Recital: Brian Zhang Le '22 MM, Piano

Ludwig van Beethoven | Piano Sonata No. 28 in A Major, op. 101

Allegretto, ma non troppo
Vivace alla Marcia
Adagio, ma non troppo, con affetto
Allegro

Program note

By the time Ludwig van Beethoven composed his Sonata in A Major, op. 101 in 1816, he was already completely deaf. Yet the last decade of his life also contained some of his most important contributions to music, including the Missa Solemnis and Ninth Symphony. By his "late period", Beethoven had totally mastered the art of musical architecture, and his Sonata Op. 101 was a breakthrough in the traditional Sonata form, an ingenious act of experimentation.
        Like much of Beethoven’s music, the driving motivation behind this Sonata is a sense of overcoming. Beethoven once described his occupation as a "philosopher", and despite his turbulent life, was a believer in humanism. Pianist Mitsuko Uchida aptly described the opening of his Fourth Piano Concerto as "stuck in hell, but looking up at heaven", and such a description is also fitting for the opening of this Sonata: beginning with a question, then answered with another question, and then another question. Despite the idyllic beauty and simplicity of the first movement, it is nevertheless constantly searching, dissatisfied, and unresolved. In fact, despite this Sonata being in "A" Major, we don't experience a true A Major cadence until over two-thirds through the first movement. 
        The second movement— "like a march"— laughs at the philosophical questioning of the first. It is a joyously unrelenting spirit that bounces around tonalities, at one point taking reprieve in the foreign key of D-flat Major. Yet the movement is not a fantasy; we are subconsciously reminded of reality in the constant dissonances and unique passing tones. In the middle of the movement is a nostalgic, idyllic duet that seems to summarize Beethoven's love towards nature: "How happy I am to be able to wander under trees and over rocks; no man can love the country as I love it."
        The third movement removes all facades. It is Beethoven at his most vulnerable, face-to-face with his existence. After this deep wandering, we miraculously find our way back to E Major, the dominant key, and then— to the familiar tune of the first movement! And this paves the way for the finale, marked und mit Entschlossenheit — "with determination". It provides closure to the harrowing unease of the third movement, and Beethoven hones in our ears the singular motif that survives anything that it faces, including a fugue that tests it to unbelievable limits. The motif is thus humanity's indomitable will, and the Sonata ends in total triumph.

Béla Bartók | Out of Doors

With Drums and Pipes      
Barcarolla
Musettes
The Night’s Music              
The Chase

Program note

Béla Bartók's "Out of Doors" suite, composed in 1926, is a programmatic collection of music that reflects Hungarian nature and peasant life.
        The first piece, "With Drums and Pipes", is an exuberant village dance and incorporates the folk melodies that Bartók heavily researched and revered. Of folk music, he said, "peasant music...is impulsively created by a community of men who have had no schooling; it is as much a natural product as are the various forms of animal and vegetable life. For this reason, the...tunes...are so many examples of high artistic perfection." The second piece depicts boat songs between Venetian gondolas swaying in the waters, at one point being caught in a summer thunderstorm, and if you listen closely, mosquitos. The third piece portrays poorly tuned bagpipes— "musettes"— played by street musicians, who finally get a tune going towards the end.       
        The fourth piece, the longest and Bartók's favorite of the set, paints a summer night in the Hungarian peasant fields, complete with cicadas, Hungarian Unka frogs, and night birds. A few minutes into the piece, we hear the distant sounds of church bells and the insomniac peasant improvising tunes on his flute. Towards the end of the piece, the sun begins to rise and the sounds fade away. The fifth piece, "The Chase", begins with a bang, and we are suddenly whisked into a horse chase through the forest. It is a close and dramatic chase, with deception, twists and turns, but the chased ultimately emerges victor, having outwitted his chaser.

Franz Liszt | Sonata in B Minor, S. 178

Program note

Franz Liszt's single-movement Piano Sonata, written from before 1849 until 1853, is arguably the most important post-Beethoven Sonata in the musical canon and Liszt's biggest contribution to the piano repertoire. Lasting approximately 30 minutes, it is a heroic tale of epic proportions. Although today considered a defining work of the Romantic era, it was met with gross opposition during its time. Clara Schumann, whose husband Robert was the Sonata's dedicatee, said, "This is nothing but blind noise, not a single healthy idea...and now I still have to thank him! It's really awful." The famous music critic Eduard Hanslick wrote, "anyone who has heard it and finds it beautiful is beyond help."
        Although no surviving evidence exists for the meaning of the Sonata, it certainly contains programmatic elements. Liszt was, controversially, a champion of program music—music that depicted something extra-musical. Between 1848-1858, Liszt wrote 13 symphonic poems (which he invented) for orchestra, depicting various tales, from the titan Prometheus' theft of fire from the gods, to the story of Orpheus. The most convincing legend to have inspired the Sonata is Goethe's Faust: a story of a man who is constantly striving to learn everything there is to know, but is dissatisfied with the finite learnings of the world. On the brink of suicide, he makes a deal with Mephistopheles, the devil's representative, that he will serve the devil forever in hell for a moment of transcendence on Earth. With the help of Mephisto, Faust seduces the woman he loves - Gretchen - who ultimately dies because of him. After taming the world and the gods, Faust achieves the moment of transcendence and Mephisto nearly captures his soul, but the angels intercede after Gretchen intervenes and God's grace is touched by Faust's constant striving. At the end, his soul is carried up towards heaven.
        Another legend which may have inspired part of the Sonata is the story of Orpheus: a divinely talented musician and archetype of the true romantic who ventures into the underworld to recover his lost wife, Eurydice. In this legend, his music is so beautiful that even Hades himself weeps, and he allows Eurydice to return with Orpheus as long as Orpheus does not turn around. But only a few feet away from exiting the underworld, Orpheus still does not hear Eurydice's footsteps and looks back, having lost his only chance to recover her. 
        Ultimately, Liszt wrote that the purpose of program music was not to adhere to any particular narrative, but instead "take effect on imagination and emotion, independent of any program". Thus, a listener of the Liszt Sonata must not confine his imagination to one storyline, but invite the music to craft his feelings and guide him through the tale of torture, heroism, anguish, love, and grace.