Chamber Music New Zealand presentsAnderson & Roe Piano Duo

Mozart / Anderson & Roe: Grand Scherzo (based on the Finale to Act I from “Così fan tutte”, K. 588)

Stravinsky: Part I: The Adoration of the Earth from “Le Sacre du printemps”

Anderson & Roe: Hallelujah Variations (Variations on a Theme by Leonard Cohen)

Schoenfield: Boogie from “Five Days from the Life of a Manic-Depressive”

Interval

Piazzolla / Anderson & Roe: Oblivion; Primavera Porteña; Libertango

Brahms / Anderson & Roe: Wiegenlied: Good Evening, Good Night, op. 49, no. 4

Bernstein / Anderson & Roe: West Side Story Suite

10 March, 7.30pm Auckland Town Hall11 March, 5pm Gallagher Academy Hamilton13 March, 7.30pm Theatre Royal New Plymouth14 March, 7.30pm Globe Theatre Palmerston North15 March, 7.30pm MTG Century Theatre Napier17 March, 7.30pm Michael Fowler Centre Wellington18 March, 6pm Old St John's Church Nelson20 March, 7.30pm The Piano Christchurch22 March, 7.30pm Glenroy Auditorium Dunedin23 March, 7.30pm Civic Theatre Invercargill

*The Artists reserve the right to make changes to the programmeProgramme notes written by Sarah Chesney. Notes include adaptations of copy written by Anderson and Roe.

Kia ora tātou

It is a pleasure to welcome Greg Anderson and Elizabeth Joy Roe to Aotearoa on their first tour for Chamber Music New Zealand.

A couple of years ago, I overheard the musicians of The Egmont Trio talking about Anderson & Roe. They whetted my curiosity and, at the first opportunity, I looked them up on YouTube. I was immediately hooked.

What I loved was first, their virtuosity and engaging musicianship, but also their ability to find ways of projecting the character of the music that they perform.

They are witty, charming and communicative. Yet, they are also utterly committed to the music that they perform, whether that is Mozart, Bernstein or Leonard Cohen. These concerts are going to be pure fun – and musically satisfying.

This is the beginning of CMNZ’s 2018 season. If you haven’t already looked at the other concerts that we’re offering this year, I urge you to do so and to think about converting tonight’s concert into the first element in a subscription package. Never before have I felt so confident that we have a line-up of great artists and a really enticing variety of ensemble types and styles. The CMNZ 2018 season is like a year-long festival – high quality and with a wide and diverse appeal.

The Anderson & Roe tour is being supported by VOICE Brand Agency who are new national touring partners. They are doing great things for us – our new brand identity is an exciting start – and you’ll see more of our work together as the year goes on.

Enjoy the concert.Peter Walls

Chief Executive

Music Up Close | Chamber Music New Zealand

ANDERSON & ROE PIANO DUOKnown for their adrenalized performances, original compositions, and notorious music videos, Greg Anderson & Elizabeth Joy Roe are revolutionising the piano duo experience for the 21st century. Described as “the most dynamic duo of this generation” (San Francisco Classical Voice), “rock stars of the classical music world” (Miami Herald), and “the very model of complete 21st-century musicians” (The Washington Post), the Anderson & Roe Piano Duo aims to make classical music a relevant and powerful force around the world.

Their albums on the Steinway Label (When Words Fade, An Amadeus Affair, and The Art of Bach) were released to critical acclaim and have spent dozens of weeks at the top of the Billboard Classical Charts, while their Emmy-nominated, self-produced music videos have been viewed by millions on YouTube and at international film festivals.

Since forming their dynamic musical partnership in 2002 as students at The Juilliard School, Anderson & Roe have toured extensively worldwide as recitalists and orchestral soloists, presented at numerous international leader symposiums, and appeared on MTV, PBS, NPR, and the BBC. A live performance by Anderson & Roe was hand-picked to appear on the Sounds of Juilliard CD celebrating the school’s centenary.

Highlights of the 2017/18 season include concerts throughout North America (including their Kennedy Center debut), Europe, Asia, and New Zealand; concerto appearances with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, and Rochester Philharmonic; the release of their latest album, Mother Muse; and webcast hosting for the 15th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

Summary everal of the works you will hear tonight are arrangements of dances or dramas, emphasising the physical nature of piano

performance and the capacity of highly theatrical music to upstage traditional genre boundaries. The farcical characterisation of Mozart’s finale to “Cosi fan tutte”, the opening Grand Scherzo, is a perfect example. Likewise, many of the composers represented tonight are celebrated for their expertise in knitting diverse genres and musical perspectives together.

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This sense of transcendence – of styles, forms, eras, and timbres – extends to the meanings imbued in several works. The variations based on Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” encourage us to meditate on the composition of the word hallelujah itself; its syllables, sounds, and sensibility. By the same token, Brahms “Wiegenlied”, or Lullaby awakens similar sentiments of adoration and reflection.

The poignant simplicity of Brahms melody-driven song provides respite after three dances, each powerfully evocative in different ways. Igor Stravinsky’s ballet “The Rite of Spring” stretched musical timbres and shunned graceful ballet techniques. The composer’s own arrangement for four hands harness all the raw emotional drive of the original. Paul Schoenfield’s “Boogie” from “Five Days from the Life of a Manic-Depressive” epitomises the American composer’s skilful blend of styles and calls for dazzling virtuosity to depict the powerful contrasts of a manic mind. Then, the frenzied and intoxicating tangos by Astor Piazzolla transfer the physical closeness of the dance floor to the piano keys. Leonard Bernstein – who would have turned 100 this year – composed the final work on the programme. The “West Side Story Suite”, is also based on a ballet (via the acclaimed musical) and describes an ultimately tragic sequence of events. New York’s star-crossed lovers were never destined for a happy ending; Maria and Tony’s melodies – as vivid and gripping as ever in this piano arrangement – provide a flourishing finale.

Mozart / Anderson & RoeGrand ScherzoAll the wit and vigour of Mozart’s opera “Cosi fan tutte” distilled for the piano – six characters, one keyboard.

Mozart’s operas undoubtedly contain some of his most astonishing music. Today, piano students are constantly reminded to play Mozart’s piano music as if it was an opera scene filled with dramatic characters. The Grand Scherzo sees the duo truly sink their fingers into Mozart’s glorious opera literature.

The finale to Act I of “Cosi fan tutte” is at once humorous, dramatic, romantic, and scandalous. Here, two men, in disguise, venture to test their fiancée’s faithfulness: Guglielmo, the lover of Fiordiligi, attempts to seduce her sister Dorabella, while Ferrando, the lover of Dorabella, pursues Fiordiligi – a fiancée swapping of sorts. The women reject their advances, and the finale begins when the men burst into the room and poison themselves. A bogus doctor soon arrives, reviving the scheming men using a large magnet. Conscious, but hallucinating, Guglielmo and Ferrando demand a kiss from the ‘goddesses’ who stand before them. Although the sisters are tempted, they furiously refuse the men’s comical advances. This arrangement captures the essence of the scene in a highly pianistic and Mozartean manner. The score is re-imagined as a playful exchange between two pianists. Performed on one piano, Elizabeth plays the roles of Fiordiligi, Dorabella, and Despina (the sisters’ maid and doctor-in-disguise), and Greg takes the roles of Guglielmo, Ferrando, and Don Alfonso (an old philosopher and friend of the men).

StravinskyPart I: The Adoration of the Earth from “Le Sacre du printemps” In 1913, as today, Stravinsky’s ballet is, as the critic Louis Viullemin declared, “an admirable force of rhythm and life, of movement. A violence that delights in magnificent frenzy.”

A defining work of the 20th century,Igor Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” remains as startling and powerful as ever. Over a century after its legendary 1913 premiere in Paris sparked an uproar, its savage rhythms and harmonic daring continue to electrify audiences.

Narrating a pagan tribe’s rituals and sacrifices to the gods of spring, the piece culminates with the offering of a young virgin who dances herself to death. At its core, “The Rite of Spring” is about primitive instincts and emotions, from the brooding omens at the work’s opening to the terrifying abandon of “Dancing Out of the Earth” heard at the conclusion to Part I. This work symbolises the tumultuous socio-political climate of the early twentieth century, perhaps explaining why the work retains such fierce impact today. Furthermore, the music suggests rites that are universal to human experience: the loss of innocence, the poignancy of discovery, the claiming (or reclaiming) of personal liberation. “The Rite of Spring” transformed the face of culture, and Stravinsky’s version for four hands

brilliantly displays the music’s clashing dissonances, percussive edge, and overwhelming force.

Anderson & RoeHallelujah Variations“Hallelujah”, as Leonard Cohen describes it, suggests a moment of introspection among these uplifting and winding variations.

A 1984 cult classic, Leonard Cohen’s most well-known song is a meditation on the elusive nature of love and the search for atonement. The lyrics are emotionally complex, and the meaning of “hallelujah” itself seems to shift throughout the song. Alternating between despair, yearning, ecstasy, and praise, “Hallelujah” emerges as a call that is not solely religious, but profoundly human. Cohen himself called it the “moment when you embrace [all the irreconcilable conflicts of life] and you say, ‘Look, I don't understand a thing at all—Hallelujah!’”This experience, and the almost otherworldly transcendence amid human struggle that Beethoven and Schubert unearthed in their late works, influenced our variations. As a nod to the elliptical nature of the song, the eight variations are structured as four pairs. Unusually, the clearest statement of the theme follows the chorale-like Variation 1. Variations 3 and 4 bustle away from the harmonic progressions of the original song. The serpentine configurations in the third set of variations evoke Schubert’s idiomatic four-hand piano

writing. The concluding two variations are expansive in structure and mood; they meander, then build toward a rapturous conclusion.

Schoenfield / Anderson & Roe Boogie from “Five Days from the Life of a Manic-Depressive”The extravagance and virtuosity of “Boogie”, crossing folk, jazz, and dance styles and adding grand Romantic gestures, means Schoenfield’s music exhilarates.

“Boogie”, the fifth and final movement of Paul Schoenfield’s “Five Days from the Life of a Manic-Depressive”, aptly evokes an agitated, obsessive battle between highs and lows. The bass and treble lines work seamlessly together, yet each line seemingly disrupts a regular rhythmic or melodic pattern from taking shape. This constant sense of development and novelty thrills the ears.

Schoenfield, a former concert pianist, teaches composition in his hometown, Detroit, at the University of Michigan. Jazz, folk music, and dance styles (as the movement’s title suggests) influence the award-winning composer. His ability to combine genres, and the relentless energy and sparkle his music channels, has seen Schoenfield frequently compared to Gershwin. At the same time, the glissandi, rapid passages across the piano’s range, and dramatic, heavy chords recall the virtuosity of late-Romantic piano concerti – an era in

which the pianist-composer Robert Schumann also famously expressed his mania and split personalities as musical characters. In “Boogie”, the performers must prove their immense technical dexterity performing the rapid harmonic and metrical shifts on one piano with musicality and flair.

Piazzolla / Anderson & RoeOblivionPrimavera PorteñaLibertangoLet the unmistakable tango rhythms whisk you away to Argentina. Piazzolla’s trio of tangos display the variety within the genre, each piece expressing a distinctive mood.

Tango and piano duo performance share racing heartbeats, physicality, and chemistry.

This transcription of Astor Piazzolla’s irresistible melodies for four hands at one piano aims to emulate the physical choreography of tango dancers, the sonic textures of a tango band, and, most importantly, the emotional spirit of

the tango.

All three of these tangos — the spicy and sassy “Primavera,” the smoky, sultry “Oblivion,” and the raw and risqué “Libertango” — incorporate extended piano techniques as a metaphor for the tango’s forays into forbidden territory. Four-hand playing already hints at an

intrinsic eroticism, but these tangos dare to raise the heat and intensity to another level: the duo boldly invade one another’s personal space, while also exploring regions of the piano that typically remain unseen. The effect is at once sensual, visceral, and highly dramatic. Certainly, the tango remains one of the most passionate and intimate forms of dance. It inspires a surrendering of the mundane to a world of heightened awareness and experience. These three pieces will take you on a riveting ride; lose yourself to the music’s pounding aggression, then a haze of unconsciousness, and, finally, to the precipice of desire.

Brahms / Anderson & RoeWiegenlied: Good Evening, Good Night, op. 49, no. 4“Lay thee down now and rest, may thy slumber be blessed.” Brahms Lullaby exemplifies the soothing effect of a sweet melody.

Brahms sent the manuscript of his Wiegenlied, or Cradle Song, “Good Evening, Good Night”, to his Viennese friends Bertha and Arthur Faber on the birth of their second son in 1868. Brahms noted on the title page that the piece was intended “for cheery and general-purpose use”.

Popularly known as Brahms Lullaby, it delighted listeners and amateur musicians when it was published later that year. Brahms, often considered a serious, symphonic composer, was now heard in homes across Europe. The

Lullaby’s text comes from the folk tale collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Youth’s Magic Horn), well-known to nineteenth-century German speakers. Fittingly, the piece’s accompaniment adopts an Austrian folksong that Bertha, herself a singer, had introduced to Brahms years earlier.

The lullaby sweetly conjures memories of comfort. One of the most beloved lullabies around the world, it also happens to be a song the duo’s mothers sang to them during their earliest years. This arrangement aims to capture the shift from wakefulness to dreamland, the repeating patterns evoking the oscillations of mobile over an infant’s crib.

Bernstein / Anderson & RoeWest Side Story SuiteThe Sharks or the Jets? Enter the musical landscape of New York’s gang scene, infused with jazz idioms and Latin rhythms.

The drama and tunes of Leonard Bernstein’s much-loved musical West Side Story – from the playful to the tragic – abound in this arrangement for two pianos. The musical reinvents Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, tackling the social issue of rival gangs in New York City.

At a local dance, Tony falls in love with Maria. The pair are caught up in a fight between Riff, Tony’s best friends and the leader of the Jets (an established gang) and Bernardo, Maria’s brother and the leader of a new Puerto

Rican gang, the Sharks. After both Riff and Bernardo die, Maria tries to send a message to Tony via Anita, Bernardo’s girlfriend. Gang violence and revenge cause Tony’s death before he and Maria can reunite. Bernstein collaborated with writer Arthur Laurents and choreographer Jerome Robbins, producing the work over nearly eight years to premiere in 1957. In 1995, Robbins adapted the musical for ballet, as West Side Story Suite. The music captures key scenes and moods, from the permeating “Maria” theme and “Tonight” (the balcony scene) to the percussive “Mambo” and edgy “The Rumble”.