Concert April`s Artist of the Month Mario Brunello (cello) Recital World famous Mariinsky Ballet and Opera Theatre - Opera and Concert Hall
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Schedule for April`s Artist of the Month Mario Brunello (cello) Recital 2022
Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach Composer: Max Reger Composer: Giovanni Sollima
Orchestra: Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra
Johann Sebastian Bach. Suite for solo cello N
3 Max Reger. Suite for solo cello N 2, op.
131c Judith Weir. Unlocked Johann
Sebastian Bach. Suite for solo cello N 6 Giovanni
Sollima. Alone
One major form of music is the suite, which owes its development to
dance music. The very word "suite" indicates a "series" or sequence.
Initially, this word was used to refer to works that consisted of two
contrasting dances: a slow pavane and a brisk, lively galliard. This
is one of the oldest forms of instrumental music, suites being written as
far back as the 16th and 17th centuries for
the lute, harpsichord and various ensembles. Gradually, by
the middle of the 17th century the genre lost its
initial purpose and began to be seen by contemporaries as a "concert"
piece. In the music of the Austrian composer Johann Jakob
Froberger (1616-1667), who combined different contrasting dances
in one piece of music, a consistent type of dance suite emerged that
included four traditional dances. The suite began with a measured slow
dance – the Allemande (4/4), then a brisk or fast and
measured dance – the Courante (3/4), which was followed by
a very slow processional dance – the Sarabande (3/4). Later
Johann Jakob Froberger introduced a fourth, impetuous dance –
the Jig. Differing in character and tempo, these dances were combined
by a shared tonality. The countless suites of
the late 17th to the early
18th centuries, in addition to the four main dances,
included the then highly popular minuet, gavotte and passepied which were
generally placed between the sarabande and the jig.
In the music of Johann Sebastian
Bach (1685-1750) the suite occupies a special position.
The composer wrote six English and six French suites, six partitas for
harpsichord, four orchestral suites called overtures and partitas for solo
violin. The suites for solo cello BWV
1007-1012, written in the 1720s, are of particular
importance. It is in these compositions that the process of
freeing the genre from its links with its everyday origins was completed.
In the dance parts of Johann Sebastian Bach’s suites (not just
for cello) the composer retains the forms of movement and
the characteristics of a rhythmical sketch typical of a given
dance. Each cello cycle is preceded by a prelude and includes six
dances: four traditional and two new. Also, in keeping with
the composer’s idea, the first piece must be repeated after
the second, written in the same tonality but
in a different key: this is true of the minuets
in suitesnbsp;1 and 2, the bourrйes in suites 3
and 4 and the gavottes in the last two. The combination
of different style traditions resulted in some surprisingly austere
cyclical works. Each subsequent part of the suite is a natural
continuation of the previous one. It is in the first
part (the Prelude) that contains the vivid thematic impulse which
is developed in the other parts of the cycle. It is
interesting that Johann Sebastian Bach recommended his sixth and final suite be
played on the viola pomposa (a kind of "tenor
viola"), a five-stringed instrument which he invented. Each dance part of
the suite is like an amazingly contrasting character miniature.
In
the 19th century, due to the development of a more
complex form of instrumental music – namely the symphony –
the suite ceased to be the popular genre it had been, though it did
continue to develop. The suite in the 19th century did
not have such direct links with dance music; it often included separate musical
scenes and dance sections could be interspersed with non-dance pieces. But
the basic principle – the contrast between the neighbouring
parts – was retained. Turning to genres and forms of early music in
the late 19th and early 20th centuries was
linked with a new trend in art that came to be known as "neoclassicism" (from
the Greek "neo", or "new"). Composers strived to return to clarity of
harmonies, simplicity of melodies and forms and to beauty and accessibility of
musical language. The features of late romanticism and neoclassicism were
combined in the music of German composer and conductor
Max Reger (1873-1916). The composer aimed to
grasp the legacy of the 18th century, in particular
the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, and in his own works he turned to
musical images of a past era. In his art he developed an interest in
the early dance suite. He composed a series of suites for solo instruments
such as the viola and the cello. However, as a man at the turn of
the 20th century, Max Reger continued the tradition of
Bach’s era using rich, contemporary musical language. Energetic and rich in
thematic transformations, polyphony and free modulations, the composer’s
music exerted a great influence on German art.
Judith Weir (1954) is a British composer who has won
broad popularity with the public and music critics all over the world.
In his music he has turned to the history of the Middle Ages and to
traditional images of traditional Scottish music, and he is best known for his
unique works for opera. Judith Weir is the composer and librettist of a
series of theatrical, orchestral and chamber works that have been performed all
over the world throughout the last thirty years. Music for solo
cello occupies a special position in the composer’s work, among them
the piece UNLOCKED. This work was written for
the cellist Ulrich Heinen, and it was first performed by him
in May 1999 in Birmingham (United Kingdom). The vivid
and unusual musical language of the piece reveals the timbre beauty
and technical abilities of this "singing" instrument. The use of certain
timbre characteristics of the influence at first glance may shock. But this
happens because the listener cannot fully realise their origins.
The cycle UNLOCKED appeared while the composer was engaged by
folk songs from the magnificent collection of the US Library of
Congress in Washington which was assembled by John and Alan Lomax in 1930.
Some of the songs were recorded by prisoners, largely blacks in Southern
prisons.
Giovanni Sollima (b. 1962) is an Italian composer
and cellist. He was born in a family of musicians and studied the cello
under Giovanni Perriera and composition with his father, Eliodoro Sollima.
Giovanni Sollima’s works are in the minimalist music style. Nonetheless,
the composer actively experiments with different genres: jazz, rock,
electronic music, the folklore of Sicily and countries of
the Mediterranean basin. He is enthusiastic about performing on instruments
from both East and West, electric and electronic instruments and instruments he
himself has invented. Giovanni Sollima is one of the greatest Italian
cellists and, despite his classical training, he has reinvented this instrument,
offering audiences all kinds of experiments with sound. His pieces for cello
often have programme subheadings, such as the work
Alone.
Schedule for April`s Artist of the Month Mario Brunello (cello) Recital 2022
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