August 09, 2007
Fourth appointment with AsiagoFestival
From bach to tango, for cello. Asiago, Church of San Rocco, August 12, 2007.
ASIAGO
FESTIVAL 41st Edition
FOURTH APPOINTMENT WITH ASIAGOFESTIVAL
FROM BACH TO TANGO, BY VIOLONCELLO
AT SAN ROCCO CHURCH – SUNDAY, AUGUST 12, 9 p.m.
Five cellos, five. And already imagining the volume and timbre of such an ensemble
makes the proposal particularly interesting. But no less cuioso is the program that the five cellists, who have given themselves the name “Cello Passionato” for the occasion, have in store for the AsiagoFestival audience, before whom they will perform on Sunday, August 12 (9 p.m.) in the Church of San Rocco in Asiago.
Julius Berger (artistic director of AsiagoFestival), Hyun-Jung Berger , Marcin Zdunik, So-Yeon Ahnw and the very young Alberto Brazzale will in fact investigate a very wide and varied repertoire, to bring the tenor voice of their cellos to bear on various styles and eras, ranging from Bach to Argentine Tango, from Boccherini to Gershwin.
ASIAGOFESTIVAL is organized by the Cultural Association “Friends of Music of Asiago” – “Fiorella Benetti Brazzale”, in collaboration with the Parish of St. Matthew, with the contribution and collaboration of the City of Asiago, Department of Tourism and Culture. Fundamental is the support offered by Banca Popolare di Vicenza, Burro delle Alpi – Alpilatte, Gran Moravia, Bassan Bernardo and Sons, and Rigoni di Asiago .
Sunday, August 12 – 9 p.m.
ASIAGO – Church of San Rocco
Cello ensemble: “Cello Passionato”
(Julius Berger – Hyun-Jung Berger – Marcin Zdunik – So-Yeon Ahn – Alberto Brazzale) solo cello: Marcin Zdunik
music by: Funck, Bach, Pergolesi, Boccherini, Paganini,
Popper, Francini-Mores, Puetz, Gershwin
Free admission – Info: www.asiagofestival.it
Program detail:
David Funck (1629-1690): Suite in D major
J.S. Bach (1685-1750): Adagio from the Sonata in G minor for solo flywheel (transcription: Marcin Zdunik)
Giovanni B.Pergolesi (1710-1736): Sonata in B-flat major
Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805): Sonata “The Empress” for 2 cellos
Niccolo Paganini (1743-1805): Capriccio nr.9 for cello solo (transcription:Marcin Zdunik)
David Popper (1843-1913): “Polonaise de Concert”
Enrique Francini (1916-1978) – Mariano Mores (1918): Two Argentine tangos: La vi Ilegar, Cafetin de B. Aires
Eduard Puetz (1911-2000): Tango
George Gershwin (1898-1937): Fragment
The performers:
Julius Berger, born 1954 in Augsburg, studied at the “Musikhochschule München” with Walter Reichhard and Fritz Kiskalt, then at the “Mozarteum” in Salzburg with Antonio Janigro (from 1979 to 1982 he worked as his assistant). He continued his studies with Zara Nelsova (Cincinnati/USA) and also participated in a master class with Mstislav Rostropovitsch.
At the age of 28 he became a professor at the “Musikhochschule Würzburg,” thus being the youngest professor in Germany. He then teaches in Saarbrücken, Mainz and since 2000 at the “Musikhochschule Augsburg and Nürnberg.”
Since 1992 he has been teaching courses at the “Internationalen Sommerakademie des Mozarteums” in Salzburg.
His recordings of J.S. Bach’s 6 Suites are appreciated by critics and audiences, along with Luigi
Boccherini’s unpublished concertos. He premieres works by M.Bruch, L.Boccherini, R.Strass, M.Wolpe, M.Dupré, G.Tartini, L.Leo, for the Ebs, Orfeo, Wergo, Cpo, Organ labels.
A sensitive and inspired contemporary performer, he has deep relationships with some of the most important composers of our time, such as Olivier Messiaen, Sofia Gubaidulina, Wolfgang Rihm, Toshio Hosokawa , Wilhelm Killmeyer,
Bertold Kummel, Viktor Suslin, Adriana Holsky, who dedicate many works premiered by him. He participates
in numerous concerts and tours together with distinguished colleagues such as Leonhard Bernstein, Eugen Jochum, Gidon Kremer, Jörg
Demus, Norman Shetler, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Bernd Glemser, Stefan Hussong, Eduard Brunner, Wolfagang Meyer.
He is president of the international “Leopold Mozart” competition and a jury member of numerous awards in Salzburg, Kronberg, Munich, and Warsaw, as well as artistic director of the Eckelshausener Musiktage and the “Mozart 2006″ celebration program of the city of Augsburg.
He is the author of poems and essays such as ‘Irritationskraft’ (Hindemith Jahrbuch 1992), ‘Einheit in der Vielfalt – Vielfalt in der Einheit’ (Forschungsmagazin der Universität Mainz, 1998), ‘Zeit und Ewigkeit’ (preface by Card.Karl Kardinal).
Marcin Zdunik was born on December 5, 1987 in Warsaw. In 1994 he began the study of the cello with Prof. Maria Walasek. Since September 2000 he has studied under the guidance of Prof.Andrzej Orkisz. He is currently a student of Andrzej Bauer at the Chopin Music Academy in Warsaw. He has won prizes in the most important competitions in which he has participated. First prize in 1999 in the National Competition for Young Cellists in Wroclaw; first prize in the Wikomirski International Cello Competitions ” in Poznan in the year 2000, the special prize for the best interpretation of Kazmierz Wilkomirski’s Aria, the special prize established by Maichael Flaksman; second prize in the competition for the best students of Polish music academies in 2002; first prize in the international competition in Liezen (Austria) in the 16-18 years old category in 2004. Third prize in the 40th Markneukirchen Instrumental Competition in 2005; first prize in the Warsaw VI in 2007, with Grand Pramio for outstanding performance of Lutoslawski’s Cello Concerto, two special prizes for the best performance of Lutoslawski’s Sacher Variations and Szymanski’s Giaga for solo cello. He has received the Polish Ministry of Culture scholarship four times. He has participated in cosri and “masterclasses” with professors Michael Flaksman, Leonid Gorokhov, Gary Hoffman, Julius Berger, Cecylia Barczyk. He has been an active participant in the “mastercourses” of the Kronberg Cello Festival in Germany. He has made transcriptions for solo cello of virtuosic pieces for the violin such as Paganini’s Capricci, Weniawski’s Legend and Le Chant de Bouivac, the Sonata in G minor By J.S.Bach, the Chaconne from the
Partita in D minor by J.S.Bach and transcriptions for duos and ensembles such as Rachmaninov’s “Momento Musicale e Romanza” performed with Prof. Flaksman’s Cello Ensemble.
Alberto Brazzale was born in 1992 in Schio (Vicenza). He began studying cello at the age of seven under the guidance of Prof. Nicoletta De Vito. Since 2006 he has been a student of Prof. Stefania Cavedon at the Istituto Musicale Veneto Città di Thiene. In 2006 and 2007 he participated as an active student in the courses of the Summer Music Academy in Neuburg an der Donau (Germany) held by Prof. Julius Berger, under whose direction he played in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, in duo and “ensemble”. He is a member of the Breganze Youth Orchestra and various chamber groups. She collaborates with the Georgian music choir “Sintonia” directed by Guliko Lomtatidze, with whom she recently released a CD.
Soyeon Ahn, born in Coera in 1982, undertook the study of cello in 1994 with Hyung-Won Chang at the “Sun-Hwa” in Seoul, where she will continue her studies until 2000. From 2000 to 2005, she transferred her musical activity to “Sookmyung women’s University” under Prof. Hee-Chul Chae. In 2003 and 2004 she plays in the “Seoul Youth Orchestra.” Since 2005 she becomes a member of the ensemble ” Cello Passionato”. In the same year he entered the “Musikhochschule” in Ausburg where he received his diploma in cello in 2006. Since 2006, he has participated in the cello master’s program held by Prof. Julius Berger at the “Musikhochschule” in Ausburg.
BRIEF ESSAY ON THE VIOLONCELLO AVAILABLE TO EDITORS
“A poor devil destined to starve to death.” So defined the cello by the Frenchman Hubert Le Blanc, in one of his curious essays from 1740. But the worst predictions about the fate of the cello, a then-emerging instrument and insidious rival of the viola da gamba, have been resoundingly disproved by its own History, which it is significant to briefly retrace. Not least because it is a particularly “Italian” History.
The origins of the cello are not very clear. The term was first employed in Giulio Cesare Arresti’s Sonatas op. 4 (Venice, 155), but for more than a century the instrument was referred to by an imaginative variety of names, such as bas de violon or violoncino. To the terminological uncertainty (destined to disappear only in the eighteenth century) must be added the heterogeneity of forms and tunings, as well as a performance practice that had not yet been formalized. With the word “bass,” in fact (a gregarious role to which it was initially relegated), the scores of the time indicate any instrument of low register. It seems ascertained, however, that the cello was born in Italy during the glories of the Renaissance.
In Bologna, Brescia and Cremona, sixteenth-century luthiers’ workshops made prototypes of the new instrument, with the intention of completing in the lower registers the nascent family of bows headed by the violin. All the major violin makers participated in the enterprise, from pioneers Gasparo da Salò and Gian Paolo Maggini to the great families of Amati, Guarneri, Rugeri, and Grancino.
However, we have to wait until Antonio Stradivari (1644-1737) for the cello to achieve perfection and stability of proportions: it was he, in fact, who reduced the size of the sound box from the 80 centimeters of the eighteenth-century models to about 75 still in use today.
Italians were also the musicians who first succumbed in the potential of the cello: as early as the seventeenth century, although it was still engaged in functions of mere accompaniment, it was preferred to the older and more emblazoned viola da gamba, a related string instrument of medieval origin, whose quality of sound emission was too feeble and garrulous for the Baroque aesthetic of expression. In Italy, in fact, the viola da gamba soon fell into disuse, while abroad (especially in France), it remained the center of attention
until well into the eighteenth century, revealing itself as the main obstacle to the ultimate establishment of the new instrument. But it was the 18th century that marked a turning point in the history of the cello, with the birth of the solo repertoire. Sonatas for solo cello or with basso continuo are written by Baroque composers such as Dall’Abaco or Benedetto Marcello, with the climax reached by Johann Sebastian Bach’s Six Suites. And the concerto for cello and orchestra also established itself, cultivated especially by Antonio Vivaldi, who composed no fewer than 27 for the young orphan girls of the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice.
Alongside the repertoire, technique and performance practice also matured in the 18th century: to achieve greater freedom of action on the keyboard, the instrument is held between the knees and supported with the calves instead of resting, as before, on the floor. In addition, the left hand technique is freed from that of the violin with the adoption of new fingerings, and the bow, entrusted to a new grip, evolves as well.
The large group of Italian concert performers active in that era, among whom stands out the Neapolitan Francesco Alborea, known as Francischello, acclaimed by the courts of half of Europe, makes an essential contribution to the technical progress of the cello. Above them all, however, stands the figure of Luigi Boccherini, whose two hundredth anniversary of his death (1743-1805) is being commemorated. Active in Vienna, Paris and Madrid, Boccherini epitomizes the figure of the modern cellist: the prodigious technique with which he enchanted international audiences led him to explore extreme regions of the instrument, to which he devoted almost his entire catalog as a composer.
The literature of the classical period includes some memorable pages, such as Haydn’s concertos and Beethoven’s piano sonatas; even Mozart, urged on by Prussian King Frederick William II, a passionate devotee of the instrument, assigned the cello leading roles in some of his string quartets.
During the nineteenth century a decisive change was made to the instrument’s structure: the adoption of the ferrule, which facilitates its holding by increasing its stability and resonance. And while the chamber repertoire was enriched by the sonatas of Chopin, Mendelssohn and Brahms, in the orchestra the tenor timbre of the cello began to emerge from the ensemble. Neglected by the great composers, solo literature languishes instead, the preserve mostly of interpreter-virtuosos in search of didactic material or, worse, effect pieces (Duport, Romberg, Plant, Grutzmacher and others). The golden age of the cello thus began in the second half of the nineteenth century with the explosion of the concert repertoire. The evolution of the instrument in the twentieth century owes a great deal to one of the greatest musicians in the history of performance: the Spaniard Pablo Casals (1876-1973), a soloist of unquestionably exceptional human and artistic gifts who, thanks to tireless concert and teaching activity, made the cello familiar to the public and brought out its extraordinary qualities in cellists. His decisive impulse also gave rise to the works of Kodàly, Hindemith, Henze, Xenakis and Penderecki, which have assigned to the cello the role of incomparable leading actor in contemporary musical civilization as well.
And after more than two and a half centuries since Hubert Le Blanc’s gloomy vaticinium, the “poor devil” does not seem to be suffering any hunger at all. On the contrary, as Casals himself declared in 1957 to Time magazine, today “the cello is like a woman who with time does not become
older but younger, slender, light and graceful.” With good peace to poor Le Blanc.
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