UMS Concert Program, October 27, 1989: International Presentations Of Music & Dance --

Season: 111th
Concert: Sixth
Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan

THE UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Pinchas Zukerman
Violinist
Marc Neikrug
Pianist
Friday Evening, October 27, 1989, at 8:00 Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan
PROGRAM Suite "Italienne" from Pulcitiella ................................Stravinsky
Sonata in E-flat major, Op. 12, No. 3...........................Beethoven
Allegro con spirito
Adagio con molt' espressionc
Rondo: allegro molto
INTERMISSION
Three Romances, Op. 94 ...................................... Schumann
Nicht schncll Einfach, innig Nicht schnell
Sonata in A minor, Op. 105, No. 1 ............................. Schumann
Ausdruck Allegretto Lebhaft
CBS Masterworks, Philips, Angel, London, and Deutsche Grammophon Records.
For the convenience of our patrons, the box office in the outer lobby is open during intermission for purchase of tickets to upcoming Musical Society concerts.
Mr. Neikrug plays the Steimvay piano available through Hammell Music, Inc. Pinchas Zukerman and Marc Neikrug appear by arrangement
with Shirley Kirschbaum & Associates, New York City.
Cameras and recording devices arc not allowed in the auditorium.
Halls Cough Tablets, courtesy of Warner Lambert Company, are available in the lobby.
Sixth Concert of the 111th Season 111th Annual Choral Union Series
PROGRAM NOTES by Leonard Burkat
Suite "Italienne" from Pulcinella ............................Igor Stravinsky
(1882-1971)
This suite for violin and piano, which was published in 1934, has a long and interesting history. In 1917 and 1919, Serge Diaghilev, the great impresario of the Ballets Russes for whom Stravinsky composed his first three great ballets, produced two successful ballets with new scores that were arranged from the works of earlier Italian composers, Rossini and Domenico Scarlatti. On May 18, 1920, in Paris, he presented the first performance of a third, Pulcinella, with choreography by Massine and decor and costumes by Picasso. It was advertised at first as having music by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1736), arranged and orchestrated by Stravinsky, but later Stravinsky insisted that it was "an original composition that completely transforms the elements borrowed from Pergolesi." There are eighteen musical numbers in Pulcinella, all based on music attributed to Pergolesi in early copies that were found in the libraries of the Naples Conservatory and the British Museum; but years later scholars demon?strated that about half of them were not by him. The opera excerpts were his, but no one was quite sure who had written the instrumental numbers Stravinsky used. Posterity has been inclined to the opinion that it makes little difference who wrote the music by "Pcrgolesi" that Stravinsky had, as he said, "re-composed."
Later in the 1920s, Stravinsky found that he could supplement his earnings from his compositions by developing a second career, as a pianist and conductor performing his own works. From 1932 to 1934, he toured Europe with the violinist Samuel Dushkin, playing his magnificent new Duo concerlant and a number of works that they had collaboratively arranged from some of Stravinsky's ballets. Among them was this Suite "Italienne," from Pulcinella. Stravinsky had mined this score before, starting in 1925 with a violin and piano suite of five movements "after themes, fragments and pieces" by Pergolesi. In 1932, he and Gregor Piatigorsky had prepared a somewhat different suite, for cello and piano, which was also called Suite "Italienne." The movements of the violin suite, which seem to have been arranged shortly after the cello suite, are those selected in 1925, with one addition.
The information on just how Dushkin and Stravinsky went about their work on the new suite is unclear, but the composer undoubtedly selected the movements to be included. Then perhaps they used the procedure reported in the history of the other pieces they arranged. First Dushkin set down a violin line he had extracted from the score, and Stravinsky wrote a piano part to go with it, making changes in the proposed violin part at the same time.
The Suite "Italienne" for violin and piano begins with an introduction, Allegro moderate, based on the overture to the ballet Pulcinella. Next is a serenade, Larghelto, derived from an air sung with guitar in Pergolesi's last opera, Flaminio, of 1735. The original of the Tarantella, a spirited dance, Vivace, is said by Robert Craft to be from Pergolesi's 1732 opera in Neapolitan dialect, Lo fiate innamorato ("The Brother in Love" or "The Monk in Love"). The gavotte with two variations is followed in the published suite by a brief schcrzino (or little scherzo), Presto, which is frequently omitted. The last movement combines a minuet, Moderate, and finale, Molto vivace. The minuet was originally a trio for three characters in the Lo fiate. The finale, like all the other excerpts whose originals are instrumental works, is derived from music attributed to Pergolesi.
Sonata in E-flat major, Op. 12, No. 3 ...............Ludwig van Beethoven
(1770-1827)
Beethoven wrote his first three violin sonatas, Op. 12, in 1797 and 1798. Although the custom of the time still generally confined sonatas to private performance in the home, he and his friend Schuppanzigh played one of them (we do not know which) at a public concert on March 29, 1798. Around the turn of the year, the music appeared in print with a dedication to one of Beethoven's teachers, Antonio Salieri (1750-1825), with whom he had profitably studied vocal writing. It is difficult, now, to imagine hearing these sonatas as problematic modern music, but a critic reviewing the first edition in an influential magazine found them "overladen with difficulties." After working his way through them, he said, "I felt like a man who had hoped to take a walk through a pleasant park with a friend but found the path closed by hostile barriers and at the end returned exhausted without having had any pleasure. Nevertheless, this work must not be entirely rejected. There arc those who love difficulties, and they may find delight and satisfaction in this music. [Abridged]"
The third sonata in the set seems to be a quite consciously modern, advanced work, and the interplay between the instruments is quite intricate, as tunes or parts of them are tossed back and forth by piano and violin. Beethoven's themes in the first movement, Allegro con spirito, are full of ideas that can be picked out and worked over, but their development seems to be at once
agitated and austere. Next is a warm and gravely beautiful slow movement, Adagio con molt' espressione, cast in an elegant version of the classically simple three-part form, in which the opening music returns, somewhat altered, after a contrasting middle section. The last move?ment is a rondo, Allegro motto, with a cleverly persistent little rhythm.
Three Romances, Op. 94............................... Robert Schumann
(1810-1856)
In the late 1840s and 1850s, Robert Schumann composed a number of works that could be played by any of several instruments interchangeably. They arc generally shorter and less formal than sonatas, and they have fanciful titles like Fairy Talcs, Folk Pieces, and Fantasy Pieces. Among them arc these Romances, written around Christmastime in 1849 and published in 1851. All three move at moderate tempos, and the second is characterized by the composer as simple and intimate. Schumann suggested performance of these pieces by oboe, violin, or clarinet, and piano.
Sonata in A minor, Op. 105, No. 1 .............................. Schumann
In 1850, Schumann left his native Saxony to become music director of the Rhincland town of Diisseldorf. The neurotic, even psychotic, condition that made his last years so wretched was in a state of remission, and he took great pleasure in his new surroundings. The work was stimulating, but it left him all the time he needed for composition. Early in his stay in Diisseldorf, he wrote his Rhenish Symphony (No. 3), completed his Fourth Symphony (begun long before), and sketched his Cello Concerto.
During a few weeks of 1851, Schumann composed two violin sonatas. He once said that he-wrote the second because he was dissatisfied with the first, but musicians often prefer the earlier one. Some historians have thought that their minor keys and dark character reflect his emo?tional instability, but others see in them quite proper musical choices made by a great composer in full command of his gifts. The First Sonata, which was written in the astonishingly short span of four days, from September 12 to 16, is not one of his long and loosely discursive works of the time, but a compact, tightly constructed composition, traditional in form and idiomati?cally written for the instruments. It was played in public for the first time in March 1852 by Ferdinand David, for whom Mendelssohn had written his Violin Concerto, and the composer's wife, Clara, who was one of the greatest pianists of the time.
The first movement is aptly characterized in Schumann's direction that it be played "with passionate expression." The brief, charming second movement, Allegretto, combines the style of his beautiful songs and his rhythmic scherzos. The finale, Lcbhaft, like the first movement, is music of agitated power. Near the end, there is an interesting look back at the main theme of the first movement.
About the Artists
As violinist, violist, conductor, teacher, chamber musician, recording artist, and champion of young artists, Pinchas Zukerman is recognized throughout the world as an extraordinary musician. Born in Tel Aviv in 1948, Mr. Zukerman began his musical training with his father, first on recorder, then clarinet, and finally violin. After studying at the Israel Conservatory and the Academy of Music in Tel Aviv, he came to America in 1962 to study with Ivan Galamian at Thejuilliard School, under the guidance of Isaac Stern and Pablo Casals and with support from the American-Israel Cultural Foundation, Juilliard, and the Helena Rubinstein Foundation. In 1967, Mr. Zukerman won first prize in the Twenty-Fifth Leventritt International Competition, setting the stage for his solo career.
As a chamber musician, Pinchas Zukerman has collaborated with prominent artists and young colleagues around the world for over 20 years. Included among these musicians are Daniel Barenboim, Jacqueline Du Pre, Isaac Stern, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Yo-Yo Ma, the Guameri Quartet, and Midori.
Mr. Zukcrman's conducting career began in 1970 with the English Chamber Orchestra. He has since conducted many of the world's leading orchestras, including those of New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Montreal, and Toronto, as well as the Berlin Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, and the Israel Philharmonic. He served as music director of London's South Bank Festival for three years and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra for seven years. Beginning in 1990, Mr. Zukerman will begin a three-year appointment as principal guest conductor of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra's new International Music Festival.
Mr. Zukerman's prolific discography numbers more than 75 releases widely representa?tive of the violin and viola repertoire and contains 19 Grammy nominations and two Grammy awards. Available on London Records is a new recording of Berlioz's Harold in Italy with
Charles Dutoit and the Montreal Symphony, and he is currently working on a project of live performances of the Beethoven String Trios with Itzhak Perlman and Lynn Harrcll for AngelEMI.
While continuing to build his catalogue of twentieth-century masterpieces with recordings and film of Bartok, Berg, Schocnberg, Stravinsky, and Prokofiev, Pinchas Zukerman has expanded his performance of living composers to works by Boulcz, Lutoslawski, Norgaard, Schwantner, Takcmitsu, and others. He also conducted the American staged premiere of Oliver Knussen's opera Where the Wild Things Are, and next season he will perform Marc Neikrug's Violin Concerto throughout the United States and will premiere the Tobias Picker Viola Concerto with the Houston Symphony the following year.
Mr. Zukerman's 1989-90 season begins with a tour of recitals and concerts in Australia with the Israel Philharmonic. In North America, he will be heard in recitals with Marc Neikrug, with the Vermeer Quartet in Chicago, and in orchestral solo engagements with the orchestras of New York, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Minnesota, and Indianapolis. He will also conduct symphony orchestras in Dallas, Cincinnati, Rochester, and Ottawa. In Europe, Mr. Zukerman will perform as soloist with the BBC Symphony and tour in recital. Special highlights will be a tour with the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra as well as performances with the Berlin Philharmonic as both conductor and soloist.
Featured in numerous television specials and national talk shows, Pinchas Zukerman recently participated in a "Live From Lincoln Center" concert with the Chamber Music Society. A PBS special entitled "Mozart By the Masters" with the Chicago Symphony and colleagues Itzhak Perlman and Victor Borge will be aired nationally by WTTW in Chicago this season.
Ann Arbor audiences have enjoyed Mr. Zukerman's musical versatility in three previous appearances: a 1981 violin and viola recital with Marc Neikrug, in 1986 as conductor and violin soloist with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and as violin soloist at the 1987 May Festival with Kurt Masur and the Leipzig Gewandaus Orchestra.
Marc Neikrug, born in 1946 in New York, is a composer and pianist of international acclaim. As a pianist, he performs both the solo repertoire and chamber music literature, appearing with many of the leading musicians of today. He and Pinchas Zukerman have enjoyed a fourteen-year association as sonata partners and together have made numerous recordings that cover a wide range of repertoire.
One of today's most sought-after composers, Marc Neikrug's music has been com?missioned and premiered internationally by an impressive list of artists, orchestras, and opera houses. His works include a violin concerto premiered by Schlomo Mintz with Sergiu Comissiona and the Houston Symphony, Duo for violin and piano premiered by Zukerman and Neikrug, a concerto for the Guarneri String Quartet and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and a musictheater piece Through Roses, premiered at the South Bank Festival in 1980 and termed an "extraordinary achievement" by the New York Times. Several of Mr. Ncikrug's orchestral works have been premiered throughout the 1980s by the New York Philharmonic, Berlin Radio Symphony, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, which performed his "Chetro Kctl" in Ann Arbor in 1986.
Last season, the Music Today festival in Tokyo presented two evenings of performances featuring Mr. Neikrug's works, including one written for the birthday of another celebrated composer, Toru Takcmitsu. Other 1988-89 premieres were an orchestral song cycle for the Frankfurt Opera with soprano Ulrike Sonntag; a chamber work entitled Void, commissioned by the Dallas "Voices of Change" ensemble, the Da Capo Chamber Players, and the Atlanta Chamber Players; a string quartet, performed in Chicago by the Vcrmcer Quartet; and Los Alamos, an anti-nuclear opera premiered at Berlin's Deutsche Opcr.
Highlighting the current season is the world premiere of Mr. Neikrug's Flute Concerto, commissioned by the Pittsburgh Symphony and written for James Galway, who opened the Pittsburgh Symphony's season in September with the new work. Galway will join that orchestra again to premiere the concerto in Russia with performances in Leningrad and Moscow.
Marc Neikrug served as special consultant for contemporary programs for the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra for seven years. He has twice served as director of Melbourne Summer Music, an Australian festival that he began in 1986, and will direct this festival again in 1991. He appears as composer and pianist on Philips, Deutsche Grammophon, CBS, and Musical Heritage Society Records.
This evening's concert marks Mr. Ncikrug's second Ann Arbor appearance.
This activity supported by Michigan Council for the Arts.
UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY Board of Directors
John W. Reed, President
David B. Kennedy, Vice President
Thomas E. Kaupcr, Secretary Norman G. Herbert, Treasurer
Gail W. Rector, President Emeritus
Robert G. Aldrich James J. Dudcrstadt Richard L. Kennedy
Patrick B. Long Judythc R. Maugh John D. Paul
John Psarouthakis Ann S. Schriber Herbert E. Sloan
Advisory Committee
Ann Schribcr, Chair
Sue Bonfield Charles Borgsdorf Bradley Canale Sandra Connellan Katharine Cosovich Alice Davis Irani Elena Delbanco Anne Duderstadt
Joann Gargaro Joyce Ginsberg Charles Hills JoAnne Hulcc Stuart Isaac Frances Jelinek Shirley Kaupcr
Howard King Lynn Luckenbach Alan Mandel Ingrid Martin Charlotte McGeoch Joan Olsen Agnes Reading
Dorothy Reed Miriam Stcphan Raven Wallace Mary White Sally White Shelly Williams Nancy Zimmerman
University Choral Union and Festival Chorus
Donald T. Bryant Julia Broxholm Collins Nancy Hodge Ncal Kurz
Staff
Kenneth C. Fischer, Executive Director
Catherine S. Arcure Sally A. Cushing Leilani Denison Barbara L. Ferguson
Judy Johnson Fry Michael L. Gowing Debbie Halinski Lorna Young Hildebrandt
John B. Kennard, Jr. Michael J. Kondziolka Thomas M. Mull Laura Rosenberg
Robin Stcphcnson Joan C. Susskind Pamela S. Tceplc Carol G. Wargclin Nancy Welder
Student Assistants: Sara Billmann, Karen Paradis
Concert Guidelines
To make conccrtgoing a more convenient and pleasurable experience for all patrons, the Musical Society is implementing the following policies and practices throughout the season:
Starting Time for Concerts The Musical Society will make every attempt to begin its performances on time. Please allow ample time for parking. Latecomers are asked to wait in the lobby until seated by ushers at a predetermined time in the program so as not to disturb performers or other patrons.
Children Children attending a University Musical Society event should be able to sit quietly in their own seats throughout the performance. Children not able to do so, along with the adult accompanying them, may be asked by an usher to leave the auditorium. (Every child must have a ticket.)
Of Coughs and Decibels Reprinted from programs in London's Royal Festival Hall: "During a recent test in the hall, a note played mezzo forte on the horn measured approximately 65 decibels of sound. A single 'uncovered' cough gave the same reading. A handkerchief placed over the mouth when coughing assists in obtaining a pianissimo."
Please take advantage of Warner Lambert's generosity in providing Halls Cough Tablets in the lobby prior to and during intermissions of the concerts.
A Modern Distraction With the advent of the electronic beeping and chiming digital watches, both audience members and performing artists will appreciate these being turned off or suppressed during performances. In case of emergency, advise your paging service of auditorium and seat location and ask them to phone University Security at 763-1131.
Pre-concert Presentations
7:00 p.m. -free and open to the public.
Saturday, October 28, preceding New England Jazz Ensemble, Rackham Building Speaker: Barton Polot, Jazz Pianist and Educator Topic: Ragtime: Gateway to Modern Jazz
Thursday, November 2, preceding Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Michigan League Speaker: Russell Collins, Executive Director, The Michigan Theater Topic: Performing Arts in the Global Village
Coming Concerts
New England Ragtime Ensemble Gunther Schuller............... Sat. Oct. 28
Orchestre de la Suisse Romande ...............................Thurs. Nov. 2
Armin Jordan, conductor; Martha Argerich, pianist
Kazuhito Yamashita, guitarist...................................Mon. Nov. 6
Michigan MozartFest Roger Norrington .............Thurs.-Sat. Nov. 16-18
Samuel Ramey, bass; Warren Jones, pianist ......................Mon. Nov. 27
Handel's "Messiah" Donald Bryant, conductor............. Sat., Sun. Dec. 2, 3
Kathryn Bouleyn Day, soprano; Gail Dubinbaum, contralto; Carroll Freeman, tenor; Stephen Bryant, bass; members of the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra. Underwritten by Great Lakes Bancorp.
Aulos Ensemble ............................................ Mon. Dec. 11
Donald Bryant Tribute Concert..................................Sun. Jan 14
Dr. Bryant conducts his new composition "Genesis"; Festival Chorus, soli, and orchestra.
Kodo, Japanese drummers............................... Fri., Sat. Jan. 26, 27
Hungarian State Folk Ensemble ................................ Wed. Jan. 31
St. Olaf Choir Kenneth Jennings................................ Sat. Feb. 3
Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra ................................ Wed. Feb. 7
Kazimierz Kord, conductor; Zoltan Kocsis, pianist
Faculty Artists Concert (free admission) ......................... Sun. Feb. 11
Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra ................................... Fri. Feb. 16
Leon Flcisher, conductor; John O'Conor, pianist
New York City Opera National Company................ Sat., Sun. Feb. 17, 18
Puccini's "La Bohcme"
Borodin String Quartet ....................................... Sun. Feb. 25
Maurizio Pollini, pianist ......................................... Fri. Mar. 9
Contemporary American Dance Festival................. Mon.-Fri. Mar. 12-16
Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra................................Sat. Mar. 17
Dmitri Kitaenko, conductor; Vladimir Krainev, pianist
Thomas Allen, baritone....................................... Wed. Mar. 21
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra................................ Sun. Mar. 25
David Zinman, conductor; Isaac Stern, violinist
Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields Iona Brown ................ Sun. Apr. 1
The Feld Ballet...................................... Wed., Thurs. Apr. 4, 5
Jim Cullumjazz Band........................................... Sat. Apr. 7
William Warficld, narrator; Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess"
Murray Perahia, pianist......................................... Sat. Apr. 14
Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia Marc Mostovoy............... Sun. Apr. 22
The King's Singers ............................................ Sat. Apr. 28
Underwritten by Parke Davis Research Division of Warner Lambert.
97th Annual May Festival ...............................Wed.-Sat. May 9-12
Los Angeles Philharmonic Andre Previn, conductor-pianist
Free brochure with complete information available upon request.
Full service box office hours in Burton Tower: Mon.-Fri. 10:00-6:00, Sat. 10:00-1:00, 764-2538. For telephone charges only: 763-TKTS, Mon.-Sat. 8 a.m.-9 p.m., Sun. 11 a.m.-6 p.m.