Mozart, Magnifico!

Friday, November 13, 2009, 8 pm

Glenn Gould Studio, 250 Front Street West

ANTONIO DI CRISTOFANO, Pianist

Italian virtuoso returns for some Mozart

CHAN KA NIN Poetry on Ice

MOZART Piano Concerto K 449

SCHUBERT Death and the Maiden

Antonio Di Cristofano completed his piano studies in 1986 at the Conservatory “L.Cherubini” in Florence, under the supervision of M° Bacchelli.

He has perfected with M° Damerini. He performs either as a piano soloist or in different musical ensembles; he played as a soloist with the Orchestra of the University of Milan, Strings Orchestra “Cantelli” of Milan, Chamber Orchestra of Florence, Symphony Orchestra of Lecce, Magna Grecia Orchestra, Sicily Symphony Orchestra, Solisti Aquilani, Milano Classica Orchestra, Radio Orchestra of Bucarest, Orquesta Sinfonica de l’Estado de Mexico, University Orchestra of Houston, Radiotelevision Albania Orchestra, Istanbul Chamber Orchestra, Prague Radio Symphony, North Czech Philarmonic, Czech Philarmonic Orchestra, Izmir Symphony Orchestra, Iasi State Philarmonic, Wiener Mozart Orchestra, Sinfonia Toronto, Philarmonique de Montreal, Jerusalem Symphony, Kaerntner Sinfonieorchester and many others. he has played with conductors like G. Taverna, F. A. Krager, O. Balan, M. Bosch, M. Ancillotti, M. Alsop, N. Arman, C. Schulz, M. Zanini, C. Olivieri-Munroe, A. Chernushenko, and many others.

 

He has played in some of the world's most important venue and festivals: the “Verdi Theatre” in Florence, the "Festival dei Due Mondi" in Spoleto, “Asolo Musica”, the Theatre of Alessandria, the “Bibbiena Theatre” in Mantova, the “Puccini Hall” at the Conservatory “G.Verdi” in Milan, “Politeama Theatre” in Palermo, etc., in Romania (Aeteneum and Radio Bucarest, ecc.), Espana (Festival de Vigo, Madrid, Jeunesses Musicales de Sevilla), Mexico (Belles Artes Palacio, Revueltas Auditorium), USA (Moores Opera House of Houston, Newman Center in Denver, ecc ), Turkey (Istanbul, Izmir and Adana), Bulgary (Vidin), Croatia (Dubrovnik – Rector Palace), Czech Republic (Praga – Smetana Hall and Dvorak Hall), Russia (Ciaikovsky Conservatoire), South Korea (Seoul – Leeum Auditorium), France (Nancyphonies Festival), Austria (Konzerthaus – Klagenfurt), Swiss, Canada, Albania, Israel, England, Germany, Portugal, Poland, ecc. Recently he made his debut in Carnegie Hall – New York and in Konzerthaus and Golden Hall MusikVerein in Wien.

He is often invited as a judge in international Piano Competition (Compositores de Espana – Madrid, Varallo, Cantù, Osijek, Gante – Pordenone, Parigi, Viardo – Belmont, Rachmaninov – Moscow, Iturbi – Valencia, Parnassos – Monterrey, ecc) and to teach in Tchaikovsky Conservatoy in Moscow, in the Summer Academy in Dubrovnik, in Denver University, in the SMC Academy in Seoul and in Thessaloniki Conservatoire.

 

PROGRAM NOTES

 

Poetry on Ice by Chan Ka Nin (1949)

 

Poetry on Ice was commissioned by the Ontario Arts Council in 1995. Canadian composer Chan Ka Nin has chosen ice dancing as the source of inspiration because of the great variety of music; ranging from pop to ballroom dancing to classical that has been used in the skating ring. The four sections of this one-movement work have subtitles: Cutting Edge is for a short technical programme; Soulmate describes the emotional connection between a pair of skaters; Fancy-Free is the expression of free spirit on ice and The Elements is a combination of both the musical and skating elements--a poetry in sound and motion.

 

Piano Concerto No. 14 in E flat major by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)  

       

Mozart wrote this concerto for an exceptional student, Barbara Ployer (for whom Haydn also wrote music), and the orchestral accompaniment seems to be heavily influenced by Mozart’s work in opera. In the years leading up to this piece, Mozart wrote in the genre of the singspiel essentially German opera with some spoken dialogue. Piano Concerto No. 14 has often been labeled as Mozart’s first mature work in the concerto genre. The musical material of the first movement journeys through a wide variety of moods, and the structure of the movement, although it follows double exposition form very closely, is inventive nonetheless. The finale is a complex sonata-rondo form with brilliant variations, as if Mozart wanted to challenge his imagination by tweaking the repetitions of the themes with as many subtle alterations and embellishments as possible.

 

Death and the Maiden Quartet in D Minor by Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

Orchestral version by Nurhan Arman                                     

 

Austrian composer Franz Schubert was taught music by his father, a local school master, from an early age. By the time he was 7 he had come to the attention of Antoino Salieri, then one of Vienna’s leading musical authority, and at 11 was enrolled into the Stadtkonvikt (imperial seminary) on a choral scholarship. He was taught theory and composition by Salieri and began composing in ernest, producing his first symphony. In 1813 Schubert left the Stadtknovikt and returned home to train as a teacher, and soon began teaching in his father’s school. In 1816, after and unsuccessful application to become Kapellmeister at Laibach, Schubert abandoned teaching to focus on composition. Schubert spent most of the rest of his short life composing. His career suffered many setbacks, but he gradually gained recognition and began mounting concerts of his own works. Unfortunately, just as he was beginning to achieve public success his health took a turn for the worse. He died of syphilis aged just 31.

 

The famous quartet, written in 1826, is an intense work with the theme of death at its heart. The title Death and the Maiden stems from the reuse in the andante of Schubert’s song by the same name. The text is by the German Romantic Matthias Claudius and the lyrics recount an old European myth, where a sovereign (in this case, Death) demands a pre-nuptial night with a bride-to-be. If she declines, Death will take her betrothed on their wedding day. The Maiden sings: “Leave me, terrible specter, I am so young, go away and let me be”. To which Death replies: “Give me your hand, beautiful and sweet creature, I am your friend, and have not come to punish you. Have courage! You will sleep sweetly in my arms’. Only Death’s section is used in the quartet.

 

Death and the Maiden could also be seen as a romantic tone poem. Throughout the work, Schubert’s writing creates a dramatic scene, evoking death in all his guises, both harsh and gentle. Furthermore, the composer chooses D minor a key which Schubert generally reserved for songs containing poignant expressions of death, penitence, shadowy dreams, and shrouded moonlight.

 

The terrifying opening to the Allegro gives the impression of a macabre fanfare, heralding Death’s arrival and his now inevitable proposition. Crafted in a typically romantic version of sonata form this movement still manages to evoke the terror of Death’s presence, even with strict formal guidelines. In G minor, the second movement, Andante con moto, offers the haunting pulse and phrase of the chant of Death, drawn straight from Schubert’s song. This is followed by five variations of which only the fourth moves into the brighter, less foreboding key of G major before dark reality returns. The short Scherzo-Allegro also reflects the spectre of the deathly visitor, blending into major at the Trio, feigning comfort to the Maiden. The brilliant Rondo-Finale is a ghostly tarantella, creating a sense of the chase in the opening section of Schubert’s song. Built on preceding elements and cryptic references to previous movements, it whirls around rhapsodically before hurtling into its conclusion.

 

$40 adult, $32 senior, $12 student

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