Recital: Sunmin Kim '23, Piano

Johann Sebastian Bach | Prelude and Fugue No. 16 in G Minor, BWV 885 from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2

Program note

The Well-Tempered Clavier consists of two sets of 24 preludes and fugues for solo keyboard by Johann Sebastian Bach. Although these sets were written for the harpsichord or clavichord, it is usually performed on piano today. The first book was composed in 1722, and the second book was composed 20 years later in 1742. However, they were not published until 1801, fifty years after Bach died. It is special that each set contains twenty-four pairs of preludes and fugues in all twenty-four keys, and they appeared in the book so that they go up by semitones.
        This prelude, No. 16, has a French overture-like style with dotted rhythms and is marked Largo by Bach. The fugue is in four voices and contains a thick texture based on a very stately subject. Both subject and counterpoint turned to be doubled in third, tenth, and even twelfth. The combinations are developed progressively with harmonic richness, culminating near the end.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Piano Sonata No. 15 in F Major, K. 533/494

Allegro
Andante
Rondo: Allegretto

Program note

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart completed this sonata on January 3, 1788, about three weeks before his 32nd birthday. The third movement, K. 494, was written on June 10, 1786 as a free-standing work that was used as one of his encore pieces or as a shorter work for his students. As the months passed, he revised and extended it into a broader setting by adding two more movements, K. 533 (Allegro and Andante) in order to create a complete sonata; therefore, this sonata bears two Köchel numbers. After the 4-year gap in sonata production, the first and second movements of this sonata sound less like Mozart. The first movement starts with scale-like melody lines and bouncy quarter notes in the right hand. The fugal conversation between the two hands is developed by adding the triplet rhythms, and finally finishes with the big sweep of arpeggio of the tonic. The gentler second movement is reserved and reflective and its themes are far more motivic and less melodic than usual. Suddenly, the development section in particular progresses with several key changes and finally turns back to the B-flat major, the main key. For the finale, Mozart provided a “music-box” rondo with the theme in the piano’s upper register. He inserted the contrapuntal and serious 27 measures of cadenza toward the conclusion. Following the cadenza, the theme is heard a final time with both hands situated deep in the piano’s bass region and decorates the end of the whole sonata.

Maurice Ravel | from Miroirs, M. 43

III. Une barque sur l’océan
IV. Alborada del gracioso

Program note

Between 1904 and 1905, Maurice Ravel composed Miroirs, a collection of five piano pieces dedicated to his close friends who were members of the Paris artist’s circle known as “Les Apaches.” This circle included other musicians, painters, critics, and poets, who discussed the latest trends in the arts and sometimes presented new works and ideas. According to Ravel, the suite marked “a considerable change in my harmonic evolution, one that disconcerted even those musicians who had been most familiar with my compositional style up to then.” While the connection with individual personalities is unclear, these pieces remain among the most pictorially vivid—and technically challenging—in the piano repertoire. This set of five pieces was premiered by Ricardo Viñes, the dedicatee of Oiseaux tristes, in 1906.
        Dedicated to painter Paul Sordes, Une barque sur l’océan (A boat on the ocean) depicts a boat floating and gently rocking on the ocean waves. With arpeggiations and sweeping melodies, he opens the imagination with a three-layered soundscape. The action of the waves is described by the left hand’s rich arpeggios sweeping up and down; the right hand’s chiming sequences of open intervals in the upper register suggest the vast expanse of the sea. Meanwhile, from the mid-range, an unpredictable melody line emerges irregularly. He used his own special harmonic language, such as ninth and eleventh chords, which is usually found in his other piano works including Sonatine, Pavane pour une infante défunte, and Jeux d’eau.
        Alborada del gracioso, traditionally translated as ‘Morning Song of a Jester’, is dedicated to the musicologist and music critic Michel Dimitri Calvocoressi and is the most famous and pianistic piece of the collection. This piece displays both its Spanish and French roots by including the imitation of guitar tremolo, castanet-like rhythms, and Spanish mixed meter hemiola that suggest an exaggerated dance of a jester, as well as a contrasting heartfelt melody. In this is the most pianistic piece of the entire Miroirs set, the most technical challenges are extended passages in rapid-fire repeated notes and double glissandi in 3rds and 4ths played by the right hand.
         Ravel orchestrated the whole Miroirs set in 1918; they were performed in Paris in May of the following year.

Franz Liszt | Sonetto 123 del Petrarca [I’ vidi in terra] from Années de pèlerinage, 2nd year “Italie”, S. 161

Program note

Between 1837 and 1839, the young Franz Liszt travelled in Switzerland and Italy with his lover, Countess Marie d’Agoult. He began then two books of Années de pèlerinage, translated as ‘Years of Pilgrimage’. The second volume “Italie” which was eventually published in 1858, draws upon Italian art and poetry. The Tre Sonetti di Petrarca are settings of three sonnets by Petrarch in which the fourteenth-century poet describes his love for the unattainable Laura. Liszt originally wrote them as songs for tenor, but soon wrote early piano versions that were, in fact, published first. He later revised them both for piano (as included in this cycle), and more radically for baritone.

Franz Liszt | Réminiscences de Don Juan, S. 418

Program note

As a pianist and composer, Franz Liszt performed and published transcriptions from the orchestral and operatic repertoires often. He went about this dissemination in three general categories: transcription: a basically straightforward piano renditions of orchestral repertoire, like the Beethoven symphonies; paraphrase, a recreation of the particular episode from a larger work such as Rigoletto Concert Paraphrase; and reminiscence, freely embellished fantasy-like showpiece upon original material to suit his own creative agenda, of which the final piece on this program is an example.
        Liszt proffers a literally new piece, a re-composition of Mozart’s opera, Don Giovanni from 54 years earlier, as a recasting of the opera in miniature. It starts with the dramatic rolling chords with an extended trill from the graveyard scene of Act II where the Commendatore threatens Don Giovanni in the aria “Di rider finirai pria dell aurora!” (Your laughter will not last even until morning!). Liszt then moves next to the famous aria of seduction, “Là ci darem la mano”, and offers two complex variations on the theme. The development section is followed by a rousing and brilliant version of the famous “Champagne” aria, “Fin ch’han del vino”.Finally, it ends with the recurrence of Commendatore’s threat which was introduced at the beginning.

I cannot believe that this is my fourth year at NEC, and my journey as an undergraduate student is coming to an end.
What I learned and experienced at NEC is truly unforgettable and priceless.
I want to send thanks to marvelous professors and colleagues for the support and love I received over the past four years.

I would like to express my special thanks and gratitude
to my dear professor, HaeSun Paik.

You always taught me not only music and piano, but also how to be a better human being with your endless support.

Words alone cannot express how thankful I am for your continuous encouragement, patience, guidance, and everything from the very first moment I stepped on this campus four years ago.
I am truly honored to study with you and cannot express how much your teachings have influenced my entire life.

Lastly and most importantly, I want to send love to my parents and siblings.
Thank you so much for your unconditional love, dedication, and support.
It is the best and biggest happiness of my entire life to be a part of this family.
Without your dedication, I could not have had the most meaningful four years in Boston.

I appreciate everyone who has come tonight to my graduation recital and presented a wonderful memory for me.
Thank you for your time and presence, and I wish you all the greatest happiness in your lives.