Conservatorium of Music
Thursday Concert Class
Thursday Concert Class
| Cello Concerto No. 2 Op. 126 | Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 - 1975) |
| I Largo | |
| Jonathan Chim, Cello | |
| Amir Farid, piano | |
| Composed in the last ten years of his life, this piece was written around the time when Shostakovich\'s health was declining. This Cello Concerto, as well as the first, was dedicated to Mstislav Rostropovich, who gave its premiere in the same year it was composed under Yevgeney Svetlanov in Moscow, for Shostakovich\'s 60th birthday concert. | |
| Violin Concerto No. 2 in D minor, Op. 22 | Henryk Wieniawski (1835 - 1880) |
| 2nd Movement, Romance: Andante non troppo in B flat major | |
| Emma Martin, Violin | |
| Amir Farid, piano | |
| Violin Concerto No. 2 in D minor, Op. 22, by the Polish violin virtuoso, Henryk Wieniawski, may have been started in 1856, but the first performance did not take place until November 27, 1862, when he played it in St. Petersburg with Anton Rubinstein conducting. It was published in 1879, inscribed to his dear friend Pablo de Sarasate. | |
| Violin Concerto No. 2 | Bela Bartok (1881 - 1945) |
| Andante tranquillo | |
| Emma Williams, Violin | |
| Stefan Cassamenos, piano | |
| Hungarian composer and pianist, Béla Bartók, was one of the greatest composers of the 20th century. Through his collection and analytical study of folk music, he was one of the founders of comparative musicology, which later became ethnomusicology. Bartók\\\'s Violin Concerto No. 2 was written in 1937-8 and was dedicated to the Hungarian violin virtuoso Zoltán Székely, after he requested the composition in 1936. The concerto is written in the \\\'verbunkos\\\' style, showing heavy influences of 18th-century Hungarian dance and folk music, and also uses 12-tone technique in the main themes. | |
| The Apostles Op. 49 | Edward Elgar (1857 - 1934) |
| "O Lord Almighty" | |
| Anna Plotka, Mezzo-soprano | |
| Stefan Cassomenos, piano | |
| In a rather Wagnerian style much of this oratorio is through-composed, without clear delineation of recitatives, arias, soloists and choral sections. The story, rather, divides the work into sections, and the soloists are named as characters rather than only by their voice types. The excerpt "O Lord Almighty" is sung by Mary Magdalene, in what The Cambridge Companion Guide to Elgar describes as "a powerful series of exclamations drawn from Baruch, Esther, Micah, Lamentations, and Ecclesiastes." | |
| Josua Navine | Modest Mussorgsky (1839 - 1881) |
| "Plachut zhony" (Weep, women) | |
| Anna Plotka, Mezzo-soprano | |
| Stefan Cassomenos, piano | |
| The musical themes of this cantata are based on melodies heard by the composer at a Jewish synagogue. The text of the alto solo is: "The women of Ammon weep, their wailing fills all Canaan, and above Ai thunderclouds hang. Beneath the walls of Heshbon the ancient kingdoms of the Ammonites shall fall asunder and rivers of bitter tears shall flow of the Ammonites who deny the revelation." Alexander Nevsky (1938) Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) "The Field of the Dead" This alto solo is a lament of a girl seeking her lover as she moves through a field of dead soldiers. | |
| Introduction, Dance, and Furioso | Herbert Couf (1920 - 2011) |
| Shae Stabryla, Alto Saxophone | |
| Introduction, Dance, and Furioso, solo saxophone in three movements was written in 1959. He wrote several of solo pieces for a variety of instruments. The Introduction is Lento, The Dance is Andante con moto and marked "very rhythmic." It has a cadenza in the middle. The Furioso is the final section of this piece and it is marked Vivo. Herbert Couf was a clarinetist in the Detroit and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras, also playing saxophone, a music teacher, and was involved several aspects of the retail musical instrument business. | |
| Theme sur le nom Abegg | Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856) |
| Stacy Long, piano | |
| The 'Variations on the name Abegg' was composed between 1829 and 1830 and published as Schumann's Opus 1. This piece is a theme and variations, with the first five notes of the theme being A-B-E-G-G, derived from the last name of Countess Pauline von Abegg who this work was dedicated to.. It is composed of the theme, featuring a repetitive motif. 3 variations follow, then a slow and lyrical Cantabile section which is not given a Variation number. The Cantabile transitions directly to the exciting Finale alla Fantasia. | |
| Feux d'artifice No.12 from Preludes Book 2 | Claude Debussy (1862 - 1918) |
| Kathy Chow, Pianoforte | |
| Debussy's Fireworks was inspired by the Bastille Day celebrations on July the 14th. It portray's the brilliance of firework displays over Paris on the day of celebration. A distant hint of "La Marseillaise" the French national anthem can be heard in the background towards the end of the piece. | |
| Concert Etude No.7 Op.40- Intermezzo | Nikolai Kapustin (1937 - - ) |
| Kathy Chow, Pianoforte | |
| The Eight concert etudes were composed in 1984 and recorded by the composer the following year. The overall structure of music integrates the functions of bass-guitar and percussion. This piece is in the "stride" style of the first half of the 20th century, but it gradually morphs into a study in thirds. At the end of the piece, there is a doppio movimeto, but the style of playing must not change (for example, by slowing down, which, unfortunately, some pianists do' - N. Kapustin. | |
| Tchik | Nicolas Martynciow (1969 - ) |
| Madeleine Chwasta, Snare Drum | |
| A favourite of the concert snare drum repertoire, Tchik is an exciting and dynamic contemporary snare drum solo which melds both classical and latin influences through contrasting rhythmic sections, timbral variety and spoken word | |
| Vocalise, Op. 34, No. 14 | Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff (1873 - 1943) |
| Echo Huang, voice | |
| Words are certainly unneeded in the Vocalise, originally a song for voice and piano containing no words, but rather sung using a single vowel of the singer’s choosing. Without any illustrative lyrics to convey the song’s meaning, the piece takes on a personal meaning as well as a universal expressivity: to quote critic Richard Wright, “As a metaphor for nostalgia, homesickness, and erotic yearning, nothing says it better.” | |
| Fantasia Concertante for Piano, flute and cello op. 256 | Carl Czerny (1791 - 1857) |
| Dana Park, Piano | |
| Lina Park - Flute, Jason Lim - Cello | |
| Carl Czerny's Fantasia Concertante, Op. 256, for piano, flute, and cello dates from about 1830 and is a facile yet engaging example of early nineteenth-century musical fashion in Vienna. The thematic material, operatic in inspiration if not origin, is treated idiomatically throughout and given a particularly brilliant presentation in the variations near the conclusion of the piece. | |