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| Jason Vieaux Program Notes |
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Saturday, November 1: Ticket Information |
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Program Notes |
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Meet The Artist |
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| Program Notes |
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| At the Crossroads |
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| The guitar has always thrived at cultural crossroads, at intersections of time and place. From the beginning, art music and vernacular, Old World and New, abstract polyphony and vibrant dances, all have coexisted inspirationally in its repertory. Guitarist Jason Vieaux runs verbal and orthographic riffs on the word “emerge” – eMERGE – in extending this sort of interactive interconnectedness to his recital programming: more recent music emerging from influential prior works and/or merging styles and languages. |
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| Isaac Albéniz ( born Camprodón, Catalonia , May 29, 1860 ; died Cambo-les-Bains , France, May 18, 1909 ) makes a good start for any exploration of boundaries and borders. Certainly he crossed enough geographic ones. A performing piano prodigy from the age of four, he traveled often with his parents, and when he was 12 he stowed away aboard a ship in Cádiz and was gone for a year in South America and the United States. A sometime student of Liszt and a friend and colleague of Fauré and Debussy, he was equally restless in his musical journeys, absorbing everything from popular salon styles to the most academic offerings of Leipzig, Madrid, and Paris. The musicologist and composer Felipe Pedrell was a particular influence on Albéniz, helping him find fertile Spanish ground for much of his own music. |
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| Albéniz’ music was published rather erratically. Although the eight pieces that ended up in the Suite española, Op. 47, were composed from 1885 to 1891 (not long after he first met Pedrell), only four were grouped together by the composer in 1886, with the other four added posthumously, making a publisher’s potpourri rather than an integrated multi-movement work. “Cuba” (5 minutes) (which Albéniz first visited on that adolescent voyage begun as a stowaway) is a relaxed, sunny capriccio. Subtitled “Legend” in the Suite, the often-arranged, repercussive “Asturias” (7 minutes) also served as the prelude for the Cantos de Espanã, Op. 232. Albéniz frequently imitates sounds and techniques of the guitar in his piano music, and it transfers readily to the plucked instrument. |
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A pupil of Vincent d’Indy at the Schola Cantorum in Paris (and later a piano instructor there), Albéniz was well-trained in earlier music. In its rhapsodic alternation of relentless mechanical drive with lyrical reflection, “Asturias” reflects elements of Bach’s toccata style. Johann Sebastian Bach (born Eisenach, March 21, 1685; died Leipzig, July 28, 1750) was himself probably the ultimate synthesist. He did not travel personally nearly as widely as Albéniz, but he was every bit as open and curious musically, keeping well-up on contemporary trends in Italy and France and drawing on everything from folk songs to opera buffa in his own music.
Bach was a friend and colleague of some of the greatest lutenists of the time, including Silvius Leopold Weiss, and he wrote for the instrument in larger contexts, such as the St. John Passion and the Mourning Ode (BWV 198), as well as important solo works. At his death Bach owned a lute and two lute-harpsichords (small, gut-strung keyboard instruments of his own design), and his manuscript for the Prelude, Fugue, and Allegro, BWV 998 (composed c. 1740-45; 12 minutes) indicates that the piece is “pour la Luth ò Cembal.” A triptych of magisterial craft and inspiration, the work was composed early in the last decade of Bach’s life. The Prelude is a rather mellow, low-speed moto perpetuo, imperturbably insistent. The Fugue itself is tripartite, with rigorous fugal expositions framing an extended improvisatory episode based on the theme. The Allegro is an athletic dance finale of boundless energy and harmonic zest.
Although not quite the prodigy that Albéniz was, Manuel Ponce (born Fresnillo, Mexico, December 8, 1882; died Mexico City, April 24, 1948 ) was nearly as peripatetic, leaving his native Mexico to study in Bologna and Berlin, living in Havana and Paris, and concertizing throughout Europe and North and South America. In Mexico City he taught piano at the conservatory and folklore at the university.
In 1923, Ponce met Andrés Segovia after the guitarist’s debut in Mexico City, beginning a personal and artistic friendship that lasted until Ponce’s death. This relationship produced a number of solo guitar pieces, including a handful of sonatas, as well as a concerto and some chamber music for the instrument. At Segovia’s urging – and probably inspired by the example of Fritz Kreisler – Ponce even wrote parodies in the style of earlier music and attributed them to musicians such as Bach’s friend Weiss.
Published in 1939, the Sonatina Meridional(composed 1932; 9 minutes) is the last of the solo pieces that Ponce wrote for Segovia, who had suggested both the diminutive sonatina form of the work and its “purely Spanish character.” The opening Campo (countryside), is a miniature sonata form movement in D major, but with strong flamenco suggestions of the Phrygian mode. The middle movement, Copla (song, or verse), is more improvisatory sounding, with irregular phrases ruminating expressively over open strings. The flamenco flavor persists in the Finale, a bold Fiesta of spiky harmony and metrical games.
Like the guitar, jazz lives at crossroads, and the music and the instrument have been good for each other. Of all the vital tensions native to jazz, probably none has been fruitful than the interplay of conceptual control and expressive freedom, of composed elements and spontaneous combustion. Pat Metheny(born Lee’s Summit, MO, August 12, 1954) is a master of this dangerously dynamic interface. An extraordinary virtuoso himself, he draws on influences from Brazilian music to minimalism, from Wes Montgomery to Joni Mitchell.
Jason Vieaux has taken “The Bat” from Metheny’s double album 80/81, and “The Bat, Pt. 2” from Metheny’s Grammy-winning Offramp, and crafted a haunting tremolo study (6 minutes). Vieaux writes, “Given the metric freedom of both versions, the former in a more traditional jazz group context and the latter in a more contemporary atmospheric mode, my arrangement is a combination of the two sounds and textures. The guitaristic effect of the tremolo (e.g., Tárrega's Recuerdos de la Alhambra), best recreated the sonic effect of the latter version, while the ‘solo’ I wrote over the chord changes hearkens back to the original version.”
For the Five Songs in Baroque Style (20 minutes), Vieaux layered Metheny’s melodic/harmonic foundations with the rhythms and inflections of a dance suite as Bach would have known it. The yearning Prelude is built on “Last Train Home,” a piece Metheny has revisited several times in his recordings, from 1987’s Still Life (Talking) to 2003’s One Quiet Night (both Grammy winners – among his 17 such awards). The elegantly patterned Allemande (“Antonia”) and Chaconne (“Tell Her You Saw Me”) both come from the ambitious CD Secret Story (1992), and the sturdily Bachian Gavotte and Double is built on the title track from 1989’s Question and Answer. The wily, wryly kinetic Gigue (“James”) is from Offramp’s tribute to James Taylor.
Trained in the U.S. and quite successful at home in Cuba, Leo Brouwer(born Havana, March 1, 1939) has deftly negotiated one of the thornier socio-political borders of the day. Artistically too, he has merged 1950s and ’60s modernism with minimalism and Afro-Cuban folk elements in a distinctive personal idiom. A guitarist of great skill and expressive force himself, Brouwer has written a large body of music for the guitar in various genres, as well as other music, including the score for 1992’s Como agua para chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate) and numerous other films.
Composed in 1981, El decamerón negro(composed 1981; 14 minutes) was inspired by scenes and images from African tales collected by the German anthropologist Leo Frobenius in the early 20th century. The pictorialism of El Arpa del Guerrero (The Warrior’s Harp) is obvious, the soldier’s martial edge quite apparent in the more aggressively driven passages, his loneliness in the more reflective moments. La Huída de los Amantes por el Valle de los Ecos (The Flight of the Lovers Through the Valley of Echoes) is an action sequence, with an accelerating gallop depicting the flight and canonic imitation high and low representing the lover’s voices, with a very evocative instrumental suggestion of echoes. The main tune of the finale, Balada de la Doncella Enamorada (Ballad of the Maiden in Love), is a lilting Cuban son, enchanted enough even for Albéniz’ sunny Cuba.
The journey ends where it began, or near enough for a recursive spiral of border crossings. Albéniz’ finest Andalucian light is on the Alhambra and the “Torre Bermeja” (Vermillion Towers) at its foot. Albéniz sets the scene as a serenata, the final piece in his Doce Piezas Características, Op. 92 (composed 1888-89; 4 minutes).
© John Henken |
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| Meet The Artist |
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| Jason Vieaux | |
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Jason Vieaux is expanding the definition of “classical guitarist” by changing the face of guitar programming and building a solid audience and fan base along the way. He was the youngest artist to win First Prize at the prestigious Guitar Foundation of America International Competition and was also a prizewinner at the Naumburg International Guitar Competition. He now travels around the world, with over 100 engagements during the last two seasons. Highlights of Vieaux’ 2008–09 season include a recital for San Francisco’s OMNI Foundation for the Performing Arts, concertos with numerous North American orchestras, a debut at the prestigious Nürtingen International Guitar Festival in Germany, a tour of Mexico, and return engagements as a “series favorite” in Boston, Hartford, Cleveland, Knoxville and St. Petersburg.
A regular concerto soloist with orchestras across the United States and beyond, Vieaux has performed with the Cleveland Orchestra, Cleveland Pops, Fort Worth Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Florida Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Orchestra 2001 and the IRIS Chamber Orchestra. He has also toured Europe, Mexico, Canada, the Far East and New Zealand, performing with the Auckland Philharmonia. A passionate advocate of new music, Vieaux has premiered new pieces by Jerod Impichch aachaaha' Tate, José Luis Merlin, Eric Sessler, Arthur Hernandez, Gary Schocker and Fazil Say, and his repertoire includes works by Allen Krantz, Mario Davidovsky, Augusta Read-Thomas, Roberto Sierra and John Corigliano.
Vieaux has eight recordings to his credit, with more planned under a multi-record deal with Azica Records. His latest is Bach: BWV 995 – 998, a disc of solo lute works due to be released in January 2009. His current CD, Images of Metheny, features music by renowned American jazz guitarist-composer Pat Metheny, and his Sevilla: The Music of Isaac Albeniz was rated one of the Top Ten Classical CDs of 2003 by The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Cleveland Plain Dealer. He has been featured on such top-rated programs as NPR’s "All Things Considered" and "Morning Edition", and he has been broadcast numerous times on APM’s "Performance Today.”
Vieaux began his guitar studies at age eight with Jeremy Sparks in Buffalo (NY) and continued at The Cleveland Institute of Music with John Holmquist. Soon after taking First Prize at the Guitar Foundation Competition, he was chosen by the USIA to be an Artistic Ambassador of the United States to Southeast Asia and concertized in Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar.
Aside from his duties as a performer, Vieaux is deeply dedicated to the art of teaching. He is Head of the Cleveland Institute of Music Guitar Department, the youngest department head to serve at the prestigious conservatory. His Web site is www.jasonvieaux.com. Jason Vieaux is represented by Jonathan Wentworth Associates, Ltd., Mt. Vernon (NY), www.jwentworth.com. |
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| Benjamin Verdery |  |
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| Artistic Director of the 92nd Street Y’s Art of the Guitar series, Benjamin Verdery has been chair of the guitar department at the Yale University School of Music since 1985 and is artistic director of the Yale Guitar Extravaganza, a one-day conference featuring guitarists and artists in concert and lectures. As a performer, Verdery has given concerts around the world, appearing at the International Guitar Festival ( Havana), the Festival International de Agosoto ( Caracas), the Schubert Festival (Bad Urach, Germany), the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and elsewhere. In addition to his solo career, Verdery performs with guitarist Bill Coulter, flutist Rie Schmidt and his ensemble Ufonia. As a prolific composer, Verdery’s works are published by Doberman-Yppan and have been performed by such artists as John Williams, David Russell and the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet. His Web site is www.benjaminverdery.com. |
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© 2009 92nd Street Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association
All Rights Reserved. |
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