Donald Armstrong and Jian Liu - March 24, 2013 (1.91 MB pdf)

Donald Armstrong (NZSO) violin
& Jian Liu
(NZSM) piano
Ludwig van Beethoven - Opus 12 no.2
Claude Debussy - Sonata for piano and violin
Cesar Franck - Sonata for piano and violin
SUNDAY,
MARCH 24,
2013 at 2.30pm
Memorial Hall, The Parade, Paekakariki
TICKETS: $25 Students $10
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MWC NEWS
FORTHCOMING CONCERTS
May 26 2013 - Salute 70 Concert
The Rodger Fox Big Band: this concert will be held as part of Paekakariki's celebration of
Salute70, commemorating the US Marines presence here in 1942-43. This is Wellington's
premier big band featuring the capital's finest jazz talent. Founded by New Zealand jazz
legend Rodger Fox, the band covers all bases.
Members of the 18-piece big band have performed with some of the biggest names in jazz
including Patti Austin, Kurt Elling, Bob Mintzer, Steve Smith, Dick Oatts, Alex Sipiagin, Bob
Sheppard, Bruce Forman, Charley Davis, Denise Perrier, Alan Broadbent and Jim Pugh, to
name but a few.
June of 2011 saw the release of the band's first recording “Journey Home” featuring
internationally acclaimed New Zealand composer/arranger/pianist Alan Broadbent. This
album went on to win the Jazz Album of the Year at the NZ music awards in 2012.
June 23 2013 - John Chen
Now resident in Hamburg, Germany, John Chen was born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in
1986, but moved to Auckland, New Zealand at the age of eleven months. He began piano
studies at the age of three. He gained a Master of Music degree from the University of
Auckland in 2005 and In 2004 he won the Sydney International Piano Competition, the
youngest ever winner in the competition’s 27- year history. At this competition he won
special prizes for his performances of works by Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, and also
of chamber music as well as concertos in the 19th/20th Century category. He also won the
Lev Vlassenko Australasian Piano Competition in 2003, where he swept all the special
prizes. John Chen has performed extensively throughout Australia and his homeland of
New Zealand, including performances with all the major symphony orchestras and has
toured in Europe, North America, Asia, including performances at prestigious festivals such
as Klavier-Festival Ruhr 2005 and Singapore 2006. John Chen is also an active chamber
musician, collaborating with such eminent musicians as cellist Ronald Leonard, and the
New Zealand String Quartet. He has worked as an orchestral pianist for the Auckland
Philharmonia, and his performances are frequently broadcast on New Zealand’s Concert
FM Radio.
July 14 2013 - Helen Webby and Davy Stuart
Making a welcome return to the Mulled Wine Concert stage, harpist Helen Webby will
appear with her guitar partner Davy Stuart to present an afternoon of magical, mystical
Celtic music. Helen is Principal Harp with the Christchurch Symphony and Davy is one of
NZ's most versatile Celtic accompanists on guitar and bouzouki. Together they form a
glorious instrumental combination, whose repertoire ranges from the traditional music of
Ireland and Scotland to newly composed material from NZ and elsewhere. In concert you
can expect a varied selection of music - reels to polkas, airs to waltzes and, where
appropriate, a few songs of definite Scottish accent. In performance they feature a gutstrung 34 string neo-Irish lever harp made by Helen's brother Kim Webby and a steelstrung 6 string guitar and 8 string guitar/bouzouki made by Davy. When travelling, Helen
sometimes uses a 30 string carbon fibre harp made by Davy.
August 11 2013 - TBA
THE MUSICIANS
DONALD ARMSTRONG
Born in Wellington, Donald Armstrong started early professional studies with the NZBC
Orchestral Trainees and the NZ National Youth Orchestra. He participated in the 1975
World Tour of the NZ National Youth Orchestra and joined the NZ Symphony Orchestra at
the age of 19. Two years later, he completed a post-graduate diploma at Mannes College,
New York, and a Masters degree at the New England Conservatory in Boston.
In 1983 he was appointed Principal Second Violin of the Tivoli Sinfoniorkester in Denmark
and soon after become Concertmaster of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice in France.
He returned to New Zealand in 1987 as Associate Concertmaster of the NZSO, a position
he still holds. He was Music Director of the NZ Chamber Orchestra from 1987 to 2004.
Donald Armstrong has appeared as soloist with the NZSO and made frequent solo
appearances with the NZ Chamber Orchestra. He has conducted the Chamber Orchestra
on occasion, and more recently has conducted other New Zealand orchestras. He also
performs regularly with his own chamber group, the Amici Ensemble, playing chamber
works ranging from very small to large ensembles. He plays a violin by Nicolo Gagliano of
1754.
JIAN LIU
Chinese-American pianist Jian Liu, Lecturer in Piano at Te Kōkī, New Zealand School of
Music, is a highly sought-after solo pianist, chamber musician, and educator. He has
appeared on concert stages in China, Japan, Singapore, Portugal, Switzerland, Ukraine,
the United States and New Zealand, and with the Symphony Orchestra of National
Philharmonic Society of Ukraine, Phoenix, Scottsdale, and Chandler Symphony
Orchestras. In 2012, Liu was a guest artist for the New Zealand International Piano
Festival in Auckland and undertook a 10-concert national concert tour for Chamber Music
New Zealand.
At age 12, he was accepted at the prestigious Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. He
moved to the United States when he was 15, and won first place at the 6th Missouri
Southern International Competition in 1996. Since then, he has been honoured at various
state, national, and international competitions, including the Phoenix Symphony Guilds
Competition (USA) 1997, 3rd Horowitz International Piano Competition (Kiev, Ukraine)
1999, and MTNA Chamber Music Competition (USA) 2002. As a chamber musician, Liu
has featured alongside other world-class musicians and as an educator, he has given
masterclasses and lectures at the Central Conservatory of Music, Qingdao University,
Guiyang Normal University in China, School of the Arts in Singapore, Sydney
Conservatorium in Australia, as well as at Wellesley College, East Carolina University, and
Yale University in the United States.
From 2008 to 2010, he served as the faculty collaborative pianist at the Yale School of
Music, and was appointed as an instructor at Yale Department of Music. Liu earned his
Bachelor of Music in Piano and Bachelor of Science in Business from Arizona State
University, as well as both Master of Music, Master of Musical Arts, and Doctor of Musical
Arts from the Yale School of Music. He joined the teaching staff at Te Kōkī, New Zealand
School of Music in 2011.
PROGRAMME
Sonata Opus 12, No. 2
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827)
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Andante con variazioni
Scherzo, allegro molto
Maestoso andante
Allegro, Rondo
Beethoven composed his Piano Sonata No. 12 in A-flat major, Op. 26, in 1800–1801,
around the same time as he completed his First Symphony. He dedicated the sonata to
Prince Karl von Lichnowsky, who had been his patron since 1792.
The piece opens with a relatively slow movement in the format of theme and variations. In
contrast, the remaining movements of the sonata proceed according to classical principles
in fast-slow-fast alternation. The third movement incorporates a funeral march, clearly
anticipating the watershed of the Eroica Symphony that Beethoven wrote the following
year. This is the only movement from his sonatas that Beethoven arranged for orchestra,
and it was played during Beethoven's own funeral procession in 1827.
Violin Sonata in G minor, L 140
Claude Debussy (1862 - 1918)
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Allegro vivo
Intermede
Finale.
Achille-Claude Debussy, with Maurice Ravel was one of the most prominent figures
associated with Impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when
applied to his compositions. A crucial figure in the transition to the modern era in Western
music, he remains one of the most famous and influential of all composers. His music is
noted for its sensory component and frequent eschewing of tonality. Debussy's work
usually reflected the activities or turbulence in his own life. In French literary circles, the
style of this period was known as symbolism, a movement that directly inspired Debussy
both as a composer and as an active cultural participant.
Debussy wrote his solitary Violin Sonata in his closing days of life, in the context of a
historically turbulent time of World War I. In the summer 1915, he took his family to the
seaside – the Channel coast at Pourville - and drafted a project, intended to be named as
“Six sonates pour instruments divers”. Dedicated to his wife Emma, the Violin Sonata was
the third and the last in the set (which he never completed). It was published in 1917,
following the completion of the Sonatas for Harp, Flute, and Viola and for Cello and Piano,
written in 1915. The first performance took place on May 5th, 1917 with Debussy at the
piano, along with violinist Gaston Poulet. This was his last public appearance before his
death on March 26th of the following year.
Sonata for Violin and Piano in A major
César-Auguste-Jean-Guillaume-Hubert Franck (1822 –1890)
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Allegretto ben moderato
Allegro
Ben moderato: Recitative-Fantasia
Allegretto poco mosso
The “Sonata in A major for Violin and Piano” by César Franck is one of his best known
compositions, and considered one of the finest sonatas for violin and piano ever written.
Written in 1886, it is an amalgam of his rich native harmonic language with the classical
traditions he valued highly, held together in a cyclic framework. At the time of its writing,
Franck was 63. He wrote it as a wedding present for the 31-year-old violinist Eugène
Ysaÿe. The work was presented to Ysaÿe on the morning of his wedding on 26
September 1886. After a hurried rehearsal, Ysaÿe and the pianist Léontine Bordes-Pène, a
wedding guest, played the Sonata to the other guests.
The work was given its first public concert performance on 16 December of that year at the
Musée Moderne de Peinture in Brussels. Eugène Ysaÿe and Léontine Bordes-Pène were
again the performers. The Sonata was the final item in a long programme that started at
3PM. When the performance finally started, it was dusk and the gallery was bathed in
gloom, but the gallery authorities permitted no artificial light whatsoever. Initially, it seemed
the Sonata would have to be abandoned, but Ysaÿe and Bordes-Pène decided to press on
regardless. In the event, they had to play the last three movements in virtual darkness,
from memory. Hopefully, Paekakariki will be kinder, and if necessary, the organisers have
promised to switch on the lights!
Jian Liu has contributed these thoughts on the items making up today's performance:
“In today's programme are pieces very close to my heart. The two French sonatas
represented some of the best quality of French music at the turn of the 20th century.
The Franck sonata has some brilliant technical displays and fireworks for both
instruments, with some truly beautiful lyricism, a reminiscence of the Lisztian and
Brahmsian writing. Yet at the same time, there is also the pure sentimentality and
simplicity, that of the nonchalant quality of French music. The Debussy sonata, on
the other hand, was one of the last pieces that he composed. The music has a
sense of coolness, as well as a lot of humour, yet at the same time, perhaps a
sense of sadness. For me, the Franck sonata feels like a warm and sunny summer
day, and the Debussy sonata is like a moonless cool autumn night. Beethoven
Op.12, no.2, provides a needed escape from the beautiful French ambiguity, and
bring us into a balanced classical clarity, of course with a Beethovenian twist.”
AFTERNOON TEA and MULLED WINE
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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Creative Communities NZ
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PianoHouse in Wellington – Music Planet (04 384 4400)
Prestige Piano Tuning. Serge Grandchamp (04 236 6338)
Kaden Movers (04 236 5552) www.kadenmoving.co.nz
LiquorKing, Paraparaumu (04 286 1120)
Harvey World Travel, Porirua (04 237 4409)
The Perching Parrot Cafe, Paekakariki (04 292 8860)
Marianne and Ceinwen: REMAX (0800 547 866) www.mariannetavenier.co.nz
The Print Room @ Kapiti Lights (04 297 2381)
Coast Access Radio (04 293 4838)
Beach FM Radio (04 296 1399)
Kapiti Cheeses
Paekakariki Auto Services (04 292 3536)
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Patricia's Fashions, Waikanae (04 293 6327)
Moby Dickens' Bookshop, Paraparaumu (04 902 6667)
Kapiti Mags, Coastlands (04 298 1521)
Lush Design, Raumati Beach (04 902 5874)
Paekakariki Organic Fruit and Vege (04 292 8055)
Magpie, Paremata (04 233 9373)
We would also like to thank all our helpers, providers of food and assistance and
programme design. Special personal thanks to: Tony Fuell, Josephine Gow, Tiziana Stoto,
Karen Simcox.
This concert is dedicated to the memory of
Susan Elaine Hassed (neé Gow)
20/09/1944 – 17/03/2013
who helped at many Mulled Wine Concerts
and who loved music.