jon nakamatsu lisa nakamichi g conductor piano · 2019-01-15 · works by paul hindemith for viola...

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HALEKULANIMASTERWORKSSEASON

We kindly ask you to please silence all cellphones and electronic devices. Also, please note that photography and video recordings are prohibited during the performance. Intermission is 20 minutes. Once the performance has begun, seating is at the discretion of the house.

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 23 | 7:30PMSUNDAY FEBRUARY 24 | 4:00PM

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Hans Grafconductor

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Concerto for Two Pianos

I. AllegroII. AndanteIII. Rondo. Allegro

— INTERMISSION —

ANTON BRUCKNER Symphony No. 4 “Romantic”

I. Allegro molto moderato. II. Andante quasi allegrettoIII. Scherzo Bewegt – TrioIV. Finale

Jon Nakamatsupiano

The HSO welcomes the debut of Austrian maestro and esteemed former Houston Symphony Music Director, Hans Graf, in this all-Austrian program of Mozart and Bruckner. HSO brass will provide the power for the late-romantic symphony, while Nakamatsu and Kailua-raised Lisa Nakamichi (organizer of the annual Aloha International Piano Festival) will join forces to perform this double-piano concerto.

SPECIAL MAHALOPiano tuning for this performance courtesy of Alan Nishimura at Mozart Music House.

Lisa Nakamichipiano

4 Program Book 1819 WORKING NEW CS4.indd 20 1/14/19 12:49 PM


ARTISTSHans Graf conductor

maestro

Known for his wide range of repertoire and creative programming, the distinguished Austrian conductor Hans Graf is one of today’s most highly respected musicians. Appointed Music Director of the Houston Symphony in 2001, Mr. Graf concluded his tenure in May 2013 and is the longest serving Music Director in the orchestra’s history. Prior to his appointment in Houston, he was the Music Director of the Calgary Philharmonic for eight seasons and held the same post with the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine for six years. He also led the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra from 1984 to 1994 and the Basque National Orchestra from 1994 to 1996.

Hans Graf is a frequent guest with all of the major North American orchestras. His recent and upcoming guest engagements include appearances with the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras, the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, and the Boston, San Francisco, St. Louis, Cincinnati, National, Detroit, Dallas, Baltimore, Indianapolis, New Jersey, Milwaukee, Colorado and Utah symphonies, as well as the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra among others.

In Europe, Mr. Graf has conducted the Vienna and London Philharmonics, Vienna Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra as well as the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphony Orchestra Berlin, Bavarian Radio Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Dresden Philharmonic, Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic among others. He is also a regular guest with the Sydney and Auckland symphonies and the Hong Kong, Malaysia and Seoul Philharmonics. An experienced opera conductor, Mr. Graf first conducted the Vienna State Opera in 1981 and has since led productions in the opera houses of Berlin, Munich, Paris and Rome among others. His extensive opera repertoire includes several world premieres. Recent opera engagements include Parsifal at the Zurich Opera, Boris Godunov at the Opera National du Rhin in Strasbourg, and a rarely produced opera by Strauss, Die Feuersnot, at the famed Volksoper Vienna, for which he received the 2014 Austrian Music Theatre Prize.

Hans Graf has recorded for the EMI, Orfeo, CBC, Erato, Capriccio and JVC labels and his extensive discography includes the complete symphonies of Mozart and Schubert, the premiere recording of Zemlinsky’s opera Es war einmal and the complete orchestral works of Dutilleux, which he recorded under the supervision of the composer, with the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine for BMG Arte Nova. His recent recordings include the complete works by Paul Hindemith for viola and orchestra with Tabea Zimmermann and the Deutsches Symphony Orchestra Berlin and a live recording of Carmina Burana with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. In addition, a recording of a live performance of Wozzeck with the Houston Symphony was released by Naxos in the spring of 2017; this recording won the 2018 Grammy for best opera recording, as well as the 2017 ECHO Klassik prize for best opera recording in the category of 20th and 21st century opera.

Born near Linz, Hans Graf began his musical education studying the violin and piano. After receiving diplomas in piano and conducting from the Musikhochschule in Graz, he continued his studies in Italy with Franco Ferrara and Sergui Celibadache and in Russia with Arvid Jansons. Mr. Graf has been awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre de la Legion d’Honneur by the French government for championing French music around the world as well as the Grand Decoration of Honour in Gold for Services to the Republic of Austria. He is also Professor Emeritus for Orchestral Conducting at the Universitat Mozarteum in Salzburg. n

Debbie Gravitte



ARTISTSJon Nakamatsu piano

piano

American pianist Jon Nakamatsu continues to draw unanimous praise as a true aristocrat of the keyboard, whose playing combines elegance, clarity, and electrifying power. A native of California, Mr. Nakamatsu came to international attention in 1997 when he was named Gold Medalist of the Tenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, the only American to have achieved this distinction since 1981. Mr. Nakamatsu has performed widely in North and South America, Europe, and the Far East, collaborating with such conductors as James Conlon, Marek Janowski, Raymond Leppard, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Osmo Vänskä and Hans Vonk. He also performed at a White House concert hosted by President and Mrs. Clinton.

Mr. Nakamatsu’s extensive recital tours throughout the U.S. and Europe have featured appearances in New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center, and in Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Paris, London and Milan. He has worked with various chamber ensembles - among them the Brentano, Tokyo, Kuss, Jupiter, Cypress, Prazak and Ying String Quartets - and has toured repeatedly with the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet. Together with clarinetist Jon Manasse, Mr. Nakamatsu tours continually as a member of the Manasse/Nakamatsu Duo. The Duo also serves as Artistic Directors of the esteemed Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival in Massachusetts.

Mr. Nakamatsu records exclusively for harmonia mundi usa, which has released thirteen CDs to date. His all-Gershwin recording with Jeff Tyzik and the Rochester Philharmonic featuring Rhapsody in Blue and the Concerto in F rose to number three on Billboard’s classical music charts, earning extraordinary critical praise.

Other acclaimed releases include an all-Liszt disc featuring the “Dante Sonata”; a recording of Brahms’ Piano Sonata in F minor; and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 and the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Mr. Nakamatsu’s 2008 recording of Brahms’ Clarinet Sonatas with Jon Manasse was chosen by the New York Times as one of its top releases for the year; his latest disc with Mr. Manasse, released in August 2012, includes both the Brahms Clarinet Quintet and the Piano Quintet with the Tokyo String Quartet. Of his most recent release on the label, a 2014 solo disc of the piano works of Robert Schumann, BBC Music Magazine states that “Nakamatsu clarifies Schumann’s mid-range saturated textures to a remarkable degree, reveling in its fantastic imaginings with rapier-like precision and effortless command.”

Since 1997, Mr. Nakamatsu has served on multiple international piano competition juries and has also been invited as a guest speaker at numerous institutions including the Van Cliburn Foundation, Stanford University and the Juilliard School.

Mr. Nakamatsu studied privately with Marina Derryberry and has worked with Karl Ulrich Schnabel, son of the great pianist Artur Schnabel. He is a graduate of Stanford University with a bachelor’s degree in German Studies and a master’s degree in Education. n


HAWAI‘ I SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 25

piano

Lisa Nakamichi piano

Lisa Nakamichi, known for her exquisite performances of Mozart, has been called “born to play Mozart” by Honolulu Advertiser critic on her concerto performance with the HonoluluSymphony Orchestra.

The successful Tokyo solo debut recital sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Culture launched Ms. Nakamichi’s career in Japan. Ms. Nakamichi has since appeared in concerto performances throughout Japan among them the New Star Japan Philharmonic in Tokyo, the Kyushu Philharmonic in Nagasaki, Kyoto Symphony in Kyoto and the Hiroshima Symphony in Hiroshima. Her performance with the Hiroshima Symphony was reviewed as “brilliant Mozart playing” .

In March 2012, Ms. Nakamichi was the featured soloist in the inaugural concert of the newly revived Hawaii Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Naoto Ohtomo. Concerto performances with the Honolulu Symphony have totaled over a dozen times and her performance of the Mozart Concerto was reviewed in the Honolulu Advertiser as “above all beautiful”. She has collaborated with the Hawaii Youth Symphony in a performance of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, celebrating Louis Vuitton’s 150th anniversary concert.

Nakamichi has appeared in numerous recitals in major cities of the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Japan. For the past decade, she has been invited by dignitaries and diplomats to perform in solo recitals, including the residence of the Japanese Ambassador to the United States in Washington, D.C. and residence of the Consul General of Japan in Honolulu. In September 2011, Nakamichi was presented in a recital at the residence of the Japanese Ambassador to Austria in Vienna. Nakamichihas also appeared in recitals at the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo, The Symphony Hall in Osaka, Eroica Saal in Vienna, Libby Hall at University of Utah, and University of Alaska, Anchorage, among others.

As juror, Nakamichi has served on the jury of the Cooper International Piano Competition (Cleveland), Waring International Piano Competition (Palm Springs), and Alaska MTA, where she also conducted masterclasses. Nakamichi served on the jury of the PTNA Competition (Piano Teachers’ National Association) for their national finals in Tokyo in August 2018.

Lisa Nakamichi received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from The Juilliard School under the tutelage of Martin Canin and doctoral degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She is the founding artistic director of the Aloha International Piano Festival in Honolulu, Hawaii. n



PROGRAM NOTES

CONCERTO IN E-FLAT MAJOR FOR TWO PIANOS AND ORCHESTRA, K. 365Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

The genre of two-piano music is a specialized niche, presenting greater logistical problems than music for one-piano, four hands, simply because it requires two fine grand pianos for performance. Nevertheless, the potential of “twin” keyboards, with their massed power and subtle differences in tone color, has attracted attention almost since keyboards became common household instruments. Bach, for example, composed concertos for two, three and four harpsichords. Thus when Mozart chose to compose a concerto for two pianos in 1779, he was hardly inventing the idea; indeed, he himself had already composed a concerto for three pianos and orchestra (No. 7 in F-major, K.242, dated February 1776) for a Countess and her two daughters in Salzburg.

The Concerto on this weekend’s subscription program has a more interesting story, however, and is much the finer work. Mozart probably wrote his E-flat Concerto, K.365 for himself and his sister Nannerl to perform. After he moved to Vienna, he was likely able to secure additional performances, at which point he augmented the orchestra to include trumpets, timpani, and possibly clarinets (which were not available in the Salzburg orchestra) in the outer movements. This concerto precedes the mature Mozart piano concertos that are most frequently performed and recorded; however, it is contemporary with the great Sinfonia Concertante for violin and viola, K.364, and reflects a

similar genius. Remarkably, Mozart was still only in his early 20s.

Matching two pianists as twin soloists presents both challenges and opportunities. Mozart responded with irrepressible joy in his E-flat Concerto, which is among the most cloudless works he composed. It is doubly virtuosic, for not only does each soloist have the opportunity for elaborate passagework and sparkling arpeggios in dialogue, but they also forge their musical

HANS GRAF CONDUCTS MOZART & BRUCKNERHALEKULANI MASTERWORKS VII

argument in ensemble. They must maintain eye contact with each other as well as with the conductor. A well-rehearsed, balanced performance of this concerto is a true delight, for the performers will be visually as well as sonically in tune with one another. They sparkle in polished melodic conversation that must have been great fun for Mozart and his equally gifted sister.

Mozart’s slow movement merits special mention. A glorious oboe solo complements delicate filigree work from the two pianists, lending elegance and poignancy to this central movement. It serves as a gracious foil to the fanfare-like importance of the first movement and the lighthearted romp of the closing rondo.

The concerto is scored for 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 solo pianos, and strings. n

—Laurie Shulman © 2019

b. Salzburg, AustriaBorn 27 January, 1756 d. Vienna, AustriaDied 5 December, 1791 First performed by the HSO1999Approximate Duration24 minutes

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HALEKULANIMASTERWORKSSEASON

SYMPHONY NO. 4 IN E-FLAT, “ROMANTIC”Anton Bruckner

One of the greatest of nineteenth-century virtuosi, Henry Vieuxtemps Bruckner’s symphonies present a perennial performance quandary: there is rarely a single, final, authoritative version. The composer was a man of great spirituality whose faith in God never wavered. Sadly, his faith in his own work was less stable. Partly because of a desire for worldly and artistic success, and partly to accommodate others, he subjected most of his large works to repeated revisions. What has resulted is a veritable spaghetti pot of conflicting texts and considerable acrimony among musical scholars as to the composer’s original intent.

The Fourth Symphony is a classic example of Brucknerian confusion: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians conservatively charts three distinct versions (1874, 1878-80, and 1886, respectively), but no fewer than four different final movements exist. Some of Bruckner’s sketches for the “Romantic” Symphony date from as early as 1868; that symphony, intended to be in B-flat major, was shelved. Bruckner commenced actual work on his new symphony, the Fourth, in January 1874, completing a first draft the following November.

He had a long way to go before arriving at anything approximating a finished work. In 1875 Otto Dessoff conducted rehearsals of the first version, then expressed the opinion that only the opening movement was worth performing. Bruckner received the criticism with customary humility. Already at work on his Fifth Symphony, he postponed changes for a bit. By late 1877 he had decided to overhaul the E-flat Symphony, writing to Wilhelm Tappert: “I have come to the definite conclusion that my Fourth “Romantic” Symphony needs a thorough transformation.” He set to work seriously on this transformation in 1878; the resulting revisions included the first version of the thrilling “hunting” scherzo that we hear at these performances. In 1879 and 1880 he continued reworking the music, producing an entirely new finale and extensively revising the new scherzo. Hans Richter conducted portions of the symphony in 1881, but it was not until the mid-1880s that anything approaching a definitive version began to take shape.

Bruckner’s initial attempts at publication were unsuccessful. Two prominent music publishing houses – Bote & Bock and Schott – refused the Fourth Symphony. Thus the first published version did not

appear until Albert J. Gutmann agreed to issue it in Vienna in 1889. Apparently Bruckner sent an earlier manuscript to the Austrian conductor Anton Seidl in New York in for possible publication in the United States. That version did not surface until after the Second World War! So, publication did little to resolve any of the confusion. This convoluted history at least helps to explain the bewildering array of editions and recordings that exist for the work.

What are we to make of the significance of the nickname “Romantic”? Scholars have debated the question heatedly. The subtitle, designated by the composer, is the sole such example among his works and appears in his hand from the first sketches. Hans Redlich has suggested that the Fourth Symphony “[reveals] Bruckner’s deep attachment to nature in a mystical, not in

b. Ansfelden, AustriaBorn 4 September, 1824 d. Vienna, AustriaDied 11 October, 1896 First performed by the HSO1953Approximate Duration70 minutes



a descriptive-sentimentalizing sense.” Leopold Nowak, one of the editors of Bruckner’s music, perceives the Fourth as “not only a proof of Bruckner’s love for nature and romantic feeling, but also for his will power and his humility.” Perhaps Bruckner was conceding to the fashion of the day, and particularly to the prevailing fashion for Wagner, by adding a written programme for the entire symphony after it was complete.

On the matter of a programme for this symphony, Dika Newlin has written:

The Scherzo proper, with its gay horn fanfare in E-flat, clearly intended to portray a band of hunters galloping through the forest, while the Trio in G-flat, as described by Bruckner himself, represents a moment of rest, when the hunters dismount from their horses and stop to take refreshment (to the accompaniment of typically Austrian dance strains). This is as close as Bruckner ever comes to writing real program-music, and the program is plainly of a rather naïve and obvious kind, far removed from the mystical connotations which certain over-enthusiastic Bruckner disciples wished to give their master’s music.

Other than that one instance, Bruckner’s romanticism is more abstract than concrete. The music is chock full of delicious Austrian melodies; characteristic folk rhythms dominate most of the four movements. This is Bruckner at his most appealing.

Each movement of the Fourth Symphony contains features that are readily identifiable as Bruckner “signatures.” Rather than opening with a slow introduction, Bruckner tends to begin his symphonies quietly with a string tremolando or a distinct rhythmic idea. In the Fourth, we have both: the strings shimmer triple piano just long enough to introduce the French horns and the first important theme, in a dotted rhythm that is one of the key cells to the first movement. As is the case in other Bruckner symphonies, the slow movement is a dignified funeral march with pronounced chorale elements. In listening, we are reminded that Bruckner was a superb organist who was celebrated for his improvisations. The scherzo demonstrates Bruckner’s “organ-like” treatment of the orchestra, blocking entire instrumental sections against one another in conversational fragments. Another Brucknerian feature is the re-introduction of themes from earlier movements in the finale.

Though he falls clearly into the Viennese symphonic continuum originating with Mozart and Haydn and continuing through Beethoven and Brahms, Bruckner has an entirely different approach to symphonic development. His music evolves at its own unhurried pace: steady, calm and altogether unstoppable. The drama of

ANTON BRUCKNER MEMORIAL - STADTPARK (CITY PARK) VIENNA, AUSTRIAPHOTO CREDIT © SHUTTERSTOCK



Bruckner’s music does not derive from an insistence that we stand up and take notice, as is so often the case in Beethoven. Rather, he lures us into the web of sound he weaves in more subtle fashion. We get caught up in the majesty of the giant sonic procession. For all Bruckner is said to have lacked confidence in his first -- or second -- inspirations, his music communicates a sense of supreme assurance and inevitability.

Bruckner is often thought of as a composer who expanded the orchestra to huge proportions. The Fourth Symphony provides surprising evidence to the contrary. While the horns are prominent, endowed with much of the melodic thrust (including opening themes in both outer movements), Bruckner restricted himself to an orchestra far closer to Beethoven’s than to Wagner’s or Mahler’s. He does not call for triple woodwind, nor does he require Wagner tubas or any percussion save timpani. The only expansion of a conventional mid-nineteenth-century orchestra is the addition of one tuba.

Maestro Graf has chosen the 1878-80 revised version of the score (edited by Robert Haas) for these performances. Bruckner’s score calls for woodwinds in pairs, four horns, three trumpets, alto, tenor and bass trombones, bass tuba, timpani and strings. n

—Laurie Shulman © 2019


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