Bucharest Music Salon violin program
Karen Bentley Pollick, violin
Friday, July 6 2018
6:00 pm
The Music Salon
Bucharest, Romania
Johann Sebastian Bach: Toccata and Fugue in A minor BWV 565 (1703 – 1707)
transcribed by Jaap Schroeder in 1989
George Enescu: Sarabanda (1915)
Impressions en style roumain le 5 septembre 1925
Andante – Tempo di Hora – Allegretto piacevole – Allegro
discovered and reconstructed by Sherban Lupu
Bjarne Brustad: Eventyrsuite (Fairy Tale Suite) (1932)
I. Natur og hulder (Fantasia)
II. Veslefrikk (The Fiddler)
III. Sull (Lullaby)
IV. Trollkvenna (Troll’s Water Mill)
David Aaron Jaffe: Cluck Old Hen Variations (2004)
Victoria Bond: Jasmine Flower (Moli Hua) (2011)
Karen Bentley Pollick: Für HELEN{G}A (2018)
Johann Sebastian Bach: Ciaccona from Partita #2 in D minor BWV 1004 (1718 – 1720)
Eventyrsuite (Fairy Tale Suite) (1932) by Bjarne Brustad (1895 – 1978)
Bjarne Brustad was a violinist and violist whose music is influenced by Norwegian folk music and folklore with themes of his own utilizing violinistic techniques emanating from the alternate tunings of the Hardanger fiddle and requiring exceptional virtuosity. The first movement depicts waterfalls and hulder (seductive women with cow tails, whom Peer Gynt encountered during his own hikes through the forest). The second movement portrays a fiddler, followed by a gentle lullaby with open strings as a cushion of harmony. The last movement is a moto perpetuo frenzy of activity with the troll’s water mill spinning continuously. Camilla Wicks championed Brustad’s violin concertos in the 1960s and performed Eventyrsuite often in recital and as an encore.
Cluck Old Hen Variations (2004) by David Aaron Jaffe is based on the traditional Appalachian banjo tune “Cluck Old Hen”. The piece is more of a fantasy than a traditional variation form, with the theme threading throughout the piece in the manner of a leitmotiv. Numerous techniques and idioms from bluegrass music merge with classical material, to form a music that occupies the space between violin and fiddle repertoire.
Jasmine Flower (Moli Hua) (2011) by Victoria Bond
Using a traditional Chinese folksong, Moli Hua or Jasmine Flower as a point of reference, the piece contrasts the pure, simple flowing melody with a desire to break free of the orderly and explore the complex, asymmetrical, chaotic elements that contrast the song.
Für HELEN{G}A (January, 2018) by Karen Bentley Pollick
The initial spark that led to the composition of Für HELEN{G}A occurred in the Chapel of Good Shepherd Performance Space while enjoying an inspiring concert by Iranian musician Sahba Sizdahkhani performing on santour and drums. I was seated behind Helena Hillinga, who elicited a moment of laughter and transcendence after the concert in honor of the ephemeral nature of life and the creative spirit. The opening musical material derives from the division of the middle of the piano keyboard, which resides between E & F above middle C, vying to be as close as possible beyond the half step distance imposed by the keyboard. The flutter tones achieved on the violin depict the desire for proximity and harmonic expansion. The left hand pizzicati on the open E string mimic the perpetual four syllable proclamations of the hens that reside around my new home in San Pancho, Mexico. The bass line is created from the solfège note names H E L E N A (B E A E G [French system for N] A) with double stop trills à la Caprice #6 by Niccolò Paganini, harmonics and rhythms, a waltz, and a concluding flourish of arpeggios in a final crescendo as an homage to Arvo Pärt’s Fratres with a nod to Beethoven en route, before retreating into the primordial E & F via gossamer harmonics.