan The other side of Schumann's nature, stormy and vehement. PRESTO APPASSIONATO. Coquette Quite light on her feet, Schumann may have known her. Réplique More of Coquette's ballet movements. Papillons Butterflies. PRESTISSIMO (as fast as possible). A.S.C.H. - S.C.H.A. (Lettres dansantes) A light waltz. Schumann has transcribed these mysterious letters into musical notes. Asch is the German town where he once had a girlfriend. Scha is an abbreviation of his own name. Chiarina The nickname of Schumann's wife, Clara. PASSIONATO. Chopin A tribute to a contemporary composer whom he greatly admired. The arpeggio accompaniment in the left hand, and the beautifully shaped melody in the right are suggestive of Chopin's style. Estrella Nickname of Fraulein Ernestine von Frieken, the girlfriend in Asch. CON AFFETO. Reconnaissance A tricky number. The right hand pinky plays a light tune in eighth notes ANIMATO while the right thumb plays the same tune an octave lower in sixteenth notes. Pantalon et Colombine Two more clowns in PRESTO hijinks. Valse allemande German waltz. Paganini Another tribute to a contemporary. Paganini was known for the technical difficulties of his violin works, and Schumann matches him pianistically. PRESTO and STACCATO. Aveu Literally, a confession. A short but poignant respite. Promenade Similar in mood to the Valse Noble. COMODO (leisurely). Pause Anything but a rest. Some of the VIVO passages of the Preamble are reprised. Marche des Davidsbündler contre les Philistines is the full title of this grand finale. The Davidsbündler were an imaginary league of composers who decried the shallowness and vulgarity which at that time (1830-1840) appeared to have the upper hand in music composition. The Davidsbündler were Schumann, Mendelssohn (his close friend), Chopin, Liszt and others. The Philistines are all but forgotten. As a bit of whimsey, Schumann did not set the march in the usual 2/4 or 4/4 cadence, but in a 3/4 waltz time. It develops to a virtuoso display and ends PRESTISSIMO BRIOSO. Gulliver's Travels: A Voyage to Laputa - Note by Alla Borzova Gulliver's Travels: A Voyage to Laputa was commissioned by Susan Rose through Meet the Composer's New Music/New Donors program for the award-winning young Russian-American virtuoso Vassily Primakov. It was inspired by the third part of the eponymous book by the greatest of English satirists, Jonathan Swift. Gulliver's Travels was published on October 28, 1726, when Jonathan Swift
was almost 59. It was a satire on numerous travel books and on a current political
situation in England. For my composition I selected only Gulliver's third voyage:
his trip to Laputa, the flying island. Since all four of Gulliver's "travels" begin
and end in his homeland, England, my piece begins and ends in England, too. 1. Themes & Variations. This is a large romantic opening of the suite, which starts with the ringing sonorities of the opening chords. On the span of the piece, the listener gets to the open sea, sometimes calm and sometimes roaring, then becomes a witness to the dramatic fight with pirates and hears Gulliver's plea of mercy. Finally, the listener finds the exhausted Gulliver in his refuge on small uninhabited island. Music of the first movement utilizes various techniques, including polytonality, minimalistic textures, various 12-tone operations and even jazz. 2. Laputa - Flying Island. Gulliver sees a flying island in astonishment, and at first thinks it might be a mirage. He is noticed at the island and taken up to it. Music reflects the movement of the island's slow rising, falling and oblique motion. The Gulliver theme in augmentation appears in the middle of the piece and at its end. There it rises up, just as Gulliver "was drawn up by the Pullies" to the island. 3. Laputians' Fugue. This is the musical portrait of the completely fantastical world and odd race of Laputians. Gulliver writes, "I have not seen a more clumsy, awkward and unhandy people, nor so slow and perplexed in their conceptions upon other subjects, except those of mathematics and music... Their heads were all reclined to the right, or the left; one of their eyes turned inward, and the other directly up to the zenith... Their outward garments were adorned with the figures of suns, moons and stars, interwoven with those of fiddles, flutes, harps, trumpets, guitars, harpsichords and many more instruments of music, unknown to us in Europe." Laputians are also obsessed with astronomy, astrology and... politics. They are constantly in danger of falling down, so therefore the wealthy Laputians are attended by their servants, known as "Flappers". When their masters become too much taken up by "intense speculations" and/or become too pensive, Flappers "awake" them by gently striking their mouths, ears, and even eyes with a blown bladder filled with small pebbles fastened to the end of a short stick. Music of the fugue utilizes several 12-tone rows and their various transformations and partitioning. However, the piece is not strictly dodecaphonic. 4. Gulliver Returns to England. Gulliver feels homesick and returns to England. I have in mind writing a whole evening's composition based on Gulliver's travels including all four parts of the book. Two Choral Preludes, Opus 22 - Brahms / Busoni Originally composed for organ, these short contrapuntal works reveal Brahms' piety as well as the influence of J.S. Bach. They were published posthumously. La Valse - Ravel The French composer Maurice Ravel (1875 - 1937) always had a fascination for the waltz form, particularly as it had developed in Vienna at the time of Johann Strauss. But La Valse was composed in 1919 – The Great War had ended. Europe was devastated and Ravel looked upon the scene as the end of an era. La Valse begins with a vague rumbling through which the waltz rhythm slowly emerges. Gradually this becomes the orthodox waltz of pre-war Vienna; then, suddenly, there are harsh, strident chords foreboding the maelstrom to come. The tempo and volume grow stronger, almost submerged in dissonance. The waltz continues, now in modern harmonies. The mad whirl increases and with it comes a feeling of brutal anguish and inexorable fate. The rhythmic discord becomes almost unbearable in its intensity. At last, with a mighty crash of frenzied chords, the music ends. La Valse is a picture of an epoch in which old values and ideals come crashing to earth in a bright fireball.
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