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PREEMINENT PIANO: Beethoven, Ligeti & Goodyear

PREEMINENT PIANO: Beethoven, Ligeti & Goodyear

Four all-star performers take on three exceptionally thrilling works for their instruments! World-renowned horn master Radovan Vlatković tackles Ligeti’s devilishly difficult Horn Trio. Portland’s own revolutionary flutist Amelia Lukas with the astounding pianist/composer Stewart Goodyear premiere his stunning The Torment of Marsyas. Then, Busoni and Geneva Piano Competitions winner Chloe Mun conquers Beethoven’s monumental “Hammerklavier.”

CMNW Co-Commission • World Premiere

Stewart Goodyear’s The Torment of Marsyas was commissioned by Chamber Music Northwest with the generous support of the CMNW Commissioning Fund.

This concert is co-sponsored by Heidi Yorkshire & Joseph Anthony.

Patricia Reser Center for the Arts
Premieres Thursday, 7/18 • 7:30 pm PT

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SINGLE TICKETS

Program

Click on any piece of music below to learn more about it.

STEWART GOODYEAR “The Torment of Marsyas” for Flute & Piano (2023)

STEWART GOODYEAR The Torment of Marsyas (2023)

This work plays out like a virtuosic symphonic poem for flute and piano, a battle of wits, musicianship, and virtuosity. I was intrigued by the musical competition that the satyr Marsyas had with Apollo, and how Apollo triumphed over him. Duels of Liszt and Moscheles came to mind, as well as Mozart and Clementi, and I began writing furiously. Instead of parts, or movements, I thought of the individual sections within the work as “rounds.” Writing most of this work has been one of the most pleasurable experiences ever…but I must admit, writing the ending gave me goosebumps. I have never written a work with such a vivid, stark, and harrowing ending, and, admittedly, this ending took the longest to write.

—© Stewart Goodyear

GYÖRGY LIGETI Trio for Violin, Horn & Piano (1982)

GYÖRGY LIGETI (1923-2006) Trio for Violin, Horn & Piano (1982) (23’)

I. Andantino con tenerezza
II. Vivacissimo molto ritmico
III. Alla marcia
IV. Lamento: Adagio

György Ligeti’s early compositions reflect the aesthetics of the post-WWII serialist style in which he was trained. By the late 1970s, however, Ligeti had reached a musical impasse. He composed nothing between 1977 and 1982; during that time, he sought out a more individual language to express his ideas. In a 1981 interview, Ligeti declared, “I reject both [the avant-garde and traditional style]. The Avant-garde, to which I am said to belong, has become academic. As for looking back, there’s no point in chewing over an outmoded style. I prefer to follow a third way: being myself, without paying heed either to categorizations or to fashionable gadgetry.” The following year, Ligeti completed his first composition in this “third way,” his Trio for Violin, Horn & Piano, “Hommage à Brahms.”

Don’t let the subtitle fool you; other than employing the same instruments used in Brahms’ 1865 Trio for Horn, there is nothing remotely Brahmsian in Ligeti’s music. During his self-imposed compositional hiatus, Ligeti had studied the music of Conlon Nancarrow, who experimented with tempo variations. Nancarrow’s original approach to music writing inspired Ligeti to experiment with multiple simultaneous tunings in the Horn Trio. “The piano plays as it is tuned, by definition, tempered,” Ligeti wrote. “The violin tuned in pure fifths deviates from the tempered tuning considerably—as always with chamber music for strings and piano. In a tonal violin/piano sonata of the Classical or Romantic period, the violinist tries to match the tuning of the piano to some degrees, at least in the slow movements. Though this always remains an approximation, it is part of the character of the genre. In my Trio … [although scored for a valved horn] I was thinking in terms of natural horns pitched in various keys, and I indicate these in the score. In this way, mostly untempered overtones occur, which tend to throw the violinist’s fingers off their mark. This is intentional, part of the riddle of this non-manifest musical language.”

The violin’s first three notes are a motif Ligeti used to unify all four movements. The Vivacissimo molto ritmico plays with different simultaneous subdivisions of an eight-beat pulse; 3+3+2 or 3+2+3. The brief Alla Marcia begins forcefully, but competing cross-rhythms in violin and piano cause musical stutters. The march rhythm fades into a steady pulse as the horn joins in. The closing Lamento: Adagio features a somber passacaglia built on a brief chromatic descending motif.

—© Elizabeth Schwartz

BEETHOVEN Piano Sonata No. 29 in B-flat Major, Op. 106 (“Hammerklavier”)

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827) Piano Sonata No. 29 in B-flat Major, Op. 106 (“Hammerklavier”) (40’)

I. Allegro
II. Scherzo: Assai vivace
III. Adagio sostenuto
IV. Introduzione: Largo - Fuga: Allegro risoluto

“What is difficult is also beautiful.” – Ludwig van Beethoven

On December 27, 1817, piano maker Broadwood & Sons sent Ludwig van Beethoven a new six-octave grand piano. It arrived after Beethoven had completed the first two movements of his Piano Sonata No. 29 in B-flat Major, Op. 106 (“Hammerklavier”), and Beethoven immediately grasped the musical possibilities of this new instrument. Without the Broadwood’s extended range, expressive tone, and greater volume, the “Hammerklavier” would be a different piece of music. In Op. 106, Beethoven stretches every aspect of the sonata to extremes. Its length (45 to 60 minutes), its complexity, and the emotional and technical demands it places on both performer and audience make this sonata a singular experience. Or, as Beethoven wryly observed, the “Hammerklavier” is “a sonata that will give pianists something to do.”

The Scherzo, approximately three minutes long, combines mocking humor with moody ruminations; at one point Beethoven quotes the opening of his “Eroica” symphony, this time in a gloomy minor key rather than its original E-flat major.

Throughout Op. 106, Beethoven adopts harmonic progressions that modulate by thirds. This departure from the Classical sonata harmonic relationship between tonic and dominant allowed Beethoven access to a variety of tonal areas, and provided him a richer, more expressive harmonic palette, particularly in the profoundly introspective Adagio, one of the longest single movements in piano sonata literature.

The final movement begins with a slow introduction, followed by an immense fugue with an unusually lengthy theme, or fugue subject. The dense counterpoint and ingenious play of themes and counterthemes bring the “Hammerklavier” to a jubilant, satisfying conclusion.

—© Elizabeth Schwartz

Artists

Gloria Chien Gloria Chien Piano & Artistic Director

Taiwanese-born pianist Gloria Chien has one of the most diverse musical lives as a noted performer, concert presenter, and educator. She made her orchestral debut at the age of sixteen with the Boston Symphony Orchestra with Thomas Dausgaard, and she performed again with the BSO with Keith Lockhart. She was subsequently selected by The Boston Globe as one of its Superior Pianists of the year, “who appears to excel in everything.” In recent seasons, she has performed as a recitalist and chamber musician at Alice Tully Hall, the Library of Congress, the Phillips Collection, the Dresden Chamber Music Festival, and the National Concert Hall in Taiwan. She performs frequently with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

In 2009, she launched String Theory, a chamber music series in Chattanooga, Tennessee that has become one of the region’s premier classical music presenters.  The following year she was appointed Director of the Chamber Music Institute at Music@Menlo. In 2017, she joined her husband, violinist Soovin Kim, as Artistic Director of the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival in Burlington, Vermont. The duo became Artistic Directors at Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon in 2020. Chien studied extensively at the New England Conservatory of Music with Wha Kyung Byun and Russell Sherman. She, with Kim, were awarded Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s 2021 CMS Award for Extraordinary Service to Chamber Music.

Chien is Artist-in-Residence at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee, and she is a Steinway Artist. Chien received her B.M., M.M., and D.M.A. degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music as a student of Russell Sherman and Wha-Kyung Byun.

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Stewart Goodyear Stewart Goodyear Composer & Piano

Proclaimed “a phenomenon” by the Los Angeles Times and “one of the best pianists of his generation” by the Philadelphia Inquirer, Stewart Goodyear is an accomplished concert pianist, improviser, and composer. Mr. Goodyear has performed with, and has been commissioned by, many of the major orchestras and chamber music organizations around the world.

Last year, Orchid Classics released Mr. Goodyear’s recording of his suite for piano and orchestra, Callaloo, and his piano sonata. His recent commissions include works for violinist Miranda Cuckson, cellist Inbal Segev, the Penderecki String Quartet, the Horszowski Trio, the Honens Piano Competition, and the Chineke! Foundation.

Mr. Goodyear’s discography includes the complete sonatas and piano concertos of Beethoven, as well as concertos by Tchaikovsky, Grieg, and Rachmaninov, an album of Ravel piano works, and an album entitled For Glenn Gould, which combines repertoire from Mr. Gould’s U.S. and Montreal debuts. His recordings have been released on the Marquis Classics, Orchid Classics, Bright Shiny Things, and Steinway and Sons labels. His newest recording, Adolphus Hailstork’s Piano Concerto with the Buffalo Philharmonic under JoAnn Falletta, was released in March 2023 on the Naxos label.

Highlights for the 2024-25 season are his performances at the BBC Proms with the Chineke! Orchestra, performances at the Rheingau Musik Festival, and performances with the Vancouver and Toronto Symphonies, the Indianapolis Symphony, the Rochester Philharmonic, Frankfurt Museumgesellschaft, and A Far Cry in Boston.

 

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Soovin Kim Soovin Kim Violin & Artistic Director

Soovin Kim enjoys a broad musical career regularly performing Bach sonatas and Paganini caprices for solo violin, sonatas for violin and piano ranging from Beethoven to Ives, Mozart and Haydn concertos and symphonies as a conductor, and new world-premiere works almost every season. When he was 20 years old, Kim received first prize at the Paganini International Violin Competition. He immersed himself in the string quartet literature for 20 years as the 1st violinist of the Johannes Quartet. Among his many commercial recordings are his “thrillingly triumphant” (Classic FM Magazine) disc of Paganini’s demanding 24 Caprices and a two-disc set of Bach’s complete solo violin works that were released in 2022.

Kim is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival (LCCMF) in Burlington, Vermont. In addition to its explorative programming and extensive work with living composers, LCCMF created the ONE Strings program through which all 3rd through 5th grade students of the Integrated Arts Academy in Burlington study violin. The University of Vermont recognized Soovin Kim’s work by bestowing an Honorary Doctorate upon him in 2015. In 2020, he and his wife, pianist Gloria Chien, became Artistic Directors of Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon. He, with Chien, were awarded Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s 2021 CMS Award for Extraordinary Service to Chamber Music. Kim devotes much of his time to his passion for teaching at the New England Conservatory in Boston and the Yale School of Music in New Haven.


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Amelia Lukas Amelia Lukas Flute

“Known for her especially pure tone, flexible technique, and passionate performances,” (Artslandia) flutist Amelia Lukas performs with “a fine balance of virtuosity and poetry” (The New York Times). A Powell Flutes Artist and Portland resident, she “excels at bringing drama and fire to hyper-modernist works with challenging extended techniques” (Oregon ArtsWatch). In addition to her solo show “Natural Homeland” at the Alberta Rose Theatre and throughout Washington and Hawaii, her recent engagements include solo appearances for United for Ukraine, Siletz Bay Music Festival, Fear No Music, Makrokosmos Project, Kenny Endo, March Music Moderne, Portland Taiko, the Astoria Music Festival, and for All Classical Radio’s live radio broadcasts, with additional performances for the Willamette Valley Chamber Music Festival, Oregon Bach Festival, Portland Piano International, TedX Portland, Friends of Chamber Music, 45th Parallel, and Oregon Music Festival. Lukas’ career includes founding and directing the “truly original… impeccably curated” (Time Out New York) multimedia chamber series, Ear Heart Music, membership in the American Modern Ensemble, and performances at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Stone, Bargemusic, (Le) Poisson Rouge, Roulette, and New Music New York Festival. She holds degrees from the Royal Academy of Music (London), where she received three prizes for musical excellence, and from the Manhattan School of Music, where she was an inaugural class member for the Master’s Degree in Contemporary Performance. Amelia is a Chamber Music Northwest Board Member and offers creative strategy and public relations services as the Principal and Founder of Aligned Artistry. Learn more at amelialukas.com.

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Chloe Mun Chloe Mun Piano, Protégé

At the age of 18, pianist Chloe Jiyeong Mun was brought to the world’s attention in 2014 when she won first prize at the Geneva International Competition in Switzerland. In 2015, she also won the Busoni International Competition in Italy. Since then, she has gained a reputation as one of the most sought-after musicians of her generation.

She has collaborated with the world’s leading conductors, including Myung-whun Chung, Alexander Shelley, Yuri Bashmet, James Judd, Roberto Beltran Zavala, Victor Pablo Perez, Mario Venzago, and Eiji Oue, with renowned orchestras such as Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Moscow Soloists, Asia Philharmonic Orchestra, Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, Trieste Verdi Orchestra, Nuova Orchestra Ferruccio Busoni, St.Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, Palermo Festival Orchestra, MAV Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta y Coro de la Comunidad de Madrid (ORCAM), Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, KBS Symphony Orchestra, and Korean National Symphony Orchestra.

For recitals, she has appeared at the Gewandhaus, Wigmore Hall, Warsaw Philharmonic, Salle Cortot, Philharmonie Arthur Rubinstein in Bydgoszcz, and Seoul Arts Center, as well as performing at the prestigious festivals including Chopin and His Europe, Duszniki Chopin Festival, Arthur Rubinstein Piano Festival, Festival Omaggio di Michelangeli, and Pharos Music Festival. Chloe released her first album, Schumann Piano Sonata No.1 & Fantasie, with Deutsche Grammophon.

Also as a committed chamber musician, she is annually invited to perform at Seoul Spring Festival of Chamber music and Seoul International Music Festival. In 2021, she gave the world premiere of Jeajoon Ryu’s Sonata for Viola and Piano at the Seoul Arts Center with violist Sangjin Kim.

Born in Yeosu, South Korea in 1995, Chloe began studying piano at the age of five. She studied with Professor Daejin Kim at the Korea National University of Arts from 2010 to 2020, then with Sir András Schiff as an Artist Diploma student at the Barenboim Said Academy.


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Radovan Vlatković Radovan Vlatković Horn

Born in Zagreb in 1962, Radovan Vlatković completed his studies with Professor Prerad Detiček at the Zagreb Academy of Music and Professor Michael Höltzel at the Music Academy in Detmold, Germany. He is the recipient of many first prizes in national and international competitions, including the Premio Ancona in 1979 and the ARD Competition in Munich in 1983—the first to be awarded to a horn player in fourteen years. This led to numerous invitations to music festivals throughout Europe including Salzburg, Vienna, Edinburgh, and Dubrovnik to name but a few, the Americas, Australia, Israel, and Korea, as well as regular appearances in Japan.

In 1998, he became Horn Professor at the renowned Mozarteum in Salzburg. Since 2000, he holds the Horn Chair “Canon” at the “Queen Sofia” School in Madrid.

Radovan Vlatković has appeared as soloist with many distinguished symphony and chamber orchestras including the Bavarian Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart Radio Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie Orchester, Munich Chamber Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields, Mozarteum Orchestra, Camerata Academica Salzburg, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Santa Cecilia Orchestra Rome, Rotterdam Philharmonie, the orchestras of Berne, Basel, and Zürich, the Lyon and Strassbourg Orchestras, NHK Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan and Yomiuri Orchestras, and Adelaide and Melbourne Orchestras.

Very much in demand as a chamber musician, he has performed at Gidon Kremer’s Lockenhaus, Svyatoslav Richter’s December Evenings in Moscow, Oleg Kagan and Natalia Gutman’s Kreuth, Rudolf Serkin’s Marlboro, András Schiff’s Mondsee, Vicenza and Ittingen Festivals, as well as Kuhmo, Prussia Cove, and Casals Festival in Prades.

In 2014, Vlatković was awarded an Honorary Membership of the Royal Academy of Music (Hon RAM), an honor bestowed upon only 300 distinguished musicians worldwide.

Radovan Vlatković plays a full double horn Model 20 M by Paxman of London.

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