For Tickets and More: sfperformances.org | 415.392.2545 | 1

present…

ALVARO PIERRI | Guitar  

Friday, December 1, 2017 | 7:30pmHerbst Theatre

RODRIGO Sonata a la Española Allegro assai Adagio Allegro moderato

BOGDANOVIC Jazz Sonatina Allegro grazioso Adagio espressivo Allegro molto

BARRIOS País de Abanico  Barcarola Una limosna por el amor de Dios

GINASTERA El árbol del olvido Sonata for Guitar Esordio Scherzo Canto Finale

INTERMISSION

+

2 | For Tickets and More: sfperformances.org | 415.392.2545

LLOBET Preludio & Canción

VILLA-LOBOS Twelve Studies for guitar 1. Allegro non troppo 2. Allegro 3. Allegro moderato 4. Un peu moderé 5. Andantino 6. Poco allegro 7. Trés animé 8. Moderé 9. Trés peu animé 10. Trés animé 11. Lent & più mosso  12. Animé

Photographing or recording performances is strictly forbidden.

Alvaro Pierri is represented by Lang ProductionsHoernesgasse 4/6, A-1030, Vienna, Austria tel: +43 1 713 0904

ARTIST PROFILE

San Francisco Performances presents Alvaro Pierri for the second time. He made his SF Performances recital debut in 2015. In 2013, the OMNI Foundation for the Performing Arts presented his San Francisco recital debut.

Alvaro Pierri is internationally ac-claimed as a leading personality in the world of the guitar. Press reviews around the world praise “his breathtaking phrasing” ... “his masterly thought-out interpretations” ... “his phenomenal and brilliant technique” ... and “the unmatched musical colour spectrum that he creates on the guitar.”

Since his brilliant concert debut in New York and his debut in Germany with the string soloists of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Alvaro Pierri has been a regu-lar guest at major concert halls in Europe, North and South America and Asia. He has appeared worldwide on radio and televi-sion programs (as soloist but also together with artists like Frank Peter Zimmermann, Astor Piazzolla, Charles Dutoit and major orchestras) produced by stations including Deutscher Rundfunk, PBS New York, CBC Canada, Radio France, NHK Japan, KBS Ko-rea, and Chinese Radios.

Alvaro Pierri performs regularly with outstanding musicians, ensembles and or-chestras. He shared the stage with artists including Charles Dutoit and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Astor Piazzolla and the WDR Radio Orchestra Köln with Pin-chas Steinberg, Yannick Nezet-Séguin, CBC Radio Orchestra with Mario Bernardi,

For Tickets and More: sfperformances.org | 415.392.2545 | 3

Pierri, the composer Guido Santorsola, Abel Carlevaro and at the Uruguayan Na-tional Institute of Musicology. From the age of 11 he was already performing in con-certs and receiving awards and first prizes in international guitar competitions.

In recognition of his outstanding artis-tic talent and career and his permanent en-riching contribution to the culture, 2008 Alvaro Pierri was appointed as honorary citizen of his hometown Montevideo.

PROGRAM NOTES

Sonata a la Española

JOAQUÍN RODRIGOBorn November 22, 1901, SaguntoDied July 6, 1999, Madrid

The Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo was born in 1901 on the name day of the patron saint of music, Saint Cecelia. At the age of three he lost his sight almost com-pletely as a result of an epidemic of diph-theria. As he himself was later to affirm, this event undoubtedly led to his dedica-tion to music. Rodrigo wrote all his works in braille, dictating them subsequently to a copyist. The music of Joaquín Rodrigo is an homage to the rich and varied cultures of Spain. No other Spanish composer has drawn on so many different aspects of his country’s spirit as sources of inspiration,

from the history of Roman Spain to the work of contemporary poets.

Sonata a la Española was composed in 1969 and has three movements. The first of these, Allegro assai, sets a comic theme against mocking repeated chords played with a nasal sound. The second, Adagio, has an introspective theme centered on the lower strings of the guitar accompanied by Rodrigo’s expressively dissonant added note chords. The final Allegro moderato, characterized by its flamenco rasgueado al-ternating with solo melodic lines, is based on the Spanish bolero, a traditional dance descended from elements of the Spanish sevillanas and contradanza.

Jazz Sonatina

DUSAN BOGDANOVICBorn 1955, Serbia

Active as a composer, guitarist and improviser, Dusan Bogdanovic has ex-plored a unique synthesis of classical, jazz, and ethnic music. He studied com-position and orchestration at the Geneva Conservatory with Alberto Ginastera, received the only first prize offered to a guitarist at the Geneva Competition in 1975, and gave a highly acclaimed debut recital in Carnegie Hall in 1977. He cur-rently divides his time between compos-ing, teaching at the Geneva Conserva-tory, and concertizing.

London Chamber Orchestra, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Vasco Vassilev, Ernö Sebe-styen, Turtle Island String Quartet, Ysaÿe Quartet, and others.

Contemporary composers such as Leo Brouwer, Guido Santorsola, Jacques Hétu, Abel Carlevaro, Carlo Domeniconi, and Dusan Bogdanovic have written major works for Alvaro Pierri.

Several of his CDs have been honored with prizes like the coveted Canadian FE-LIX award for the best classical CD of the year. Recently Pioneer Classics Japan issued a DVD featuring Spanish and South Ameri-can guitar music, and Deutsche Grammo-phon re-published a DVD of Alvaro Pierri performing in duo with Astor Piazzolla.

Alvaro Pierri is also a worldwide ac-claimed teacher. He was professor at the University of Santa Maria in Brazil and later at McGill University and the UQAM (Acad-emy of Music) in Montreal, Canada. In 2002 he was appointed professor at the presti-gious Academy of Music in Vienna (today University of Music and Performing Arts). He gives master classes at major music fes-tivals such as the New York Manhattan Mas-ters, Guitar Foundation of America (GFA), the Mozarteum Summer Academy in Salz-burg, Vienna Masterclasses, Villa Musica, and in Sao Paulo, Tokyo, Osaka, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seoul, and other major cities.

Alvaro Pierri was born in Montevideo in Uruguay, into a family of musicians. He studied among others with his aunt Olga

562 sutter street san francisco, ca 94102 tel 415.433.4434 res 800.433.4434 thehotelrex.comhotel rex is a joie de vivre hotel.

All Performances are on Wednesdays from 6:30 – 7:30 p.m.

Hotel Rex is Proud to Host theSan Francisco Performances

2017–18 Salon Series

October 18 Adam Shulman Trio

November 1 Toni Marie Palmertree, soprano Ronnie Michael Greenberg, piano

November 15 Jennifer Kloetzel, cello

January 31 Alexander String Quartet Meraki String Quartet

415-242-4500 omniconcerts.com236 West Portal Ave. #1, San Francisco, CA 94127

The Omni Foundation Guitar Series is made possible in part by generous grants from the D’Addario MusicFoundation and Grants for the Arts/S.F. Hotel Tax Fund.

YAMANDU COSTAOctober 18, 2017 7:30 pm

Herbst Theatre

JASON VIEAUX – guitarJULIEN LABRO – bandoneonOctober 20, 2017 7:30 pm Herbst Theatre *

IRINA KULIKOVANovember 11, 2017 7:30 pm

St. Mark’s Lutheran Church *

ALVARO PIERRIDecember 1, 2017 7:30 pm

Herbst Theatre *

LEO KOTTKEFebruary 2, 2018 7:30 pm

Herbst Theatre

ELIOT FISK andANGEL ROMEROMarch 10, 2018 7:30 pm

Herbst Theatre * * In association with San Francisco Performances

Alvaro Pierri

Yamandu Costa Shin-ichi FukudaEliot Fisk Badi Assad Andrea De Vitis

GRISHA GORYACHEV& ANDREA DE VITIS

D’ADDARIO PERFORMANCE SERIESMarch 24, 2018 7:30 pm

Green Room

SHIN-ICHI FUKUDAApril 7, 2018 7:30 pm

St. Mark’s Lutheran Church

DYNAMITE GUITARS2nd Edition

April 21, 2018 7:30 pm

Herbst Theatre

PAUL O’DETTEApril 28, 2018 7:30 pm

St. Mark’s Lutheran Church *

For Tickets and More: sfperformances.org | 415.392.2545 | 5

The Jazz Sonatina written in 1993, is a three movement work. The first, Allegro grazioso, features an asymmetric melody with con-stantly shifting meters that inexorably drive forward accompanied by extended jazz har-monies. Adagio espressivo is a meditative pas-sacaglia suffused with polyrhythms of three or five against two or four. Allegro molto, in a meter of 4+3+2+3, alternates a low and growl-ing melody accompanied by percussive taps on the guitar with a treble elaboration of the melody accompanied by quartal harmonies, and reaches its culmination in a majestic and expressive slowing of the tempo.

País de Abanico BarcarolaUna limosna por el amor de Dios

AGUSTÍN PÍO BARRIOS Born May 5, 1885, Misiones Department, ParaguayDied August 7, 1944, San Salvador

The Paraguayan guitar virtuoso Agustín Barrios was a romantic composer who tried to capture the pure essence of emo-tion in his music. Everyday life seemed dull, repressed and overly rational to the romantics who felt it could be transcended only through heightened emotional ex-pression. They idealized romantic love, wore odd clothes and led irregular lives that were frowned upon in their time as Bohemian. Barrios saw himself as a broth-er of the medieval troubadours; undergo-ing an artistic journey through life, suffer-ing a romantic madness, but inspired by destiny. He wrote:

I am dancing in a mad whirlwindto the four corners of the planet!I carry in my blood a restless life,and in my pilgrimage, uncertain and wandering,Art lights up my pathas if it were a fantastic comet!

The motif of a woman holding a fan was popular among artists in the early twen-tieth century and inspired paintings by Matisse and Picasso among others. País de Abanico can mean either the “country of the fan” or the “fabric of a fan,” and Bar-rios’ composition captures the whimsical and melancholy atmosphere of a courtship in a refined salon. Julia Florida (Barcarola) is a portrait of the young daughter of one Barrios’ patrons and a supremely romantic work reminiscent of Chopin. Una limosna por el amor de Dios, with its shifting har-

monies and tremolo melody, captures the poignant sadness behind a homeless beg-gars refrain, “Alms for the love of God.”

El árbol del olvido Sonata for GuitarALBERTO GINASTERABorn April 11, 1916, Buenos AiresDied June 25, 1983, Geneva

Born to Argentine parents of Catalan and Italian descent, Alberto Ginastera has created music that combines a sure sense of Argentina’s indigenous roots with a total mastery of twentieth-century Euro-pean musical technique. His plaintive Can-ción al árbol del olvido or Song of the Tree of Forgetfulness tells, with an obsessive habanera rhythm, of the impossibility of ending thoughts of lost love.

Ginastera’s Sonata for Guitar, Opus 47 has been widely recognized as one of the fin-est pieces ever written for the instrument and has become a staple in the 20th cen-tury guitar repertoire. With its sharp con-trasts, sudden accents, syncopations, Latin American dance rhythms, wide palette of color and a strong formal structure Gin-astera’s use of folk material goes beyond quotation to affect every aspect of this mu-sic. The first movement, Esordio (Solenne) features both declamatory and songlike musical ideas. The former is marked by big chords; the latter is punctuated by insis-tent percussive sounds. The second move-ment, a witty Scherzo (Fantastico), features extreme contrasts of texture and volume, single note and chordal glissandi, and Bar-tok pizzicati. A relentlessly kaleidoscopic movement, it is occasionally interrupted by free passages out of tempo, the last of which is rudely dismissed, as if to remind us that this is, after all, a scherzo. The fol-lowing Canto (Rapsodico) is in complete contrast, a passionate love song, chromatic and improvisatory, with numerous chang-es of rhythm, dynamics and tone color. The spectacular Finale (Presto e fogoso) is a rondo in breathless celebration of rhythms that come directly from the pre-Colombian folklore of the Argentine pampas.

Preludio & Canción

MIGUEL LLOBETBorn October 18, 1878, BarcelonaDied February 22, 1938, Barcelona

The Catalonian composer, performer, arranger and teacher Miguel Llobet was

student of Francisco Tárrega, a profound influence on Andrés Segovia, and one of the most influential guitarists of the early twentieth century. The dedicatee of Manu-el de Falla’s Homenaje pour le Tombeau de De-bussy, his best know works are his arrange-ments of Catalan folk songs and Granados’s La Maja de Goya and Spanish Dances 5 and 10, and recent years have seen renewed in-terest in his original compositions. He has composed many Preludios and Canciones.

Twelve Studies for guitar

HEITOR VILLA-LOBOSBorn March 5, 1887, Rio de JaneiroDied November 17, 1959, Rio de Janeiro

The great Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos was also a guitarist who wrote with both knowledge and love of the instrument. As a boy he played the guitar in street bands, at weddings, car-nivals, cafes and theaters. As a young man he became fascinated with the music of Brazil’s indigenous people and, a noto-rious fabulist, claimed to have joined a scientific expedition that canoed up the Amazon river in order to learn the music, instruments and ceremonial rites of the Indian tribes in the area. Although he went to Paris in 1923 “not to study, but to show what I have accomplished,” the tex-tures and harmonic practices of the mu-sic of Debussy and his contemporaries made a profound impression on him. The ensuing music of Villa-Lobos is a fasci-nating combination of European classi-cism, Brazilian popular, and indigenous Indian music.

In 1929 the great Spanish guitarist An-drés Segovia inspired the set of Twelve Etudes for guitar of which he wrote, “while the perceptive student of the instrument notes with gratitude the strength, flex-ibility and independence which these pieces confer on his fingers, the artist who plays or listens to them admires the nobility, the inventiveness, the grace and the poetic feeling they irradiate in rich measure.” Since its first publication in 1953 the Twelve Etudes for guitar have been valued as a major contribution to the repertoire. In the late 1990’s Villa-Lobos’ handwritten 1929 manuscript with more meticulous markings and multiple differ-ences was discovered and subsequently published and has greatly altered guitar-ists’ approach to the work.

—Notes by Scott Cmiel