CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
Yundi Li

Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
Saturday, October 11th, 2008 at 8:00 PM

Yundi Li, Piano

CHOPIN Nocturne in E-flat Major, Op. 9, No. 2
CHOPIN Four Mazurkas, Op. 33
SCHUMANN "Widmung," Op. 25, No. 1 (arr. Liszt)
JIAN-ZHONG WANG Rosy Clouds Chasing after the Moon
JIAN-ZHONG WANG Five Yunnan Folksongs
CHOPIN Andante Spianato and Grand Polonaise, Op. 22

MUSSORGSKY Pictures at an Exhibition

Encore:
JIAN-ZHONG WANG The Moon

Program Notes:

FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN Nocturne in E-flat Major, Op. 9, No.2
Born March 1, 1810, in Zelazowa Wola, Poland; died October 17, 1849, in Paris

Composed between 1830 and 1831, the Nocturne Op. 9, No. 2 received its first Carnegie Hall performance on November 17, 1896, with Moriz Rosenthal, piano.

Chopin’s early years were spent almost entirely in his native Poland, where he excelled in writing variations, concertos, and rondos, all standard genres for a publicly performing pianist-composer of his time. By the time he moved to Paris in his early twenties, he was already composing more in two of the genres that would increasingly dominate his output: the mazurka and the nocturne. In Paris his brilliant reputation was based primarily on performances given in the relatively intimate environment of fashionable drawing-rooms where artists and aristocrats mingled and conversed. The intimate scale of the nocturnes seems particularly suited to such a setting. The Op. 9, No.2 nocturne displays an exquisite melodic lyricism reminiscent of the bel canto Italian vocal style that Chopin loved. While the ornamentation in some of his music sounds like a mere pretext for virtuosic displays, the richly expressive embellishments of this nocturne’s principal melody deepen the music’s pathos and harmonic tension. In a passage that could easily apply to this piece, Proust gives an apt description of Chopin’s melodic gift, of his “long sinuous phrases …which divert themselves in those byways of fantasy only to return more deliberately…to strike at your heart.”


FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN Four Mazurkas, Op. 33

Composed in 1838, the Four Maurkas, Op. 33 received their first Carnegie Hall performance on March 9, 1997, with Christina Kiss, piano.

After the failure of Poland’s revolution against Russia in 1830–1831, sympathy with Polish expatriates and the Polish cause became quite fashionable in Paris. While this atmosphere may have encouraged Chopin to compose in specifically Polish genres, it was also natural for an often homesick expatriate-composer to draw on the rich heritage of his country. The mazurka, a traditional Polish dance, originated on the plains of the Mazovia region and often featured a type of folk bagpipe accompanying a singer who would improvise lyrics and a melody. Of the four mazurkas of Chopin’s Op. 33, the dance rhythms are perhaps most apparent in the rousing Mazurka in D Major. All the mazurkas are in a triple meter (or grouping of beats) with a shifting accented beat, but this rhythmic commonality does not limit Chopin’s expressive range. This set of four encompasses poignant, darkly beautiful melodies; tranquil, reflective ones; and an exuberant, carousing dance. Their charm is also enhanced by a pianist who can subtly accelerate or decrease the tempo, a practice known as rubato, which Chopin often employed. He offers a useful metaphor to guide pianists in the art of rubato: “The left hand is the conductor, it must not waver or lose ground; do with the right hand what you will.”


ROBERT SCHUMANN “Widmung,” Op. 25, No. 1 (arr. Liszt)
Born June 8, 1810, in Zwickau, Saxony; died July 29, 1856, in Endenich

Composed in 1840, “Widmung” received its first performance in Liszt’s arrangement at Carnegie Hall on May 15, 1898, with Josef Hofmann, piano.

Schumann composed the song “Widmung” (dedication) in 1840 as part of the cycle Myrthen, which was a wedding present to his bride, Clara Wieck. Her father had been strongly opposed to their union; he even threatened to disinherit her if she married Schumann. He also tried to stop the marriage by claiming Schumann was a drunkard, though he was unable to substantiate the groundless charge in court. While his disapproval made for practical delays and difficulties, it also created a romance sweetened by opposition. “Widmung” seems to distill the relief and anticipated rapture Schumann felt as his marriage approached. The lyrics, by poet Friedrich Ruckert, give impassioned praise of the beloved:

You my soul, you my heart
You my bliss, o you my pain
You the world in which I live ...

Liszt’s arrangement for solo piano adds a filigree of virtuosity to the original, but preserves the prominence of the flowing melody that seems to perfectly express the exalted sentiments of the words.

By Nick Romeo


JIAN-ZHONG WANG Rosy Clouds Chasing after the Moon, Five Yunnan Folksongs
Born 1933

Rosy Clouds Chasing after the Moon and Five Yunan Folksongs received their first performances at Carnegie Hall in Weill Recital on May 15, 1999, with I-Heung Lee, piano, and on May 11, 2002, with Li Fan, piano, respectively.

Despite the fact that Yundi Li is among an impressive generation of Chinese pianists on the international circuit or that the piano has now become a ubiquitous musical instrument throughout China, it was only in the 1930s that Chinese composers first started writing music for the instrument. Throughout the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, there was something of an explosion of interest in the instrument amongst Chinese composers, although, in accordance with government restrictions, most of the music they produced for it took the form of transcriptions of popular folk tunes, with many original works confined to celebrating the current political ideology. Most of those mid-20th century Chinese piano pieces were written in the European Romantic style, while based on the Chinese pentatonic scale, and among the more prolific composers of the time was Jian-zhong Wang, who graduated from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 1958. He is the Vice President of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and Artistic Director of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music Youth Symphony Orchestra.

Characterized by a strong ethnic flavor and rich variety of tone colors, Wang’s works are popular among pianists both in China and overseas and include A Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix (selected as one of the 20th Century Chinese Music Classics), Situation (selected as the test piece for the first China International Piano Competition held in Beijing and awarded the Gold Prize at the 2002 Golden Bell Awards), Piano Concerto–Towards a New Era, and these five Yunnan Folksongs. The first of these, Dali Girl, resembles a portrait of a simple and charming young maiden of Yunnan, while the second, Following My Lover, is a sincere love song. The third, Solving Riddles, is a scene of naive and lively children solving riddles. The fourth, Mountain Song, is a shrill and slightly improvisatory mountain song, while the fifth and final piece, Dragon Lantern Tune, portrays the joyous and lively scene after a successful harvest.

By Marc Rochester


CHOPIN Andante Spianato and Grand Polonaise, Op.22

Chopin’s Andante Spianato and Grand Polonaise, Op.22 consists of two rather different pieces written several years apart. The Grand Polonaise was written in Vienna between 1830 and 1831 while Chopin was trying to establish himself as a virtuoso, and the piece provides ample opportunity to display dazzling technical prowess. The Andante Spianato was composed in 1834 as an introduction to the Polonaise, and its tranquil, poetic character; leisurely tempo; and melodic beauty reflect Chopin’s movement away from performing and composing as a public virtuoso. The polonaise—the word comes from the French for Polish—was a type of Polish processional dance in triple meter that become widely recognized throughout 19th century Europe. Schumann, Liszt and Tchaikovsky all wrote Polonaises, but Chopin’s mark on the genre is indelible. In the Grand Polonaise, the left hand provides the characteristic dance rhythm, while the right hand introduces themes that recur with increasingly breathtaking embellishments.

By Nick Romeo

Nick Romeo writes frequently about music and the arts in New York City.


MODEST MUSSORGSKY Pictures at an Exhibition
Born March 21, 1839, in Karevo, Pskov district; died March 28, 1881, in St. Petersburg

Composed in 1874, Pictures at an Exhibition received its first performance at Carnegie Hall on October 19, 1918, with Harold Bauer, piano.

When Viktor Hartmann, an artist, designer, and sculptor, died of a heart attack in 1873, his close friend Modest Mussorgsky was devastated. Mussorgsky was further plagued with feelings of guilt, recalling that, had he run for a doctor rather than trying to comfort the stricken Hartmann, the artist might have lived. The composer slipped into a depression aggravated by his alcohol problem.

Vladimir Stassov, a music critic and friend of both Mussorgsky and Hartmann, arranged an exhibit of about four hundred works by the deceased artist, hoping that this tribute might in some way relieve Mussorgsky's depression. The exhibition opened in January 1874, at the St. Petersburg Society of Architects. Mussorgsky was inspired to create a suite of ten musical portraits for piano, his only significant work for this instrument, written in a single burst of creative energy in June 1874. Not published until 1886, Pictures at an Exhibition did not achieve popularity in any form until Maurice Ravel orchestrated it in 1923 at the request of conductor Serge Koussevitzky. The first orchestral performance was given later that same year, conducted by Koussevitzky at the Paris Opera. Since then, Pictures has become one of the most popular staples in the repertory for orchestras and pianists alike.

Each musical portrait is based on one of Hartmann's paintings. A “Promenade,” an imaginary stroll through the picture gallery, opens the work with a theme that returns several times as the listener moves from movement to movement, each depicting musically a different painting or group of paintings. These movements are:

Gnomus. A child's toy made of wood for the Christmas tree at the Artists' Club, styled after a small, grotesque gnome with gnarled legs and erratic hopping movements.

The Old Castle. A watercolor of a troubadour singing in front of a medieval castle.

Tuileries. A lively picture of children scampering about, engaged in horseplay while their nannies chatter.

Bydlo. On giant, lumbering wheels, an oxcart comes into view, its driver singing a folk song.

Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks. Cheeping baby canaries dance about, still enclosed in their shells, with their wings and legs protruding.

Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle. Critic Vladimir Stassov felt the title of this movement to be so anti-Semitic that he had it renamed “Two Polish Jews, One Rich, the Other Poor.” The personalities are vividly drawn: One is clearly wealthy and self-important, and other sniveling and beseeching.

The Marketplace at Limoges. Another lively, bustling French scene. Here, rather than children, we find the rapid chatter, babble, and arguments of housewives. At the height of a particularly noisy fracas, the music suddenly plunges into the next movement.

Catacombs—Cum mortuis in lingua mortua. Hartmann himself, lantern in hand, explores the subterranean passages of Paris. Eerie, ominous sounds are heard in the ensuing “Cum Mortuis in Lingua Mortua” (“With the dead in a dead language”). To a distorted version of the “Promenade” theme, the music depicts a grisly sight: “Hartmann's creative spirit leads me,” wrote Mussorgsky, “to the place of skulls and [Hartmann] calls to them—the skulls begin to glow faintly from within.”

Baba Yaga's Hut on Chicken Legs. In Hartmann's painting, the home of the fabled Russian witch Baba Yaga appears as a fantastic bronze clock face, mounted on chicken legs. Mussorgsky prefers to portray the witch's ride through the air in her mortar, steering with a pestle. At the height of the dizzying ride, she seems to sail right out of the picture into “The Great Gate At Kiev.”

The Great Gate At Kiev. This depicts Hartmann's architectural design for a gate (never built) to commemorate Alexander II's narrow escape from an assassination attempt in Kiev.

by Robert Markow

© 2008 by The Carnegie Hall Corporation

Yundi Li, Piano
Yundi Li was propelled into the international musical scene when he won first prize at the 2000 Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw. At 18 years of age, he was one of the youngest winners and the first person to be awarded a first prize at the prestigious event in 15 years.

Critically acclaimed for his technical precision and boundless enthusiasm, Mr. Li made his American orchestral debut in July 2003 with the Philadelphia Orchestra performing Chopin’s First Piano Concerto. The following spring he completed his North American debut recital tour, which included sold-out performances in Boston, Vancouver, San Francisco, and New York. Highlights of recent seasons included concerts with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra; the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Centre; and in Seoul, South Korea. He has also collaborated with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under Gustavo Dudamel; the Wiener Symphoniker in both Vienna’s Musikverein and in Japan; and with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra at the Tonhalle.

Mr. Li has performed recitals throughout the US and Europe at such major venues and festivals as Carnegie Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, and the Verbier Festival in Switzerland.

In May 2007 Mr. Li became the first Chinese pianist to record with Maestro Seiji Ozawa and the Berlin Philharmonic in a Deutsche Grammophon release featuring Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto and Ravel’s Concerto in G Major. “The Young Romantic,” a television documentary film about Mr. Li and featuring Maestro Ozawa and the Berlin Philharmonic, was also recently broadcast worldwide. Since 2001 Mr. Li has recorded seven discs on DG, including works by Chopin, Liszt, Scarlatti, and Schumann.

In 2008–2009 Mr. Li’s return engagements include those with the National Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He will tour Japan with Valery Gergiev and the Kirov Orchestra, and give recitals in Paris, London, Munich, Luxembourg, and Valencia. His extensive US recital tour will also take him to Washington, D.C. and cities in Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, New York, and Utah. Mr. Li will appear in the Chopin 200th anniversary festival in Warsaw in March 2010.

Born in Chongqing, China, Mr. Li’s prodigious musical talent was first recognized on the accordion when he won the top prize at the Chongqing Accordion Competition at age five. He began piano stages at age seven and in 1995, moved with his family to Shenzhen, where he continued his studies with Zhaoyi Dan at the Shenzhen Arts School.