Recital: Yun Janice Lu '24 DMA, Piano

NEC: Williams Hall | Directions

290 Huntington Ave.
Boston, MA
United States

In the course of completing the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at New England Conservatory, performance majors present not just one, but three full-length recitals, for which they also write program notes.  It's an opportunity to observe multiple facets of an emerging artist.

Yun Janice Lu ‘24 DMA studies Piano with Alessio Bax and Alexander Korsantia and is the recipient of the Alice Canaday Endowed Scholarship.

This performance will be viewable in-person and via livestream.

Watch livestream from Williams Hall

Artists

  1. Robert Schumann | from Bunte Blätter, op. 99

    Drei Stücklein

    Nicht schnell, mit Innigkeit
    Sehr rasch
    Frisch


    Funf Albumblätter

    Ziemlich langsam
    Schnell
    Ziemlich langsam, sehr gesangvoll
    Sehr langsam
    Langsam

     

    Program note

    Bunte Blätter, op. 99, is a suite Schumann published in 1852, containing fourteen character pieces written between 1836 and 1849. This collection of pieces comprise materials that the composer had written earlier in his career, but remained unpublished at first. It was only after the resounding success of the Album for the Young that he once again turned to several of these pieces to combine them in an album. Albumblatter, op. 124 was another notable work upon publication during the same time. Many scholars have pointed out that several pieces had significant personal associations and influences to other works, for instance, the first piece in the collection, was a Christmas greeting the composer had composed for his wife Clara in 1838; Albumblätter III (No.6) was originally composed for Carnaval, op. 9.

     

  2. Ludwig van Beethoven | Piano Sonata in A-flat Major, op. 110

    Moderato cantabile molto espressivo
    Allegro molto
    Adagio, ma non troppo

     

    Program note

    Some scholars have called this sonata a bit of on oddity: on one hand, it’s somewhat short for a Beethoven piano sonata, clocking in at around 19 minutes; on the other hand, it takes listeners on such an extremely emotional journey, from light, playful, devastating, crude, to deeply passionate and sublime all through this short period of time.
                    In the first movement, the opening bars have additional description of con amabilità (with charm). This is indeed charming music with rushing sweeps of notes up and down the keyboard. Although Beethoven sticks to the usual sonata rondo form, he alters many of the typical harmonic progressions so that it sounds fresh and new. The second movement is a mischievous scherzo and trio marked allegro, complete with syncopated rhythms. The joke for the listeners is that, straight away, Beethoven launches right into quoting two Austrian popular melodies, probably sung at the boisterous beer gardens of the day. These two Austrian songs continue to interrupt each other, and the movement ends with an over-the-top conclusion which is almost a parody of the end of a virtuoso piano concert. The large final movement is a look back into the past, if not an outright nod to J. S. Bach. Here, Beethoven plays with what he labels an arioso dolente, a sour full aria in sublime freeform sections which he places in a sort of tension with two fugues. He turns the fugue on its head as the second fugues subject is a literal inversion of the first. We can hear his signature compositional technique of making large piece expand outward from a tiny theme. Although the marking at the beginning of the movement call for complaining lamenting sounds from the performer, by the end of the sonata, as music writer Leslie Gerber has described it, the fugue is now unhampered by interruptions and rushes triumphantly to one of the most joyous conclusions in all music.

     

  3. Robert Schumann | Davidsbündlertänze, op. 6

    Lebhaft
    Innig
    Etwas hahnbüchen
    Ungeduldig
    Einfach
    Sehr rasch
    Nicht schnell
    Frisch
    Lebhaft
    Balladenmässig, sehr rasch
    Einfach
    Mit Humor
    Wild und lustig
    Zart und singend
    Frisch
    Mit gutem Humor
    Wie aus der Ferne
    Nicht schnell

     

    Program note

    Davidsbundlertanze originated in 1837. Beginning in early 1836, Clara’s father opposition to their courtship had caused a long separation between Schumann and Clara; however, a secret reconciliation between the two lovers took place in August, 1837, and this work, along with the Fantasiesticke, op. 12, were the first new works to appear from Schumann's pen after this happy event. These eighteen pieces represent the lyrical and poetic sides of Schumann's nature, as the influence of Davidsbund reveals Schumann’s tendency toward poetic side of music for its brevity, and his use of polarity with the characters of Florestan and Eusebius. The Davidsbündlertänze are not sketches of the various members of the society but a musical offering to Clara from total of 18 characteristic pieces and musical dialogues. As Schumann once wrote to his former professor, "she was practically my sole motivation for writing the Davidsbündlertänze, the concerto, the Sonata and the Novellettes.” The quotation borrowed from Clara’s mazurka and “Clara motives” appear throughout the entire set and represents the expression of his passionate love, anxieties, longings, visions, dreams and fantasies.
            The first edition is preceded by the following epigraph:

    Alter Spruch
    In all und jeder Zeit
    Verknüpft sich Lust und Leid:
    Bleibt fromm in Lust und seid
    Dem Leid mit Mut bereit    		Old saying
    In each and every age
    joy and sorrow are mingled:
    Remain pious in joy,
    and be ready for sorrow with courage.

     

Tags
Student RecitalsWatch OnlineCollegePianoPiano