UMS Concert Program, March 4, 1984: International Presentations Of Music & Dance --

Season: 105th
Concert: Thirty-fourth
Rackham Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan

THE UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Peter Zazofsky
Violinist HAE SOOK RHEE, Pianist
Sunday Afternoon, March 4, 1984, at 4:00 Rackham Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan
PROGRAM
Sonata in C major, K. 403 ...................................... Mozart
Allegro moderato Andante Allegretto
Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 80............................... Prokofiev
Andante assai Allegro brusco Andante Allegrissimo
INTERMISSION
Capriccio for Violin and Two Tapes (1959) ...................Henk Badings
Sonata........................................................... Ravel
Allegretto
Moderato: Blues
Allegro: Perpetual motion
Tzigane.......................................................... Ravel
Mozart wrote the Allegro moderato and Andante movements and the first 20 measures of the Allegretto in 1782; the sonata was later completed by Maximilian Stadler, who served as musical advisor to the composer's widow.
Deutsche Grammophon Records
The Musical Society expresses thanks to Liberty Music Shop for its generosity in underwriting the printing costs of this concert program.
Thirty-fourth Concert of the 105th Season Eighth Annual Debut & Encore Series
Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 80......................... Sergei Prokofiev
(1891-1953)
The most obvious observation to make about the F-minor Sonata is that it represents a battleground between Prokofiev's lyrical impulse and the rhythmic and harmonic dissonances of "modernism." In simplest terms, it is a struggle between violin and piano. Consider the second movement, Allegro brusco, which begins with a series of pounding figures generated by the piano, these figures developing until the violin introduces a broadly lyrical countersubject. Of course, the violin has also been participating in the hammering, but even this is tricky, for string instruments do not hammer, really. When the violin takes over percussive material from the piano, some transformation of the material inevitably takes place. Prokofiev explores such distinctions through?out the sonata. He demonstrates with the violin's first entrance that he knows how to exploit the riches of its lowest notes, and he demonstrates in the second movement, especially, that he can draw an unholy noise from it.
The F-minor Sonata, a striking contrast to its sunny companion piece, the Sonata in D major, is Prokofiev's only sonata written directly for violin and piano. He began it in 1938, but did not return to it until after the war. Meanwhile, in 1943 he composed a flute sonata, Op. 94, which he promptly arranged for violin at the urging of David Oistrakh; this is the so-called "Second" Violin Sonata. The F-minor Sonata, heard this afternoon, was completed and premiered in 1946 by the late David Oistrakh.
-Kenneth Furie
Capriccio for Violin and Two Tapes (1959) ...................Henk Badings
{b. 1907)
Born of Dutch parents in Bandung, Java, Hcnk Badings is internationally recognized as the Netherlands' preeminent composer. In the early fifties, he began working extensively with electron?ics; these works range from radio operas and tapes for ballet, to pieces for live instruments and tape, such as the Capriccio heard today. The composer provides the following description:
"Though the Capriccio has no breaks, the following three sections can be distinguished: a rather capricious introduction, a slow middle section, and an Allegro finale. The first section starts with gonglike beats, shaped by combining 120 sincwave vibrations. In the use of these sounds two spatial effects are audible. At first an antiphony is obtained by playing the two tracks on two different loudspeaker-groups placed on the extreme left and right of the podium. But also, 'moving sound' is effected by starting a sound on the left, adding it gradually to the right and fading it out on the left, or the opposite. This gives the impression of a sound moving from one side of the podium to the other.
"A third spatial effect is not exactly a virtue of the tape. The human ear locates high sincwave tones near the ceiling and low sinewave combinations near the floor. As any timbre is effected by a certain combination of single tones (so-called 'overtones') it is possible to make the timbres in a synthetical way by combining sinewave-tones. The 'gong' of the beginning, the quasi E-string tones in the first section, the quasi flageolets in the transition to the middle section, the quasi G-string tones in the middle section, and the quasi pizzicato tones in the finale arc a few examples of this molding of timbres by combining generator tones.
"The middle section has a peculiar rhythmic structure. It has a 5 bar, but the beats have a different length, which is marked by the 'gong'-figurc in the bass. At the end of the slow section the elcgic violin melody is answered in the form of a canon by different colored sinewave combinations. The entries are superimposed in such a manner that they finally overwhelm the violin in a climax. The concluding section has a fluent motion over ostinato motifs."
The composition and the construction of the tape were started and finished in June 1959. The first public performance with Joke Vermculen as soloist was in December of that year in the Conccrtgebouw in Amsterdam.
About the Artist
Peter Zazofsky has gained international recognition and acclaim since receiving the Gold Medal Second Prize in the 1980 Queen Elisabeth International Competition in Brussels. He has traveled extensively in the United States and Canada, in Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and in Central and South America under the aegis of the U.S. State Department. His appearances include recitals, chamber music performances with "Music from Marlboro," and solo orchestral engagements, all to high critical acclaim.
Mr. Zazofsky was born in Boston in 1954 and raised in an atmosphere of classical music. He began violin studies at the age of five with Joseph Silverstein, and at age eleven made his orchestral debut at the Boston Symphony Youth Concert. Later, he was a pupil of Ivan Galamian at The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, earning a Bachelor of Music degree in 1976. A series of prizes and awards ensued: First Prize, San Francisco Symphony Competition; sponsorship of the prestigious Edgar M. Leventritt Foundation; the Gold Medal from the 1978 Bordeaux Festival in France; Grand Prize at the 1979 Montreal International Competition; and the 1980 Brussels Prize mentioned above.
The violinist makes his Ann Arbor debut this afternoon, as the last performer in this season's Debut & Encore Scries.
UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY
Burton Memorial Tower, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1270 Phones: (313) 665-3717, 764-2538