Tomer Gewirtzman

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The Juilliard Schoolpresents

Leo B. Ruiz Memorial Award RecitalTomer Gewirtzman, Piano

Friday, November 30, 2018, 7:30pmWeill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall

DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH Prelude and Fugue in D Minor, Op. 87, No. 24(1906-75)

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Andante Favori in F Major, WoO 57 (1770-1827)

NIKOLAI MEDTNER Fairy Tale, Op. 51, No. 3 (1880-1951)

ALEXANDER SCRIABIN Sonata No. 2 in G-Sharp Minor, Op. 19 (1871-1915) Andante Presto

Three Études, Op. 65 Allegro Fantastico Allegretto Molto Vivace

Intermission

JOHANNES BRAHMS Sonata No. 3 in F Minor, Op. 5 (1833-97) Allegro maestoso Andante espressivo Scherzo – Allegro energico Intermezzo – Andante molto Finale – Allegro moderato ma rubato

Tomer Gewirtzman is the winner of the seventh annual Leo B. Ruiz Memorial Recital Award. This concert is made possible by the Artists International Leo B. Ruiz Recital Memorial Fund.

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Notes on the Program by Jay Goodwin

DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICHPrelude and Fugue in D Minor, Op. 87, No. 24

In 1950, in the midst of a frightening and uncertain time for Russian artists, Shostakovich traveled to Soviet-occupied Leipzig, where J.S. Bach had spent the last 27 years of his life and written an overflowing catalogue of masterpieces. The occasion was the Bicentennial Bach Competition, marking the 200th anniversary of the great composer’s death, and Shostakovich was an honored guest. In addition to the cumulative impact of being immersed in Bach’s music for an extended period, Shostakovich was profoundly inspired by the young Russian pianist Tatiana Nikolayeva, who won the competition on the strength of her complete performance of the 24 Preludes and Fugues of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier. Upon his return to Moscow, Shostakovich immediately set to work on his own set of 24 preludes and fugues—a companion pair in each of the major and minor keys, for a total of more than two-and-a-half hours of music—which poured out of him in just a few months’ time.

The D-Minor Prelude and Fugue are the work’s final two pieces and also the set’s most expansive, lasting some 12 minutes total. Somber and serious, they seem to wrestle with weighty subjects and project a great depth of feeling. The prelude begins quietly and largely remains so, mixing a hymnlike simplicity with whispered yearning, while the fugue expresses the same sentiments but with heightened urgency and at full voice. Anxious and increasingly desperate, it gains in intensity until reaching a denouement imbued with the sense of resentment and defiance that seems to radiate from much of Shostakovich’s music.

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVENAndante Favori in F Major, WoO 57

Despite its lack of an opus number, Beethoven’s Andante Favori was, in fact, published by the composer in 1805. In fact, its title—which translates to “Favored Andante”—reflects the work’s popularity, both in the form of sheet music and with attendees at Beethoven’s own recitals, in which he programmed it often. The work is a musical orphan, originally composed as the second movement of the famous “Waldstein” Sonata, but cast out in favor of a much shorter replacement that was less a standalone movement and more an ephemeral, atmospheric introductory section to the finale. Perhaps the change was made to reduce the prodigious length of the sonata, or perhaps it was for the sake of creating a more audacious, unconventional structure; in any case, Beethoven recognized the beauty and craftsmanship of his original andante movement and didn’t allow it to go to waste. In rondo form, the Andante Favori ventures farther afield harmonically as it goes through its series of variations, adding more and more embellishment to the musical themes, and more elaborate involvement from

Dmitri Shostakovich Born: September 25, 1906, in St. Petersburg, Russia Died: August 9, 1975, in Moscow, Russia

Ludwig van Beethoven Born: December 16, 1770, in Bonn, Germany Died: March 26, 1827, in Vienna, Austria

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Nikolai Medtner Born: January 5, 1880, in Moscow, Russia Died: November 13, 1951, in London, England

Alexander Scriabin Born: December 25, 1871, in Moscow, Russia Died: April 14, 1915, in Moscow, Russia

the left hand, along the way. Toward the end, Beethoven creates a gauzy, blurred sonority with extended use of the sustain pedal, a technique that also features prominently in the “Waldstein.”

NIKOLAI MEDTNERFairy Tale, Op. 51, No. 3

Russian composer Nikolai Medtner was a conservative artist, aligned in general philosophy with his friend Rachmaninoff and hostile to the various strains of modernism that transformed the musical landscape in the early 20th century. Like Rachmaninoff and their contemporary Scriabin, Medtner’s catalog is dominated by music for the piano, consisting principally of music for the instrument alone, but also including works for piano and orchestra as well as songs with piano accompaniment and chamber music with pianistic participation. And though there are elements of late-Romantic passion to be found in his music, it also incorporates Classical influences and Russian folk-music flavor. The latter is especially evident in his nearly 40 Skazki (“Fairy Tales” or, simply, “Tales”)—a diverse group of short works for solo piano written over a wide swath of Medtner’s career and published in collections of varying numbers of pieces. The Op. 51 set dates from 1928, by which time the composer had left Russia out of distaste for the Revolution and the new Bolshevik regime. The third piece in the set, an elegant number enlivened by a youthful exuberance, whirls about with the energy and rhythm of a jaunty yet dignified dance.

ALEXANDER SCRIABINSonata No. 2 in G-Sharp Minor, Op. 19; Three Études, Op. 65

One of music history’s most eccentric and colorful characters, Alexander Scriabin was intensely interested in philosophy, theosophy, mysticism, and metaphysics, and he thought of his music as a means of entering into, and delivering listeners to, a different spiritual realm. His ultimate ambition was to write a massive, ritualistic multimedia work entitled Mysterium—involving music, dance, chanted text, light, mist, incense, and audience participation—which would be performed in a custom-built temple in the Himalayas and would, upon its premiere, bring about an apocalypse, raising human beings to a higher plane. It is perhaps these incredible biographical details that have led to a fierce divide in posterity’s opinion of the composer, whose work has, over the years, been met with rapturous devotion and withering scorn in equal measures. The music, however, would be fascinating even if it were written by a more mundane personage. Beginning in his early years as a composer of vivid but relatively straightforward Romanticism, Scriabin eventually became one of the most innovative figures of the early 20th century, developing a uniquely haunting style all his own. Apart from a handful of significant orchestral works, his catalog consists almost

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exclusively of piano music, including dozens of miniatures as well as 10 sonatas that collectively represent his most significant artistic achievement.

Sonata No. 2 has its origins at the very beginning of Scriabin’s artistic maturity, with the first drafts dating from 1892, the year he graduated from the Moscow Conservatory. That was also the year that the composer first spent time on the open sea—the Baltic, specifically, as part of a visit to Riga, Latvia—and it was this experience that seems to have sparked his inspiration. He would continue to intermittently work on and revise the sonata for another five years, only finishing it after a sustained burst of effort in 1897—perhaps not coincidentally around the time he spent on the shores of the Black Sea during his honeymoon, in Odessa. Firmly rooted in the Romantic tradition of Chopin, Sonata No. 2 is one of Scriabin’s most accessible and beautiful works, enjoying more popularity in recital halls over the years than almost any of his other music. The piece is divided into two movements: an expansive and atmospheric Andante full of lush harmonies, softly rolling rhythms, and impressionistic touches, followed by a roiling Presto that builds to a thundering tempest. Both sections are evocations of the sea, and the composer himself left behind a description: “The first part evokes the quiet of a southern night by the seashore; in the development, we hear the somber agitation of the depths. The section in E Major represents the caress of moonlight which comes after the first dark of night. The second movement shows the vast expanse of ocean in stormy agitation.”

With the Three Études, Op. 65, completed in 1912, we move to the opposite end of Scriabin’s career—just three years before his premature death of septicemia at age 43. The music of this period is visionary, often nearly atonal, and full of fascinating sounds and textures that give the impression of delving into a previously unexplored musical realm. In these études, this exploratory style is compressed into miniature form. Intensely virtuosic, each of the pieces is based on a particular musical interval—ninths, sevenths, and fifths, respectively. Étude No. 1, particularly difficult to perform due to the wide interval it explores (Scriabin himself, though a gifted pianist, could not play it due to his smallish hands), begins the set by weaving spectral harmonies together with carnival-esque runs and rhythms to create a bewildering but compelling tapestry. The second étude, based on the particularly dissonant interval of a seventh, is nonetheless more relaxed and gentler on the ear than the first, chromatic but luxuriantly dreamy. The final piece concludes the set with a dramatic increase in volume and tension, pounding chords alternating with frantic bits of eddying passagework.

Notes on the Program Jay Goodwin (continued)

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JOHANNES BRAHMSSonata No. 3 in F Minor, Op. 5

On September 30, 1853, the 20-year-old Brahms knocked on the door of Robert and Clara Schumann in Düsseldorf. The young composer was sent to the Schumanns by the great violinist Joseph Joachim, who, having fully recognized Brahms’ genius, made introductions that allowed him to meet some of the leading musical figures in Germany at the time. It was as a result of this visit that Schumann wrote the famous article in the prominent journal Neue Zeitschrift für Musik in which he announced Brahms as music’s next great hope. Brahms arrived with several piano pieces and various works of chamber music, and over his monthlong stay, played through them for the older musicians. Schumann described the scene in his article:

Sitting at the piano, he proceeded to reveal to us wondrous regions. We were drawn into circles of ever deeper enchantment. His playing, too, was full of genius, and transformed the piano into an orchestra of wailing and jubilant voices. There were sonatas—rather veiled symphonies—songs, whose poetry one would understand without knowing the words; single pianoforte pieces, partly demoniacal, of the most graceful form; then sonatas for violin and piano; quartets for strings—and every one so different from the rest that each seemed to flow from a separate source.”

Sonata No. 3 is particularly tied to Brahms’ momentous visit to Düsseldorf, as drafts of the second and fourth movements were among the music he brought with him, and he managed to complete most of the remainder of the piece during the time he spent with the Schumanns, playing a preliminary version of the complete work for his astonished hosts before his departure. It is a staggering work, truly a “veiled symphony,” overwhelming in its ambition, scale, craftsmanship, and power. Though with the advantage of hindsight we know that, despite much effort, Brahms would not complete a symphony for nearly 25 more years, it is easy to understand when listening to the Third Sonata why Schumann—and soon all of musical Europe—were rushing to anoint him the successor to Beethoven, and assumed that Brahmsian symphonic masterpieces were just around the corner.

Like many of Brahms’s best works, Sonata No. 3 delivers a captivating combination of monumental grandeur and breathtakingly delicate lyricism, often over the span of just a few measures. This is evident from the outset, with the opening Allegro maestoso juxtaposing two principal ideas: a grand, funereal march and a quietly ruminative songlike theme. The expansive Andante espressivo that follows, a mesmerizing creation of quiet intensity that slowly builds to a rhapsodic outpouring of passion, is given a poetic headnote in the score, borrowing verse from Sternau: “Twilight falls, the moonlight shines / Two hearts are united in love / and keep themselves in bliss enclosed.” Sprinkled in for good measure are clear allusions to the slow movement from Beethoven’s “Pathétique” Sonata.

Johannes Brahms Born: May 7, 1833, in Hamburg, Germany Died: April 3, 1897, in Vienna, Austria

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Notes on the Program by Jay Goodwin (continued)

The Scherzo shows the young Brahms’ fiery side, delivering virtuosic cascading chords and explosive momentum, but always with a sense of playfulness. The fourth movement Intermezzo, given the title “Rückblick” (“Look back”), does just that, returning to some of the musical material of the Andante espressivo, though filtered through a more restless, ominous even, lens. Brahms perhaps also looks a good deal farther back, as Beethoven seems not far away here, with repeated short-short-short-long rhythmic cells that call to mind the iconic opening of the Fifth Symphony. The sonata then concludes with a tour-de-force Finale, returning to the fusion of dramatic sweep and intimate expressivity, ultimately giving into the former and concluding with an overpowering final section.

The Juilliard School is deeply grateful for a gift from the Estate of Leo B. Ruiz, which is making this evening’s recital possible. Leo B. Ruiz was founder and executive director of Artists International Presentations, Inc., a nonprofit organization that promoted exceptionally talented artists from all over the world from 1972 to 2009, including many musicians from Juilliard. Thanks to his passion for presenting young musicians to the world, and to his generous gift, Juilliard is able to award a debut recital at Weill Recital Hall to one gifted young artist each year. This evening’s program honors the legacy of Mr. Ruiz, a generous individual who had a great impact on the careers of many performing artists.

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Meet Tomer Gewirtzman

Pianist Tomer Gewirtzman’s performances with orchestra have taken him from Carnegie Hall (Bartók Concerto No. 3 with the Juilliard Orchestra, conducted by David Robertson) to Israel (Israel Philharmonic, Israel Symphony, Jerusalem Symphony, Israeli Chamber Orchestra, and New Haifa Symphony Orchestra) to St. Petersburg, Russia (Mariinsky Orchestra) to locations throughout the U.S. (Charlottesville Symphony, Symphony Silicon Valley, Aspen Concert Orchestra, Shreveport Symphony, North-West Florida Symphony, Bucks County Symphony, and South Arkansas Symphony). He won first prize and five performance prizes at the 2015 Young Concert Artists International Auditions and gave recital debuts on the YCA series in New York and Washington, D.C. He has also appeared in recital at Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Queens College’s Aaron Copland School of Music, Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts, Saint Vincent College, Buffalo Chamber Music Society, Harvard Musical Association, Harriman-Jewell Series, Virginia Arts Festival, London’s Steinway Hall, and Salle Cortot of the École Normale in Paris. He has played with Nikolai Petrov's Kremlin Festival throughout Russia, Italy’s International Academy of Music, Belgium’s Musica Mundi Chamber Music Festival, Germany’s Usedom Music Festival, and the Bravo! Vail, Yellowbarn, Aspen Music, PianoFest and PianoTexas Festivals. He received first prize at Louisiana’s Wideman International Piano Competition, Aspen Music Festival Concerto Competition, and Tel Aviv’s Chopin Competition for Young Pianists, the piano prize and audience prize at the America-Israel Cultural Foundation's Aviv Competition, and first prize and a special prize for a commissioned piece at Israel’s Clairmont Competition. He also received top prizes at the New York International Keyboard Institute Festival Piano Competition, Greece’s Arte Con Anima Piano Competition, and Poland’s International Baltic Piano Competition. Gewirtzman’s early music studies were at Haifa’s Rubin Conservatory. He served in the Israeli Defense Forces in the Outstanding Musician program, where he combined regular military service with extensive university music studies. He completed his bachelor’s degree at Tel Aviv’s Buchmann-Mehta School of Music in the studio of Arie Vardi, and he earned his master’s and artist diploma at Juilliard, where he worked with Sergei Babayan, won the Concerto Competition, and received a Kovner Fellowship. This season, Gewirtzman gives numerous performances and educational residences as a fellow of Ensemble Connect, a program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute in partnership with the New York City Department of Education.

Photo by Christian Steiner

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