UMS Concert Program, February 14, 1988: International Presentations Of Music & Dance --

Season: 109th
Concert: Thirty-first
Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan

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THE UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Lynn Harrell
Cellist
Igor Kipnis
Harpsichordist
Sunday Afternoon, February 14, 1988, at 4:00 Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan
A Program of Music by Johann Sebastian Bach
Sonata No. 1 in G major for Cello and Harpsichord, B.W.V. 1027 Adagio, allegro ma non tanto Andante Allegro moderato
Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue in D minor for Harpsichord, B.W.V. 903
Sonata No. 2 in D major for Cello and Harpsichord, B.W.V. 1028 Adagio, allegro Andante Allegro
INTERMISSION
Suite No. 3 in C major for Unaccompanied Cello, B.W.V. 1009 Prelude Sarabande
Allcmande Bourrees I and 11
Courante Gigue
Sonata No. 3 in G minor for Cello and Harpsichord, B.W.V. 1029 Vivace Adagio Allegro
The University Musical Society wishes to thank Ford Motor Company Fund for its generosity in underwriting the printing costs of this house program.
This performance is made possible in part by a grant through the Music Program of the National Endowment for the Arts in support of American performing artists.
Halls Cough Tablets, courtesy of Warner-Lambert Company, arc available in the lobby. Thirty-first Concert of the 109th Season 109th Annual Choral Union Series
Johann Sebastian Bach
(b. Eisenach, March 21, 1685; d. Leipzig, July 28, 1750)
Johann Sebastian Bach was a member of an illustrious family of musicians active in various capacities as performing artists, composers, and teachers. His genius combined outstanding performing musicianship with supreme creative powers in which forceful, original inventive?ness and intellectual control arc perfectly balanced. He emerged as a master comparable in greatness of stature with Aristotle in philosophy and Leonardo da Vinci in art. He was not, however, an isolated figure immersed in his own genius apart from the spirit of his time. Just as Aristotle was not only an abstract philosopher but also an educator (Alexander the Great was his pupil), and just as Leonardo da Vinci was not only a painter of portraits but also a practical man of useful inventions, so was Bach a mentor to young students, a master organist and instructor who spent his life within the confines of his native Thuringia as a teacher and composer of works designed for immediate performance in church and in the schoolroom.
It was as an organ virtuoso that Bach acquired fame in his lifetime. As a composer, however, his reputation in his lifetime was restricted to a fairly narrow circle, and his music was regarded by many as old-fashioned. His fame in no way approached that of, e.g., Telemann, and he saw fewer than a dozen of his compositions in print. For half a century after his death, his position was only slightly improved, until, in 1801, the Well-Tempered Klavier was issued. Mendelssohn is generally credited with the revival of interest in Bach's music, when, in 1829, he conducted a performance of the St. Matthew Passion in Berlin. Systematic publication of his works began in 1850 by the Bach Gesellschaft, a society formed that year to mark the centenary of Bach's death and dedicated to publishing the composer's collective works.
Orphaned at the age often, Bach went to live with his elder brother Johann Christoph at Ohrdruf, where he had clavier and organ lessons. In 1700 he went to Liincburg for three years, serving as a chorister at St. Michael's Church and learning much from the organist-composer Georg Bohm. He was organist at Arnstadt in 1703, and then at Miihlhauscn in 1707, when he married his cousin Maria Barbara Bach. In 1708, Bach became court organist to Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Weimar, and it was at Weimar that Bach composed some of his finest organ works and church cantatas. Six of his children were also born there.
From 1717 to 1723, Bach served as Kapellmeister and music director to Prince Leopold of Anhalt in Cothen, a period that would be one of his most productive. Since Prince Leopold's interest was not in religious works but in instrumental compositions, Bach, for the first time in his life, had no responsibility for church music. In the years at Cothen he produced many secular instrumental works, among them the Brandenburg Concertos, violin concertos, sona?tas, suites, and many of his best clavier works, the latter probably for his children's instruction. In 1720 his wife died, and in December 1721 he married Anna Magdalcna Wilckcn, for whom he wrote the Klavierbuchlein.
Of the works performed on this afternoon's program, the Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue for Harpsichord and the Suite No. 3 for Unaccompanied Cello date from the Cothen period. The six Unaccompanied Cello Suites arc less polyphonic than the Unaccompanied Violin Sonatas and Partitas written at about the same time. True polyphony is rare on a bowed string instrument, because the placement of the strings only permits the bow to sound two adjacent strings simultaneously. To write a solo piece for a melody instrument -such as the cello or violin -requires intimate knowledge of its mechanics in order to make the listener think that he hears more than one line at a time. Bach implies harmony and counterpoint by restricting each melody to its own individual register and by sounding successive fragments of each melody in alternation with the other.
The three sonatas heard this afternoon were written between 1720 and 1739, overlapping the Cothen period and his subsequent years in Leipzig, where he spent the rest of his life. Particularly important in these works is Bach's emancipation of the harpsichord from its role as continuo instrument and its deployment as a true partner in the sonatas.
About the Artists
Lynn Harrell, remembered in Ann Arbor for his 1978 appearance as soloist and con?ductor with the Belgrade Chamber Orchestra, is among the most sought-after soloists before the public today. His 100-plus concerts a year have taken him to five continents in repeat engagements with the most prominent conductors and prestigious orchestras of our time. Winning equal acclaim as a chamber musician of uncommon sensitivity, he has collaborated and toured with Vladimir Ashkenazy and Rudolf Firkusny, among others.
Mr. Harrell has gained admiration from an ever-widening public through his substantial discography. He has made over two dozen recordings, half of them for London Records for which he now records exclusively. His most recent releases include Bach's Suites for Unaccom?panied Cello, Beethoven's complete trios (with Ashkenazy and Itzhak Perlman), Rachman-
inoffs Cello Sonata and various short pieces (Ashkcnazy), and Strauss's Don Quixote (Ashke-nazy and the Cleveland Orchestra). Upcoming releases include the Beethoven Cello Sonatas with Ashkenazy and the Victor Herbert Cello Concertos with Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Television audiences have seen him on many national telecasts, including the CBS Sunday Morning Show, "Live from Lincoln Center" concerts, and an hour-long profile on PBS's "The Creative Edge."
Lynn Harrcll was born in New York in 1944 into a musical family. His parents were Mack Harrell, the great bass-baritone of the Metropolitan Opera, and the violinist Marjorie Fulton. He began cello lessons at age nine and by the age of 17 had given 60 solo concerts. At the invitation of George Szell, he joined the Cleveland Orchestra at age 18 and two years later became principal cellist, holding that post until 1971 when he began his solo career. Mr. Harrell has called these years with "Uncle George" the foundation of his musical education. The young cellist also met another musician in Cleveland --James Levine -who would play a significant role in his career. Several concerts with Levine brought him to the attention of important managers and led to his first recording. During these years, Mr. Harrell won numerous awards, including the Piatigorsky Award and the Avery Fisher Prize (1975), perhaps the most coveted recognition a young artist can receive. Known for his wide repertoire, Mr. Harrell moves with ease among the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods. He is a champion of contemporary music as well and has given a number of world and American premieres.
Two engagements on Mr. Harrell's calendar are of special note: his participation in a performance of the Brahms Double Concerto for Violin and Cello in Cologne, celebrating the work's premiere in that city 100 years ago; and his invitation from Czechoslovakia to play Dvorak's Cello Concerto in Prague in 1990 on the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth.
Mr. Harrell's recent appointments to academic posts mark his increased involvement in teaching. Last fall he became the first Piatigorsky Professor of Cello at the University of Southern California, and he also holds the International Chair of Cello Studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
Since his debut in 1959, harpsichordist Igor Kipnis has performed in recital and as soloist with orchestras throughout the world, including North and South America, Eastern and Western Europe, the Soviet Union, Israel, and Australia. He is a prolific recording artist with 67 albums to his credit, of which 45 arc solo. Among his awards are six "Grammy" nominations, three "Record of the Year" awards from Stereo Review, and the 1969 Deutsche Schallplatten Prize. Keyboard, in that magazine's annual readers' poll, named him "Best Harpsichordist" in 1978, 1979, and 1980 and "Best Classical Keyboardist" in 1982 and 1986.
Mr. Kipnis has performed as harpsichord soloist with such distinguished ensembles as the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics; the symphonies of Chicago, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Dallas, Baltimore, Milwaukee, and Washington, D.C.; the Minnesota Orchestra and Boston Pops; the St. Paul, Cologne, and Polish Chamber Orchestras; and the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. His appearances at international festivals have included those of the International Bach Academy in Germany, Bath in Great Britain, Gulbenkian and Madeira in Portugal, and in Israel, France, and Australia. A frequent guest on both television and radio, such as the syndicated program "First Hearing," Kipnis for three seasons hosted his own program, "The Age of Baroque," over WQXR in New York.
Mr. Kipnis' enormous harpsichord repertoire encompasses not only the traditional sixteenththrough eighteenth-century composers, but also includes contemporary music and jazz as well. He is also noted for his concert-length presentation "A Harpsichord Entertain?ment," which samples the full range of the harpsichord repertoire; for his informal mini-concerts, a format he pioneered at college student centers; and for his performances and recordings on related early keyboard instruments, the fortepiano and clavichord. With the flutist John Solum, Mr. Kipnis is co-artistic director of the Connecticut Early Music Festival, where vocal and instrumental performances on period instruments have taken place everyJune in the New LondonMystic region of the state since 1983.
Mr. Kipnis, son of the late Metropolitan Opera basso Alexander Kipnis, now returns to Ann Arbor for his second appearance under University Musical Society auspices.
Mr. Harrell: LondonDecca Records.
Mr. Kipnis: Arabesque, London, CBS Masterworks, Angel, Music and Arts Programs of America, Intercord, Centaur, Nonesuch, CRl, Grenadilla, Vanguard, and Golden Crest Records.
This afternoon Mr. Harrcll uses a cello crafted by Antonio Stradivarius in 1673, an instrument he purchased from the latcjacqueline du Prc and has named in her honor.
Mr. Kipnis performs on a double manual, five octave harpsichord built in 1978 by Willard Martin, Opus 101, and owned by Marilyn Mason, Professor and University Organist, U-M.
Coming Concerts
Bayanihan Philippine Dance Company ..................... Mon. Feb. 29
English Chamber OrchestraJeffrey Tate .................. Mon. Mar. 7
Frank Peter Zimmermann, Violinist
Mozart: "Marriage of Figaro" Overture; Mozart: Violin Concerto in
A major, K. 216; Gordon Jacob: Mini-Concerto for Clarinet; Haydn:
Symphony No. 101 ("Clock")
Hubbard Street Dance Company .................. Sat., Sun. Mar. 12, 13
Belgrade State Folk Ensemble ............................. Sun. Mar. 13
Christopher Parkening, Guitarist ..............................Fri. Mar. 18
Music of Bach, Mozart, Granados, Albeniz, Torroba, Sanz,
Villa-Lobos, Rodrigo, and Falla Faculty Artists Concert (free admission, 3:00 p.m.) ......... Sun. Mar. 20
Schumann: Song cycle, "Dichterlicbe," Leslie Guinn, baritone,
Martin Katz, pianist; Schubert: "Trout" Quintet, D. 667 Andre Watts, Pianist ...........................................Sat. Apr. 2
Haydn: Sonata No. 58, Hob. XVI48; Mozart: Sonata in F, K. 332;
Brahms: Piano Pieces, Op. 119; Schubert: Sonata, D. 784 (Op. 143),
and "Wanderer" Fantasy
Bonn Woodwind Quintet .................................... Fri. Apr. 8
Steven Masi, Pianist
Haydn: Divertimento No. 1; Reicha: Quintet, Op. 88, No. 2;
Beethoven: Piano Quintet, Op. 16; Mozart: Quintet, K. 406;
Hindemith: "Kleine Kammermusik"; Poulcnc: Piano Sextet
Monte Carlo PhilharmonicLawrence Foster............... Fri. Apr. 22
Katia & Marielle Labeque, Duo-pianists
Berlioz: Overture to "Bcnvcnuto Cellini"; Bruch: Concerto for Two
Pianos, Op. 88; Paul Cooper; Double Concerto (violin and viola);
Roussel: Bacchus ct Arianc, Suite No. 2
Pre-concert Presentations
Complement your conccrtgoing with these presentations designed to enhance your musical experience via the expertise of the following speakers. The place is the Rackham Building at 7:00 p. m., open to the public at S3, tickets at the door; complimentary admission for Encore and Cheers! members and faculty and students with valid I.D.
Saturday, Mar. 12, preceding Hubbard Street Dance Company-The Dance of Theater and Cinema: Making Entertainment Art Peter Sparling, Associate Professor of Dance, U-M
Saturday, Apr. 2, preceding Andre Watts -Being Critical: Observations on the Role of the Music Critic Paul Boylan, ProfessorDean, U-M School of Music
1988 Ann Arbor May Festival -April 27-30
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Michael Tilson Thomas and Zdenek Macal, Conductors
The Festival Chorus and The Boychoir of Ann Arbor Valdimir Feltsman, Pianist Janice Taylor, Mezzo-soprano
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenuerg, Violinist
Linda Kelm, Soprano Jon Frederic West, Tenor
Myrna Paris, Mezzo-soprano John Ostendorf, Bass-baritone
David Hart, Organist Wednesday, Tilson Thomas -Beethoven: Symphony No. 6, "Pastoral"; Rachmaninoff:
Third Piano Concerto (Feltsman) Thursday, Tilson Thomas -Mahler: Symphony No. 3 (Taylor, Women's Chorus and
The Boychoir of Ann Arbor) Friday, Macal -Wagner: Prelude to "Die Meistersinger"; Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto
in E minor (Salcrno-Sonncnbcrg); Ravel: Suites I and II, "Daphnis and Chloe" Saturday, Tilson Thomas-Dvorak: Symphony No. 8;Janacek: Glagolitic Mass (Festival Chorus, Kclm, Paris, West, Ostendorf, and Hart)
Series tickets still available; single ticket sale begins March 7.
UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY
Burton Memorial Tower, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1270 Telephone: (313) 764-2538